Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.- Rom. 6:6.
IN this verse the apostle explaineth how we are planted into the likeness of Christ's death, 'Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,' &c.
In the words -
First, A truth represented, 'That our old man is crucified with him.'
Secondly, The manner of applying and improving this truth.
For the former branch -
1. Christ's undertaking, 'Our old man is crucified with him.'
2. The fruit and end of it, 'That the body of sin might be destroyed.'
3. The obligation lying upon us, 'That we might no longer serve sin.' Or,
[1.] What Christ doth, he was crucified, and our old man crucified with him.
[2.] What the Spirit doth, 'That the body of sin might be destroyed;' that is, the reign of it broken, the power of it weakened yet more and more, acts prevented, habits cast off.
[3.] What we must do, 'That henceforth we may not serve sin.'
Doct. That the reign of sin would be sooner broken if we did seriously consider and believe the great end of Christ's death and undertaking on the cross.
This will appear - (1.) By explaining the several branches of the text; (2.) Giving reasons.
First, In the explication take notice of the truth represented, which is expressed in three branches -
First, What Christ doth, or his intention and undertaking on the cross, 'Our old man is crucified with him.' Where observe -
1. That sin within us is called an 'old man,' partly because it is born and bred with us; it had its rise from Adam's fall, and is ever since conveyed from father to son unto all who are descended from Adam: Rom. 5:12, 'Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that alt have sinned;' Ps. 51:5, 'Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' Partly because this natural corruption, which we inherit from the first man, is opposite to that new man which consisteth in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness: Eph. 4:22,24, 'That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;' and Col. 3:9,10, 'Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him.' So that the old man is that perverse temper of soul which was in us, before we had the knowledge of Christ, or embraced him by faith. Partly because it is an antiquated thing, as is upon the declining hand, and hasteneth in the regenerate (as men in their old age) to its own ruin and destruction: 2 Cor. 5:17, 'Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new;' 1 Cor. 5:7, 'Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump.'
2. This old man must be crucified; that is the kind of death which it must die. Sometimes the destruction of sin is called a mortifying of sin, that implieth a putting to death in the general, or a killing the love of sin in our souls; sometimes a crucifying of sin, that showeth the particular kind of death we must put it to, and this for a double reason - partly to show our conformity and likeness to Christ's crucifixion, partly because it expresseth the nature of the thing itself. The cross bringeth pain and death: so is sin weakened by godly sorrow, which checketh the sensual inclination. The strength and life of sin lieth in a love of pleasure, and one special means to mortify it is godly sorrow: 2 Cor. 7:10, 'For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, never to be repented of.' Those that have tasted the bitter waters are more easily induced to forsake all known sin. Well, then, sin must be crucified. A man fastened to the cross suffereth great pain, his strength wasteth, and his life droppeth out with his blood by degrees. So sin is not subdued but by constant painful endeavours; not by feeding the flesh with carnal delights, but by thwarting it, watching, striving against it, bemoaning ourselves because of it, and so by degrees the love of it is not only weakened, but deadened in our soul. If it be tedious and troublesome, nothing that hath life will be put to death without some struggling: we must be content to suffer in the flesh; Christ suffered more, and none but 'he that hath suffered in the flesh ceaseth from sin,' 1 Peter 4:1. You make it more painful by dealing negligently in the business, and draw out your vexation to a greater length: the longer you suffer the Canaanite to live with you, the more doth it prove a thorn and goad in your sides. Our affection increaseth our affliction; your trouble endeth, and your delight in-creaseth, as you bring your souls to a thorough resolution to quit it. Quam suave mihi subito factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum! No delight so sincere as the contempt of vain delights. The crucified man's pains end when death cometh.
This old man was crucified with Christ. This phrase and manner of speech is difficult, and therefore must be explained.
[1.] That Christ was crucified for us in bonum nostrum, for our good, is past dispute with Christians: 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,’ Isa. 53:3; he endured the punishment which sin had made our due.
[2.] That he stood before the tribunal of God representing us, and so died loco et vice omnium nostri, in the room as well as for the good of his people, should as little be doubted: 2 Cor. 5:14, 'For if he died for all, then were all dead;' that is, in him: he died not on the cross as a private, but a public person.
