1. Tiiose to whom God giveth Christ. In the scripture we read .sometimes of Christ given for us, and sometimes of Christ given to us. His being given for us noteth the impetration, and the purchase of the benefits ; his being given to us, tlie application of them. The one speaketh the love of God to lost man, obnoxious to sin and misery ; the other, God's love to us in particular : Gal. i. 10, ' It pleased God to reveal his Son in me ;' Eev. i. 5, ' Loved us, and washed us in his blood.' The first gift is Christ: John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life;' and Heb. iii. 14, 'Partakers of Christ;' 2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Christ in you.' We receive his person, and with him his Spirit, to work life in us. We do not live in the body till we be united to the head ; nor till we have Christ, do we receive the saving efl'ects of his grace ; clear that once, and shall he not with him give us all things? God offereth him to all, but he giveth him to you when you believe.
2. Those that give up themselves to Christ: 1 Cor. iii. 22, 'All things are yours,' because ' ye are Christ's, and Ciirist is God's.' If you be to Christ what Clu'ist was to God, a dedicated servant, ever to (.lo the things that please him ; when you enter into covenant with him, and devote yourselves to his use and service, that to you 'to live is Christ,' Phil. i. 21. As God giveth Christ to you, you live in Cln-ist; as you give yourselves to Christ, you live to him. God giveth us Christ, and all things with him, and we give up ourselves, and every interest and concernment of ours, to Christ, to be used for his glory. If you be sincere and hearty in this, you need not doubt of a plentiful allowance.
Use 1. Is to press us to admire the love of God, who sjiared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.
1. In that he spared not Christ. The Lord.telleth Abraham : Gen. xxii. 12, ' Now I know that thou lovest me, since thou hast not with- held thy son, thine only son, from me.' So here is a full demonstration ; certainly God loved Christ better than Abraham loved Isaac ; and God was not bound by the command of a superior, but did it voluntarily. Oh, get your hearts deeply possessed with this love ! Lord, we see how much thy heart is set upon the recovery of lost man !
34-t SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeK. XLII.
2. That all this was doae that he might spare lis ; for that is the fruit of it : Mai. i. 17, ' I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.' The indulgence of God to us is set forth by two amplifications — propriety, and towardliness or obedience. Propriety: his own Son. A faulty child is a child still, and therefore not easily turned out of Hie fanlii3^ But it is not a prodigal, or a rebellious son, but a good child ; his Son that serveth him. Now, if we consider what God i.s, the purity of his nature, the strictness of his law, that sin is an act of disloyalty to God, and what we are, our manifold defects, surely it is love, great love that he would spare us. If God should be strict on the best of us, what would become of us ?
Use 2. To improve it.
1. To confidence and hope. A man that wants not Christ cannot want anything ; when the elect had need of God's own Son, he did not spare him ; and when given us his Son, will he not give mercy and grace to help in every time of need ? He that stood not on the greatest benefit, will he stand u]ion a less ? There are two grounds of hope — (1.) The cause ; (2.) The merit. The fountain-cause is the infinite love of God ; an emperor's revenue will pay a beggar's debt ; the same good-will that moved him to give his Son will move him to give other things that we stand in need of, and may tend to our good. The other is the merit of Christ's sacrifice. God, that is not sparing of his Son, will not be sparing of what is purchased by his Son, surely his purchase will be made good. Clu-ist sittetli at the right hand of God to see that it be done ; Heb. x. 12, ' But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down at the right hand of God.' That one oflering hath done the work.
2. Improve it lo obedience. God spared not his own Son, and shall we spare our lusts ? There is a twofold argument in it. First, an argu- ment of gratitude ; let us not spare ourselves, neither body, nor soul, nor life, nor liberty, nor strength, nor time, nor anything that is near and dear to us, so we may glorify God. The apostle saitli not barely, he gave his Son for us, but he spared not to give him. We have thoughts, and to spare, shall not God have them ?