Hitherto we have treated of and vindicated the imputation of the active obedience of Christ unto us, as the truth of it was deduced from the preceding argument about the obligation of the law of crea- tion. I shall now briefly confirm it with other reasons and testi- monies : —
1. That which Christ, the mediator and surety of the covenant, did do in obedience unto God, in the discharge and performance of his office, that he did for us; and that is imputed unto us. This hath been proved already, and it hath too great an evidence of truth to be
272 ON JUSTIFICATION.
denied. He was " born to us, given to us," Isa. ix. 6 ; for " what tlie law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God send- ing his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us," Kom. viii. 3, 4. Whatever is spoken of the grace, love, and purpose of God in sending or giving his Son, or of the love, grace, and condescension of the Son in coming and undertaking of the work of redemption designed unto him, or of the oflice itself of a mediator or surety, gives testimony unto this assertion ; yea, it is the funda-^ mental principle of the gospel, and of the faith of all that tiidy be- lieve. As for those by whom the divine person and satisfaction of Christ are denied, whereby they evert the whole work of his media- tion, we do not at present consider them. Wherefore what he so did is to be inquired into. And, —
(1.) The Lord Christ, our mediator and surety, was, in his human nature, made bm v6fj.ov, — " under the law," Gal. iv. 4. That he was not so for himself, by the necessity of his condition, we have proved before. It was, therefore, for us. But as made under the law, he yielded obedience unto it; this, therefore, was for us, and is im- puted unto us. The exception of the Socinians, that it is the judicial law only that is intended, is too frivolous to be insisted on; for he was made under that law whose curse we are delivered from. And if we are delivered only from the curse of the law of Moses, wherein they contend that there was neither promises nor threatening of eternal things, of any thing beyond this present life, we are still in our sins, under the curse of the moral law, notwithstanding all that he hath done for us. It is excepted, with more colour of sobriety, that he was made under the law only as to the curse of it. But it is plain in the text that Christ was made under the law as we are under it. He was " made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." And if he was not made so as we are, there is no consequence from his being made under it unto our redemption from it. But we were so under the law, as not only to be obnoxious unto the curse, but so as to be obliged unto all the obedience that it required; as hath been proved. And if the Lord Christ hath re- deemed us only from the curse of it by undergoing it, leaving us in ourselves to answer its obligation unto obedience, we are not freed nor delivered. And the expression of " under the law" doth in the first place, and properly, signify being under the obligation of it unto obedience, and consequentially only with a respect unto the curse. Gal. iv, 21, " Tell me, ye that desire to be uto vo/mov," — "under the law." They did not desire to be under the curse of the law, but only its obligation unto obedience ; which, in all usage of speech, is the first proper sense of that expression. Wherefore, the Lord Christ being
THE IMPUTATION OF CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE. 273
made under the law for us, he yielded perfect obedience unto it for us ; which is therefore imputed unto us. For that what he did was done for us, depends solely on imputation.
(2.) As he was thus made under the law, so he did actually fulfil it by his obedience unto it. So he testifieth concerning himself, — " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil," Matt. v. 17. These words of our Lord Jesus Cbrist, as recorded by the evangelist, the Jews con- tinually object against the Christians, as contradictory to what they pretend to be done by him, — namely, that he hath destroyed and taken away the law. And Maimonides, in his treatise, " De Funda- mentis Legis," hath many blasphemous reflections on the Lord Ciirist, as a false prophet in this matter. But the reconciliation is plain and easy. There was a twofold law given unto the church, — the moral and the ceremonial law. The first, as we have proved, is of an eter- nal obligation ; the other was given only for a time. That the lat- ter of these was to be taken away and abolished, the apostle proves with invincible testimonies out of the Old Testament against the obstinate Jews, in his Epistle unto the Hebrews. Yet was it not to be taken away without its accomplishment, when it ceased of itself. Wherefore, our Lord Christ did no otherwise dissolve or destroy that law, but by the accomplishment of it /and so he did put an end unto it, as is fully declared, Eph. ii. 14-16. But the law xar' s^o^yjv, that which obligeth all men unto obedience unto God always, he came not xaraXvaai, to destroy, — that is adirrisai, to abolish it, as an dferrigig is ascribed unto the Mosaical law, Heb. ix. 26 (in the same sense is the word used, Matt. xxiv. 2, xxvi. 61, xxvii. 40; Mark xiii. 2, xiv. 58, XV. 29; Luke xxi. 6; Acts v. 38, 39, vi. 14; Rom. xiv. 20; 2 Cor. V. 1 ; Gal. ii. 1 8, mostly with an accusative case, of the things spoken of), or xa-apyT^gai, which the apostle denies to be done by Christ, and faith in him. Rom. iii. 31, 'No/j.ov ouv -/.aTaf"/ov/j,sv dia Trig m-iffrsug; Ij^n ysvoiTo' dXXa v6/jjov ;Vrw/i,s/ — " Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law." ISSo/mov isrami is to confirm its obligation unto obedience ; which is done by faith only, with respect unto the moral law; the other being evacuated as unto any power of obliging unto obedience. This, therefore, is the law which our Lord Christ affinns that he came " not to destroy;" so he exjDressly declares in his ensuing discourse, showing ))oth its power of obliging us always unto obedience, and giving an exposition of it. This law the Lord Christ came i-Xi^puffai. HXrjpuffai rhv v6/mov, in the Scripture, is the same with s/jj-zXT^ffai rhv v6,'mov in other writers; that is, to yield full, perfect obedience unto the commands of the law, whereby they are absolutely fulfilled. UX^pojaai v6/j.ou is not to make the law perfect; for it was always vo/xog rsXsiog, — a " perfect law/*