Thomas Manton · 37 of 57

The Sixth Verse. · Part 4

3. The Lord, whose will and word is alone to be looked to. It is no matter what Satan saith, or what your hearts say, for it goeth altogether by what God saith, who hath laid our sins upon Christ. See how the apostle rejoiceth that God’s hand was in the acquitting of poor sinners: Rom. viii. 33, 34, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen.’ What a bold challenge is there! Satan may say, I can, and our consciences may condemn us too. The devil is an accuser of the brethren to God as well as men, and a poor soul can go and indict itself at the throne of grace, and bring in many a sad charge against itself, and find its own case liable to death and damnation. I have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. Ay! but who will you believe—God, or Satan and your own hearts? The Lord hath laid your sins upon Christ, and you will believe Satan, and lay them upon yourselves. God would have Christ not only to suffer the death, but to bear the sins; that, as he did take away the condemnation, so he might take away the accusation too; for mark, the apostle saith, ‘Who shall charge?’ and then, ‘Who shall condemn?’ Satan hath nothing to do to bring in the sad charge, or to collect the doleful inferences. Brethren, keep your ground still. It is God that justifieth, the whole business of your acquitment is carried on by the Lord. Satan telleth you, you have been a swearer, a drunkard. It is a sad thing that you have been so, but has God given you a sight of this? Here is your comfort, God hath ordered all this to be laid upon the back of Christ. Ay! but Satan saith, the soul that sinneth shall die. But keep your faith on what God has done; he hath less reason to condemn than he hath to accuse. ‘It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again.’ Thus you see what comfort there is in God’s acquitment. It is the Lord hath laid: now, nobody is to be believed before him. It is the great policy of Satan to make you put this high affront upon God, that you should believe him before the Lord: thus he did by our first parents in another case, Gen. iii. 4, ‘Ye shall not surely die.’ Here he telleth a poor distressed soul, Ye shall surely die. The devil acts his part on every hand; but do not you believe him, for it is God that justifieth. Satan saith it shall be laid on thyself; the Lord saith, on Christ. Do not believe the father of lies before the Father of lights.

4. The Lord hath laid, even God, that hath so great an interest in Christ that he can deny him nothing. Look, as God denieth Christ nothing that he asketh him, so Christ denieth God nothing that he commandeth him. Thus you shall see when God commandeth Christ to die for souls, Ps. xl. 8, ‘I delight to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is within my heart.’ It was a gladsome intimation to Christ to be ordained to such a service. There is a law upon the bowels of Christ; he is called to bear your sins; he will be accounted the sinner, and you shall go free. Therefore see what rich matter there is for your faith to work upon, and beg the Spirit to fix it upon you.

Use 2. Is exhortation to glorify God for his goodness. Here are two things I would exhort you to:—

1. To glorify God for his mercy and goodness; and,

2. To glorify him alone.

1. Glorify God. Though Christ effected your deliverance, yet he was sent by the Father; the Lord laid our iniquities upon him. We have experience not only of Christ’s love, but of God’s; every person of the Trinity hath a hand in it, and every person must have his distinct glory. I will not speak now of what the Son did, or what the Spirit doth, but of the love of the Father. He showed a great deal of love:—

[1.] In deputing Christ to this office, and laying his command upon Christ for it: John xvii. 23, ‘That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.’ It is a high expression of the love of God to lay our sins upon his own Son, to send Christ to die for our sins. It is an expression of the same love to you that God bare to Christ; it was the same kind of love, though not the same degree, God’s complacency in Christ being infinite and incomprehensible, above all the creatures in the world.

[2.] In fitting Christ to bear the sins that were laid upon him. God anointed him with a compassionate spirit, so that the Spirit of the Godhead was always with him in the greatest agonies, and also in giving him readiness and strength. Acts x. 38, it is said, ‘God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.’ It is usual in scripture to express the powerful graces of God’s Spirit by anointing.

[3.] In loving him for it, for taking our sins upon him according to his will: John x. 17, ‘Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again.’ Though God’s love to Christ were eternal, yet you see how he expresseth it, as if he were loved the more for his kindness to us. The like expression you have John xv. 10, ‘If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I kept my Father’s, and abide in his love;’ that is, his commandments about the office of his mediatorship. This is a great endearment to God’s affection.

