Christ the Author of Spiritual Life

Galatians ii. 20.

I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, hut Christ liveth in me.

THE last time I was enabled to discourse in this place I gave you some meditations on the first part of these words I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live. The two observations I raised from them were these j

1. That a believei* has communion with our Lord Jesus Christ in his death. By

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the death of Christ, he becomes dead to this world, dead to sin, dead to the law, dead to all the ceremonies of the Jewish institution, and all those forms of worship wherein God had appointed himself to be approached and addressed under the former dispensation. And then the second observation naturally follows;

S. That the life which a believer lives is very different from that which he lived before faith; I am crucified with Christy yet I live. He before lived a life of sense, now his life is spiritual, divine, and heavenly. Before it was a life of sin, but now holiness is the constant course of his actions; it is the frame of his heart and the design of his life. Before he was influenced by the outward parts of religion, by the terror of the law of God; but now by the sweet and attractive influences of the gospel, and the constraining power of divine love. Before he made his religion to consist in outward things, in forms and ceremonies, and the inyentions of men; or, at least, the outward parts of God’s instil tution were his practice, his hope, his reli - gion, his all; but now he is not satisfied without the power and life of godliness, and the presence of God in worship. The whole frame of his conversation and devotion is different from w hat it was before he believed.

I proceed now to the next words, yet not J, hut Christ liveth in me. And they afford us this observation; that a believer ascribes his ncAV life not to himself, but to Christ as the principle of it.

The apostle having spoken these words, I live J fears he has said too much, and assumed too much to himself; therefore he corrects himself in the following expression, and says, yet not J^ hut Christ thai liveth in me.

This cannot be understood concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, who is entered into heaven, and whom the heavens must receive till the res titiition of all things; but our Lord Jesus Christ having sent down his own Spirit into this lower world, to convert and sanctify sinful souls, he is said to live in us by his Spirit. Whenever he has wrought a powerful change upon the mind, and taken us out of the kingdom of Satan, and translated us into his own kingdom, he is said to live in us by his own Spirit. The Spirit comes, as he himself has told us, to supply his own place, and to be the principle of a divine and new life within our souls.

In the prosecution of this doctrine, I shall shew the reasons why a believer ascribes this new life not to himself, but to Christ Jesus; and, secondly, I shall make a little improvement of it. I shall shew,

I. The reasons why a believer ascribes this new life not to himself, but to Christ Jesus. And the first reason is this;

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1. Because he feels it impossible for him. self to begin or to continue this new life in him. He reflects what sort of person he was before Jesus Christ took hold of him, and while he was in a state of nature, and he says thus within himself: “I remem- her the time when I was thoughtless of ^’ God and fond of vanity: my sensual ap- *’ petites and my foolish passions had full dominion over me; and if at any time I restrained them by force of reason, or by the good principles of education, yet they ^’ had a secret strength within me still, or at ^’ least I did but subdue one lust by an- other; I restrained my grosser wicked- “ness by pride and the public esteem of ^’ the world, by a concern for my repu- ‘’ tation, or the like; but I had no love to “God, no delight in his ways; nor could I “bring my foolish heart to love God above ‘’ this world. Though I heard continual- “ly, and knew in myself the excellency of ‘’ things eternal above things temporal, yet” still my heart cleaved to the dust. Van- *’ ity was my food and earth my life and hope. When I was awakened, I read books of terror. 1 heard sermons that thundered the judgment of God against ‘’ the impenitent, and unbelievers. I “thought of hell and of vengeance, turned “over all the curses of the law of God, ^’ and they affrighted me for a season; they “set me about the performance of outward ^’ religion, but they could not change my” heart. They could not soften that heart ^’ of stone, and give me a heart of flesh. ^’ They could not persuade me to love God ^’ above all things, and to make heaven my home and my hope. I found afler all my own labours, that my heart still turned to *’ sin and vanity. I can, therefore, never ^’ ascribe the life I now live to my own will, or my own power: I am so fully convinced of these words of the apostle, that I have no suiTiclency of myself to ‘’ think one good thought, that Jesus shall have all the honour of it. I consider ^’ with myself now, how unable I am daily “to maintain this divine life in me! How “many corruptions are still working with-” in me, even since I humbly hope there ■” has been a principle of divine life wrought ‘’ in my soul! How am I ready to stray ‘’ and wander from God! how many temp- “tations perpetually beset me! how ready ‘’ the world is to fill up my heart; to en “gross my affections, to divert my thoughts” from heaven! I often forget my God. “How often do my sinful passions strug-” gle and work again, and break loose, and “bring forth bitter fruit! how strong are” they within me, and how strong without ^’ me, and if left to myself, how soon they ‘^ overcome me again!’’

