Thus is CHRIST made to believers sanctification. And O what a privilege is this! to be changed from beasts into saints, and from a devilish, to be made partakers of a divine nature; to be translated from the kingdom of Satan, into the kingdom of GOD’s dear Son! to put off the old man, which is corrupt, and to put on the new man, which is created after GOD, in righteousness and true holiness. O what an unspeakable blessing is this! I almost stand amazed at the contemplation thereof. Well might the apostle exhort believers to rejoice in the LORD; indeed they have reason always to rejoice, yea, to rejoice on a dying bed; for the kingdom of GOD is in them; they are changed from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the LORD: well may this be a mystery to the natural, for it is a mystery even to the spiritual man himself, a mystery which he cannot fathom. Does it not often dazzle your eyes, O ye children of GOD, to look at your own brightness, when the candle of the LORD shines out, and your Redeemer lifts up the light of his blessed countenance upon your souls? Are not you astonished, when you feel the love of GOD shed abroad in your hearts, by the Holy Ghost, and GOD holds out the golden sceptre of his mercy, and bids you ask what you will, and it shall be given you? Does not that peace of GOD, which keeps and rules your hearts, surpass the utmost limits of your understandings? and is not the joy you feel unspeakable? is it not full of glory? I am persuaded it is; and in your secret communion, when the LORD’s love flows in upon your souls, you are as it were swallowed up in, or, to use the apostle’s phrase, “filled with all the fulness of GOD.” Are not you ready to cry out with _Solomon_, “And will the LORD, indeed, dwell thus with men!” How is it that we should be thus thy sons and daughters, O LORD GOD Almighty!
If you are children of GOD, and know what it is to have fellowship with the Father and the Son; if you walk by faith, and not by sight; I am assured this is frequently the language of your hearts.
But look forward, and see an unbounded prospect of eternal happiness lying before thee, O believer! what thou hast already received, are only the first-fruits, like the cluster of grapes brought out of the land of _Canaan_; only an earnest and pledge of yet infinitely better things to come: the harvest is to follow; thy grace is hereafter to be swallowed up in glory. Thy great _Joshua_, and merciful high Priest, shall administer an abundant entrance to thee into the land of promise, that rest which awaits the children of GOD: For CHRIST is not only made to believers, wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, but also _redemption_.
But, before we enter upon the explanation and contemplation of this privilege,
_First_, Learn hence the great mistake of those writers, and clergy, who, notwithstanding they talk of sanctification and inward holiness (as indeed sometimes they do, though in a very loose and superficial manner) yet they generally make it the _cause_, whereas they should consider it as the _effect_, of our justification. “Of him are ye in CHRIST JESUS, who of GOD is made unto us, wisdom, righteousness, (and then) sanctification.” For CHRIST’s righteousness, or that which CHRIST has done in our stead without us, is the sole cause of our acceptance in the sight of GOD, and of all holiness wrought in us: to this, and not to the light within, or any thing wrought within, should poor sinners seek for justification in the sight of GOD: for the sake of CHRIST’s righteousness alone, and not any thing wrought in us, does GOD look favourably upon us; our sanctification at best, in this life, is not compleat: though we are delivered from the power, we are not freed from the in-being of sin; but not only the dominion, but the in-being of sin, is forbidden by the perfect law of GOD: for it is not said, thou shalt not give way to lust, but, “thou shalt not lust.” So that whilst the principle of lust remains in the least degree in our hearts, though we are otherwise never so holy, yet we cannot, on account of that, hope for acceptance with GOD. We must first, therefore, look for a righteousness without us, even the righteousness of our LORD JESUS CHRIST: for this reason the apostle mentions it, and puts it before sanctification in the words of the text. And whosoever teacheth any other doctrine, doth not preach the truth as it is in JESUS.