Chapter 3: Verses 21–28
He is the essential Son of God. And in the same manner, Christ as God-man is mediator to Himself as He is the Son of God. For as He is the Son of God, He is the party offended; as He is mediator Godman, He is the party that makes reconciliation.
Lastly, the property of God must be observed that He is unchangeable (James 1:17; Mal. 3:6). It may be objected that God is said in Scripture to repent. Answer. God is said to repent, not because He changes either nature or will, but because He changes
His actions of mercy and love into effects of anger after the manner of men. Again, it may be objected that God changed the law and abolished ceremonies. Answer. This God did by an unchangeable decree before all worlds. And so the change is in the law, and not in God. For God can decree to change this or that, without change.
The Use. God's unchangeableness is the foundation of our comfort.
St. Paul says, "If we love God, we are known of him" (1 Cor. 8:3).
Now the first we may certainly find in ourselves, namely, the love of God and Christ; and for the second, God is unchangeable. For they which are once known of God are ever known of Him, and that even then when they feel nothing but God's anger.
Again, we are put in mind to be unchangeable in good things, as in faith, hope, love, good counsels, honest promises, and such like, specially in the maintenance of true religion. For we ought to be like unto God. It is the poesy of our gracious queen, semper eadem, always one and the same; no doubt in good things, especially in the religion established among us. The same must be the mind of all good subjects and all good people (1 Cor. 15:58).
Chapter 3: Verses 21–28
21 Is the law then against the promise of God? God forbid: if there had been a law given, which could have given life, surely righteousness should have been by the law.
22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given to them that believe.
In these words, Paul propounds and answers another objection, in number the fourth. The occasion of the objection is taken out of the former words, in which Paul says, "The law is for transgressions." It may be framed on this manner. If the law serve to convince and condemn us of sin, it serves not to give life but to kill, and so it is contrary to the promise which gives life. The answer is made negatively, "God forbid." And a double reason is rendered of the denial. The first is this. If the law could give life, it should also give justice or justification, and so it should be contrary to the promise
(because then there should be two contrary ways of justification—one by faith alone; the other by faith with works). Therefore in that it kills and condemns, it is not contrary to the promise. The second reason is in the twenty-second verse. Things subordinate, whereof one serves for the other, are not contrary. The law and the promise are subordinate, for the law prepares the way for the accomplishing of the promise in that it shuts all under sin that the promise may be given to them that believe in Christ.
The Use. In that Paul rejects the blasphemous objection with "God forbid," we are taught to avoid things said or done to the dishonor of God with loathing and detestation. When it was related to Ahab and Jezebel that Naboth had blasphemed God, they being idolaters, solemnize a fast, pretending danger by the sin (1 Kings 21:12).
Caiphas, supposing that Christ had blasphemed, rent his garments
(Matt. 26). When Job did but suspect his children of blaspheming God, he called them and sanctified them (Job 1:5). It is the fault of our days that many blaspheme by cursing, swearing, etc., without fear, and many do it (as many dissolute soldiers) in a bravery, and hearers thereof for the most part are nothing moved thereat—so ordinary is the offence. This shows the wickedness of our times.
In the first reason, Paul delivers a notable conclusion, namely, that the thing which is the means to procure life unto us is also the means of our justice or justification before God. And good reason. For justice causes life. And that which gives life, first of all gives justice.
Hence it follows that works cannot meritoriously deserve eternal life.
For if life be by the works of the law, then justice also; but that cannot be. For we must first of all be justified before we can do a good work. Let the papists consider this. Again, they which teach that faith is alone in justification, and that both faith and works concur as causes of salvation, are deceived. For by the former conclusion of Paul, if works be causes of salvation, then must they also have a stroke in our justification, which they have not. And therefore they are the way of our salvation, but not any cause at all. Lastly, here we see that many among us do not hold Christ, or believe in Him aright for their justification, because they hold Him without change of heart and life. For by Paul's conclusion, whom Christ quickens, them He justifies. And whom He does not quicken, them He does not justify.
Examine thyself then. If Christ have sanctified and renewed your heart, thou art justified. If your heart be yet unsanctified, and your life unreformed, deceive not yourself with fond imaginations. You are not yet justified.
The twenty-second verse follows, containing the second reason. And first let us consider the meaning of the words. "The Scripture." The words are in the original thus: "that Scripture," namely, the Scripture
before named, the written law in the books of the Old Testament.
And further, "by the law," we must understand, God in the law. God has concluded all under unbelief (Rom. 11:32).
"Concluded." The law is compared to a judge or sergeant; sin, to a prison. And the law is said to conclude or enclose men under sin because it does to the full accuse and convince us of sin, so as our mouths are stopped and we have no way to escape.
"All." All men that came of Adam by generation, with all that comes from them, their thoughts, desires, words, and deeds.
"The promise." The thing promised, which is remission of sin and life everlasting.
"By the faith of Christ." That is, the faith whereof Christ is both the author and matter. This is added to signify unto us who are true believers, namely, they which are believers by the faith of Christ.
Against this text of Paul blind reason moves many questions, as namely why God created man and then suffered him to fall? Why
God did not restrain the fall of Adam to his person, but suffers it to enlarge itself to all mankind, so as all be shut up under sin? Why the promise is not given to all, but only to believers? But there are two special grounds upon which we are to stay our minds. The first is that God has an absolute sovereignty and lordship over all His creatures. We may not therefore dispute the case with God (Rom.
