Notes: Sect. 7. — Believers freed from the commanding and condemning Power of the Covenant of Works.
Notes: Sect. 7. — Believers freed from the commanding and condemning Power of the Covenant of Works.
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Concerning the deliverance from the law which, according to the Scripture, is the privilege of believers purchased for them by Jesus Christ, there are two opinions equally contrary to the word of God, and to one another. The one is of the Legalist, that believers are under the law as the Covenant of Works; the other is of the Antinomian, that believers are not at all under the law, not as a rule of life. Between these extremes — both of them destructive of true holiness and gospel-obedience — our author, with other orthodox divines, holds the middle path: asserting (and in the proper place proving) that believers are under the law as a rule of life, but free from it as the Covenant of Works. To be delivered from the law as the Covenant of Works, is no more than to be delivered from the Covenant of Works. And asserting that believers are delivered from the law as the Covenant of Works necessarily imports that they are under the law in some other respect contra-distinguished from it. And because the author teaches that believers are under the law as the Law of Christ as a rule of life to them, it is reasonable to conclude that to be it. He must, under the term “the Covenant of Works,” understand and comprehend the law of the Ten Commandments; because no man, understanding what the Covenant of Works is, can speak of it unless he understands and comprehends that term to mean the Ten Commandments — even as none can speak of a man, knowing the sense of that word, unless under that term he understands and comprehends an organic body as well as a soul. But it is manifest that the law of the Ten Commandments, without the form of the Covenant of Works upon it, is not the thing he understands by that term, “the Covenant of Works.” Nor is the form of the Covenant of Works essential to the Ten Commandments (which is no more the covenant itself, than the soul without the body is the man); so that they cannot be without it. [See p. 6, note.] If it is said that the author, by the Covenant of Works, understands the Moral Law as it is defined, [Larg. Cat. q. 92,] it is granted; but then it amounts to no more than that, by the Covenant of Works, he understands the Covenant of Works; for there, the Moral Law is understood to be the Covenant of Works, as has been already evinced.
The doctrine of believers’ freedom from the Covenant of Works, or from the law as that covenant, is of great importance, and is expressly taught. [Larg. Cat. q. 97.] “Those who are regenerate, and believe in Christ, are delivered from the Moral Law, as a Covenant of Works,” Rom. 6.14; Rom. 7.4, 6; Gal. 4.4, 5. Westm. Confess., chap. 19. art. 6. — “True believers are not under the law as a Covenant of Works.” To these I subjoin one testimony from the Prac. Use of Saving Knowledge, tit. “For Strengthening the Man’s Faith,” etc. Rom. 7.fig. 3, “Even though the apostle himself (brought in here for example’s sake) and all other true believers in Christ, are by nature under the law of sin and death, or under the Covenant of Works (called the law of sin and death, because it binds sin and death upon us, till Christ sets us free), yet the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, or the Covenant of Grace (so-called because it enables and quickens a man to a spiritual life through Christ) sets the apostle and all true believers free from the Covenant of Works, or the law of sin and death.” See more, ibid. fig. 4. As also tit. “For convincing a man of Judgment by the Law,” par. 2, and last. And tit. “Evidences of true Faith. And tit. “For the First,” etc. fig. 4.
Now, delivering someone from a covenant is the dissolution of a relation which does not allow for degrees; thus believers who are delivered from the Covenant of Works, must be wholly and altogether set free from it.
This appears also from the believer’s being dead to it, and it being dead to him, which was treated before at large.
There is a twofold death competent [i.e. effective] to a believer with respect to the law, as it is the Covenant of Works; and so the law as such is dead with respect to the believer. (1.) The believer is dead to it really, and in point of duty, while he carries himself as one who is dead to it. And this I take to be comprehended in that saying of the apostle. Gal. 2.19, “Through the law I am dead to the law.” In the best of the children of God here, there are such remains of the legal disposition and inclination of heart to the way of the Covenant of Works, that as they are never quite free of it in their best duties, so at sometimes their services smell so rank of it, as if they were alive to the law, and still dead to Christ. And sometimes the Lord for their correction, trial, and exercise of faith, allows the ghost of the dead husband, i.e. the law, as a Covenant of Works, to come in upon their souls and make demands on them, command, threaten, and frighten them as if they were alive to it, and it to them. And it is one of the hardest pieces of practical religion, to be dead to the law in such cases. This death to the law allows for degrees; it is not alike in all believers, and is perfect in none till the death of the body. But of this kind of death to the law, the question does not proceed here. (2.) The believer is dead to it relatively, and in point of privilege; the relation between him and it is dissolved, even as the relation between a husband and wife is dissolved by death; Rom. 7.4, “Wherefore, my brethren you also have become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another.” This can allow for no degrees, but it is perfect in all believers; so that they are wholly and altogether set free from it in point of privilege, upon which the question here proceeds; and in this respect they can expect neither good nor hurt from it.