The believer says thus within himself; ^’ I read the latter part of the seventh of Ro- ‘’ mans, and I find all this working within “me. I am carnal and sold under sin, ‘’ though I approve the law of God to be ho-” ly, and pure, and just, and good. The ‘’ good that I would I do not, the evil that I ‘’ would not do, that do T. When I separate “myself from the world, and say, I will de- ‘’ vote my time and my heart to God, when I would do good, evil is present with me. I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death. Therefore I must conclude with the apostle, Thanks he to God through Jesus Christy that he has wrought in my soul a principle of opposition to sin, that he has written a new law in my heart. And he that has begun, I trust, will carry on to perfection this divine and heavenly life, for I find myself utterly unable to maintain it. I must say, if Christ had not wrought an act of divine quickening upon me, I should have been dead still. The w orld lies in wickedness, natural men lie in the bosom of w ickedness, and I should have lain among them there, had not the Lord Jesus Christ taken hold of me, and brought me by a sweet force into his own kingdom. If he did not still communicate his spiritual breath to me, I should every day drop into spiritual death again.” Therefore he says concerning himself, as the apostle does concerning the law in the verse before the text, ‘^ I by the laic am dead to the law, that “1 might live to God, By a consideration ‘^ of the purity and perfection of the law of God, by the strictness of its commands, and terror of its threatenings, I find that it is impossible for me to attain life and hap- ‘^ piuess by the law. Therefore I am dead to all expectations from it. By such a survey of my own power, or rather impo- ^•’ tency and weakness, by looking into and ‘’ considering myself, I am dead to self, and “shall never depend upon self for my di- ‘’ vine life; I do not ascribe to myself the “principle nor the preservation of it.” A watchful christian feels his own perpetual need of Christ.

2. Another reason why the christian ascribes this new life to Christ, is because the holy Scriptures continually ascribe it to him, and to his Spirit, and thus concur with his own experience.

I might cite a number of texts to this purpose, 5th John, S6th verse, compared with the Slst verse. The Father hath ^iven to the Son to have life in himself, and the Son quicJceneth whom he will; he quickens them into a divine life in this world, and iie raises them from the dead to life eternal hereafter. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God, When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear itnth him in glory, ^’ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, fhy grace ye are saved, J and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jpsus. For we are his workmanship, ■[ Our Lord Jesus Christ says to Mary I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live .- And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die,X These words have respect to the divine spiritual life within us, as well as to the life of the resurrection, wherein our Lord Jesus Christ’s quickening power shall be glori-

* Col. iii. 3, 4. t Eph, ii, 4, 5, 6, 19. John xi.

25, SO. fled hereafter. It is Christ who is all and in all, and without him we can do nothing,^ as he himself assures us. But not to insist longer upon this head,

3. Another reason why the belie vei ascribes his new life not to himself, but to Christ, is because it is a christian’s delight to humble himself, and to exalt Christ, wherever there is just ground or occasion for it.

He seizes every opportunity of trampling; upon self with pleasure, and takes delighi in treading upon all his own vanities, and exalting his Redeemer. We preach not ourselves, says the apostle, but Christ Jesus the Lord: and ourselves your servants for Jesus saJce .f we do not hold forth or shew ourselves as having any thing extraordinary in us; it is the gospel of Christ that we publish, and by the power of Christ we convert and save souls. We ourselves are nothing.

