Chapter V
The second branch : How Christ s representing us as a common person in his
resurrection, hath an influence into our justification, made forth by two
things : (1.) How Christ at his resurrection u-as justified from our sin ; (2.) That we were all then justified in him as a common person.
2. Now, then, to come to the other branch of the demonstration, namely, how this relation to us as a common person representing us in his resur
rection, hath a real influence into our justification. And this is the point I drive at ; and for the clearing of which that large and general discourse
by way of digression in the former chapter was but to make way for.
I shall absolve and despatch this branch by shewing two things
(1.) That Christ himself was justified, and that at his resurrection.
(2.) That he was justified then as a common person, representing us
therein, as well as that he rose as a common person ; and so that we were then justified in him and with him ; and by this means it is that by that act then done to him, our justification is made irrepealable for ever.
(l.) sFor the explicating of the first: As Christ was in his death made
sin for us, and so sustained our persons in his satisfying for sin by his death (which is the matter of our righteousness), so in and upon his resur
rection he was justified and acquitted from our sins by God, as having now
fully in his death satisfied for them, which I make forth by these three
things put together
[l.J First, in reason, if that Christ were made sin for us, and satisfied
for it, there must then some act pass, whereby Christ should be pronounced
acquit of our sins, and fully clear of them, and so be himself formally justi fied in respect of those sins, for which he undertook to satisfy. For,
according to the course of all proceedings, if a charge of guilt be formally
laid, there must be as formal an act of acquitting, and of giving a quietus
est. There is no man but for his own discharge and security would desire
it ; nor is there any wise man that pays a debt for which he is legally sued, that will not have, upon the payment of it, as legal an acquittance. Paul, when he was cast into prison by a public act of authority, he stood upon it
to have a public act of release from the same magistrates, and would not
go forth of prison privily, though themselves sent to him so to go out, Acts xvi. 37. Now God himself did lay the iniquities of us all upon Christ, Isa. liii. 6, and
* had him to prison and judgment for them, ver. 3. There must, therefore, some act pass from God, legally to take them off from him, and declaring him discharged, to deliver him from prison and
judgment.
And, defacto, it is evident that there was some such act passed from God ;
for, as we read, that Christ, while he lived, and also in his death, was made sin, and did bear the sin of many, as the phrase is, Heb. ix. 28. So we read in the very next words, that he shall appear the second time without sin, which must needs be spoken in a direct opposition to his
having borne our sins, and appearing then with all our sins laid to his
charge. He appeared charged with them then, but now he shall appear, as apparently and manifestly to be without those sins, for of our sins it must needs be meant, and so to be discharged of them as fully as ever he
appeared charged with them. For it is said, he shall appear without sin ;* and therefore to the judgments of all it shall be made manifest, that that
36 THE SUPPORT OF FAITH [SECT. III.
God that once charged him with them, hath now fully discharged him of them. The apostle speaks of it as of a great alteration made in this respect between Christ whilst on earth, and Christ as he is to appear the second
lime, and is now in heaven. And this alteration or discharge must neces
sarily be made by God ; for he is the creditor who followed the suit, and
therefore he alone can give the acquittance.
[2.] Now, secondly, from hence it will follow, that there must be some time when this alteration was first made, and discharge given, when Christ, from being sin, as he was made, should become without sin, through God s
acquitting of him ; and this, say I, was at his resurrection. It is not deferred
as then to be first done, when he is to appear the second time, though then it appears indeed, but it is really done before ; for he comes then to
judge others for sin. Now in reason when should this acquittance or justi fication from our sins be first given to Christ, and legally pronounced on
him, but when he had paid the last farthing of the debt, and made his satis
faction complete ? which was then done when he began to rise ; for his lying in the grave was a part of his humiliation, and so of his satisfaction, as gene
rally orthodox divines hold. Now, therefore, when he began to rise, then ended his humiliation ; and that was the first moment of his exaltation. His
acquittance, therefore, bears date from thence, even from that very hour.