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See p. 113, and note. “Believers are not under the law, as a Covenant of Works, to be thereby justified or condemned.” Westm. Confess., chap. 19. art. 6.
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From the general conclusion already laid down and proved, this necessarily follows: namely, that believers are wholly and altogether set free from the Covenant of Works, or from the law as it is that covenant. But to consider particulars, for further clarifying this weighty point (1.) The Covenant of Works has no power to justify a sinner in regard to his utter inability to pay the penalty, and to fulfil its condition; this is clear from the apostle’s testimony, Rom. 8.3, “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son,” etc. (2.) That the believer is not under the condemning power of the law, appears from Gal. 3.13, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” — Rom. 8.1, “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” — Verses 33, 34, “It is God that justifies; who is he that condemns?” (3.) As to its commanding power, are believers are not under that either; for,
1. Its commanding and condemning power, in case of transgression, are inseparable; for by the sentence of that covenant, every breaker of its commands is bound over to death; Gal. 3.10, “Cursed is every one that does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” — “And whatever it says, it says to those who are under it,” Rom. 3.19, Therefore, if believers are under its commanding power, they must be under its condemning power, yes, and actually bound over to death; for without question, they are breakers of its commands, if they are indeed under its commanding power.
2. As to any set of men, if the justifying and condemning power is removed from that law which God gave to Adam as a Covenant of Works, and to all mankind in him, then the covenant form of that law is also done away as to them; so that there is no Covenant of Works in being that has a commanding power over them; but such is the case of believers, that the law can neither justify them, nor condemn them; therefore there is no Covenant of Works in being between God and them, so as to have a commanding power over them; our Lord Jesus “blotted out the hand-writing, took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,” Col. 2.14.
3. Believers are dead to the law, as it is the Covenant of Works, and are “married to another,” Rom. 7.4. Therefore they are set free from the commanding power of the first husband, the Covenant of Works.
4. They are not under it; Rom. 6.14, “You are not under the law, but under grace:” how then can it have a commanding power over them?
5. The consideration of the nature of the commands of the Covenant of Works may sufficiently clarify this point. Its commands bind men to perfect obedience under the pain of the curse which, on every slip, is bound upon the transgressor; Gal. 3.10, “Cursed is every one who does not continue in all things,” etc. But Christ has redeemed believers from the curse, verse 13, and the law they are under speaks in softer terms. Psalm 89.31, 32, “If they break my statutes, then will I visit their transgression with the rod,” etc. Moreover, it commands obedience on the ground of the strength to perform it, given to mankind in Adam; this is now gone, and it affords no new strength; for there is no promise of strength for duty belonging to the Covenant of Works: and to say believers under the Covenant of Works, receive commands for their duty, and under the Covenant of Grace, they receive the promise of strength to perform such works, looks very unlike the beautiful order of the dispensation of grace held forth to us in the word; Rom. 6.14, “you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Lastly. Our Lord Jesus put himself under the commanding power of the Covenant of Works, and gave it perfect obedience, to deliver his people from under it; Gal, 4.4, 5, “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” That they should then put their necks under that yoke again, can only be highly dishonouring “to this crucified Christ, who disarmed the law of its thunders, defaced the obligation of it as a covenant, and as it were, grinded the stones upon which it was wrought to powder.” Charnock, vol. 2. q. 531.
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And therefore since there is no Covenant of Works (or Law of Works, as it is called in Rom. 3.27) between God and the believer, it is manifest that there can be no transgressing of it in their case. God requires obedience of believers, and not only threatens them — gives them angry words and looks — but brings heavy judgments on them for their disobedience; but He gives the promise of strength, and only the penalty of fatherly wrath, annexed to the commands requiring obedience of them; and the anger of God against them, purged of the curse, evidently reveals that none of these come to them in the channel of the Covenant of Works.