9:20). "He may do with His own what He will" (Matt. 20:15). The second is that the ways and judgments of God are a gulf into which, the more we search, the more we plunge ourselves, because they are
"unsearchable" (Rom. 11:33).
Mark the phrase of Paul: "The Scripture concludes all under sin," if it conclude or shut up, then it determines what is sin, what not. And if this be so, then it may also determine what is true and what is false, and so be truly termed a judge of controversies in religion. If it shut up sinners under their sin, then also it shuts them that err under their error, for errors be sins and fruits of the flesh. It is said blasphemously that if the Scripture be a judge, it is but a dumb judge. And I say again that offenders may plead for themselves on this sort, that the law is but a dumb judge when it condemns them and shuts them under sin; but they shall find it has a loud voice in their consciences when they read it seriously and examine themselves by it. Even so the Scripture speaks sufficiently for the determination of truth and falsehood in matters of salvation, when it is searched with care and humility.
When Paul says, "We are all shut up under sin," he puts us in mind of our most miserable condition that we are captives of sin and Satan, enclosed in our sins as in a prison, like imprisoned malefactors that wait daily for the coming of the judge and stand in continual fear of execution. And seeing our condition is such, we must labor to see and feel by experience this our spiritual bondage, that we may say with Paul, "We are sold under sin" and "that we know there is no goodness dwelling in our flesh" (Rom. 7:14, 18). This is one of the first lessons that we must take out in the school of Christ. Again, if we seriously bethink ourselves that we are captives of sin and worthy of death, it will make us with contentation of mind to bear the miseries of this life, sickness, poverty, reproach, banishment, etc., considering they come far short of that we have deserved, who are no better than slaves of sin and Satan.
Whereas Paul says that all men with all that proceeds from them is shut under sin, he teaches that all actions of men unregenerate are
sins. "The wisdom of the flesh"—that is, the wisest cogitations, counsels, inclinations of the flesh—"are enmity with God" (Rom.
8:7). "To the unclean all things are unclean" (Titus 1:15). "An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit" (Matt. 7). It may be objected that natural men may do the works of the moral law, as to give alms and such like (Rom. 2:14). Answer. Sins be of two sorts. One is when anything is done flat against the commandment of God. The second is when the act or work is done which the law prescribes, yet not in the same manner which the law prescribes—in faith, in obedience to the glory of God. In this second regard, moral works performed by natural men are sins indeed. Hence it follows, that liberty of will in the doing of that which is truly good is lost by the fall of Adam, and that man cannot by the strength of natural will, helped by grace, apply himself to the calling of God.
Whereas Paul says that "the promise is given to believers," it is manifest that the promise is not universal in respect of all mankind, but only indefinite and universal in respect of believers. Wherefore their doctrine is not sound that teach the redemption wrought by Christ to be as general as the sin wrought by Adam. Indeed, if we regard the value and sufficiency of the death of Christ, it is so; but if we respect the communication and donation of this benefit, it is not.
For though all be shut under sin, yet the promise is only given "to them that believe." It is objected that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). Answer. The text in hand shows that by "the world" we are to understand all believers through the whole world. And whereas Paul says, "God shut up all under unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all" (Rom. 11:32), his meaning is here set down, that He shut both Jews and Gentiles under unbelief that He might have mercy upon all that believe, both
Jews and Gentiles.
Mark further, the end of the law is conviction. And the end of our conviction is that the promise of mercy may be given to them that believe. Here is notable comfort, with encouragement to all good duties. Does the law as it were in the name of God arrest you? Does it accuse and convince you of manifold sins? Does it arraign you at the bar of God's judgment, and fill your soul with terror? Do you by the testimonies of the law and your own conscience see and feel yourself to be a most miserable and wretched sinner? Well. It may be you think that all this is a preparation to your damnation, but it is not.
For it is contrariwise a preparation to your salvation. For the law with a loud voice in your heart proclaims you a sinner and threatens you with perdition, but the end of all this is that Jesus Christ may become a savior unto you, so be it you will come unto Him and believe in Him. For He saves no sheep but "the lost sheep," and "He calls not just men, but sinners to repentance." Let us therefore with all our hearts come unto Christ and believe in Him, and that by the faith of Christ, that is, with a faith joined with hope, love, and new obedience. Then shall the promise of pardon and life everlasting be given to us. Upon this ground, persons in despair and grievous offenders may see a plain way to help and succor themselves. For the work of the law concluding us under sin, by the mercy of God, tends to our salvation if we will use the good means.
Lastly, Paul says the promise is made not to everyone that believes according to any faith of his own, but to them that are true believers by the faith of Christ. Therefore every man shall not be saved in his own faith and religion, but only they that are of the faith of Christ.
23 For before faith came, we were kept under the law, and shut up unto faith which should afterward be revealed.
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to Christ, that we might be made righteous by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are no more under the schoolmaster.
Paul in the nineteenth verse had said that "the law was for transgressions, till the seed come, to which the promise was made."
And here he makes a more large declaration of his own meaning. The sum of all that he says may be reduced to a comparison of things unlike, on this manner. Before the coming of faith, we were under the dominion of Moses' law, but after faith was come, we were free.
