Secondly, They have communion with him in his righteousness. i. e. the righteousness of Christ is made theirs, 2 Cor. v. 21. and he is " the Lord our righteousness,'1 Jer. xxiii. 6. It is true, the righteousness of Christ is not inherent in us, as it is in him ; but it is ours by imputation, Rev. iv. 5, 11. and our union with him is the ground of the imputation of his righteousness to us, 2 Cor. v. 21. " We are made the righteousness of God in him," Phil. iii. 9. for Christ and believers are considered as one person, in con- struction of law ; as a man and his wife, a debtor and surety, are one : and so his payment or satisfaction is in our name, or upon our account.
Now, this is a most inestimable privilege, the very ground of all our other blessings and mercies. O, what a benefit is this to a poor sinner, that owes to God infinitely more than he is ever able to pay, by doing or suffering ; to have such a rich treasure of merit as lies in the obedience of Christ, to discharge, in one entire payment, all his debts to the last farthing ? " Surely shall one say, in the Lord " have I righteousness," Isa. xlv. 24. even as a poor woman that owes more than she is worth, in one moment is discharged of all her obligations, by her marriage to a wealthy man.
Thirdly, Believers have communion with Christ in his holiness or sanctification, for of God he is made unto them, not only righ- teousness, but sanctification also ; and as in the former privilege, they have a stock of merit in the blood of Christ to justify them ;
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so here, the\r have the Spirit of Christ to sanctify them, 1 Cor. i. 30. and therefore we are said of his fulness to receive "grace for grace," John i. 16. i. e. say some, grace upon grace, manifold graces, or abundance of grace ; or grace lor grace, that is, grace answerable to grace : as in the seal and wax, there is line for line, and cut for cut, exactly answerable to each other ; or grace for grace, that is, say others, the free grace of God in Christ, for the sanctification or filling of our souls with grace : be it in which sense it will, it shews the communion believers have with Jesus Christ in grace and holiness. Now, holiness is the most precious thing in the world, it is the image of God, and chief excellency of man : it is our evidence for glory, yea, and the first fruits of glory. In Christ dwells the fulness of grace, and from him, our head, it is derived and communicated to us ; thus he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one, Heb. ii. 11. You would think it no small privilege to have bags of gold to go to, and enrich yourselves with, and yet that were but a very trifle in comparison to have Christ's righteousness and holiness to go to for your justifi- cation and sanctification. More particularly,
Fourthly, Believers have communion with Christ in his death ; they die with him, Gal. ii. 20. " I am crucified with Christ,17 i. e. the death of Christ hath a real killing and mortifying influ- ence upon the lusts and corruptions of my heart and nature : true it is, he died for sin one way, and we die to sin another way : he died to expiate it, we die to it, when we mortify it : the death of Christ is the death of sin in believers ; and this is a very glorious privilege ; for the death of sin is the life of your souls ; if sin do not die in you by mortification, you must die for sin by eternal dam- nation. If Christ had not died, the Spirit of God, by which you now mortify the deeds of the body, could not have been given unto you : then you must have lived vassals to your sins, and died at last in your sins ; but the fruit, efficacy, and benefit of Christ's death is yours for the killing those sins in you, which else had been your ruin.
Fifthly, Believers have communion with Christ in his life and resurrection from the dead ; as he rose from the dead, so do they ; and that by the power and influence of his vivification and resur- rection. It is the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and death, Rom. viii. 2. Our spiritual life is from Christ, Eph. ii. 1. "And you hath he quickened who " were dead in trespasses and sins :" and hence Christ is said to live in the believer, Gal. ii. 20. " Now I live, yet not I, but Christ " liveth in me :" and it is no small privilege to partake of the very life of Christ, which is the most excellent life that ever any creature
1 48 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. VIII.
can live ; yet such is the happiness of all the saints, the life of Christ is manifest in them, and such a life as shall never see death.
Sixthly, To conclude, believers have fellowship with Jesus Christ in his glory, which they shall enjoy in heaven with him : they " shall be ever with the Lord," 1 Thes. iv. 17. and that is not all, (though, as one saith, it were a kind of heaven but to look through the key-hole, and have but a glimpse of Christ's blessed face) but they shall partake of the glory which the Father hath given him; for so he speaks, John xvii. 22, 24. and more par- ticularly, they shall sit with him in his throne, Rev. iii. 21. and when he comes to judge the world, he will come to be glorified in the saints, 2 Thes. i. 10. So that you may see what glorious and inestimable things are, and will be in common betwixt Christ and the saints. His titles, his righteousness, his holiness, his death, his life, his glory. I do not say that Christ will make any saint equal with him in glory ; that is impossible, he will be known from all the saints in heaven, as the sun is distinguished from the stars ; but they shall partake of his glory, and be filled with his joy there ; and thus you see what those things are that the saints have fellow- ship with Christ in.
Secondly, Next I would open the way and means by which we come to have fellowship with Jesus Christ in these excellent privi- leges ; and this I shall do briefly in the following positions.
First, No man hath fellowship with Christ in any special saving privilege by nature, howsoever it be cultivated or improved; but only by faith uniting him to the Lord Jesus Christ ; It is not the pri- vilege of' our first, but second birth. * This is plain from John i. 12, 13. " But to as many as received him, to them gave he power " to become the sons of God, even as many as believe on his name, " who are born not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, " but of God." We are by nature children of wrath, Eph. ii. S. we have fellowship with Satan in sin and misery : the wild branch hath no communication of the sweetness and fatness of a more noble and excellent root until it be ingrafted upon it, and have immediate union and coalition with it, John xv. 1, 2.