On Sanctification. A. D. 58.
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism
into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if
we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be
also in the likeness of his resurrection: 6 Knowing this, that our old
man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is freed from
sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto
sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
The apostle's transition, which joins this discourse with the former,
is observable: "What shall we say then? v. 1. What use shall we make of
this sweet and comfortable doctrine? Shall we do evil that good may come,
as some say we do? ch. iii. 8. Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound? Shall we hence take encouragement to sin with so much the more
boldness, because the more sin we commit the more will the grace of God
be magnified in our pardon? Is this a use to be made of it?" No, it is
an abuse, and the apostle startles at the thought of it (v. 2): "God forbid;
far be it from us to think such a thought." He entertains the objection
as Christ did the devil's blackest temptation (Matt. iv. 10): Get thee
hence, Satan. Those opinions that give any countenance to sin, or open
a door to practical immoralities, how specious and plausible soever they
be rendered, by the pretension of advancing free grace, are to be rejected
with the greatest abhorrence; for the truth as it is in Jesus is a truth
according to godliness, Tit. i. 1. The apostle is very full in pressing
the necessity of holiness in this chapter, which may be reduced to two
heads:--His exhortations to holiness, which show the nature of it; and
his motives or arguments to enforce those exhortations, which show the
necessity of it.
I. For the first, we may hence observe the nature of sanctification,
what it is, and wherein it consists. In general it has two things in it,
mortification and vivification--dying to sin and living to righteousness,
elsewhere expressed by putting off the old man and putting on the new,
ceasing to do evil and learning to do well.
1. Mortification, putting off the old man; several ways this is expressed.
(1.) We must live no longer in sin (v. 2), we must not be as we have been
nor do as we have done. The time past of our life must suffice, 1 Peter
iv. 3. Though there are none that live without sin, yet, blessed be God,
there are those that do not live in sin, do not live in it as their element,
do not make a trade of it: this is to be sanctified. (2.) The body of sin
must be destroyed, v. 6. The corruption that dwelleth in us is the body
of sin, consisting of many parts and members, as a body. This is the root
to which the axe must be laid. We must not only cease from the acts of
sin (this may be done through the influence of outward restraints, or other
inducements), but we must get the vicious habits and inclinations weakened
and destroyed; not only cast away the idols of iniquity out of the heart.--That
henceforth we should not serve sin. The actual transgression is certainly
in a great measure prevented by the crucifying and killing of the original
corruption. Destroy the body of sin, and then, though there should be Canaanites
remaining in the land, yet the Israelites will not be slaves to them. It
is the body of sin that sways the sceptre, wields the iron rod; destroy
this, and the yoke is broken. The destruction of Eglon the tyrant is the
deliverance of oppressed Israel from the Moabites. (3.) We must be dead
indeed unto sin, v. 11. As the death of the oppressor is a release, so
much more is the death of the oppressed, Job iii. 17, 18. Death brings
a writ of ease to the weary. Thus must we be dead to sin, obey it, observe
it, regard it, fulfil its will no more than he that is dead doth his quandam
task-masters--be as indifference to the pleasures and delights of sin as
a man that is dying is to his former diversions. He that is dead is separated
from his former company, converse, business, enjoyments, employments, is
not what he was, does not what he did, has not what he had. Death makes
a mighty change; such a change doth sanctification make in the soul, it
cuts off all correspondence with sin. (4.) Sin must not reign in our mortal
bodies that we should obey it, v. 12. Though sin may remain as an outlaw,
though it may oppress as a tyrant, yet let it not reign as a king. Let
it not make laws, nor preside in councils, nor command the militia; let
it not be uppermost in the soul, so that we should obey it. Though we may
be sometimes overtaken and overcome by it, yet let us never be obedient
to it in the lusts thereof; let not sinful lusts be a law to you, to which
you would yield a consenting obedience. In the lusts thereof--en tais epithymiais
autou. It refers to the body, not to sin. Sin lies very much in the gratifying
of the body, and humouring that. And there is a reason implied in the phrase
your mortal body; because it is a mortal body, and hastening apace to the
dust, therefore let not sin reign in it. It was sin that made our bodies
mortal, and therefore do not yield obedience to such an enemy. (5.) We
must not yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness, v. 13. The
members of the body are made use of by the corrupt nature as tools, by
which the wills of the flesh are fulfilled; but we must not consent to
that abuse. The members of the body are fearfully and wonderfully made;
it is a pity they should be the devil's tools of unrighteousness unto sin,
instruments of the sinful actions, according to the sinful dispositions.
