But some will object, do not those
that receive Christ actually commit sin?
I answer, yea, they do commit sin, and
the truth is, they can do nothing but commit sin. If a person that is a
believer hath anything in the world, he hath received this, that if he doth anything
that is good, it is the Spirit of God that doth it, not he; therefore; he
himself doth nothing but sin, his soul is a mint of sin.
But then, you will say, if he doth
sin, must not God charge it where it is? Must not he be reckoned to be a
sinner, while he doth sin? I answer, no; though he doth sin, yet he is not to
be reckoned a sinner4, but his sins are
reckoned to be taken away from him. A man borrows a hundred pounds; some man
will say, doth he not owe this hundred pounds, seeing he borrowed it? I say,
no, in case another hath paid the hundred pounds for him. A man doth sin
against God, God reckons not his sin to be his, he reckons it Christ's;
therefore he cannot reckon it his. If the Lord did lay the iniquity of men upon
Christ (as I said before), then polo can he lay it upon their persons? Thou
hast sinned, Christ takes it off; supposing, I say, thou hast received Christ.
And as God doth reckon sin to Christ, and charges sin upon him, so, if thou be
of the same mind with God, thou must also reckon this sin of thine upon Christ;
his back hath borne it, he hath carried it away.
For my part, I cannot see what every
person will object; I will endeavour to make this truth clear as the day to
you. Do but consider with yourselves what Christ came into the world for, if
not to take away the sins of the world? He need never to have died, but to take
away the sins of the world. Did he come to them away, and did he leave them
behind him? Then he lost his labour. Did he not leave them behind him? then his
person is discharged of them from whom he hath taken them: but if the person be
not discharged of them, he is not a justified person in himself; neither can
you account his person justified as long as you account his sin upon him. It is
a contradiction to say, that a man is innocent, yet guilty.
Beloved, then here is a point of
strange ravishing usefulness to souls, that can but draw towards it and receive
it. All the difficulty lies, whether it be my portion, and thy portion; whether
I may say, Christ is my way, thus from this guilt, that there can be none of
this charged upon me. I say, if thou dost receive Christ, if thou dost but set
footing into this way, Christ; as soon as ever thou art stept into this way,
thou art stept out of the condition thou wast in. Men's receiving of Christ!
what is that? you will say. To receive him, is to come to him; "he that
comes to me I will in no wise cast out" Mark; many think there is such a
kind of sinfulness that is a bar to them; that though they would have Christ,
yet there is not a way open for them to take him. Beloved, there is no way of
sinfulness to bar thee from coming to Christ; if thou hast a heart to come to
him, and, against all objections to venture thyself with joy into the bosom of
Christ, for the discharge of all thy sinfulness; Christ himself (which I
tremble to express; though it be with indignation) he should be a liar, if thou
comest to him, and he casts thee off. "Every one that will," saith
he, "let him come and drink of the water of life freely." You shall
find, beloved, the great complaint of Christ, thus, "He came to his own,
and his own received him not:" and to the Scribes and Pharisees, "Ye
will not come to me, that ye might have life." The truth is, men dote upon
the establishing of a righteousness of their own to bring them to Christ; and
it is but presumptuous, or licentious doctrine, that Christ may be their
Christ, and they receive him, and be considered simply ungodly, as enemies: but
they are abominably injurious to the faith of Jesus Christ, to the exceeding bounty
of that grace of his, who saves from sin, without respect of anything in the
creature, that he himself might have the praise of the glory of his grace. The
covenant, concerning the blotting out of transgressions, is a free covenant:
"Not for thy sake do I this, be it known unto thee," saith the Lord,
"for thou art a stubborn and stiff necked people; but for my own sake do I
this." All this grace to acquit thy soul, here and hereafter, comes out of
the bowels of God himself; and he hath no other motive in the world, but
simply, and only, his own bowels, that put him upon the deliverance of a poor
wretch from iniquity, and discharge of sin, from that load which otherwise
would grind and crush him to powder: I say, his own bowels are the motive. God
neither looks to anything in the creature to win him to shew kindness, nor yet anything
in the creature to debar him; neither righteousness in men that persuades God to
pardon sin; nor unrighteousness in men that hinders him from giving this
pardon, and acquitting them from their transgressions; it is only and simply
for his own sake he doth it unto men.
Thus you have seen the first
particular, that I have endeavoured to clear from all cavils and objections that
may be laid upon it.
