2. And satisfaction for sin, it must be in that nature that hath sinned. Now man of himself could not satisfy divine justice, being a finite person ; there- fore God the second person became man, that in our nature he might satisfy God's wrath for us, and so free us by giving payment to his divine justice. The death of Christ, God-man, is the price of our liberty and freedom.
But why doth the apostle speak here of * a law of the Spirit of life in Christ ' which frees us ? But here is no mention of satisfaction by death.
Oh, but death is the foundation of all, as we shall see afterwards. To unfold the point, therefore, because it is a special point, and the words need unfolding.
Here it is said there is life in Christ.
' A Spirit of life,' and a law of the Spirit of life in Christ.
1. There is life in Christ, not only as God, for so indeed he is life. God his life is himself ; for Hfe is the being of a thing, and the actions and moving and \Tigour and operations of a thing answerable to that being. So the life of God is his being : ' As I live, saith the Lord ;' that is, ' As I am God, I will not the death of a sinner,' Ezek. xviii. 32. Now, Chi'ist hath life in him as God, as the Father hath. But that is not especially here meant.
2. There is life in Christ as God-man, as mediator. Now, this life is that life which is originally from the Godhead. Indeed, it is but the God- head's quickening and giving life to the manhood in Christ ; the Spirit quickening and sanctifying the manhood. And we have no comfort by the life of God, as it is in God's life alone severed ; for, alas ! what communion have we with God without a mediator ? But our comfort is this, that God, who is the fountain of life, he became man, and having satisfied God's justice, he conveys life to us. He is our head ; he hath life in himself as
238 THE SPIRITUAL JUBILEE.
God, to impart spiritual life to all liis members ; so there is life in Christ as mediator.
And there is a Spirit of life. That life it is a working life, for spirit is an emphatical word. Spirit added to a thing increased the thing. Again, he saith, ' The laiv of the Spirit of life.' Law is a commanding thing. To shew that the life in Christ is a commanding life, it countermands all opposite lives whatsoever, of sin and death ; and this law is a countermand to all other laws. * The law of the Spirit of life ' frees us from all other laws. So here is life, the Spirit of life, and the law of the Spirit of life — all words of strong signification.
But for the clear understanding of this sweet and comfortable point, first, consider how the law of the Spirit of life is in Christ, what it doth in him, and then how it is derivatively in us.
First of all. We must know this for a ground, whatsoever is done to us is done to ChriM first ; and whatsoever we have, Christ hath it first. There- fore life is first in Christ, and then in us ; resurrection first in Christ, and then in us ; sonship first in Christ, and then in us ; justification from our sins first in Christ — he is freed from our sins — and then in us ; ascension first in Christ, and then in us ; glory in heaven first in Christ, and then in us. We have nothing in us, but it is derived from Christ. Therefore, this being laid as a ground, we must consider how the Spirit of life works in Christ, what it doth in Christ, and then what it doth as it is in us ; for whatsoever Christ hath, it is not only for himself, but for us.
What doth it in Christ ?
1. The Spirit of life in Christ, first of all, it did quicken and sanctify his human nature. That nature that Christ pleased to take upon him it stopped sin, it made a stop of original sin, in sanctifying that blessed mass out of which his body w^as made. For the foundation of his obedience actual, that it was so holy, it was hence that his nature was purified by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin. The foundation that his death and sufi"erings was satisfactory and acceptable, it was that his holy nature was sanctified by the Spirit of God. So the first work of the Spirit of life in the Son of God, it was to sanctify and quicken that blessed mass that he took upon him.
2. And the Spirit of life that quickened and sanctified our nature in Chi'ist did likewise ennoble our nature ; for even as a base woman is en- nobled when she is taken in marriage with a great man, — she hath his dignity accounted hers — so our nature, by the Spirit being sanctified, is knit into the union of person with Christ, that our nature and the second person make one Christ. So our nature by the Spirit is ennobled by this union. And