171 *ALVATION OP MAN alt- Christiana from the charge of sin, and the condemnation thereof, which is obtained by the prevailing power and interest which Jesus Christ our advocate has at the court of heaven, and by representing before the throne of God our pardon purchased by his blood, so that Satan has no further charge against us. By faith we commit our case and circumstances to this great advocate, and we become his clients, dependents upon him ; and in this sense, faith may be said to cast down our accuser by the blood of the Lamb, by trusting in thisgreat and blessed advocate, or resigning the important concerns of our souls to his care and faithfulness, to be transacted by him before the bar ofGod in heaven. VI. Our Lord Jesus Christ is set forth as our sponsor or surety; Heb. vii. 22. Jesus was made a surety ofa better testa- ment, that is, the new covenant of grace, as mauifested in the gospel. A surety is properly one who undertakes for another to do or suffer_ something for him, or who undertakes that this other person shall do such services,, or suffer suchpenalties, or enjoy such privileges. So our Lord Jesus Christ has under- taken to answer the demands of the law of God for us who had broken it, to pay a compensation for our violations of the law, and to make peace.betwixt God andus. Hehas also undertaken, that all his people shall be sanctified and brought safely to the heavenly world. So Judah became a surety to his father Jacob for his brother Benjamin, whom he took with him into Egypt. Gen. xlüi. 9. I will be surety for him ; ofmy hands shalt thou require him. Reuben in the foregoing chapter was in like manner a sponsor for him, verse 37. Deliver him into my hands, and I will bring him to thee again: and Joseph bound Simeon in Egypt as a surety for the returnof his brethren, and Benjamin with them, verses 19, 36. Now as Christ was our surety, so our salvation may be called a freedom from our obligation to the penal law of God, which our Lord Jesus took upon himself to answer ; Rom. vii. 6. We are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held. Gal. iii. 13. Christ bath redeemed us, or freed us . from the curse ofthe law, being made a curse for us. Nor is this obligation of Christ as a sponsor, quite fulfilled, till hehasbrought us all to heaven, and can say to his Father, Lord, here am I, and the children whirls thou hast givenme ; as Heb. ii. 13. and shall present us before the throne without spot or blemish ; Jude24, 25. and Eph. v. 25-27. Now faith gives us an interest in all that Jesus Christ has done as our sponsor by trusting ourselves with him entirely under that character, and acceptinghim as the surety of this everlasting covenant. VII. Christ is exhibited in the scriptureas the secondAdam, as a common head of his people, as a publicperson, and their
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=