In one word, beloved, mistake me not,
I am far from imagining any believer is freed from acts of sin; he is freed
only from the charge of sin; that is, from being a subject to be charged with
sin; all his sins are charged upon Christ, he being made sin for him; yet
Christ is not an actual sinner; but Christ is all the sinners in the world by
imputation5; and through this imputation all
our sins are so done away from us, that we stand as Christ's own person did
stand, and doth stand in the sight of God6.
Now, had not Christ made a full satisfaction to the Father, he himself must
have perished under those sins that he did bear; but in that he went through
the thing, and paid the full price, as he carried them away from us, so he laid
them down from himself. So that now Christ is freed from sin, and we are freed
from sin in him; he was freed from sin imputed unto him and laid upon him, when
he suffered; we were freed from sin as he takes it off from our shoulders, and
hath carried it away; "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden."
That is, with sin. And what follows? "And I will give you rest." As
long as the burden is upon the shoulders, so long there is no rest. Therefore
this doth necessarily import, that Christ must take away the burden, that we
may have rest.
Secondly, Christ is not only the way
from the fault of sin, but he is the way from the power of sin. There is a
threefold power of sin; there is first, a reigning power; and secondly, a
tyrannizing power; and thirdly, a bustling or ruffling power of sin; and they
are all three of them distinct. Christ is a way from all these in believers:
from the reigning power of it; so the apostle speaks expressly, Rom. 6:14,
"Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but
under grace." Grace there is Christ himself. "His servants ye are, to
whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of righteousness unto life; but,
thanks be to God, ye have obeyed the truth." The meaning is this; while we
are under the law, and have no better help, sin reigns in us, the law cannot
bridle it in; but when we come under grace by Christ, the dominion of the law,
or rather the dominion of sin, which the law cannot restrain, is captivated and
subjected by Christ; "I will subdue your iniquities," as it is spoken
by the prophet Micah.
We are discharged from the fault and
guilt of sin, that is, absolutely at once7; but
the discharge from the reigning power of sin, that is done by degrees; the
faultiness of sin is left behind the back of the believer, but the power and
resistency of sin lie all along in the way; but still Christ breaks through,
and makes way, 1 Cor. 10:13, where you have this admirable expression, "No
temptation hath happened unto you, but such as is common to men; God is
faithful, and will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but
will with the temptation make a way that you may be able to bear it."
There is a tyrannizing power of sin,
that is, not when sin is chosen of the soul, as that under which the soul both
affects and will live; but when sin hath gotten a present over-mastery of the
soul, and in spite of all the spirit can do, will keep it under. This, I say,
is the tyranny of sin; and this was the case of the apostle Paul, Rom. vii,
"When I would do good, evil is present with me: I find a law in my members
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of
sin; so that the good I would do, I do not; and the evil that I would not, that
do I" In regard of which he makes a bitter complaint; but mark the end of
all, "But thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Here you
see, that though sin hath a tyranny over the spirit of a person, yet through
the Lord Jesus Christ this tyranny is abated.
Yet, Thirdly, it is abated by degrees;
for the bustling power of sin, namely, though it cannot be entertained, yet it
will be troublesome to the soul. Now Christ is the way, by degrees, also, from
this trouble of sin; for by degrees he crucifies the flesh with the affections
and lusts thereof, and brings down the power of it by treading down Satan, that
is the egger on of sin, to make it so troublesome; by overcoming the world,
that administers occasion of this troublesomeness; "Fear not," saith
Christ, "I have overcome the world." But still, I say, he doth this
by degrees, and so he doth it by degrees, that sometimes he lets the work be at
a stand; and sometimes the tyranny shall be over the spirit, and the spirit
shall be under that tyranny a good while; sometimes the spirit shall be under
the troublesomeness of sin, and be constantly exercised with it. But you must
know, that it is neither the tyranny, nor the troublesomeness of sin in a
believer, that doth eclipse the beauty of Christ, or the favour of God to the soul.
Our standing is not founded upon the subduing of our sins, but upon that
foundation that never fails; and that is Christ himself, upon his faithfulness
and truth. Men think they are consumed, when they are troubled with sin why?
because of their transgression. But mark what the Lord saith; "I, the
Lord, change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." It is not,
you change not, therefore ye are not consumed; but I change not;
I have loved you freely, I will love you freely, I cannot alter: "Whom he loves,
he loves unto the end:" it is in respect of his unchangeableness.
Though there be ebbings and flowings
of the outward man; nay, of the inward man, in the business of sanctification;
yet this is certainly true, "That believers are kept by the mighty power
of God, through faith, unto salvation." They are kept in holiness,
sincerity, simplicity of heart; but all this hath nothing to do with the peace
of his soul8, and the salvation and
justification thereof: Christ is he that justifies the ungodly; Christ is he
that is the peacemaker; and as Christ is the peace-maker, so all this peace
depends upon Christ alone. Beloved, if you will fetch your peace from anything
in the world but Christ, you will fetch it from where it is not. "This
people," saith the prophet Jeremiah, "hath committed two evils."