Unrighteousness is unto sin; the sinful acts confirm and strengthen the
sinful habits; one sin begets another; it is like the letting forth of
water, therefore leave it before it be meddled with. The members of the
body may perhaps, through the prevalency of temptation, be forced to be
instruments of sin; but do not yield them to be so, do not consent to it.
This is one branch of sanctification, the mortification of sin.
2. Vivification, or living to righteousness; and what is that? (1.)
It is to walk in newness of life, v. 4. Newness of life supposes newness
of heart, for out of the heart are the issues of life, and there is not
way to make the stream sweet but by making the spring so. Walking, in scripture,
is put for the course and tenour of the conversation, which must be new.
Walk by new rules, towards new ends, from new principles. Make a new choice
of the way. Choose new paths to walk in, new leaders to walk after, new
companions to walk with. Old things should pass away, and all things become
new. The man is what he was not, does what he did not. (2.) It is to be
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, v. 11. To converse with God,
to have a regard to him, a delight in him, a concern for him, the soul
upon all occasions carried out towards him as towards an agreeable object,
in which it takes a complacency: this is to be alive to God. The love of
God reigning in the heart is the life of the soul towards God. Anima est
ubi amat, non ubi animat--The soul is where it loves, rather than where
it lives. It is to have the affections and desires alive towards God. Or,
living (our live in the flesh) unto God, to his honour and glory as our
end, by his word and will as our rule--in all our ways to acknowledge him,
and to have our eyes ever towards him; this is to live unto God.--Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is our spiritual life; there is no living
to God but through him. He is the Mediator; there can be no comfortable
receivings from God, nor acceptable regards to God, but in and through
Jesus Christ; no intercourse between sinful souls and a holy God, but by
the mediation of the Lord Jesus. Through Christ as the author and maintainer
of this life; through Christ as the head from whom we receive vital influence;
through Christ as the root by which we derive sap and nourishment, and
so live. In living to God, Christ is all in all. (3.) It is to yield ourselves
to God, as those that are alive from the dead, v. 13. The very life and
being of holiness lie in the dedication of ourselves to the Lord, giving
our own selves to the Lord, 2 Cor. viii. 5. "Yield yourselves to him, not
only as the conquered yields to the conqueror, because he can stand it
out no longer; but as the wife yields herself to her husband, to whom her
desire is, as the scholar yields himself to the teacher, the apprentice
to his master, to be taught and ruled by him. Not yield your estates to
him, but yield yourselves; nothing less than your whole selves;" parastesate
eautous--accommodate vos ipsos Deo--accommodate yourselves to God; so Tremellius,
from the Syriac. "Not only submit to him, but comply with him; not only
present yourselves to him once for all, but be always ready to serve him.
