God’s free promise has been made, to all those repre- sented by Christ, the condition of divine favour and of eternal well-being. In the one aspect the obedience is called passive, to signalize it as penal suffering. In another aspect the same obedience is called active, to signa- lize it as the doing of that which is commanded. “The question then returns, Whether the satisfaction rendered by Christ in our place is to be confined to his death, or to those sufferings which preceded and accompanied it ; or whether it truly embraced all those things which Christ did and suffered for us from the beginning of his life even unto the end? Which last we affirm.”* The truth of this position 1s established by the following con- siderations :—
I. The law, as a covenant of life, was accompanied by two sanctions: (a.) The promise of divine favour and eternal well-being, conditioned upon perfect obedience ; and (b.) The penalty of “death,” suspended on disobe- dience. Moses declared that the legal condition of salvation was, “That the man which doeth those things shall live by them” (Lev. xvii. 5; compare Rom. x. 5, and Gal. iii. 12). Christ declared the principle of the law to the young ruler thus: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. xix. 17). Eternal life, the adoption of sons, the eternal inheritance, are conditioned only on obedience. The gospel does not proceed upon the ruins of the law, but “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that be- lieveth ;”” and the object for which he came in the flesh was “that the righteousness of the law might be ful- filled in us.” All the conditions, therefore, must be met. If the whole work of Christ’s satisfaction ended in his suffering in our stead the penalty due our sins, his people, as a consequence, would be replaced and left just where
* Turretin, Locus 14, Quees. 13.
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE OBEDIENCE. 237
~ Adam was before he fell. There are then four, and only sites four, conceivable alternatives, one or other of which must —— be true. (1.) Either God must alter the conditions of human probation, and grant the rewards of the Covenant
of Life to sinful men on very different and far lower conditions than those upon which they were offered to innocent Adam, or to the human race originally in him,
or to any other order of creatures, as far as revealed, in their several probations. (2.) Or we must continue for
ever destitute of any share in those rewards which were conditioned on obedience ; that is, without confirmation
in a holy character and. without eternal blessedness.
(3.) Or we shall be left to the necessity of fulfilling the conditions of the Covenant of Works in our own persons, rendering therefore perfect obedience of heart and life,
and that, too, before we yrecelve grace, and as the condi-
tion of our reception of it. (4.) Or Christ must fulfil
this part also of the requirements of the law as well as
the penalty in our stead and behalf.
As to the first alternative, it is evident ‘that if eternal blessedness is granted on any conditions short of perfect obedience, then the entire Covenant of Life, God’s own ordinance for the human race, fails, and is dishonoured instead of honoured, is breken and supplanted instead of being fulfilled and magnified by the gospel. ‘The essen- tial principles of eternal justice would be violated if to mankind, as one of the consequences of their sin, con- firmation in a permanent impeccable moral character, eternal life and the favour of God, were granted on con- - ditions denied to newly-created angels and to Adam in innocency.
As to the second alternative, it is plain that we cannot endure to remain destitute of those rewards which the great original ordinance, which gives law to all that fol- low it, suspended upon the condition of perfect obedience.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The two alterna- tive theo- ries of justifica- tion stated.
238 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
Moreover, the promises of the gospel and the experiences of Christians, inspired and uninspired, assure us that we are not required to remain destitute of the rewards so essential to life. .