Sermons Volume 2, Romans 8 · Sermon 13
SERMON XIII.
ROM. VIII.10.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the spirit is life because of righteousness.
THE Text is manifestly a Prolepsis, or a Preoccupation of a secret Objection against our Redemption by Christ: If believers die as well as others, how are they freed from death? questionless Christ was sent into the world to abolish the misery brought in by Adams sin; now death was the primary punishment of sin, Gen. 2.17. In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die: And this remaineth on believers? The Apostle answereth in the words read.
1. By supposition, If Christ be in you; That he might fix the priviledg on the Persons to whom it properly belongeth.
2. By concession, The body is dead because of sin.
3. By correction, And the spirit is life because of righteousness.
1. The supposition sheweth that the comfort of the priviledg is drawn from the spiritual union which believers have with Christ, if Christ be in you. Secondly, The concession granteth what must be granted, that death befalleth believers, their bodies return to the dust as others do: But, Thirdly, the correction is, that they are certain to live for ever with Christ both in body and soul; and this upon a twofold ground; first, There is a life begun, which shall not be quenched but perfected, the spirit is life. Secondly, The ground and procuring cause is Christs righteousness. Sin deprived them of the life of grace, and forfeited the life of glory; but here the righteousness of Christ hath purchased this life for us, and the spirit applieth it to us.
Doct. That Christ in believers, notwithstanding death, is a sure pledg and earnest to them of eternal life both in body and soul.
This Point will be best discussed with respect to the several clauses in the Text, the supposition, the concession, the correction, or contrary assertion.
1. The supposition, if Christ be in you. Here I will prove to you, that a true Christian is one that doth not only profess Christ, but hath Christ in him, 2 Cor. 13.5. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye are reprobates? that is, senseless, stupid wretches, not accepted of God, so Col. 1.27. Christ in you, the hope of Glory. Now Christ is in us two ways, Objectively and Effectively: Objectively, as the object is in the faculty, or the things we think of, and love, are in our hearts and minds; so Christ is in us, as he is apperehended and imbraced by faith and love; so he is said, Eph. 3.17. To dwell in our hearts by faith; and again, He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him, 1 John 4.18. Which is not to be understood of the acts only, but the habitual temper and dispositions of our souls; for else by the ceasing of the acts, the union at least on our hearts would be broken off. Secondly, Effectively, so Christ is in us by his spirit and gracious influence. Now the effects of his spirit are; first life, he is become the principle of a new life in us, Gal. 2.20. Christ liveth in me; and the life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Where he is, he maketh us to live; and we have another principle of our lives, than our selves or our own natural or renewed spirit. Secondly, Likeness or renovation of our natures, Gal. 4.19. Vntil Christ be formed in you: The image of Christ is impressed on the soul, 2 Cor. 5.17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. 'Tis all to the same effect, our being in Christ, or Christs being in us, for both imply Union, and the effect of it a near conformity to Christ in holiness. Thirdly, Strength by the continued influence of his grace to overcome temptations, 1 John 4.4. Ye are of God, (little children) and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. The spirit keepeth a foot Gods interest in the soul against all the assaults of the Devil; so for the variety of conditions we pass thorough, Phil. 4.12. I know both how to be abased, and how to abound; every where, and in all things I am instructed both to be full, and to be hungry; both to abound, and to suffer need; so for all duties that we are called unto, 1 Cor. 15.10. By the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all, and yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me; and Heb. 13.21. Working in you that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. Now you see what 'tis to have Christ in us; none but these are real Christians.
1. Because, We must first be partakers of Christ before we can be paratkers of any saving benefit purchased by him: As members are united to the head, before they receive sense and motion from it. Christ giveth nothing of his purchase to any, but to whom he giveth himself first, 1 John 5.12. And to whom he giveth himself, to them he giveth all things needful to their salvation.
