John Owen · 34 of 73

Chapter VII. The mediation of Christ. · Part 1

There remains nothing for the confirmation of the first branch or part of the truth proposed, but only the consideration of the oath of God; which, because it ought certainly to be “an end of all strife,” I shall reserve the handling of it to the close of the whole, if God be pleased to carry us out thereunto, that we may give the oath of God its due honour, of being the last word in this contest.

The order of our method first proposed would here call me to handle our steadfastness with God, and the glory created upon our grace of sanctification; but because some men may admire, and ask whence it is that the Lord will abide so steadfast in his love towards believers as hath been manifested upon several accounts that he will, besides what hath been said before of his own goodness and unchangeableness, etc., I shall now add that outward consideration which lies in the mediation of Christ, upon the account whereof he acts his own goodness and kindness to us with the greatest advantage of glory and honour to himself that can be thought upon. Only I shall desire the reader to observe, that the Lord Jesus is an undertaker in this business of perfecting our salvation and safeguarding our spiritual glory not in one regard and respect only. There is one part of his engagement therein which, under the oath of God, is the close of the whole, and that is his becoming a surety to us of his Father’s faithfulness towards us, and a surety for us of our faithfulness to him: so that, upon the whole matter, the business on each side as to security will be found knit up in him, and there we shall do well to leave it, though the handling of that suretiship of his be not of our present consideration. Men will scarce dispute him out of his faithfulness. “Henceforth he dieth no more; death hath no dominion over him; he sits at the right hand of God, expecting to have his enemies made his footstool.” This, then, I will do, if God permit. And [as] for the steadfastness of his saints in their abiding with God, I shall, I fear, no otherwise insist peculiarly upon it but as occasion shall be ministered by dealing with our adversary as we pass on.

That which I shall now do is, to consider the influence of the priesthood of Christ in those two grand acts thereof, his oblation and intercession, into the perseverance of saints, according to that of the apostle: Heb. vii. 25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” And I will do it the more carefully, because though it be one of the greatest strengths of our cause, yet I shall walk in a path wherein none shall meet me, for the most part of the way, to make any opposition.

My entrance into the consideration of the procurement of our glory by Christ shall be with that whereby he came into his own, namely, his oblation, which hath a twofold influence into the perseverance of the saints, or into the safeguarding of their salvation to the utmost:—

I. By removing and taking out of the way all causes of separation between God and those that come unto God by him; that is, all believers. Now, these are of two sorts: 1. That which is moral, and procuring such separation or distance, which is the guilt of sin; 2. That which is efficient and working, as the power of Satan and of sin; — the first of these being that alone for which it may be supposed that God will turn from believers, and the latter that alone whereby they may possibly be turned from him. Now, that both these are so taken out of the way by the oblation of Christ that they shall never actually and eventually work or cause any total or final separation between God and believers, shall be demonstrated:—

