Body of Divinity, Book 7 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the Communion and Fellowship Believers have with Christ, and their Benefits by him, and specially of Adoption.
THis is the highest intimacy between Christ and his people, A Fellowship,I will come to you and manifest my self to you. Christ imparts his graces and communicates his counsels to them. Unregenerate men have many communications from Christ, no communion, that is founded in union. 1 Iohn 1. 3. A Friendship, Iohn 15. 15. The Church is called, the Lambs Bride, Husband and Wife make but one flesh, Christ and a believer make one Spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 17.
Communion with God through Christ by the Spirit is the great duty and priviledge of the Gospel, 2 Cor. 16. 13. 1 Iohn 1. 3. It is begun by faith, carried on by fear and love, perfected in heaven. Consider
First, The honour of this Communion: Christ hath our nature, our sins, our wrath and shame, thou hast his Titles, Nature, Spirit, Priviledges. He is one with God, thou art one with him. He is Gods fellow, Zech. 13. 7. thou his fellow, Psalm. 45. 7. God is Christs God and our God, his Father and our Father.
Secondly, The comfort of it, Iohn 15. 12. This joy differs from the joyes in heaven, not in kinde but in measure, Psal. 16. ult. 2 Cor. 1. 5. Hos. 2. 11, 12.
Thirdly, The Priviledges you enjoy by this Communion:
1. Liberty of accesse to God, Rom. 8. 15. Heb. 4. 6. they come to him sitting on a throne of grace, Heb. 4. 16.
2. An interest in Gods particular providence, and a sanctified use of the creatures, 1 Cor. 3. 21.
3. The influences of grace, 1 Cor. 1. 30. Iohn 14 6.
Evidences of this Communion:
1. Holinesse, 1 Iohn 1. 6, 7. & 4. 13. Iohn 14. 17. Rom. 8. 9.
2. Heavenlinesse, Phil. 3. 20. Col. 3. 1.
3. Delight in God, Deut. 4. 7. Psal. 84. 12.
4. Reverence toward God and humility toward men.
5. A constant dependance on God for Direction, Comfort and Strength, Iohn 15. 5.
6. Living to his Glory, and consecrating all we have to him. Whole Christ is ours, and we are all his, Cant. 2. 14. He is ours by his own grant, and we his by our consent.
The Benefits which Believers partake of through Christ, are either in this life or in the life to come.
In this life, 1. Relative, which make a change of our state. 2. Moral, which concern the change of our persons.
First, Relative, which concern the change of our state and condition.
1. Adoption.
2. Justification.
Secondly, Moral, which concern the change of our persons, Sanctification.
Some say Adoption is the first of all the priviledges communicated to us; Others say Justification.
Of Adoption.
As soon as a soul is by faith united to Christ, he is made the childe of God in theSee M• H…rris of the Beatitudes▪ p. …5. and Pa… on Rom. 8. p. 33. Sonship of Christ, 1 Iohn 3. 1.
God is said to have three sorts of Sons:
1. By Nature or Generation, so Christ.
2. By Creation, the Angels.
3. Voluntarily, made his Son, his adopted childe.
It is little mentioned in the Old Testament, in the New frequently, because theThe Civilians thus define it, Est gratuita assumptio personae non habentio jus in haereditate ad participationem haereditatis Adoptio imitatur naturam▪ Romans who had then the Empire of the world had subdued the Jewes to them, and communicated their customs to them, it was an ordinary custome among the Romans.
It is a gracious sentence of God the Father on a believer, whereby for Christs sake he cals believers his children, and really admits them into the state and condition of children.
He cals us sons Gal. 3. 26. & 4. 4, 5. and admits us into the state and condition of sons, I will be their Father, and they shall be my children.
It is amongst men a remedy found out for the solace of a father which hath no childe, by taking one to the right of an inheritance who by nature hath no claim to it.Adoptio nuptiarum subsidium, fortunae remedium, supplet sterilitati, vel orbitati. Juris….
1. There is the election of him that would have him.
2. The consent of the adopted.
3. He called him Son in the Court; when the Lord makes believers his children he thus adopts them.
There is a difference yet between divine and humane adoption:
1. Man puts not a new nature into the party adopted; God when he adopts he makes them new creatures.
2. Man is moved to this many times by some perfection or apprehended excellency in the party; so Pharaohs Daughter because she saw Moses a fair childe took him for hers; but it is not so with God, there is no good but what he works, Ezek. 16. 6.
3. They adopted for their comfort, and because they had no sons on whom toProfectò haec est indulgentia non indigentia, Ber. bestow their inheritance; but God infinitely delighted in his own natural Son, and he needed not us, he hath his Angels to glorifie him.
How this Adoption is wrought:
It is done by applying of Christs Sonship to them. The applying of Christs righteousnesse to us makes us righteous, and the applying of his Sonship to us makes us the sons and daughters of God. Christ being the first-born is heir, and all Gods people co-heirs with him, Rom. 8. 16, 17, 18.
What Benefits have we by it?
All the whole work of our Redemption is sometimes exprest by it, Iohn 1. 11. The glory of heaven is laid down in this one word Rom. 8. 15. We groan that we might receive the adoption of Sons.
The Benefits thereof are brought to two heads:
1. We are really cut off from the family from which we sprung, old Adam, sin,Ephes. 2. 18. There are three great fruits of our Adoption, 1. Dignity▪ 1 Joh. 1 2. 2. Liberty, Rom. 8. 21. 3. Inheritance▪ If sons then heirs. hell, we are now no more in a sinful condition.
2. We are ingraffed into Gods family, and have all the priviledges of a natural son. By the Law of the Romans one might do nothing to his adopted childe, but what he might do to his own begotten Son.
By this means, 1. They receive the Spirit of Sanctification, Rom. 8. 15.
2. They have the honour of sons, Iohn 8. 35.
3. They have the boldnesse and accesse of sons, May cry Abba Father; they may come to God with open face, as men freed from condemnation, Ephes. 3. 12.
4. They have the inheritance of sons, Rom. 8. 27. they have a double right to heaven Titulo Redemptionis & Adoptionis.
Three things will shew our Adoption:
1. Likenesse to the Spirit of Christ, thou wilt be holy as he is.
2. Thou wilt bear an awful respect to God, the childe honours the Father.
3. There is the Spirit of prayer, the childe comes to the Father to supply his wants.