The use of that distinction in practice. The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher

Chapter III, Section 11

The use of that distinction in practice.

And now, my loving neighbour Neophytus, I pray you, consider seriously of these things, and learn to distinguish aright betwixt the law, as it is the law of works, and as it is the law of Christ, and that in effect and practice; I mean, in heart and conscience.

Neo. Sir, it is the unfeigned desire of my heart so to do; and therefore, I pray you, give me some direction therein. ¹

Evan. Surely the best direction I can give you is, to labour truly to know, and firmly to believe, that you are not now under the law, as it is the law of works; and that you are now under the law as, it is the law of Christ; and that therefore you must neither hope for what the law of works promises, in case of your most exact obedience; nor fear what it threatens, in case of your most imperfect and defective obedience: and yet you may both hope for what the law of Christ promises, in case of your obedience, and are to fear what it threatens, in case of your disobedience.

Neo. But, sir, what are these promises and threatenings? and, first, I pray you, tell me what it is that the law of works promises.

Evan. The law of works, or, which is all one, as I have told you, the covenant of works, promises justification and eternal life to all that yield perfect obedience thereunto: and this you are not to hope for, because of your obedience. And indeed, to say as the thing is, you, being dead to the law of works, can yield no obedience at all unto it; for how can a dead wife yield any obedience to her husband? And if you can yield no obedience at all unto it, what hope can you have of any reward for your obedience? Nay, let me tell you more, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hath purchased both justification and eternal life by his perfect obedience to the law of works, and hath freely given it to you, as it is written, (Acts 13:39), "By him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses": and "Verily, verily," says our Saviour, "he that believeth in me hath everlasting life." (John 6:47)

Neo. And I pray you, sir, what does the law of works threaten, in case of a man's disobedience unto it?

Evan. Why, the penalty which the law of works, in that case, threatens, is condemnation and death eternal: and this you have no cause at all to fear, in case of your most defective obedience; for no man hath any cause to fear the penalty of that law which he lives not under. Surely a man that lives under the laws of England, has no cause to fear the penalties of the laws of Spain or France: even so you, that now live under the law of Christ, have no cause to fear the penalties of the law of works. ² Nay, the law of works is dead to you; and therefore you have no more cause to fear the threats thereof, than a living wife has to fear the threats of her dead husband, ³ nay, than a dead wife has to fear the threats of a dead husband. Nay, let me say yet more, Jesus Christ, by his condemnation and death upon the cross, has delivered you and set you free from condemnation and eternal death; as it is written, (Rom 8:1), "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." And, says Christ himself, (John 11:26), "Whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die."

And thus you see your freedom and liberty from the law as it is the law of works. And that you may be the better enabled to "stand fast in this liberty, wherewith Christ has made you free"; beware of conceiving that the Lord now stands in any relation to you, or will any way deal with you as a man under that law. So that if the Lord shall be pleased hereafter to bestow upon you a great measure of faith, whereby you shall be enabled to yield an exact and perfect obedience to the mind and will of God; ⁴ then beware of conceiving that the Lord looks upon it s obedience to the law of works, or will in any measure reward you for it, according to the promises of that law. And if in case, at any time hereafter, you be, by reason of weakness of your faith, and strength of temptation, drawn aside, and prevailed with to swerve from the mind and will of the Lord, then beware of conceiving that the Lord sees it as any transgression of the law of works. For if you cannot transgress that law, then it is impossible the Lord should see that which is not; and if the Lord can see no sin in you, as a transgression of the law of works, then it is impossible that he should either be angry with you, or correct you for any sin, as it is a transgression of that law. No, to speak with holy reverence, as I said before, the Lord cannot, by virtue of the covenant of works, either require any obedience of you, or give you an angry look, or any angry word; much less threaten and afflict you for any disobedience to that covenant. And, therefore, whensoever your conscience shall tell you, that you have broken any of the ten commandments, do not conceive that the Lord looks upon you as an angry Judge, armed with justice against you; much less do you fear that he will execute his justice upon you, according to the penalty of that covenant, in unjustifying of you, or depriving you of your heavenly inheritance, and giving you your portion in hell-fire. No, assure yourself that your God in Christ will never unson you, nor unspouse you: no, nor yet, as touching your justification and eternal salvation, will he love you ever a whit the less, though you commit ever so many or great sins; for this is a certain truth, that as no good either in you, or done by you, did move him to justify you, and give you eternal life, so no evil in you, or done by you, can move him to take it away from you, being once given. ⁵ And, therefore, believe it whilst you live, that as the Lord first loved you freely, so will he hereafter "heal your backslidings, and still love you freely," (Hosea 14:4). Yea, "he will love you unto the end," (John 12:1). And although the Lord does express the fruits of his anger towards you, in chastising and afflicting of you, yet do not imagine that your afflictions are penal, proceeding from hatred, and vindictive justice; and so as payment and satisfaction for sins; and so as the beginning of eternal torments in hell; for you being, as you have heard, freed from the law of works, and so consequently from sinning against it, must needs likewise be freed from all wrath, anger, miseries, calamities, afflictions, yea, and from death itself, as ⁶ fruits and effects of any transgression against that covenant.

