Wednesday, April 13, 2016

     Christ the Surety, and broken man the Debtor, are one in law, but not intrinsically one..... they are legally one, or in the law's sense one; because by a legal substitution and surrogation, Christ having put his name in the believers bond, by the law he is in his place, and the believer is put in Christ's law place:  so that by a legal act the Surety is the broken man; therefore Christ being made Surety, saith, I am the broken man; all my friends Debts be upon me, my life for their life, my Soul for their Souls, Gal. 4:4, 5, "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."  John 18:8, "Jesus answered, I have told you I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way."  Gen. 44:33, "Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bond-man to my Lord, and let the lad go up with, his brethren."  And God commands the wakened ups sword of Justice, to smite him for his brethren, since he will stand in their room, and take their Debt upon him, Zech. 13:7, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd."  The Surety and the Debtor are not intrinsically, physically and formally one (though they be one in law; so that there is not two Debts, nor two Bonds, nor two Debtors in law); for though the Lord laid on Christ the punishment of our iniquity, yet he did not lay on Christ iniquity itself.....
.....neither the Creditor nor the Law can exact satisfaction from both the Surety and the Debtor; but the Surety having paid all, and satisfied; the broken Debtor can say, I have paid all, I am free:  he may plead, My friend and Surety hath done all for me; and that is as good in foro in the court of Justice, as if I had paid all in mine own person, Gal. 3:13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."  Romans 4:25, "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."  1 Peter 2:24, "Who his own seIf bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."  The Debt that Christ paid, is our very Debt; and the believer can say, When Christ my Surety was judged and crucified for my sins, then was I judged:  and what would you have more of a man, than his life?  Isaiah 53:6, 7, 8, "And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was taken from prison, and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken."....
     All Christ's offices are founded upon his Suretyship:  for by that Covenant of Suretyship that is betwixt Jehovah and the Son, he is King, Priest, and Prophet:  whatsoever he did by office, and by compact and agreement with God; he did because he had put his name in our bond, having become Surety for his people.  As a King he suffers for his subjects and saves them, because he was engaged to do so; as a Priest he dies for them, because by his Suretyship he was engaged to bear their punishment; he performs also a Prophet's office towards them, because he was engaged to God to do so, etc., John 17:4, 6, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.".....
                                                                                                                                  Patrick Gillespie

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