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And though all the sins of believers are not sins of daily infirmity, yet they are all sins of frailty; Gal. 5.17, “For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot do the things that you would;” — Rom. 7.19, “The evil which I would not do, that is what I do.” See chap. 5.15 17, and 6.12.
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Thus far about the believer’s complete deliverance from the Covenant of Works, or from the law, namely, as it is the Covenant of Works. Now follows the practical use to be made of it by the believer, I. In hearing the word.
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Though they are God’s own sayings, found in his written word and spoken by his servants, having commission from him for that effect; yet because they are the language of the law, as it is the Covenant of Works, they are directed only to those who are under that covenant, Rom. 3.19, and not to believers, who are not under it.
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And he has given eternal life to believers already, according to the Scripture. See p. 114, note.
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Now follows, II. The use of it in conflicts of conscience with the law in its demands, sin in its guilt, Satan in his accusations, and death in its terrors.
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He begins with the conflict with the law; for as the apostle teaches, “the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,” 1Cor. 15.56. While the law retains its power over a man, death has its sting, and sin has its strength against him; but once he is dead to the law — wholly and altogether set free from it, as it is the Covenant of Works — then sin has lost its strength, death its sting, and Satan his plea against him. From the commanding and condemning power of which believers are delivered, it cannot reasonably be questioned that the author still speaks of the law as it is the Covenant of Works, and not otherwise. This is because he is still pursuing the practical use of the doctrine about it; and having spoken of it before as acting by commission from God, he treats it here as acting, as it were, of its own proper motion, and not by any such commission. To those who are under the law, the law speaks its demands and terrors as sent from God: but to believers, who are not under it, it cannot so speak, but of itself. Rom. 8.15, “For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” See p. 159. note, fig. 4.
Now, in the conflict the believer has with the law or Covenant of Works, the author puts two cases in which the conscience needs to be soundly directed, as cases of the utmost weight.
The first case is this: in attempting to exercise its condemning power over him, accusing him of transgression, the law demands from him satisfaction for his sin according to the justice of God; and it threatens to hale him to execution. In this case, the author dares not advise the afflicted to say, with the servant in the parable, Mat. 18.26, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all;” but he teaches him to devolve his burden wholly upon his surety: he bids him plead that since “he is married to Christ,” whatever action the law may pretend to be sufficient to satisy justice on account of his sin, it must lie between the law and Christ, the husband; but indeed, there remains no place for such action, because through Jesus Christ’s suffering and satisfying it to the full, he is set free from the law, and owes nothing to justice, nor to the law upon that score. If any man ventures to deal in other terms with the law in this case, his experience will at length sufficiently reveal his mistake. Now it is manifest that this relates to the case of justification.
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Here is the second case, namely, in attempting to exercise its commanding power over the believer, the law requires him to do good works, and to keep the commandments if he would obtain salvation. This comes in natively in the second place. The author could not reasonably rest satisfied with the believer’s being delivered from the curse of the Covenant of Works, from the debt owing to divine justice according to its penal sanction; if he had, he would have left the afflicted still in the lurch in the point of justification and inheriting eternal life: he would have proposed Christ to him only as a half saviour, and left as much of the law’s plea behind without an answer, as would have left him incapable of being justified before God, and an heir of eternal life; for the law, as it is the Covenant of Works, being broken, has a twofold demand on the sinner; each of these must be answered before he can be justified. The one is a demand of satisfaction for sin, arising from and according to its penal sanction: this demand was made in the preceding case and solidly answered. But there remains yet another, namely, the demand of perfect obedience, arising from and according to the settled condition of that covenant; and the afflicted must have the means to answer it also; otherwise he will still sink in the deep mire where there is no standing. For no judge can absolve a man merely on his having paid the penalty of a broken contract to which he was obliged, by and upon fulfilling the condition; so too, no man can be justified before God, nor have a right to life, till this demand of the law is also satisfied in his case. Then, and not till then, is the law’s mouth stopped in point of his justification. Thus Adam, before his fall, was free from the curse; yet he neither was, nor could he be justified and entitled to life, until he had run the course of his obedience prescribed to him by the law as a Covenant of Works. Accordingly, we are taught that “God justifies sinners, not only by imputing the satisfaction, but also the obedience of Christ to them.” Westm. Confess., chap. 11. art. 1. And that “justification is an act of God’s free grace, in which he not only pardons all our sins, but accepts us as righteous in his sight.” Short. Cat.
