seed, by the price of his own blood and death, that there needs no
only pardon our light, our small offences, but our great and mighty sins! etc.
And I cannot, O dear Father, but further observe that in the new covenant you have frequently and deeply engaged yourself, that you will remember the sins of your people no more! O my God, you have told me six different times in your word, that you will remember my sins no more. In the new covenant you have engaged yourself not only to forgive but also to forget, and that you will cross off your debt-book, and never question or call me to an account for my sins; that you will pass an eternal act of oblivion upon them, and utterly bury them in the grave of oblivion, as if they had never been.
The sins that are forgiven by God are forgotten by God; the sins that
God remits he removes from his remembrance, Heb. 10:13-19, and 1-
15. Christ has so fully satisfied the justice of God for the sins of all his seed, by the price of his own blood and death, that there needs no more expiatory sacrifices to be offered for their sins forever. Christ has, by the sacrifice of himself, blotted out the remembrance of his people's sins with God forever. The new covenant runs thus, "And their sinful error I will not remember any more," Jer. 31:34; but the
Greek runs thus, "And their sinful errors and their unrighteousnesses, I will not remember again, or any more," Heb.
8:12. Here are two negatives, which do more vehemently deny, according to the propriety of the Greek language; that is, I will never remember them again, I will in no case remember them any more, I will so forgive as to forget: not that in propriety of phrase, God either remembers or forgets, for all things are present to him; he knows all things, he beholds, he sees, he observes all things, by one eternal and simple act of his knowledge, which is no way capable of change, as now knowing, and at another time forgetting. But it is an allusion to the manner of men, who, when they forgive injuries fully and heartily, do also forget them, blot them out of mind; or rather, as some think, it is an allusion to the manner of the old covenant's administration in the sacrifices, where there was a remembrance again of sins every year, there was a fresh indictment and arraignment of the people for sin continually, Heb. 10:1-3, etc.
But under this new covenant our Lord Jesus Christ has, "by one offering, perfected forever those who are sanctified," (see from ver. 5 to ver. 20;) Christ has, forever, taken away the sins of the elect; there needs no more expiatory sacrifice for them; they that are sprinkled with the blood of this sacrifice shall never have their sins remembered any more against them. God's not remembering or forgetting a thing is not simply to be taken of his essential knowledge, but respectively of his judicial knowledge, to bring the same into judgment. Not to remember a thing that was once known, and was in mind and memory, is to forget it; but this properly is not incident to God, it is an infirmity. To him all things past and future are as present. What he once knows he always knows. His memory is his very essence, neither can anything that has once been in, it slip out of it. For God to remit sin is not to remember it; and not to remember it is to remit it. These are two reciprocal propositions, therefore they are thus joined together. "I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember your sins," Jer. 31:34; Isaiah 43:25.
To remember implies a fourfold act;
(1.) To lay up in the mind what is conceived thereby;
(2.) To hold it fast;
(3.) To call it to mind again;
(4.) Oft to think of it. Now in that God says, "I will remember their iniquities no more;" he implies that he will neither lay them up in his mind, nor there hold them, nor call them again to mind, nor think on them, but that they shall be to him as if they had never been committed.
God's discharge of their sins shall be a full discharge. Such sinners shall never be called to account for them. Both the guilt and the punishment of them shall be fully and everlastingly removed. Let the sins of a believer be what they will for nature, and be ever so many for number, they shall all be blotted out, they shall more never be mentioned; [Mat. 12:31; Isaiah 55:7; Jer. 31:12; Ezek. 18:22; Psalm
32:2; Romans 4:8. Now if God will not remember nor mention his people's sins, then we may safely and soundly infer that either there is no purgatory, or else that God severely punishes those sins in purgatory which he remembers not.]
(1.) God will never remember, he will never mention their sins, so as to impute them or charge them upon his people.
(2.) God will never remember, he will never mention their sins any more, so as to upbraid his people with their follies or miscarriages.
He will never hit them in the teeth with their sins, he will never hold their weaknesses against them. When persons are justified, their sins shall be as if they had not been; God will bid them welcome into his presence, and embrace them in his arms, and will never object to them their former unkindness, unfruitfulness, unthankfulness, vileness, stubbornness, wickedness, as you may plainly see in the return of the prodigal, and his father's deportment towards him.
Luke 15:20-23, "When he was a great way off." The prodigal was but conceiving a purpose to return, and God met him. The very intention, and secret motions, and close purposes of our hearts, are known to God. The old father sees a great way off. Dim eyes can see a great way, when the son is the object.
"His father saw him, and had compassion." His affections roll within him. The father not only sees, but commiserates and compassionates the returning prodigal, as he did Ephraim of old, "My affections are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy on him;" or, as the Hebrew runs, "I will, having mercy, have mercy, have mercy on him, or I will abundantly have mercy on him," Jer. 31:20. "Look," says God, "here is a poor prodigal returning to me, the poor child has come back, he has smarted enough, he has suffered enough. I will bid him welcome,
I will forgive him all his high offences, and will never hit him in the teeth with his former vanities."