Yield yourselves to him as wax to the seal, to take any impression, to
be, and have, and do, what he pleases." When Paul said, Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? (Acts ix. 6) he was then yielded to God. As those that
are alive from the dead. To yield a dead carcase to a living God is not
to please him, but to mock him: "Yield yourselves as those that are alive
and good for something, a living sacrifice," ch. xii. 1. The surest evidence
of our spiritual life is the dedication of ourselves to God. It becomes
those that are alive from the dead (it may be understood of a death in
law), that are justified and delivered from death, to give themselves to
him that hath so redeemed them. (4.) It is to yield our members as instruments
of righteousness to God. The members of our bodies, when withdrawn from
the service of sin, are not to lie idle, but to be made use of in the service
of God. When the strong man armed is dispossessed, let him whose right
it is divide the spoils. Though the powers and faculties of the soul be
the immediate subjects of holiness and righteousness, yet the members of
the body are to be instruments; the body must be always ready to serve
the soul in the service of God. Thus (v. 19), "Yield your members servants
to righteousness unto holiness. Let them be under the conduct and at the
command of the righteous law of God, and that principle of inherent righteousness
which the Spirit, as sanctifier, plants in the soul." Righteousness unto
holiness, which intimates growth, and progress, and ground obtained. As
every sinful act confirms the sinful habit, and makes the nature more and
more prone to sin (hence the members of a natural man are here said to
be servants to iniquity unto iniquity--one sin makes the heart more disposed
for another), so every gracious act confirms the gracious habit: serving
righteousness is unto holiness; one duty fits us for another; and the more
we do the more we may do for God. Or serving righteousness, eis hagiasmon--as
an evidence of sanctification.
II. The motives or arguments here used to show the necessity of sanctification.
There is such an antipathy in our hearts by nature to holiness that it
is no easy matter to bring them to submit to it: it is the Spirit's work,
who persuades by such inducements as these set home upon the soul.
1. He argues from our sacramental conformity to Jesus Christ. Our baptism,
with the design and intention of it, carried in it a great reason why we
should die to sin, and live to righteousness. Thus we must improve our
baptism as a bridle of restraint to keep us in from sin, as a spur of constraint
to quicken us to duty. Observe this reasoning.
(1.) In general, we are dead to sin, that is, in profession and in obligation.
Our baptism signifies our cutting off from the kingdom of sin. We profess
to have no more to do with sin. We are dead to sin by a participation of
virtue and power for the killing of it, and by our union with Christ and
interest in him, in and by whom it is killed. All this is in vain if we
persist in sin; we contradict a profession, violate an obligation, return
to that to which we were dead, like walking ghosts, than which nothing
is more unbecoming and absurd. For (v. 7) he that is dead is freed from
sin; that is, he that is dead to it is freed from the rule and dominion
of it, as the servant that is dead is freed from his master, Job iii. 19.
Now shall we be such fools as to return to that slavery from which we are
discharged? When we are delivered out of Egypt, shall we talk of going
back to it again?
(2.) In particular, being baptized into Jesus Christ, we were baptized
into his death, v. 3. We were baptized eis Christon--unto Christ, as 1
Cor. x. 2, eis Mosen--unto Moses. Baptism binds us to Christ, it binds
us apprentice to Christ as our teacher, it is our allegiance to Christ
as our sovereign. Baptism is externa ansa Christi--the external handle
of Christ, by which Christ lays hold on men, and men offer themselves to
Christ. Particularly, we were baptized into his death, into a participation
of the privileges purchased by his death, and into an obligation both to
comply with the design of his death, which was to redeem us from all iniquity,
and to conform to the pattern of his death, that, as Christ died for sin,
so we should die to sin. This was the profession and promise of our baptism,
and we do not do well if we do not answer this profession, and make good
this promise.
[1.] Our conformity to the death of Christ obliges us to die unto sin;
thereby we know the fellowship of his sufferings, Phil. iii. 10. Thus we
are here said to be planted together in the likeness of is death (v. 5),
to homoiomati, not only a conformity, but a conformation, as the engrafted
stock is planted together into the likeness of the shoot, of the nature
of which it doth participate. Planting is in order to life and fruitfulness:
we are planted in the vineyard in a likeness to Christ, which likeness
we should evidence in sanctification. Our creed concerning Jesus Christ
is, among other things, that he was crucified, dead, and buried; now baptism
is a sacramental conformity to him in each of these, as the apostle here
takes notice. First, Our old man is crucified with him, v. 6. The death
of the cross was a slow death; the body, after it was nailed to the cross,
gave many a throe and many a struggle: but it was a sure death, long in
expiring, but expired at last; such is the mortification of sin in believers.