And therefore you are never to confess your sins unto the Lord, as though you conceived them to have been committed against the law of works: and so making you liable to God's everlasting wrath, and hell- fire; neither must you crave pardon and forgiveness for them, that thereupon you may escape that penalty; neither do you either fast, or weep, or mourn, or humble yourself, from any belief that you shall thereby satisfy the justice of God, and appease his wrath, either in whole or in part, and so escape his everlasting vengeance. For if you be not under the law of works, and if the Lord see not sin in you as a transgression of that law, and be neither angry with you, nor afflict you for any sin, as it is a transgression of that law, then consequently you have no need either to confess your sins, or crave pardon for them, or fast, or weep, or mourn, or humble yourself for your sins, as conceiving them to be any transgression of the law of works.

Neo. Well, sir, you have fully satisfied me in this point; and therefore, I pray you, proceed to show what is that reward which the law of Christ promises, which you said I might hope for, in case of my obedience thereunto.

Evan. Why, the reward which I conceive the law of Christ promises to believers, and which they may hope for, answerably to their obedience to it, ⁷ is a comfortable being in the enjoyment of sweet communion with God and Christ, even in the time of this life, and a freedom from afflictions, both spiritual and corporeal, so far forth as they are fruits and effects of sin, as it is any transgression of the law of Christ. ⁸ For you know, that so long as a child does yield obedience to his father's commands, and does nothing that is displeasing to him, if he love his child, he will carry himself lovingly and kindly towards him, and suffer him to be familiar with him, and will not whip nor scourge him for his disobedience. Even so, if you unfeignedly desire and endeavour to be obedient unto the will and mind of your Father in Christ; in doing that which he commands, and in avoiding that which he forbids, both in your general and particular calling; and to the end that you may please him; then, answerably as you do so, your Father will smile upon you, when you shall draw near to him in prayer, or any other of his own ordinances; and manifest his sweet presence and loving favour towards you; and exempt you from all outward calamities except in case of trial of your faith and patience, or the like; as it was written, (2 Chron 15:2), "The Lord is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you." And so the apostle James says, (James 4:8), "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." And "Oh," says the Lord, "that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! he should have fed them with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee," (Psa 81:13,16). And this may suffice to have shown you what you may hope for, answerably to your obedience to the law of Christ.

Neo. Then, sir, I pray you, proceed to show what is the penalty which the law of Christ threatens, and which I am to fear, if I transgress that law.

Evan. The penalty which the law of Christ threatens to you, if you transgress the law of Christ, and which you are to fear, is the want of near and sweet communion with God in Christ, even in the time of this life, and a liableness to all temporal afflictions, as fruits and effects of the transgressing of that law. ⁹

Wherefore, whensoever you shall hereafter transgress any of the ten commandments, you are to know that you have thereby transgressed the law of Christ, and that the Lord sees it and is angry with it, with a fatherly anger; and, if need be, will chastise you, (1 Peter 1:6), either with temporal or spiritual afflictions, or both. And this our heavenly Father will do in love to you; either to bring your sins to remembrance, as he did the sins of Joseph's brethren, (Gen 42:21), and as the widow of Zarephath confesseth concerning herself, (1 Kings 17:18), or else "to purge or take away your sins," according to that which the Lord says, (Isa 27:9), "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit, even the taking away of sin." "For indeed," says Mr. Culverwell, "afflictions, through God's blessing, are made special means to purge out that sinful corruption which is still in the nature of believers; and therefore are they, in Scripture, most aptly compared to medicines, for so they are indeed to all God's children, most sovereign medicines to cure all their spiritual diseases." And indeed we have all of our great need thereof; for as Luther, on the Galatians, p. 66, truly says, "We are not yet perfectly righteous; for whilst we remain in this life, sin dwells still in the flesh, and this remnant of sin God purgeth."—"Wherefore," says the same Luther in another place, ¹⁰ "When God hath remitted sins, and received a man into the bosom of grace, then doth he lay on him all kind of afflictions, and doth scour and renew him from day to day." And to the same purpose, Tindal truly says, "If we look on the flesh, and into the law, there is no man so perfect that is not found a sinner; nor no man so pure, that hath not need to be purged. And thus doth the Lord chastise believers to heal their natures, by purging out the corruption that remains therein."