[3.] Christ died not only to expiate our guilt, but to take away the power of sin; at least, the end of Christ's suffering and dying on the cross for our sins was to purchase grace that we might crucify sin, that is, forsake it with grief and shame: Heb. 9: 26, 'Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself;' that is, not only to expiate the guilt of our sins, but to abolish the power of them. He came to redeem us from the slavery of sin: Titus 2:14, 'Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.'
[4.] As soon as we are regenerated and converted to God, there is a closer application of the death of Christ; we partake of the influence and fruit of his merit and purchase, and the benefit is made ours; and so our old man is said to be crucified with him. The merit of his passion beginneth then to take place, so that every good Christian can say, 'I am crucified with Christ,' Gal. 2:20; our old man beginneth then to receive its death-wound; so that we are not the same men we were before, being made partakers of the fruit of Christ's death.
Secondly, The fruit of it, or what the Spirit is to do; that is intimated in the next clause, 'That the body of sin might be destroyed.' Here - (1.) What is meant by the body of sin; (2.) In what sense it is said to be destroyed.
1. What is meant by the body of sin? Ans. - By the body of sin is meant the whole stock and mass of corruption, which is called a body of sin.
[1.] Because it is composed of many sinful passions and disorders, as the body is of divers members: Col. 2:11, 'In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh;' and again, Col. 3:5, 'Mortify your members upon the earth.' It is not meant of the natural, but sinful body; for it follows, 'Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry.'
[2.] Because they are executed by the body: Rom. 6:12, 'Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies;' and Rom. 8:13, 'If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,’ Sin is gotten within us by the soul, but it hath taken possession of the body; the gate of the senses let it in, and other powers of the body are as ready to let it out.
2. In what sense it is said to be destroyed? The duty is ours, but the grace is from God; it is done on God's part by the Spirit, but it is our duty: Rom. 8:13, 'If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' Both agents carry it on to such a degree in this life as it may not reign in us. On God's part there needeth no more merit to get sin destroyed but that of Christ, nor a greater power than that of the Spirit to subdue it: and by degrees the work is accomplished; its reigning power is taken away by converting grace, its very being is abolished by his final perfecting grace, The same Spirit that begun it at first ceaseth not to work till it be wholly abolished in us. On our part, we must yield up ourselves to be renewed by him, and obey his sanctifying motions, till our cure be perfectly wrought. Observe here -
[1.] It is the whole body of sin must be quitted and put off; not actions only, but lusts: 1 Peter 2:11, 'Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.' Not some parts only and branches, but all sin. As the body compasseth about, and encloseth the soul, so doth the body of sin enclose us. The corrupt mass is made up of many sins; it is an impure body that hath many members: now all these must be mortified.
[2.] It must be carried on to such a degree that sin may lie a-dying. We must not cease to oppose sin till it be destroyed, not only scratch the face of it, but seek to root it out. Christians are said to destroy sin four ways: -
(1.) Proposito, in the settled purpose of their hearts, as Christ ceased not till he had done his work; so a Christian: 1 Peter 4:1, 'Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.' Now a work is spoken of as done when it is thoroughly purposed to be done; as a fire is said to have taken a house when it hath only taken a little corner of the house, because if it be not quenched, it will in time consume all. There is a fixed purpose to get rid of it.
(2.) Voto, in desire, in their constant prayer accompanied with hearty groans: Rom. 7:24, 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' Ps. 119:133, 'Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.' Nothing less will content them than a total extirpation of sin.
(3.) Conatu, they have begun it with a mind to finish it, and are always thwarting and curbing the desires of corrupt nature: 1 Cor. 9:27, 'I keep under my body, and brine it into subjection, lest after I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.'
(4.) Eventu, the work is not only really begun, but they have some success in it, and while it is a-doing, they have the comfort of it. The reign of sin is broken: Rom. 6:14, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace.’ They are somewhat enabled to prevail over it, so far that there is a manifest difference between them and the carnal; whilst others cherish their lusts, and make provision for them, they crucify them, and are freed from that base servitude.
