Christ Our Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. — 1 Cou. i.30.
The religion of the gospel is calculated to remove every occasion of glorying from the creature. And as men are prone to value themselves on account of their wisdom and earthly greatness, therefore, it pleased God to select his people from that class of men who are contemptible in the eyes of the world. Paul says to the Corinthians, who dwelt in a city where there was much learning and wealth, “Ye know your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence.” He then proceeds to show, that the salvation of which they were made partakers, was entirely of the Lord. Their union to Christ was a privilege for which they were entirely indebted to God. They did not first love him, but he loved them. “Ye,” says Christ, “have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” In all cases, they who truly believe, are those who are “ordained to eternal life.” Salvation, from first to last, is all of grace; and it is all through Christ. Whatever we need, in order to our complete deliverance from ruin, and the full attainment of eternal life, is treasured up in Christ; and we are “complete in him.”
1. He is made unto us “wisdom.” Wisdom is one of the appropriate names of the second Person of the adorable Trinity. Before creation, Wisdom is represented as being with God, as one brought up with him; and even then his thoughts were specially directed to this world; for “he rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and his delights were with the sons of men.” The evangelist John seems to have had this passage in his mind, when he penned the beginning of the first chapter of his gospel; for the word, of whom he speaks, as being with God, and as being God himself, is the same as wisdom. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Christ is the Sun of righteousness, from whom, and through whom emanate all the rays of divine truth which ever enter the minds of men. “This is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”” No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the
Son will reveal him.” Christ is that great Prophet that should come into the world, like unto Moses, whom the Jews expected, hut whom they would not receive when he actually made his appearance. He is the great Teacher, by whose instruction all the children of God are brought into the path of life. “All thy children shall be taught of God.” There is no interference in the prophetical office of Christ, and the teachings of the Holy Spirit, but a perfect concurrence. Christ furnishes the lesson, and the Holy Spirit renders it effectual. “He shall not speak of himself, but he shall take of mine and show it unto you.” “Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing unto us, by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.” In him dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Man is endued with reason, but by sin his mind has become blind, and reason itself is perverted. He not only needs external light, but to have the organ of vision rectified, without which the light will shine in darkness, and the darkness comprehend it not. Christ becomes wisdom to the believer, by making him wise to know the way of salvation. He first teaches the sinner something of the depth and malignity of his disease. He wounds that he may heal. When by the law the knowledge of sin is acquired, then he guides the convicted sinner to the cross, and opens his eyes to behold the Lamb of God. He is not only the wisdom of God, as he instructs the ignorant, and opens the eyes of the blind; but as the God-man Mediator, is the most wonderful exhibition of the wisdom of God ever made to the universe. The whole plan of redemption is resplendent with wisdom. The contrivance of a way by which God can be just, while he justifies the ungodly, is so replete with wisdom, that the angels contemplate it with profound astonishment. The gospel, which is the revelation of this plan, is, therefore, called “the wisdom of God.” In this there is a depth, which human reason cannot fathom. The apostle Paul, therefore, says, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory.” We may, therefore, in the contemplation of this subject, exclaim with the apostle, “O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
Christ is then of God made unto us wisdom, in a twofold respect; first, as he is the brightest display of the infinite wisdom of God; and, secondly, by teaching his people all that is necessary to make them wise unto salvation. He teaches them what they ought to believe, and what they ought to do.