The first part of the comparison is amplified by a double similitude: the law was a guard unto us (v. 23), and the law was our schoolmaster (v. 24). The second part of the comparison is in the twenty-fifth verse.
"Faith." That is, the gospel or the doctrine of remission of sins and life everlasting by Christ exhibited in the flesh.
"We." We Jews: I Paul a Jew, and the rest of that nation.
"Law." That is, the whole economy, policy, and regiment of Moses, by laws partly moral, partly ceremonial, and partly judicial.
"Kept." Compassed or guarded. Because the law before Christ was to the Jews as a guard of armed men, to enclose and keep them that they should not depart from God and from their allegiance to Him, unto the sins, idolatries, and superstitions of the Gentiles.
"Unto the faith." That is, till the faith come.
"Afterward revealed." From the creation to the law, the church of God was in one family; and the rest of the world beside was no
people of God. From the law till Christ, the church of God was enclosed in the nation of the Jews, and all the world beside no church or people of God. And this distinction of a people and no people stood sometime after the coming of Christ. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not" (Matt. 10:5). After the ascension of Christ, this distinction ended, because the mystery of man's redemption was then more plainly revealed; and it began then to be revealed to the whole world
(Col. 1:26–27; Rom. 16:25).
Thus we see that the law served for transgressions because it was to the Jews as a guard to keep them in the compass of their duty that they fell not away to sundry transgressions.
The Use. This shows the greatness of our corruption, and that the very frame of our heart is evil continually, that the Lord must be fain to set His laws about us as a guard of armed men to keep us that we sin not.
Again, here we see the use of God's laws, which serve to prevent, restrain, and cut off sin, into which otherwise men would fall unless they were compassed and guarded by laws. Some object for freedom of will, on this manner. If the laws of God cannot be kept, they are in vain. But they are not in vain. Therefore they may be kept. Answer.
The major or first part of the reason is not true. For there are other uses of the laws of God than the keeping of them. For they serve to restrain and to prevent open offences, and to keep men in order, at the least outwardly.
Another use of the law of God was to conclude and shut up the Jews into the unity of one faith and religion. For this cause the Jews had but one temple, one mercy seat, one high priest, etc. Hence it follows that in a godly and Christian commonwealth where true religion is
established there may be no toleration of any other religion. For that which is the end of God's laws must also be the end of all good laws in all commonwealths and kingdoms, namely, to shut up the people into the unity of one faith.
The church of the Jews is called "a fountain sealed, a garden enclosed" (Song 4:12), "a vineyard hedged in" (Isa. 5:5; Ps. 80:12).
And here we see what is the hedge or wall of this garden, or vineyard, namely, the regiment or policy of Moses by a threefold kind of law.
This admonishes us to respect and with care to observe good laws, because they are as it were hedges and fences of all good societies.
And the breaking of them is the pulling down of our fence.
Where Paul says, "till the faith be revealed," note that the faith or the gospel was not revealed to the world till the last age, after the coming of Christ. It may be said, it was always revealed to all men, but no so clearly as in these last days. Answer. It was not revealed to all, either darkly or clearly, before the coming of Christ. "God suffered the Gentiles to walk in their own ways" (Acts 14:16). They were "without God, and without Christ" (Eph. 2:12). Paul preached "where Christ was not so much as named" (Rom. 15:20). Hence it follows that the vocation of men to life everlasting is not universal because Christ was never universally revealed. Neither is man's redemption universal in respect of the whole world. For redemption by Christ was not revealed to all nations before the coming of Christ. And a benefit to be apprehended by faith, if it be unknown, is no benefit. Lastly, it is erroneous that some teach, namely, that grace supernatural is universal—that is, that the power to believe in Christ and the power to turn to God, if men will, is generally given to all. But this cannot be because it is not given to all men so much as to hear of Christ and to know Him.
Seeing faith is now come, it may be demanded, what is the guard whereby we are kept now? Answer. The precepts of the moral law.
"The sayings of the wise are as nails" or "stakes fastened" to range men in the compass of their own duties (Eccl. 12:11). Again, the peace of God or the assurance of our reconciliation with God is a guard to keep our hearts and senses in Christ (Phil. 4:7). If this will not do the deed, God has in store His corrections and judgments to be as a hedge to hedge us in (Hos. 2:6). This being so, our duty is to guard and enclose ourselves, specially our hearts (Prov. 4:23) and all the senses and powers of our souls (Ps. 141:3) by the wholesome precepts and counsels of God. Considering we lie open to so many enemies, we should continually be armed and fenced from the head to the foot (Eph. 6:13), otherwise we shall upon every occasion be overturned.
To come to the twenty-fourth verse, the Jews might haply say, Seeing we are thus kept and shut up by the law, what means have we of comfort and of salvation? The answer is made: "the law is" further
"our schoolmaster." Here by "schoolmaster" understand one that teaches little children or petits the first rudiments or elements, A, B,
C. And the law is "a schoolmaster to Christ," for two causes. One, because it points out and shadows forth unto us Christ by bodily rudiments of ceremonies and sacrifices. The second is because the law, specially the moral law, urges and compels men to go to Christ.
