in their room. They of course suffered in him, and it is true, in a very important sense, that they, having thus suffered for sin in him, are made to rest from sin.

Christians are very frequently, especially by the Apostle Paul, represented as identified with Christ. In consequence of the faith of the truth respecting his person and work, they are brought into so intimate a relation to him that they are said to be "in him," one with him. This does not refer to that union of mind and heart, of sentiment, affection, will, and operation, which subsists between Christians and Christ, and which is produced by the Spirit through the instrumentality of the word; that is rather Christ's being in them, than their being in Christ; it is the being so connected with Christ as that they are treated by God as if what he did and suffered had been done and suffered by them personally. All who are united to Christ, by that faith of which profession is made in baptism, are, by the Apostle, represented as united to him in his death, that is, as having died in him; in his burial, that is, as having been buried in him; in his resurrection, that is, as having risen again in him; in his life and glory, that is, as living and reigning in him with God in heaven. "Ye are," says he to the Colossians, "dead," or have died, that is, in Christ; and as, if you live, though you have died, "your life is hid with Christ in God." And of himself he says, what is not peculiar to him as an Apostle, but common to him with all Christians, "I am crucified with Christ." When he died, he died for them. It was their sins, not his own, that he bore to the tree.1

When we say then of Christians, that they have suffered in the flesh for sin, we mean that by a Divine constitution they have as deep an interest in Christ's sufferings in the flesh for sin, as if they themselves had undergone them. They are so interested in them as to be made to rest from sin in consequence of them. They are delivered from the condemning power of sin, and they are delivered from the

1 Rom. vi. 3-5. Col. iii. 3. Gal. ii. 20.

reigning power of sin; and they are delivered from both, not in consequence of their having suffered for sin in the flesh, in their own persons, but in consequence of their having become by faith individually interested in those sufferings for sin in the flesh which were inflicted on the person of their divinely appointed substitute.

Every human being is a sinner, and every sinner is condemned on account of his sin. The curse of God lies on him, and must for ever rest on him, till he become personally connected with Him who suffered the just in the room of the unjust. Till then, the sinner can obtain no rest, no security from sin and its penal consequences. Armed with the power of the law, sin keeps fast hold of him, ready at any moment to produce death, casting the body into the grave, plunging the soul into the abyss of perdition.

From this tremendous state all who are in Christ have obtained deliverance. "There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus;" and the reason is very obvious. They are in him who was condemned in their stead, and suffered that to which they were condemned; they are redeemed from the curse, for the righteous One, their divinely appointed substitute, has become a curse for them. Who can lay any thing to their charge? Christ died, died for them. "In him they have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of God's grace." "In him, the beloved One, they are accepted, being reconciled in the body of his flesh by death." "His blood cleanses them from all sin." So that they are "dead to the law," to its condemning sentence, “through the body of Christ;" they are "in him made the righteousness of God," in consequence of "Him who knew no sin, being by God made sin in their room;" "sinners, ungodly" in themselves, they are "justified freely by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," who is "set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood;" having been "given for their offences, and raised again for their justification." The unbeliever, unconnected

1 Rom. viii. 1-34. 1 John i. 7. 2 Cor. v. 21. Rom. iii. 24; iv. 25.

with Christ, and therefore unpardoned, is never safe. Guilt, like the avenger of blood, is constantly pursuing him, and at any moment may overtake him and take his life. There is no rest, no peace, no security to the sinner who is not "in him" who has suffered and been made to rest. But he who by faith is "in Christ," has entered the city of refuge and is safe within its walls; and, as our high priest never dies, to secure his safety he must remain within its walls for ever.

But he who by faith is interested in Christ suffering in the flesh for sin, as if it had been his own suffering, being indeed suffering in his room, is made to rest from sin, not only in its condemning, but in its reigning power. “Sin shall not have dominion over him" who is in Christ Jesus; for, in consequence of Christ's suffering in the flesh for sin, and his personal interest in his suffering, he is "not under the law but under grace." He is united to Christ not only as one who was the victim of sin, as one who bore his sins, but to him as one who has borne away his sins; to Christ not only as one who was under the curse, but to Christ as now, for the manner in which he sustained that load, the object of the highest complacency of his Father. He is regarded by God with a complacency like that with which the Saviour is regarded; and that is manifested in the communication of "the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus," and "delivers him from the law of sin and of death." And this spirit comes not, as a wayfaring man, to tarry for a night, but to take up his permanent residence in a temple appropriated to him, and which he will in due time make every way suitable for his everlasting dwelling-place.'

There is thus absolute security obtained by every person who is by faith united to Christ, and thus personally interested in his suffering in the flesh, of being made completely to rest from sin, of being brought into a state where there shall be no law in the members to war against the law of

Rom. vi. 11; viii. 2.

the mind; where there will be no striving of the flesh against the Spirit; where the Spirit shall rule unopposed, and the law of the mind shall have free course and be glorified; where the Christian will no more sigh out, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" but shall for ever sing, "I thank God," who hath delivered me, completely delivered me, "through Christ Jesus." "Thanks be to God who giveth me the victory." Then will the Christian be

made completely to "rest from sin."

That this second kind of rest from sin is as really as the first the fruit of the atonement, the consequence of Christ suffering for sin in the flesh, and our being united to him as our surety and representative, is very clearly stated by the Apostle Paul in these important, but we are afraid very generally misapprehended, or at any rate very imperfectly understood, words, "Our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin;"" that is, 'In the atoning death of the Son of God, is laid a foundation of absolute security for the complete sanctification of all who are interested in its saving power, by the faith of the gospel.'

(4.) The thought viewed as a piece of Christian armour—the instrumental means of sanctification.

Having thus attempted to explain the thought, "He that hath suffered in the flesh has been made to rest from sin," both in reference to Christ and to Christians, it only remains that we endeavour to show how this thought is fitted to serve the purpose of spiritual armour; or, in other words, how the truth as to the Saviour's accepted atonement, and the interest which believers have in it, is fitted to be a prevailing motive, in opposition to all opposing influences, to the cultivation of practical holiness, to the "not living the rest of their time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." The subject is a wide and important one.

It is not a particularly difficult one; but from its very nature it requires close attention of mind in order to be distinctly understood.

1

The thought with which the Apostle calls Christians to arm themselves, shows that that holiness in all conversation, that living not according to the lusts of men, but to the will of God, to which he exhorts them, is not an impossible thing. Man is a depraved being; viewed in his relations to God, an entirely depraved being. "In him, that is, in his flesh," in him as he is by nature, "there dwells no spiritual good thing." What God requires of him is in the highest degree reasonable, and needs no physical faculty, either intellectual or active, to its performance, which man does not possess. But he labours under a disinclination to yield that kind and measure of obedience which God requires, most criminal, indeed, but still by all but Divine influence invincible. And as man is already criminal, has already incurred the Divine displeasure, it obviously seems impossible, if some means are not employed to alter man's relations to the Divine government, that God, in consistency either with his wisdom, his holiness, his justice, his faithfulness, ay, his goodness, taking a wide view of the subject, can put forth that influence on the sinner's mind that is necessary to incline him to true holiness; that is, in other words, can confer on the proper object of his judicial displeasure what is the most decided manifestation that a person is an object of his peculiar favour.

The united wisdom and power of men and angels could never have devised and executed a plan for removing this difficulty. But the thought, 'Christ has suffered in the flesh for sins, in the room of sinners, and has been made to rest from sin,' that thought, if understood, will be found to contain in it distinct intimation, that the apparently insurmountable obstacles in the way of man's compliance with the will of God, have been removed. Christ, the only be

Rom. vii. 18.