Notes: Sect. 7. — Slavish fear and servile hope are not the springs of true obedience.
Notes: Sect. 7. — Slavish fear and servile hope are not the springs of true obedience.
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As for what concerns the hope of heaven, the author purposely explains that matter (p. 205) that he would not have any believer to avoid evil or do good for fear of hell. The meaning of this is plainly this: you being a believer in Christ ought not to avoid evil and do good, for fear you will be condemned and cast into hell. So far as a believer does so, the author justly reckons his obedience accordingly slavish. This is the common understanding and sense of such a phrase, such as when we say, The slave works for fear of the whip. Some men abstain from stealing, robbing, and the like, for fear of the gallows; they avoid evil, not from love of virtue, but for fear of punishment, as the heathen poet says of his pretender to virtue,
Oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore,
Tu nihil admittes in te formidine poenae.
HORAT. Epist. 16.
Which may be thus translated:
Hatred of vice, in generous souls,
From love of virtue flows,
While nothing vicious minds controls
But servile fear of blows.
This is quite another thing than to say that a believer in doing good, or avoiding evil, ought not to regard threatenings, nor be influenced by the threatening of death. For though believers should never fear that they will be condemned and cast into hell, yet they both may and ought to awfully regard the threatenings of the holy law: and how they ought to regard them, one may learn from the Westm. Confess., chap. 19. art. 6, in these words, “The threatenings of it [i.e., of the law] serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions they may expect in this life for them, although freed from the curse of it threatened in the law.” Thus they are to regard them, not as denunciations of their doom in case of sinning, but as a mirror in which to behold the fearful demerit of their sin; the unspeakable love of God in freeing them from bearing it, his fatherly displeasure against his own for their sin, and the tokens of his anger to be expected by them in that case. So will they be influenced to avoid evil and do good, being filled thereby with hatred and horror of sin, thankfulness to God, and fear of the displeasure and frowns of their Father — though not with a fear that he will condemn them, and destroy them in hell; this mirror represents no such thing.
Such a fear in a believer is groundless. For (1.) He is not under the threatening of hell, or liable to the curse. See p. 113, 114, notes. If he were, he must that moment he sins, fall under the curse. For since the curse is the sentence of the law, passing on the sinner according to the threatening, adjudging, and binding over to the punishment threatened. If the law say to a man before he sins, “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die,” it says to him in the moment he sins, “Cursed is everyone that does not continue in all things written in the law, to do them.” And because believers sin in everything they do — their very believing and repenting always being attended with sinful imperfections — it is not possible, at this rate, that they can be out from under the curse even one moment; but it must be continually wreathed about their necks. It is vain to distinguish between gross sins and lesser sins in this case; for as every sin, even the least, deserves God’s wrath and curse, [Short. Cat.,] so against whomever the curse takes place (and by virtue of God’s truth, it takes place against all those who are threatened with hell or eternal death) they are cursed for all sins, smaller or greater: “Cursed is everyone that does not continue in all things.” Though there is still a difference made between greater and lesser sins in respect to the degree of punishment, yet there is none in respect to the kind. But now believers are set free from the curse. Gal. 3.13.
“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” (2.) By the redemption of Christ already applied to the believer, and by the oath of God, he is perfectly secured from the return of the curse upon him,” Gal. 3.13, [see before] compared with Isa. 53.and 54.9, “For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.” Therefore the believer is perfectly secured from being made liable any more to hell or eternal death. For a man, being under the curse is “so made liable to the pains of hell forever.” Short. Cat. (3.) He is justified by faith, and so adjudged to live eternally in heaven. This is unalterable, “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” Rom. 11.29. And a man can never stand adjudged to eternal life, and to eternal death, at one and the same time. (4.) One great difference between believers and unbelievers lies here, that the latter are bound over to hell and wrath, and the former are not: John 3.18, “He that believes is not condemned: but he that does not believes, is condemned already;” not that he is in hell already, but bound over to it. Now, a believer is still a believer from the first moment of his believing; therefore it remains true concerning him, from that moment forever, that he is not condemned or bound over to hell and wrath. He is expressly secured against it for all time to come, from that moment. John 5.24, “He shall not come into condemnation.” And the apostle cuts off all evasion by distinctions of condemnation here, while he tells us in express terms, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Rom. 8.1. (5.) The believer’s union with Christ is never dissolved. Hosea 2.19, “I will betroth you to me forever:” and being in Christ he is set beyond the reach of condemnation, Rom. 8.1. Indeed, being in Christ, he is perfectly righteous forever; for he is never again stripped of the white raiment of Christ’s imputed righteousness; while the union remains, it cannot be lost: but to be perfectly righteous, and yet liable to condemnation before a just Judge, are inconsistent.
