(3.) It is an act of his love and recompense to the fiiithful ; they have owned him in the world, and Christ will own them before God, men, and angels ; there is no saint so mean but Christ will own him: Luke xii. 8, ' The Son of man shall confess him,' &c. Father, this is one of mine. As for his enemies, Christ will see execution done upou them: 'Slay them before my face,' Luke xix. 27. To his friends he will own them publicly, and that they be honoured ' before the presence of his glory.'
366 AN EXPOSITION, WITH NOTES, [VeR. 24.
Well, then, see that you be of the number of those whom Christ will present to God. If he hath ' purified you to himself,' Titus ii. 14, he will present you to himself. If you be set apart for Grod, Ps. iv. 3, you shall be brought to God. The work is begun here ; privately it is done at our deaths, when the soul, as soon as it is out of the body, is conveyed by angels to Christ, and by Christ to God ; and publicly and solemnly at the day of his coming ; then he presents the elect as a prey snatched out of the teeth of lions ; but spiritually the foundation is laid when j'ou 'dedicate yourselves to God,' Eom. xii. 1, and walk so as Christ may own you with honour and credit in that great day. If you be the scandal of his ordinances, the reproach of your profes- sion, can Christ glory in you then as a sample of the virtue of his death ? Surely no.
Obs. 4. Again observe, that when Christ presenteth the elect he will present them 'faultless,' that is, both in respect of justification and sanctification. This was intended before the world was: Eph. i. 4, ' He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love ; ' but is not accom- plished till then. Now we are humbled with many infirmities and sins, but then ' presented holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight,' Col. i. 22. The work is undertaken by Christ, and he will carry it on till it be complete : here the wedding garments are making, but then put on.
1. The work must be begun here ; the foundation is laid as soon as we are converted unto God, 1 Cor. vi. 11.
2. This work increaseth daily more and more, 1 Thes. v. 23, 24. We are not faultless ; but Clirist will not rest till we be faultless, he is sanctifying further and further, that we may be blameless at his com- ing ; he will pursue the work close till it be done.
3. It is so carried on for the present that our justification and sanc- tification may help one another; the benefit of justification would be much lessened if our sanctification were complete, and our sanctifica- tion is carried on the more kindly because the benefit of justification needeth so often to be renewed and applied to us ; if our inherent righteousness were more perfect, imputed righteousness would be less set by. In this great imperfection under which we now are, we are too apt to fetch all our peace and comfort from our own works, to the great neglect of Christ and his righteousness ; therefore doth the Lord by little and little carry on the work of grace, that by the continual sense of our defects, and the often making use of justification, we may have the higher apprehensions of God's love in accepting us in ChriKt. The relics of sin trouble us as long as we are in the world, and so the benefit is made new to us, Avhicli otherwise would wax old and out of date ; and the benefit being made new, increaseth our love to God, Luke vii. 47, and putteth us upon the study of holiness.
4. At the last day all is fully accomplished. Col. i. 22. Well, then, let us wait upon God with encouragement, and press on to perfection upon these hopes. Surely we shall be faultless ; Christ would never have given us earnest, 2 Cor. i. 22, if he meant not to stand to his bargain.
Obs. 5. The next clause is be/ore the 'presence of his glory. Note
VeE. 25.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 367
thence that Christ's presence at the day of judgment will be exceed- ing glorious ; for he will then appear not only as the Son of man, but as the Son of God, Mat. xvi. 27 ; he will then a])pear not only as the saviour hut as the judge of the world, both for the terror of the wicked, 2 Thes. i. 8, and as a jmttern of that glory which shall be put upon the godly. Col. iii. 4, and Phil. iii. 21. Well, then, let us not despise Christ, now he lieth hid under the veil of the gospel, but with comfort let us expect his coming; for when he is glorious we shall share with him, and ' appear also in glory.' And let us not think shame of his service, whatever disreputation the world shall put upon it.