Especially since the fall. Leave the consideration of Christ, and this may be a reason. Consider us since the fall, as we are in the mass of corrup- tion, are we fit objects for God's love ? Are we not fuel for consuming tire ? Is not he a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, and we stubble for his wrath ? Is not our nature defiled and tainted, and can it otherwise be amiable, than considered as knit to him that is first amiable, that is Christ ? It cannot be. So look to Christ as the Son of God's love, whether as God or as man ; look to his office as mediator, look on him as in relation to us as our hus- band and head ; look on us without him, you may see that God's love is fii'st founded in Christ, and then in us.
I mean in regard of execution in the passages of our salvation. For at * That is, ' satisfaction.' — G.
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886 COMMENTARY ON
first it was a free love that {,'ave Christ to us, and us to Christ, ' So God l()vc:(l the world, that ho gave his Son,' John iii. 10. That was the first that set all the world in execution ; hut in the execution from predestina- tion to glorification, hefore all worlds he loved us in Christ to everlasting. From the everlasting in election, to everlasting in glory, all is in Christ in re- gard of execution. We suhsist in him, we are sanctified in him, we are justi- fied in him, his righteousness is ours, we are glorified in him, we are loved in him ; God hlosseth us with all spiritual hlessings in him, ' God hath made us accepted in his heloved," Eph. i. 5, G ; in him who is his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased ; not only 'with whom,' but ' in whom,' in him and all his, in him as mystical Christ, head and members. God now looks upon our nature as it is united to the person of his onl}' begotten Son ; and thereupon our nature is lovely in the e^'es of God, and enriched, and hon- oured, and advanced in Christ.
Even as a base woman by marriage with a great person is advanced ; so our nature being mean of itself, taking our nature when it was defiled with sin (though that particular mass was sanctified by the Holy Ghost), it was much advanced and ennobled, by having a subsistence in the second person. So God looks on us in Jesus Christ, and loves us in him, and bestows all spiritual blessings in Christ.
Therefore whatsoever we have, Christ must have it first for us ; whatso- ever is done to us, must be done first to Christ. Christ is first predestinate, as it is, 1 Peter i. 2. He is the predestinate Lamb of God. He was ordained before all worlds, to be a sacrifice for us, and to be the head of his church. He was ordained before we were ordained. Christ is first beloved, and then w'e are beloved in his beloved. He is well pleased in him, and then in us. He is first loved, and then we. He is predestinate, and then we. He is the Son of God's love by nature, therefore w-e are sons of God's love by adoption and grace. What we are by adoption, he is by nature first of all. Therefore we are said to be elected in him, and sanctified ia him. He fii'st of all removes all ill, and then we have it removed, because he hath removed it. He is first justified from our sins, he is first quitted and freed from our sins, when he took them upon himself, and on the tree satisfied the wrath of God. * He bore our iniquities, and by his stripes we are healed,' Isa. liii. 5. If he had not been freed from our sins, we had for ever lain under them. Therefore saith St Paul, ' If Christ be not risen, you are yet in your sins,' 1 Cor. xv. 13, seq. We are free from our sins, because Christ our surety is out of the prison of the grave. He is in heaven.
He must fu-st rise from the dead. ' He is the first fruits of them that sleep ; the first begotten from the dead,' Kev. i. 6 ; 1 Cor. xv. 20. For though some rose before, yei it was in the virtue of Christ, who rose alto- gether by his own strength. Therefore he hath made a ' living way' to heaven. * We are born again to a lively hope by the resuiTection of Christ from the dead,' 1 Peter i. 3. We have a lively hope, a hope that makes us lively in good works, because our surety is in heaven. Now we hope for an inheritance immortal and undefiled. Because he is risen, we shall rise. He is ascended, therefore we shall ascend. We do ascend in the certainty of faith now, and shall ascend indeed hereafter.
Whatsoever we do, he doth it first ; and whatsoever we have from God, it is at the second hand. He hath it fii'st, and conveys it to us ; the natural Son to the adopted sons. Therefore all the promises come to be made in him, and not directly to us alone abstracted from Christ.