4. Chapter One
Chapter One H ow Christ's person, specifically as dying, is the object of faith in justification.Now, let's examine these four aspects of Christ as the object of faith mentioned here. We will explore how each aspect is the object of faith in justification and how a believer's faith can draw support or encouragement from each of them in terms of justification, which is the main topic of this discourse.
Firstly, Christ as dying is the object of justifying faith, as stated, "Who shall condemn? Christ has died."
To clarify this, I will:
1. Provide a couple of guidelines.
2. Demonstrate how encouragement or a sense of triumph can be derived from this.
1. (1.) The first guideline is this: when seeking forgiveness or justification in the promises, Christ should be the primary focus of your faith,
specifically Christ as crucified, Christ as dying, as he is portrayed here. It was the serpent, when lifted up and looked upon, that healed them. I provide this guideline to prevent a common misunderstanding that those about to believe often fall into. When they hear that the person of Christ is the main object of faith, they tend to think that when one first comes to believe, they should focus only on the personal virtues of grace and glory found in Jesus Christ, which result from the hypostatic union. They believe their hearts should be drawn to Christ by these virtues alone and accept him under these impressions only. While it's true that every believer's faith has a fundamental disposition that, if fully expressed, would accept Christ for his personal virtues alone, recognizing such beauty and suitability in them, the first view a humble soul always takes of him is as a Savior, made sin, cursed, and obedient to death for sinners. The first impression of Christ is of him in the "likeness of sinful flesh," Romans 8:3, as the gospel first presents him, although it also presents his personal virtues. This portrayal makes him a suitable object for a sinner's faith to trust and rest upon for salvation, distinguishing a sinner's faith in Christ on earth from the vision or sight of him that angels and human souls have in heaven.
Here on earth, faith views him not only as glorious at God's right hand (though he is), but also as crucified, made sin, cursed, and thus relies on him for pardon. In heaven, however, we will "see him as he is," and be made like him. If we consider Christ in his personal virtues alone, and propose him as a head to us, he could have been a suitable object for angels and humans without sin to further accept. They would have considered it an enhancement to their happiness to have him as their husband! Yet, viewed in this way, he is more an object of love than of faith or trust. Therefore, it is Christ, who is excellent in his person, but further considered as clothed in
his garments of blood and the qualifications of a mediator and reconciler, who becomes desirable to sinners and a suitable object for their faith, which seeks justification, to seize upon. They consider all his other virtues to attract their hearts to him and confirm their choice of him.
Moreover, consider faith as justifying, that is, in the act of it which justifies a sinner, and Christ, considered mainly in his personal virtues, cannot properly be called the object of it. The proper respect or consideration that makes Christ the object of faith in justification must necessarily be that in Christ which indeed justifies a sinner, which is his obedience unto death. For the act and object of every habit or faculty are always suited and similar to each other, and therefore Christ's justification must necessarily be the object of faith in justification. It's true that there is nothing in Christ that some corresponding act of faith in us does not accept.
From the differing considerations under which faith looks at Christ, those various acts of faith have different names: faith directed towards Christ and his personal virtues may be called uniting faith; faith directed towards
Christ for the strength of grace to overcome sin may be called sanctifying faith; and faith directed towards Christ, as dying for justification, may be called justifying faith. For faith in that act looks at what in Christ justifies a sinner; and therefore Christ considered as dying and rising becomes the most pleasing and grateful object to a soul that is humbled. This makes
Christ suitable to him as he is a sinner, which is how he sees himself when he is first humbled. And therefore, to represent Christ to believers under the law was the main purpose of all the sacrifices and types therein. "All things being purged with blood, and without blood there being no remission,"
Hebrews 9:22.
The apostles also did this in their sermons, and so did Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, who seemed by the content of his sermon to have "known nothing but Christ, and him as crucified," 1 Corinthians 2:2. He emphasized
Christ above all, and Christ as crucified above all in Christ, as best suiting the condition of those he sought to draw to faith in him. In his letter to the Galatians, he calls his preaching among them "the preaching of faith,"
Galatians 3:2. And what was the main focus of it, but the picturing out (as the word is) of "Christ crucified before their eyes"? Galatians 3:1. That's how he preached him, and that's how they received him, and that's how they
"began in the spirit," Galatians 3:3. The seals of the promises (the sacraments) also present Christ to a believer's eye in this way; as they present Christ (as was observed in the previous guideline), so they present
Christ as crucified. Their purpose is to "show forth his death until he come,"
1 Corinthians 11:26, with the bread signifying Christ's body broken in his sufferings, and the cup signifying the sufferings of his soul, and the pouring of it forth unto death.
And so, as faith itself is called "faith in Christ," as was previously observed, it is also called "faith in his blood," Romans 3:25, because Christ, as shedding his blood for the remission of sins, is the object of it. So the words there are, "whom God has ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins." And just as God has ordained and set forth Christ in the promise, so does faith initially accept him under that portrayal. And one reason similar to the previous one can be based on Romans 3:24, "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ." And as I showed before, in the reason for the previous guideline, that all promises depend on his person, as being the heir of all the promises, so the special tenure upon
which forgiveness of sins depends on him is by purchase, and by the redemption that is in him.
So that, as the promise of forgiveness refers to his person, so also to this redemption that is in him. Thus, both in Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14,
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins," his person gives us title to all the promises, and his blood shows the tenure they depend on; a purchase, and a full price, an adequate price, 1
Timothy 2:6. And as sin is the strength of the law, and of the threats thereof, so Christ's satisfaction is the strength of all the promises in the gospel. In short, a humbled soul is to turn to that Christ who is now alive and glorified in heaven, yet to him as once crucified and made sin. He is to go to Christ now glorified, as the person from whom he is to receive forgiveness, but further to him as crucified; as through whom, considered in that condition he then was in, he is to receive all.