* condemned, so that he was * justified. Thus, 1 Tim. iii. 16, God is said to be manifest in the flesh, and then that this God-man was justified in the Spirit. That
[3.] Hence, thirdly, we read, as that Christ was
is, whereas God was manifest or appeared in flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, as Eom. viii., that same God-man was also justified in the Spirit from all those sins, and so
* received up to glory, as it follows there. And not to
go far, the very words of this my text,
* it is God that justifies, are taken out of Isa. 1. 8, 9, and as there they are first spoken by Christ of himself, then, when he
* gave his back to the smiters, in his death (as in the verses
* condemned man, he comforts himself with this, He is near that justifies me ; who shall condemn ? And when was that done, or to be done, but at his resurrection ? So the phrase in Timothy imports, if you compare it with another in Peter, 1 Pet. iii. 18.
before), and was put to death as a
Being put to death in the flesh, and quickened in (or by) the Spirit. Paul, he says, justified in the Spirit; Peter, he says, quickened in the
Spirit : both mean one and the same thing. By Spirit is meant the power of his Godhead and divine nature, whereby he was at once both raised from the grave, and from under the guilt of sin together. He was at once both quickened, or raised, and justified also. And that by Spirit they mean his divine nature, the opposition in both places evidently implies ; for it is opposed to his flesh, or human nature. Now, because he was
quickened, or raised, by the power of the Godhead, and at that raising him he was justified also by God, and declared justified by that resurrection, as he had been declared condemned by his death ; hence, to be justified is
put for his resurrection ; for that was his justification, to declaration of all the world, that he was justified from all the sins laid to his charge. And that other place I cited out of Isaiah hath the same meaning also ; for Christ there comforts himself against the Jews condemning him, and put ting jiim to death, with the hopes of God s justifying of him, when he should have gone through that work. And Christ s meaning there is this,
* God will raise me up and acquit me, though you condemn and kill me. In the other prophets you shall find Christ still comforting himself against bis condemnation at his death, with the thoughts of his resurrection, which
CHAP. V.J FROM CHRIST S RESURRECTION. 37
he foresaw as shortly to follow after it ; as here, in Isaiah, he comforts himself with these hopes of his being justified after their condemnation of him. For instance, Ps. xvi. 9, My flesh shall rest in hope
: thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. Which
words, you know, Peter, in the Acts, doth twice interpret of Christ s resur
rection. In like manner here, in Isaiah, against his death and condemnation, he comforts himself with the hopes of God s justification of him at his resur
rection, He is near who justifies me (and he shall help me) ; who shall condemn ?
And further, to confirm and strengthen this notion, because his resurrec
tion was the first moment of this his justification from our sins, therefore
it is that God calls it his first begetting of Christ, This day have I
begotten thee, speaking manifestly of his resurrection, Acts xiii. 33. And
the reason of his so calling it, is, because all the while before he was covered with sin, and the likeness of sinful flesh ; but now, having flung it off, he
appears like God s Son indeed, as if newly begotten. And thus also he* cometh to be the fuller conformity between Christ s justification and ours. For as our justification is at our first being born again, so was Christ s also
at this his first glorious begetting. He was under an attainder before ; here was the act of restitution first passed. And as at our conversion (which is
to us a resurrection) we pass from death to life, that is, from an estate
of death and condemnation, unto justification of life, so did Christ also at
his resurrection, which to him was a re-begetting, pass from an estate of death and guilt laid on him, to an estate of life and glory, and justification from guilt ; and so shall appear, as the word is, HelD. ix. 28 (as he doth now in heaven), without sin ; for he became to be without sin from that
very moment. Thus I have shewn how Christ was justified at his resurrec
tion.
(2.) Now then, in the second place, I am to shew that this his justifica
tion, and pronouncing him without sin, thus done at his resurrection, was done to him as the first-fruits, and as to a common person bearing our
persons, and so in our names. From whence will necessarily follow, as the conclusion of all, that the persons of all the elect believers have been
justified before God in Christ, as their head, at or from the time of his
resurrection ; and so that act of justification to have been so firmly passed as
it cannot be revoked for ever. Now this is proved, First, by the very same reason or respect that he was said to be the
* first-fruits of them that sleep, as representing the rest in his resurrection, which I shewed at large in the former chapter ; upon the same ground he
is to be so looked at also in this his justification pronounced upon him at
his resurrection, even as the first-fruits also of them that are justified. And so in the same sense, and by the same reason that we are said to be risen with Christ, in his resurrection ; we must also be said to be justified with him, in this his justification, at his resurrection.
