We must not think of Christ as an underling in the work of salvation. He is a principal, in the work, from his Father. The gi'ace of our Lord Jesus Christ it is the cause of all. It was the cause why he was man. It is the cause of all grace that is in us. That that is the cause of the cause, is the cause of the thing caused. The grace of Christ is the cause of all in us ; because it was the cause of Christ's suffering from whence we have grace. Grace was the cause that Christ was man, and that he sufiered ; * That is, ipiXavd^u'Tria. — G.
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therefore it is the cause of grace in ns. Christ was a gift; the Father gave him, and he gave himself. ' If thou hadst known the gift of God,' saith Christ to the woman of Samaria, John iv. 10. Oh it is the greatest gift that ever was !
Therefore when we think of any one of the persons in the Trinity, wo must not eschide the rest, but include all, which is a comfortable considera- tion ; because there is a sweet union of all the three persons in the great work of salvation. As Christ saith, * I in the Father, and the Father in me,' John xvii. 21 : not in essence alone — he is God, and I am God — but I am in the Father, and he in me. I consent with the Father, and the Father with me. We both agree in the great work of salvation.
Therefore we should return the glory of all the good we have to God the Father, and to Christ ; and as it is in Rev. v. 12, ' Worthy is the Lamb, because he hath redeemed us.' AVhen we think of the good we have by Christ, ' Worthy is the Lamb, because he shed his blood for us.' ' The Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world,' he is worthy of all praise and honour. We should honour the Father, and honour the Son, and the Holy Spirit that applies the good we have by Christ to us. AVhen we glorify God, let us glorify Christ too, ' who together with the Father is to be glorified,' because it was his grace to give himself; he made himself poor for us. We cannot honour the Father more than by honouring the Son ; for God the Father will be seen in his Son, as the apostle saith, ' In Christ we behold the glory of God,' Eph. iii. 21. Therefore what he saith of Christ here tends to the glory of the Father.
Christ not only as God is gracious, and was willing to the work of salva- tion, but as the meritorious cause of the grace of his Father ; for grace should not have been derived to us from the Father, unless first it had been seated on Christ in our nature, and in him derived to us.
The work of salvation, as it is from Christ, so it is from the grace of Christ ; therefore it was free and voluntary. What so free as grace ? Therefore Christ's abasement and poverty, it was merely* voluntary. If it had not been voluntary, it had not been meritorious and satisfactory. It was a free-will offering ; it was of grace, not forced and commanded without his own consent. It was merely of grace, for our good and salvation ; that we might have the more comfort. It was a free-will offering. He seemed as man to decline death, to shew the truth of his manhood ; but when again he considered wherefore his Father sent him, * Not my will, but thine be done,' Mat. xxvi. 42 ; and with joy, ' With a desire have I desired to eat my last passovcr with you ; and I have a baptism, and how am I pained till I be baptized with it !' Luke xxii. 15. However, to shew the truth of his man- hood, he feared death ; yet, when he considered what he was sent for, it was with a resignation on the divine nature. So it was a free-will offering, and a sacrifice ' of a sweet smell to God the Father,' Philip, iv. 18.
Therefore when we think of Christ, let us think of nothing but grace ; or when we think of heaven or of any blessing by Christ, all comes under the notion of grace, because all comes from mere favour. There are four descents of grace : —
[1.] First, Grace as it is in God and Christ in their own breasts ; the favour of God resting in his own bosom.
[2. J And then this grace and favour shaved in grace ; that is, in habitual grace ; in bestowing grace upon our nature, to sweeten and sanctify it, to fit it for communion with God.
* That is, ' altogether.'— G.
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[3.] And then actual grace ; the movings of the Spirit to every good work ; to every action of grace.
[4.] And then even/ <jift of God, every hJessiiig in a grace ; because it riseth from grace. As we say of the gifts of a great person, this is his grace or favour ; so every good thing wo have is a grace. It is the favour of God in Clu-ist that sweotencth alL Let us labour to see grace in all, especially the fundamental grace, the favour of God and of Christ, the cause of all. And let us see any grace in us as from that grace, and every good act we do, a grace, from mere favour ; and every blessing we have is a grace, if our hearts be good : as the apostle calls the Macedonians' benevolence a grace, 2 Cor. viii. 2. Everything that is good is a grace. ' Therefore, not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory,' Ps, cxv. 1, both of thy favour and of all that comes from it ; all that we have is sweet, because it issues from grace. The favour in the thing is better than the thing itself. As we say of gifts, we care not for the gift, but for the love of him that gave it ; so the good things that we have are not so sweet as the favour of him that gives it, when we deserve not so much as daily bread, but that also is of grace. The source and spring of all that is in us, is free grace in the breast of God and Christ.