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THE CHRISTIAN RISEN WITH CHRIST IN NEWNESS OF LIFE
THE Gospel in every age, when freely and faithfully delivered, has been calumniated as injurious to morality. But St. Paul, though he well knew how his doctrines would be misrepresented, did not on that account mutilate the Gospel, or declare it less freely than it had been revealed to him: he proclaimed salvation altogether by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, without any works or deservings on our part: but at the same time he shewed that good works, though excluded from any share in justifying the soul, would of necessity be practised by every believer; because the believer, by his very profession, was, and could not but be, “dead unto sin, and alive unto righteousness.” He shewed, that there would of necessity be in the believer’s soul a conformity to his Lord and Saviour, since he bound himself to it in his baptismal engagements, or rather professed to have the actual experience of it before he was baptized; so that he must be a hypocrite, and no true believer, if he was not holy both in heart and life. To this effect he speaks in the whole of the preceding context [Note: ver. 1–7.]; — — — and in the words which we have just read, he confirms the idea, and founds upon it an animated exhortation.
To elucidate this difficult, but important subject, we shall consider,
I. The truth he assumes—
[He takes it for granted that the believer is “dead with Christ.” The believer, by virtue of his union with Christ, partakes in all that Christ either did or suffered for him. Was Christ crucified, dead, and buried? The believer also is crucified, dead, and buried: only Christ underwent this in his body; whereas the believer experiences it in his soul. The believer has what is called “the old man,” or “the body of sin:” and this it is which undergoes a change equivalent to that which Christ experienced in his mortal body. This old man is “crucified.” Crucifixion was a long protracted punishment: but though the death of the crucified person was slow and gradual, it was sure. It is in this way that “the old man,” or “the body of sin,” in the believer, is destroyed: is is not so instantly slain, as never to move again: but it is nailed to the cross: it is gradually weakened: and, in the purpose and intention and determination of the believer, it is as really dead, as if it were already altogether annihilated. The believer, at his baptism, considered this as solemnly engaged for on his part, and as shadowed forth, yea, and as pledged also to him on the part of God, in the rite itself: “he was baptized into Christ’s death, and buried, as it were, with Christ by baptism into death.” This was his profession; and this is his obligation: and wherever true and saving faith exists in the soul, this profession is realized, and this obligation performed. Hence it may be assumed as an universal truth, that, as a scion participates in the state of the stock into which it has been engrafted, so the believer, engrafted as he is into a crucified Saviour, “is planted together with him in the likeness of his death,” or, in other words, is “dead with Christ.”]
In close connexion with this is,
II. The persuasion he intimates—
“We believe,” says he, “that we shall also live with him.”
[It is not in his death only that the believer is conformed to Christ, but in his resurrection also. As the believer has an “old man,” which dies, so he has also “a new man,” which lives: and in the latter, no less than in the former, he resembles Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, in his risen and ascended state, lives with God, and to God, employing for his God and Father all the power that has been committed to him. Thus the believer lives in a state of intimate fellowship with God, consecrating to him all his newly-acquired powers, and improving for him every faculty that he possesses. This is his privilege, no less than his duty: and therefore we may be fully persuaded that the weakest believer, if truly upright, shall attain this high and honourable employment.]
This persuasion is founded on a firm and solid basis—
[We “know that Christ dieth no more.” Those whom he raised to life, as Lazarus and others, were constrained at last to pay the debt which our nature owes, and to yield to the stroke of death: but “over Christ death hath no more dominion.” He so fully expiated sin, that none of its penal consequences attach to him any longer. But the life which he possesses has both perpetuity and perfection, being wholly and eternally devoted to the care of his people, and the honour of his heavenly Father. And here is the believer’s security: “Because Christ liveth, he shall live also [Note: Joh_14:19.].” The believer’s “life is hid with Christ in God;” yea, “Christ himself is his life:” and therefore we may be assured, that his believing people shall be preserved to “appear with him in glory [Note: Col_3:3-4.].” We do live in him: and therefore we shall live with him for evermore.]
From hence is deduced,
III. The duty he inculcates—
[“Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This should be a point fixed and settled in our minds: I am a Christian: I am dead to sin: I have no more to do with “my former lusts in my ignorance [Note: 1Pe_1:14; 1Pe_4:2-3.],” than Christ himself has with the “sins which he once bore in his own body on the tree.” “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life,” have no more charms for me [Note: 1Jn_2:15-16.]: those “lords which once had dominion over me,” are now dead; and I am liberated from their yoke [Note: This is the precise idea contained in ver. 7.]. As a Christian, I possess a new and heavenly life: I am alive unto God, as Christ himself is; and must live unto God, as Christ himself does. There is not an act performed by Christ either in providence or grace, which has not respect to the glory of his Father: so, “whether I eat, or drink, or whatever I do, I must do all to the glory of God [Note: 1Co_10:31.].” As for being satisfied with any lower standard, it is impossible: my Christian profession utterly forbids it. Those who seek to be justified by their works, may be satisfied with such a tale of bricks, as shall, in their apprehension, screen them from punishment; but I can be satisfied with nothing but a perfect conformity to Christ. My lusts that are crucified, shall never (God helping me) come down from the cross: there they are doomed to perish: and the sooner they die, the better. My new life shall be spent as Christ’s is, in executing the office assigned me, and in glorifying my God. Christians, this is the state to which you are to aspire; and if you rest in any thing short of this, you are not worthy of the Christian name.]
In this subject we may see,
1. The proper tendency of the Gospel—
[The proper tendency of the Gospel is, to “sanctify us wholly,” and to make us pure, as Christ himself is pure [Note: 1Th_5:23. 1Jn_3:3.], And let the enemies of the Gospel calumniate it ever so much as tending to licentiousness, they shew that they believe it to be a doctrine according to godliness, by the excessive offence which they take at the smallest inconsistency in the Christian’s conduct. If they did not know that his principles required, and tended to, the highest possible perfection, why are they so offended, and why do they exult so much, at the smallest imperfection? The proper tendency of the Gospel then is holiness, the enemies themselves being judges.]
2. The true criterion whereby to judge of our faith in Christ—
[We will not disparage other parts of Christian experience; but the only safe test whereby to try ourselves, is, the degree in which we are dead to sin, and alive to God — — — “The tree must be known by its fruits” — — —]
3. The connexion between our duty and our happiness—
[We have fixed the standard of Christian duty high. True: but does any one doubt, whether such a conformity to Christ be not also our truest happiness? Verily, heaven itself consists in this: “We shall be like him, when we shall see him as he is [Note: 1Jn_3:2.].”]