[4.] God rewarded him for it: Heb. ii. 9, ‘But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour;’ so Phil. ii. 9, ‘Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name.’ God restored him to his glory with a great deal of renown in the eyes of men. So Christ prayeth, John xvii. 5, ‘And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.’

2. Glorify God alone. Let not other things share with him in your thoughts; do not think it is for your sakes. God can have no higher motive than his own will. The Lord laid it upon Christ, but nothing moved him to lay it but his own goodness. Now men usually fancy something without God to be the ground of his love; but he expressly saith, Isa. xliii. 25, ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Mark, his own sake. Therefore exalt God, in that, as you see, nothing else could lay it upon Christ: Isa. ii. 11, ‘The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day;’ that is, so separately and so singly, that you may see it was his own mere will that put him upon such a design of mercy. Dr Crisp disputeth at large that nothing else could lay it upon Christ, and so excludeth faith and all holy means, out of a mistake that we think faith layeth it on Christ, whereas faith only apprehendeth it to be laid on Christ. But this we may safely say, Nothing did put God upon it that could be found in us, no good disposition, faith or works foreseen. It is merely his own sovereignty and goodness; and therefore, Rom. iii. 24, we are said to be ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’

But a little more particularly let me show you how you do not exalt God alone and separately for laying it upon Christ. It is inclusive two ways:—

1. If you have such a secret thought in you that it is because you are less sinners than others, therefore you are pardoned, and your sins are laid upon Christ.

2. If because you are greater sinners than others, you therefore conclude you shall not be pardoned, you do not give God the glory of his prerogative, that he alone should lay your sins upon Christ, but you look for somewhat in the creature.

1. When you think God laid your sins on Christ because you are not so vile as others. Take heed, say not in your hearts it is for your righteousness. God acts according to his own pleasure; he many times leaveth those that to outward appearance are most righteous. You have heard of the heathens, and yet they were passed by, as Cato and Aristides; nay, Fabricius and Socrates, though they did excel in outward honesty of life, yet God did not regard them in his choice. Whereas Paul, who was a persecutor, a blasphemer, and injurious, his sins were laid upon the back of Christ, as were those of Mary Magdalen, and the thief upon the cross, whose whole life was wasted in wickedness. And Christ telleth the pharisees that ‘publicans and harlots should enter into the kingdom of heaven before them.’ It doth not go by your works. The apostle Paul doth strive often to remove this conceit out of our hearts: Titus iii. 4, 5, ‘But after that the love and kindness of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.’ All that we could bring to God was disobedience, and lusts, and malice, and envy. So 2 Tim. i. 9, ‘He called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began.’ God doth not look without himself, but only to his own purpose and grace. It is good to improve natural light, and to live to the utmost of it; but it is a vain thing to think that by any action of ours we should hope to move God to lay our sins upon Christ. Luther hath a pretty expression to this purpose upon this text: ‘Take heed,’ saith he, ‘of bringing the servants or the ass to God’s mountain. They may accompany you thither: Abraham and the lad must go yonder and worship; the servants and the ass must tarry at the foot of the hill. Only go you with faith to deal with the mercy of God; do not any way admit your works to the glory of a pardon.’ Therefore, I say, look upon God as laying your sins upon Christ, being moved thereunto merely by his own purpose and will. He saw nothing in you to incline him to lay your sins on Christ more than others’. This is the first way.

