the law have been laid upon his divine Substitute, and completely, and for ever cleansed by his atoning blood. In him we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace; and all who believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. For 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, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Christ bore our sins in his own body upon the tree, the just one suffering for the unjust, the keeper of the law suffering for the transgressors of the law, that he might bring us to God. And so complete is this deliverance from the curse of the law, that the sins of believers are said to be removed from them, as far as the east is from the west, to be cast into the depths of the sea, to be put behind the back of the Lord, and out of the remembrance of the Lord. And as every accusation which the law can prefer against them has been met and discharged, and silenced by Christ; so also every performance which the law can righteously demand from them, has been freely and fully executed by Christ. He came not to destroy the law but to fulfil, and one jot, or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." A righteousness commensurate with every jot and tittle of the law is indispensable. Such was the righteousness of Christ, and of Christ only; and blessed, truly blessed are they, and they only, to whom that righteousness is imputed without works. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. He hath magnified the law and made it honourable, and for his righteousness sake the Father is well pleased. This is his name, whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. We desire to win him, and be found in him, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. This is the robe without spot or blemish, in which, whosoever is clothed, shall appear before God (even in that judgment which is according to the standard of the perfect law) holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. This is the lawful use of the law, as a manifestation of the free forgiveness from all its penalties, and of the perfect justification according to all its most rigorous enactments, which are revealed in the glorious gospel of the Son of God. IV. And shall the believer in Jesus Christ, thus highly privileged, be left in this perplexing world without a guide to direct his steps? Shall the christian pilgrim, thus richly supplied and clothed for his heavenward journey, be left in doubt as to the way in which he should walk? Surely not. This would be to deprive him of one of his highest joys, to rob him of that great reward which it is his happiness to experience in keeping the commandments of his God. No, he is not thus forsaken: no, he is not so left, as a wanderer in a strange country, and among crossing roads, ignorant at every turning which is his way towards home, inquiring from fellow-travellers as ignorant as himself, and exposed with them to the delusions of a wily and powerful adversary. The law is his guide: the precepts of the law are his companions, and his unfeigned delight. This is another lawful use of the law, and we are using it lawfully (because scripturally) when we apply it in all its strictness as the rule and standard of the believer's life. If any man dispute this, and deny any such application of the law to the christian, because that Christ hath fulfilled the law for him, and he is completely delivered from the law; let such a man remember, that Christ in his life hath set us an example, that we should follow his steps; and let him ask himself, whither do the steps of Christ lead but among the precepts of the law? What was the life of Christ but one undeviating conformity to the whole law? If then the example of Christ be the rule of a Christian's life, so must the moral law be also; for we challenge any man to point out the smallest discrepancy between the life of Christ and the law of God. "In Him was no sin," but sin is the transgression of the law, therefore he never transgressed the law; and they who would follow his steps must be guided by the precepts of the law. These precepts the apostles press upon their converts: they wear indeed a more attractive dress in the apostolical epistles, than in the books of Moses; under the genial influence of the gospel sun they bloom as the fruits of the spirit, but in substance they are still the precepts of the law. Let the mind therefore, and manners, and conversation be in you my beloved brethren, which were also in Christ Jesus: and if any man among you object to this application of the law to the believer's life, only let that man be diligent and successful in cultivating the fruits of the spirit as enumerated in the gospel, and we shall presently find him obeying without intending it, the holy precepts of the moral law. We are not contending for any merit in this observance of the law, either to recommend the sinner to Christ, or in conjunction with the righteousness of Christ, to recommend the sinner to God. Such views we cordially disclaim, and we sincerely grieve over that inveterate and pernicious pride which mars by such views the free beauty of the gospel. But we earnestly contend for the inestimable blessing of holiness in heart and life, which is conferred upon every true christian, and which manifests itself in a growing conformity to the holy law of God, or (what is the same thing) to the holy example of Jesus Christ, A distinction indeed should here be marked between the principle from which this conformity springs, and the conformity itself. The principle is perfect, planted by the power of the Holy Ghost, and sustained through a spiritual union with Christ; but the conformity to the law arising from it is imperfect; thwarted and checked, and interrupted, and sometimes for season retrograded by the remainder of sin in the heart, and the prevalence of temptation in the world. The scriptural history of the people of God in all ages, abundantly testifies to this point. |