What are they? "They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and
have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that will hold no
water."
What is that fountain of living
waters? Christ is the fountain of peace and life; and men forsake that peace
that is to be had in Christ, when they would have peace out of righteousness of
their own, out of their great enlargements, out of humiliations. These are
broken cisterns, and what peace is there in them?
Is there not sinfulness in them? Who
can say, I have washed my hands? If there be sinfulness in them, where then is
their peace? Sin speaks nothing but war to the soul. Let me tell you, beloved,
you that look after peace from the subduing of your sins; what peace can it
afford you, in case there be any defects of subduing of your sins? There can be
no peace.
Suppose God had nothing in the world
to charge upon you; but only that sinfulness in the very subduing of your
corruptions, what peace could you have? what could but God find in us? Suppose
your eyes were enlightened to see yourselves, how much filthiness there is in
all your wrestlings; I say, how much defects and infirmities might you see?
Could you choose but fall foul upon your own spirits, for these infirmities and
defects of your best performances, seeing the wages of sin is death? What can
you run to then? None but Christ, none but Christ, While your acts, in respect
of filthiness, proclaim nothing but war, Christ alone, and his blood, proclaim
nothing but peace. Therefore; I give this hint by the way, when I speak of the
power of Christ subduing sin; because, from the power of it in men, they are
apt to think their peace depends upon this subduing of sin. If their sins be
subdued, then they may have peace; and if they cannot be subdued, then no
peace: fetch peace where it is to be had; let subduing of sin alone for peace9; let Christ have that which is his due; it is he
alone that speaks peace. It remains, we should speak further, that as Christ is
a way from sin, both in respect of fault and power, so he is a way from wrath:
and he is a way to the grace and glory of the Father, and what kind of way he
is. But the searching into every corner of this truth, for the sitting of it,
hath brought me exceedingly back beyond my expectation. I shall have further
occasion in the afternoon to speak of it.
Footnotes:
4 Not that
the believer who has received Christ, ceases to be a sinner in himself; for Crisp
affirms, in this same paragraph, that he commits sin, and does nothing but sin;
and much less that he ceased to be a sinner before he was a believer or from
the death of Christ. But the sense is that a believer having received Christ is
not reckoned as a sinner in the sight of God, and in the eye of justice, and as
considered in Christ, all his sins being charged to him, and expiated and
atoned for by his sacrifice; as also, seeing such a one has received, with
Christ a discharge from all his sins into his own conscience, he should reckon
himself, and his sins, as God does, who reckons them to Christ, and not to him.
5 This shows
what is Crisp’s true sense in a former passage, where he says Christ is
"the very sinner;" that is, by imputation, as here explained, and not
an actual sinner. One would be tempted to think, at first reading this clause,
that Crisp was for universal redemption, when he says, that Christ is "all
the sinners in the world" by imputation. Crisp did not hold the doctrine
of universal redemption; but his sense is not, that Christ personated all the
sinners in the world, or had all the sins of every individual person laid on
him; but that he was all those sinners in the world, or represented them, whose
sins were imputed to him; and these, as he often says in his sermons on Isaiah 53:6,
were the iniquities of the Lord's people, of the church, and of the elect.
6 Col. 2:
10.
7 Acts 13:39.
8 That is,
to make peace with God for his soul, since Christ is the peace-maker, Saviour,
and justifier; otherwise to be kept in these things contributes to spiritual
peace of mind, under the influence of divine grace, and sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus.
9 Note that Crisp is speaking not of subduing sin,
as it is an act of God's grace, and owing to the power of Christ, who has made
an end of it, and so made peace; on this subduing of sin peace depends, Mic. 7:18,
Deut. 9:24, but of men's subduing sin, by their own power and strength, and in
order to make peace with God. The subduing of sin, or mortifying the deeds of
the body that believers are concerned for, is not of themselves, and done in
their own strength, but through the spirit; power, and grace of God; and not to
make peace with him, but to show their dislike of sin, their gratitude to God,
and that they are debtors to him, to live after the spirit, Rom. 8:12, 13.
Therefore subduing of sin is to be let alone for the end mentioned, in order to
peace with God, that Christ might have his due and glory, who has both made and
speaks peace; otherwise subduing of sin, or the weakening the power of it, by
the spirit and grace of God, is the concern of every believer, and is wished
for by him, and makes for the tranquility of his mind.
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