CHAPTER XVII.01

Chapter XVII. Christ Truly And Properly Said To Have Merited The Grace Of God And Salvation For Us.

We must devote an additional Chapter to the solution of this question. For there are some men, more subtle than orthodox, who, though they confess that Christ obtained salvation for us, yet cannot bear the word merit, by which they suppose the grace of God is obscured. So they maintain that Christ is only the instrument or minister, not, as he is called by Peter, the Author, or Leader, and “Prince of life.”1340 I grant, indeed, if any man would oppose Christ simply and alone to the judgment of God, there would be no room for merit; because it is impossible to find in man any excellence which can merit the favour of God; nay, as Augustine most truly observes, “The brightest illustration of predestination and grace is the Saviour himself, the man Christ Jesus, who has acquired this character in his human nature, without any previous merit either of works or of faith. Let any one tell me, how that man merited the honour of being assumed into one person with the Word, who is coëternal with the Father, and so becoming the only begotten Son of God. Thus the fountain of grace appears in our Head, and from him diffuses its streams through all his members according to their respective capacities. Every one, from the commencement of his faith, is made a Christian, by the same grace, by which this man, from the commencement of his existence, was made the Christ.” Again, in another treatise, Augustine says, “There is not a more illustrious example of predestination than the Mediator himself. For he who made of the seed of David this righteous man, so that he never was unrighteous, without any previous merit of his [pg 477] will, converts unrighteous persons into righteous ones, and makes them members of that Head,” &c. When we speak of the merit of Christ, therefore, we do not consider him as the origin of it, but we ascend to the ordination of God, which is the first cause; because it was of his mere good pleasure, that God appointed him Mediator to procure salvation for us. And thus it betrays ignorance to oppose the merit of Christ to the mercy of God. For it is a common maxim, that between two things, of which one succeeds or is subordinate to the other, there can be no opposition. There is no reason, therefore, why the justification of men should not be gratuitous from the mere mercy of God, and why at the same time the merit of Christ should not intervene, which is subservient to the mercy of God. But to our works are directly and equally opposed the gratuitous favour of God and the obedience of Christ, each in its respective place. For Christ could merit nothing except by the good pleasure of God, by which he had been predestinated to appease the Divine wrath by his sacrifice, and to abolish our transgressions by his obedience. To conclude, since the merit of Christ depends solely on the grace of God, which appointed this method of salvation for us, therefore his merit and that grace are with equal propriety opposed to all the righteousnesses of men.

II. This distinction is gathered from numerous passages of Scripture. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.”1341 We see that the love of God holds the first place, as the supreme and original cause, and that faith in Christ follows as the second and proximate cause. If it be objected, that Christ is only the formal cause, this diminishes his merit more than the words now quoted will bear. For if we obtain righteousness by a faith which relies on him, it is in him we are to seek the cause of our salvation. This is evident from many passages. “Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”1342 These words clearly demonstrate, that to remove every obstacle in the way of his love towards us, God appointed a method of reconciliation in Christ. And there is much contained in the word “propitiation;” for God, in a certain ineffable manner, at the same time that he loved us, was nevertheless angry with us, till he was reconciled in Christ. This is implied in the following passages: “He is the propitiation for our sins.”1343 Again: “It pleased the Father, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.”1344 Again: “God was in Christ, reconciling [pg 478] the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.”1345 Again: “He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.”1346 Again: “That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.”1347 The reason of this mystery may be learned from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where Paul, having taught that we are chosen in Christ, adds at the same time, that we are accepted in him. How did God begin to favour those whom he had loved before the creation of the world, but by the manifestation which he made of his love when he was reconciled by the blood of Christ? For since God is the fountain of all righteousness, he must necessarily be the enemy and judge of every sinner. Wherefore the beginning of his love is the righteousness described by Paul: “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.”1348 For his meaning is, that by the sacrifice of Christ we obtain gratuitous righteousness, so as to be acceptable to God, though by nature we are the children of wrath, and alienated from him by sin. This distinction is indicated also wherever the grace of Christ is connected with the love of God; whence it follows that our Saviour bestows on us what he has purchased; for otherwise it would be inconsistent to ascribe this praise to him distinctly from the Father, that grace is his, and proceeds from him.

III. Now, that Christ by his obedience has really procured and merited grace from the Father for us, is certainly and justly concluded from various passages of Scripture. For I assume this as granted: if Christ has satisfied for our sins; if he has sustained the punishment due to us; if he has appeased God by his obedience; in a word, if he has suffered, the just for the unjust,—then salvation has been obtained for us by his righteousness, which is the same as being merited. But according to the testimony of Paul, “We were reconciled by his death, by whom we have received the atonement,” or reconciliation.1349 Now, there is no room for reconciliation without a previous offence. The sense therefore is, that God, to whom our sins had rendered us odious, has been appeased by the death of his Son, so as to be propitious to us. And the antithesis, which follows just after, is worthy of careful observation: “As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”1350 For the meaning is, that as by the sin of Adam we were alienated from God and devoted to destruction, so by the obedience of Christ we are received into favour, as righteous persons. [pg 479] Nor does the future tense of the verb exclude present righteousness; as appears from the context. For he had before said, “The free gift is of many offences unto justification.”1351