Galatians 2:20-21 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me… In the last sermon we propounded many things touching the life of faith, how it lives in effectual calling, in justification and sanctification, in glorification, and in the several grand passages of this life, one of which remains yet to be unfolded, as the life of faith in glorification. Quest. 1. But how? Vision is for glory; what hath faith to do with this, which is of things unseen? Ans. 1. I answer, we live by faith in glorification thus, because faith lays hold on the promise, and we have the promises of glory set down in the Word, and with the promise we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, and having the earnest and first-fruits, God will surely give the harvest. We have the Spirit, and thence faith reasons, God will make good His promise, He will not take back His earnest. Ans. 2. Again, faith lives by the life of glorification in Christ the head. There is but one life of Christ and His members, and one Spirit, one with Him in union in the first degree of life. His glory is our glory. Ans. 3. By reason of the nature of faith, as Hebrews 11:1, which is to make things absent have a certain being. Thus it presents glory to us, as though it were present, and we in some sort live by it. How to know whether or not we live the life of faith in glorification. This, where it is in faith, makes a Christian glorious, puts him in a spirit that is glorious in all estates. There is no grace in him, but it is set a-fire by this faith of glory to come. When faith looks back on things, it hath strength, but when it looks on glory, all graces anal virtues are set a-work. 1. Hope is set on work by faith, and keeps the soul, as an anchor, stedfast against all assaults. 2. Hope doth stir up patience; for, saith the apostle, "What we hope for, we wait patiently for it." 3. Again, it sets courage and magnanimity a-work, as Hebrews 11. What made all the patriarchs so stout to hold out and endure so many miseries, but that they had an eye to the glory to come? The like we have of Moses, who forsook Pharaoh's court, because he saw Him who is invisible. (R. Sibbes.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
    |