Thirdly, What man must do, or the obligation lying upon us, 'That henceforth we should not serve sin.' Here observe -
1. The word 'henceforth.' We did before serve sin; before regeneration we were all slaves: Titus 3:3, 'Serving divers lusts and pleasures.' There is a double notion of servitude intimated in scripture, and confirmed by the practice of all nations. One is of those that yield up themselves, by their own consent and willing subjection, in bondage to another, of which that text speaketh, Rom. 6:16, 'Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey. These are servants by consent, that yield up their time and strength and life to be disposed of by another, to whom they have sold themselves. The other is of that slavery which is introduced by conquest; as those that were taken in war were at the dispose of him that took them. That is spoken of, 2 Peter 2:19, 'While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.' The first deliver up themselves as servants and slaves by their own consent; the other by conquest: for by the law of nature victory giveth dominion, and though men had a mind to do otherwise, they cannot help themselves. Both notions express the reign of sin, and our servitude under it, which is both voluntary and unavoidable; at first it is voluntary, afterwards unavoidable; they first yielded up themselves, find then are overcome by their base and brutish lusts, and so lose all liberty and strength of will to help themselves. First willingly and by our own default we run into it, and afterwards we are captivated, and though we are convinced of better, we shall do that which is worse, being overcome by our lusts. Though they see their duty, they are not able to perform it, they have some kind of remorse and trouble, but they cannot help or free themselves.
2. Observe that the gospel looketh forward to the time to come. It respecteth not what believers have been before conversion and turning to God; but thenceforward they must forsake their sinful lusts, and turn to God. So 1 Peter 4:2, 'That he no more should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God,’ Time is short, work is great, since it is not enough for a Christian to cut off one member, but the whole body of sin must be destroyed, and they have been too long dishonouring God, and destroying their own souls, and cherishing divers lusts in themselves. Therefore now they should more earnestly set about the mortifying of sin. Now, as this is an encouragement to those that have long been serving their base lusts and vile affections, and been eminent in wickedness, so it is an engagement to them to double their diligence for the future to serve God, by virtue of their deliverance by Christ: Heb. 9: 14, 'How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God?' Luke 1:74,75, 'That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.' If the gospel doth not look backward, surely it looketh forward, it obligeth us to be more assiduous and serious in the study of holiness after conversion, that, if it be possible, they may restore the Lord to his honour, reclaim those whom they have hardened in sin, and get their own hearts more loosened from it, since custom hath deeply rooted it in them.
3. Observe the apostle saith, 'That we should not serve sin.' It is one thing to sin, another thing to serve sin. Though sin doth remain in the godly, it doth not reign in them: to serve sin is to yield willing obedience to it. This may be done two ways: -
[1.] When men slavishly lie down in any habit and course of sin. There is hè en kakiai diatribè, a way of sinning, as David, Ps. 139:24, 'See if there be any way of wickedness in me.’ David would not be corrupt in any of his ways. And again, Ps. 119:29, 'Remove from me the way of lying.' Some are given to one sin, some to another; some covetous, others sensual; some proud, others brutish; there is some iniquity they regard in their hearts and make much of, and indulge in themselves, and so grow slaves to that imperious lust. Now, whatever good properties we have otherwise, we must take heed of any one perverse habit or evil frame of spirit, lest it hamper us and make tools of us, and make us liable to be caught again after some show of escape. A beast escaped with a halter is easily caught again; so this lust indulged will bring us into our old bondage.
[2.] When we willingly indulge any presumptuous acts; for, John 8:34, 'He that committeth ein is the servant of sin.' If we allow ourselves to commit any one gross sin, we serve it. Other sins steal into the soul by degrees, but these at once; therefore we must take heed that we run not wilfully into these inordinacies, and yet hope to escape the danger.
Now, all this must be improved by us: touto ginooskontes, 'knowing this.' The word signifies - (1.) Knowledge; (2.) Consideration; (3.) Assent.