For it shows us our sins, and that without remedy. It shows us the damnation that is due unto us. And by this means, it makes us despair of salvation in respect of ourselves. And thus it enforces us to seek for help out of ourselves in Christ. The law is then our schoolmaster not by the plain teaching, but by stripes and correction.
In this verse, Paul sets down the manner and way of our salvation, which is on this manner: first, the law prepares us by humbling us;
then comes the gospel, and it stirs up faith. And faith wrought in the heart apprehends Christ for justification, sanctification, and glorification. Paul sets this forth by a fit similitude. They that would be the servants and children of God must come into the school of God and be taught of Him. In this school are two forms and two masters. In the first form, the teacher and master is the law. And he teaches men to know their sin and their deserved damnation, and he causes us to despair of our salvation in respect of ourselves. And when men have been well schooled by the law and are brought to acknowledge their sins and that they are slaves of sin and Satan, then must they be taken up to a higher form and be taught by another schoolmaster, which is faith or the gospel. The lesson of the gospel is that men after they are humbled must fly to the throne of grace, believe in Christ, and with all their hearts turn unto God that they may be justified and glorified. When we have by the teaching of this second master learned this good lesson, we are become children and servants of God.
By this then it is manifest that there are two sorts of bad scholars in the school of Christ among us. One sort are they which come to the Lord's Table and yet learn nothing either from the law or from the gospel, but content themselves with the teaching of nature. The second sort are they which learn something but in preposterous manner. For they have learned that mercy and salvation comes by Christ. And with this they content themselves, not suffering themselves first of all to be schooled by the law till they despair in respect of themselves, nor to be schooled of the gospel till they believe in Christ and repent of their sins.
In a word, he is a good scholar in the school of Christ that first learns by the law to humble himself and to go out of himself, and, being humbled, subjects his heart to the voice and precept of the gospel,
which bids us believe in Christ, turn to God, and testify our faith by new obedience.
In the second part of the comparison (v. 25), Paul sets down one point: that at the coming of the faith the Jews were freed from the dominion of the law of Moses, and consequently that the said law was abrogated. The lawgiver, that is, the expounder of Moses' law, was to last but till the coming of Shiloh (Gen. 49:10). The law of commandments standing in ordinances was abrogated by the flesh of Christ (Eph. 2:15). And the change of the priesthood brought the change of the law (Heb. 7:12).
For the better clearing of this point, three questions are to be demanded. The first is, when was the policy, regiment, or law of Moses abrogated? Answer. At the coming of the faith, or when the gospel first began to be published to the world, which was at the ascension of Christ. And He in His death canceled the ceremonial law and took it out of the way (Col. 2:14). When the Old Testament ended, and the New began, then was the abrogation of the law. Now the ending of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New was in the resurrection of Christ. For then was the beginning of the new world, as it were.
The second question is, how far forth the law is abrogated? Answer.
The law is threefold: moral, ceremonial, judicial. Moral is the law of God concerning manners or duties to God and man. Now the moral law is abrogated in respect of the church and them that believe [in] three ways. First, in respect of justification. And this Paul proves at large in this epistle. And secondly, in respect of the malediction or curse. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ" (Rom.
8:1). Thirdly, in respect of rigor. For in them that are in Christ, God accepts the endeavor to obey for obedience itself. Nevertheless, the
law, as it is the rule of good life, is unchangeable, and admits no abrogation. And Christ in this regard did by his death establish it
(Rom. 3:31).
The ceremonial law is that which prescribed rites and gestures in the worship of God in the time of the Old Testament. Ceremonies are either of figure and signification or of order. The first are abrogated at the coming of Christ, who was the accomplishment of them all
(Col. 2:17). The second being ceremonies of particular order to the times of the Old and New Testament concern not us. For example, in the commandment of the Sabbath, some things are moral, some ceremonial, some judicial. That in one day of seven there should be a holy rest, it is moral. Rest upon the seventh day from creation is ceremonial in respect of order. Strictness of rest from all labor is ceremonial in respect of the signification of rest from sin and rest in heaven. Therefore the particular day of rest and the manner of rest is abrogated. And Christ by His own example and by the example of the apostles (examples not being contradicted in Scripture) appointed the eighth day, or the day of Christ's resurrection, to be the Sabbath of the New Testament.
Judicial laws are such as concern inheritances, lands, bargains, controversies, causes criminal, and they pertain to the regiment of the commonwealth. If the commonwealth of the Jews were now standing, they should be governed by these laws. For to them were they given. The case is not like with us. Some are of mind that all judicial laws are abrogated. And some are of contrary mind that all commonwealths are to be governed by them. But they are both deceived. And the mean between both is the truth. Know then that of judicial laws of Moses, some are abrogated, [and] some are not. Such laws as are merely judicial, that is, judicial and not moral, and do particularly concern the nation of the Jews, the land of Canaan, the
times before Christ, the things of the Old Testament—[these] are abrogated. Of this kind is the law that commands "the brother to raise up seed to his brother" (Deut. 25:5). The law of tenths is partly ceremonial and partly judicial, and specially concerns the land of Canaan. For as countries are richer or poorer than Canaan, so must their allowance to the ministry be more or less. The sevenths, the eighths, the ninths, the elevenths, the twelfths, and not the tenths.