Here then is the second demand of the law, namely, the demand of perfect obedience respecting the case of justification, no less than the demand of satisfaction for sin. And it is proposed in such terms as the Scripture uses to express the self-same thing. Luke 10.28, “Do this, and you shall live.” — Mat. 19.17, “If you would enter into life, keep the commandments.” In both these passages our Lord proposes this demand of the Covenant of Works, for the conviction of the proud legalists with whom he dealt there. And the truth is, that the terms in which this demand stands conceived here, are so very agreeable to the style and language of the Covenant of Works expressed in these texts and elsewhere, that the law — without receding in the least from the propriety of expression — might have addressed innocent Adam in the very same terms. It need change only the word salvation to life, because he was not yet miserable; thus saying to him, ‘Good works must be done, and the commandments must be kept, if you would obtain [or more accurately, continue] life. I see not what impropriety there could have been in this saving, while there was as yet no covenant known in the world except the Covenant of Works. Even innocent Adam was not, by his works, to obtain life, in the way of proper merit; but by virtue of that compact only.
Now, this being the case, one may plainly perceive that in the true answer to it, there can be no place for bringing in any holiness, righteousness, good works, and keeping of the commandments, except Christ’s alone; for nothing else can satisfy this demand of the law. And if a believer were to acknowledge the necessity of his own holiness and good works in this point, and so set about them in order to answer this demand, then he would grossly and abominably pervert the end for which the Lord requires them from him. He would put his own holiness and obedience in place of Christ’s imputed obedience; and so he would fix himself in the mire out of which he could never escape until he abandoned that way and took himself again to what Christ alone has done for satisfying this demand of the law. But excluding our holiness, good-works, and keeping of the commandments from having any part in this matter, does not militate at all against the absolute necessity of holiness in its proper place (without which, in men’s own persons, no man shall see the Lord) is a point too clear among sound Protestant divines, to be insisted on here.
Hence our author could not instruct Neophytus to say in this conflict with the law or Covenant of Works, “It is my sincere resolution, in the strength of grace, to follow peace with all men, and holiness.” Nor would any sound Protestant divine have put such an answer into the mouth of the afflicted in this case; knowing that our evangelical holiness and good works (supposing that we could attain them before justification) would be rejected by the law as filthy rags. For the law acknowledges no holiness, no good works, no keeping of the commandments, except what is perfect in every way; and it will never be satisfied with sincere resolutions to do them in the strength of the grace that is to be given; rather, it requires doing them in perfection, in the strength of grace given already, Gal. 3.10. Therefore our author sends the afflicted to Jesus Christ, the surety for all that is demanded of him by the law or Covenant of Works: and he teaches him in this case, to plead Christ’s works, and keep the commands; and this is the only safe way, which all true Christians will find themselves obliged to take in the long run, in this conflict.
The difficulty raised on this topic is owing to that anti-scriptural principle that, “believers are under the commanding power of the Covenant of Works;” which was overthrown before.
The case itself, and the answer to it at large, is taken from Luther’s Sermon of the Lost Sheep, pp. 77, 78, and Sermon upon the Hymn of Zacharias, p. 50.
