Doct. To be made partakers of Christ is the greatest gain.
To evidence this I shall show you — (1.) What gain we have in having Christ ; (2.) How much this gain excelleth all other gain.
I. What gain we have in having Christ.
1. He is our ransom from the wrath of God, and so you have some- what whereby to appease your guilty fears : Col. i. 14, ' In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.' Oh, what a mercy is this to have sin forgiven, to be free from the curse of the law, and the wrath of the eternal God ! Ask a tender conscience that groaneth under the weight of sin whether it be not a great benefit to have sin forgiven ? Ps. xxxix. 4, ' Mine iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden ; they are too heavy for me.' If you think them too scrupulous, go to a stormy wounded conscience : Prov. xviii. 14, ' A wounded conscience who can bear ? ' Ask Judas, or any of those whose souls are ready to choose strangling rather than life. The damned in hell, who bear their own iniquity, and are past forgiveness, and feel sin to be sin indeed, they would give ten thousand worlds if they had them for the pardon of their sins. Surely then it is great gain to have sin pardoned, to be justified by faith in Christ, and be at peace with God : ' Blessed is he whose sins are forgiven.' The heart of trouble is broken when that is done.
2. It is Christ Jesus hath purchased the favour of God, that we may have comfortable access to him and fellowship with him, he having opened the door by the merit of his passion, and keeping it still open by his constant intercession. By his death he removed the legal ex- clusion, and remaineth as our intercessor at God's right hand. All the riches in the world could not purchase such a favour for us. Gold and silver are poor corruptible things to the precious blood of the Son of God, by which blood ' we have entrance into the holiest,' Heb. x. 19. Therefore this gain we have by Christ, that we may once more have access to God.
3. Our natures are renewed, and not only the favour and fellowship of God is restored, but his image also. The Spirit is given, whereby we are renewed : Titus iii. 5, 6, ' By the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; ' and we are made ' partakers of the divine nature,' 2 Peter i. 4 ; that is, made like God, and amiable in his sight : ' Partakers of his holiness ; ' Heb. xii. 10, ' But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.' This is profit, not the pelf of this world. All the comforts of the world, that please and feed our sensuality, are nothing to it. If a beast were made a man, he would not complain for want of provender ; so if we are made partakers of a divine nature, we have no cause to complain if straitened in the world. Thou hast that which is better, a nature to incline thee to live to God, and with God in a state of holy communion with him.
38 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. IV.
4. Christ is our treasury and storehouse, from whence we fetch all our supplies : ' But of his fulness we receive grace for grace ; ' 1 Cor. i. 30, ' He is made of God to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti- fication, and redemption.' This is the riches of the saints ; they love the true riches. God would not trust the stock in our hands, but Christ keepeth it for us. Therefore in gaining him you gain all things which a gracious heart prizeth, all that is needful to maintain our expenses to heaven.
5. By him we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life : Boin. viii. 17, ' If sons, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.' Surely everlasting glory is a greater treasure than all the wealth in the world. Now for a title to this, we have the promise and grant of God, the merit of the Eedeemer, and the earnest of the Spirit to build upon ; therefore their gain is exceeding great if they have Christ.
II. How much this gain excelleth all other gain.
1. It is the most comfortable gain, for here is comfort at all times and in all cases. When nothing else can ease the troubled mind, in the day of wrath, in the day of death, this will be a support to you : Phil. i. 21, 'To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' You get infinitely much more than you can lose upon death. Death maketh all other gain useless to us ; openeth a door for us to enter into our greatest felicity. We leave worldly wealth for the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints ; a shed for a palace, an ' earthly tabernacle for a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ; ' which is 7ro\\o) fxaXXov, ' much more better.' We leave friends for the spirits of just men made perfect; ordinances for the vision of God. The glory, and riches, and honours of the world are nothing worth when we come to die. If you have not gained Christ, in what a miserable plight will you be then, when you must go into an unknown world, to an unknown God, and have no intercessor at his right hand to plead for you ! When the happiness of God's children beginneth, your worldly happiness endeth. Death parts you and your wealth, but the believer then goeth to take possession of his blessed inheritance.