And the allowance of tenths stands not in force in this and other commonwealths by the judicial law of God, but by positive laws of countries. For if it did, then ministers should not meddle with their tenths, either for the gathering or for the disposing of them; but they should be brought into storehouses by certain overseers, and they should dispose of them according to the need of the minister (2
Chron. 31; Mal. 3). The law that these must either restore fourfold, or be a bondman, concerns Canaan, and those countries. In Europe
(specially in the northern and western parts), a straighter law is required. For the people are much given to idleness, and consequently to robbing. And they are of fierce disposition, and therefore with theft join violence and disturbance of the common peace. And for this cause (excepting in some cases) theft is punished with death. And this must not seem hard. For even the Jews, when the theft was aggravated with other circumstances, might punish it with death (2 Sam. 12:5). And it is in the power of the magistrate, when sins are increased, to increase punishment.
Now judicial laws that are in foundation and substance moral are not abrogated, but are perpetual. For the better discerning of them, I give two notes. The first is this. If a judicial law serve directly and immediately to guard and fence any one of the Ten Commandments in the main scope and end thereof, it is moral in equity and perpetual because the end and use of it is perpetual. I will give sundry examples. It is the law of God that he of the Israelites that shall
entice them to go and worship other gods shall be put to death (Deut.
13:6–9). This law serves to maintain and uphold the first commandment, the end whereof is to enjoin us to take the true God for our God. And this end is most necessary both for God's glory and for the salvation of men, and therefore whatsoever thing or person overturns or abolishes this end, it must be cut off from the society of men. Here note by the way, that they which have been born, baptized, and brought up among us, and yet afterward become Masspriests, and seek maliciously and obstinately without ceasing to seduce our people, deserve in this respect to be put to death.
Example 2. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Ex. 22:18). This law again is a fence to the first commandment. For witches renounce
God and human society, and therefore are worthily cut off, though they do no hurt, even because they make a league with the devil.
Example 3. "He that blasphemeth the name of God shall be put to death" (Lev. 24:16). Understand this law of manifest and notorious blasphemies that pierce through God, as the words import. And then it is a main fence to the third commandment. For God's name may in no wise be abused and trod underfoot. And therefore blasphemers piercing God are to be cut off. This is the very law of nature, as appears by Nebuchadnezzar, who gave in commandment to his people that whosoever blasphemed the name of the true God should be put to death (Dan. 3:29). Here note that manifest and convicted atheists, if they be put to death, have but their deserts.
Example 4. "He that curseth father or mother shall die the death"
(Lev. 20:9). This law is a necessary fence to the fifth commandment, and upholds the honor that is due to parents.
Example 5. "He that smites a man that he die shall die the death"
(Ex. 21:12). To this law there is no exception made, but one, and that
is when a man is killed at unawares. And it is for his [its] equity perpetual. For it is a main and direct fence to the sixth commandment. Consider another reason, "The whole land" (says the Lord) "shall be defiled with blood, till his blood be shed that killeth a man" (Num. 35:33).
Example 6. "The adulterer and the adulteress shall both be put to death" (Lev. 20). This judicial serves to uphold and maintain chastity, which is the end of the seventh commandment. Mark withal the reasons: "Lest the land spew you out," and, "for these things"— that is, for suffering this and other sins unpunished—"the Gentiles were cast out" (Lev. 20:22, 23). It may be said that Christ did not condemn the woman to death, which was taken in adultery. Answer.
He came to be a mediator, and not a judge or magistrate. It is alleged that David was not put to death for adultery. Answer. He was the highest in the kingdom. There was none to judge him. Again, it may be said that if adultery be death, then innumerable persons must die.
Answer. We must do that which we find to be the will of God. And the events of things must be left to God.
The second note whereby we may discern a judicial law to be moral for his [its] equity is this: if it follow necessarily and immediately from the light, principles, and conclusions of nature. For example,
"The man shall not put on the things that appertain to the woman, nor the woman the things that appertain to the man" (Deut. 22:5).
This law is more than judicial. For it is a rule of common honesty, practiced in those countries by the light of nature where the written law was never known. And things good and honest which nature teaches are moral and must be done. This is Paul's rule, "Doth not nature teach this?" (1 Cor. 11:14).
This I speak, not to censure and condemn the laws of this or any other commonwealth, but only to show how far judicial laws have morality in them and stand in force.
The third question is, what is our guide now in the time of the New Testament, seeing the regiment and law of Moses is abrogated?
Answer. The outward guide is the doctrine of the moral law and of the gospel. It is therefore called "the rod and the staff" of God (Ps.
23) and "the rod of His mouth" (Isa. 11:4). The inward guide is the Spirit of God, writing the laws of God in our hearts, and by them guiding us and being a law unto us (Rom. 8:2, 14). Thirdly, God by manifold afflictions nurtures and schools us, partly to prevent sins to come and partly to humble us for that which is past (1 Cor. 11:32; Jer.
31:18).
