Secondly, Let us inquire how, or upon what reasons we come to have this exemption from condemnation.
Tliis is—
1. Upon the account of Christ's satisfaction to God's justice. We all in our natural estate lie under the curse and wrath of God ; but
388 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. I.
Christ was ' made a curse for us' to 'redeem us from the curse of the law,' Gal. iii. 13. And the apostle telleth us, 2 Cor. v. 21, that 'he was made shi for us, that we might he made the righteousness of God in him.' Christ hecame a sacrifice for sin to appease God towards us ; he was made a public instance of God's penal justice, that we might be made an instance of God's merciful justice, or that God might deal with us in a way of grace, upon the account of the righteousness of Christ.
2. Upon the account of the new covenant grant: John v. 24, 'Verily verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- tion.' Christ would have us mark this as a certain and important truth, for escaping eternal death and obtaining eternal life are not trifles ; and God's faithful word is interposed that such an one shall not come into condemnation, verily, verily. Well then, the gospel, or new covenant, offereth pardon and exemption from condemnation to that death which the law hath made our due, to all those who will come under the bond of it.
3. The certainty is considerable, which resulteth or ariseth from these two grounds. It is just with God to pardon them, and to exempt them from condemnation who take sanctuary at his grace, and devote themselves to him : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess and forsake our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive them.' 2 Tim. iv. 8, we read of a ' crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall give at that day.' Justum est quod fieri potest. God may do it or not do it, he is not unjust if he doth it ; and justum est quod fieri debet. This latter is understood here, because of the fulness of the merits and satisfaction of Christ, and his truth in his promises ; he must judge men according to the law of grace, and give them that which his promise hath made their due.
4. There must be an appeal to the gospel, where this grace is humbly sued out by the penitent believers ; for God is sovereign, and must be sought unto. Appeals from court to court, and from one tribunal to another, are often set down in scripture, as Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, ' If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou may est be feared.' No man could escape condemnation and the curse if the Lord should deal with us in strict justice ; but from the tribunal of his strict justice we appeal to the throne of grace, where favour and pardon is allowed to us upon certain equitable and gracious terms. According to the old terms, who is able to appear in the judgment before God ? A sinner must either despair, or die, or run for refuge to this new and blessed hope : so Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 0 Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.' An innocent creature must beg his mercy, and devote himself to his fear.
I proceed to the second proposition —
Doct. 2. That this privilege is the portion of those that are in Christ.
1. I shall here show you what it is to be in Christ.
2. How we come to be in Christ.
First, what it is to be in Christ. The phrase noteth union with him. There is certainly a real, but spiritual, union between Christ and his
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members, which I have often described to you. But late cavils make it necessary to speak a little more to that argument. All that I will say now is this —
1. That it is more than a relation to Christ as a political head.
2. That the union of every believer with Christ is immediate.
1. That it is more than a relation to Christ as a political head. I prove it, because it is represented by similitudes taken from union real as well as relative ; not only from marriage, where man and wife are relatively united, but from head and members, who make one body ; not a political, but a natural body : 1 Cor. xii. 12, ' For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ ; ' also by the similitude of root and branches, John xv. 1-3. Yea, it is compared with the mystery of the trinity and the unity that is between the divine persons : John xvii. 21-23, ' That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, as we aire one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.' Which, though it must not be understood in the utmost strict- ness, yet at least there is more than a relation ; as also by reason it is not only a notion of scripture, but a thing effected and wrought by the Spirit on God's part: 1 Cor. xii. 13, 'We are by one Spirit baptized into one body,' and by confederation one with another : Cant. ii. 16, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' Christ is ours, and we are his ; and he is also in us, and we in him. It is such a real conjunction with Christ as giveth us a new being, that Christ becometh to us the principle and fountain of a spiritual life : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life.' Christ is the stock, we the graft ; he is the vine, we the branches ; therefore we are said to be ' planted together in him,' Kom. vi. 5 ; so that we may grow and live in him. We are united to him as the body is to the soul ; all the members of the body are quick- ened by the soul; the second Adam becometh to all his members irveOfxa ^(oottoiov, a quickening spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 45, as giving them life, not only by his merit and promise, but the influence of his Spirit, which life is begun here, and perfected in heaven. It is begun in the soul, Phil. iii. 20, and Rom. viii. 10, but it is perfected both in body and soul in heaven, for the Spirit is life to the body 'because of righteousness ;' and if ' the Spirit of him that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.' So that a vivifical influence is the fruit of this union, which showeth that our union with Christ is not only a union with him as a political head (as the king is head and governor of all his subjects), but such a conjunction as maketh way for the lively influence of the Spirit of grace, as well as obligeth us to sub- jection to him, and obedience to his laws.