1. He hath so taken away the guilt of sin from believers, from them that come to God by him, that it shall not prevail with the Lord to turn from them. He hath “obtained eternal redemption for us,” Heb. ix. 12, eternal and complete; not so far and so far, but “eternal redemption” hath he obtained, — redemption that shall be completed, notwithstanding any interveniencies imaginable whatever. This redemption, which he hath obtained for us, and which by him we obtain, the apostle tells us what it is, and wherein it doth consist: Eph. i. 7, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” He hath obtained for us everlasting forgiveness of sins. As to the complete efficiency of the procuring cause thereof, absolutely perfect and complete in its own kind, not depending on any condition in any other whatsoever for the producing the utmost effect intended in it, there shall be no after-reckoning or account for sin between God and them for whom he so obtains redemption. And the apostle, in the 10th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, disputes at large this difference between the typical sacrifices and the sacrifice of the blood of Christ. He tells you those were “offered year by year,” and could “never make the comers to God by them perfect,” or acquit them from sin, for then they “should have had no more conscience of sin,” being once purged; but now, saith he, “there was a remembrance made again of sins every year,” verses 1–4. If sin had been taken away, there would have been no more conscience of it; that is, no such conscience as upon the account whereof they came for help unto or healing by those sacrifices, — no more conscience condemning for sin. Conscience judges according to the obligation unto punishment which it apprehends upon it. Conscience of sin, — that is, a tenderness to sin, and a condemnation of sin, — still continues after the taking of the guilt of it away; but conscience disquieting, judging, condemning the person for sin, that vanisheth together with the guilt of it: and this is done when the sacrifice for sin is perfect and complete, and really attains the end for which it was instituted. And if any sacrifice for sin whatever do not completely take away that sin for which the oblation is made, and the atonement thereby, so that no after-charge might come upon the sinner, it is of necessity that that sacrifice be renewed again and again. The reason the apostle gives of the repetition of the legal sacrifices is, that they made not the comers to them perfect; that is, as to the taking away of their sins, and giving them entire and complete peace thereupon. All this, the apostle informs us, was done in the sacrifice of Christ: Verse 14, “By one offering he hath for ever perfected” (or made perfect that work for them as to this business of conscience for sin) “them that are sanctified.” His one offering perfectly put an end to this business, even the difference between God and us upon the account of sin; which if he had not done, it would have been necessary that he should have been often offered, his sacrifice having not obtained the complete end thereof. That the efficacy of this sacrifice of his cannot depend on any thing foreign unto it shall be declared afterward; also, that the necessity of our faith and obedience, in their proper place, is not in the least, hereby impaired, shall be manifested. That they may have a proper place, efficacy, and usefulness, and not be conditions whereon the effects of the death of Christ are suspended, as to their communication unto us, is by some denied; how weakly, how falsely, will then also appear. Now, this Christ doth for all that are sanctified, or dedicated, or consecrated unto God (which is almost the perpetual sense of that word in this epistle), in and by that offering of his. And this the apostle farther confirms from the consideration of the new covenant with us, ratified in, and whose effects were procured by, the blood-shedding and offering of Christ: Verse 17, “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Saith God, “Upon the account of the offering of Christ, there is an end of that business and that controversy which I have had with those sanctified ones; and therefore let them, as to this, as to the making satisfaction for sin, trouble themselves no more, to think of thousands of rams, or the like, for there is no more offering for sin required,” Micah vi. 6, 7. And on this foundation I may say there doth not remain any such guilt to be reckoned unto believers as that with regard thereunto God should forsake them utterly, and give them over unto everlasting ruin. And this is the sum of the apostle’s discourse in that chapter, as it looks upon the matter under present consideration: That sacrifice which so taketh away the sins of them for whom it is offered as that thereupon they should be perfect, or perfectly acquitted of them, and have no more conscience (which is a judgment of a man’s self answering to the judgment of God concerning him) of sin, so to judge him and condemn him for it as not to have remedy of that judgment or condemnation provided in that sacrifice, — that, I say, doth so take away the guilt of sin as that it shall never separate between God and them for whom and whose sin it was offered; but such was the sacrifice of Christ: ergo, etc. The reason of the consequence is clear from the very form of the proposition, and nothing is assumed but what is the express testimony of the apostle in that and other places.

So Dan. ix. 25. The design in the death of Christ is “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness” Christ makes an end of sin: not that there should be no more sin in the world, for there is yet sinning to the purpose, in some respect much more than before his death, and there will be so to eternity, if those under the ultimate sentence may be thought to sin; but he makes an end of it as to the controversy and difference about it between God and them for whom he died, and that by making reconciliation on the part of God, atoning him towards us (which atonement we are persuaded to accept), and by bringing in for us a righteousness which is everlasting and will abide the trial, which God will certainly accept. Now, when God is satisfied for sin, and we are furnished with a righteousness exactly complete and answering to the utmost of his demand, whence can any more contest arise about the guilt of sin, or the obligation of the sinner unto punishment that from the justice and law of God doth attend it? This also the apostle urgeth, Rom. viii. 34, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died.” He argueth from the death of Christ to the ablation or removal of condemnation for sin, because by his death he hath “made an end of sin,” as was showed, “and brought in everlasting righteousness;” Heb. x. 14–18. To suspend the issue of all these transactions between God and the Mediator upon conditions by us to be accomplished, not bestowed on us, not purchased for us, and as to their event uncertain, is disadvantageously to beg the thing in question.