The Use. Seeing the law is abrogated (as I have said), we must be a free and voluntary people, serving God not of constraint but willingly, as if there were no law to compel us. "All nations shall flow as waters to the mountain of the Lord" (Isa. 2:2). "Thy people shall come willingly in the day of assembly" (Ps. 110:3). "In the days of John Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence." Jeremiah says, "They shall [not] teach every man his neighbor, and his brother" (Jer. 31:34), because men shall learn freely without compulsion, or calling upon. Here is the fault of our times. Many say in heart to Christ, "Depart from us, we will none of Thy ways"; and many again are zealous for the things of this life, but for duties pertaining to God's worship and the salvation of their souls, they are neither hot nor cold. This negligence and slackness is full of danger, and therefore with speed to be amended. For "cursed is he that doth the work of God negligently," and the Lord will spew out such persons.
26 For ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27 For all ye that are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Grecian: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female: ye are all one in Christ
Jesus.
Paul had said before (v. 25) that the believing Jews, after the publishing of the gospel, were no more under the law as under a schoolmaster. In this twenty-sixth verse he renders a reason hereof.
And it may be framed on this manner. If we Jews were still under the law as under a schoolmaster, then we should be still after the manner of servants. But we are not after the manner of servants because we are children. For even you Galatians, and that all of thou art children of God not by circumcision or by the keeping of the law but by faith in Christ. Again, that they are children of God, he proves it thus. You are baptized into Christ, and in baptism you have put on Christ, in that thou art joined with Him and have fellowship with Him who is the natural Son of God. Therefore thou art sons of God. It may be said, all children of God? All baptized? All put on Christ? How can this be? Seeing some are Jews; some, Gentiles; some, bond; some, free; some, men; some, women. The answer is made. There are differences of men indeed, but in Christ, all are as one (v. 28).
In these words, I consider two things. The first is the benefit or gift bestowed on the Galatians, which is sonship, adoption, or the condition of God's children. The second is the description of this benefit by four arguments. The first is by the circumstance of the persons: "Ye all are children of God." The second is the inward means, namely, "faith in Christ Jesus." The third is the outward means or the pledge of adoption: "Ye are all baptized into Christ."
The last is the foundation of adoption, and that is, "to put on Christ,"
or, "to be one with him." For the better conceiving of the benefit, three questions may be moved. The first is, whose sons the Galatians were? Answer. The sons of God. It may be said, how the sons of God?
I answer again, God is called a Father in two respects. First, He is a Father in respect of Christ, the essential Word. And then God signifies the first person. Again, God is called a Father in respect of men elect to salvation; then the name of God is put indefinitely, and it comprehends not only the first person, but also the Son and Holy
Ghost. For all three do equally regenerate them that are adopted.
And Paul says of the Godhead indefinitely: "There is one God and Father of all" (Eph. 4:6). And when we pray, saying, "Our Father," etc., we invocate not only the first person, but also the Son and Holy
Ghost. And the Son of God is expressly called "the Father of eternity," in respect of us (Isa. 9:6); and He is said "to have his seed"
(Isa. 53:10).
The second question is, in what respect are the Galatians the children of God? Answer. A child of God is two ways: by nature; by grace. The child of God by nature is Christ as He is the eternal Son of God. A child by grace is three ways. By creation: Thus Adam before his fall and the good angels are the children of God. Secondly, by the personal union: Thus Christ as He is man is the child of God. Thirdly, by the grace of adoption: Thus are all true believers, and in this text, the Galatians are said to be "the children of God." In this grace of adoption, there be two acts of God. One is acceptation, whereby God accepts men for His children. The other is regeneration, whereby men are born of God when the image of God is restored in them in righteousness and true holiness.
The third question is, what is the excellency of this benefit? Answer.
Great every way (John 1:12). He which is the child of God is heir and fellow-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17), and that of the kingdom of
heaven, and of all things in heaven and earth (1 Cor. 3:22) he has title in this life and shall have possession in the life to come. Again, he that is God's child has the angels of God to attend on him and to minister unto him for his good and salvation (Heb. 1:14).
The first argument whereby the adoption of God's children is set forth is concerning the persons to whom it belongs, in these words:
"All ye are the children of God." So Paul says, all the Ephesians are elect (Eph. 1:3). And Peter calls all them to whom he writes "elect" (1
Peter 1:1); and John, "the children of God" (1 John 3). And herein they follow the judgment of charity, leaving all secret judgments to God. Here I observe one thing, that every grievous fall does not abolish the favor of God and extinguish the grace of regeneration.
For the Galatians erred in the foundation of religion and had fallen away to another gospel. And yet Paul says that "they were" (for all this) "the children of God," and not some, but "all of them." This truth may be seen by experience. The child of God before his fall has a purpose not to sin. In the time of temptation when he is in falling he has a strife; after he is fallen, he lies not in his fall, as wicked men do, but he recovers himself by new repentance. And this shows that the child of God by his fall does not return again to the estate and condition of wicked men. When St. John says, "He that is born of God sins not," his meaning is this. He that is born of God, if he fall into any offence of frailty, yet does he not make a practice of sin, as the wicked and ungodly do.
It may be said, the Galatians, and all the Galatians, are the children of God; but what is that to us? Answer. They among us that profess true faith in Christ with care to keep good conscience are likewise to hold themselves to be children of God. He believes not the gospel that does not believe his own adoption. For in the gospel there is a promise of all the blessings of God to them that believe. And there is
also a commandment to apply the said promise to ourselves, and, consequently, to apply the gift of adoption to ourselves. When we are bidden to say, "Our Father," we are bidden to believe ourselves to be children of God, and so to come unto Him. Therefore with Paul I say that all we that truly believe in Christ and have care to lead a good life—all, I say, are indeed the children of God.
