DISCOURSE VII.

ROMANS iv. 25.

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Who was delivered for our Offences, and was raifed again for our Fuftification.

T

HE Manner of Expreffion here ufed is different from what is generally to be met with in other Parts of the New Testa

ment upon the like Occafion. Here we are told that Chrift was delivered for our Offences, and raised for our Justi*fication; as if the Remiffion of our Sins was to be ascribed peculiarly to the Paffion, and our Juftification in the Sight of God to the Refurrection of Chrift: Whereas in the Chapter before this, Ver. 25, the Apostle tells us in general, that God hath fet forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in

his Blood; and in Ch. v. Ver. 9, particularly and exprefly, that, being juftified by his Blood, we shall be faved from Wrath through him; and Ver. 10, that we are reconciled to God by the Death of his Son. In the twentieth of the Acts, the Apoftle, in his Exhortation to the Elders of the Church, warns them to feed the Church of God, which he bath purchafed with his own Blood, Ver. 28. To the fame Purpose both St. Peter and St. John speak; the one telling us, that the Blood of Jefus Christ cleanfeth us from all Sin, 1 John i. 7; the other, that we have been redeemed with the precious Blood of Chrift, as of a Lamb without Blemish and without Spot, 1 Pet. 1.19.

It is the conftant Tenor of Scripture, that Atonement for the Sins of the World was made by our great High-Prieft upon the Crofs; that his Death was our Redemption, and his Blood the Price paid for us. So that, when we confider the Redemption (which includes our Juftification) with respect to Chrift, the Author and Finisher of it, it must be ascribed to his Death and Paffion: But, as to ourselves, our Title and Interest in this common Salvation being grounded on Faith, our Juftification, though purchased by the Blood of Chrift, must be appropriated

to

to ourselves through Faith in that Blood: For the fame Apostle, who has told us that we are juftified freely through the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus, hath likewise told us that God hath fet him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood. For this Reason we are faid to be juftified by Faith; not that our Faith is the Purchase of Juftification, which we owe to the Blood of Chrift alone; but becaufe through Faith we obtain the Benefit of the Redemption, wrought by Chrift Jefus. Now, though the Death of Chrift was the reconciling of the World to God, yet the Resurrection of Christ is the great and folid Foundation of our Hope and Faith in him, even of our Faith in his Blood, by which he made the Propitiation for our Sins: And therefore, although Chrift died for our Offences, and by his precious Blood made Atonement for our Sins; yet, fince our Faith in his Death, our Hope in his Blood, by which Hope and Faith we are justified, are built upon the Truth and Credit of his Refurrection, it is very properly faid, that he rofe again for our Juftification: For the Death of Christ would have been no Juftification to us, nor could we have had Hope or Faith in it, but for the Power and Glory of the Resurrection;

which has wiped away the Scandal and Ignominy of the Crofs, and made it a rational Act of Faith to hope for Life and Immortality from Him, who himself once died upon the Tree.

For the Truth of this Expofition I appeal to St. Paul, who, I Cor. xv. 17, has told us, that, if Christ be not rifen, our Faith is vain; we are yet in our Sins. So that Faith in the Death of Chrift, not grounded on the Affurance of his Resurrection, is a vain Faith, and fuch an one as cannot deliver us from our Sins. Nay, that the Death of Chrift could not have been a Propitiation for Sin without his Resurrection, he exprefly teaches in the next Verse, faying, that, if Chrift be not raised, then they also, which are fallen afleep in Chrift, are perished.

The Power of the Refurrection, together with the Atonement for Sin made by the Death of Christ, is very beautifully expreffed by St. Paul, Rom. viii. 34: Who is he that condemneth? It is Chrift that died, yea rather that is rifen again, who is even at the right Hand of God, who also maketh Interceffion for us. The Death of Chrift freed us from Condemnation; but then was our Freedom made manifeft, when he came from the Grave in Triumph, and led Captivity captive;

when