Now, because it appears that, notwithstanding the death of Christ, many for whom he died are kept a long season under the guilt of sin, and are all of them born in a condition of wrath, Eph. ii. 3, I shall crave leave a little to insist on this instance, and to show that notwithstanding the truth thereof, yet the guilt of sin is so taken away from all those for whom Christ died, by his death, that it shall never be a cause of everlasting separation between God and them. In the obedience and death of Christ, whereby, as a completely sufficient and efficacious means, he made way for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes, in such paths of infinite wisdom as brought in all the good he aimed at by it, in that order which the very frame and nature of things by him appointed required for the exaltation of his glory, God is satisfied, well pleased, and resolved that he will not take his course at law against those in the behalf of whom he died, 2 Cor. v. 18–20.

Though an arrest was gone forth against all mankind, yet the Lord suspended by his sovereignty the utmost execution of it, that room and space might be given, according to the eternal thoughts of his heart, for the deliverance of some. A reprieve is granted mankind, out of reasons and for purposes of his own. After the sentence of death was denounced against them, God being pleased to magnify his grace, according to his eternal counsel and purpose in Jesus Christ, innovates the law, as to the obligation of it unto punishment, on the behalf of some, by the interposition of the Son of his love in such a way as to undergo what was due unto those on whose behalf the interposition was made. And by this undertaking of Christ, in the very first notion of it, as it was satisfactory, thus much is done and accomplished:—

(1.) The vindictive justice of God is satisfied. That is, whereas such is the natural right, sovereignty, and dominion of God over his creatures, and such his essential perfections of holiness, purity, and righteousness, that if his creatures cast off his yoke and their dependence on him (which they do by every sin, what in them lieth), it is then of indispensable necessity that he render unto that sin or sinner guilty thereof a meet recompense of reward; Jesus Christ hath so answered his righteousness, that without the impairing of his right or sovereignty, without the least derogation from his perfections, he may receive his sinning creatures again to favour. It being “the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death,” Rom. i. 32, and “a righteous thing with him to render tribulation to sinners,” 1 Thess. i. 6, for “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Gen. xviii. 25; he hath set forth his Son to “declare his righteousness for the remission of sins,” Rom. iii. 24, 25. Now, for whom Christ died, he died for all their sins: 1 John i. 7, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin,” the application of it being commensurate to his intendment in his oblation, not extending itself to the actual effecting of any thing whatever which was not meritoriously procured thereby. “He loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish,” Eph. v. 25–27. He makes complete atonement to the justice of God on their behalf, so that the very vindictive justice of God hath nothing to lay to their charge. That which in God maintains the quarrel against sinners is atoned, and is no more their enemy than mercy itself; and this not upon condition of believing, to be antecedently accomplished before this be done. The satisfaction of justice vindictive depends not at all on any thing in us; it requires only that there be vindicta noxæ, and a vindication of the sovereignty of God over the sinning creature, by the infliction of that punishment which, in his infinite wisdom and righteousness, he hath proportioned unto sin. On a supposition of sin, in such creatures as being made meet and fit to yield voluntary obedience unto God, and so standing in a moral subjection to him, being their cutting off, what lies in them, their dependence on God (which that it should be continued is as necessary as that God be God, or the Lord of all), those creatures are, upon the account of the sovereignty and righteousness of God, whereof we speak, indispensably obnoxious unto punishment, which is of necessity required unto God’s retaining his dominion over them. By the death of Christ, this condition is so far repaired that the dependence and subjection unto God of those for whom he died is made up so far as to a deliverance of them from a necessity of being obnoxious unto punishment, and that completely, without any abeyance upon conditions in themselves, which can have no influence thereinto. So that, though the process of the law sent forth be not instantly recalled, but man is suffered to lie under that arrest for a season, yet God lets fall his suit on this account, and will never pass his first sentence, from which we are reprieved, unto full and final execution, pronouncing himself well pleased with his Son, resting satisfied with his mediatory performances, and seeking no farther.

