Christ Set Forth, Book II: Christ as Dying the Object of Justifying Faith

Who shall condemn? Christ hath died! Rom. viii. 34.

How not Christ’s person simply, but Christ, as dying, is the Object of Faith, as justifying.

To come now to all those four particulars of or about Christ, as the object of faith here mentioned; and to shew both how Christ in each is the object of faith as justifying; and what support or encouragement the faith of a believer may fetch from each of them in point of justification, which is the argument of the main body of this Discourse.

First, Christ, as dying, is the object of justifying faith, Who shall condemn? Christ hath died.

For the explanation of which, I vfi, first, give a direction or two; and, secondly, shew how an encouragement or matter of triumph, may from hence be fetched.

1. The first direction is this, that in seeking forgiveness or justification in the promises, as Christ is to be principally in the eye of your faith, so it must be Christ as ‘crucified, Christ as dying, as here he is made. It was the Serpent as lifted up, and so looked at, that healed them. Now this direction I give to prevent a mistake which souls that are about to believe do often run into: for when they hear that the person of Christ is the main object of faith, they thus conceive of it, that when one comes first to’believe, he should look only upon the personal excellencies of grace and glory which are in Jesus Christ,which follow upon the hypostatical Union; and so have his heart allured in unto Christ by them only, and close with him under those apprehensions alone. But although it be true that there is that radical disposition in the faith of every believer, which if it were drawn forth to view Christ in his mere personal excellencies, abstractedly considered, would close with Christ for them alone, as seeing such a beauty and suitableness in them; yet the first view which an humbled soul always doth and is to take of him, is of his being a saviour, made sin and a curse, and obeying to the death for sinners, He takes up Christ in his first sight of him, under the likeness of sinful fash, (for so the gospel first represents him, though it holds forth his personal excellencies also) and in that representation it is, that he is made a fit object for a sinner’s faith to trust and rest upon for salvation, which in part Aistinguisheth a sinner’s faith whilst here on earth towards Christ, from that vision or sight which Angels and the souls of men have io heaven cf him. Faith here views him not only as glorious at God’s right hand (though so also) but as crucified, as made sin and a curse, and so rests upon him for pardon: but in heaven we shall see him as lie is, and be made like unto him. Take Christ in his personal excellencies, simply considered, and so with them propounded as a Head to us, and he might have been a fit object for angels and men even with out sin to have closed withal; and what an addition to their happiness would they have thought rt, to have him for their husband! But yet so considered he should have been, and rather is, the object of love than of faith or affiance. It is, therefore, Christ that is thus excellent in his person, yet farther considered, as clothed with his garments of blood, and the qualifications of a Mediator and Reconciler; it is this that makes him so desirable to sinners, and a fit object for their faith (which looks out for justification) to prey and seize upon, though they take in the consideration of all his other excellencies to allure their hearts to him, and confirm their choice of him. Yea, I say farther, that consider faith as justifying, that is, in that act of it which justifies a sinner; and so Christ taken only or mainly in his personal excellencies, cannot properly be called the object of it. But the jbrmulis ratio, the proper respect or consideration that maketh Christ the object of faith as justifying, must neces sarily be that in Christ which doth indeed justify a sinner, which is his obedience unto death. For the. act and object of every habit and faculty are always suited and similar each to other; and therefore Christ justifying must needs be similar to Faith justifying. It is true that there is nothing in Christ with which some answerable act of faith in us not close; and from the different considerations under which faith looks at Christ, have those several acts of faith various denominations: — as, faith that is carried forth to Christ and his personal excellencies, may be called uniting faith; and faith that goes forth to Christ for strength of grace to

subdue sin, may, answerably to its object, be called sanctifying faith; and faith as it goes forth to Christ, as dying, &c. for justification, may be called justifying faith: — for faith in that act looks at what in Christ doth justify a sinner; and therefore Christ, considered as dying, rising, £c. doth in this respect be come the most pleasing and grateful object to a soul that is humbled; for this makes Christ suitable to him as he is a sinner, under which consideration he reflects upon himself, when he is first humbled. And therefore thus to represent Christ to believers under the Law, was the main scope of all the sacrifices and types therein, All things being purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there being no remission, Heb. ix. Thus did the apostles also in their sermons. So Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians, seemed by the matter of his sermon to have known no thing but Christ, and him as crucified; (1 Cor. ii. 2.) as Christ above all, so Christ as crucified, above all in Christ, as suiting their condition best whom he endeavoured to draw on to faith on him. Thus in his Epistle to the Galatians, he calls his preaching among them, the preaching of faith, chap. iii. 2. And what was the main scope of it, but the picturing out, as the word is, of Christ crucified before their eyes, verse 1. So he preached him, and so they received him, and so they began in the spirit, verse 3. And thus also do the seals of the promises, the sacraments, present Christ to a believer’s eye; as they hold forth Christ (as was in the former direction observed) so Christ as crucified; their scope being to shew forth Iris death ‘till he come, 1 Cor. xi. 26 .The bread signifying Christ’s body broken, in the sufferings of it; and the cup signifying the sufferings of his soul, and the pouring of it forth unto death. And hence likewise, as faith itself is called, Faith on Christ, as was before observed, so it is called,^/’//* on his blood, Rom. iii. 24, 25. because Christ as sheding his blood for the remission of sins, is the object of it: so the words there are, Whom God hath ordained to be a propitiation though faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. And look how God hath ordained and set forth Christ in the promise, under that picture of him doth faith at first close with him. And one reason similar to the former, may be grounded on the 24th verse of that Rom. iii. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ. And, as I shewed before in the reason of the former direction, that all promises hold of his person us being heir of all the promises; so the special tenure upon which forgiveness of sins doth hold of him, is by purchase, and by the redemption that is in him. So that as the promise of forgiveness refers to his perso n, so also to this redemption that is in him. Thus both in Eph. i. and Col. i. — /// whom we have redemption, through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins — His person gives us title to all the promises, and his blood shews the tenure they hold on; a purchase and a full price, (antilutron) an adequate price. 1 Tim. ii. G. And as sin is the strength of the law, and of the threatnings thereof; so Christ’s satis faction is the strength of all the promises of the Gospel. In a word, an humbled soul is to have recourse to that Christ who is now alive, and glorified in heaven, yet to him as once crucified and made sin. He is to go to Christ, now glorified, as the person from whom he is to receive forgiveness, &c. but withal to him as crucified; as through whom, considered in that condition he then was in, he is to receive all.