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Saved, namely, really saved, though not perfectly — even as a drowning man is saved when his head is gotten above the water, and leaning on his deliverer, he makes towards the shore. In this case, the believer has no more need of the law, or Covenant of Works, than such drowing a man has need of someone who, to save him, would lay a weight on him that would make him sink again beneath the stream. Observe the manner of speaking and reasoning used on this topic. Tit, 3.5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have DONE, but according to his mercy, he SAVED us, by the washing of REGENERATION, and RENEWING of the Holy Ghost.” — Eph. 2.8-10, “For by grace YOU ARE SAVED, through faith, not of WORKS, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Here (1.) It is undeniable, especially according to the original words, that the apostle asserts that believers are saved already. (2.) Denying that we are saved by works which we have done, he plainly enough intimates that we are saved by the works which Christ has done. (3.) He argues against salvation by our works on this very ground: that our good works are the fruit following our being saved, and the end for which we are saved. Thus he at once overthrows the doctrine of salvation by our good works, and establishes their necessity as the breathing and other actions of life of a man saved from death. (4.) He shows that inherent holiness is an essential part of salvation, without which it can no more consist than a man without a reasoning soul; for according to the apostle, “We are saved by our being regenerated, renewed, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works.” And so is our justification also, with all the privileges depending on it. In one word, the salvation bestowed on believers comprehends both holiness and happiness. Thus the apostle Peter disproves that principle in Acts 15.1, that ‘‘Unless you are circumcised in the manner of Moses, you cannot be SAVED;” he does this from his own observation of the contrary, namely, that God purified the hearts of the Gentiles by faith, ver. 9, adding for the part of the Jews who were circumcised, ver. 11, “We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they were;” that is, even as they were saved, namely, by faith without the works of the law. And the apostle Paul, encountering the same error, carries on the dispute in these terms: that a man is not justified by works, Gal. 2 and 3. From this one may conclude that justification no further differs from salvation, in the Scriptural sense, than an essential part differs from the whole.
This is the doctrine of holy Luther on this topic, and of our author after him, here and elsewhere. And the disuse of this manner of speaking, and setting salvation so far from justification, as heaven is from earth, are not without danger, as leaving room for works to obtain salvation
“Those who believe, already have everlasting life, and therefore undoubtedly are justified and holy, without all their own labour.” Luther’s Chos. Sermons, Serm. 10, page [mihi] 113. “How has God, then, remedied [my] misery? He has forgiven all my sins, and freed me from the reward of it, and made me righteous, holy, and happy, to live forever, and done that by his free grace alone, by the merits of Jesus Christ, and the working of the Holy Ghost.” Mr. James Melvil’s Cat. Propine of a Pastor, [i.e. Spiritual Propine of a Pastor, 1598] p. 44. — “Now, being made truly and really partakers of Christ, and his righteousness by faith only, and so being justified, saved, and counted truly righteous, we are to see what God craves from us on our own part, to witness our thankfulness.” Mr. John Davidson’s Cat. p. 27. See Palat. Cat. q. 86. — “God delivers his elect out of it [i.e., out of the estate of sin and misery] and brings them into an estate of salvation by the second covenant.” Larg. Cat. q. 30. And surely one cannot be in a state of salvation if he is not really saved; any more than one can be in a state of health and liberty, who is not really saved from sickness and slavery. “Those whom God predestined to life, and those only, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time, to effectually call, by his word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation — effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ.” Westm. Confess., chap. 10, art. 1. From this one may easily perceive that a sinner drawn to Jesus Christ is saved; though not yet carried to heaven.
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A good reason why a soul united to Jesus Christ, and already saved by him really, though not perfectly, has no need of the presence of her first husband, the law, or Covenant of Works, is because she has in Christ, her head and present husband, all things necessary to save her perfectly, that is, to make her completely holy and happy. If it were not so, believers might yet despair of attaining it, since Christ shares his office of Saviour with no other; nor is their salvation found in any other, whether in whole or in part. Acts 4.12. But surely believers have all that is necessary to complete their salvation in Jesus Christ, because “by God he was made to us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;” in the compass of which, there is sufficient provision for all the wants of all his people. It is the great ground of their comfort that “it pleased the Father, that in him would dwell all fulness,” Col. 1.19. And it becomes them, with their whole hearts, to approve of the design and the end of that glorious and happy constitution, namely, that “he that glories, glory in the Lord,” 1Cor. 1.31. It is true that fulness is so far from being actually conveyed in the measure of every part into the persons of believers at once, that the stream of conveyance will run through all the ages of eternity, in heaven as well as on earth. Nevertheless, the whole of Christ, with all his fulness, is given to them at once; and therefore, in him as their Head, they have everything necessary for them at once. 1Cor. 3.21, “All things are yours.” — Philip. 4.18, “I have all, and abound.” — 2Cor. 6.10, “As having nothing, yet possessing all things.” — Col. 2.10, “And you are complete in him, who is the Head.”