1. Knowledge, understand this. This is of use here; for ignorance of Christ and his gospel is a great cause of sin, whereas a sound knowledge produceth mortification. Ignorance causeth men to become brutish: 1 Peter 1:14, 'Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance;' 1 Cor. 15:34, 'Some have not the knowledge of God; I speak this to your shame.' On the other side, knowledge is a help to mortification, provided it be sound, and such a knowledge both for matter and manner as it ought to be. For matter, that it be a thorough knowledge: Eph. 4:20-22, 'But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.' If men were thoroughly instructed in the Christian doctrine they could not so easily sin against God; but a partial knowledge encourages our boldness in sinning. For manner, it must be lively: 2 Peter 2:20, 'If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;' John 8:32, 'And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make ye free;' Jer. 31:19, 'After that I was instructed, I smote on my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.' It is but a form of knowledge, not the lively light of the Spirit, which doth not break the power of our lusts.
2. It may import consideration, and so 'knowing this' is seriously considering this. Many truths lie by neglected, unimproved, for want of consideration, and that is the cause of men's sins; they consider not God's benefits: Isa. 1:3, 'The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider;' nor his judgments: Job 34:27, 'They turned back from him, and would not consider his ways;' that is made the reason of their sin; 'they consider not his ways,’ that is, the ways of his providence towards them and others. If men did consider and ponder with themselves how hateful sin is to God, with what severity he will punish it, what obligations they have to the contrary, it would much check the fervour of their lusts, and they could not go on so quietly in a course of disobedience against God; but they do not seriously consider what they are a-doing. Above all, the death of Christ should be considered by us; as, 1 Peter 1:18,19, 'Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversations, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.' If men would know, that is, ponder these things in their hearts, and discourse with themselves, why was so great a price given for our reconciliation, but that sin might be destroyed, and the great makebate between God and us removed out of the way?
3. Knowing is often put for assent; for faith is not a doubting, but a certain knowledge. And this enliveneth every truth. If you do believe that Christ came to take away every sin, you have no reason to cherish it. The word worketh not till it be believed: Heb. 4:2, 'To us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.' But then it worketh mightily and effectually; for it cometh not to us in word only, but in power: 1 Thes. 2:13, 'Ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.' And more particularly in mortification; for it is 'faith that purifieth the heart,' Acts 15:9. Where the Christian doctrine is really entertained and received by faith, it taketh men off from their old sins: 1 Peter 1:22, 'Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.' The obedience of the truth is nothing else but faith wrought in us by the Spirit upon the hearing of the gospel; this produceth in us that purity of heart and life which becometh Christians.
Secondly, I will give you the reasons. The death of Christ may be considered as it worketh morally, or as it worketh meritoriously. As it worketh morally, it hath a full and a sufficient force to draw us off from sin; as it worketh meritoriously, it purchaseth the Spirit for us. As it worketh morally, it layeth a strong engagement upon us; as it worketh meritoriously, it giveth great encouragement to oppose and resist sin, and set about the mortification of it. So that the true way of subduing sin is by serious reflection on the death of Christ, which we shall consider - (1.) As it is a strong engagement; (2.) As it is a great encouragement.
1. As it is a strong engagement; and there -
[1.] It is a pattern to teach us how to deny the pleasures of the senses. Pleasure is the great sorceress that hath bewitched all the world, and that which giveth strength to all temptations: James 1:14, 'Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.' There is some sensitive carnal bait which first inviteth, and then draweth us from our duty; and all the charms sin hath upon us, are by the treacherous sensual appetite, which is impatient to be crossed. So when another apostle speaketh of a revolt to the carnal life after some partial reformation, he giveth this account of it: 2 Peter 2:20, 'After they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled and overcome.' Before men be overcome by temptation, they are first enticed by the apprehension of some pleasure or profit which is to be had by their sins, by which apprehension the danger of committing the sin is covered and hid, as the fisher's hook is by the bait; that is the metaphor there, emplakentes èttoontai, lapse again into the slavery of the former sins, which they seemed to have escaped. Therefore till we are dead to the sensitive lure, and can be content to suffer in the flesh, and to deny the satisfactions of the animal life, we shall never avoid the slavery of sin, nor know that our old man is crucified. Now what is more powerful than the consideration of the death and example of Jesus Christ? In his whole life he was a man of sorrows, and so taught us to contemn the world, and the pleasures of the flesh; but especially at his death, when pain was poured in upon him by the conduit of every sense, there 'he pleased not himself,' Rom. 15:3, but conquered the love of life, and all the natural contentments of life, that he might please God, and procure our salvation. Now we have not the spirit of our religion till we grow dead, not only to the pleasures of sin, but the natural pleasures of life, yea, life itself, and can submit all to God's glory.
