VeR. 34.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VII I. 369
demnation by sin ? Answer, Yes ; but yet the visible evidence was by liis resurrection ; the apostle saith, 1 Cor. xv. 17, ' If Christ be not risen, then are you yet in your sins;' and again, Eom. iv. 25, 'He died for our offences, and rose again for our justification.' Christ's death would not have profited us if he had been swallowed up by it, or still detained under the power of it. More particularly —
[1.] It is a proof of the truth of his person and office, that he is the Son of God, and the saviour and judge of the world: and therefore usually by this argument the apostles asserted the truth of the gospel, for they were witnesses of his resurrection ; and it is said, 1 Peter i. 21, ' God raised him from the dead, that our faith and hope may be in God.' We would not have believed this foundation laid for the great blessings of the gospel had we not so clear a proof. That he is the Son of God is proved : Eom. i. 4, ' Miglitily declared to lie the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead ; ' so Acts xiii. 33, ' God hath raised up Jesus from the dead ; for it is written. Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.' He was the Son of God from all eternity, but then visibly declared to be so. God did, as it were, by that one act own, pronounce, and publicly declare in the audience of all the world, that Christ was his only-begotten Son, one in substance with him eternally. And as the truth of his person, so of his office, that he was the true Messiah that was to restore the lapsed estate of mankind: Acts v. 31, ' Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a prince and a saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.' This was the only sign he would give the Jews, the sign of the prophet Jonah : Mat. xii. 38-40, ' Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas ; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.' So elsewhere he speaketh of destroying the temple of his body, and raising it up after three days, John ii. 19. So for his being the judge of the world : Acts xvii. 31, ' Whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he raised him from the dead ; ' namely, that he is Lord and judge. So that by his resurrection all the clouds about his person vanish. The world have satisfaction enough, if they will take it. There lieth this argument in the case : if Christ had been an impostor or false prophet, neither could he have raised up himself, being a mere man, nor would God have raised him up if he had been a mere deceiver ; nor could the devil have raised him to life, no more than make a man out of dead matter. Nor can we reply that Lazarus was raised up from the dead, and so others ; and yet not the sons of God, nor saviours and judges of the world.
I answer : Christ died, not a natural death, but in the repute of man as a malefactor, by the hand of the magistrate. Lazarus and others did not give out themselves as the saviours of the world, as Christ did ; so the truth of his claim was manifested, and made evident by the resurrection. God would not leave him in the power of death, but raised him up, and assumed him into glory. Therefore it appeared the judgment passed on him was not right, and that he was indeed what he gave out himself to be.
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370 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XLIV.
[2.] It is a token of the acceptation of his purchase, or a solemn acquittance, a full discharge of Christ as our mediator and surety ; he died to pay our debts. Now the payment is fully made when the surety is let out of jirison : Isa. liii. 8, ' He was taken from prison, and from judgment.' His resurrection showeth God hath received the death of Christ as a sufficient ransom for our sins. The continuance of the payment showed the imperfection of it ; it is a kind of release ; Christ did not break prison, but was brought forth : Heb. xiii. 20, ' Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.' As . the apostles would not come out of prison till fetched out, Acts xvi. 38, 39, so here.
He is in a capacity to convey life to others, which, if he had remained in a state of death, he could not do : John xiv. 19, ' Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me ; because I live, ye shall live also.' The life of believers is derived from the life of Christ, without which it cannot subsist. If he had been holden of death, he had never been a fountain of grace or glory to us ; we have the merit of his humiliation and the power of his exaltation. The scripture putteth a TToWu) fiaXXov upon the latter : Kom. v. 10, ' Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life ; ' meaning thereby his life in glory. His death was for the expiation of sin, but the effectual appli- cation of it dependeth on his life ; so that the faith of sinners may com- fortably rest on Christ as one raised and glorified.