2. When you think God will not lay your sins upon Christ, because you are so great sinners, and have committed so much wickedness. We are all apt to say, as Peter, Luke v. 8, ‘Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.’ Do not you make God to eye something without himself now to incline him to this? Alas! it is all one to God whether you are great or little sinners. The spring and rise of his love in giving Christ to you is from his own bowels; and if there be any difference in this kind it is in this, that the greater sins comply with God’s ends and designs. And therefore it is sometimes an argument used to God, that though they can bring him no other thing, they can bring him wickedness enough. Thus David saith, ‘Pardon my sin, for it is great,’ Ps. xxv. 11; so Isa. xliii. 24, 25, ‘Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, and hast wearied me with thine iniquities.’ What followeth? A man would think terrible, thundering words. No; it is a sweet and evangelical promise; ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out your transgressions, for my own sake, and will not remember thy sins.’ So Gen. viii. 21, ‘I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth;’ and Isa. lvii. 17, 18, ‘For the iniquity of his covetousness, I was wroth, and smote him; I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners.’ God, you see, declares that it is according to his own purpose, and not of our works. He doth quite contrary to the deserts of man, not to debase strictness, but to exalt his own grace. Mark, that place fully setteth forth the covenant of grace, Isa. liv. 9, where God saith, ‘For this is as the waters of Noah unto 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 wroth with thee nor rebuke thee.’

I come now to the next part, the nature and way of our deliverance: ‘The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all.’ Our sin and punishment is transferred to Christ. The point is—

Doct. That the way that God taketh to acquit poor sinners is to lay the guilt and punishment of sin on the back of his own Son. ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.’ What the phrase importeth I did in part discover in giving you the different readings of it in several translations. Four especially you may take to set it off to your thoughts.

1. That of the Septuagint, παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἁμαρτιαῖς—he delivered him over to our sins. It is hard and sad with a man to be delivered over to be torn by wild beasts, to be delivered to persecutors, to be burned in the flames, to be stretched on a rack, to be broken on a wheel, and other tortures. But it is far more hard and evil to be delivered over to sins. Especially for Christ, who was in flamed with a desire to please God; there is nothing more abhorrent from his nature than the filthiness of sin. And therefore, though you should suppose him to be delivered over to the most exquisite punishments that the world or the wit and malice of man can invent, yet it is nothing in respect of his being given over to sins. So the spittings, scourgings, buffeting, his cross, and all, were but as a flea-biting in respect of his being given over to our sins. God delivered him to Pilate. The Jews could have done nothing if power had not been given them from above. But to be delivered over to the power of our sins, what a heavy thing was this for Christ! And therefore the expression doth in part reach what is meant here by God’s laying it upon Christ.

2. That of Junius and others, Fecit ut in eum incurrerent peccata nostra. Our sins did rush upon Christ; they would fain destroy him, as an enemy pusheth sore to destroy their enemy. We read of a company that came out to take Christ with swords and staves, and a soldier that fiercely run him through. Ay! but brethren, there is another company that came rushing, and would fain destroy him, and that was your and my sins. We came forth with swords and lances, and, as it were, run him through.

3. Another version has it, Traduxit in eum, or, as with us, he ‘laid it on him.’ Do but consider what it is to have sin laid upon any. It is to be bound over to death and destruction; it is to put that upon a man that will be his certain ruin: 1 Kings xiii. 34, ‘And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.’ When sin is laid upon a man, it will undo him.

4. Others take our marginal reading, Occurrere fecit in eum: he made our sins to meet in him; that raiseth it a little higher. Though one sin be enough to ruin a man, yet all the sins in the world were as it were concentred in Christ to overwhelm his soul, and to fill it with a great deal of terror; and indeed he stood in much danger of a great condemnation unless he could satisfy God’s wrath. Thus you see, from the several readings, what may be gathered out of this expression. And I the rather note it, because the Spirit of God useth a word here that hath so many significations. Out of all you may gather a delivery of Christ over to that which was most contrary to him, which seized upon his soul, and settled there, and brought him to the death of the cross, and would not leave him till he had fully expiated and satisfied for it, even our sins.

But I come more particularly to set out the thing that is intended here by the Holy Ghost in this expression: but ‘he hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.’

There are two things in it—one implied, which is a taking off sin from the creature; and the other more formally expressed, which is a putting it upon Christ.

