Chapter VI
How our faith may raise from hence just matter of triumph about our justifica
tion. An explication how we are justified by faith, although justified in
Christ at his resurrection.
And hereupon is grounded this triumph of faith here, from Christ s
resurrection, Who shall condemn ? It is Christ that is risen. The mean
ing whereof is, that he was justified at his resurrection (justified in the Spirit and quickened in the Spirit being all one), and we in him. Yea, and a
rather is put upon this, rather than put upon his death ; for this act was a solemn discharge from all sin and condemnation ; it was a legal acquittance given to Christ for all our sins, and so to us also considered as in him. His death was but the satisfaction and payment ; but this is the first act of
absolution. Yea, and this is the original act, which is upon record between God and Christ ; and our justification and atonement (when we are justified by faith in Christ) is but a copy fetched from this roll, and court-sentence then pronounced.
And such a way and course to ratify and make acts good and legal, even
to have them done by another representing one s person, is common among men, as those instances I formerly gave do shew. An attorneyat-law
receives a debt, or an acquittance for a debt, paid or given for another man, and it is as legal as if the man himself or creditor had done it, and the debtor had received the acquittance himself. Yea, acts of the greatest and
highest concernment are ofttimes no otherwise transacted ; as the marriages of princes are by proxy solemnized, their ambassadors representing their
persons, and contracting and marrying their wives in their stead, which acts
are thereby made as irrevocable, and irrepealable, as if themselves had in
person done them. And so if we were justified when Christ did rise and was justified, our justification then cannot be reversed, but stands as legal and warrantable as any act that God or man ever ratified or confirmed. And who shall condemn ?
Only, for farther explication s sake, lest there be a mistake, let me add
this, that it is necessary that we be justified in our own persons by faith,
(notwithstanding this former act thus legally passed), whereby we lay hold upon what God did thus before for us in Christ, to the end that God upon our
believing may, according to his own rules, justify his justifying of us unto all the world ; which, until we do believe, he could not do. For according to the revealed rules of his word, which he professeth to proceed by at the
latter day, there is a curse and a sentence of condemnation pronounced against us, under which we stand till he shall take it off by giving us faith ; unto which he hath, in the same word, made the promise of justifying us in our own persons, as before he had done in Christ. Yet still notwithstanding, so as although, when we first believe, then only justification is actually and
personally applied to us, yet at Christ s resurrection, and in his being then
iustified, this act and sentence was virtually pronounced upon us ; and so
40 THE SUPPORT OF FAITH [SECT. III.
doth necessarily require, and exaci at God s hands, the bestowing faith upon us ; that so by virtue of this former act passed, we come to be actually
justified in our own consciences, and before all the world. And so our
justification, which was but secretly wrought and passed upon us in Christ,
is never made void, but stands irrepealable ; and so ratified, that our per sonal justification by faith doth always infallibly second and succeed it. And (to illustrate it a little) our condemnation in Adam, and this our justi fication in Christ, do in this hold parallel together, that as in Adam we were
all virtually condemned, in Adam all die, and that legal enough too, for
thereupon came out that statute-law, statutum est, It is appointed that all should die, and yet we are not actually in our own persons condemned till we are born of him ; nor do we personally die, until we lay down our flesh, even so it is in the matter of our justification
: it was done virtually in
Christ, and afterwards, when we believe, is actually passed in and upon our
selves. Now I call this former but a virtual justification, even as by the sentence of condemnation passed upon a malefactor, he is called a dead man, that is, he is so virtually and in law (as we say), though naturally he
die not many days after, but in that respect may be still alive ; so by Christ s being justified, we are all virtually and in law justified, through a
secret yet irrepealable covenant between God and Christ, who only did then know who were his. And for a confirmation even of this also, that God accounts all the elect
justified in his justifying of Christ, we shall not need to go any further than the words of this text, if we do but diligently compare their standing here with that of theirs in that place out of which they are taken, an where we find them first recorded and spoken, namely, in that 50th of
Isaiah, 7, 8, He is near that justifies me; who is he that shall condemn? Now there (as , interpreters agree, and as the context shews), those words are spoken by Christ himself ; for, ver. 5, he speaks of God s boring his ear to do his will (the same expression that is used of Christ, Ps. xl. 6), and farther says, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that pulled off the hair, and I hid not my face from shame and spitting (all which you may read in Christ s sufferings, Mat. xxvi. 67 and xvii. 26). And he spake before (in ver. 4), of God s having
* given him the tongue of the learned, to speak a word in season to him that is weary, which you may read done by Christ, Mat. xi. 28. Now those words were spoken by Christ, to comfort himself against the Jews condemning him, as considering that God would justify him ; as at his resurrection, you have heard, he did. Now mark it, those very words which Isaiah brings in Christ speaking as of himself alone, those very words Paul here boldly applies, in the like
triumph, to all the elect of Christ, Who shall condemn ? It is God that
justifies ; and this because Christ is dead, and risen, and acquitted by God. Christ spake those words as a public person in the name of all his elect, whom he in his death and in his justification represented ; and for that very respect Paul speaks the like words over again, of of all elect believers, as being as truly and really intended of them, when spoken by Christ, as of himself, and of his own person. He is near that
justifies me (says Christ) ; who shall condemn ? namely, me, or mine elect, whose persons I sustain. And Who shall lay anything to the charge of God s elect ? says Paul.
< It is God that justifies; who shall condemn ? for Christ hath died, and been condemned for them, and Christ was
justified from that condemnation, and they in him. And because the justi fication of himself, which Christ spake of, as looked for from God, was to
CHAP. VII.] FROM CHRIST S RESURRECTION. 41
be made at his resurrection, as hath been said, therefore Paul here puts a
rather upon his resurrection.
And farther to establish this, as you heard before out of Rom. vi. 11, that in respect of sanctification we were dead with Christ, even then when he died ; so in Col. ii. 13, we are said to be
* risen with him, in respect of our justification, which is the thing in hand. The words are,
* And you being dead in your sins, namely, the guilt of your sins, and the cir cumcision of your flesh, that is, in respect of the power of corrupt nature,
* hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your tres
passes. See here, the forgiveness of our sins, or our justification, is called a quickening or a raising up of us (as the 12th verse hath it),
* together with him, in a conformity and relation to that justification from our sins, which at his resurrection he received in our names. His meaning is, he was justified then, and in our names ; and so we are now justified through the virtue of that our communion with him therein. For if you mark the connection of the words with what follows, ver. 14, you will find this
forgiving of their trespasses (ver. 13) through their being quickened together with him, not only to have been done when they believed, and so when they had that justification personally first applied to them, of which,
it is true, the words in the 12th verse are to be understood, but also then
* when he having (as it follows in the 14th verse) blotted out the handwriting of ordinances which was against us, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, and got the victory, namely, in
to have been done,
* had made a show of them openly (in his ascending to
his rising again,
heaven), triumphing over them ev auru in himself (as the margin hath it) ; of which words I shall farther speak in the next head. So as then when Christ did this in himself, then were our sins forgiven, then were we
acquitted with him, and triumphed with him, he doing all this in our stead,
representing us.