* John XV. 5. t 2 Cor. iv. !j,

H S

A believer’s life is a life of dependanee. He knows where to go when the stream of divine life runs low in him; he knows to whom he should ascribe this divine life when he feels the power and principles of it warm and active within him. When the apostle had been enumerating, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, how much he had done, he adds, Tet not /, hut the grace of God which was with me.^ It is the language of every christian, “What have 1 that I have not re- “ceived?’’ and he says wijh St. Paul, ‘^ lam ‘’ nothing.^ Nay, though there are so many ^’ instances of duty that I have done for God, so many particular services that I have ‘’ done for my fellow christians, though I “have laboured in religion, and devoted ‘’ myself to the service of my God and my” Redeemer, yet I am nothing All these ‘*’ do but add obligations upon me so much ‘’ the more to honour and give thanks to my Redeemer; but they do not make my Re-. deemer indebted to me, for all I have done *’ has been by his power and by his spirit.’^ * 1 Cor. XV. 10. t 3 Cor. xii. 11.

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It is the great design of the gospel to humble proud man, and it is the very nature and temper of every one that is converted by the gospel, to speak and act thus. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world j to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus tvho of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctiflcation, and redemption: that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,^ and make him his boast all the day long. It is the delight, I say, of a christian to humble himself and exalt Christ. This is part of his new nature, and his new life; therefore he takes every occasion and opportunity of trampling upon every thing of self, and exalting his Lord.

These are the reasons that may be given why a believer ascribes his new life to Christ; because he finds himself so utterly

* i Cor. 1.27.29,30,31, unable to give or maintain it, because the Scriptures continually ascribe it to Christ, and because it is the delight of every one thai is born again to humble himself and exalt his Saviour. I proceed to the improvement.

The first use I shall make of it is this;

1. Of how great importance is it to know whether Christ lives in us or no; for if he live not in us, Satan dwells in us, and we are ruled by the powers and prince of darkness. I say, if Christ live not in us, we are ruled by the powers and prince of darkness. This lower visible world is very much managed by invisible agents, in the way of divine providence and divine grace. Where Jesus Christ is not, there Satan the fallen angel is; and I speak not this of myself, but the word of God speaks it. I could refer you to a multitude of scriptures to this pur« pose. See Eph. ii. 2, where there is a general character given of all that are in a state of nature. You who are quickened by

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Christ, sometime walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that notv workeih in the children of disobedience; and here is the character of their lives, they live in the lusts of the fleshy fulfilling the desires of the fleshy and of the mind; and are hij nature the children of wrath. The apostle speaks to the same effect in his second epistle to Timothy; he says concerning the work of a minister, that his business is to recover persons out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will They are taken captive by the powers of darkness, by the prince of hell, and they are led captive by him to perform the lusts of the flesh, and the lusts of the mind, at his will and pleasure. Ye are of your father the devil, says our Lord Jesus Christ to the unbelieving Jews; ye are not Abraham’s seed, not the spiritual seed, of believing Abraham. Now is it not worth your inquiry, shall not every soul of us think it worth our examination, whether Jesus Christ, the Grod of hea- * 2 Tim. ii. ^6. t John viii. 44.

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en or whether Satan, the prince of hell, dwells in us: whether we are led by the grace of God. and the principles of a divine life that we have received from Jesus Christ, and that are maintained by him, or whether we are actuated by the perverse, corrupt, sinful principles of a fallen angel; whether or no the devil leads us captive in his chain, and whether we are actuated and influenced according to his pleasure? Is not this worth our inquiry? Are we contented to have such an inmate, such an in-dweller? Do you know what the end will be? Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,^ He hath been your inhabitant in this world, and he shall be your everlasting companion in the world which is to come. But those in whom our Lord Jesus Christ has dwelt by his own Spirit, where he is they shall be also, to behold his glory. He has been with them in this life, and they shall be with him for ever in the life that is to come.

* Matt. XXV. 41.

