He hath " predestinated us to be conformed unto the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren," Rom. viii. 29. In the collation of all grace on Christ, God designed to
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make him "the first-born of many brethren;" that is, not only to give him the power and authority of the first-bom, with the trust of the whole inheritance to be communicated unto them, but also as the example of what he would bring them unto, " For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one : for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,'' Heb. ii. 11. It is Christ who sanctifieth behevers ; yet is it from God, who first sanctified him, that he and they might be of one, and so become brethren, as bearing the image of the same Father. God designed and gave unto Christ grace and glory; and he did it that he might be the prototype of what he designed unto us, and would bestow upon us. Hence the apostle shows that the effect of this predestination to conformity unto the image of the Son is the communication of all effectual, saving grace, with the glory that ensues thereon, Rom. viii. 30, " Moreover, v/hom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
The great design of God in liis grace is, that as we have borne the " image of the first Adam " in the depravation of our natures, so we should bear the "image of the second " in their renovation. "As we have borne the image of the earthy," so " we shall bear the image of the heavenly," 1 Cor. xv. 49. And as lie is the pattern of all our graces, so he is of glory also. All our glory will consist in our being " made hke unto him;" which, what it is, doth not as yet appear, 1 John iii. 2. For "he shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body," Phil. iii. 21. Wherefore the fulness of grace was bestowed on the human nature of Christ, and the image of God gloriously implanted thereon, that it might be the prototype and example of what the church was tlirough him to be made partaker of. That which God intends for us in the internal communication of his grace, and in the use of all the ordinances of the church, is, that we may come unto the "measure of the sta- ture of the fulness of Christ," Eph. iv. 13. There is a fulness of all grace in Christ. Hereunto are we to be brought, according to the measure that is designed unto every one of us. " For unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ," verse 7. He hath, in his sovereign grace, assigned different mea- sures unto those on whom he doth bestow it. And therefore it is called " the stature," because as we grow gradually unto it, as men do unto their just stature ; so there is a variety in what we attain unto, as there is in the statures of men, who are yet all perfect in their proportion.
3. This image of God in Christ is represented unto us in the Gospel. Being lost from our nature, it was utterly impossible we should have any just comprehension of it. There could be no steady notion of
1 72 THE PEESON OF CHRIST.
the image of God, until it was renewed and exemplified in tlie human nature of Christ. And thereon, without the knowledge of him, the wisest of men have taken those things to render men most like unto God which were adverse unto him. Such were the most of those things which the heathens adored as heroic virtues. But being per- fectly exemplified in Christ, it is now plainly represented unto us in the Gospel. Therein with open face we behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and are changed into the same image, 2 Cor. iii. 18. The veil being taken away from divine revelations by the doctrine of the Gospel, and from our hearts " by the Lord the Spirit," we behold the image of God in Christ with open face ; which is the principal means of our being transformed into it. The Gospel is the declara- tion of Christ unto us, and the glory of God in him ; as unto many other ends, so in especial, that we might in him behold and contem- plate that image of God we are gradually to be renewed into. Hence, we are so therein to learn the truth as it is in Jesus, as to be " renewed in the spirit of our mind," and to " put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 20, 23, 24, — that is, " renewed after the image of him who created him," Col. iii. 10.
4. It is, therefore, evident that the life of God in us consists in conformity unto Christ ; nor is the Holy Spirit, as the principal and efficient cause of it, given unto us for any other end but to unite us unto him, and make us like him. Wherefore, the original Gospel duty, which animates and rectifies all others, is a design for confor- mity unto Christ in all the gTacious principles and qualifications of his holy soul, wherein the image of God in him doth consist. As he is the protot3^e and exemplar in the eye of God for the communi- cation of all grace unto us, so he ought to be the great example in the eye of our faith in all our obedience unto God, in our compliance with all that he requireth of us.