(2.) The law of God is fulfilled. Unless this be answered in all the concernments of it, the Lord would be thought to change his will, to reverse his word, and to blur the copy of his own holiness. There is in the whole law and every parcel of it an eternal, indispensable righteousness and truth, arising either from the nature of the things themselves concerning which it is, or the relation of one thing unto another. That to fear God, to love him, to obey him, to do no wrong, are everlastingly, indispensably good and necessary, is from the nature of the things themselves, only with this supposition, that God would make creatures capable of yielding him such obedience. That that which is good shall be so rewarded, that which is evil so punished, is also an everlasting truth, upon supposition of such actual performances. Whereas, then, of this law there are two parts, the one absolute or preceptive in the rule and commands thereof, the other condition, al, and rewarding in its promise or condemning in its curse, Christ by his death put himself, in their behalf for whom he died (to speak to that particular), under the curse of it: “He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,” Gal. iii. 13. Neither is this at all suspended on our believing. The law doth not threaten a curse only if we do not believe, but if we do not all things written therein, Deut. xxvii. 26. Whether we believe or not, the law takes no notice; as to the curse that it denounceth, if there hath been any sin, that must be executed. And the law is for the curse, as Isaac for the great spiritual blessing, Gen. xxvii. 27–29. He had but one; it hath but one great curse, and that being undergone by Christ, it hath not another for them in whose stead Christ underwent it. God having “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, we become the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Cor. v. 21. All separation from God is by the curse of the law; all that is required in it, by it, is, that it be undergone. This is done by Christ for all believers; that thereby is taken away which alone can separate them from God or put any distance between them. But of this, and their subjection to the curse before their believing, more afterward.

(3.) The truth or veracity of God was particularly engaged to see sin punished, upon the account of the promulgation of the first express sanction of the law: “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” Gen. ii. 17. For the satisfying the engagement of God’s truth, there seemed to be a tender made in the sacrifices instituted of old; but it was rejected as insufficient to make good that word of God so eminently given out. There was neither any such relation, union, or conjunction, between the sinner and the innocent creature sacrificed, nor any such real worth in the sacrifice itself, as that the death of the substituted beast might by any means be so interpreted as to amount to the accomplishment of the truth of God, death being once denounced as the reward of sin: Heb. x. 5, 6, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure;” but saith our Saviour, “Lo, I come to do try will, O God,” verse 7. Will that do it? Yea, it will assuredly, for in the volume of his book it is written that he should so do. All that God willed to be done for the accomplishment of his truth was fulfilled by Christ when he came to give up himself, a sweet-smelling sacrifice, Eph. v. 2. God, then, may be true, his truth being salved to the utmost, though never any one of them for whom Christ died do die. But this, to the salvation of believers, is only as removens prohibens.

(4.) The distributive justice of God is upon this oblation of Christ engaged, upon the covenant and compact made with Christ as mediator to that purpose, to bestow on them for whom he offered and died all the good things which he promised him for them, in and upon the account of his undertaking in their behalf. The distributive justice of God is that perfection of his nature whereby he rendereth to every one according to what either his vindictive justice on the one side, or his uprightness and faithfulness on the other, do require. In rewarding, it respects his own faithfulness in all his engagements immediately; in punishing, the demerit of the creature; — there being no such natural connection and necessary coherence, from the nature of the things themselves, between obedience and reward as there is between sin and punishment.

Now, the Lord having given many eminent and glorious promises to his Son Jesus Christ (some whereof we shall mention afterward) concerning his seed and offspring, or those that he committed to his charge to be redeemed from their sins, it is incumbent on him, in regard of his righteousness, to make out all those things in due time unto them; and therefore, that he might magnify that righteousness and truth of his, he hath cast the whole procedure of his grace into such a way, and all the acts of it into such a dependence upon one another, as that the one of them should have infallible influence into the other, and the effects of every one of them be rendered indubitably certain.

Thus upon the account of the death of Christ, antecedently to all considerations of faith or belief in them for whom he died, thus much is done for the extinguishing the quarrel about sin: The vindictive justice, law, and truth of God, are disengaged from pursuing the sentence of death and everlasting separation from God against them as sinners, neither have they at all any thing to lay to their charge for which they should be cast out of the presence of God; yea, the Lord is moreover, in his own faithfulness and righteousness, with respect to the covenant of the Mediator, engaged to do that which is needful to the brining of them to himself. After some previous observations, I shall confirm what hath been spoken by sundry arguments. I say, then, —

(1.) That it is a most vain supposal which some make: “What if any one of them for whom Christ died should die in an unregenerate condition? would not the justice and condemning power of the law of God, notwithstanding the death of Christ, lay hold upon them?” It is, I say, a supposal of that which in sensu composito is impossible, and so in that sense (however upon other respects it may) not to be argued from. Christ died that those for whom he died might live, that they might be quickened and born again; and so they shall, in their due season, every one undoubtedly be, and not any of them die in their sins.

