Sect. 5. — The spiritual Marriage with Jesus Christ.
Sect. 5. — The spiritual Marriage with Jesus Christ.
Neo. And truly, sir, you have so declared and set forth Christ’s disposition towards poor sinners, and so answered all my doubts and objections, that I am now truly persuaded that Christ is willing to invite me; and surely I am willing to come to him, and receive him — but, alas! I lack the power to do so.
Evan. But tell me truly, are you resolved to exercise all your power to believe, and so to take Christ?
Neo. Truly, sir, I think my resolution is much like the resolution of the four lepers who sat at the gate of Samaria. For they said, “If we enter into the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; but if we sit still here, we die also. Now, therefore, let us surrender to the host of the Syrians; if they save us, we will live, and if they kill us, we will but die,” 2Kings 7.4. Even so I say in my heart, that if I go back to the Covenant of Works to seek justification by it, I will die there; and if I sit still and do not seek justification in any way, I will die also. Now, therefore, even though I am somewhat fearful, I am resolved to go to Christ — and if I perish, I perish.
Evan. Why, now I tell you the match is made. Christ is yours, and you are his. “This day salvation has come to your house,” (i.e., to your soul). For though you do not have that power to become so fixed to Christ, and lay such a firm hold on him as you desire, yet coming with such a resolution to take Christ as you do, you need not worry about the power to do it, because Christ will enable you. For it is said in John 1.12, “But to as many as received him, he gave power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on his name.” O, I beseech you therefore, no longer stand here disputing; but be peremptory and resolute in your faith, and in casting yourself upon God in Christ for mercy, whatever the outcome may be. Yet let me tell you to your comfort, that with such a resolution, you will never go to hell. Indeed, I will say more: if any soul wants a place in heaven, such a soul will have it; for God cannot find it in his heart to damn such a person. I might then say to you with as much true confidence as John Careless said to John Bradford in a letter to him,
“Hearken, O heavens, and you O earth give ear, and bear me witness at the great day, that I do here faithfully and truly declare the Lord’s message to his dear servant, and singularly beloved John Bradford, saying, ‘John Bradford, a man so specially beloved of God, I pronounce and testify to you in the word and name of the Lord Jehovah, that all your sins — whatever they are, however many, grievous, or great — are fully and freely pardoned, released, and forgiven you, by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, the only Lord and sweet Saviour, in whom you undoubtedly believe. As truly as the Lord lives, he will not have you die the death; but he has truly purposed, determined, and decreed, that you shall live with him forever.’”
Neo. O sir, if I have as good warrant to apply this saying to myself as Mr. Bradford had to himself, then I am a happy man!
Evan. I tell you from Christ, and under the hand of the Spirit, that you are accepted, your sins are done away with, and you shall be saved. And if an angel from heaven should tell you otherwise, let him be accursed.Gal 1.8 Therefore you may (without doubt) conclude that you are a happy man. For by marrying Christ, you have become one with him, and one in him; you “dwell in him, and he in you,” 1John 4.13. He is “your well-beloved, and you are his,” Song 2.16. So that the marriage union between Christ and you is more than a bare notion or apprehension of your mind. For it is a special, spiritual, and real union. It is a union between the nature of Christ, God and man, and you. It is a knitting and closing, not only of your apprehension with a Saviour, but also of your soul with a Saviour. From this it must follow that you cannot be condemned, unless Christ is condemned with you; nor can Christ be saved, unless you are saved with him.
Just as by means of bodily marriage all things become common between man and wife, even so, by means of this spiritual marriage, all things become common between Christ and you. For when Christ has married his spouse to himself, he passes over his entire estate to her, so that whatever Christ is or has, you may boldly claim as your own. “He is made to you, by God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” 1Cor. 1.30. And surely it is by virtue of this close union, that just as Christ is called “the Lord our righteousness,” Jer. 23.6, even so the church is called, “the Lord our righteousness,” verse 33.16. I tell you that by virtue of this union, you may boldly take upon yourself as your own, Christ’s vigilance, abstinence, travails, prayers, persecutions, and slanders — yes, his tears, his sweat, his blood, and all that he ever did and suffered in the space of three and thirty years, along with his passion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension — for they are all yours. Just as Christ passes over his entire estate to his spouse, so he requires that she should pass over everything to him. Therefore, now being married to Christ, you must give all that you have of your own to him; and truly you have nothing of your own but sin; and therefore you must give him that. I beseech you, then, say to Christ with bold confidence, I give you, my dear husband, my unbelief, my mistrust, my pride, my arrogance, my ambition, my wrath and anger, my envy, my covetousness, my evil thoughts, affections, and desires. I make one bundle of these and all my other offences, and give them to you. And thus Christ was made “sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2Cor. 5.21. “Now then,” says Luther, “let us compare these things together, and we shall find inestimable treasure. Christ is full of grace, life, and saving health; and the soul is freight-full of all sin, death, and damnation. But let faith come between these two, and it shall come to pass that Christ will be laden with sin, death, and hell; and to the soul will be imputed grace, life, and salvation.
Who then is able to value the royalty of this marriage accordingly? Who is able to comprehend the glorious riches of his grace, where this rich and righteous husband, Christ, takes as his wife this poor and wicked harlot, redeeming her from all devils, and garnishing her with all his own jewels? So that you, through the assuredness of your faith in Christ, your husband, are delivered from all sins, made safe from death, guarded from hell, and endowed with the everlasting righteousness, life, and saving health of your husband Christ.” And, therefore, you are now under the Covenant of Grace, and freed from the law, as that is the Covenant of Works; for (as Mr. Ball truly says) a man cannot be under the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace at one and the same time.
Neo. Sir, I do not know quite how to conceive of this freedom from the law, as it is the Covenant of Works. And therefore I beg you to make it as plain to me as you can.
Evan. For the true and clear understanding of this point, you are to consider that when Jesus Christ, the second Adam, on behalf of his chosen, perfectly fulfilled the law as it is the Covenant of Works, divine justice delivered that bond to Christ, who utterly cancelled that hand-writing, Col. 2.14. So that none of his chosen were to have any more to do with it, nor it with them. And now, by believing in Christ, you have manifested that you were chosen in him “before the foundation of the world,” Eph. 1.4. His fulfilling that covenant, and cancelling that hand-writing, is imputed to you; and so you are acquitted and absolved from all your transgressions against that covenant, either past, present, or to come; and so you are justified, as the apostle says, “freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ,” Rom. 3.24.