11. Chapter 6. Communion with Christ in purchased grace –
Chapter 6. Communion with Christ in purchased grace – Our process is now to communion with Christ in purchased grace, “That we may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and be made conformable to his death,” Php 3:10.
I understand “purchased grace” to be all that righteousness and grace which Christ has procured or worked for us. It is what he has made us partakers of by any means or what he bestows on us for our benefit. It is purchased by anything that he has done or suffered for us, or by anything that he continues to do as our mediator. First, I will consider what this purchased grace is, and then what it consists of. Secondly, I will describe how we hold communion with Christ in this purchased grace.
1. Purchased grace springs from three fountains or causes: (1.) The obedience of his life. (2.) The suffering of his death. (3.) His continued intercession. All the actions of Christ as mediator which lead to the communication of grace to us, may either be categorized under one of these three, or under something that is dependent on them.
2. The nature of this grace, in which we have communion with Christ, may be divided into: (1.) Grace of justification, or acceptance by God, which makes a relative change in our state and condition. (2.) Grace of sanctification, or holiness before God, which makes a real change in our principle of living and way of operating. (3.) Grace of privilege, which is mixed, as I will show when I handle it.
It is evident that we have communion with Christ in this purchased grace, based on this single consideration: there is almost nothing that Christ has done, which is a spring of that grace, that we are not said to do with him. We are “crucified” with him, Galatians 2:20; we are “dead” with him, 2 Timothy 2:11; Colossians 3:3; and “buried” with him, Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12; we are “quickened together with him,” Colossians 2:13;
“risen” with him, Colossians 3:1. “He has quickened us together with Christ, and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places,” Ephesians 2:5-6. In Christ’s actions as mediator, by virtue of the compact between him and the Father, there is an assured foundation laid for communicating the fruits of those actions to those in whose stead he performed them. Believers are said to participate in those fruits, to have done the same things with him. We may have occasion later to inquire into the life and power of this truth: (1.) The first fountain and spring of this grace is the obedience of his life: concerning this, it must be declared, [1.] What it means, and of what it consists. [2.] What influence it has on the grace of which we speak. In handling this, I will only observe that, in the order of procurement, the life of Christ necessarily precedes his death. Therefore, we will handle it in the first place. But in the order of application, the benefits of his death are bestowed on us prior to those of his life; and this necessarily follows from our state and condition.
[1.] By the obedience of the life of Christ, I mean the universal conformity of the Lord Jesus Christ, as mediator, to the whole will of God; and his complete actual fulfilling of the whole of every law of God, doing all that God required in them. He might have been perfectly holy by obedience to the law of creation, the moral law, as the angels were. Nor could any more be required of him as a man walking with God. But he also submitted himself to every law or ordinance that was introduced as a result of sin, which he could not be subject to on his own account. It became him to “fulfill all righteousness,” Matthew 3:15, as he spoke in reference to a newly instituted ceremony. That obedience is properly ascribed to Jesus Christ as mediator. The Scripture is witness, both as to the title and the performance, in Hebrews 5:8,
“Though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience...” In fact, he was obedient in his sufferings. It was what gave life to his death, Php 2:8. He was obedient to death, for in that “he made his soul an offering for sin,”
Isaiah 53:10, or “his soul made an offering for sin,” as it is interpreted in verse 12. “He poured out his soul to death,” or, “his soul poured out itself to death.” And he not only sanctified himself to be an offering, John 17:10, but he also “offered himself up,” Hebrews 9:14, an “offering of a sweet savor to God,” Ephesians 5:2. Hence, as to the whole of his work, he is called the Father’s “servant,” Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 42:19. And he professes that he “came into the world to do the will of God, the will of him that sent him,” for which he manifests “his great readiness,” Hebrews 10:7. All of this evinces his obedience. I suppose I do not need to prove that Christ, in his work of mediation, was obedient and did what he did willingly and cheerfully, in obedience to God.
Now, this obedience of Christ may be considered two ways: 1st. As to its habitual root and source.
