The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1 by John Bunyan (best book clubs txt) 📖

cause must also be of his own providing, else his will cannot herein be absolute; for if justification depend upon our personal performances, then not upon the will of God. He may not have mercy upon whom he will, but on whom man’s righteousness will give him leave.

But his will, not ours, must rule here; therefore his righteousness, and his only (Rom 9:15,18). So, then, ‘men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.’

Having passed over these few scriptures, I shall come to particular instances of persons who have been justified; and shall briefly touch their qualifications in the act of God’s justifying them.

First, By the Old Testament types. Second, By the New.

[First Position illustrated by Scripture types.]

First. By the Old [Testament types]. First. ‘Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them’

(Gen 3:21).

In the beginning of this chapter you find these two persons reasoning with the serpent, the effect of which discourse was, they take of the forbidden fruit, and so break the command of God (vv 7-15).

This done, they hide themselves, and cover their nakedness with aprons. But God finds out their sin, from the highest branch even to the roots thereof. What followeth? Not one precept by which they should by works obtain the favour of God, but the promise of a Saviour; of which promise this twenty-first verse is a mystical interpretation: ‘The Lord God made them coats of skins, and clothed them.’

Hence observe—1. That these coats were made, not before, but after they had made themselves aprons; a plain proof their aprons were not sufficient to hide their shame from the sight of God. 2. These coats were made, not of Adam’s inherent righteousness, for that was lost before by sin, but of the skins of the slain, types of the death of Christ, and of the righteousness brought in thereby—‘By whose stripes we are healed’ (Isa 53).[14] 3. This is further manifest; for the coats, God made them; and for the persons, God clothed them therewith; to show that as the righteousness by which we must stand just before God from the curse is a righteousness of Christ’s performing, not of theirs; so he, not they, must put it on them also, for of God we are in Christ, and of God his righteousness is made ours (1 Cor 1:30).

But, I say, if you would see their antecedent qualifications, you find them under two heads—rebellion [and] hypocrisy. Rebellion, in breaking God’s command; hypocrisy, in seeking how to hide their faults from God. Expound this by gospel language, and then it shows ‘that men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.’

Second. ‘The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering’ (Gen 4:4).

By these words we find the person first accepted: ‘The Lord had respect unto Abel.’ And indeed, where the person is not first accepted, the offering will not be pleasing; the altar sanctifies the gift, and the temple sanctifieth the gold; so the person, the condition of the person, is that which makes the offering either pleasing or despising (Matt 23:16-21). In the epistle to the Hebrews it is said, ‘By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous’ (Heb 11:4). Righteous before he offered his gift, as his sacrifice testified; for God accepted of it.

‘By faith he offered.’ Wherefore faith was precedent, or before he offered. Now faith hath to do with God through Christ; not with him through our works of righteousness. Besides, Abel was righteous before he offered, before he did do good, otherwise God would not have testified of his gift. ‘By faith he obtained witness that he was righteous,’ for God approved of his gifts. Now faith, I say, as to our standing quit before the Father, respects the promise of forgiveness of sins through the undertaking of the Lord Jesus.

Wherefore Abel’s faith as to justifying righteousness before God looked not forward to what should be done by himself, but back to the promise of the seed of the woman, that was to destroy the power of hell, and ‘to redeem them that were under the law’ (Gen 3:15; Gal 4:4,5). By this faith he shrouds himself under the promise of victory, and the merits of the Lord Jesus. Now being there, God finds him righteous; and being righteous, ‘he offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than his brother’; for Cain’s person was not first accepted through the righteousness of faith going before, although he seemed foremost as to personal acts of righteousness (Gen 4). Abel therefore was righteous before he did good works; but that could not be but alone through that respect God had to him for the sake of the Messias promised before (3:15). But the Lord’s so respecting Abel presupposeth that at that time he stood in himself by the law a sinner, otherwise he needed not to be respected for and upon the account of another. Yea, Abel also, forasmuch as he acted faith before he offered sacrifice, must thereby entirely respect the promise, which promise was not grounded upon a condition of works to be found in Abel, but in and for the sake of the seed of the woman, which is Christ; which promise he believed, and so took it for granted that this Christ should break the serpent’s head—that is, destroy by himself the works of the devil; to wit, sin, death, the curse, and hell (Gal 4:4). By this faith he stood before God righteous, because he had put on Christ; and being thus, he offered; by which act of faith God declared he was pleased with him, because he accepted of his sacrifice.

