Holiness Of Nature
HOLINESS OF NATURE
THE law required holiness of nature as a condition of life, inasmuch as condemning original sin, saying "Thou shalt not covet," it concluded all men to be by nature children of wrath. For God being essentially holy, holy by necessity of nature, nothing can be so contrary to God as an unholy nature; because, howbeit persons or things of a like nature may be contrary in some points, yet they can never be so contrary one to another, as those of quite opposite natures. But the parties contracted for in the covenant of grace, having their nature wholly corrupted, and being incapable to purify it, or make their heart clean, Prov. 20:9; it is evident, they could by no means answer this demand of the law by themselves. Wherefore, for the satisfaction of the law in this point, it was settled as a conditionary article of the covenant of grace, "That Christ the second Adam, representing them, should be a man of a perfectly holy, pure and untainted nature, folly answering for them the holiness and perfection of nature required by the law." "For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," Heb. 7:16. And this article contains two clauses.
I. "That he, as the second Adam, should be conceived and born holy, for and instead of them corrupt in their nature, conceived and born in sin." There was a holy nature given to Adam as the root of mankind, to be by him kept and transmitted to his posterity, in the way of natural generation. And upon this ground, the law requires all men to be born holy, pronouncing them unclean and children of wrath, in the contrary event, Job 14:4; Eph. 2:3. But how could this demand be answered by sinners? They are born in sin: they cannot enter again into their mother's womb, and be born a second time, without sin. No, they cannot: yet the law will not bate of that demand for life. Wherefore it is provided, that Christ, as a public person, representing his spiritual seed, should be born perfectly holy; that, whereas they brought a sinful corrupt nature into the world with them, he should bring a holy human nature into the world with him. And so he was the last Adam, 1 Cor. 15:45, holy and undefiled, Heb. 7:26, "that holy thing born," Luke 1:35. And the effect thereof with respect to that law-demand for life is, that all believers are, in law-reckoning, born holy in the second Adam, even as they were created holy in the first Adam. Hence they are expressly said to be crucified in him, Col. 2:11, which plainly presupposeth their being born in him. And it is in virtue of their being legally born holy in Christ, when he was born, that, being united to him in the time of loves, they are really born again, and at length perfected; even as in virtue of their being legally defiled in Adam, when he sinned, they are actually and really defiled in their own persons, coming into the world: the holy nature being actually communicated to them from Christ their spiritual head, in whom they were legally born holy; even as the corruption of nature is actually conveyed to them from Adam their natural head, in whom they sinned in law-reckoning.
2. The other clause is, "That Christ, as the second Adam, should retain the holiness of nature inviolate unto the end, for them and in their name." The law, or covenant of works, required, as a condition of life, that the holiness of nature, given to mankind in Adam, should be preserved pure and incorrupt. But it was lost: and put the case, that it had been restored, they could not have retained it, in their own persons, unstained amidst so many snares. Wherefore, to satisfy the law-demand in this point, it was provided, that in the man Christ, as a public person representative of his seed, their nature should be kept perfectly holy unto the end, without the least stain or defilement: Isa. 42:4, "He shall not fail;" or, "he shall not wax dim," or wrinkle, as the skin doth when the moisture is exhausted. Therein the first Adam failed. He shone in purity of nature, as he came from the Creator's hand: but he failed, he waxed dim; the holiness of his nature being exhausted by sin, all mankind in him lost their spiritual beauty, and wrinkled. But now that the second Adam failed not, but preserved the holiness of human nature in him unstained, not in the least darkened, even to the end of his life; the remains of the corruption of nature in believers are not imputed to them, Rom. 4:8; but as defiled as they are in themselves, through those remains cleaving to them, yet in Christ their beauty is fresh, and not marred in the least, according to that, Cant. 4:7, "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee."