We being brought into Christ's death, burial and resurrection by holy baptism, I shall yet observe the following:
1st. We that are baptised into Christ, are also baptised into his death. If we are in his death, then we are considered the same as if we had died ourselves ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, 2 Cor. 5, 14 ; i. e. because Christ died for all, it is the same as if all had died themselves. The death of Jesus is the fountain of our justification, and the subsequent blessings. All men, because they are sinners, are under the curse of the law ; but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; " for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," Gal. 3 13. By his death he satisfied all the demands of the law, and he being our surety, his death was the same as if we had died, and his satisfying the demands of the law, is the same as if we had rendered this satisfaction ourselves. The same as when Adam by his disobedience brought sin and death into the world, and we by our natural birth partake of the same ; even so by the obedience of Christ unto death the law is fulfilled for us, righteousness and life are obtained, and we by baptism, as the means of our new birth, are made to partake these blessings. The law can exercise no dominion over a dead man ; it can only extend to the living. A dead man, though being put to death by the law as a criminal, yet by his death he satisfied the law, so that it cannot inflict on him any further punishments. Now by baptism Christ's death is made our death, so that we are viewed in God's judgment as dead ; hence as having fulfilled the law by Christ's death, as acquitted against all its penal demands, as pardoned and justified by imputation. What are all the crimes of the whole world, in comparison to this atoning death of Jesus, who is almighty Jehovah, in whom we are baptised. Adam, from whom we have inherited sin, was a mere creature ; but Christ was not a mere creature that made the atonement, but he was also the infinite creator. Sin flowed from a finite, but the atonement from an infinite fountain. If our sins reached deeper than hell, and higher than heaven ; if they were more numerous than the drops of the ocean ; yet the gifts of grace, and the abundance of pardon, we have through the death of Christ into which we are baptised, are far superior. If our sins were red like blood, if they had bound us under the frowns of heaven, and kindled against us all the furious flames of hell ; yet the divine blood of Jesus, with which he entered into the holy places, and obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb. 9, 12, is so pure as to wash them white like snow, so meritorious as to " send the prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water," Zach. 9, 11 ; so efficacious as to quench the burning flames of hell, and so righteous as to silence the voice of the law for ever.
1st. We that are baptised into Christ, are also baptised into his death. If we are in his death, then we are considered the same as if we had died ourselves ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, 2 Cor. 5, 14 ; i. e. because Christ died for all, it is the same as if all had died themselves. The death of Jesus is the fountain of our justification, and the subsequent blessings. All men, because they are sinners, are under the curse of the law ; but Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; " for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree," Gal. 3 13. By his death he satisfied all the demands of the law, and he being our surety, his death was the same as if we had died, and his satisfying the demands of the law, is the same as if we had rendered this satisfaction ourselves. The same as when Adam by his disobedience brought sin and death into the world, and we by our natural birth partake of the same ; even so by the obedience of Christ unto death the law is fulfilled for us, righteousness and life are obtained, and we by baptism, as the means of our new birth, are made to partake these blessings. The law can exercise no dominion over a dead man ; it can only extend to the living. A dead man, though being put to death by the law as a criminal, yet by his death he satisfied the law, so that it cannot inflict on him any further punishments. Now by baptism Christ's death is made our death, so that we are viewed in God's judgment as dead ; hence as having fulfilled the law by Christ's death, as acquitted against all its penal demands, as pardoned and justified by imputation. What are all the crimes of the whole world, in comparison to this atoning death of Jesus, who is almighty Jehovah, in whom we are baptised. Adam, from whom we have inherited sin, was a mere creature ; but Christ was not a mere creature that made the atonement, but he was also the infinite creator. Sin flowed from a finite, but the atonement from an infinite fountain. If our sins reached deeper than hell, and higher than heaven ; if they were more numerous than the drops of the ocean ; yet the gifts of grace, and the abundance of pardon, we have through the death of Christ into which we are baptised, are far superior. If our sins were red like blood, if they had bound us under the frowns of heaven, and kindled against us all the furious flames of hell ; yet the divine blood of Jesus, with which he entered into the holy places, and obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb. 9, 12, is so pure as to wash them white like snow, so meritorious as to " send the prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water," Zach. 9, 11 ; so efficacious as to quench the burning flames of hell, and so righteous as to silence the voice of the law for ever.
posted by reader | 11:46 AM
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