First, therefore, I shall show you how far it is taken off from the creature. But, for the understanding of both, you must know there are three things in sin:—

1. The fault or offence against God.

2. The guilt or obligation to punishment.

3. The blot or sinful inclination, or vicious disposition to sin.

1. I begin with the first. For the offence, it is as if it were never committed. The creature, when justified and sanctified, is as free as if it had never sinned, which is intimated in divers expressions of scripture. I will give you a few places: Jer. l. 20, ‘In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and shall not be found; and the sins of Judah, and there shall be none, for I will pardon them whom I reserve;’ Isa. xliv. 22, ‘I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins.’ They are exhaled and dried up by the beams of mercy. And Jer. xxxi. 34, ‘I will remember your sins no more.’ It is quite gone from the creature: Num. xxiii. 21, ‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel;’ Ps. li. 9, David prayeth, ‘Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.’ God doth so cover the sin as if it were not at all; his carriage to the soul is as if there were no sin. As a holy and just God, he cannot behold it with approbation; and therefore, as a merciful God, he doth as it were cover it from his eyes. Whereas, on the contrary, when God punisheth sin, he is said to set iniquity before him: Ps. xc. 8, ‘Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance;’ Ps. cix. 15, ‘Let them be before the Lord continually.’ God in love will not take notice of the offence.

2. He taketh off all guilt and obligation to punishment: Rom. viii. 1, ‘There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.’ Nothing is done in a vindictive and punitive way, though many things be done in a corrective and chastising way. All God’s dispensations are as branches of the covenant.

3. For the blot or sinful inclination; that is more and more taken away by virtue of Christ taking our sins upon him: 1 Peter ii. 24, ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we are healed.’ He took away vicious inclinations, as well as the penal obligations.

Secondly, It is transacted on Christ, or laid upon him. We cannot safely say the fault, for that is the guilt that groweth out of the sin inherent; but the guilt was laid upon him, such as groweth out of sin imputed: therefore he is said to ‘bear the sins of many,’ Isa. liii. 12, and to ‘bear our sorrows and griefs,’ ver. 4.

1. So much sin was laid upon Christ as obliged him to make satisfaction for it to his Father’s justice; for having once submitted to the taking of it, he could not recede; there was a necessity that he should clear himself with his Father: and therefore it is said, Luke xxiv. 26, ‘Ought not Christ to have suffered, and then to enter into his glory?’

2. There was so much sin as put Christ in our stead. Therefore, 2 Cor. v. 21, it is said, he was ‘made sin for us.’ And in this chapter he is said to be ‘numbered among transgressors,’ nay, the chief of transgressors.

3. So much sin as made him liable to the infinite wrath of God; therefore it is said, Gal. iii. 13, he was ‘made a curse for us.’ And in the Psalms it is said, ‘The pains of hell gat hold of him;’ insomuch that he needed justification as well as we: Isa. l. 8, ‘He is near that justifieth me, who shall contend with me?’ It is spoken of Christ; this chapter is a chapter of Christ. He needed that God should clear him.

4. So much sin as would have sunk him into eternal misery, had he not been God to escape out of it: Acts ii. 24, ‘Having loosed the pains of death, because it was impossible that he should be holden of it.’ And therefore you shall find faith’s chiefest support cometh from Christ’s resurrection: Rom. viii. 34, ‘It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again.’ Mark that, μᾶλλον δε; faith looketh to that as the wonderfullest thing, that, having such a weight of sin upon him, he should be able to rise up again. This was a great wonder.

But I come to the reasons of the point.

1. Therefore did God lay it upon Christ, because he was the fittest person to bear it: he was most able. It best befitted the divine justice to choose such a person as might not miscarry in the work and transaction, else we could have had no assurance that satisfaction was given: Ps. lxxxix. 19, ‘I have laid help upon one that is mighty.’ It is spoken of David, but chiefly means Christ in it. The help is laid on one that is most able to go through with it, and Christ was most willing to come to the utmost: Luke xii. 50, ‘I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!’ Christ had not room enough, his heart being enlarged with love, till he had given testimony of it to the world: Luke xxii. 15, ‘With desire have I desired to eat this passover.’ Christ knew the date of his days was then at an end.

2. This did suit best with God’s design, which was to magnify justice and mercy at the same time. The mercy-seat did but cover the tables of the law in the ark. The law was satisfied by Christ, and yet God is merciful to us. David saith, Ps. ci. 1, ‘I will sing of mercy and judgment.’ God would have his people triumph in both now.