2. Christ is not only made to believers wisdom, but righteousness. By righteousness we should understand conformity to the law of God, and the act of justification which is founded on such obedience. It is much more easy to conceive how Christ should become our wisdom, than our justifying righteousness. The apostle does not mean that he works righteousness in us, for that is clearly expressed in the next particular. God cannot be other than just. He can never view a sinner to be any thing else than a sinner. What is done can never be undone. And no act or work can render those acts holy which are in their nature sinful. Man being a sinner, the vindicatory justice of God rendered it necessary that his sin should be punished; otherwise, he would deny himself, and make an erroneous impression on the universe as to his own character. How then, it may be asked, is it possible, that a sinner should be justified in the sight of God? This problem could never have been solved by the wisdom of creatures. But by the wisdom of Gfod, the apparent impossibility has been accomplished. With God all things are possible. The method by which this is effected is, by making his own Son the substitute and Surety for sinners. By imputing their sins unto him, and his righteousness unto them, a foundation is laid for their justification. This is the only ground on which a sinner can be just with God. To suppose that the Judge of all the earth would pronounce a man who is defiled with sin, to be free from all condemnation, and entitled to eternal life, considered in himself, is utterly incompatible with the divine attributes. Sinful man can never be justified but by the righteousness of another, even of that Mediator whom God has provided to meet this very exigence. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But now, the righteousness without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all that believe.” Sinful man can possibly have no justifying righteousness of his own; for if he was chargeable but with one sin, and that the smallest conceivable, yet could he not be justified by the law, for the language of the law is, “Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.” Man’s only hope of justification is in Christ. And Christ can become the author of his justification in no other way, than by becoming his Surety, and bearing his sin; and by rendering a full and perfect obedience to the precepts of the law. His righteousness, thus wrought out, by his holy life and meritorious death, can never justify any one, unless it be imputed to him, that is, set down to his account. And it is imputed to none but to those who by faith are united to Christ. Therefore, it is said in our text, “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. There is, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
3. Christ is also made sanctification to all those who are united to him. He is the author of inherent, as well as of imputed righteousness. It lias often been objected to the doctrine of imputed righteousness, that it removes or relaxes the obligation to holy living; as man is justified without respect to his own holiness. That the doctrine, badly understood, has been abused by some, cannot be denied. It was so in the time of the apostle Paul, for he answers precisely this objection, and denies that the doctrine of gratuitous pardon, with out regard to our own obedience, has any such tendency. “Do we,” says he, “by faith make void the law? nay, we establish the law. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” As to those antinomians who said, “Let us do evil that good may come,” he declares, that “their damnation is just.”
But, how is Christ the author of sanctification? The word sanctification has two senses, but so nearly related, that in the end they are virtually the same. The first is consecration to God. Whatever was thus consecrated or devoted, was called holy, and the act by which it was done, was termed sanctification. But secondly, it means to makes holy, not in a ceremonial, but in a moral sense. The word is more commonly used in the former sense in the Old Testament, and in the lattei, in the New Testament. But the latter is very naturally derived from the former; for, when the soul with all its faculties and affections is consecrated to God, it is the same as to be made holy in a moral sense. The important question propounded, how is Christ the author of sanctification? will be properly answered by saying, that the same union by faith to Christ, which makes him our justifying righteousness, also constitutes him the vital head of every one brought into this near relation. In illustration of this, he says, “I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” So also, he is the head, and believers are the members, and as he is holy, and the Holy Spirit has been granted to him without measure, the same Spirit by which. he is actuated will flow unto every member of the mystical body. Again, he has by his obedience unto death acquired the right and power to send the Holy Spirit, which he has promised to every one who believes in him. The connexion between justification and sanctification is indissoluble; for none but a living faith justifies, as the apostle James has taught; and a living faith works by love and purifies the heart; so that a man cannot be justified by faith without having the work of sanctification begun in him at the same time. So, our blessed Lord, in the commission which he gave to Paul to preach to the Gentiles, sent him, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith that is in me.” These two cardinal doctrines of our salvation may be distinguished, but they can never be separated. There are, indeed, important differences between them, which should be well understood; for much evil has arisen from injudiciously confounding them together. Justification is an act of God altering our relation to the law, and pronouncing us free from its curse, and giving a title to eternal life; but sanctification is a work within us, commenced in our regeneration. The one has for its foundation the perfect satisfaction which Christ has rendered to law and justice; the other is a work of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ within us, purifying us from the pollutions of flesh and spirit.
Moreover, justification is perfected at once, and is as complete at the first moment of believing as it ever will be; for ’ there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus:” but sanctification is progressive, and is never absolutely perfect in this life; but will be consummated when we leave the body. Although our inherent righteousness is not, in any measure, the ground of our legal justification; yet, sanctification is as necessary to salvation as justification; for “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Without a renewed nature no man is capable of enjoying the felicity of heaven. The joys of heaven are holy joys, and the exercises of heaven, consisting very much in praise and adoration, are holy exercises. The society in heaven consists of holy persons, and, therefore, none but the sanctified can participate in the happiness of heaven. Heaven is, therefore, called “the inheritance of the saints (sanctified ones) in light.”