Nor is such a fear in a believer acceptable to God; for (1.) It is not from the Spirit of God, but from one’s own spirit, or worse; Rom. 8.15, “You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;” namely, to fear of death or hell. Heb. 2.15, “Who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage.” (2.) It was the design of sending Christ, that believers in him might serve God without that fear, Luke 1.74. That “we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear.” Compare 1Cor. 15.26, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” And for this very cause Jesus Christ came, “That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and deliver those who, through fear of death, were all their life,” namely, before their deliverance by Christ, “subject to bondage,” Heb. 2.14, 15.
(3.) Though fear is indeed consistent with faith, yet it is contrary to it; Mat. 8.26, “Why are you fearful, you of little faith!” And contrary to love too; 1John 4.18, “Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment.” — 2Tim. 1.7, “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.”
(4.) As it is not agreeable to the character of a father, who is not a revenging judge to his own family, to threaten to kill his children though he threatens to chastise them: so such a fear is no more agreeable to the spirit of adoption, nor becoming to the state of sonship to God, than for a child to fear that his father is such a one as to kill him. Therefore, “the spirit of bondage to fear” is opposed to “the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father,” Rom. 8.15.
“Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, whereby all those who are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them (receive the spirit of adoption, Westm. Confess., chap. 12) are under his fatherly care and dispensation, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.” Larg. Cat. q. 74.
“The LIBERTY which Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the Moral Law, as also in their free access to God, and yielding obedience to him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind. All of these were common also to believers under the law.” Westm. Confess., chap. 20, art. 1. By the guilt of sin here, must be understood obligation to eternal wrath. See p. 87, note 4.
“The end of Christian liberty is that, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might ‘serve the Lord without fear.’” Ibid. art. 3.
“The one [namely: justification) equally frees all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that is perfectly in this life, so that they never fall into condemnation.” Larg. Cat. q. 77.
“Though a soul is justified and freed from the guilt of eternal punishment; and so the spirit is no more to be afraid and disquieted for eternal wrath and hell.” Rutherford’s Trial and Triumph, etc. Ser. 19, p. 261.
“The believer has no conscience of sins; that is, in conscience he is not to fear everlasting condemnation; that is most true.” Ibid. p. 266.
See more to this purpose, p. 108, note; 113, note; 197, note.
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And it is no marvel that one would have them do so, since that is what all the children of God with one mouth daily pray for, saying, “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
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There is a great difference between a believer’s avoiding evil for fear of hell, and his avoiding it from the fear of God, ‘‘as able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The former respects the event as to his eternal state, the latter does not. To this purpose, the variation of the phrase in the text is observable — “do not fear those who kill the body:” this notes the event as to temporal death by the hands of men, which our Lord would have his people come to terms with; but with respect to eternal death, he says, do not fear the one who destroys, but “who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Moreover, the former is a slavish fear of God as a revenging judge; the believer avoiding sin for fear he will be damned: the latter is a reverential fear of God as of a Father with whom there is awful dominion and power. The former carries in it a doubtfulness and uncertainty as to the event, plainly contrary to the remedy prescribed in this same case: Prov. 29.25, “The fear of man brings a snare; but whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” The latter is consistent with the most full assurance of one’s being put beyond all hazard of hell, Heb. 12.28, 29, “Therefore receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” A believer, by fixing his eyes on God who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell, may be so filled with the reverential fear of God, his dreadful power and wrath against sin, as to be fenced against the slavish fear of the most cruel tyrants, tempting him to sin; though in the meantime he most firmly believes that he is past that gulf, and can never fall into it, nor be bound over to it. For so he has a lively representation of the just deserving of sin, even of that sin in particular to which he is tempted; and so he must tremble at the thought of it, as an evil greater than death. As when a child sees his father lashing his slaves, he cannot help but tremble and fear to offend him, so when a believer turns his eyes on the miseries of the damned, he must raise in himself an awful apprehension of the severity of his Father against sin, even his own; and cause him to say in his heart, “My flesh trembles for fear of you; and I am afraid of your judgments,” Psalm 119.120. Thus also he has a view of the frightful danger he has escaped; looking back to it must make one’s heart shiver, and conceive a horror of sin; as in the case of a pardoned criminal looking back to a dreadful precipice from which he was to have been thrown headlong, if a pardon had not seasonably prevented his ruin; Eph. 2.3, “We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
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Thus, to avoid evil and do good for hope of heaven, is to do so in hope of obtaining heaven by our own works. And certainly “that hope shall be cut off, and be a spider’s web,” Job 8.14; for a sinner shall never obtain heaven except in the way of free grace; “But if it is of works, then it is no more grace,” Rom. 11.6. But our author nowhere denies that a believer may be animated to obedience by eyeing the reward already obtained for him by the works of Christ. So indeed the apostle exhorts believers to run their Christian race, “looking to Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him,” (to be obtained by his own works, in the way of most proper merits) “endured the cross,” Heb. 12.1 , 2.