"And ran." The feet of mercy are swift to meet a returning sinner. It had been sufficient for him to have stood, being old, and a father; but the father runs to the son.
"And fell on his neck." He does not take him by the hand; but he falls upon him, and incorporates himself into him. How open are the arms of mercy to embrace the returning sinner, and lay him in the bosom of love!
"And kissed him." Free, rich, and sovereign mercy has not only feet to meet us, and arms to clasp us, but also lips to kiss us. One would have thought that he should rather have kicked him or killed him, than have kissed him. But God is Pater miserationum, he is all affections. All this while the father speaks not one word. His joy was too great to be uttered. He ran, he fell on his neck, and kissed him, and so sealed up to him mercy and peace, love and reconciliation, with the kisses of his lips.
And the son said unto him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight." Sincerely confess, and the amends is made; acknowledge but the debt, and he will cross the book.
"I am no more worthy to be called your son." "Lord," said that blessed martyr, "I am hell, but you are heaven; I am soil and a sink of sin, but you are a gracious God," etc.
"But the father said to his servants—Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hands, and shoes on his feet. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry."
Here you have,
(1.) The best robe;
(2.) The precious ring; [Among the Romans the ring was an ensign of virtue, honor, and especially nobility, whereby they were distinguished from the common people.]
(3.) The lovely shoes; and
(4.) The fatted calf.
The returning prodigal has garments, and ornaments, and necessaries, and luxuries. Some understand by the robe, as the royalty which Adam lost; and by the ring, they understand the seal of
God's Holy Spirit; and by the shoes, the preparation of the gospel of peace; and by the fatted calf, they understand Christ, who was slain from the beginning. "Christ is that fatted calf," says Mr. Tyndale the martyr, "and his righteousness is the goodly raiment to cover the naked deformities of their sins."
The great things intended in this parable is to set forth the riches of grace, and God's infinite goodness, and the returning sinner's happiness. When once the sinner returns in good earnest to God,
God will supply all his needs, and bestow upon him more than ever he lost, and set him in a safer and happier estate than that from which he fell in Adam; and will never hit him in the teeth with his former enormities, nor ever hold his old wickednesses against him.
You see plainly in this parable that the father of the prodigal does not so much as mention or object the former pleasures, lusts, or vanities wherein his prodigal son had formerly lived. All old scores are forgiven, and the returning prodigal embraced and welcomed, as if he had never offended.
"And now, O Lord, I must humbly take leave to tell you further that you have confirmed the new covenant by your word, and by your oath, and by the seals that you have annexed to it, and by the death of your Son, and therefore you can not but make good every tittle, word, branch, and article of it. Now this new covenant is my plea, O holy God, and by this plea I shall stand." Hereupon God declares,
"this plea, I accept as holy, just, and good. I have nothing to say against you—enter you into the joy of your Lord."
IX. The ninth plea that a believer may form up as to these ten scriptures, [Eccles. 11:9, and 12:14; Mat. 12:14, and 18:23; Luke 16:2;
Romans 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27, and 13:17; 1 Pet. 4:5.] which refer to the great day of account, or to a man's particular account, may be drawn up from the consideration of that evangelical obedience which God requires, and that the believer yields to God.
There is a legal account, and there is an evangelical account. Now the saints, in the great day, shall not be put to give up a legal account; the account they shall have to give up, is an evangelical account. In the covenant of works, God required perfect obedience in our own persons; but in the covenant of grace God will be content if there be but uprightness in us, if there be but sincere desires to obey, if there be faithful endeavors to obey, if there be a hearty willingness to obey. "Well," says God, "though I stood upon perfect obedience in the covenant of works, 2 Cor. 8:12; yet now I will be satisfied with the will for the deed; if there be but uprightness of heart, though that be attended with many weaknesses and infirmities, yet I will be satisfied and contented with that."
God, under the covenant of grace, will for Christ's sake accept of less than he requires in the covenant of works. He requires us to live without sin, but he will accept of our sincere endeavors to do it.
Though a believer, in his own person, cannot perform all that God commands, yet Jesus Christ, as his surety and in his stead, has fulfilled the law for him. So that Christ's perfect righteousness is a complete cover for a believer's imperfect righteousness. Hence the believer flies from the covenant of works—to the covenant of grace; from his own unrighteousness—to the righteousness of Christ. [Luke
1:5-6; Mat. 28:20; Acts 24:16; 1 Pet. 1:14-15; Heb. 13:18.]
If we consider the law in a high and rigid notion—no believer can fulfill it; but if we consider the law in a soft and mild notion—every believer does fulfill it: Acts 13:22, "I have found David the son of
Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will;" that is, "All my wills," to note the universality and sincerity of his obedience. David had many slips and falls, he often transgressed the royal law; but being sincere in the main bent and frame of his heart, and in the course of his life, God looked upon his sincere obedience as perfect obedience.