2. Where Christ once entreth, there he taketh up his abode and lodging, not to depart thence; dwelling noteth his constant and familiar presence, he doth not sojourn for a while, but dwelleth as a man in his own house and castle; There is a continued presence and influence, whereby they are supported in their Chistianity; He dwelleth in us, and we in him, and we know that he abideth in us by his spirit, 1 John 3.24. and John 14.23. If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him, and take up our abode with him. Not a visit and away, but a constant residence, John 15.5. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
3. Where Christ is, he ruleth and reigneth, for we receive him as our Lord and Saviour, Col. 2.6. As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. We received him, that he may perform the office of a Mediator in our hearts, and teach us, and rule us, and guide us by his spirit: All others know him by hearsay, but these know him by experience; the testimony of Christ is confirmed in them. Others talk of Christ, but these feel him; others have him in their ears and tongues, but not in their hearts; or if the heart be warm and heavenly for a fit, it quickly cooleth and falleth to the earth again. Then here doth our true happiness begin, to find Christ within us; this is that which giveth the Seal to Christ without us, and all the Mysteries of Redemption by him, for you have experienced the power and comfort of it in your own souls; you find his image in your hearts, and his spirit conforming you to what he commandeth in the word, and have a suitableness to the Gospel in your souls: you may look with an holy confidence for help to him in all your necessities, when others look at him with strange and doubtful thoughts, because nearness breedeth familiarity, and the sense of his continual love and presence begets an holy confidence to come to him for mercy and grace to help; in short, when others have but the common offer, you have a propriety and interest in Christ: Christ without us is a perfect Saviour, but not to you; the appropriation is by union; he came down from Heaven, took our nature, died for sinners, ascended us into Heaven again to make Intercession at the Right Hand of the Father; all this is without us: Do not say only there is a Saviour in Heaven; is there one in thy heart? There is an Intercessor in Heaven, is there one in thy heart? Rom. 8.26. But the spirit its self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered: He was born of the Virgin, is he formed in thee? Gal. 4.19. He died, are you planted into the likeness of his death? Rom. 6.5. He is risen from the dead; do you know the power of his Resurrection? Phil. 3.10. Are you raised with him? Col. 3.1. He is ascended, are you ascended, with him? Eph. 2.6. Christ without us established the merit, but Christ within us assureth the Application.
Secondly, I come now to the concession, The body is dead, because of sin. Here observe the Emphasis of the expression, the body is dead; not only shall die, or must die, but is dead. He expresseth himself thus for two reasons; first because the sentence is past, Gen. 2.17. and Heb. 7.29. It is appointed for all men once to die. Therefore as we say of a condemned man, he is a dead man, by reason of the Sentence past upon him: So by reason of this sentence, our body is a mortal body, liable to death, sentenced, doomed to death, and must one day undergo it. The Union between it and the Soul, after a certain time shall be dissolved, and our bodies corrupted. The execution is begun; mortalitity hath already seised upon our bodies, by the many infirmities tending to, and ending in the dissolution of nature. We now bear about the marks of Sin in our bodies, the harbingers of death are already come, and have taken up their lodging aforehand. The Apostle saith, In deaths often; how many deaths do we suffer, before death cometh to relieve us, by several diseases? as Collicks, Meagrims, Catarrhs, Gout, Stone, and the like? all these prepare for it; and therefore this body, though glorious in its Structure, as it is the workmanship of God, is called a vile body, as it is the subject of so many diseases; yea, and its self is continually dying, Heb. 11.12. therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead. We express it, a man hath one foot in the grave.
2. The reason is assigned, Because of Sin; death is the most ordinary thing in the world, but its cause and end are little thought of; this expression will give us occasion to speak of both; its meritorious cause, and its use and end, both are implyed in the clause, Because of Sin.
1. It implyeth the meritorious cause. Death is not a natural accident, but a punishment; we die not as the beasts die, or as the Plants decay; no, the Scripture telleth us by what Gate it entered into the World, namely, that 'tis an effect of the justice of God for mans Sin, Rom. 5.12. By one man, sin entred into the world, and death by sin. And 'tis also by Covenant, therefore called wages, Rom. 6.23. Sin procured it, and the law ratifies it. I, but doth it so come upon the faithful? I Answer, though their sins be forgiven, yet God would leave this mark of his displeasure on all mankind, that all Adams Children shall die, for a warning to the World. Well then, sin carryes death in its bosome, and to some this death is but a step to Hell, or death to come; 'tis not so to the Godly; yet in their instance, God would teach the World the sure connexion between death and Sin; whosoever hath been once a sinner, must die.
2. Its end and use. The body is dead because of sin; That is, the relicks of sin, are not abolished but by death; there is a twofold end and use of death to them that are in Christ.
1. To finish transgression, and make an end of Sin; We groan under the burden of it, while we are in our Mortal bodies, Rom. 7.24. But when the Believer dyeth, death is the destruction of sin, rather than of the penitent Sinner; the vail of the sinful flesh is rent, and by the sight of God we are purified all in an instant, and then sin shall gasp its last, and our Physitian will perfect the cure which he hath begun in us, and we shall be presented faultless before the presence of God.
