(3.) Though he had no equal or advantageous exchange. Christ is more worth than a thousand worlds, as the people could say of David — ' Thou art worth ten thousand of us,' 2 Sam. xviii. 3. How much more may it be said of Christ ? Wiiat could God gain that might be an equal recompense for the death of Christ. All the world set against God is nothing, less than nothing, Isa. xl. 17. Now no man doth give much for what is but little esteemed ; but God gave his own Son to recover the peri.shing world of mankind.
2. Positively — ' But delivered him up for us all.' Mark — 1 ] The person who did it.
2.] The act, what he did — delivered. 3.] The persons for whom— /«• us all.
(1.) The person who — ' God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' This word is used of several agents; Judas
VeK. 32.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 339
delivered liim : John xix. 11, 'He that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin ; ' Pilate delivered him to be crucified, John xix. 16 ; the high priests delivered him to Pontius Pilate, Mat. xxvii. 2 ; the people delivered him up to be scourged and crucified by the Gentiles, Mat. XX. 19; yea, Jesus Christ delivered up himself: Kom. iv. 25, ' Who was delivered for our offences ; ' and here, ' God delivered him up for us all.' One word is used, but the act proceeded from several causes ; the people delivered him out of ignorance and inconsiderate zeal, Judas out of covetousness and treachery, the high priests out of malice and envy, Pilate out of a faulty compliance with the humours of the people, and to preserve the reputation of liis government, Christ out of obedience to God, God himself to show his infinite love to us. It is for our comfort to observe God's act in this tradition. If it had been done without God's knowledge and consent, nothing had been done for our salvation ; God doth nothing rashly or unjustly. There- fore, since Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel of God, Acts ii. 23, the reason must be inquired into ; it was out of his love to recover a lost world, that he might make satisfaction to provoked justice for our wrongs and offences : so that Christ died, not by the mere wickedness of man, but the righteous and wise ordination of a gracious God ; and so it is a great argument of God's love, and a ground both of gratitude and confidence to us. We must look to the Father's act, to whom we make our prayers, with whom we would fain be reconciled, whose judgment we fear, whose favour we seek after. Now he appointed his own Son to do the office of a mediator for us. The law which condemneth us is the law of God ; the wrath and punishment which we fear is the wrath of God ; the presence into which we come is the presence of God ; and the fountain of all the blessings we expect is the favour of God ; and God spared not his own Son, but delivered liim up for us all, to assure our comfort, peace, and hope ; his hand is chief in it.
(2.) The act, what he did — ' He delivered him up,' not only to be made flesh for us, John i. 14, which was a state of being at the greatest distance from his nature, who was a pure spirit. But God, who is a spirit, was made flesh that he might be nearer to us, and within the reach of our commerce, and took a mother upon earth that we might have a father in heaven, which maketh all the promises of God more credible to us ; for the exaltation of man is a thing of more easy belief than the abasement of the Son of God ; if he will assume flesh, we may reasonably expect to be appareled and clothed upon with his glory. But also made sin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21. Sin is taken in scripture sometimes for a sacrifice for sin, or a sin-offering, by a metonymy of the adjunct for the su])ject, as piacuhmi in Latin is both a sin and a sacrifice for sin ; so the priests in the prophet's reproof are said to eat the sins of the people, Hosea iv. 8, that is, the sacrifices, when they minded nothing but to glut themselves with the fat of the offerings, part of which was the priest's portion ; and so Christ was made sin for us, that is, an expiatory sacrifice for our sin. So in the beginning of this chapter, Rom. viii. 3, ' God, by sending his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh, hath by sin condemned sin in the flesh ; ' that is, by the sufferings of Christ, or his becoming a sin-
340 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XLII.
offering, hath put an everlasting brand upon sin, to make it odious and hateful to the saints. Once more : made a curse lor us, Gal. iii. 13, to note the pain and shame of his death, and to show that Christ was appointed to bear that curse of the law and punishment which belongeth to us, which was so grievous and terrible as tliat his human nature staggered and recoiled a little, by a just abhorrence of the great evil which he was to undergo ; and when he was under it, his soul was exceeding sorrowful and heavy unto death, so that it extorted from him tears and strong cries ; yet God spared not his Son, but delivered him up to these penal and dreadful evils ! God might be said not to spare his Son if he had only used him as an internuncius, and messenger ; but when he used him as a redeemer, as one that was to pay a ransom for us, it may be much more said so.