4 have died by law, that is, we have incurred the legal penalty, which is death; so that now we can only live by the grace of God. We have seen that, under the first covenant, the disobedience of man challenged the penalty denounced against an infraction of it; and when this first law was violated -by the first law I shall of course be understood to mean the law of God given in Paradise, in contradistinction to that law which was promulgated to the Israelites from Mount Sinai when this first law was violated, the curse, which was death, followed its violation; so that man was thenceforward devoted to death, from which he had no means of escaping, as he could not restore himself to perfect innocence, having once been guilty. The reward of innocence could not be bestowed upon him, when he was no longer innocent; and there was no alternative, but that he should undergo the pu nishment of guilt, or that God should reverse his decrees, and thus sully his perfections with incon sistency and falsehood. This was utterly incom patible with the Divine Nature. There could, then, be no other possible alternative but that man should die, since the penalty of sin had been irreversibly assigned, and was to be literally paid. God, however, in his mercy, provided the remedy in his Son, who became man, eventually paid the forfeit of his life for us all, becoming our substitute unto death, and counteracted by this memorable sacrifice those terrible issues which the single transgression of SERMON XX. OUR REDEMPTION BY CHRIST. GALATIANS, II, 19, 20. "For I through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." ST. PAUL having, in this chapter, related to the Galatians the circumstance respecting his reproving Peter, for separating himself from the gentiles, gives them a short account of what he said upon that occasion, on the true doctrine of the gospel, concerning the justification of sinners. What the Apostle, in the words before us, declared to be true of himself, is equally true of all Christians; as we shall readily perceive by considering the doctrine which they were designed to explain. We all know that, according to the conditions of the first covenant between God and man, death was to be the penalty of transgression, immortal life in Heaven the due and merited reward of obedience. The condition was a simple one, easy to gether with him by bapthe elements st,' and even ich account ircumcision. ul seems to ey make us ircumcised, deliver us › a blessed ecially as I actually gives then... nor acous Ha te sand upon that occas says the Christ Apost hough Eas, declared to be dy of true of me ue of all Christians; have as - cive by considering the Fert designed to explains. mw oral Was penalty of transgression, hile a heaven the due and was tan tác và đ Wate: Tnt condition ware & 1 him |