MEDITATION

It is a great and merciful design of the gospel to acquaint a sinner, who is guilty and condemned by the law of God, how he may be pardoned and justified. Every one of us is a sinner; for all have sinned, and therefore all of us stand in need of pardon, and ought to receive it with thankful hearts as soon as the gospel preaches it to us.

Paul says that Christ had no sin and speaks of Christ’s unspotted innocence.

Our Lord’s fitness to be made sin for us His people, is here set forth by His knowing no sin. He knew it not in the Scripture sense of the word. He had no practical knowledge of sin, either in thought, word, or deed. Speculatively, He knew it well; but it could not defile Him: for it was the sin of others which he knew, and hated, and came to put away by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ was perfectly acquainted with the holy, just, and good law of God; He saw clearly into the purity and spirituality of it, which could not suffer the least offence, being as holy, just, and good as God Himself is, and being the copy of His most perfect mind and will. In this view our Lord beheld the odious nature of sin, and the exceeding sinfulness of it. He knew the hatred which the all-pure God had to it, the punishment it deserved, and the everlasting fire which it had kindled in the nethermost hell. No one ever understood these things so clearly as Christ did. He saw the destructive effects of sin, what disorder it had brought into the world, and to what temporal and eternal evils it had subjected the bodies and the souls of men. He knew also that there was no help upon earth, and that no creature in heaven, of the highest order of angels, could deliver any one sinner of his distress, and much less a multitude; therefore His eye pitied us, and His compassion was moved at the sight of our lost and helpless state.

Behold what manner of love He hath bestowed upon such sinners as you and me! a love which led Him to do greater wonders to save, than He had before done to create us; for He, the great God, blessed for ever, humbled Himself to be made man. He, Whom the angels and archangels had been worshipping from the moment of their creation, took upon Him the form of servant, and came to save His people from their sins. Adore, my brethren, and praise this infinite condecension of the incarnate God: for it was for you, who believe it by true faith, and for your salvation, that the Word was made flesh. He was equal to this great work; because He was perfect God and perfect man in one Christ, and as such He was absolutely free from sin—”He knew it not in practice. No sin, no inclination, no motion or rising of sin ever entered into His heart, and therefore He was pure from the least spot or stain of pollution. He knew NO sin, and therefore was in every way fit and qualified to suffer for sin, “to be made sin for us,” as the apostle expresses it in my text; which words I am, in the second place, to consider.

Although Christ knew no sin, yet He was made sin. How could that be? How could He be made sin, Who knew no sin? He was made sin, not practically, but by imputation. He had no sin inherently in Him, but had sin imputed to Him, when the Lord laid upon Him the iniquities of us all. In His own person there was not inherent spot or stain of sin, or any such thing. He could not touch the pollution of sin, nor could He practically know its filthy defiling nature. He was not a drunkard, a whoremonger, a thief, or whatever you call a sinner, as such. He neither was a sinner practically, nor had He ever the least inclination to be so; because His will was always in perfect harmony with the will of God. From whence it appears that Christ was not made a polluted sinner, nor yet a guilty sinner, as to the merit and desert of sin. In this respect He was capable of being made sin. He did not, as to Himself, deserve the punishment of sin, for which He suffered. Punishment is due to transgressors, but Christ had not transgressed. Even when He suffered, according to St. Peter, He was just and righteous in Himself, (1 Peter 3:18), “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,” that, as no suffering was due to Him, the merit of what He suffered might be imputed unto them. And so it was. He freely entered into an obligation to stand in the place of the unjust, and to undergo the punishment due to them; and this, with His own consent, the Lord laid upon Him; and in this sense He was made sin for us. He was made sin in the same way that we are made righteous. Now, the righteousness by which we are justified is not inherent in ourselves, but it is in Christ, and is made ours through God’s imputing it to us. In like manner our sins were not inherent in Christ, but imputed and laid upon Him. He was willing to become our surety, and to answer for our sins, and to have them imputed to Him, so as to be obliged to bear the punishment of them, even the wrath and curse, which, if He had not endured them, would have sunk every one of us into the pit of hell. But Christ His own Self bore them in His own body upon the tree. As the surety of all that shall believe in Him, He undertook to answer all the demands which law and justice had upon them. And He was willing to have all their sins imputed to Him, and placed to His account, that He may satisfy for them. When their iniquities were laid upon Him, although He knew no sin, yet He knew what it was to suffer for sin. He died the death and endured the pains, which were in nature and proportion due to them for their sins, and for the full satisfaction of law and justice. In this sense Christ was made sin.

Here, my Christian brethren, let us stop and adore the free love and rich mercy of our Divine Redeemer. He, the most high God, blessed for ever, condescended to be made man for us, and for our salvation, made sin for us. Considering Who it was that became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, we see the greatest wonder of all — the depth of humiliation. He that was the lowest upon earth, was the highest in heaven. He came down to be made sin for us, to have our sins imputed to Him, and to answer for them to law and justice. Blessed, for ever blessed, be the Name of our dear Redeemer. Glory, and honor, and thanks never ceasing be to Him, Who took all our suffering upon Himself, because He could bear that which we could not, and because He could satisfy for that, in a short time, which we could not in eternity; and Who, having thus delivered us from the sin and suffering, has righteousness to impute unto us, in which we may stand blameless at the bar of justice.

The question now is, In what way, or by what means, can we attain righteousness? Can we attain it by the works of the law? No, it is impossible. The law demands perfect, unsinning obedience, which we have not paid it: and upon our failing to pay it, the law pronounces us guilty, passes sentence, and leaves us, as to anything we can do, forever under the c urse; it being the irreversible decree of the almighty Lawgiver, that, since all flesh has sinned and broken the law, therefore by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

If you ask, how the righteousness of another can be made yours? It must be in the same way that Christ was made sin. He had no sin of His own, and yet He was made sin by imputation; and believers have no righteousness of their own, and yet are made righteous by imputation. The manner of God’s proceeding is the same in both cases. When the Psalmist says, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,” how is this to be understood? Has he no iniquity in him? Yes, he has original and inherent sin; and if he says he has no sin he deceives himself; but he is a blessed man, because the Lord does not impute sin to him, nor charge him with it. So when David describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness; has the man this righteousness in himself, and is he inherently righteous? No; but, by an act of grace, God accounts him righteous, and imputes righteousness unto him, and therefore he is blessed. In like manner as their sins were made His, so is His righteousness made theirs. He is sin for them, not inherently, but by imputation; and they righteouness through Him, not inherently, but by imputation.

This is the righteousness in which alone a sinner can stand acquitted at God’s bar. There he must make mention of this righteousness, even of this only; for none but this can answer the demands of the law, and expiate the curse of it; and this righteousness can be made his by no other way than by God’s imputing it to him; which is the great truth held forth in my text.

The righteousness of the believer is in Christ, and He is the Lord their righteousness, and consequently that righteousness for which they are justified cannot be in them; but it is made theirs when God imputes it to them, and they by faith receive it. Faith is the only instrument which God is pleased to use in applying Christ’s righteousness. The Spirit of God imputes and gives faith to become a partaker of this righteousness. The apostle calls it the righteousness of faith, because faith alone is employed in the application of this righteousness. It is never called the righteousness of any other grace, but of faith. We never read of the righteousness of humility, meekness, or charity; these are of great price in the sight of God, but they have no office in justifying a sinner. This belongs solely to faith; for to him that worketh not, but belicveth, is righteousness imputed. It is not by working, but by believing, that sinners are justified. When they are convinced of sin, find no righteousness in themselves, hear the dreadful sentence of the law against the unrighteous, and feel in their guilty consciences some of the miseries which they deserve, then they are stirred up to seek for a righteousness in which they may stand acquitted before the judgment-seat of God. The Scripture offers to them such a righteousness in Christ; and when God enables them to rest and to rely upon it for justification, they then by faith have peace with God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus the converted sinner is forced to seek a righteousness out of himself, and to rely upon the righteousness of another.

Happy are you, who have received the righteousness of faith, and knowing Whom you have believed. If you are waiting for it, remember whose gift it is. The Holy Spirit alone can work faith in your heart. It requires His power, even that almighty power, which raised up Jesus from the dead. The Scripture ascribes to Him the office of convincing sinners of Christ’s righteousness, and of giving them faith to rest upon it for their justification. May you be given to look to Him for this blessing. Wait in His appointed ways, hoping for it. And when the Spirit shall be poured upon you from on high, then you will be justified by faith in Christ’s righteousness, and the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance for ever.

Fragments from a sermon by William Romaine.

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