Third. ‘And the Lord said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger’ (Gen 25:23).

These words, after Paul’s exposition, are to be understood of justification in the sight of God, according to the purpose and decree of electing love, which had so determined long before, that one of these children should be received to eternal grace; but mark, not by works of righteousness which they should do, but ‘before they had done either good or evil’; otherwise ‘the purpose of God according to election,’ not of works, but of him that calleth, ‘could not stand,’ but fall in pieces (Rom 9:10-12). But none are received into eternal mercy but such as are just before the Lord by a righteousness that is complete; and Jacob having done no good, could by no means have that of his own, and therefore it must be by some other righteousness, ‘and so himself be justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while a sinner in himself.’

Fourth. The same may be said concerning Solomon, whom the Lord loved with special love, as soon as born into the world; which he also confirmed with signal characters. ‘He sent,’ saith the Holy Ghost, ‘by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he called his name Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him (2 Sam 12:24,25).[15] Was this love of God extended to him because of his personal virtues?

No, verily; for he was yet an infant.[16] He was justified then in the sight of God from the curse by another than his own righteousness.

Fifth. ‘And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live’ (Eze 16:6).

The state of this people you have in the former verses described, both as to their rise and practice in the world (vv 1-5). 1. As to their rise. Their original was the same with Canaan, the men of God’s curse (Gen 9:25). ‘Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan’; the same with other carnal men (Rom 3:9). ‘Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite’ (Eze 16:3). Their condition, that is showed us by this emblem—(1.) They had not been washed in water. (2.) They had not been swaddled. (3.) They had not been salted. (4.) They brought filth with them into the world.

(5.) They lay stinking in their cradle. (6.) They were without strength to help themselves. Thus they appear and come by generation.

2. Again, as to their practice—(1.) They polluted themselves in their own blood. (2.) They so continued till God passed by—‘And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood’;—‘in thy blood, in thy blood’; it is doubled. Thus we see they were polluted born, they continued in their blood till the day that the Lord looked upon them; polluted, I say, to the loathing of their persons, &c. Now this was the time of love—‘And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live’ (Eze 16:6).

Quest. But how could a holy God say, ‘Live,’ to such a sinful people?

Answ. Though they had nought but sin, yet he had love and righteousness.

He had love to pity them; righteousness to cover them—‘Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love’ (Eze 16:8). What follows? (1) ‘I spread my skirt over thee’; and (2) ‘Covered thy nakedness’; yea, (3) ‘I sware unto thee’; and (4) ‘Entered into covenant with thee’; and (5) ‘Thou becamest mine.’ My love pitied thee; my skirt covered thee. Thus God delivered them from the curse in his sight. ‘Then I washed thee with water, after thou wast justified; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and anointed thee with oil’ (v 9).

Sanctification, then, is consequential, justification goes before.

The Holy Ghost by this scripture setteth forth to the life, free grace to the sons of men, while they themselves are sinners. I say, while they are unwashed, unswaddled, unsalted, but bloody sinners; for by these words, ‘not washed, not salted, not swaddled,’ he setteth forth their unsanctified state; yea, they were not only unsanctified, but also cast out, without pity, to the loathing of their persons; yea, ‘no eye pitied them, to do any of these things for them’; no eye but his, whose glorious grace is unsearchable; no eye but his, who could look and love; all others looked and loathed; but blessed be God that hath passed by us in that day that we wallowed in our own blood; and blessed be God for the skirt of his glorious righteousness wherewith he covered us when we lay before him naked in blood. It was when we were in our blood that he loved us; when we were in our blood he said, Live. Therefore, ‘men are justified from the curse, in the sight of God, while sinners in themselves.’

Sixth. ‘Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel’ (Zech 3:3).

The standing of Joshua here is as men used to stand that were arraigned before a judge. ‘Joshua stood before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him’ (v 1).

The same posture as Judas stood in when he was to be condemned. ‘Set thou,’ said David, ‘a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand’ (Psa 109:6). Thus, therefore, Joshua stood. Now Joshua was clothed, not with righteousness, but with filthy rags!

Sin upon him, and Satan by him, and this before the angel! What must he do now? Go away? No; there he must stand! Can he speak for himself? Not a word; guilt had made him dumb! (Isa 53:12). Had he no place clean?