they might understand the Scriptures, he taught them that thus it behoved him to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 46, 47. When the apostles of our Lord bare witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, they witnessed concerning him, that he was exalted by the right hand of God, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. (see Acts v. 31, 32.) And doth not the word of God expressly assert, that unless we repent, we shall all likewise perish? Is not this the universal testimony of the promises, the invitations, the warnings, and the examples of the word of God, that only such as actually repent, turn to God, and believe on his Son, are forgiven? Thus, in the new covenant, God promises to be merciful to the unrighteousness of his people, and their sins and iniquities to remember no more. Thus also the Lord invites, Isa. i. 18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Thus also we are warned to flee from the wrath to come, assured that the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire, Matt. iii. 10. When was it that Paul obtained mercy and was saved? when he believed on the name of the Lord Jesus? when he returned to God by Jesus Christ? How certain, then, is it, that none can be considered as pardoned of God, as justified in Christ, until they have believed on the Lord Jesus, until they have cordially received the atonement and righteousness of the Lord Jesus, for pardon and justification. Before we believe, we are kept under the law; and therefore whatsoever curse or condemnation the law saith, it saith to us that are under the law, shut up unto the faith which should Was it not afterwards be revealed. Therefore when the apostles executed the commission they had received from the Lord Jesus, we find them using every effort to fix on the consciences of men a just sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, of the danger of the sinner, and assuring all men, that unless they repented, turned to God, and did works meet for repentance; unless they believed on the name of the Lord Jesus, they should certainly perish; that unless they knew the Lord, and obeyed his Gospel, the Lord would come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them. Most assuredly, then, to be justified and safe from divine vengeance, we must know God, and obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This, then, is the awful condition of all men before they truly believe on the Lord Jesus, which the Apostle expresses, Gal. iii. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. When we are justified, we are also sanctified. Whatever difference there is between justification and sanctification, they are inseparable. The same faith by which we are justified, purifies the heart and works by love; the same Spirit that quickens us, and enables us to believe on the Lord Jesus, makes us the epistles of Christ, known and read of all men, at the same time; the Lord Jesus is at the same moment the Lord our. Righteousness and Strength. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God; we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand in a state of peace, holiness, and safety. These great gospel-blessings, then, are always connected; but they are very different, as will appear in the following respects : (1.) Justification is a relative, sanctification is a real change. In justification, a person, considered as ungodly, is made just, by the imputation of the righteous ness of Jesus Christ, received simply by faith. But in sanctification, the power of sin is broken, the dominion of sin is taken away, the heart is changed, the stony heart is taken away, and a heart of flesh is given; sinners, that were the willing slaves of sin and Satan, are now the willing servants of the Lord Jesus and holiness, most sincerely giving themselves, and all they are and have, to glorify the Lord. (2.) Justification we owe entirely to the work of Christ without us. We are never said in any part of the word of God to be justified by any thing within us, or done by us, when it respects our justification before God; for, as we have already shewn, in this sense no flesh living can be justified. If we are said to be justified by faith, it is not by faith as a work, but as opposed to all works, Rom. iv. 5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness; that is, as I apprehend, it is regarded as that which is most certainly connected with a state of righteousness before God in Christ Jesus. Thus, in Rom. iv. 16. our Apostle assures us, that we partake of the promise of eternal life of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. Faith, then, doth not justify us, but that gift of righteousness that faith receives, that grace that reigns through righteousness to eternal life, justifying us freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Hence it is, that our justification is, in the word of God, ascribed to the blood of Christ, to the death of Christ, to the righteousness in Christ, to the propitiation that Christ was made for us, to Christ being made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; all which are without us, and are not our sanctification; for sanctification is the work of the Spirit of Christ within us, cleansing us from our idols and filthiness, (see Ezek. xxxvi. 25.) washing us with the washing of regeneration, and renewing us with his own effectual grace and energy see also Ezek. xxxvii. 23. Neither shall they defile themselves any more B : with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. In sanctification, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus opens our eyes to behold the wonders of his law; he opens our ears, to hear so that our souls live; he teaches us effectually the way of peace; he creates in us a clean heart, and renews a right spirit within us; he begins a good work in us, which he performs unto the day of the Lord Jesus; he writes the law in our hearts, so that we delight in it after the inward man. It is through the Spirit, as the Spirit of sanctification, we mortify the deeds of the body and live; by him we so put on the Lord Jesus, as to make no provision to fulfil the lusts of the flesh; it is by him that we have an inward man as truly as an outward, and that inward man is renewed day by day. So very different is sanctification from justification; the one having a respect to the work of Christ without us, and the other to the work of Christ within us. (3.) In justification, all our sins are buried, as in the depths of the sea, never to rise in judgment against us, and we are clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus. In this view, we are all fair, there is no spot in us; our transgressions are forgiven, our sins are covered; the Lord does not impute to us iniquity; we are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses; for us, as returning prodigals, the best robe is brought forth, and put on us by the command of the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation. Thus, in justification, the Lord pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage: he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. But our sanctification is imperfect; on account of that imperfection, we are ever liable to fall into sin, to enter into temptation, and exposed to the just chastisements of our Lord; for as our Apostle observes, Heb. xii. 6, 7. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Does not this conduct of our heavenly Father teach us, that our sanctification is imperfect? that as we are liable to sin, so we are to the chastising rod and stripes of the Lord? and that when the Lord chastiseth us, it is as a father? not as a judge, that hath sentenced us, as criminals, to everlasting punishment, but as a kind father, for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. It is from the imperfection of our sanctification that we sin daily, and have great cause to pray daily, with shame and self-abasement, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. Our Apostle supposes our exposedness to the pollutions of the world, and the imperfection of our sanctification, when he exhorts, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. and vii. 1. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. However justified by faith in the Lord Jesus, we still need further washing, as our Lord taught his disciples, when he condescended to wash their feet; see John xiii. 10. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit and ye are clean, but not all. Does not our Lord teach us, that in our daily course of obedience we contract daily pollution, and need daily cleansing? Though genuine believers rejoice in Christ Jesus, and are pressing after the mark of the prize of their high calling of God in Christ |