A sincere Christian's obedience is an entire obedience to all the commands of God, though not in respect of practice, which is impossible, but in disposition and affection. [Psalm 119:6. "When my eye is to all your commandments."] A sincere obedience is a universal obedience. It is universal in respect of the subject, the whole man; it is universal in respect of the object, the whole law; and it is universal in respect of durance, the whole life; he who obeys sincerely obeys universally. There is no man who serves God truly, who does not endeavor to serve God fully; sincerity turns upon the hinges of universality; he who obeys sincerely endeavors to obey thoroughly, Num. 14:24. A sincere Christian does not only love the law, and like the law, and approve of the law, and delight in the law, and consent to the law, that it is holy, just, and good, but he obeys it in part, Romans 7:12, 16, 22; which, though it be but in part, yet he being sincere therein, pressing towards the mark, and desiring and endeavoring to arrive at what is perfect, Phil. 3:13-14, God accepts of such a soul, and is as well pleased with such a soul, as if he had perfectly fulfilled the law.
Where the heart is sincerely resolved to obey, there it does obey. A heart to obey, is our obeying; a heart to do, is our doing; a heart to believe, is our believing; a heart to repent, is our repenting; a heart to wait, is our waiting; a heart to suffer, is our suffering; a heart to pray, is our praying; a heart to hear, is our hearing; a heart to give, feed, clothe, visit, is our giving, feeding, clothing, visiting; a heart to walk holily, is our walking holily; a heart to work righteousness, is our working righteousness; a heart to show mercy, is our showing mercy; a heart to sympathize with others, is our sympathizing with others.
He who sincerely desires and resolves to keep the commandments of
God—he does keep the commandments of God; and he who truly desires and resolves to walk in the statutes of God—he does walk in the statutes of God.
In God's account and God's acceptance, every believer, every sincere
Christian, is as wise, holy, humble, heavenly, spiritual, watchful, faithful, fruitful, useful, thankful, joyful, etc., as he desires to be, as he resolves to be, and as he endeavors to be; and this is the glory of the new covenant, and the happiness that we gain by dear Jesus.
And, my friends, it is remarkable that our feeble, partial and very imperfect obedience is frequently set forth in the blessed Scriptures, as our fulfilling of the law, Luke 10:25-27. Take a few places for a taste: Romans 2:27, "uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God's law."
Romans 13:8, "He who loves another, has fulfilled the law;" ver. 10,
"Love is the fulfilling of the law." Not to love is to do ill and to break the law, but love is the fulfilling of it; we cannot do ill by that which is the perfection and the fulfilling of the law. Love is the sum of the law, love is the perfection of the law; and were love perfect in us, it would make us perfect keepers of the law. Love works the saints to keep the law in desires and endeavors, with care and study to observe it in perfection of parts, though not in perfection of degrees: Gal. 5:14,
"All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself;" Gal. 6:2, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Now in this sense that is under consideration, the saints in themselves, even in this life, do keep the royal law.
Now, from what has been said, a believer may form up this plea—"O blessed God, in Christ my head I have perfectly and completely kept your royal law; and in my own person I have evangelically kept your royal law, in respect of my sincere desires, purposes, resolutions, and endeavors to keep it. And this evangelical keeping in Christ, and in the new covenant, you are pleased to accept of, and are well satisfied with it. I know that breaches made in the first covenant were irreparable, but breaches made in the covenant of grace are not so; because this covenant is established in Christ; who is still a-making up all breaches. Now this is my plea, O holy God, and by this plea I shall stand." "Well," says God, "I cannot in honor or justice but accept of this plea, and therefore enter into the joy of your Lord!"
The Covenant of Redemption, Part 1
The covenant of REDEMPTION is that blessed compact between
God the Father and Jesus Christ; concerning the conversion, sanctification, and salvation of the elect, through the death, satisfaction, and obedience of Jesus Christ; to the eternal honor, and unspeakable praise, of the glorious grace of God.
X. The tenth plea that a believer may form up, as to these ten scriptures, [Eccles 11:9, and 12:14; Mat. 12:14, and 18:23; Luke 16:2;
Romans 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27, and 13:17; 1 Pet. 4:5.] which refer to the great day of account, or to a man's particular account, may be drawn up from the consideration of that compact, covenant, and agreement, that was solemnly made between God and Christ, touching the whole business of man's salvation or redemption. We may present it to our understanding in this form: God the Father says to Christ the mediator, "I look upon Adam and his posterity as a degenerate seed, a generation of vipers, of apostates and backsliders, yes, traitors and rebels; liable to all temporal, spiritual, and eternal judgments; yet I cannot find in my heart to damn them all. My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. No, I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy
(Hosea 11:8-9), and therefore I have determined to show mercy upon many millions of them, and save them from wrath to come, and to bring them to glory. But this I must do, while still upholding my law, justice, and honor. If, therefore, you will undertake for them, and become a curse for their sakes, Gal. 3:10, 13, and so make satisfaction