(2.) That our affirmation is not in the least liable to that exception which usually men insist upon in opposition unto it, — namely, “That if Christ hath so satisfied justice, and fulfilled the law in reference to all them for whom he died, that the sentence of condemnation should not be issued out against them, but they must infallibly be saved, then there is no necessity either that they do at all believe, or, if they do, that they live in holiness and the avoidance of sin, all that being accomplished which by these mediums is sought for.” I say, our position in itself is no way liable to this exception; for, —

[1.] Though the justice, law, and truth of God be satisfied and fulfilled as to their sins, so that he hath not on that account any thing to lay to their charge, yet this hinders not at all but that God may assign and ascribe such a way for their coming to him as may be suited to the exalting of his glory, the honour of Jesus Christ, who hath brought all this about, and the preparing of the soul of the sinner for the full enjoyment of himself: and this he hath done by the law of faith; which gives him the glory of his grace and all his other attributes; exalts Jesus Christ, whom it is his will we should honour as we honour himself; and empties the poor sinful creature of itself, that it may be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.

[2.] This consideration of the death of Christ, of his freeing us from condemnation for any or all of our sins, is not to be taken apart or separated from the other, of his procuring the Holy Spirit and grace for us, that we should not commit sin, being born of God, with all the dispensations of precepts and promises, exhortations and threatenings, whereby he morally carries on the work of his grace in the hearts of his saints. Setting us free from the guilt of sin, he so far also sets us free from the power of sin that we should be dead to it, live no longer in it, that it should not reign in us, nor prevail to turn us utterly from God.

[3.] They seem not much to be acquainted with the nature of faith, holiness, and communion with God, who suppose the end of them is only for the escaping of the wrath that is to come. They are the things whereby we are daily renewed and changed into the image of the glory of God, and so not only made useful and serviceable to him here, but also prepared for the fullness of his likeness, wherewith we shall be satisfied, hereafter. Wherefore, observe, —

[4.] That though this complete atonement be made in the death of Christ, yet it remains free in the bosom of God when he will begin our actual deliverance from under that arrest of death that was gone out against us, and how far in this life he will carry it towards perfection. It is, I say, in his bosom when he will bestow his Spirit on us for regeneration and faith, when he will actually absolve us from under the arrest of the law, by the application of his mercies in Christ unto us by the promise of the gospel, and how far he will carry on the work of our deliverance from sin in this life. Only that is done upon the account whereof it is impossible that the quarrel against sin should be carried on to the utmost execution of the sentence denounced towards those sinners for whom Christ died; which I prove by these following arguments:—

1st. It is plainly affirmed that Christ, by his death, obtained “everlasting redemption,” Heb. ix. 12. He obtained everlasting redemption before his ascending into the most holy place, called elsewhere the “purging of our sins,” Heb. i. 3. Now this redemption, as was said, the apostle informs us consists in “the forgiveness of sins:” Eph. i. 7, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,” or the intercision of that obligation unto punishment which attends sin in reference to the sinner, and his subjection to the law of God and the righteousness thereof. As the oblation of Christ respecteth God and his justice, to whom it is given as a price and ransom, and whereof it is an atonement, it is, and is called (or we are said to receive thereby), “redemption;” as it respects them who receive the benefit of that redemption, it is “the forgiveness of sins.” Forgiveness of sins, as it is completed and terminated in the consciences of believers, requireth the interposition of faith, for the receiving of Christ in the promise, “who of God is made unto us righteousness,” 1 Cor. i. 30; but in respect of the procurement of it, and the removing all causes upon the account whereof sin should be imputed unto us, that is perfected in the oblation of Christ. Hence he is said to “bear our sins in his own body on the tree,” 1 Pet. ii. 24. And being once on him, either he was discharged of them, or he must for ever lie under the burden of them. They were on him on the tree; what, then, is become of them? If he were freed of them, and justified from them (as he was, Isa. i. 8, 9), how should they ever be laid to our charge? And yet this freedom from condemnation for sin for all the elect, which God himself so clearly asserts, Rom. viii. 32, 33, etc, doth not in the least set them free from the necessity of obedience, nor acquit them from contracting the guilt of sin upon the least irregularity or disobedience.