[2.] As it is an act of love, which should beget love in us to God again, which love will make us tender of sinning. There are many aggravations of sinning; but the greatest of all is because we sin against so much love as God hath showed us in our redemption by Christ. Sin is aggravated by the greatness of the person against whom it is committed, against the infinite majesty of God; as to strike an inferior person is not so heinous a crime as to strike a magistrate or prince; but this will not hold in all cases, for foul indignities and grievous wrongs offered to meaner persons are a greater offence than the omission of a ceremony to a prince, as if a man through ignorance of the customs of the court should not be bare before his chair of state. Therefore take in the other consideration of the infinite goodness and love of God towards us in Christ; this doth exceedingly aggravate our sins. They are acts of unkindness: 'After such a deliverance as this is, shall we again break thy commandments?' Ezra 9:13,14; after a deliverance out of Babylon, out of hell. To sin against the infinite goodness of a creator by eating the forbidden fruit, we see what mischief it brought upon mankind; conscious of this transgression, the first actors hid themselves from God's presence. But what is it to sin against the infinite goodness of a Redeemer, who came to recover us from this thraldom and bondage, and to draw us to himself with the cord of love? He chose rather to suffer the punishment due to our sins than to suffer sin still to reign in us, whom he loved more dearly than his own life: Gal. 2:20, 'Who loved me, and gave himself for me;' Rev. 1:5, 'To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.' Now, if after this manifestation of his love we shall still continue in sin, the heinousness of our offence is greatly increased.
[3.] Christ's death is the best glass wherein to view the deadly nature of sin. It was so great and heinous an evil in the sight of God, that nothing but the blood of the Son of God could expiate it: Rom. 8:3, 'For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.' Jesus Christ must come and suffer a shameful death; this painful, shameful, accursed death of the Son of God showeth God's displeasure against sin, and what it will cost us if we allow it, and indulge it in our hearts and lives; for if this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
[4.] It showeth us also what a great benefit mortification is. This among others was intended by him, and moved him to bear our sins in his body on the tree: 1 Peter 2:24, ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness.' To remember a good turn done by a friend, and not to prize and value it as we ought, is rather to forget than to remember his friendliness. So here, if we do not prize Christ's benefits, we undervalue his death, and a lessening of the benefits is a lessening the price. Now one of the chief of them is to take away sin, and to break the reign of it in the heart of his renewed ones. This argument seemeth to be urged, 1 Peter 1:18,19, 'Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversations, but with the precious blood of Christ,' &c. If there be a liberty purchased and bought at so dear a rate, and then proclaimed, and we will not accept it, it is a plain slighting the benefit we have by Christ.
[5.] The sins of Christians, who profess a communion with his death, are more criminal and scandalous than the sins of heathens. They never heard of the Son of God, that came to redeem them from their vain conversations at so high a rate as his own precious blood. They never were called solemnly to vow integrity of life and conversation, as a service due to that Redeemer, as is done by Christians in baptism. All this we believe, and this some have done, and yet disobeyed our master's will. Heathens had no expectation of any gracious immortal reward, feared no dreadful doom nor sentence after death. We are hedged in within the compass of our duty both on the right hand and the left: on the right hand with the hopes of a most blessed everlasting estate; on the left, with the fears of an endless and never-dying death: all which are included in our baptism, and so, if all be not mockery, our old man is crucified with Christ.
