if he will be our Saviour, should take upon him inhabit eternal praise, while we that are
LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS 19
Christ is the tabernacle which the Lord pitched, according to that saying, 'The tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God' (Rev 21:3). Here God beginneth to discover his glory, and to be desirable to the sons of men. God could not communicate himself to us, nor take us into the enjoyment of himself, but with respect to that flesh which his Son took of the Virgin, because sin stood betwixt. Now this flesh only was the holy lump, in this flesh God could dwell; and forasmuch as this flesh is the same with ours, and was taken up with intent that what was done in and by that, should be communicated to all the children; therefore through that doth God communicate of himself unto his people— 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself' (2 Cor 5:19). And 'I am the way,' saith Christ, 'no man cometh unto the Father but by me' (John 14:6). That passage to the Hebrews is greatly to our purpose. We have boldness, brethren, 'to enter into the holiest,' the place where God is, 'by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh' (Heb 10:19,20). Wherefore by the flesh and blood of Christ we enter into the holiest; through the veil, saith he, that is to say, his flesh. (2.) As the end of our salvation is that we might enjoy God, so also it is that he by us might be glorified for ever— 'That God in all things might be glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Here indeed will the mystery of his grace, wisdom, justice, power, holiness, and glory, inhabit eternal praise, while we that are counted worthy of the kingdom of God shall admire at the mystery, and see ourselves, without ourselves, even by the flesh and blood of Christ through faith therein, effectually and eternally saved. Oh, this will be the burden of our eternal joy—God loved us, and gave his Son for us; Christ loved us, and gave his flesh for our life, and his blood for our eternal redemption and salvation!
children, for their sins; wherefore he that will save them must answer Divine justice, or God must lie, in saving them without inflicting the punishment threatened. Christ, then, must needs have suffered; the manner of the work laid a necessity upon him to take our flesh upon him; he must die, he must die for us, he must die for our sins. And this was effectually foretold by all the bloody sacrifices that were offered under the law—the blood of bulls, the blood of lambs, the blood of rams, the blood of calves, and the blood of goats and birds. These bloody sacrifices, what did they signify, what were they figures of, but of the bloody sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ? their blood being a shadow of his blood, and their flesh being a shadow of his flesh. Therefore, when God declared that he took no pleasure in them, because they could not make the worshippers perfect as pertaining to the conscience, then comes Jesus Christ to offer his sinless body and soul for the sin of the people— 'For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifices and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me; in burntofferings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.' Since burnt-offerings cannot do thy will, my body shall; since the blood of bulls and goats cannot do thy will, my blood shall. Then follows, By the will of God 'we are sanctified, through the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all' (Heb 10:4-10). 3. The end of the work required that Christ, if he will be our Saviour, should take upon him our flesh. The end of our salvation is, that we might enjoy God, and that he by us might be glorified for ever and ever. (1.) That we might enjoy God. 'I will dwell in them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.' This indwelling of God, and consequently our enjoyment of him, begins first in its eminency by his possessing our flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Hence his name is called 'Immanuel, God with us'; and 'the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' The flesh of
THE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN 20
I told you before that he came sinless into the world, that he had a miraculous conception, and wonderful birth; and here you see a reason for it, he was to be put, or made, under the law, 'to redeem.' He that will be made under the law to redeem, had need be sinless and spotless himself; for the law findeth fault with the least, and condemneth man for the first beginning of, sin. Without this, then, there could not have been redemption, nor any the sons of God by adoption: no redemption, because the sentence of death had already passed upon all; no sons by adoption, because that is the effect of redemption. 'God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' Christ, then, by being made under the law, hath recovered his from under the law, and obtained for them the privilege of the adoption of sons. For, as I told you before, Christ stood a common
THAT CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE
LAW. SECOND. But, secondly CHRIST WAS MADE UNDER THE LAW— 'When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law' (Gal 4:4). Of right, being found in flesh, he must needs be under the law, for that there is not any creature above or without law to God; but this is not to the point in hand. Christ was not therefore under the law because he was found in flesh, but he took flesh, and designedly put himself, or was made under the law; wherefore it is added, He was made under the law to 'redeem,' to redeem them that were under that law. Wherefore, here is a design, a heavenly contrivance and device on foot; Christ is made—that is, by design subjected—under the law, for the sake and upon the account of others, 'to redeem them that were under the law.' Made under the law—that is, put himself into the room of sinners, into the condition of sinners; made himself subject to the same pains and penalties we were obnoxious to. We were under the law, and it had dominion over us, bound us upon pain of eternal damnation to do completely all things written in the law. This condition Christ put himself into that 'he might redeem'; for assuredly we had else perished. The law had dominion over us, and since we had sinned, of right it pronounced the curse, and made all men subject to the wrath of God. Christ, therefore, did not only come into our flesh, but also into our condition, into the valley and shadow of death where we were, and where we are, as we are sinners. He that is under the law is under the edge of the axe. When David was to go to visit his brethren, and to save them from the hand of Goliath, he was to look how his brethren fared, and to 'take their pledge' (1 Sam 17:18). This is true of Jesus Christ when he came to save us from the hand of death and the law; he looked how his brethren fared, took to heart their deplorable condition, and put himself into the same plight—to wit, under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law.
