Justification Justified, Theses · Thesis 42 – Thesis 47
XLII.
Whereas it may be enquired whether the Active, or Passive Obedience of Christ, or both together, be the matter of our Justification, and the Imputation thereof the Form: I Answer, that the Active, and Passive Obedience of Christ, are both in a sense, and to a degree, imputed to Believers, though not in so large a sense, as some have said, viz. as if Believers were reckoned by Christ their Surety to have done whatsoever Christ himself did, viz. to have fulfilled all Righteousness, neither to have committed any thing which they ought not to have done, nor to have omitted any thing which they ought to have done: Or, as if Believers in Christ might have been said to have done whatsoever he did in the Flesh, or Christ to have done every thing that he did in their stead, room, and behalf, and as it were for them.
For whatsoever Jesus Christ was bound, as Man, by the Law of Creation, to do for himself, Ex. gr. to love God with all his heart, &c. he could not be said to have done for others (so as he is said to have suffered for us) or Believers to have done, in, and by him: For as Christ could not have made atonement for our sins if he had any sin of his own, Heb. 7.27. Such a High Priest became us who needed not daily as those High-Priests to Offer up sacrifice first for his own sin, and then for the People's, &c. So what Duty and observance Christ had to pay for himself, he could not be said to have presented to God upon our account, or we to have fulfilled these things in him, Ex. gr. That we in Christ did love God, trust in God, delight to do the Will of God, or that forasmuch as he did it we may be said to have done it also. That I say is not true. Were that true, that Christ had done every thing that the Law of God requires that Believers should do, or should ever have done; and that upon their account, that they in, and by him might have been reckoned to have kept the whole Law of God perfectly, and God to have accepted of his Active Obedience, instead of theirs, two things would follow, viz
1. Then there were no need of the Passive Obedience or sufferings of Christ on our behalf, sith believers might plead not guilty to the whole Law of God, upon the account of having compleatly answered to every tittle thereof, by Christ their Surety, who was appointed of God to Officiate in their stead.
2. Neither then would it be needful for us to keep the Law of God, to our power in our own Persons sith it had been kept, and observed for us by way of proxy, allowed of God for that purpose. To be sure it would be unjust for God to punish us for not observing his Law our selves, so long as it was punctually observed by Christ, whom himself (according to that Opinion) did admit, and allow of, to keep, and observe it upon our account. He who hath his place excellently well Officiated and supplyed by an able Proxy, allowed, and admitted to Officiate for him, is no more to be blam'd, or kept from his reward, than if he had serv'd it in his own Person. But both these are great inconveniencies and absurdities, viz. either to say that we are not bound, upon pain of damnation, unto obeying the Gospel of Christ, and keeping the Laws of God in our own Person, (which is the thing called Holiness, without which no Man shall see God:) Or else to say that Christ dyed in vain, or that the Passive obedience of our Saviour was needless, and s… perfluous, as it would have been, if Christ hi… active obedience had been so reckoned, and imputed to us, that we should be accounted of God to have done whatsoever he did, i e. to have f…lfill'd all righteousness actually, and actively, &c.
LXIII.
Yet nevertheless Jesus Christ his conformity to the whole Law of God, or being made under the Law, consider it as a part of his Humiliation, and Exinanition, was certainly one part, and degree of the Satisfaction, which he made to the Justice of God for Believers. For though it behoved Christ when he became man, and dwelt amongst men, to have been conformable to the Law of his Creation, it doth not follow that by that his conformity to the Law he did no way satisfie for us. For if any man being free, and sui juris, do oblige himself not only to die, on the behalf of another, but to serve a hard Apprentiship first, may he not be said to make satisfaction in part, as well by the hard service which he undergoes, as by dying for him at the expiration of such a time of servitude? For though he were bound upon pain of present death, to such acts of servitude, or slavery, after that he had taken that condition upon him, yet forasmuch as he was not bound to have taken upon him the condition of a slave, or servant, but that it was his free will, and pleasure, so to do, in order to satisfying the debt, or offence of another person: I say, in that regard, his so doing could not be said to be the paying of one debt with another. A Surety when he has taken upon him that relation is bound to pay the whole debt, if the Principal debtor faileth; do's it therefore follow, that because it belongs to him, in that case, as he is a Surety, to pay the debt, that therefore his payment is not satisfactory, or that it is but the paying of one debt with another? viz. the debt of his friend, with the debt of his suretiship, or of his relation as a Surety? Forasmuch as he was voluntarily a Surety, in order to freeing, or satisfying such a debt (which he needed not to have been) his paiment is good, for another, &c.
XLIV.