And therefore, whensoever you shall hereafter feel the Lord's chastening hand upon you, let it move you to take the prophet Jeremiah's counsel, that is, to "search and try your ways, and turn unto the Lord," (Lam 3:40), and confess your sins unto him, saying, with the prodigal, (Luke 15:21), "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son"; and beg pardon and forgiveness at his hands, as you are taught in the fifth petition of the Lord's prayer, (Matt 6:12). Yet do not you crave pardon and forgiveness at the hands of the Lord, as a malefactor doth at the hands of a judge, that feareth condemnation and death, as though you had sinned against the law of works, and therefore feared hell and damnation; but do you beg pardon and forgiveness as a child doth at the hands of his loving father; as feeling the fruits of his fatherly anger, in his chastising hand upon you; and as fearing the continuance and augmentation of the same, if your sin be not both pardoned and subdued: ¹¹ and therefore do you also beseech your loving Father to subdue your iniquities, according to his promise, (Micah 7:19). And if you find not that the Lord hath heard your prayers, by your feeling your iniquities subdued, ¹² then join with your prayers, fasting and weeping, if you can; that so you may be the more seriously humbled before the Lord, and more fervent in prayer. And this, I hope, may be sufficient to have showed you what is the penalty which the law of Christ threatens.

Neo. O, but, sir, I should think myself a happy man, if I could be so obedient to the law of Christ, that he might have no need to inflict this penalty upon me.

Evan. You say very well; but yet, whilst you carry this body of sin about you, do the best you can, there will be need that the Lord should, now and then, give you some fatherly corrections: but yet, this let me tell you, the more perfect your obedience is, the fewer lashes you shall have; "for the Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men," (Lam 3:33). And therefore, according to my former exhortation, and your resolution, be careful to exercise your faith, and use all means to increase it; that so it may become effectual ¹³ working by love. (1 Thess 1:3, Gal 5:6) For, according to the measure of your faith, will be your true love to Christ and to his commandments; and according to your love to them, will be your delight in them, and your aptness and readiness to do them. And hence it is that Christ himself says, (John 14:15), "If ye love me, keep my commandments": and "this is the love of God," says that loving disciple, "that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous," (1 John 5:3). Nay, the truth is, if you have this love in your hearts, it will be grievous unto you, that you cannot keep them as you would. Oh, if this love do abound in your heart, it will cause you to say with godly Joseph, in case you be tempted as he was, "How can I do this great wickedness, and so sin against God?" How can I do that which I know will displease so gracious a Father, and so merciful a Saviour? No, I will not do it; no, I cannot do it: no, you will rather say with the Psalmist, "I delight to do thy will, O my God! yea, thy law is within my heart," (Psa 40:8).

Nay, let me tell you more, if this love of God in Christ be truly, and in any good measure, rooted in your heart; then, though the chastising hand of the Lord be not upon you, nay, though the Lord do no way express any anger towards you, yet if you but consider the Lord's ways towards you, and your ways towards him, you will mourn with a gospel- mourning, reasoning with yourself after this manner: Was I under the law of works by nature, and so, for every transgression against any of the ten commandments, made liable to everlasting damnation? and am I now, through the free mercy and love of God in Christ, brought under the law of Christ, and so subject to no other penalty for my transgressions, but fatherly and loving chastisements, which tend to the purging out of that sinful corruption that is in me? Oh what a loving Father is this! Oh what a gracious Saviour is this! Oh what a wretched man am I, to transgress the laws of such a good God, as he hath been to me! Oh the due consideration of this will even, as it were, melt your heart, and cause your eyes to drop with the tears of godly sorrow! yea, the due consideration of these things will cause you to "loathe yourself in your own sight for your transgressions", (Eze 36:31), yea, not only to loathe yourself for them, but also to leave them, saying with Ephraim, "What have I to do any more with idols?" (Hosea 14:8) and to "cast them away as menstruous cloth, saying unto them, Get ye hence," (Isa 30:22). And truly you will desire nothing more, than that you might so live, as that you might never sin against the Lord any more. And this is that "goodness of God which," as the apostle says, "leadeth to repentance"; yea, this is that goodness of God which will lead you to a free obedience. So that if you do but apply the goodness of God in Christ to your soul, in any good measure, then will you answerably yield obedience to the law of Christ, not only without having respect either to what the law of works either promiseth or threateneth; but also without having respect to what the law of Christ either promiseth or threateneth; you will do that which the Lord commandeth, only because he commandeth it, and to the end that you may please him; and you will forbear when he forbids, only because he forbids it to the end that you may not displease him. ¹⁴ And this obedience is like unto that which our Saviour exhorts his disciples unto, (Matt 10:8), saying, "Freely ye have received, freely give." And this is to "serve the Lord without fear" of any penalty, which either the law of works or the law of Christ threateneth, "in holiness and righteousness all the days of your life," according to that saying of Zacharias, ¹⁵ (Luke 1:74,75). And this is to "pass the time of your sojourning here, in fear" of offending the Lord, by sinning against him: as the apostle Peter exhorts, (1 Peter 1:17). Yea, and this is to "serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear": as the author to the Hebrews exhorts, (Heb 12:28). And thus, my dear friend, Neophytus, I have endeavoured, according to your desire, to give you my judgment and direction in these points.