It was a cursed death, Gal. iii. 13. Sin dies as a malefactor, devoted
to destruction; it is an accursed thing. Though it be a slow death, yet
this must needs hasten it that it is an old man that is crucified; not
in the prime of its strength, but decaying: that which waxeth old is ready
to vanish away, Heb. viii. 13. Crucified with him--synestaurothe, not in
respect of time, but in respect of causality. The crucifying of Christ
for us has an influence upon the crucifying of sin in us. Secondly, We
are dead with Christ, v. 8. Christ was obedient to death: when he died,
we might be said to die with him, as our dying to sin is an act of conformity
both to the design and to the example of Christ's dying for sin. Baptism
signifies and seals our union with Christ, our engrafting into Christ;
so that we are dead with him, and engaged to have no more to do with sin
than he had. Thirdly, We are buried with him by baptism, v. 4. Our conformity
is complete. We are in profession quite cut off from all commerce and communion
with sin, as those that are buried are quite cut off from all the world;
not only not of the living, but no more among the living, have nothing
more to do with them. Thus must we be, as Christ was, separate from sin
and sinners. We are buried, namely, in profession and obligation: we profess
to be so, and we are bound to be so: it was our covenant and engagement
in baptism; we are sealed to be the Lord's, therefore to be cut off from
sin. Why this burying in baptism should so much as allude to any custom
of dipping under water in baptism, any more than our baptismal crucifixion
and death should have any such references, I confess I cannot see. It is
plain that it is not the sign, but the thing signified, in baptism, that
the apostle here calls being buried with Christ, and the expression of
burying alludes to Christ's burial. As Christ was buried, that he might
rise again to a new and more heavenly life, so we are in baptism buried,
that is, cut off from the life of sin, that we may rise again to a new
life of faith and love.
[2.] Our conformity to the resurrection of Christ obliges us to rise
again to newness of life. This is the power of his resurrection which Paul
was so desirous to know, Phil. iii. 10. Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, that is, by the power of the Father. The power
of God is his glory; it is glorious power, Col. i. 11. Now in baptism we
are obliged to conform to that pattern, to be planted in the likeness of
his resurrection (v. 5), to live with him, v. 8. See Col. ii. 12. Conversion
is the first resurrection from the death of sin to the life of righteousness;
and this resurrection is conformable to Christ's resurrection. This conformity
of the saints to the resurrection of Christ seems to be intimated in the
rising of so many of the bodies of the saints, which, though mentioned
before by anticipation, is supposed to have been concomitant with Christ's
resurrection, Matt. xxvii. 52. We have all risen with Christ. In two things
we must conform to the resurrection of Christ:--First, He rose to die no
more, v. 9. We read of many others that were raised from the dead, but
they rose to die again. But, when Christ rose, he rose to die no more;
therefore he left his grave-clothes behind him, whereas Lazarus, who was
to die again, brought them out with him, as one that should have occasion
to use them again: but over Christ death has no more dominion; he was dead
indeed, but he is alive, and so alive that he lives for evermore, Rev.
i. 18. Thus we must rise from the grave of sin never again to return to
it, nor to have any more fellowship with the works of darkness, having
quitted that grave, that land of darkness as darkness itself. Secondly,
He rose to live unto God (v. 10), to live a heavenly life, to receive that
glory which was set before him. Others that were raised from the dead returned
to the same life in every respect which they had before lived; but so did
not Christ: he rose again to leave the world. Now I am no more in the world,
John xiii. 1; xvii. 11. He rose to live to God, that is, to intercede and
rule, and all to the glory of the Father. Thus must we rise to live to
God: this is what he calls newness of life (v. 4), to live from other principles,
by other rules, with other aims, than we have done. A life devoted to God
is a new life; before, self was the chief and highest end, but now God.
To live indeed is to live to God, with our eyes ever towards him, making
him the centre of all our actions.
