III. I will consider some of the chief objections that are
generally urged against this doctrine.
IV. I shall shew some very ill consequences that flow naturally
from denying this doctrine.
V. Shall conclude with an exhortation to all to come to CHRIST
by faith, that they may be enabled to say with the Prophet in
the text, “The LORD our righteousness.”
I. I am to consider who we are to understand by the word LORD. The LORD
our righteousness.
If any Arians or Socinians are drawn by curiosity to hear what the
babler has to say, let them be ashamed of denying the divinity of that
LORD, who has bought poor sinners with his precious blood. For the
person mentioned in the text, under the character of the LORD, is JESUS
CHRIST. Verse 5. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will
raise unto _David_ a righteous branch, a king shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days (verse
6.) _Judah_ shall be saved, and _Israel_ shall dwell safely; and this
is his name whereby he shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.”
By the _righteous branch_, all agree, that we are to understand JESUS
CHRIST. He it is that is called the LORD in our text. If so, if there
were no other text in the Bible to prove the divinity of CHRIST, this
is sufficient: for if the word _Lord_ may properly belong to JESUS
CHRIST, he must be GOD. And, as you have it in the margin of your
Bibles, the word _Lord_ is in the original _Jehovah_, which is the
essential title of GOD himself. Come then, ye Arians, kiss the Son of
GOD, bow down before him, and honour him, even as ye honour the Father.
Learn of the angels, those morning-stars, and worship him as truly
GOD: for otherwise you are as much idolators, as those that worship
the Virgin _Mary_. And as for you Socinians, who say CHRIST was a mere
man, and yet profess that he was your Saviour, according to your own
principles you are accursed: for, if CHRIST be a mere man, then he is
only an arm of flesh: and it is written, “Cursed is he that trusteth
on an arm of flesh.” But I would hope, there are no such monsters here;
at least, that, after these considerations, they would be ashamed of
broaching such monstrous absurdities any more. For it is plain, that,
by the word _Lord_, we are to understand the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who
here takes to himself the title of _Jehovah_, and therefore must be
very GOD of very GOD; or, as the Apostle devoutly expresses it, “GOD
blessed for evermore.”
II. How the LORD is to be man’s righteousness, comes next to be
considered.
And that is, in one word, by _imputation_. for it pleased GOD, after
he had made all things by the word of his power to create man after his
own image. And so infinite was the condescension of the high and lofty
One, who inhabiteth eternity, that, although he might have insisted on
the everlasting obedience of him and his posterity; yet he was pleased
to oblige himself, by a covenant or agreement made with his own
creatures, upon condition of an unsinning obedience, to give them
immortality and eternal life. For when it is said, “The day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die;” we may fairly infer, so long as he
continued obedient, and did not eat thereof, he should surely live.
The 3d of _Genesis_ gives us a full, but mournful account, how our
first parents broke this covenant, and thereby stood in need of a
better righteousness than their own, in order to procure their future
acceptance with GOD. For what must they do? They were as much under
a covenant of works as ever. And though, after their disobedience,
they were without strength; yet they were obliged not only to do, but
continue to do all things, and that too in the most perfect manner,
which the LORD had required of them: and not only so, but to make
satisfaction to GOD’s infinitely offended justice, for the breach
they had already been guilty of. Here then opens the amazing scene of
_divine philanthropy_, I mean, GOD’s love to man: For behold, what man
could not do, JESUS CHRIST, the son of his Father’s love, undertakes
to do for him. And that GOD might be just in justifying the ungodly,
though “he was in the form of GOD, and therefore thought it no robbery
to be equal with GOD; yet he took upon him the form of a servant,” even
human nature. In that nature he obeyed, and thereby fulfilled the whole
moral law in our stead; and also died a painful death upon the cross,
and thereby became a curse for, or instead of, those whom the Father
had given to him. As GOD, he satisfied, at the same time that he obeyed
and suffered as man; and, being GOD and man in one ♦person, he wrought
out a full, perfect, and sufficient righteousness for all to whom it
was to be imputed.
♦ “persan” replaced with “person”
Here then we see the meaning of the word _righteousness_. It implies
the active as well as passive obedience of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. We
generally, when talking of the merits of CHRIST, only mention the
latter,――his death; whereas, the former,――his life and active obedience,
is equally necessary. CHRIST is not such a saviour as becomes us,
unless we join both together. CHRIST not only died, but lived; not
only suffered, but obeyed for, or instead of, poor sinners. And both
these jointly make up that compleat righteousness, which is to be
imputed to us, as the disobedience of our first parents was made ours
by imputation. In this sense, and no other, are we to understand that
parallel which the apostle _Paul_ draws, in the vth of the _Romans_,
between the first and second _Adam_. This is what he elsewhere terms,
“our being made the righteousness of GOD in him.” This is the sense
wherein the Prophet would have us to understand the words of the text;
therefore, _Jeremiah_ xxxiii. 16. “She (_i. e._ the church itself)
shall be called, (having this righteousness imputed to her) The LORD
our righteousness.” A passage, I think, worthy of the profoundest
meditation of all the sons and daughters of _Abraham_.
Many are the objections which the proud hearts of fallen men
are continually urging against this wholesome, this divine, this
soul-saving doctrine. I come now,