2. The next reason of the apostle's thanksgiving is the application : he 'hath given us victory ;' for understanding of which you must note that (1.)— Christ's victory is imputed to us as if it were done in our own persons. When we are actually united to him, we are possessed of all his merit. Christ fought our war, and joined battle in our stead. We have a mystical victory in Christ, and are said to overcome when Christ overcame. This is the reason why the acts of believers are complicated and folded up with Christ's acts in the expressions of scri})ture: 'Cruci- fied with him,' ' quickened with him,' and ' raised with him,' and ' set down with him in heavenly places,' Eph. ii., &c. — all which are terms proper to the judicial union, which is different both from the moral and mystical, as I could easily show you, were it not a matter of another nature. Now this mystical victory is of great use to a believer in time of discouragements. If the law challenge, Satan and conscience say,
4-14 THE saint's triumph over death. [1 Cor. XV. 57.
Thou art a sinner under a curse, tliou mayst answer, I am a sinner, but I am crucilied in Christ, in my surety — his payment and suffering is mine. If death or the world discourage, you may say, This is a beaten enemy ; I foiled it in Christ, I ascended in Christ, &c.
(2.) The benefit of this victory is imparted and ai)plied to us, by which he maketh us conquerors over sin and death. All Christ's work was not done upon the cross ; there is much to be accomplished in our hearts : Rom. xvi. 20, ' The God of peace shall tread Satan under your feet,' &c. — not only under Christ's feet, but ours ; as Joshua called his fellows to come and tread upon the necks of the Canaanitish kings: Josh. x. 24, 'Come, put your feet upon the necks of these kings ; ' so Christ will see us conquer. He that got a victory /c»7- ics, will get a victory m us,ovev sin, and death, and hell. Christ hath trodden them under foot already when his own heel was bruised. Gen. iii. 15 ; now he will do it under your feet.
Having laid this foundation, the point and head of doctrine which I shall discuss is, Christ's victory over death for the comfort and profit of believers.
Death is either the first or second, temporal or eternal. Sinners arc under the sentence of both, and both are in a sort put into the liands of Satan ; he ' hath the power of death,' Heb. ii. 14, as God s executioner ; and the one maketh way for the other. Death to the wicked is but a taking them away to torment, as unruly persons are committed to i)rison that they may molest no more. God's [)atienco expireth with their lives, and then his vengeance beginneth. The curse of the first covenant was eternal death : Gen. ii. 15, ' Thou shalt die ; ' that is, eternally. The curse must carry proportion with the blessing ; the blessing was eternal life, and the curse was eternal death. I say the sorrow and pain must have been perpetual, answer- able to the life which he should have enjoyed ; therefore Christ is said to have ' delivered us from wrath to come,' which certainly was our portion and inheritance by Adam ; and without Christ there is no escape. But to come to particulars, I shall show you : —
1. How Christ delivered us from death.
2. How far.
1. How he delivered us. The apostle answcreth that, Heb. ii. 14, ' By death he destroyed him that had the i)ower of death.' Now Christ's death cometh under a twofold consideration — as a merit, or as a glorious act of war and combat ; as the act of a Kedeemer, or the act of a conqueror, which answcreth to the double evil in death. It is a natural evil, and a penal evil. It is a natural evil, as it is the dis- solution of soul and body ; it is a penal evil, as it is a curse of the covenant, or the punishment of sin. (1.) There was merit in Christ's voluntary death — it was a ransom for the elect. He died not only in honum corum — for their good and profit, but loco et vice omnium — in their room and stead. As when the ram was taken, Isaac was spared so Chri.st's death was instead of ours. God will not exact the debt twice, of us and our surety : Job xxxiii. 24, ' Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have have found a ransom.' The sinner must die, or the siu-ety. Now, saith the Lord, I accept of the death and passion of Christ for this penitent man. If we go down to the
1 Cor. XV. 57.] the saint's TRiuMrn over death. 445
pit, we go not down by way of vengeance. By Christ's death the merit of our sin is expiated, justice satisfied, God's wrath appeased, tlie law fulfilled, sin pardoned, and so the jaws of death are broken. Death in itself is the sentence of the law, the fruit of sin, and the recompense of angry justice, and so it hath no more to do with us, for God ' hath found a ransom.' (2.) You may look upon it as the act of a conqueror. Christ foiled death in his own person. Ever since he rifled the grave, death hath lost its retentive power : Acts ii. 24, Xvaa<; Ta<; a>^iva<; tov davdrov, ' loosing the pains,' <fec. It is an allusion to the throes of a travailing woman. The grave was in tra- vail till this precious burden was egested, for he could not be holden of it, and ever since the grave is a womb rather than a dungeon and pit of vengeance. Kon vitam rcqnt, sed reforiiKit (Prudentius). It doth not destroy life, but renew it. In almost the same metaphor Christ is called ' The first-born from the dead,' Col. i. 18 ; not that he was the first that was raised from the dead, howbeit he was the fir.st that arose. Others were raised by the power of another, but Christ arose by his o\\ti. So he is called, 1 Cor. xv. 20, ' The first-fruits from the dead.' As the offering of the first-fruits was a blessing to all the store, so Christ dying and rising is a ground of conquest to all the elect. Christ before his death had been combating with the powers of darkness and all the subordinate instruments. Death was Satan's beast of prey that was set upon him ; but our Lord foiled it in its own dungeon. The battle between Christ and death was begun upon the cross ; he grappled with it there, and they went tugging and wrestling to the grave. Christ, like a prudent warrior, carried the war into his enemy's country, and there got loose of the grasp of death, foiled it in its own territory. He arose, and left death gasping behind him ; so that the quality of the grave is quite altered. Before it was a prison, Satan's dungeon ; now it is a chamber of repose, a bed of ease, ever since Christ slept there. When the prophet speaketh of Christ's resurrection, he saith, Isa. liii. 8, ' He shall be taken from prison and from judgment ' — -by prison meaning the grave ; but speak- ing of the death of the faithful, he saith : Isa. Ivii. 2, ' They shall rest in their beds.' It was for a while to Christ a prison, that to us it might be a bed of ease.