2. To free us from the natural infirmities which render us uncapable of that happy life in Heaven, which is intended to us. The state of Adam in innocency was blessed, but Terrene and Earthly, a state that needed Meat, Drink, and Sleep. If Christ would have restored us to this life, it may be death had not been necessary, and the present state of our bodies needed not to be destroyed, but only purified; but our Lord Jesus had an higher aim, Eph. 1.3. Who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in Christ; Adam injoyed God among the beasts in paradise; we injoy God among the Angels in Heaven; it's a divine, and Heavenly Life that he promiseth, a life like that of the blessed Angels, where meat, and drink, and sleep, hath no use. Now this nature that we now have, is not fitted for this life; therefore Paul telleth us, 1 Cor. 15.50. That flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. That is, that Animal life, which we derived from Adam, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Therefore we need to bear the image of the Heavenly, which cannot be, till this terrene and animal life be abolished. To this end God useth death. So that which was in its self a punishment, becometh a means of entrance into glory; the Corn is not quickened unless it die, 1 Cor. 15.36, 37, 38. The believers that are alive at Christs coming, must be change, v. 52, 53. Christ himself by death entred into Glory; therefore what ever is animal, vile, and earthly, and weak, must be put off, before we are capable of this blessed estate.
3. The cause of this mortality is, Because of sin. Had it not been for sin, we had never had cause to fear dissolution; there had been no use for coffins, and winding-sheets; nor had we been beholding to a Grave, to hide our carkass from the sight and smell of the living; there was a posse mori, in innocency, else death could not be threatned as a penalty; but there was a posse non mori, or else Immortality could not be propounded as the reward of Obedience; therefore Man is Mortal, conditione corporis; but Immortal, beneficio conditoris; God could have supported him. Well then, death must make sin odious; or else sin allowed, will make death terrible.
Thirdly, We come to the assertoin or correction; The spirit is life because of Righteousness; In which observe,
1. That Believers have a life, notwithstanding death. Though death be appointed by God, and inflicted upon believers, as well as others; yet they live, notwithstanding this death: John 11.25. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. The Fountain of Life can raise him when he will; no bands of Death can hinder his quickening Vertue. Tho the union between Body and Soul be dissolved, yet not their union with God.
2. This life is to be understood of body and soul. 'Tis only indeed here said life, but he explaineth himself in the 11. vers. If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Man is compounded of a Body and a Soul; death deprived him of his body for a time, only the Body shall at last be reunited to partake of the happiness of the soul.
1. The soul (being the noblest part) is presently, and most happily provided for, being sanctified and purified from all her imperfections, and is brought into the sight and presence of God. Luke 20.38. They all live to God. And they are gathered to the great counsel and assembly of Souls, Heb. 12.23. There they serve God day and night, and are under an happy necessity of never wandring from their Duty, and no longer busied to maintain a war against sin, but are always Imployed in Lauding, Praising, and Blessing God, and delighting in him. Well then, this is the happiness of the faithful, That though they put off the Body for a time, yet the Soul hath an Eternal house, to which it retireth, and remains not only in the hand of God, but injoyeth the sight and love of God. 2. Cor. 5 1. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.
2. For the body. At the Resurrection the soul shall reassume its body again. We cannot easily believe that part shall be placed in Heaven, which we see commited to the Grave, to rot there; but there is no impediment to Gods Almighty Power. Phil. 3.21. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. This place doth prove, that God hath provided for the happy estate of the Body, as well as the Soul. The dead are Gods subjects, put into the hands of Christ; he must give an account of them: John 6.40. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. They are likewise members of Christ. 1 Cor. 6.15. Now his Mystical body will not be maimed; they are Temples of the Holy ghost, 1 Cor. 6.15. Temples wherein we offer up to God reasonable service. Now since the Spirit possesseth both Body and Soul, he will repair his own dwelling-place, which he hath once honoured with his presence, and not let corruption always abide on it. And we have the pattern of Christ, he is the first Fruits of them that slept, 1 Cor. 15.20. the Soul hath an inclination to the Body still. Therefore that our happiness may be compleat, a glorified Soul shall inanimate immortal Body.
3. The grounds are, first the Spirit renewing. Secondly, Christ purchase.
1. The Spirit is life; he doth not draw his Argument from the immortality of the Soul, for that is common to good and bad; the wicked have a soul that will survive the body, but little to their comfort; their immortality is not an happy immortality; but he taketh his argument from the new life wrought in us by the spirit, which is the beginning, pledg, and earnest of a blessed immortality; the soul is an immortal being, but the new life is an eternal principle of happiness; as soon as Christ beginneth to dwell in us, eternal life is begun in our souls, 1 John 3.15. The immortal seed, 1 Pet. 1.23.
2. The meritorious cause is the righteousness of Christ; or the pardon of our sins, and the justification of our persons by the Blood and Merits of Jesus Christ; when once forgiven, we are out of the reach of the second Death, 1 Cor. 14.56. The sting of death is sin. We are freed from the damning stroke, not the killing stroke of death. Christ having freed us from the curse of the law, and merited and purchased for us a blessed Resurrection, Heb. 2.14, 15.
The VSE is to enforce the great things of Christianity. There are but two things we need to regard, to live holily, and die comfortably; these two have a mutual respect one to another; those that live holily take the next course to die comfortably, the end of that man is peace; and to know how to die well, is the best way to live well, both are enforced by this place.
