Doctrine Three. The third doctrine is that though elect sinners be as well sinners by nature and as gross sinners as others; yet by virtue of this covenant and upon condition of their accepting of it, they may obtain and do actually obtain peace with God, pardon and healing as if they had never sinned or as if they had satisfied the justice of God themselves. This is the very end of this transaction, He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. His wounds, bruises and stripes, effectually procured justification and healing to us. And this is the ground of that which we call imputed righteousness and shows how it comes to pass that we are made righteous by the righteousness of another....
The uses are five.....
USE FIVE. To reprove the neglecters and slighters of Jesus Christ and of this offered salvation through Him; when He has taken the threatening and curse of the law on Himself, to make out the promise to them, it must be a great aggravation of folks’ guilt to slight Him. It serves also to comfort a poor sinner that has many sins and challenges and knows not how to be quit of them. The covenant says our sins are translated on the mediator that we might be set free. Christ Jesus covenanted on the terms of justice, to make way for us to covenant on the terms of mercy. God covenanted with Him to pursue our sin in Him and He covenanted to impute that satisfaction freely to us. Hence is that never enough noted saying (2 Cor. 5:19), “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” It is justice on His part: He satisfied for pardon of sin and peace to them. But on the elect’s part it is grace: God is reconciled to them, not imputing their sin to them, but it is for Christ’s satisfaction that He freely forgives them their sin. So that what cost Him dear, comes most freely to us; and this is no small ground of comfort to a conscience pressed with sin. God fix these things in your hearts.
James Durham, "Sermon 23 on Isaiah 53:5," in Collected Sermons of James Durham: Christ Crucified: or, The Marrow of the Gospel in Seventy-Two Sermons on the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah (Reformation Heritage Books & Naphtali Press, 2017), 305, 308.The uses are five.....
USE FIVE. To reprove the neglecters and slighters of Jesus Christ and of this offered salvation through Him; when He has taken the threatening and curse of the law on Himself, to make out the promise to them, it must be a great aggravation of folks’ guilt to slight Him. It serves also to comfort a poor sinner that has many sins and challenges and knows not how to be quit of them. The covenant says our sins are translated on the mediator that we might be set free. Christ Jesus covenanted on the terms of justice, to make way for us to covenant on the terms of mercy. God covenanted with Him to pursue our sin in Him and He covenanted to impute that satisfaction freely to us. Hence is that never enough noted saying (2 Cor. 5:19), “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” It is justice on His part: He satisfied for pardon of sin and peace to them. But on the elect’s part it is grace: God is reconciled to them, not imputing their sin to them, but it is for Christ’s satisfaction that He freely forgives them their sin. So that what cost Him dear, comes most freely to us; and this is no small ground of comfort to a conscience pressed with sin. God fix these things in your hearts.