Use 1. To press us to bless the Lord for this wonderful deliverance by Christ.

1. That sin is taken off from our shoulders and laid upon Christ. How miserable would it have been if every man had borne his own burden! Gal. v. 6. How light soever men’s sins seem when they are committed, yet they will not be found light when they come to reckon with God, for then sin to an awakened conscience is one of the heaviest burdens that ever was felt. Now Christ hath taken off this burden from us. If God had laid sins upon us, as he laid them upon Christ, they would have sunk us to hell. The little finger of sin is heavier than the loins of any other sorrow. If God give you but a touch of it, or a spark of it light into your consciences, you will groan sadly: Ps. xxxviii. 4, ‘Mine iniquities are gone over mine head, as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.’ When we do but taste of this cup, we cry out presently, ‘My heart faileth.’ You may know it—

[1.] By what Christ felt. He lost his actual comforts, felt strange agonies, insomuch that he sweat drops of blood. We are of weak spirits, and soon dismayed, but his soul was exceeding sorrowful: ‘If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done to the dry?’ Many times, a little before a shower, falls a gloominess and sad blackness: so it was in Christ’s spirit.

[2.] The saints, when the little finger of God is upon them, how have they roared all the day long 1 Ps. xl. 12, ‘Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me.’ All life and spirit is gone when God sets home but one sin upon the conscience. Job saith, chap. vi. 4, ‘The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison thereof drinks up my spirits.’

[3.] You may know it by your own experience. When conscience is a little opened, what horrors and disquiets are there! Prov. xviii. 14, ‘A wounded spirit who can bear?’ Then for thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil! Cain crieth out, ‘My iniquity is greater than I can bear.’

[4.] Consider the life to come, and the threatenings of the word concerning those that die in their sins: Heb. x. 31, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ Who can conceive what it is to remain in chains of darkness? 2 Peter ii. 4. Sins that now lie asleep like sleepy lions will be then roused up: Mark ix. 44, ‘Their worm never dieth, and their fire is not quenched.’ This is the portion of them that bear their own burden and their own transgressions.

2. When you begin to feel the burden of sin, make use of Christ for ease; remember this burden is laid upon him: Mat. xi. 28, ‘Come unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ The weight lieth upon us, not to press us down to hell and despair, but to go to Christ, as they were to do under the law to the sacrifice, Lev. i. 4. They were to lay their hand upon the head of the sacrifice—a rite expressing that the sacrifice did bear the burden of their sins. This they were to do with brokenness of heart, acknowledging their offences—acknowledging that they were worthy to die as the beast died owning the sacrifice of atonement, Christ Jesus: Ps. li. 17, ‘The sacrifices of a broken heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.’ So John i. 29, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world;’ ‘Look on him whom they have pierced,’ Zech. xii. 10. This was done to renew the covenant: Ps. 1. 5, ‘Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.’ And they were to promise to walk with God in all humble obedience.

Use 2. Is exhortation, to beseech you to believe this truth, that your iniquities are cast upon Christ. A man hath no benefit by it till he believeth. There is as much need of your believing as of Christ’s suffering. Believe in ‘the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world.’

1. As soon as you feel sin a burden, ease yourselves by considering it is laid upon Christ. Free grace, as it doth not exclude the merits of Christ, so not the application of faith: Rom. iii. 25, ‘Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.’ The business was transacted between God and Christ before all worlds. Faith gets it copied out to the soul. You are weary and heavy laden with sin, come then to him, Mat. xi. 28, with a lively faith; not as if by faith we did anew lay the burden of sin upon Christ, only then we apprehend it to be done for our sakes.

2. After you have gotten an interest in him by faith, renew the sense of your pardon, God seeth as a just God, and so our sins should be matter of humiliation to us; but he covereth them as a merciful God, and so it is matter of comfort. Sins, they were long since laid upon Christ; renew thy pardon again by faith, and strive to get an actual sense of it. Remember, Christ’s soul was heavy to the death, that thou mightest go free.