Thii-dly, That reconciliation in scripture is sometimes ascribed to God the Father, sometimes to Christ as mediator, sometimes to believers themselves —
1. To God the Father, as in the text, 'God was in Christ, reconcil- ing the world to himself ; ' and in the verse before the text, ' Who hath reconciled us to himself ; ' and Col. i. 20, ' Having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself,' to God the Father, as the primary cause of our reconciliation. He found out and nppoiiited the means, as he decreed from everlasting to restore the elect fallen into sin unto grace and favour, and prepared whatever
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was necessary to compose and take up the difference between him and sinners.
2. Christ is said to reconcile, Eph. ii. 16 : ' That he might reconcile botii unto God ia one body by the cross;' and Col. i. 2L 'Yet now hath he reconciled : ' not as the primary, but meritorious cause of reconciliation, which respects both God and us ; chiefly God, as he was appeased by the merit of his sacrifice, as he procured the Spirit, that same Spirit whereby our enmity might be overcome, and we might yield up ourselves to God. to love and serve and please him, for we by his blood 'are ]iurged from dead works, that we might serve the living God; Heb. ix. 14.
3. Believers are said to reconcile themselves to God : 2 Cor. v. 20, ' We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God ; ' as they do embrace the otfered benefit, and lay aside their enmity, and love God that loveth them, and devote themselves to his use and service.
Secomlhj, More particularly, I shall do three things — (1.) State the foregoing breach. (2 ) Show you the nature of this reconciliation. (3.) Show you how Christ is concerned in it.
1. To state the foregoing breach, take these propositions.
[1.] God and man were once near friends. Adam was the Lord's favourite. You know till man was made, it is said of every rank and species of the creature, ' God saw that it wiis good.' But when man was made in his day: Gen. i. 31, ' God saw what he had made, and behold, it was very good.' An object of special love, God expressed more of his favour to him than to any other creature, except the angels — ' Man was made after his image,' Gen. i. 26. When you make the image or picture of a man, you do not draw his feet or his hands, but his face ; his tract or footprint may be found among the creatures, but his image and express resemblance with man ; and so he was fitted to live in delightful communion with his creator. Man was his viceroy, Gren. i. 27. God entrusted him with the care, charge, and dominion over all the creatures ; yea, he was capable of loving, knowing, or enjoying God. Other creatures were capable of glorifying God, of setting forth his power, wisdom, and goodness, objectively and passively ; but man, of glorifying God actively, as being appointed to be the mouth of the creation.
[2] Man gets out of God's favour by conspiring with God's grand enemy. His condition was happy but mutable, before Satan by insinuating with him draweth him into rebellion against God ; and upon this rebellion he forfeiteth all his privileges, God's image, favour, and fellowship. God would deal with him in the way of a covenant: Gen ii. 17, ' In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die ; ' do and live, sin and die. The commiuatory part is only expressed, beciuise that only took place ; so that by this rebellion he lost the integrity of his nature, and all his happiness ; he first ran away from God, and then God drove him away; he was first a fugitive, and then an exile.
[3.] Man fallen draweth all his posterity along with him ; for God dealt not with him as a single but as a ])ublic person : Eom. v. 13, ' Whereas by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ,
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and so death passed upon all, for that all have sinned ; ' and 1 Cor, XV. 47, ' The first man is of the earth, earthly ; the second man is the Lord from heaven.' There is a first man and a second man, nos omnes eramus in. illo wius homo. Adam and Jesus are tlie two great institutions, the one consistent with the wisdom and justice of God, as the other with the wisdom and grace of God ; so that Adam begets enemies to God : Gen. v. 3, ' Adam begat a son in his own likeness ; ' and 1 Cor. xv. 49, we read of the image of ' the earthly one.' Every man is born an enemy to God — his nature opposite, his ways contrary to God ; and so is eternally lost and undone, unless God make some other provision for him.
[4.] The condition of every man by nature is to be a stranger and an enemy to God : Col. i. 21, ' And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your minds." That double notion is to be considered. Strangers, there is no communion between God and us, we cannot delight in God nor God in us, till there be a greater suitableness, or a divine nature put into us. If that be too soft a notion, the next will help it — we are enemies. There is a perfect contrariety, we are perfectly op{)osite to God in nature and ways ; we are enemies directly or for- mally, and in effect or by interpretation. Formally men are enemies, open or secret ; open are those that bid open defiance to him, as pagans and infidels, and idolaters ; secret, so are all sinners ; their hopes and desires are ' that there were no God ; ' they would fain have God out of their way ; rather than vavt with their lusts, they would part with their God: Ps. xiv. 1, 'The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.' It is a pleasing thought and supposition that there were no God. In ofi'ect and by interpretation, they do things or leave things undone, contrary to God's will, and take part with their sins against liim ; as love is a love of duty and subjection, so hatred is a refusal of obedience — 'Love me and keep my commandments,' Exod. xx. 6. They are angry with those who would plead God's interests with them. But how can men hate God, who is summum honum et fans boni ? The schoolmen put the question. We hate him not as a creator and preserver, but as a law-giver and judge ; as a law-giver, because we cannot enjoy our lusts with that freedom and security by reason of his restraint. God hath interposed by his law against our desires: Kora. viii. 7, 'Because the carnal mind is enmity to God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' As a judge and avenger of sin ; not only desire of carnal liberty, but slavish fear is the ■cause of this enmity. Men hate those whom they fear. We have -wronged God exceedingly, and we know that he will call us to an account ; we are his debtors, and cannot answer the demands of his justice, and therefore we hate him. What comfort is it to a guilty prisoner to tell him that his judge is a discreet person, or of a staid judgment? he is one that will condemn him. A condemning God can never be loved by a guilty creature, as barely apprehended under that notion.