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But are not personal holiness, and godliness, good works, and perseverance in holy obedience, jostled out at this rate as unnecessary? No, by no means. For Christ is the only fountain of holiness, and the cause of good works in those who are united to him; so that, where there is union with Christ, there is personal holiness, infallibly; there they do good works (if capable of them) and persevere in them. And where there is not union, all pretences to these things are utterly vain. Therefore ministers are directed to prosecute such doctrines, and choose such uses especially, “as may most draw souls to Christ, the fountain of light, holiness, and comfort.” Directory, tit. “Of the Preaching of the Word.” — “As we willingly spoil ourselves of all honour and glory of our own creation and redemption, so we spoil ourselves also of our regeneration and sanctification; for of ourselves we are not sufficient to think one good thought; but he who has begun the work in us, is alone the one who continues us in it, to the praise and glory of his undeserved grace. So that we confess the cause of good works to be, not our free will, but the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, who dwelling in our hearts by true faith, brings forth those works which God has prepared for us to walk in.Eph 2.10 For this we most boldly affirm, that it is blasphemy to say that Christ abides in the hearts of those in whom there is no spirit of sanctification.” Old Confess. art. 12, 13.—” M. What is the effect of your faith? C. That Jesus Christ his Son came down into this world, and accomplished all things which were necessary for our salvation.” The Manner to Examine Children, etc., quest. 3. — “Whether we look to our justification or sanctification, they are wholly wrought and perfected by Christ, in whom we are complete, though in a diverse way.” Mr. John Davidson’s Cat. p. 34. The truth is, personal holiness, godliness, and perseverance, are parts of the salvation already bestowed on the believer; and good works begun, are the necessary fruit of it. See the preceding note, and p. 114, note. And he has, in Christ his head, what infallibly secures the conservation of his personal holiness and godliness: his bringing forth good works still, and perseverance in holy obedience, and bringing the whole to perfection in another life, and so completing the salvation begun. If men will, without warrant from the word, restrict the term salvation to happiness in heaven, then all these, according to the doctrine taught here, are necessary to salvation, as what must go before it by necessity in subjects capable of it; since in a salvation carried on by degrees, what is first conferred on a man by the unalterable order of the covenant, must necessarily go before that which, by the same unalterable order, is conferred on him in the last place. But in the sense of Luther and our author, all these are comprehended in salvation itself. For justifying them, one may observe, so that when their salvation is completed, they are perfected; and the saints in glory work perfectly good works, without interruption, throughout all eternity; for they were the great end God designed to bring about by the means of salvation. To the Scripture texts adduced in the preceding note, add 2Tim. 2.10, “I endure all things, for the elect’s sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory,” Here is a spiritual salvation, plainly distinguished from eternal glory. Compare 1Pet. 1.8, 9, “Believing, you rejoice. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” This receiving of salvation in the present time, is but the accomplishment of that promise in part; Acts 16.31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved;” which I have no doubt bears a great deal of salvation, communicated on this side of death, as well as beyond it; Mat. 1.21, “He shall save his people from their sins.” Thus, salvation comprehends personal holiness and godliness. And the Scripture holds out good works as things that accompany salvation, Heb. 6.9, and as the fruit of it, Luke 1.71-75, “That we should be saved from our enemies — that being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” For it is an everlasting salvation, Isa. 45.17, importing a perseverance in holy obedience to the end.
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My righteousness, upon which I am justified, my treasure, out of which all my debt to the law, or Covenant of Works, is paid, and my work, from which my righteousness arises, and which I can, with safety and comfort, oppose to the law-demand of work. “The law of God we confess and acknowledge is most just, most equal, most holy, most perfect, commanding these things which, being wrought in perfection, were able to give life, and able to bring man to eternal felicity. But our nature is so corrupt, so weak, and so imperfect, that we are never able to fulfil the works of the law in perfection — and therefore it behoves us to apprehend Christ Jesus with his justice, i.e., with his righteousness and satisfaction, who is the end and accomplishment of the law.” Old Confess., art. 1.5.
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Namely, in the eye of the law, which acknowledges no godliness or righteousness except what is perfect in every way; Rom. 4.5, “Believes on him that justifies the ungodly.” And to plead any other sort of godliness or righteousness in the conflict of conscience with the law, is in vain. Gal. 3.10.