4. Christ is also said, in our text, to be made unto us redemption. This word, I think, must be here taken to signify deliverance, complete deliverance. Captives were often redeemed by the payment of a ransom-price; and persons of distinction, when made captives in war, were redeemed at a great price. In this strict and proper sense of the term, Christ is truly a Redeemer. He came from heaven to redeem his people from the curse of the law, and from the bondage of sin and Satan. He did not come empty-handed. He came to offer a ransom for every redeemed soul. But silver and gold would answer no purpose in the redemption of the soul and the body of lost man. Nothing would answer as a price for this redemption but blood — and that blood divine — the blood of the Son of God. When his heart’s blood was requisite he did not spare it, but freely poured it out for our redemption. In this view of redemption, Christ was our Redeemer, as obtaining for us deliverance from condemnation, and from the bondage and dominion of sin; but this redemption was virtually treated of in the last two particulars. The word redemption here, then, as was said, is to be taken in a more restricted sense, for our final deliverance from all the evils which sin has entailed upon us. For though the believer is justified,- and in part sanctified, yet is he surrounded with evils of various kinds, and his body must return to the dust and see corruption; from which it shall not obtain deliverance, until the glorious morning of the resurrection. For this deliverance, Paul and his fellow Christians groaned within themselves, “waiting for the “adoption,” which he calls “the redemption of the body.” A captive ransomed and released from bondage in an enemy’s country, might have contracted grievous diseases which it would require much time and a painful course of medicine to cure; and he might have a long and difficult journey to perform before he reached his father’s house. He might have to pass through a howling wilderness, over rugged mountains, and stormy seas; so that, though fully redeemed, as far as the ransom was concerned, and released actually from his fetters and manacles; yet he might never be so happy as to reach his home, but might miserably perish by the way. The condition of the redeemed of the Lord, is, in many respects, similar. They are free from condemnation, and the power of sin :n them is broken; but its remains are, indeed, a deep and inveterate disease, requiring a course of painful discipline, and the Christian pilgrim may be said to be yet far from his heavenly mansion. Before him is a dangerous wilderness, and an exceedingly dark and gloomy valley, called “The shadow of death.” His body rendered mortal by sin, must go to the dust, before it can be such a body as will be suited to a purified soul, or be fit for the Jerusalem above. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Through much tribulation they must enter into heaven. But in one important respect, their condition differs widely from that of the earthly captive. He is in no danger of perishing eventually. Christ is the Captain of salvation, who has promised to bring him off conqueror, and more than conqueror, through his unchanging love. None shall be able to pluck these feeble sheep from the faithful hands of their Shepherd. No: Christ has declared it: “They shall never perish.” Hear Paul’s triumphant language: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Although death is inevitable, it shall not ultimately triumph, for the body shall be redeemed from the power of death and the grave. The resurrection will be the consummation of the saints’ redemption. “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Then, this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. Then shall death be swallowed up in victory,” and then shall be sung the conqueror’s song, “O death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy victory?”
We may remark,
1. The completeness of the plan of salvation which the gospel reveals. Here is provision made for every spiritual want. Wisdom is provided for those who by nature are blind and foolish. They are made wise to know the wray of life, and they receive that wisdom which is from above, “which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Being destitute of any righteousness of their own, which can justify the sinner, they here find in Christ all that the law demands; and, therefore, there is no condemnation to them. “It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?”
Again, being born in sin, and stained with innumerable defilements of actual transgression, they need to be washed and sanctified, as well as justified. By the word and Spirit of Christ, this purification is commenced, and carried on gradually to perfection. All believers are saints, consecrated to God, and delivered from the love and powrer of sin; and at the appointed time will be made perfect in holiness.
While here, the Christian is subject to manifold afflictions and to the death of the body; but he is permitted to entertain the blessed and assured hope of complete redemption from every evil which sin has introduced. When Christ shall come to gather together his elect, his redemption, even from death itself, will be complete. Death will be swallowed up in victory.
2. And finally, we should never forget that all the blessings of salvation are received through Christ. He is the believer’s unfailing treasure, from whom he derives wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He who possesses these cannot fail of eternal life. “He that hath the Son, hath life.” “And this is the promise which he hath promised us, eternal life;” and that life they shall for ever enjoy in the presence of, and in communion with Christ.