3 person, presenting in himself the whole lump of the promised seed, or the children of the promise; wherefore he comes under the law for them, takes upon him to do what the law required of them, takes upon him to do it for them. He began, therefore, at the first tittle of the law, and going in man's flesh, for man, through the law, he becomes 'the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.' The END of the law—what is the end of the law but perfect and sinless obedience? that is the end of the law, both with respect to its nature, and the cause of its being imposed. God gave the law, that complete righteousness should by that be found upon men; but because sin was got into man's flesh, therefore this righteousness, by us, could not be completed. Now comes Christ the Lord into the world, clothes himself with the children's flesh, addresseth himself to the work of their redemption, is made under the law; and going through every part of the law without sin, he becometh 'the end of the law for' justifying 'righteousness to every one that believeth' (Rom
3 'Common' means public. 'Not doing nor dying in a private capacity, but in the room and stead of sinners.'— Ed.
LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS 21
With respect to God. The righteousness is demanded by God; therefore he that comes to redeem must present before God a righteousness absolutely perfect; this can be done by none but God. With respect to man. Man was to present this righteousness to God; therefore must the undertaker be man. Man for man, and God for God, God-man between God and man. This daysman can lay his hand upon us both, and bring God and man together in peace (Job 9:33). Quest. But some may say, what need of the righteousness of one that is naturally God? Had Adam, who was but a mere man, stood in his innocency, and done his duty, he had saved himself and all his posterity. Answ. Had Adam stood, he had so long secured himself from the wages of sin, and posterity so long as they were in him. But had Adam sinned, yea, although he had not defiled his nature with filth, he could never after that have redeemed himself from the curse of the law, because he was not equal with God; for the curse of the law is the curse of God; but no man can deliver himself from the curse of God, having first transgressed. This is evident, because angels, for sin, lie bound in chains, and can never deliver themselves. He, therefore, that redeemeth man from under the law must not only do all the good that the law requireth, but bear all the penalty that is due by the law for sin. Should an angel assume human flesh, and in that flesh do the law, this righteousness would not redeem a sinner; it would be but the righteousness of an angel, and so, far short of such a righteousness as can secure a sinner from the wrath of God. But 'thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.' If there were no more required of us now to redeem ourselves, it would be utterly impossible for us to do it, because in the best there is sin, which will intermix itself with every duty of man. This being so, all the heart, all the soul, all the strength, and all the mind, to the exact requirement of the justice of the law, can never be found in a natural man.
10:4). For he obeyed not the law for himself, he needed no obedience thereto; it was we that needed obedience, it was we that wanted to answer the law; we wanted it but could not obtain it, because then the law was weak through the flesh; therefore God sent his own Son, and he did our duty for us, even to become the end of the law to every one that believeth. In this, therefore, Christ laboured for us, he was made under the law to redeem. Therefore, as I said before, it behoved him to be sinless, because the law binds over to answer for sin at the bar of the judgment of God. Therefore did his Godhead assume our human flesh, in a clean and spotless way, that he might come under 'the law, to redeem them that were under the law.' For, consisting of two natures, and the personality lying in the Godhead, which gave value and worth to all things done for us by the manhood, the obedience takes denomination from thence, to be the obedience of God. The Son's righteousness, the Son's blood; the righteousness of God, the blood of God (Heb 5:8,9; Phil 3:9; Acts 20:28; 1 John 3:16). Thus Jesus Christ came into the world under the law to redeem, not simply as God, but Godman, both natures making one Christ. The Godhead, therefore, did influence and give value to the human flesh of Christ in all its obedience to the law, else there would have been wanting that perfection of righteousness which only could answer the demands and expectation of the justice of God; to wit, perfect righteousness by flesh. But the second Person in the Godhead, the Son, the Word, coming under the law for men in their flesh, and subjecting himself by that flesh to every tittle and demand of the law; all and every whit of what was acted and done by Jesus Christ, God-man, for us, it was and is the righteousness of God; and since it was not done for himself, but for us, as he saith in the text, 'to redeem,' the righteousness by which we are set free from the law is none other but the righteousness that alone resideth in the person of the Son of God. And that it is absolutely necessary thus it should be, is evident, both with respect to God and also with respect to man.
