(5.) The veracity and truth of God. It bindeth the truth of God, which sinners are apt to question : Gen. iii. 5, ' Hath God said ?' and Deut. xxix. 19, 20. We look upon the threatenings of the law as a vain scarecrow ; therefore, for the terror and warning of sinners for the future, God would not release his wrath, nor release us from the power of sin and Satan, which was the consequent of it, without a price and valuable compensation.
[3.] None was fit to give this ransom but Jesus Christ, who was God-man. He was man to undertake it in our name, and God to perform it in liis own strength ; a man that he might be made under the law, and humbled even to the death of the cross for our sakes ; and all this was elevated beyond the worth of created actions and sufferings by the divine nature which was in him, which perfumed his humanity, and all done by it and in it. This put the stamp upon the metal, and made it current coin, imposed an infinite value upon his finite obedience and sufferings. By taking human nature a price was put into his hands to lay down for us : Heb. x. 15, and his divine nature made it sufficient and responsible, for it was the blood of God : Acts XX. 28, ' Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood ;' and Heb. ix. 13, ' For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ?' It was that flesh and blood which was assumed into the unity of his person — as a slip or branch grafted into a stock is the branch of the stock, and the fruit of it is the fruit of the stock. A naked creature without this imion could not have satisfied the justice of God for us. This made his blood a precious blood, and his obedience a precious obedience. In short, God-man, the Son of God and the son of Adam, was he that redeemed us. So, in short, there were different parties to be dealt with before the fruit of redemption could be obtained : God, satan, man.
422 REDEMPTION BY CHRIST. [SeR. T.
God was an enemy that could not be overcome, but must be reconciled ; Satan was a usurper, and was to be vanquished with a strong hand ; man was unable and unwilling to look after the fruits of redemption, and our obstinacy and unbelief could only be overcome by the Spirit of Christ.
[4.] Nothing performed by Christ could be a sufficient ransom for this end, unless he had crowned all his other actions and sufferings by laying down his life, and undergoing a bloody and violent death. This was the completing and crowning act. Partly to answer the types of the law, wherein no remission was represented without a bloody sacrifice ; partly from the nature of the thing, and the fulness of the satisfaction required until all that was finished, John viii. 20. Death was that which was threatened to sin, death was that which was feared by the sinner. Many ignorant people will say the least drop of Christ's blood was enough to save a thousand worlds. If so, his circumcision had been enough without his death. But Christ is not glorified but lessened by such expressions. Surely his death was necessary, or God would never have appointed it ; his bloody death suited with God's design. God's design was to carry on our recovery in such a way as might make sin more hateful, and obedience more acceptable to us.
(1.) Sin more hateful by his agonies, blood, shame, death ; no less remedy would serve the turn, to procure the pardon and destruction of it : Kom. viii. 3, ' By sin he condemned sin in the flesh ;' that is, by a sin- offering. God showed a great example of his wrath against all sin by punishing sin in the flesh of Christ. His design was for ever to leave a brand upon it, and to furnish us with a powerful mortifying argument against it, by the sin-offering and ransom for souls. Surely it is no small matter for which the Son of God must die ! At Golgotha, sin was seen in its own colours — there he showed how much he hateth it, and loveth purity.
(2.) To commend obedience. Christ's suffering death for the sin of man at the command of his Father was the noblest piece of ser- vice and the highest degree of obedience that ever could be per- formed to God — beyond anything that can be done by men or angels. There was in it so much love to God, pity to man, so much self-denial, so much humility and patience, and so much resignation of himself to God, who appointed him to be the redeemer and surety of man, to do this office for him, as cannot: be paralleled. The great thing in it was obedience : Kom. v. 14, ' By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ;' so Phil. ii. 7, God was not delighted in mere blood, but in blood offered in obedience. All his former actions, together with his death and sufferings, make but one entire act of eminent obedience ; but his painful and cursed death, so willingly and readily undergone, was the crowning act. The formal reason of the merit was that Christ came to fulfil the will of God, 'by which will we are sanctified,' Heb. X. 10, therefore his death was necessary.