II. The considerations with which it is enforced —
The Apostle urges upon us our duty on the ground of consistency. Mark,
1. Your professions —
[The word " If" does not express any doubt in the Apostle's mind, but imports an acknowledged fact, viz. that the Christian is risen with Christ. It is the same as if he had said, " Since ye are risen with Christ." Now every Christian is risen with Christ both federally , and spiritually. Christ is his federal Head and Representative : and all that He experienced, we experienced in him. Was he circumcised when a child ? Was he at the close of life crucified, dead, and buried ? Did he rise, and ascend to heaven? And is he now sitting at the right hand of God ? In the whole of this we had, not an interest only, but a direct participation^ Exactly as we died in Adam, partaking, as it were, with him in the sin which, as our head and representative, he committed, so all which Christ did and suffered is imputed to us, as though we had ourselves done and suffered it in himg. Spiritually also are we risen in Christ. All that he did and suffered is, if I may so speak, accomplished personally in every one of us, his corporeal acts and sufferings being the model of what we experience in our souls. This is by St. Paul stated with great accuracy. In his prayer for the Ephesian Church, he desires that they may " know what is the exceeding greatness of God's power in all his believing people, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." And then he marks distinctly and separately the work which God accomplishes in his people, quickening them from the dead, raising them up to newness of life, and setting them together in heavenly places in Christ JesusV
Now then I ask, Is not this what as Christians you profess ? Do you not profess to be thus risen with Christ, interested in all that he did and suffered for you, and bound to be conformed to him in the whole of this his mediatorial work and office. You do profess it, whether you intend it or not. And this ■profession binds you to an entire devotedness of heart and life to God. You must of necessity " thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again1."
But you shall see this on authority that cannot be disputed, and actually urged in the very tvay suggested by my text.
* Col. ii. 10—12. * 1 Cor. xv. 22. 2 Cor. v. 21.
*» Eph. i. 19, 20. with ii. 4—6. » 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. VOL. XVIII. Q