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That is, Christ has perfect purity of nature and life, which is all that the law can demand in point of conformity and obedience to its commandments; he was born holy, and he lived holy in perfection. Now, both these are imputed to believers, not in point of sanctification, but in point of justification; for without the imputation of them both, no flesh could be justified before God; this is because the law demands from every man purity of nature, as well as purity of life, and both of them in perfection; and since we have neither the one nor the other in ourselves, we must have both by imputation, or else we must remain under the condemnation of the law. So, the Palatine Catechism. “Q. How are you righteous before God? A. The perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ is imputed and given to me as if I had neither committed any sin, nor had any blot or corruption clinging to me. Q. 60. The use — If Satan still lays it to your charge, even though in Christ Jesus you have satisfied the punishment which your sins deserved, and you have put on his righteousness by faith, yet you cannot deny that your nature is corrupt, so that you are prone to all ill, and you have in you the seed of all vices. Against this temptation this answer is sufficient: that by the goodness of God, not only perfect righteousness, but even the holiness of Christ also, is imputed and given to me,” etc. Ibid. — “The satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ alone is my righteousness, in the sight of God.” Ibid, quest. 61.
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Namely, to the law or Covenant of Works, which has no power over me, for I am now married to another.
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Luther expresses it thus, “[Not] what I am, or what I ought to do, and not to do; but what Christ himself is, ought to do, and does.”
308
Here Moses with his tablets, in the sense of Luther and our author, is no more than the law, as it is the Covenant of Works; in any conflict of his conscience with it, whoever can treat it this way, is strong in faith, and happy. Consider the Scripture, John 5.45, “There is one that accuses you, even Moses in whom you TRUST.’’ Compare Rom. 2.17, “Behold, you are called a Jew, and rest in the LAW.” ‘Moses’ here does not mean the person of Moses, but the law of Moses, which the carnal Jews trusted in to be saved and justified by; that is plainly by the law, as it is the Covenant of Works. And in our author’s judgment, the law was given on Mount Sinai as the Covenant of Works. He shows that although Luther, and Calvin too, thus exempt a believer from the law in the case of justification, and as it is the Covenant of Works, yet they do not do so outside the case of justification, as it is the Law of Christ. P. 184-186. And so, at once, he clears them and himself from that odious charge which some might find it in their hearts to fix on them from such expressions.
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Luther’s words are, “Then it is time to send it (the law) away, if it will not give way,” etc. See the preceding note.
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Here use is to be made of the same former doctrine in the conflict of conscience with sin. Guilt, specifically the guilt of revenging wrath, is the handle by which, in this conflict, sin offers to take hold of the believer as it did of David, Psalm 40.12. In that Psalm, David speaks as a type of Christ on whom the guilt of the elect’s sin was laid. “Now, in respect to that guilt, the strength of sin is the law, or Covenant of Works, with its cursing and condemning power. But for believers, since they are delivered from the law, that strength of sin is gone; they are free from the guilt of sin, and the condemning wrath of God.” Westm. Confess., chap. 20. art. 1. — from “the revenging wrath of God, and that is perfectly in this life.” Larg. Cat. quest. 77. From this it necessarily follows that sin, in this attack, can never prevail or really hurt them in this point, since there neither is, nor can there be, any such guilt remaining on them. How sin may otherwise prevail against a believer, and what hurt it may do to him in other respects, the author expressly teaches here and elsewhere. In the manner of expression, he follows famous divines whose names are honoured in the church of Christ. “God says to me, I will forgive you your sin, nor shall your sins hurt you.” Luther, Chos. Serm. p. 40.— “Because Jesus Christ has, by one infinite obedience, made satisfaction to the infinite majesty of God, it follows that my iniquities can no more fray or trouble me, my accounts being assuredly razed by the precious blood of Christ.” Beza, Confess., point 4. art. 10. — “Even as the viper that was on Paul’s hand, though the nature of it was to kill quickly, yet when God charmed it, you see it did not hurt him. So it is with sin: though it is in us, and though it hangs on us, yet its venom is taken away; it does not hurt or condemn us. Dr. Preston On Faith, p. 51. Hear the language of the Spirit of God, Luke 10.19; “And nothing shall by any means hurt you.” — “Nothing shall hurt their souls, as to the favour of God, and their eternal happiness,” says the author of the Supplement to Poole’s Annot. on the Text.
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The Ten Commandments.
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By your own conscience.
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See page 153, note.