3. As we are said to suffer with him, so we are said to die, to be dead with him; with him, that is, by the dying of his body. ‘Now, if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him’ (Rom 6:8). Wherefore he saith in other places, ‘Brethren, ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ’; for indeed we died then to it by him. To the law—that is, the law now has nothing to do with us; for that, it has already executed its curse to the full upon us by its slaying of the body of Christ; for the body of Christ was our flesh: upon it also was laid our sin. The law, too, spent that curse that was due to us upon him, when it condemned, killed, and cast him into the grave. Therefore, it has thus spent its whole curse upon him as standing in our stead, we are exempted from its curse forever; we are become dead to it by that body (Rom 7:4). It has done with us as to justifying righteousness. Nor need we fear its damning threats anymore; for by the death of this body we are freed from it, and are forever now coupled to a living Christ.
4. As we are said thus to be dead, so we are said also to rise again by him—’ Thy dead men,’ saith he to the Father, ‘shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise’ (Isa 26:19). And again, ‘After two days he will revive us; in the third day—we shall live in his sight’ (Hosea 6:2).
Both these scriptures speak of the resurrection of Christ, of the resurrection of his body on the third day; but behold, as we were said before to suffer and be dead with him, so now we are said also to rise and live in God’s sight by the resurrection of his body. For, as was said, the flesh was ours; he took part of our flesh when he came into the world; and in it, he suffered, died, and rose again (Heb 2:14). We also were therefore counted by God, in that God-man, when he did this; yea, he suffered, died, and rose as a common head.
Hence also the New Testament is full of this, saying, ‘If ye be dead with Christ’ (Col 2:20). ‘If ye be risen with Christ’ (3:1). And again, ‘He hath quickened us together with him’ (2:13). ‘We are quickened together with him.’ ‘Quickened,’ and ‘quickened together with him.’ The apostle hath words that cannot easily be shifted or evaded. Christ then was quickened when he was raised from the dead. Nor is it proper to say that he was ever quickened either before or since. This text also concludes that we—to wit, the whole body of God’s elect, were also quickened then and made to live with him together. True, we also are quickened personally by grace the day we are born unto God by the gospel; yet afore that, we are quickened in our Head; quickened when he was raised from the dead, quickened together with him.
5. Nor are we thus considered—to wit, as dying and rising, and so left; but the apostle pursues his argument and tells us that we also reap by him, as being considered in him, the benefit which Christ received, both to his resurrection and the blessed effect thereof.
(1.) We received, by our thus being counted in him, that benefit which did precede his rising from the dead; and what was that but the forgiveness of sins? For this stands clear to reason, that if Christ had our sins charged upon him at his death, he then must be discharged of them to his resurrection. Now, though it is not proper to say they were forgiven to him because they were purged from him by merit; they may be said to be forgiven us because we receive this benefit by grace. And this, I say, was done precedent to his resurrection from the dead. ‘He hath quickened us together with him, HAVING forgiven us all trespasses.’ He could not be ‘quickened’ till we were ‘discharged’; because it was not for himself, but for us, that he died. Hence we are said to be at that time, as to our own personal estate, dead in our sins, even when we are ‘quickened together with him’ (Col 2:13).
Therefore both the ‘quickening’ and ‘forgiveness’ too, so far as we are in this text concerned, is to him, as we are considered in him, or to him, concerning us. ‘Having forgiven you ALL trespasses.’ For necessity so required; else how was it possible that the pains of death should be loosed to his rising, so long as one sin stood still charged to him, as that for the commission of which God had not received a plenary satisfaction? Therefore, we suffered, died, and rose again by him, so, to his so rising, he, as presenting of us in his person and suffering, received for us remission of all our trespasses. A full discharge therefore was, in and by Christ, received of God of all our sins afore he rose from the dead, as his resurrection truly declared; for he ‘was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification’ (Rom 4:25). This, therefore, is one of the privileges we receive by the rising again of our Lord, for that we were in his flesh considered, yea, and in his death and suffering too.
Apprehended 