1. To live holily; There are several Arguments from the Text.
1. The comforts of Christianity are not promiscuously dispensed, or common to all indifferently, but suspended on this condition, If Christ be in you, by his sanctifying Spirit; if you be deceived in your foundation, all your life, hope and comfort, are but delusory things; but when quickned by the renewing Grace of the Spirit of Christ, and made partakers of the Divine Nature, you have then the earnest of your inheritance, Eph. 1.4. 2 Cor. 5.5. He who hath wrought us to this same thing, is God, who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit. Others die uncertain of comfort, or it may be most certain of condemnation.
2. From the concession, The body is dead; sentence is past, and in part executed; this awakeneth us to think of another world, and to make serious preparation; when the walls of the house are shaken, and are ready to drop down, is it not time to think of a removal? the body is frail and mortal, and that's enough to check sin, Rom. 6.12. Let not sin reign therefore in your mortal bodies, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof: But 'tis made more frail by actual sin, Gal. 6.8. If we sow to the flesh, of the flesh we shall reap corruption▪ Shall we sow to the flesh, and pamper the flesh, which must soon be turned into stench and rotteness? Man consulting with present sense, carrieth himself as if he were a body only, not a soul, and therefore out of love to sensual pleasures he maketh no account of any thing but sensual pleasures and satisfactions; but shall we bestow all our time and care upon a body that was dust in its composition, and will shortly again be dust in its dissolution? The body is not only dying, but dead; you think not of it now, but this death cometh before 'tis looked for. Saul trembled when the spirit answered him, 1 Sam. 28.19, 20. To morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me. Would you sport and riot away your time, if you should receive such a message? Surely the dust, and stench, and rotteness of the grave, if we thought of it, it would take down our pride, and check our voluptuousness, for we do but pamper worms meat; it would prevent our worldliness; all a mans labour is for the body, and usually in a body overcared for, there dwelleth a neglected soul: The body is not only the instrument; but the incitement of it; the soul is wholly taken up about the body, but doth the dead body deserve so much care? Death doth disgrace all the seducing pleasures of the flesh, and the profits and honours of the world: Who is so mad, as wilfully to sin with death in his eye? Alas! All the pleasures and honours of the world will be vanity and vexation of spirit to us when we come to die.
3. Come we now to the corrective assertion, and there's the life promised for body and soul; this breedeth the true spirit of faith, 2 Cor. 4.13, 14. We having the same spirit of faith, (according as it is written, I believed, therefore have I spoken) We also believe, therefore speak, knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also. The true diligence and godliness, 1 Cor. 15.58. Be stedfast and unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And patience, Rom▪ 2.7. Who by patient continuing in well doing seek for glory, immortality, eternal life. Christians! We that have souls to save or lose, and have an offer of happiness; shall we come short of it for want of diligence, and spend our time in eating and drinking, and sporting? or in the service of God?
4. 'Tis the effect both of the spirits renewing, and the righteousness of Christ: Both call for holiness at our hands as the effect of the renovation of the spirit, and our title to the righteousness of Christ; so that this life doth not belong to us, unless we are in Christ, and walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit, Rom. 8.1. (which begun this Discourse) The double principle and ground of hope inforceth it.
2. To die comfortably. Christianity affordeth the proper comforts against death, as it is a natural and penal evil; a natural evil it is, as it puts an end to present comforts; 'tis a penal evil, as it maketh way for the final judgment, Heb. 9.27. Heathens could only teach them to submit to it out of necessity, or as a debt they owed to nature, or an end of the present miseries; but Christianity, as the sting of it is gone, 1 Cor. 15.56. As the property is altered, 1 Cor. 3.22. Death is yours, and that upon solid grounds; as the life of grace is introduced, and sin is forgiven, and the conclusions drawn from thence: first, the life of grace introduced; how bitter is the remembrance of death to the carnal man? much more the enduring of it; a dying body, and a startling conscience maketh them afraid of everlasting death; and so much sin as you bring to your death bed, so much bitterness you will have; so much holiness, so far you have eternal life in you; and the more 'tis acted in the fruits of holiness, the more comfort, Isa. 38.3. A little without, is grievous, when all is amiss within. Secondly, sin is forgiven upon the account of the righteousness of Christ, for we shall then be foiled if found in no other righteousness than our own, Phil. 3.8, 9. That I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness. In short, the worst that can befal believers is, that 'tis the death but of a part, the worst and basest part, and that but for a season, the bodies of the Saints shall not always lye in the grave, nor can it be imagined they shall perish as the beasts; no, but be raised up from the grave, and their vile bodies be changed like unto the Glorious Body of their Redeemer.