The Use. Comforts arising by this benefit are many. First, if thou art God's child, surely He will provide all things necessary for your soul and body (Matt. 6:26). Our care must be to do the office and duty that belongs unto us. When this is done, our care is ended. As for the good success of our labors, we must cast our care on God who will provide that no good thing be wanting unto us (Ps. 34:10). They that drown themselves in worldly cares live like fatherless children.
Secondly, in that we are children, we have liberty to come into the presence of God and to pray unto Him (Eph. 3:12).
Thirdly, nothing shall hurt them that are the children of God. "The plague shall not come near their tabernacle: they shall walk upon the lion and the asp, and tread them underfoot" (Ps. 91:13). "All things shall turn to their good" (Rom. 8:28). And the rather, because the angels of God pitch their tents about them.
Lastly, God will bear with the infirmities and frailties of them that are His children, if there be in them a care to please Him with a purpose of not sinning (Mal. 3:17). If a child be sick, the father or mother do not cast it out of doors. Much less will God.
The Duties. First, if you be God's child, then walk worthy of your profession and calling. Be not vassals of sin and Satan. Carry yourselves as king's sons, bearing sway over the lusts of your own hearts, the temptations of the devil, and the lewd customs and
fashions of the world. When David kept his father's sheep, he behaved himself like a shepherd. But when he was called from the sheepfold, and chosen to be king, he carried himself accordingly. So must we do, that of children of the devil are made the children of God. And if we live according to the lusts of the flesh as the men of this world do, whatsoever we profess, we are in truth the children of the devil (John 8:44; 1 John 3).
Secondly, we must use every day to bring ourselves into the presence of God, and we must do all things as in His sight and presence, presenting ourselves unto Him as instruments of His glory in doing of His will. This is the honor that the child of God owes unto Him
(Mal. 1:6).
Thirdly, our care must be (according to the measure of grace) to resemble Christ in all good virtue and holy conversation. For He is our eldest brother, the firstborn of many brethren. And therefore we should be like unto Him (1 John 3:2–3).
Fourthly, we must have a desire and love to the Word of God that we may grow by it in knowledge, grace, and good life. For this is the milk and food whereby God feeds His children (1 Peter 2:2). Such persons then among us that have no love or liking of the Word, but spend their days in ignorance and security, show themselves to be no children of God. The child in the arms of the mother or nurse that never desires the breast is certainly a dead child.
Lastly, we must put this in our accounts that we must have many afflictions, if we be God's children. For He corrects all His children.
And when we are under the rod of correction, we must resign ourselves to the will and good pleasure of God. This is childlike obedience. And this must be done in silence and with all quietness.
Then God is best pleased.
The internal means of adoption is faith in Christ. And for the better conceiving of it, three questions are to be propounded. The first, what kind of faith is this? Answer. A particular or special faith. And it has three acts or effects. The first is to believe Christ to be Jesus, that is, a savior. The second is to believe that Christ is my or your savior.
The third is to put the confidence of heart in Him. When Thomas felt the wounds of Christ, he said, "My Lord, and my God." And thereupon Christ said, "Because thou hast seen, thou believest"
(John 20:29). Here mark that to believe Christ to be my Christ is faith. Against this special faith, the papists object three arguments.
The first is this. Every special faith must have a special word of God for his [its] ground. But there is no special word that your sins or my sins are forgiven by Christ. Therefore there is no special faith.
Answer. We have that which in force and value is equivalent to a special word, namely, a general promise with a commandment to apply the said promise to ourselves. Secondly, I answer, that the word and promise of God generally propounded in Scripture is made particular in the public ministry, in which when the word is preached to any people, God reveals two things unto them: one, that His will is to save them by Christ; the other, that His will is that men should believe in Christ. And the word thus applied in the public ministry in the name of God is as much as if an angel should particularly speak unto us from heaven.
The second argument. Special faith (say they) is absurd, because by it a sinner must believe the pardon of his sins before he has it, inasmuch as faith is the means to obtain pardon. Answer. The giving and the receiving of pardon and faith are both at one moment of time. For when God gives the pardon of sin, at the same instant He causes men to receive the same pardon by faith. For order of nature, faith goes before the receiving of the pardon (because faith is given to them that are to be engrafted into Christ, and pardon to them that
are in Christ); for time it does not, and therefore this second argument is absurd.
The third argument. The full certainty and persuasion of God's mercy in Christ follows good conscience and good works. And therefore faith follows after justification. Answer. There be two degrees of faith. A weak faith and a strong faith. A weak faith is that against which doubting much prevails, in which there is a sorrow for unbelief, a will and desire to believe in Christ, with care to use good means and to increase in faith. Strong faith is that which prevails against doubting, and it is a full persuasion or resolution of the love and mercy of God in Christ. This second degree of faith follows justification upon the observation and experience of the providence and goodness of God. But the first degree of special faith before named for order goes before justification, and for time is together with it.
The second question is, when faith begins first to breed in the heart?