THE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN 22
Sin, then, and man for sin, is the object of the wrath of God. If the object of the wrath of God, then is his case most dreadful; for who can bear, who can grapple with the wrath of God? Men cannot, angels cannot, the whole world cannot. All, therefore, must sink under sin, but he who is made to be sin for us; he only can bear sins, he only can bear them away, and therefore were they laid upon him— 'The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all' (Isa 53:6). Mark, therefore, and you shall find that the reason why God made him to be sin for us was, 'that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' He took our flesh, he was made under the law, and was made to be sin for us, that the devil might be destroyed, that the captives might be redeemed, and made the righteousness of God in him. And forasmuch as he saith that God 'hath made him to be sin,' it declareth that the design of God and the mystery of his will and grace was in it. 'He hath made him to be sin.' God hath done it, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There was no other way; the wisdom of heaven could find no other way; we could not by other means stand just before the justice of God. Now, what remains but that we who are reconciled to God by faith in his blood are quit, discharged, and set free from the law of sin and death? Yea, what encouragement to trust in him, when we read that God 'made him to be sin for us.' Quest. But how was Jesus Christ made of God to be sin for us? Answ. Even so as if himself had committed all our sins; that is, they were as really charged upon him as if himself had been the actor and committer of them all. 'He hath made him to be sin,' not only as a sinner, but as sin itself. He was as the sin of the world that day he stood before God in our stead. Some, indeed, will not have Jesus Christ our Lord to be made sin for us; their wicked reasons think this to be wrong judgment in the Lord; it seems, supposing that because they cannot imagine how it should be, therefore God, if he does it, must do it at his peril, and must be charged with doing wrong judgment, and so things that become not his
Besides, for this work there is required a perfect memory, always to keep in mind the whole duty of man, the whole of every tittle of all the law, lest sin come in by forgetfulness; a perfect knowledge and judgment, lest sin come in by ignorance; an everlasting unweariedness in all, lest sin and continual temptation tire the soul, and cause it to fail before the whole be done. For the accomplishing of this last, he must have—1. A perfect willingness, without the least thought to the contrary. 2. Such a hatred of sin as is not to be found but in the heart of God. 3. A full delight in every duty, and that in the midst of all temptations. 4. A continuing in all things to the well-pleasing of the justice of God. I say, should the penalty of the law be taken off, should God forgive the penalty and punishment due to sins that are past, and only demand good works now, according to the tenor of the law, no man could be saved; there would not be found that heart, that soul, that mind, and that strength, anywhere in the world. This, therefore, must cease for ever, unless the Son of God will put his shoulder to the work; but, blessed be God, he hath done it— 'When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.'
CHRIST TOOK UPON HIM OUR SINS. THIRD. But thirdly, CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR TAKES UPON HIM OUR SINS. This is another step to the work of our redemption. 'He hath made him to be sin for us.' Strange doctrine! A fool would think it blasphemy; but Truth hath said it. Truth, I say, hath said, not that he was made to sin, but that God made him to be sin— 'He hath made him to be sin for us' (2 Cor 5:21). This, therefore, showeth us how effectually Christ Jesus undertook the work of our redemption—He was made to be sin for us. Sin is the great block and bar to our happiness; sin is the procurer of all miseries to men both here and for ever. Take away sin, and nothing can hurt us; for death temporal, death spiritual, and death eternal, are the wages of sin (Rom 6:23).
LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS 23
heavenly Majesty; but against this duncish sophistry
And here we must distinguish between sin charged and sin forgiven. Sin forgiven may be seen without guilt or burden, though I think not without shame in this world; but sin charged, and that by the justice of God—for so it was upon Christ—this cannot be but guilt and the burden, as inseparable companions, must unavoidably lie on that person. Poor sinner, be advised to take heed of such deluded preachers who, with their tongues smoother than oil, would rob thee of that excellent doctrine, 'God hath made him to be sin for us'; for such, as I said, do not only present thee with a feigned deliverance and forgiveness, with a feigned heaven and happiness, but charge God and the Lord Jesus as mere impostors, who, while they tell us that Christ was made of God to be sin for us, affirm that it was not so really, suggesting this sophistical reason, 'No wrong judgment comes from the Lord.' I say again, this wicked doctrine is the next way to turn the gospel in thy thoughts to no more than a cunningly-devised fable (2 Peter 1:16), and to make Jesus Christ, in his dying for our sins, as brutish as the paschal lamb in Moses' law. Wherefore, distressed sinner, when thou findest it recorded in the Word of truth that Christ died for our sins, and that God hath made him to be sin for us, then do thou consider of sin as it is a transgression against the law of God, and that as such it procureth the judgment of God, torments and afflicts the mind with guilt, and bindeth over the soul to answer it. Sever not sin and guilt asunder, lest thou be an hypocrite like these wicked men, and rob Christ of his true sufferings. Besides, to see sin upon Christ, but not its guilt; to see sin upon Christ, but not the legal punishment, what is this but to conclude that either there is no guilt and punishment in sin, or that Christ bare our sin, but we the punishment? for the punishment must be borne, because the sentence is gone out from the mouth of God against sin. Do thou therefore, as I have said, consider of sin as a transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), and a provoker of the justice of God; which done, turn thine eye to the cross, and behold those sins, in the guilt and punishment of them, sticking in the flesh of Christ. 'God condemned
4 we set Paul and Isaiah, the one telling us still, 'the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all'; and the other, that 'God made him to be sin for us.' But these men, as I suppose, think it enough for Christ to die under that notion only, not knowing nor feeling the burden of sin, and the wrath of God due thereto. These make him as senseless in his dying, and as much without reason, as a silly sheep or goat, who also died for sin, but so as in name, in show, in shadow only. They felt not the proper weight, guilt, and judgment of God for sin. But thou, sinner, who art so in thine own eyes, and who feelest guilt in thine own conscience, know thou that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God in flesh, was made to be sin for thee, or stood sensibly guilty of all thy sins before God, and bare them in his own body upon the cross. God charged our sins upon Christ, and that in their guilt and burden, what remaineth but that the charge was real or feigned? If real, then he hath either perished under them, or carried them away from before God; if they were charged but feignedly, then did he but feignedly die for them, then shall we have but feigned benefit by his death, and but a feigned salvation at last—not to say how this cursed doctrine chargeth God and Christ with hypocrisy, the one in saying, He made Christ to be sin; the other in saying that he bare our sin; when, in deed and in truth, our guilt and burden never was really upon him. Quest. But might not Christ die for our sins but he needs must bear their guilt or burden? Answ. He that can sever sin and guilt, sin and the burden, each from other, laying sin and no guilt, sin and no burden on the person that dieth for sin, must do it only in his own imaginative head. No scripture, nor reason, nor sense, understandeth or feeleth sin when charged without its guilt and burden.
4 It was common with the Reformers and Puritans, when condemning the absurdities of Aquinas and the schoolmen, to call it 'Dunsish sophistry,' from one of the chief of these writers named Duns, usually called, from the place of his birth, Duns Scotus.—Ed.
THE WORKS OF JOHN BUNYAN 24
sin in the flesh' of Christ (Rom 8:3). He 'bare our sins in his own body on the tree' (1 Peter 2:24). I would only give thee this caution—Not sin in the nature of sin—sin was not so in the flesh of Christ; but sin in the natural punishment of it—to wit, guilt, and the chastising hand of justice. 'He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed' (Isa 53:5). Look, then, upon Christ crucified to be as the sin of the world, as if he only had broken the law; which done, behold him perfectly innocent in himself, and so conclude that for the transgression of God's people he was stricken; that when the Lord made him to be sin, he made him to be sin for us.
'numbered with the transgressors,' and counted worthy to die the death. He that committeth sin is worthy of death. This, though Christ did not personally do, his members, his body, which is his church did; and since he would undertake for them with God, and stand in their sins before the eyes of his justice, he must die the death by the law. Sin and the curse cannot be severed. Sin must be followed with the curse of God. Sin therefore being removed from us to the back of Christ, thither goes also the curse; for if sin be found upon him, he is the person worthy to die— worthy by our sins. Wherefore Paul here setteth forth Christ clothed with our sins, and so taking from us the guilt and punishment. What punishment, but the wrath and displeasure of God?— 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.' In this word 'curse' are two things comprised, 1. The reality of sin; for there can be no curse where there is no sin, either of the person's own, or made to be his by his own consent or the imputation of Divine justice. And since sins are made to be Christ's by imputation, they are his, though not naturally, yet really, and consequently the wages due. He hath made him to be sin; he was made a curse for us. 2. This word 'curse' compriseth, therefore, the punishment of sin, that punishment properly due to sin from the hand of God's justice, which punishment standeth in three things—(1.) In charging sin upon the body and soul of the person concerned; and hence we read that both the body and soul of Christ 'were made an offering for sin' (Isa 53:10; Heb 10:10). (2.) The punishment standeth in God's inflicting of the just merits of sin upon him that standeth charged therewith, and that is death in its own nature and strength; to wit, death with the sting thereof— 'The sting of death is sin.' This death did Christ die because he died for our sins. (3.) The sorrows and pains of this death, therefore, must be undergone by Jesus Christ. Now there are divers sorrows in death—such sorrows as brutes are subject to; such sorrows
HE WAS MADE A CURSE FOR US. FOURTH. As he was made flesh under the law, and also sin, SO HE WAS MADE A CURSE FOR US— 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.' This sentence is taken out of Moses, being passed there upon them that for sin are worthy of death— 'And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in anywise bury him that day, for he that is hanged is accursed of God' (Deut 21:22,23). By this sentence Paul concludeth that Jesus Christ was justly hanged, because sin worthy of death was upon him; sin, not of his own, but ours. Since, then, he took our sins, he must be cursed of God; for sin is sin wherever it lies, and justice is justice wherever it finds it; wherefore since Jesus Christ will bear our sin, he must be
5 The apostle evidently means by 'Christ made sin for us,' that he was made an offering or sacrifice for our sins. He was made sin who knew no sin. Our sins were laid upon him; he bore them away in his own body on the tree. The clean animals sacrificed by the patriarchs, and under the law, were types of this great sacrifice of Christ.—Ed.