2dly. As to its actual parts or duties:
1st. The habitual righteousness of Christ, as mediator in his human nature, was the absolute, complete, and exact conformity of the soul of Christ to the will, mind, or law of God. It was his perfect habitually inherent righteousness. He necessarily had this from the grace of his union of God and man; and it is why what was born of the virgin was a
“holy thing,” Luke 1:35. It was consequentially necessary to be holy, although effecting it was by the free operations of the Spirit, Luke 2:52.
He had an all-fullness of grace on all accounts. The apostle describes this in Hebrews 7:26, “Such a high priest became holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” He was to be in every way separate and distant from sin and sinners, which is why he is called “The Lamb of God, without spot or blemish,” 1 Peter 1:19. This habitual holiness of Christ was inconceivably above that of the angels. “He who charges his angels with folly,” Job 4:18; “who puts no trust in his saints; and in whose sight the heavens” (or their inhabitants) “are not clean,” chap.
15:15. The Father always embraces him in his heart, and is always
“well pleased with him,” Matthew 3:17. The reason for this is that every other creature is never so holy, having the Spirit of God given to them by measure. But the Spirit was not given to Christ “by measure,” John 3:34. It pleased the Spirit that in him “all fullness should dwell,”
Colossians 1:19. This habitual grace of Christ is not absolutely infinite, but by comparison to any other creature, it is like the water of the sea to the water of a pool. All other creatures are limited from perfection by this.
They subsist as a created, dependent being. And so the fountain of what is communicated to them is outside of themselves. But the human nature of Christ subsists in the person of the Son of God. And so his nature has the fountain of its holiness strictly united with itself.
2dly. The actual obedience of Christ, as was said, was his willing, cheerful, obedient performance of everything, duty or command, that God required by virtue of any law that we were liable to; and moreover, to the specific law of the mediator. This, then, has two parts: (1st.) He did and fulfilled whatever was required of us by virtue of any law. This includes whatever was required of us by the law of nature in our state of innocence; whatever kind of duty was added by morally positive or ceremonial institutions; and whatever is required of us by righteous judicial laws. He did it all. Hence he is said to be
“made under the law,” Galatians 4:4. He was subject to all its precepts or commands. So in Matthew 3:15, he said it became him to “fulfill all righteousness,” “pasan dikaiosunen,” [NT:3956,1343] all manner of righteousness whatever; that is, everything that God required as evident from the application of that general axiom to the baptism by John. I will not need to go to particular instances for this in the duties of the law of nature to God and his parents, morally positive duties in the Sabbath and other acts of worship, the ceremonial law, circumcision, observation of all the rites of the Judaic church, judicial duties in paying tribute to governors, etc. It will suffice, I presume, that on the one hand he “did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth,” (1 Peter 2:22), and on the other, that he “fulfilled all righteousness.” Based on this, the Father was always well pleased with him. This was what he engaged himself to do. He came to do the will of God; and he did it.
(2dly.) There was a specific law of the Mediator that applied only to him. It contained all those acts and duties of his that are not for our imitation. So the obedience that he showed in dying was unique to this law. John 10:18, “I have power to lay down my life, this commandment have I received of my Father.” As mediator, he received this unique command from his Father to lay down his life and take it up again; and he was obedient to this command. Hence we say that, as mediator, he did some things merely as a man, subject to the law of God in general. And so he prayed for his persecutors, those who put him to death, Luke 23:34; He did some things as mediator. And so he prayed for his elect only, John 17:9.
There were none worse in the world than many of those who crucified him, and yet, as a man, and subject to the law, he forgave them, and he prayed for them. When he prayed as mediator, his Father always heard him and answered him, John 11:41; and in his other prayers, he was accepted as someone performing his duty exactly.
This, then, is the obedience of Christ; which was the first thing considered in the obedience of his life. The next thing is,
[2.] That it has an influence on the grace of which we speak, and in which we hold communion with him, namely, our free acceptance by God. What that influence is must also follow in its order.