[6.] A Christian's living in sin is a greater injury to Christ than the persecution of the Jews that crucified him, because we daily and hourly do that which is more against his holy will. The rule for measuring the greatness of our personal injury and wrong is the opposition which the act includeth to the will and liking of the party who is displeased and wronged. Well, then, which is most displeasing to Christ, his dying for sin, or our living in sin? Surely his dying for sin, as an act of obedience to his father, or love to us, was very pleasing to Christ: Ps. 40:8, 'I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart.' He is more willing to suffer death for us than to suffer us to live and die in our sins. You will say, That is not the case we speak of, not the submission of Christ, but the Jews' act. But this will not lessen the argument, if we compare the Jews' act with our disobedience; that was against his human life, this is against his office. Now, as Christ preferred his office above his human and natural life, so those that neglect his office or contradict his office are more offensive to him than those who did wrong to his natural life. Therefore those that profess Christianity, and yet live in their sins, do more wrong to him than Judas, or Annas and Caiaphas, or any that had a hand in his death merely as such. They did wrong to Christ indeed, as Cain did to Abel when he took away the life of his innocent brother; and these personal wrongs are more unpleasing to his holy will as the Son of God than unto the affections of his human nature as the eon of David, as sins against God more than as injuries against a man. But for us, who pretend to adore and worship him, our crime is the more horrid, because we build those things again which he came to destroy, and so evacuate the fruit of his sufferings, and make his office of no effect, and thereby take part with the devil, the world, and the flesh against him.
2. As it is a great encouragement, as Christ's death was the merit and price by which grace sufficient was purchased to mortify and subdue our old man. The work of mortification is carried on in the hearts of God's people by the Spirit, and the Spirit is also purchased by the death of Christ: Titus 3:5, 6, 'According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;' Gal. 3:14, 'That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.' The Spirit worketh as Christ's Spirit, that he might be glorified by the full extent of his merit; and in the use of means we may comfortably expect the virtue of Christ crucified. We are not obliged only, but enabled, and are convinced of faulty laziness and despondency; if we do not resist sin, it is a sign we affect our slavery. It is not want of power, but of will.
Use 1. It informeth us that Christianity is the only true doctrine that teacheth us the right way of mortifying sin: 'Haman refrained himself,' Esther 5:10. Moral instructions cannot reach the root of this woful disease, to dark are our minds, so bad our hearts, so strong our lusts, so many are our temptations; but the doctrine, example, merit, and Spirit of the Lord Jesus will do the work.
Use 2. Direction. Let us often and seriously consider the death of Christ, and the great condescension of the Son of God, who came and suffered in our nature an accursed death to finish transgression and make an end of sin. As the leper was cleansed by the blood of the slain sparrow dropped into running water, Lev. 14:5,6, this signifies the cleansing of us sinners by Christ, who, as the bird that was killed, 'was put to death in the flesh,' but as the living bird 'was quickened by the Spirit,' 1 Peter 3:18; and 2 Cor. 13:4, 'He was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.' The dropping the blood of the slain sparrow into running water representeth Christ, 'who came by water and by blood,' 1 John 5:6. Blood noteth Christ's satisfaction, running water the Spirit: John 4:14, 'The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life;' John 7:38, 'He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' The living bird was to be dipped in the blood and water, and then to be let go in the open field up to heaven, Lev. 14:8. The scaping of the bird noteth the resurrection of Christ; his flying in the open field with bloody wings in the face of heaven, his intercession, or representation of his merit to God, and herein is all our confidence.
Use 3. Caution. Let us not serve sin.
1. See you be dispossessed of every evil habit and frame. Many profess obedience to God, but still retain the yoke of sin; as Israel, delivered out of the house of bondage, returned in their hearts, wishing themselves there again, Acts 7:39. The league between them and their lusts is not fully dissolved; so that though they forsake many sins, yet not all their sins; they keep some beloved sin: Ps. 18: 23, 'I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.' Herod would not part with his Herodias; so they return like the dog to his vomit.
2. See you resist actual temptations. God calleth to you, Jer. 44:4, 'Oh! do not this abominable thing that I hate.' Conscience calleth to you, as David's heart smote him; it is time to stop then. Is this becoming your solemn vow? Will it consist with the love of God?
Use 4. It puts us upon self-reflection. Do I know that my old man is crucified with Christ? There is a knowledge of faith and a knowledge of spiritual sense.
1. Have you experimentally felt the power of his death: Phil. 3:10, 'That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death,’ Is the body of sin destroyed, or at least considerably weakened?
2. Whom do you serve, God or sin? Have you changed masters? Are you as free from sin as before from righteousness? And do you as much for God as before for sin? Rom. 6:19,20, 'As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness; for when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.'
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