might be fulfilled in us ; that is, which the law required of us, consist- ing in duties of obedience. This Christ performed for us. This expression of the apostle, ' God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,' if you will add to it that of Gal. iv. 4 — * that he was so sent forth, as that he was yevo/xevov virb vofiov, ' made under the law ;' that is, obnoxious to it, to yield all the obedience that it doth require,— compares! the whole of what Christ did or suffered ; and all this, the Holy Ghost tells us was for us, ver. 5, He that made the law as God, was made under the law as God- man, whereby both the obligations of the law fell upon him : 1. Penal ; 2. Preceptive. First, The penal obligation to undergo the curse, and so to satisfy divine justice. Secondly, The preceptive obligation, to fulfil all righteousness. Mat. iii. 15. This obligation he fulfilled by doing, the other by d}dng. Mark, this double obligation could not have befallen the Lord Jesus Christ upon any natural account of his own, but upon his mediatory account only, as he voluntarily became the surety of this new and better covenant, Heb. vii. 22 ; so that the fruit and benefit of Christ's voluntary subjection to the law, redoundeth not at all to himself, ' but unto the persons which were given him of the Father,' John xvii., whose sponsor he became. For their sakes he underwent the penal obligation of the law, that it might do them no harm, ' He being made a curse for us," Gal, iii, 13 ; and for their sakes he fulfilled the preceptive obligation of the law, ' do this,' that so the law might do them good. This the evangelical apostle clearly asserts, ' Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth,' Rom. x. 4, ' Christ is the end of the law,' t€\o9. What end? why Jinis perfectivus, the perfection and accomplishment of the law ; he is the end of the law for righteousness, that is, to the end that by Christ his active obedience, God might have his perfect law perfectly kept, that so there might be a righteousness extant in the human nature, every way adequate to the perfection of the law. And who must wear this garment of righteousness, when Christ hath finished it ? Surely the believer who wanted a righteousness of his own ; for so it follows, ' for righteousness to every one that believeth,' that is, that every poor naked sinner, believing in Jesus Christ, might have a righteousness, wherein being found, he might appear at God's tribunal, but his nakedness not appear, but as Jacob in the garment of his elder brother Esau, so the believer in the garment of his elder brother Jesus, might inherit the blessing, even the great blessing of justification. The only matter of man's righteousness, since the fall of Adam, wherein he can appear with comfort before the justice of God, and consequently, whereby alone he can be justified in his sight, is the obedience and sufi'erings of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of the mediator. There is not any other way imaginable, how the justice of God may be satisfied, and we may have our sins pardoned in a way of justice, but by the righteousness of the Son of God, and therefore is his name Jehovah, l^lpliJ, ' The Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6. This is his name ; that is, this is the prerogative of the Lord Jesus, a matter that appertains to him alone, to be able to bring in ' an everlast- ing righteousness, and to make reconciliation for iniquity,' Dan. ix. 24,
^ Qu. ' comprises ' ? — G.
OF THE ACTIVE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST. 75
It is by Christ alone, that they who ' beheve are justified from all things, from which they cannot be justified by the law of Moses,' Acts xiii. 39,
III. Now from the active obedience of Christ, a sincere Christian may form up this third plea as to the ten scriptures in the margin,i that refer either to the general judgment, or to the particular judg- ment that will pass upon every Christian immediately after death.
0 blessed God, thou knowest that Jesus Christ, as my surety, did per- form all that active obedience unto thy holy and righteous law that I should have performed, but by reason of the indwelling poiver of sin, and of the vexing and molesting power of sin, and of the captivating poiver of sin, could not. There was in Christ an habitual righteous- ness, a conformity of his nature to the holiness of the law : 1 Pet. i. 19, ' For he is a lamb without spot and blemish.' The law could never have required so much righteousness as is to be found in him ; and as for practical righteousness, there was never any aberration in his thoughts, words, or deeds, Heb. vii. 25 ; ' The prince of this world Cometh, and hath nothing in me,' John xiv, 30. The apostle tells us, that ' we are made the righteousness of God in him,' 2 Cor. v. 21. He doth emphatically add that clause, iv avra, in him, that he may take away all conceit of inherence in us, and establish the doctrine of imputation. As Christ is made sin in us by imputation, so we are made righteousness in him by the same way. Augustine's place which Beza cites is a most full commentary, ' God the Father,' saith he, * made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we -might be the righte- ousness of God, not our own ; and in him, that is in Christ, not in our- selves ; and being thus justified, we are so righteous, as if we were righteousness itself.' Oh, holy God, Christ my surety hath universally kept thy royal law, he hath not ofiended in any one point ; yea, he hath exactly and perfectly kept tlie whole law of God, he stood complete in the whole will of the Father ; his active obedience was so full, so per- fect, and so adequate to all the law's demands, that the law could not but say, ' I have enough, I am fully satisfied ; I have found a ransom,
1 can ask no more.' Neither was the obedience of Christ fickle or transient, but permanent and constant ; it was his delight, his meat and drink, yea, his heaven, to be still a-doing the will of his Father, John iv. 33, 34. Assuredly, wliilstour Lord Jesus Christ was in this world, he did in his own person fully obey the law ; he did in his own person perfectly conform to all the holy, just, and righteous commands of the law. Now this his most perfect and complete obedience to the law is made over to all his members, to all believers, to all sincere Chris- tians ; it is reckoned to them, it is imputed to them, as if they them- selves, in their own persons, had performed it. All sound believers being in Christ, as their head and surety, the law's righteousness is ful- filled in them legally and imputively, though it be not fulfilled in them formally, subjectively, inherently, or personally; suitable to that of the apostle, that 'the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,' Kom. viii. 4. Mark, not by us, but in us ; for Christ in our nature hath fulfilled the right of the law, and therefore in us, because of our communion