Let sinful souls, theiij be awakened by such a thought as this is, and consider who it is they carry about with them in their bosom all the day long; with whom it is they lie down at night; even Satan that rules in the children of disobedience, and he will rule till a stronger than he comes to dispossess him, and spoil him of his possession; even till the Lord Jesus Christ shall take his power in his hands, and shall rule and live in your hearts.

If you think, then, that it is a matter of importance to know whether Christ lives in you or no, I would lay down these two rules of trial. They are very plain ones, very easy to be remembered, and easy to judge by:

1. If Christ live in you, you live like him: and,

S. If Christ live in you, you live to him*

1. If Christ live in you, you will live like him. You will maintain the dignity of your life, and live as Christ did. You will endeavour to speak and act like Christ; for if the same spirit that animated and conducted oar Lord Jesus Christ here in this world, dwell in you, you will have the same actions, and temper, and carriage that he had. Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ^’^^ that so the wicked and profane world may be able to learn from the sight of every one of us, w hat sort of person Jesus Christ was, seeing as who are his pictures, his copies, his images, in this lower world. The apostle endeavoured so to live, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in his mortal body,- The death of Christ was manifest in him by his continual sorrows and sufferings, and by his exposing himself daily to persecution and death. The life of Christ should be made manifest in our mortal bodies also, even by oar behavioar and conduct under all those deaths, those sufferings, and those continual persecutions, which christians are sometimes called to endure. “I will endeavour to” carry myself under them all, as Jesus * Phil. ii. 5. t 2 Cor. iv. 10.

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Christ did. As I am conformed to Christ ^’ in sufferings, so also my life shall be con- ‘’ formed to the life of Christ.’’ And indeed God has ordained it should be so. He hath predestinated all his children to be conformed to the image of his Son,”^ We should appear in this world like so many walking? living images of Jesus Christ.

Now when we can have some hopes that we are brought into this divine life by the Spirit of Christ, we should then charge ourselves in this manner; ‘^ Was Christ “meek, and mild, and full of love, and “shall I be passionate and revengeful? Was ‘^ he meek, humble, and lowly; shall I be ^’^ proud, and haughty, and aspiring? Did “he talk kindly and with much compassion “to those that were far below him, and ‘^ shall I be morose, and take upon me to “rule, and domineer, and behave with a ^’ haughty and imperious air towards my infe- ‘^ riors, when my Lord Jesus was so coode-” scending? Does not the same Spirit that

* Rom. viii. 29,

dwelt in him dwell in me, and shall I not be “like him? Was he zealous for God, and <^’ did he speak boldly against the cornip- tions of the times, and contradictions of ^’ men, and shall I be ashamed to speak a ‘^ word for God and Christ? Did he resist the tempter and his temptations, and shall I comply with them, and yield to them? ‘’ Had he words of the Old Testament ^’ dwelling in him, to answer the tempter upon all occasions, and shall not I have words of the Old and the New, the New, that is so preferable for my support, for my comfort and resource under contin- “ual difficulties? Was he patient under the ^’ injuries of men, and did he endure the ^’ contradiction of sinners, and shall I be impatient, full of fire and revenge, in op- “position to the pure and mild spirit of my “Lord; Did he submit to his Father’s will, •’ and drink the cup that the Father put into ^’ his hands, though it was a cup of more bitter ^’ sorrows than any that is put into my hands “to taste, and shall not I speak in the same” language, The ciij) which my Father hath

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“given me shall I not drinlc it /^ O my “soulj aim at this divine original, this hea- “venly pattern! Be as like as possible to “thy Saviour here upon earth, since it is ^’ Christ’s own Spirit that dwells in thee; “that when Christ shall appear, thou may- “est appear also, and be like him when thou” shalt see him as he is,^^

This, then, is the first rule to judge by, if Christ live in you, you live like him.