, And indeed (to enlarge this a little), as there is the same reason and
ground for the one that there is for the other, he being a public person in
both, so the rule will hold in all other things which God ever doth to us, or
for us, which are common with Christ, and were done to him ; that in them
all Christ was the first-fruits, and they may be said to have been done in
us, or to us, yea, by us, in him, and with him. Yea, whatever God meant
to do for us and in us, whatever privilege or benefit he meant to bestow upon us, he did that thing first to Christ, and (some way) bestowed the * Qu.
< there ? ED.
88 THE SUPPORT OF FAITH [SECT. III.
like on him as a common person, that so it might be by a solemn formal
act ratified, and be made sure to be done to us in our persons in due time,
having first been done to him representing our persons ; and that by this
course taken, it might (when done to us) be effected by virtue of what was
first done to him. Thus God meaning to sanctify us, he sanctifies Christ
first, in him as a common person sanctifying us all ; For their sakes I
sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified through thy truth, John
xvii. 19. He sanctifies the human nature of Christ personal, (that is his
body), and him first, as a common person representing us, that so we, being
virtually and representatively sanctified in him, may be sure to be sanctified
afterwards in our own persons, by means of his sanctification. And so in
* justified in the Spirit ; because we were
like manner for our sakes he was
to be justified, and so to be justified first in him, and with him as a common
person. Now this rule holds in all blessings else bestowed ; for Paul pronounceth of them all, that God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, Eph. i. 3, which God did so order, that, as he speaks of
ordaining salvation to be by faith, Rom. iv. 16, that all those blessings might be sure to all the seed. For this formal investiture of estating us
into all blessings by such solemn acts done to Christ as our head and repre-
senter of us, makes what he intends to bestow sure beforehand, by an
irrepealable act and sentence, which hath its warrant in all laws of men, as
I have shewn, and shall anon again urge. And,
Secondly, by the equity of the same law that in Adam we were all con demned, Adam being a type of him in this, by the same law, I say, we were
all justified in Christ*when he was justified, else the type were not therein
fialfilled. Now the sentence of condemnation was first passed upon Adam
alone, yet considered as a common person for us ; therefore also this
acquittance and justification was then passed towards Christ alone, as a
public person for us. Yea, in this his being justified, Christ must much rather be considered as a common person representing us, than Adam was
in his condemnation. For Christ in his own person, as he had no sin, so he had no need of any justification from sin, nor should ever have been condemned. And therefore this must be only in a respect unto our sins
imputed to him ; and if so, then in our stead. And so herein, he was more
purely to be considered as a common person for us, than ever Adam was, in his being condemned. For Adam, besides his standing as a common
person for us, was furthermore condemned in his own person ; but Christ
in being justified from sin, could only be considered as standing for others. Thus, Rom. v. 18, Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so (or in like manner) by the righteousness of that one man Christ, the free gift came upon all men (namely, in Christ) unto justification of life. He parallels both with a so, only with this
difference between Adam s being a common person for us, and so between the ground of our being condemned in him, and Christ his being a common
person for us, and our acquittance in him, that the condemnation came upon all by a necessary, natural covenant, for by such a covenant was Adam appointed a common person for us ; but Christ his being appointed thus a common person for us, it was by a free gift of grace ; and therefore
in like manner by a free gift of grace it is that the imputation of that which he did, or was done to him, is reckoned ours. As then in Adam all died, when he sinned, as the apostle speaks, so in Christ were all justified,
when he was justified. For as in his death Christ was a public person for*
tis, and in all that befell him ; so in his resurrection, and in all that was
CHAP. VI.] FROM CHRIST S RESURRECTION. 39
then done to him ; and so, in this his being then justified. And as when he died, the just was put to death for the unjust (as Peter speaks), so when he arose and was justified, the just that needed no justification was
justified for the unjust, who else had been condemned ; and so we were then justified with him.