Answer. When a man begins to be touched in his conscience for his sins, and, upon feeling of his own spiritual poverty, earnestly hungers and thirsts after Christ and His righteousness above all things in the world. Christ says, "I will give to him that thirsteth of the well of the water of life freely" (Rev. 21:6). This promise declares that in thirsting there is a measure of faith. To eat and drink Christ the bread and water of life is to believe in Him. And to hunger and thirst, having as it were a spiritual appetite to Christ, is the next step to this eating and drinking. Therefore this must be remembered, that the professors of the gospel, yea teachers of the same, that want this sense of their unworthiness and this thirsting, are far wide, what gifts soever they have. For they are not yet come to the first step of true faith.
The third question is, how faith in Christ is conceived in the heart?
Answer. It is not faith to conceive in mind a bare persuasion that Christ is my savior, and thereupon to think to be saved. But faith in Christ is conceived in the spiritual exercises of invocation and repentance. When I see mine own sins and God's anger against me for them by the law, when I see mine own guiltiness, I draw myself into the presence of God, making confession of mine offences and prayer for the pardon of them; and in this prayer I strive against mine unbelief—I will, desire, and endeavor to assent to the promise of God touching forgiveness, and withal I purpose with myself to sin no more. This is my daily practice. And thus is faith truly conceived and confirmed. Again faith is conceived in the use of holy means, namely, the preaching of the word and sacraments. For in hearing and receiving the Lord's Supper, to meditate upon the promise of mercy, and in meditation to apply the said promise to myself is the right way to conceive true faith. Therefore it must be remembered that faith conceived without the exercises of invocation and repentance, or conceived without the use of the word and sacraments
(as commonly it is) is not true faith, but an imagination or fiction of the brain which will fail in the end.
The third point to be considered is the sign or the outward means of adoption, and that is baptism. It may be demanded how baptism can be a mark or sign of the child of God, considering all sorts of men are partakers of it? Answer. Baptism alone is no mark of God's child, but baptism joined with faith. For so must the text be conceived, "All ye
Galatians" that believe "are baptized into Christ." For Paul had said immediately before, "Ye are the sons of God by faith." Again, the Scripture speaking of baptism comprehends both the outward and the inward baptism, which is the inward baptism of the Spirit (Matt.
3:11; 1 Peter 3:21). And thus is baptism always an infallible mark of the child of God.
It may further be demanded, what are the marks of the inward baptism? Answer. The new birth, whereby a man is washed and cleansed by the Spirit of God, has three special marks. The first is the Spirit of grace and supplications (Zech. 12:10), that is, the Spirit of regeneration, causing men to turn to God and withal to make instant prayer and supplication for mercy and forgiveness of sins past. The second is to hear and obey the voice of God in all things (John 8:47;
10:27). The third is not to sin, that is, not to live in the practice of any sin after this new birth is begun. "He that is born of God, doth not commit sin" (1 John 3). He may fail in this or that speech, or do amiss in this or that action; but after his calling and conversion, the tenor and course of his life shall be according to the commandments of God. And this is a special mark to discern the inward baptism.
Some allege that having long ago been baptized with water, yet they feel not the inward baptism. And therefore they fear that they are not the children of God. Answer. If there be in you a sorrow for your corruptions and sins past, if you have a purpose to sin no more, if you avoid the occasions of sin, and fear to offend, if having sinned, you lie not in your sin, but recover yourself by new repentance—
[then] thou art verily born of God and baptized with the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Others allege that although they have been baptized, yet they fear they have no faith. And therefore they think they are not the children of God. Answer. If there be in you a sorrow for your unbelief, a will and desire to believe, and a care to increase in faith by the use of good means, there is a measure of true faith in you, and by it you may assure yourself that thou art the child of God.
Others again allege that they have long made prayer unto God, and that according to His will, and yet their prayers have not been heard.
And therefore they often doubt they are not God's children. Answer.
If you can pray, though your prayer be not heard according to your desire, content yourself. For the prayer of the heart is the mark of the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15, 26). And by it you may know that thou art the child of God.
Thus then we see what is the infallible mark of the child of God, namely, baptism joined with true faith in Christ, or the outward baptism joined with the inward baptism of the Spirit. The Use. Many avouch the present Church of Rome to be the true church of God, and that because they say in it there is true baptism, which is a mark of the church of God. But they are deceived. For baptism in the Church of Rome is severed from true faith, or from the apostolic doctrine. And the outward baptism is severed from the inward baptism. For they of that church overturn justification by the mere mercy of God, which is the principal part of the inward baptism.
Again, the ten tribes retained circumcision after their apostasy, yet for all that [were] condemned to be no people of God (Hos. 1:9). The light in the lantern pertains not to the lantern but to the passengers in the street. Even so the confession of faith in the Symbol of the Apostles and baptism that are retained in the papacy, pertain not to the papacy, but to another hidden church, which by these and other means is gathered out of the midst of Romish Babylon. And therefore baptism is rather a sign of this, than of the Romish church.
Again, we must be warned to take heed that we deceive not ourselves, thinking it a sufficient matter that we have been baptized.
For except Christ inwardly wash us with His Spirit, "we have no part in him" (John 13:8). "Circumcision" (says Paul) "availeth not, unless thou be a doer of the law" (Rom. 2:25). Baptism indeed saves, but that is not the baptism of water, "but the stipulation of a good conscience, by the resurrection of Christ" (1 Peter 3:21). The outward