1st. For his habitual and inherent righteousness, I will only propose two considerations:
(1st.) That it was necessary to have a mediator who was God and man in one person. Because it could not be otherwise, it was necessary that he be holy. Although there is one primary and necessary effect of the hypostatical union (which is the subsistence of the human nature in the person of the Son of God), it was also necessary that he be a “holy thing,” completely holy.
(2dly.) That the relation which this righteousness of Christ has to the grace we receive from him is only that by his righteousness he was
“hikanos,” or fit to do all that he had to do for us. This is the intent of the apostle in Hebrews 7:26. Such a one “became us.” It was necessary that he be such a one, so that he might do what he had to do. And there are two reasons for this:
[1st.] Had he not been completely furnished with habitual grace, he could never have actually fulfilled the righteousness which was required at his hands. It was because he was completely furnished that he was able to do all that he did. So he lays down the presence of the Spirit with him as the foundation of his work, Isaiah 61:1. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me...”
[2dly.] Without such righteousness, he could not have been a complete and perfect sacrifice, nor could he have resolved all the types and figures of him, completely and without blemish. But having this habitual righteousness, he would have been a fit sacrifice and offering even if he had never actively continued in obedience to the law. Therefore his subsequent obedience has another use besides fitting him for an offering, for which he was fit without it.
2dly. The next influence on our grace comes from Christ’s obedience to the law of mediation, which is not tied to his inherent obedience. It was requisite to discharge his office as mediator. His obedience as mediator is not imputed to us as though we had done it, even though the
“apotelesmata” (the official acts) and its fruits are. Instead, the nature of his intercession provides the good things we need, at least subserviently to his offering and intercession. More will be said of this afterward.
3dly. There is some doubt about his actual fulfilling of the law, or doing all the things required of us. There are three opinions: (1st.) This active obedience of Christ has no other influence on our justification and acceptance by God than as preparation for his blood-shedding and offering. It is the sole cause of our justification. The whole righteousness that is imputed to us arises from that obedience.
(2dly.) That his fulfilling of the law may be considered as pure obedience in preparation for his offering as mentioned. But it may also be considered as to its punishment for sin. Because it was accomplished with suffering as part of his humiliation, that suffering is imputed to us, and becomes part of the basis on which we are justified.
(3dly.) That this obedience of Christ, being done for us, is reckoned to us graciously by God. Because of it, we are accepted as righteous before him. My intent is not to treat this difference as a controversy, but to give such an understanding of the whole as to lead to the practice of godliness and consolation. I will do this in the ensuing observations:
[1st.] The obedience that Christ yielded to the law in general is not only to the specific law of the mediator, even though he yielded it as mediator. He was incarnate as mediator, Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 4:4. All that he did afterward was as our mediator. That was the reason “he came into the world” (1 Timothy 1:15; Hebrews 10:5). So there is a twofold sense of mediator here. It may refer strictly to his obedience in assuming the office of the mediator; and it may refer to his obedience as a man who was subject to all the laws. He was obedient to those laws because he was the mediator.
[2dly.] Whatever Christ did as mediator, he did for those he mediated for, in whose stead and for whose good he executed the office of a mediator before God. The Holy Spirit witnesses to this in Romans 8:3-4. “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” We could not come to God and be freed from the condemnation of the law, because of our weakened condition caused by sin. Therefore, God sent Christ as a mediator, to do and suffer whatever the law required at our hands for that purpose. This was so that we might not be condemned, but be accepted by God. It was all to this end, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,” meaning, fulfilling what the law required of us, consisting in duties of obedience. Christ performed these duties for us. The apostle says, “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,” Romans 8:3. If you add Galatians 4:4 to this, then he was sent “hupo nomou genomenos,” “made under the law.” That is, he was liable to the law, and he was to yield all the obedience that the law required. This comprises the whole of what Christ did or suffered; and the Holy Spirit tells us that all of this was for us, Romans 8:4.
[3dly.] The purpose of this active obedience of Christ cannot be to prepare him for his death and offering. For by his union and habitual grace he was already in every way “hikanos” [NT:2425] (fit to be made an offering for sin). So, if the obedience of Christ was not done on our account, and reckoned to us, then there is no just reason why he should have lived in the world as long as he did in perfect obedience to all the laws of God. He was already perfectly innocent and holy because of his habitual grace, infinite virtue, and worth from the dignity of his person. Surely he did not yield that long course of obedience unless it was for some great and special purpose relating to our salvation.
[4thly.] If the obedience of Christ had not been for us, he might have been required to yield obedience to the law of nature, the sole law which he would be liable to as a man. For an innocent man in a covenant of works, as he was, needs no other law. Nor did God ever give any other law to such a person. The law of creation is all that an innocent creature is liable to. And yet his subjection to this law was also voluntary. This was not only the result of being born of his own choice, but also because as mediator, God and man, he was not obliged to that law. He was exempted and lifted above that law by the hypostatical union. Yet, when I say that his subjection to the law was voluntary, I do not mean that it was optional, and that he had a choice whether to yield obedience to it or not. Once he undertook to be a mediator, it was necessary to submit to the law voluntarily and willingly, and so he really became subject to its commands. But then Jesus Christ yielded perfect obedience to all those other laws that came upon us by the occasion of sin, such as the ceremonial law.
These were the very institutions that signified the washing away of sin, and repentance from sin, such as the baptism of John which he had no need of himself. Therefore, it must have been done for us.
[5thly.] The obedience of Christ cannot be part of his sufferings.
Instead, it is clearly distinct from it in all its formalities. Doing is one thing, and suffering is another. They take place in different circumstances and cannot be coincident.
Let us briefly see what we have learned from these considerations. Then I will intimate what results from this first spring or fountain of purchased grace, and what influence it has on it:
First, by the obedience of the life of Christ you see what is intended. You see his willing submission to every law of God, and his perfect and complete fulfilling of what the saints of God were obliged to fulfill. It is true that almost every act of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was accompanied by suffering. His whole life might be called a death in that regard. Yet, looking at his willingness and obedience, his obedience is distinguished from his specific sufferings, and it is called his active righteousness. This active righteousness is the complete and absolutely perfect accomplishment of the whole law of God by Christ, our mediator. He not only
“did no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth,” but he also most perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, as it became him to do (Matthew 3:15).
Secondly, this obedience was performed by Christ not for himself, but for us, and in our stead. It is necessarily true that while he lived in the flesh he must be most perfectly and absolutely holy. Yet the prime intent of his accomplishing this holiness was no less for us than his suffering death was for us. The apostle tells us this is so in Galatians 4:4-5. “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” This Scripture must be examined a little further. He was made of a woman, and he was made under the law. That is, he was obedient to the law for us. That is what must be understood here by the phrase “made under the law”, “hupo nomou genomenos.” He was made in such a condition that he must yield subjection and obedience to the law. The end here, of both the incarnation and Christ’s obedience to the law, was to redeem us. In these two expressions, “made of a woman” and “made under the law,” the apostle does not knit together his incarnation and death while excluding the obedience of his life. He was made under the law just as those whom he was to redeem were made under the law. Now, we were not only liable to its penalties, but bound to all its duties. This is our existence “under the law,” as the apostle informs us in Galatians 4:21. “Tell me, you that desire to be under the law.” It was not the penalty of the law that they desired to be under, but its duties of obedience. If you take away the end, you destroy the means. If Christ was not made incarnate for himself, and he was not made under the law for himself, then he did not yield obedience for himself. It was all for us, and for our good. Let us now look forward, and see what influence this has on our acceptance.
Thirdly, then, this perfect and complete obedience of Christ to the law is reckoned to us. There is truth in the promise that, “The day you eat of it you shall die.” Death is the reward of sin, and so we cannot be freed from death but by the death of Christ, Hebrews 2:14-15. It is no less true that we may, “Do this, and live,” (Luke 10:28). Life cannot be obtained unless everything that the law requires is done. And that is still true. “If you will enter into life, keep the commandments,” Matthew 19:17. They must, then, be kept either by us or by our surety. It is useless to object that if Christ yielded perfect obedience to the law for us, then are we no longer bound to yield obedience ourselves. For by his death, which was the penalty of the law, we are supposedly freed from the duty. I answer by asking, “How did Christ undergo death?” Merely as it was penal.
How, then, are we delivered from death? Merely as it is penal. We still must die.
We must die as the last conflict with the effects of sin, and as the passage to our Father. Well, then, Christ yielded perfect obedience to the law. But how did he do it? Purely as it stood in that condition to, “Do this, and live.” He did it in the strength of the grace that he received. He did it as a means to procure life, as the tenor of a covenant. Are we, then, freed from this obedience? Yes, but how far? From doing it in our own strength; from doing it to obtain everlasting life. It is foolish to say confidently that we must still work for life. It is the same as saying we are still under the old covenant. We are not freed from obedience as a way of walking with God, but we are freed from it as a way of working to come to him.
Romans 5:18-19, “By the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life: by the obedience of one many will be made righteous,” says the Holy Spirit. By his obedience to the law we are made righteous; it is reckoned to us for righteousness. It is false that the passive obedience of Christ is all that is intended here:
First, it is opposed to the disobedience of Adam, which was active. The “dikaioma” (righteousness) is opposed to “paraptomati” (the fault)
[NT:1345,3900]. The fault was an active transgression of the law. The obedience opposed to it had to be an active fulfillment of the law. Besides, the nature of obedience denotes actions that conform to the law. Christ came not to destroy but to fulfill the law, Matthew 5:17. That was the design of his coming, and so his obedience was for us. He came to fulfill the law for us, Isaiah 9:6, and he was born to us, Luke 2:11. This was also the will of the Father, which he came to accomplish out of his infinite love.
Secondly, properly speaking, there is no such thing as passive obedience.
Obeying is doing, to which passion and suffering cannot belong. I know it is commonly called passive obedience when men obey until they suffer, but it is not properly so. The same distinction is found in Php 3:9. “And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but what is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” The righteousness we receive is opposed to our own obedience to the law. It is opposed to it, not as something of another kind, but as something of the same kind. It excludes our righteousness from the result that the obedience of Christ obtains. He is thereby “made righteousness to us,” 1 Corinthians 1:30. In Romans 5:10, the issue in the death of Christ is reconciliation. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.” That is, he removes the enmity and restores us to that condition of peace and friendship that Adam had before his fall. But is there no more to be done? Despite Adam’s freedom from wrath, he had to obey if he was to enjoy eternal life. Likewise, there is something more to be done in respect to us if we are to enjoy life after reconciliation. “Being reconciled by his death,” we are saved by that perfect obedience which he yielded to the law of God in his life. Distinct mention is made of being reconciled through a non-imputation of sin, as found in Psalms 32:1, Luke 1:77, Romans 3:25, 2 Corinthians 5:19; and we are justified through an imputation of righteousness, as found in Jeremiah 23:6, Romans 4:5, 1 Corinthians 1:30. These two things are far from being separate. They reciprocally affirm one another. If not identical, they are eminently joined. And this justification is what we have by the life of Christ. This is fully expressed in the typical representation of our justification before the Lord in Zechariah 3:3-5. It indicates two things belong to our free acceptance before God: taking away the guilt of our sin, represented by removing our filthy robes; this is done by the death of Christ. Remission of sin is its proper fruit; but something more is required for our acceptance. That something more is righteousness, which gives us a right to eternal life. This is represented by the
“Change of raiment.” The Holy Spirit expresses it again in Isaiah 61:10, where he calls it plainly “The garments of salvation,” and “The robe of righteousness.” This is made ours only by the obedience of Christ, just as the other is made ours only by his death.
Objection: “If we have his righteousness, then we are as righteous as Christ himself.”
Answer: There is a great difference between what is his and what we receive.
First, this righteousness was inherent in Christ, and it was properly his own. It is only reckoned or imputed to us; it is freely bestowed on us. We are made righteous with what is not our own. Secondly, Christ was not righteous for himself, but for us. So there can be no comparison. We may only say that we are made righteous with his righteousness, which he completely worked for us. This obedience of Christ is the origin of the purchased grace of which we speak; and this is its influence on our acceptance by God. The guilt of our sin, and our liability to be punished for it, is removed and taken away by the death of Christ. But besides taking away the guilt of our sin, we need complete righteousness if we are to be accepted by God. This obedience of Christ, through the free grace of God, is imputed to us for that purpose.
All I will insist on for the present is that the passive righteousness of Christ is only imputed to us in the non-imputation of sin. As for exalting the condition of our faith and new obedience into the place of the righteousness of Christ, that is something I am unfamiliar with in communion with Christ.
(2.) The second cause or spring of our communion with Christ in purchased grace is his death and offering. He lived for us. He died for us. He was ours in all he did and suffered. I will be brief in handling this, because I have addressed all its concerns elsewhere. The death of Christ is a spring of that purchased grace in which we have communion with him. It is presented in the Scripture under three considerations:
[1.] price [2.] sacrifice, and [3.] penalty. In regard to price, the proper effect of his death is full payment for our redemption; in regard to the sacrifice he offered up, his death produces reconciliation or atonement; and in regard to the penalty required for sin, it yields satisfaction. These are the great ingredients of that purchased grace by which we have communion with Christ in the first place.
[1.] It is a price. “We are bought with a price,” 1 Corinthians 6:20. We are “not redeemed with silver and gold, and corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ,” 1 Peter 1:18-19. In that sense, it mirrors those things found in other contracts. He came to “give his life a ransom for many,” Matthew 20:28. It was the price of redemption, 1 Timothy 2:6. The proper effect and result of the death of Christ, as a price or ransom, is redemption, as I said. Redemption is delivering anyone from bondage or captivity, and from the miseries that attend it. It is accomplished by intervening with or interposing a price or a ransom. It is paid by the redeemer to the one with the authority to detain the captive:
1st. In general, it is a deliverance. Hence Christ is called “The Deliverer,”
Romans 11:26. He gives himself to “deliver us,” Galatians 1:4. He is “Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come,” 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
2dly. It is the delivery of someone from bondage or captivity. Without Christ we are all prisoners and captives, “bound in prison,” Isaiah 61:1,
“sitting in darkness, in the prison house,” Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9. We are “prisoners in the pit in which there is no water,” Zechariah 9:11, “the captives of the mighty, and the prey of the terrible,” Isaiah 49:25. We are under a “captivity that must be led captive,” Psalms 68:18, in “bondage,” Hebrews 2:15.
3dly. The person who commits us to prison and bondage is God himself.
We owe “our debts” to him Matthew 6:12; Matthew 18:23-27. Our offenses are against him, Psalms 51:4. He is the judge and lawgiver, James 4:12. To sin is to rebel against him. He imprisons men who continue in disobedience, Romans 11:32; and he will cast both the body and soul of the impenitent into hell-fire, Matthew 10:28. Men are liable to his wrath, John 3:36. They lie under it by the sentence of the law, which is their prison.
4thly. The miseries that attend this condition are innumerable. They are summed up in bondage to Satan, sin, and the world. We are delivered from all this by the death of Christ, paid as a price or ransom. “God has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; in whom we have redemption through his blood,” Colossians 1:13-14. And he “redeems us from all iniquity,” Titus 2:14;
“from our vain life,” 1 Peter 1:18-19; even from the guilt and power of our sin. He purchased us for himself “a peculiar people, zealous of good works,” Titus 2:14. And so he died for the “redemption of transgressions,”
Hebrews 9:15, redeeming us from the world, Galatians 4:5.
5thly. All of this comes by the payment of a price into the hand of God, by whose supreme authority we are detained as captives under the sentence of the law. The debt is owed to the great householder, Matthew 18:23-24; and the penalty is his curse and wrath, from which we are delivered by Christ’s death, Revelation 1:5. The Holy Spirit frequently emphasizes all of this. Romans 3:24-25, “Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins.” See also 1 Corinthians 6:20, 1Pet.
1:18; Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:13; and Galatians 3:13. This is the first consideration of the death of Christ. The price paid influences the procurement of that grace in which we hold communion with him.