Neo. And truly, sir, you have done it very effectually; the Lord enable me to practise according to your direction!

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Footnotes:

[Back] [1] Namely, now to improve these points of doctrine in my practice. There lies the great difficulty: and according as unbelief or faith has the ascendant, so will the soul in practice carry itself; confessing, begging pardon, fasting, mourning, and humbling itself either as a condemned malefactor, or as an offending child.

[Back] [2] "The law, as it condemneth and curseth, is to the believer a mere passive and a naked stander-by, and has no activity, nor can it act in that power upon any in Christ; as the law of Spain is merely passive in condemning a free-born man dwelling in Scotland." Rutherford's Spirit. Antichrist, p. 87.—"The law being fully satisfied by Christ, it neither condemneth, nor can it condemn, to eternal sufferings, for that is removed from the law to all that are in Christ." Ibid.

[Back] [3] For, according to the Scripture, the believer is dead to the law, and the law is dead to the believer; namely, as it is the law of the covenant of works.

[Back] [4] Exact and perfect, comparatively, not absolutely.

[Back] [5] The author speaks expressly of the love of God, touching believers' justification, and eternal salvation, which, according to the Scripture, he reckons to be given them already. And he asserts, That as no good in them, or done by them, did move him to love them, so as to justify them, and give them eternal life, so no evil in them or done by them, shall lessen that love, as to their justification and eternal salvation; that is, as himself explains it, move him to take eternal life [which includes justification] away from them, being once given. This is most firm truth; howbeit, the more and the greater the sins of a believer are, he may lay his account with the more and the greater effects of God's fatherly indignation against him; and the corruption of human nature makes the adding of such a clause in such a case very necessary. What our author here advances, is evident from the holy Scripture, (Psa 89:30-34), "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him; nor suffer my faithfulness to fail; my covenant will I not break; nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." And to deny it, is in effect to affirm that God loves believers, as touching their justification and eternal salvation, for their holiness; contrary to Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us."—(Rom 6:23), "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord"; and that that love of his to them changeth according to the variations of their frame and walk; contrary to Romans 11:29, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." But while the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints stands, viz: That true believers can neither fall away totally, nor finally, neither from relative grace, nor from inherent grace, our author's doctrine on this point must stand also; and the sins of believers, how great or many soever they be, can never be of that kind which is inconsistent with a state of grace, nor of another than that of infirmities. And how low soever grace is brought in the soul of a believer at any time, through the prevalence of temptation, yet can he never altogether lose his inherent holiness, nor can he at any time "live after the flesh." For, according to the Scripture, that is not the spot of God's children; but he who so lives, neither is, nor ever was, one of them. (Rom 6:2,14), "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace."—(8:1), "Them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." See verse 4; (1 John 3:9), "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."

"God foresaw what infirmities thou wouldst have, before he gave Christ this commission; and Christ foresaw them before his acceptance of the charge. If their prescience could not stop God in his gift, nor cool Christ in his acceptance, why should it now? While they do continue, the love of God to thee is not hindered by them." Charnock, vol. 2, p. 749.

"Observe a twofold distinction: 1st. Between God's love in itself, and the manifestation of it to us. That is perpetual and one, without change, increase, or lessening: but the manifestation of his love is variable, according to our more or less careful exercise of piety. 2d. Between God's love to our persons, and God's love to our qualities and actions. A distinction which God well knows how to make. Parents, I am sure, are well skilled in putting this difference between the vices and persons of their children; those they hate, these they love. The case is alike between God and the elect; his love to their persons is from everlasting the same. Nor doth their sinfulness lessen it, nor their sanctity increase it; because God in loving their persons, never considered them otherwise than as most perfectly holy and unblamable in Christ," Pemble's Works, p. 23.