Southern Christian Advocate

"RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND SANCTIFICATION, AND REDEMPTION."

Righteousness.--True it is that this faith purifies the heart, and works of holiness, and all graces flow from it; but in this work of justifying the sinner, it is alone, and cannot admit of any mixture, as Luther's resemblance is, 'Faith is as the bride with Christ in the bed chamber alone; but when she cometh forth, hath the attendance and train of other graces with her.' This well understood, the soul that believes on Jesus Christ, will not let go, or all deficiency in self; and yet so resting on him, will not be slothful nor regardless of any duty of holiness; yea, this is the way to abound in all the fruits of the Spirit, first, to have that wisdom from him, rightly to apprehend and apply him as our Righteousness, and then shall we find all furniture of grace in him, he will likewise be Sanctification. Say not, 'Unless I find some measure of Sanctification, what right have I to apply him as my Righteousness?' This inverts the order, and prejudges thee of both. Thou must first, without finding, yea, or seeking anything in thyself but misery and guiltiness, lay hold on him as thy Righteousness; or else thou shalt never find Sanctification by any other endeavor or pursuit.

He it is that is made Sanctification to us, and out of him we seek it in vain. Now, first, he must be thy Righteousness, before thou find him thy Sanctification: simply as a guilty sinner, thou must fly to him for shelter; and then, being come in, thou shalt be furnished out of his fulness with grace for grace. As a poor man pursued by the justiciary, flying to a strong castle for safety, and being in it, finds it a rich palace; and all his wants supplied there.

This misunderstanding of that method is the cause of much of that darkness and discomfort, and withal of that deadness and defect of graces, that many persons go drooping under, who will not take this way, the only straight and sure way of life and comfort.

Sanctification.--He is to us not only as a perfect pattern but as a powerful principle. It is really the Spirit of Christ in a believer, that crucifies the world, and purges out sin, and forms the soul to his likeness. It is impossible to be holy, not being in him; and being truly in him, it is as impossible not to be holy; our pothering and turmoiling without him, makes us lose our labor, and in this point indeed, little wit makes much labor.

Redemption.--Sin is often prevailing even in believers; and therewithal discomforts and doubts arising, as it cannot otherwise choose: oh! how do they groan and sigh as captives still to the law of sin and death. Well, there is in our Lord Jesus help for that too, he is Redemption, that is, the complement and fulness of deliverance, the price he paid once for all. Now he goes on to work that deliverance by conquest, that he bought by ransom; it is going on, even when we feel it not; and within a little while it shall be perfected, and we shall see all the host of our enemies that pursued us, as Israel saw the Egyptians, lie dead upon the shore. Courage! that day is fast coming; and all this, that he that glories may glory in the Lord: is it not reasonable? No self-glorying; the more faith, the less still of that. A believer is nothing in himself; all is Christ's. Christ is his all; and in the full and pure glory that ascends to God in this work, are we to rejoice more than in the work itself, as our salvation. There is an humble kind of boasting that becomes a Christian; my soul shall glory, or make her boast in God, says David, all the day long. What was I before I met with Christ, thinks a believer: and now what am I? and, upon that thought, wonders and loves. But most of the wonder is yet to come; for he conceives but little what we shall be.--Archbishop Leighton's Sermon, 1 Cor. i. 30.