SecowUy^ The second thing is tlie ordination of God — 'He hath
VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 307
made him to be sin for us,' Two expressions must be explained, sin and made.
1. Sin. Mark ; it is not said that God made Christ a sinner, but he hath made him sin ; which I note to prevent bold and daring glosses, for wit will play the wanton with such expressions. Some have said that Christ was maximus peccator, because he stood in the room of all the rest ; but this is harsh, and of an ill sound. Here is enough in the expression itself; we need not strain it higher. Sin is taken in scripture, sometimes for the punishment of sin, sometimes for a sacrifice for sin, or a sin-offering. (1.) By a metonymy of the cause for the effect, sin is put for the punishment of sin, as Gen. iv. 13, ' My sin is greater than I can bear,' he meaneth pcena peccati, the punishment. And ver. 7, ' Sin lieth at the door,' the punishment is at hand, and will certainly come on. So Heb. ix. 28, ' Christ will come without sin ; ' not only free from its blot, for so he was ever, holy, harmless, separate from sinners ; but from its guilt and punish- ment, which he took upon him in our name. (2.) By a metonymy of the adjunct for the subject, sin is put for a sin-offering, or a sacrifice for sin ; piaculum in Latin is both a sin and a sacrifice for sin. So the priests are said to eat the sins of the people, Hos. iv. 8, that is. the sacrifices for sin, minding nothing but to glut themselves with the fat of the offerings, a part of which fell to the priests' portion ; and so it must be understood here; he was made sin for us, that is, an expiatory sacrifice for our sin. So Paul applieth it in these two senses to Christ, Eom. viii. 3, ' God by sending his Son in the simili- tude of sinful flesh, by sin hath condemned sin in the flesh ; ' that is, by the sacrifice, abolished sin or the punishment, put an everlasting brand upon it to make it hateful to the saints.
2. The word made is to be explained ; for here is no word but what is emphatical and hath its weight. That signifieth God's solemn ordination and appointment for to make is to ordain, as Mark iii. 14. iiroirjae, made or 'ordained twelve disciples ; and Acts ii. 36, 'Made to be Lord and Christ ; ' which is not refeiTcd to his nature and sub- stance, but to his estate and condition ; so God made him, that is, ordered him to bear the punishment of sin, or to become a sacrifice for sin. In other places it is said, Isa. liii. 6, ' The Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all.' So Isa. liii. 10, ' It pleased the Father to bruise him ; he put him to grief.' The punishment and curse of sin was imposed upon him ; so that our Saviour had all the sins of the elect upon him by imputation, bearing the punishment of them himself.
Thirdly, The end of what was done about Christ. Where (1.) The benefit intended — ' That we might be made the righteousness of God,' that is, that we might be just with that righteousness which God giveth, imputeth, and appro veth. Mark here four things.
1. Eighteousness is the word used, and it is here taken in a legal and judicial sense, not for a disposition of mind or heart, but for a state of acceptation, or the ground of a plea before the tribunal of God. So, also it is taken, Eom. v. 19, ' As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous,' that is, deemed and accounted so, accepted as such. In short, sanctification is not here intended, but justification. Now this
308 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XL.
forensical or court rigliteousness may be interpreted either with rela- tion to the precept or sanction.
[1.] With respect to the precept of the Law ; so it is said, Kom. ii. 13, 'For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.' A man that exactly fulfilleth the law of works is righteous, but so, ' by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in his sight,' Rom. iii. 20. Let me instance in this kind of "righteousness with respect to the law of grace, 1 John iii. 7, ' He that doth righteousness is righteous,' that is, evangelically, whilst he doth it sincerely, though not perfectly. The legal righteousness is opposite to reatus culpce, to the fault ; it that could be, we might say, he that fulfilleth the law is righteous, that is, he is not faulty.
[2.] There is a righteousness with respect to the sanction, and so with respect either to the commination or the promise, (L) With respect to the commination — so legal righteousness is not dueness of punishment ; he is righteous who is freed from the obligation to punishment. This righteousness is opposite to reatus 'pcence ; and so a man is said to be justified or made righteous, when he is freed from the eternal punish- ment threatened by God. And thus by the righteouness of Christ we are 'justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses,' Acts xiii. 39 ; or rather see that place, Eom. i. 17, 18, ' For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.' But before I go off in the commina- tion, two things are considerable, sentence and execution. From the commination, as it importeth a sentence or respects a sentence ; so we are justified, or made righteous, when Ave are not liable to condemnation, as Rom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemnation,' &c ; and Eom. v. 18, ' As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all to condemnation, so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men, unto justifi- cation of life.' But as the commination respects the execution, so to be justified or made righteous is not to be liable to punishment. So it is said. Rom. v. 9, 'Being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath though him.' Now this exemption is sometimes founded on the innocency of the person, but that is not our case ; sometimes it cometh to pass through free pardon, as when the law is suspended, or jienalty remitted by mere bounty, as Jose})h forgave his brethren, or David, Absalom ; but that is not our case neither ; sometimes by sati.sfaction made, as Paul would pay Onesimus his debt ; or by free pardon and .satisfaction both together, wliich was certainly our case, ' For we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption of Jesus Christ,' Rom. iii. 24. There is free pardon and a full compensation made to divine justice, to satisfy for the breaches of the law. And so we are ' made the righteousness of God in him;' freely, and by God's grace finding out the remedy, and yet securing the authority of his law, and the honour of his justice, upon the account of Christ's satisfaction, or his being sin for us, that is, freed from the sentence and execution of the law, or the eternal wrath of God. (2.) The other part of the sanction is the promise. And so our judicial, or legal righteousness, is nothing else but our right to the reward, gift, or benefits founded, not in any merit of