S. You live also to him.

If Christ be the principle of your life, let him be the end of it. Is he the Alpha? let him be the Omega. If he be the first, let him be the last too. We thus judge, that if one died for all, he died for us, that im should not henceforth live unto ourselves, hut unto him who died for us, and rose again, ‘It should be our business to live to Christ; our Lord Jesus may very well expect this from us. If he has sent his Spi- * John xviii, 11. t Cor, v. 14. 15^ rit into our hearts to begin a new life in us, and prepare us for heaven, he expects v,e should lay out that life for him; that we should act and speak for him in the world. The apostle Paul’s determination should be the determination of every one of us, I am resolved Jesus Christ shall be magyiijied in my hodijj whether it he by life or by death; for me to live is to the honour of Christ, and for me to die shall be my gain,”^ What contrivances have we now for Christ? What plans and schemes are we laying for the honour of Christ? For each of us in the lowest sphere, in the lowest station of life that God has placed us in, may have something to do for Christ. Is this our temper of life, is this our frame of life? By this we may judge somewhat whether Christ lives in us or no.

Thus I have done with the first use, of how great importance it is to consider, whether Christ is the principle of our life or no. The second use is this;

*Phil. i. 20.21.

S. What high esteem and honour should we have for our Lord Jesus Christ, who is so glorious and so condescending; so condescending as to dwell in every one of us by his own Spirit, and so glorious a Being as to give life to thousands and millions! All believers that ever were, lived by the Spirit of Christ in them. What a high esteem, I say, should we have of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is so glorious and condescending a Being, as to give life to all that glorious multitude that shall stand on mount Sion, with the name of God on their foreheads, and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the principle of their lives. They shall all fall down and acknowledge at the foot of the Lamb, and say. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and hies sing’, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ;^ for by thy Spirit hast thou been the principle of a divine life within us. Thou didst begin, and hast now * Rev. V. 12. 9. I S lOS Christ the Author Serm. III.

fulfilled it. Ob! the glory and thanksgiving of that day. Oh! let our joy rise high in the fore-thought of it and may we mingle our praises and our songs with that blessed number!

S. Lastly; how truly honourabk a per — son is every christian for he has Christ liv ing in him. Let us not then despise those, whom our Lord Jesus Christ has made so honourable by his own in- dwelling Spirit. iSuch a one is poor and mean and low; but Christ lives in him therefore I will honour him. Such a one is weak and it may be he has much ignorance and folly; but Jesus Christ, who has chosen the foolish things of this world, and will aggrandize his own glory, lives in him. Perhaps he has some ill humours about him, and a perverse temper too; but let us believe that Jesus Christ will in due time cure all that perverseness, and let us pay him some respect, because Christ lives in him. It is true, those in whom our Lord lives should endeavour to imitate him, and aim at every carriage that is becoming so glorious an in-dweller; but if any of these unhappy passions still remain as there will be some while we are in the fleshy yet look upon the person with honour, if you believe Christ lives in him, for the temple of the Lord is there. Offend not one of these little ones; for ivJioso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Christy it were better for him that a millstone icere hanged about his necky and thai he were drowned in the depth of the sea.’^ Abuse them not, lest you abuse Christ. Do you remember the voice from heaven, when Saul was persecuting the christians, Saul Saul, why persecutest thou me /f Treat them kindly, then, as you would treat Jesus Christ in the world, for they are images of him. You know that in the Gospel of Saint Matthew there is a long account of the process of the day of judgment. Our Lord Jesus Christ there tells his disciples, that he shall thus speak to tUose on his right, and those on his left hand: ‘* As for ^’ you,’^ he will say to those on his right * Matt, xviii. 6. t Acts ix. K hand, ‘’ you have fed me, and you have ‘’ clothed me, and you have visited me when ‘^ I was naked, and sick, and in prison; for “as much as ye did it to my servants, my ^’ friends, one of these little ones, ye did ‘^ it to me. ‘^ But as to those on the left hand, he will say to them, “You saw me “sick, and in prison, and naked, and you” would neither visit, feed, nor clothe me; for as you would not do it to one of these my members, you would not do it to me; I dwelt and lived in them, and I expect- edyou should have behaved towards them as towards me.^’ This thought naturally leads me to another service, and that is to put you in mind, that next Lord’s day there will be a collection in this place, for the support of poor ministers in the country.