Christ did some things which did not belong to him to do meerly as he was a man, nor yet as he was of such a nation, viz. a Jew, but did belong only to sinful men, as such, to do, viz. he suffered himself to be Circumcised, and Oblations to be offered for him, Luke 2.21, 24. he was conformable to several other Ceremonial Laws, John 7.2, 10. Mat. 26.17. He was baptized, and he seems to have eaten the Lord's Supper with his Disciples. And he calls these works the fulfilling of Righteousness. Now these things were not absolutely necessary to constitute the Sanctity, Justice, and purity of Christ, or by the Law of his Creation. To those things therefore Christ seems to have been bound meerly by a peculiar compact with his Father, partly in order to his greater Humiliation, and partly in order to the better promoting of our Salvation. Moreover, those observances, though they were not absolutely necessary to the holyness of Christ, or of any man, antecedently to the command of God injoyning, and imposing them, yet consequently upon that they were, as was the positive Law of abstaining from the Tree of the knowledg of good and and evil. And though those outward observances, separated from inward Sanctity, are but the bark or shell of Religion, which God makes nothing of, Isa. 1.12, &c. 66.3. yet as performed by him, who was God, and consequently a great branch, and sign of humiliation, and subjection, they cannot but be of great merit, and conduce much to promote that satisfaction which he undertoook for believers, &c. Yet forasmuch as Christians now a days are not bound to some of these observances, ex gr. to Circumcision, to Sacrifices, &c. and as for other of them, they are bound to observe them in their own persons, as namely Baptism, and the Lords Supper, &c. that kind of Obedience cannot be said to have been, or to be imputed to believers, in any such strict sense, as if Christ had performed it in their place, and steed: yet it must be said, that that part of Christs obedience was accepted of God as a part of that foreign, or price of Redemption, which was due for our sins, and so far forth, or in that looser sense, imputed.
XLV.
Christ's submitting himself to a mean condition, as taking upon him the form of a servant, and m…king himself of no reputation, were not Essential to the purity of his nature, or necessary in order to his own Salvation (who being God could not miscarry) but were a part of God's Curse due for sin, and necessary to promote the Salvation of Believers. Therefore these things were a part of Christs Satisfaction, which is after a sort imputed to us for righteousness; but not in such manner as if Christ had taken these things upon him in our place, and steed, for neither are we thereby made free from that kind of life, viz. from servitude, and meaness; nor are we bound to govern our own lives according to that pattern, and as many are tied to any such thing, are tied thereto, in their own person, I say to undergo it (say it be the condition of meer servants) in their own persons, and not by Christ their Surety.
XLVI.
It may be of great use to understand aright, & to bear in mind what is the true notion of Imputation, or what the word Imputed meaneth. Imputation (therefore) is the Acceptation of (Numb 18.26, 30.) one thing for another. He is righteous, or just by Imputation, who being in himself guilty of a fault, yet is accounted righteous, or guiltless, for the sake of something else which is admitted, or accepted, in the place, or …eed of that justice, or righteousness, which ought to have been inherent in himself. The thing so accepted is called Imputed Righteousness. And it is so called because it is a righteous thing, to give, and take satisfaction, or compensation, for sin committed, Him God hath held forth for a propitiation that God might be just, &c. If this justice, or righteousness be full and adequate to the fault committed, it removeth the desert of punishment from the guilty, and extinguisheth all obligation therunto. The Justification of a person not inherently just, but guilty, is when the fault of which the party is accused is acknowledged; but something else is tendered, or pleaded for it, by which he may be vindicated from the merit of condemnation. Nor can any other way be found out whereby a guilty person may be justified, &c. when the desert of condemnation is removed, the fault it self is after a sort extinguished, as if it had never been committed, &c. Vide Bradshaw, de Justif. cap. 5.
XLVII.
After all that has been said touching the righteousness of Christ, its being the Material cause of our Justification, and the Imputation thereof, the Form or Formal cause of our Justification; I must needs own it for a truth, that Believers are in Scripture frequently denominated just, or righteous persons, from that righteousness, or holiness which is inherent in them: yea, it cannot be denied but by vertue thereof they are formally just, and righteous, though but with an imperfect righteousness, &c. Luke 1.6. 'Tis said of Zachary, and Elizabeth, They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments of God blamelessly, Isa. 38.3. Remember, O Lord, said Hezekiah, &c. So we read of righteous Abel, Mat. 23.35. and that the righteous shall go into life eternal. 1 Joh. 3.7. He that doth righteousness is righteous. So it is said of Job, ch. 1.1. that he was an upright, i. e. a right, or righteous man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil. Neither is this at all to the prejudice of the Doctrine of Justification, only by, and for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. For it is one thing to be righteous with an inherent, habitual, imperfect righteousness, which may serve for some other good uses, and purposes; as namely, to glorifie God, and adorn the Gospel, to do some good therewith to our selves, and others; and another thing to be righteous with a compleat, perfect righteousness, whereby we are free'd from the Curse, or Condemning power of the Law, and have right and title given us to eternal life; forasmuch as all our sins, as well of Omission, as Commission, are satisfied for by Christ: and the believer thereupon is left no more liable to punishment either of Sense, or Loss, that is, either to Hell, or to the missing of Heaven; than if he had in his own person made God a plenary amends for all the injury which he had done him. From inherent righteousness, a man is reckoned by God, as righteous only to such a degree, (as we call School-boys Scholars, because they have some little learning, but not enough to fit them for the University, or whereby to claim a degree there.) So holy men from that imperfect righteousness which they have by Gods gracious condescention, are termed just, or righteous, but not with a righteousness which renders them altogether guiltless, and faultless in the sight of God, as doth that righteousness whereby they are justified. Therefore from their inherent righteousness, though good men are denominated just, yet they are not from thence ordinarily denominated justified, nor at all but in a less strict, and proper sense.