[2.] His death was also a sacrifice, an offering. He had a body prepared for him (Hebrews 10:5), one in which he was to accomplish what the typical sacrificial offerings of the law prefigured. And he offered that body, Heb.
10:10. Indeed, he offered his whole human nature, for “his soul” was also made “an offering for sin,” Isaiah 53:10. For that reason, he is said to offer himself, Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 9:26. He gave himself as a sacrifice to God, a sweet-smelling savor. He did this willingly, as became the one who was to be a sacrifice. The law of this obedience was written in his heart, Psalms 40:8. That is, he was ready, willing, and desirous to perform it.
Now, the purpose of sacrifices such as his, being bloody and for sin, was atonement and reconciliation (Romans 5:10; Hebrews 2:17). This purpose is ascribed to them throughout the Scripture. They made atonement in a way that was suitable to their nature. And this is the tendency of the death of Christ. It was a sacrifice, atonement, and reconciliation with God. Sin had broken friendship between God and us, Isaiah 63:10, for which his wrath was on us, John 3:36. We are liable to it by nature, Ephesians 2:3. This wrath is taken away by the death of Christ, because it was a sacrifice, Daniel 9:24. “When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” Romans 5:10. And thereby we “receive the atonement,” verse 11. For “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to them their sins and their iniquities,” 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; Ephesians 2:12-16. And this sacrificial aspect is the second consideration of the death of Christ. I merely name it, having discussed it at large elsewhere.
[3.] It was also a punishment - a punishment in our stead. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him,” Isaiah 53:5. God made all of our iniquities (that is, their punishment) “to lay upon him,” verse 6. “He bore the sins of many,” verse 12. “He bore our sins in his own body on the tree,” 1 Peter 2:24; and in doing so, he “who knew no sin, was made sin for us,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. In the Scripture, what it means to bear sin may be found in Deuteronomy 19:15; Deuteronomy 20:17; Numb. 14:33; and Ezekiel 18:20. I have discussed the nature, kind, matter, and manner of this punishment elsewhere.
Now, being punished tends to satisfy the one who was offended, and who inflicted the punishment because of it. Justice can desire no more than a punishment proportional to the offense. And this is what was inflicted on our dear Lord Jesus. He voluntarily undertook to be our mediator. The righteous Judge, allowing Christ to substitute himself in our place, is properly satisfied by that. This is the threefold consideration of the death of Christ as a principal fountain of that grace in which we have communion with him. As it will soon appear, the single most eminent part of purchased grace is nothing more than the natural outworking of the threefold effect of the death of Christ. This, then, has been the second cause of purchased grace, which we will see if we hold communion with Christ. It is his death and blood-shedding under this threefold notion of price, offering, and punishment.
(3.) This is not all. The Lord Christ goes further still. He does not leave us in this state, but carries on the work to completion. “He died for our sins, and rose again for our justification.” He rose again to carry on the complete work of purchased grace by his intercession. This is the third effect of it. He is said to be “able to completely save those who come to God by him, seeing he forever lives to make intercession for them,” Hebrews 7:25.
Now, the intercession of Christ, in respect to its influence on purchased grace, is considered two ways:
[1.] As a continuance of his offering to convey all its fruits and effects to us. This is called his “appearing in the presence of God for us,” Hebrews 9:24. That is, the high priest, having offered the great offering for expiation of sin, carries its blood into the most holy place, which was the representation of the presence of God. This is to perfect the atonement he made for himself and the people. In the same way, the Lord Christ, having offered himself as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God, and being sprinkled with his own blood, appears in the presence of God. It is as if to remind the Father of his engagement to redeem sinners by his blood, and to convey the good things to them that his sacrifice procured. And so his appearance has an influence on purchased grace in that he puts in his claim for it in our behalf.
[2.] He procures the Holy Spirit for us to effectively collate and bestow all this purchased grace upon us. We have his engagement to do this for us in John 14:16. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.” This is purchased grace, in respect to its source, which I will not handle now, because I will handle it at large in the communion we have with the Holy Spirit.