3. None can take off this burden of sin but Jesus Christ ; this is a work proper to the Lamb of God. None else could preserve the honour of God's justice, which was necessary before we could be intrusted with a new stock of grace : Eom. iii. 24, 25, ' Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.' None else could secure the honour of God's government ; punishments are inflicted, not only for the reformation and correction of the offenders, but for a warning to others, to secure the ends of government, that none may presume upon impunity. The same is necessary in the government of the world by God. If God should wholly release the law, all awe and sense of it would be lost, sin would not be counted so grievous a thing ; therefore there is a brand put upon sin by the sufferings of Christ ; the odious- ness of it is represented in the agonies and sorrows of his cross. The apostle saith, ' That God for sin condemned sin in the flesh,' Eom. viii. 3 ; or by a sacrifice given for sin he hath showed his hatred and dis- i:)leasure against it. When we look upon sin through Satan's spec- tacles, or the cloud of our own passions or carnal affections, we make nothing of it ; but it is a terrible spectacle to see the fruits of it in the agonies and sufferings of Jesus Christ, which are represented to us in the word and sacraments, as if he were crucified before our eyes. Once more, none could bear this burden of punishment but Jesus Christ, who was man to undertake it in our name, and also God to get through it in his own strength. His human nature did put a price into his hands to lay down for the ransom of our souls, and his divine nature did put a value upon that price, and made it sufficient and responsible to all God's ends. Therefore it is said, Ps. Ixxxix. 19, ' Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty ; I have exalted one chosen out out of the people.' It best befitted the divine wisdom to choose such a person as might under- take the work, and not miscarry in it ; otherwise we could have no assurance that full satisfaction was given.
4. Jesus Christ taketh away sin by bearing it in his own person. 'O aXptov signifieth both to take it away and carry it away ; and it is said, Isa. liii. 6, ' The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all.'
SERMONS UPON JOHN I. 29. 48^
God laid it on him, and he willingly took it upon himself : 1 Peter ii. 24, ' Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree ; ' which signifieth his voluntary susception, as well as the Father's ordina- tion and appointment.
I must a little explain two things — (1.) How sin was laid upon Christ ; (2.) That being transferred and laid upon Christ, it is taken off from the creature.
[1.] How sin was laid upon Christ, for so the scripture speaketh. There is in sin, culpa, the fault ; macula, the stain ; reatus, the guilt, and poena, the punishment. We cannot say the fault was laid on him, for that is the blame which ariseth cr groweth out of sin inherent ; we cannot say the stain, for Christ was * holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,' Heb. vii. 26 ; therefore we must understand it of the other two, the guilt and the punishment. The guilt is imputed as he stood in our stead ; for he is said to ' bear the sins of many/ Isa. liii. 12, and to ' be made sin for us,' 2 Cor. v. 21. As he offered himself, and obliged himself to make satisfaction to his Father's justice, his soul and body was a ransom in our souls' stead : 1 Tim. ii. 6, ' Who gave himself ' avriXrpov, a ransom for all.' He not only died in bomcm nostrum, for our good, but loco et vice omnium nostrum, he stood be- fore the Father's tribunal in our room and stead. Then for the punish- ment, as he was * made sin for us,' so he was * made a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 13 ; that is, to undergo the curse of the law due to us. He was no more spared than if we ourselves, who had sinned, had been in his room and place at that time ; and therefore he is said to ' carry our sorrows and bear our griefs,' Isa. liii. 4. He was the object of sin- pursuing justice, and at his hands did God demand satisfaction for all our wrongs. He had all the sins of the elect upon him by imputation and voluntary susception, and was handled by divine justice as if he had been guilty of them all.
[2.] The guilt and punishment being transferred and transacted upon Christ, it is taken off from the creature ; and all who upon God's terms do thankfully accept of this atonement are acquitted and recon- ciled to God, and taken into grace and favour through Christ : Job xxxiii. 24, * Then he is gracious unto him, and saith. Deliver him from going down to the pit ; I have found a ransom.' When the surety hath paid the debt, the debtor is let out of prison ; when the ram was taken, Isaac was let go. Gen. xxii. As Christ told his persecutors, John xviii. 8, ' If therefore you seek me, let these go their way.' In that action of his there was a pledge, an illustration, at least, of his offering himself to the curse of the law and the punishment due to sin, to exempt us from it : Take me, and let these go. The fault is for- given, the guilt expiated, the blot more and more done away, and the sentence of condemnation and punishment disannulled, so that ' there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ,' Rom. viii. 1.