LIGHT FOR THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS 25
he in our stead was bruised and chastised for them. God loved us, and made him a curse for us. He was made a curse for us, 'that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through [faith in] Jesus Christ' (Gal 3:14).
as persons are subject to that stand in sin before God; such sorrows as those undergo who are swallowed up of the curse and wrath of God for ever. Now so much of all kinds of sorrow as the imputation of our sin could justly bring from the hand of Divine justice, so much of it he had. He had death. He had the sting of death, which is sin. He was forsaken of God; but could not by any means have those sorrows which they have that are everlastingly swallowed up of them. 'It was not possible that he should be holden of it' (Acts 2:24). For where sin is charged and borne, there must of necessity follow the wrath and curse of God. Now where the wrath and curse of God is, there must of necessity follow the effects, the natural effects—I say, the natural effects—to wit, the sense, the sorrowful sense of the displeasure of an infinite Majesty, and his chastisements for the sin that hath provoked him. There are effects natural, and effects accidental; those accidental are such as flow from our weakness, whilst we wrestle with the judgment of God—to wit, hellish fear, despair, rage, blasphemy, and the like; these were not incident to Jesus Christ, he being in his own person every way perfect. Neither did he always endure the natural effects; his merits relieved and delivered him. God loosed the pains of death, 'because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.' Christ then was made a curse for us, for he did bear our sin; the punishment therefore from the revenging hand of God must needs fall upon him. Wherefore by these four things we see how Christ became our Saviour—he took hold of our nature, was born under the law, was made to be sin, and the accursed of God for us. And observe it—all this, as I said before, was the handiwork of God. God made him flesh, made him under the law, God made him to be sin, and also a curse for us. The Lord bruised him, the Lord put him to grief, the Lord made his soul an offering for sin (Isa 53:10). Not for that he hated him, considering him in his own harmless, innocent, and blessed person, for he was daily his delight; but by an act of grace to us-ward, were our iniquities laid upon him, and
FURTHER DEMONSTRATION OF THIS
TRUTH. Before I pass this truth, I will present thee, courteous reader, with two or three demonstrations for its further confirmation. First. That Christ did bear our sins and curse is clear, because he died, and that without a mediator. He died— 'The wages of sin is death' (Rom 6:23). Now if death be the wages of sin, and that be true that Christ did die and not sin, either the course of justice is perverted, or else he died for our sins; there was 'no cause of death in him,' yet he died (Acts 13:28). He did no evil, guile was not found in his mouth, yet he received the wages of sin (1 Peter 2:22). Sin, therefore, though not of his own, was found upon him, and laid to his charge, because 'he died.' 'Christ died for our sins,' Christ 'gave himself for our sins' (1 Cor 15:1-3; Gal 1:4). He, then, that will conclude that Christ did not bear our sin, chargeth God foolishly, for delivering him up to death; for laying on him the wages, when in no sense he deserved the same. Yea, he overthroweth the whole gospel, for that hangeth on this hinge— 'Christ died for our sins.' Object. But all that die do not bear the curse of God for sin. Answ. But all that die without a mediator do. Angels died the cursed death because Christ took not hold of them; and they for whom Christ never prayeth, they die the cursed death, for they perish everlastingly in the unutterable torments of hell. Christ, too, died that death which is the proper wages of sin, for he had none to stand for him. 'I looked,' saith he, 'and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me.—And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm