2. Affirmatively. So Christ is said to justify two ways : —
[1.] By meriting that righteousness which will serve for justifica- tion. His obeying and suflering have procured such a righteousness as will stand us in stead, for Christ's righteousness is ours. We have share in whatever he had, for he was our surety ; as he saith, John xvii. 19, ' I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified ; ' and Eph. i. 6, ' He hath accepted us in the beloved.' We are beloved in his love, sanctified in his sanctification, and so righteous in his righteous- ness. I shall prove it more by and by. And then it is the best way, in procuring such a righteousness by his life and death as should avail the creatures in their acceptance with God.
[2.] By meriting the Spirit that constitutes and gives us an interest in this righteousness : 2 Cor. v. 20, We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.' All the entreaties of the word are from Christ. He offereth grace in the word, and conferreth it by the Spirit. He justifieth them as a righteous servant, because it is his righteousness which is the matter of justification, and it is his Spirit that effects it in us, and interests us in it. His righteousness and his Spirit, though imputed and bestowed upon us by the Father, yet they are merited by Christ, and bestowed upon us by the Spirit of Christ.
To apply this.
Use 1. Is to check those that deny the imputation of Christ's righteousness. He justifieth as a righteous servant, as having pro- cured righteousness for us by his own obedience and suffering. He causeth us to be absolved as righteous before God by his own right- eousness ; made ours by virtue of our union with him.
1. Some deny the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, either active or passive, as the papists and Socinians, who both deny that we are justified by the imputation of Christ's righteousness. But what a strange thing is it that the papists, who in other doctrines establish the imputation of the righteousness of a man, of a monk, or a dead man, in their works of supererogation, should yet deny the righteousness of Christ ! They say there is no such expression in scripture. But to both these I oppose these places : — The apostle speaketh of the imputation of righteousness, Eom. iv. 6, ' Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God im- puteth righteousness without works.' And the prophet calleth Christ ' the Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxxiii. 16. And Christ is said to be ' made to us of the Father righteousness,' 1 Cor. i. 30. And we are said to be ' made the righteousness of God in him,' 2 Cor. v. 21, as he was made sin for us, and both by imputation. And he addeth this
44S A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 11.
as an argument, tliat it would not stand wltli the justice of God — take it for the exact tenor of righteousness, -which is essential to his nature, or his will revealed in his word — to constitute a wicked man righteous, unless there be some righteousness to make liim so. Now, none will serve the turn but Christ's, for that is exact and regular. For the former, see Prov. xvii. 15, ' He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condenmeth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord.' And God saith, Exod. xx., that he will not hold sinners guiltless. And you may add, that still the righteousness whereby we are justi- fied is opposed to that which is inherent in us. Certainly we are made righteous by imputation ; for by the same justice that Christ is made a sinner, we are made righteous.
2. There are others that deal with the robes of Christ's righteous- ness as the king of Amnion did by the garments of David's messengers; they cut them off by the middle, they exclude the active obedience of Christ, but upon slender grounds. In opposition to these consider : —
[1.] The need of both his active and passive obedience. By his pas- sive obedience, by death, the punishment of sin is taken away ; and by his active obedience the law is fulfilled for us : so that we have not only pardon but acceptance ; so that there is not only a restraint of ven- geance, but pardon obtained. The guilt and punishment of sin is done away by his death ; the other benefit, favour and acceptance, is procured by his obedience. There must be something done by way of satisfaction to divine justice and to appease his wrath, and something by way of acquisition of favour : these are the two things procured by Christ. Absalom was pardoned, but he saw not the king's face. We are God's creatures, bound to his law, as well as his prisoners, liable to his wrath ; and there must be the expiation of sin and the fulfilling of all righteousness. There are two blessings obtained by Christ — freedom from death, and the benefit of eternal life.
[2.] We are expressly said in scripture to be made righteous by the obedience of Christ, which is exactly opposed to the disobedience of Adam : Rom. v. 19, 'For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinnens, so by the obedience of one shall many be made right- eous.' We are condemned by Adam's actual guilt, and made righteous by Christ's active obedience.