“Papists,” says Dr. Preston, “tell of escaping damnation, and of getting into heaven. But Scripture gives other motives [namely: to good works]. You are in Christ, and Christ is yours. Consider what he has done for you, what you have by him, what you had been without him, and thus stir yourself up to do for him what he requires.” — Abridg. of his Works, p. 394.
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“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Short. Cat. — “Believers shall be made perfectly blessed in full enjoying of God to all eternity.” Ibid.
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Rom. 4.16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end that the promise [namely: promise of the inheritance, verses 13, 14,] might be sure to all the seed.” Otherwise it is not given freely; for “to him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt,” verse 4. 18
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The apostle’s decision in this case seems to be pretty clear: Rom. 6.23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life:’’ he would not have us look at it as the wages of a servant too. The joining together of both these notions of the reward was, it seems, the doctrine of the Pharisees; Mark 10.17, “Good Master, what shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?” And how unacceptable it was to our blessed Saviour, may be learned from his answer to that question. “The Papists confess that life is merited by Christ, and it is made ours by the right of inheritance: so far we go with them. Yes, touching works, they hold many things in common with us; (1.) That no works of themselves can merit everlasting life. (2.) That works done before conversion, can merit nothing at God’s hand. (3.) “That there is no merit at God’s hand without his mercy — no exact merit as there often is among men. The point about which we dissent is that to the merit of Christ and the free promise, they would join the merit of works as done by those who are adopted children.” — Bayne on Eph. 2.8.
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Namely, in the way of the Covenant of Grace.
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Our author, remembering Nomista’s bias towards good works, as separated from Christ, reminds him that Christ is the way; and that the soul’s motion heavenward is in Christ; that is, once a man is united to Christ by faith, he moves heavenward, making progress in believing, and does so by influences derived from Jesus Christ, walking in his holy commandments. The Scripture acknowledges no other holiness of life, or good works. And concerning the necessity of these, the author moves no debate. But as to the propriety of his expression, since good works are keeping the commandments in the way in which we are to go, he conceives these works may, with greater propriety, be called walking in the way, rather than the way itself. It is certain that the Scripture speaks of “walking in Christ,” Col. 2.6, “walking in his commandments,” 2Chron. 17.4, and “walking in good works,” Eph. 2.10; and as these terms signify one and the same thing, they are all metaphorical. But one would think calling good works the way to be walked in, is further removed from the propriety of expression, than calling them walking in the way. But the author waives this as a matter of phraseology, or only a manner of speaking; he tells us that assuredly the sum and substance, both of the way to eternal happiness, and of walking in the way to it, consists in receiving Jesus Christ by faith, and in yielding obedience to his law according to the measure of that receiving. In this is comprehended Christ and holiness, faith and obedience — which are inseparable. And no narrower is the compass of the way and walking mentioned in Isa. 35.8, 9, “It shall be called the way of holiness — the redeemed shall walk there.” — “The way of holiness, or the holy way (according to an usual Hebraism) as it is generally understood by interpreters, is the way leading to heaven, says Piscator; namely, it is by Christ, faith, and the doctrine of a holy life.” Fererius apud Pol. Synop. in loc. And now that our author, though he conceives good works are not so properly called the way, as the walking, yet he does not say that in no sense they may be called the way, but expressly asserts they are the soul’s walking in the way of eternal happiness. He cannot justly be charged here (more than any where else in his book) with teaching that holiness is not necessary to salvation, unless one would first say that, though the way itself to eternal happiness is necessary to salvation, yet walking in the way is not necessary to it; this would be Antinomian with a witness.