“In the first covenant made with Adam there was no surety, but God and men were the immediate covenanters; and although we were in a state and condition able to perform and answer all the terms of the covenant, yet was it broken and disannulled. It was man alone who failed and broke that covenant: wherefore it was necessary, that upon the making of the new covenant, and that with a design and purpose that it should never be disannulled, as the former was, we should have a surety and undertaker for us; for if that first covenant was not firm and stable, because there was no surety to undertake for us, notwithstanding all that ability which we had to answer the terms of it, how much less can any other be so, now [that] our natures are become depraved and sinful! Wherefore we alone were capable of a surety, properly so called, for us; we alone stood in need of him; and without him the covenant could not be firm and inviolate on our part. The surety, therefore of this covenant, is so with God for us.”
“A surety, for us, the Lord Jesus Christ was, by his voluntary undertaking, out of his rich grace and love, to do, answer, and perform all that is required on our part, that we may enjoy the benefits of the covenant, the grace and glory prepared, proposed, and promised in it, in the way and manner determined on by divine wisdom.”
“(1) He undertook, as the surety of the covenant, to answer for all the sins of those who are to be, and are, made partakers of the benefits of it; that is, to undergo the punishment due unto their sins; to make atonement for them by offering himself as a propitiatory sacrifice for the expiation of their sins, redeeming them, by the price of his blood, from their state of misery and bondage under the law, and the curse of it, Isaiah 53:4-6,10; Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Corinthians 6:20; Romans 3:25-26; Hebrews 10:5-8; Romans 8:2-3; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; Galatians 3:13: and this was absolutely necessary, that the grace and glory prepared in the covenant might be communicated unto us. Without this undertaking of his, and performance of it, the righteousness and faithfulness of God would not permit that sinners, - such as had apostatized from him, despised his authority and rebelled against him, falling thereby under the sentence and curse of the law, - should again be received unto his favor, and made partakers of grace and glory; this, therefore, the Lord Christ took upon himself, as the surety of the covenant.”
“(2) That those who were to be taken into this covenant should receive grace enabling them to comply with the terms of it, fulfill its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein; for, by ordination of God, he was to procure, and did merit and procure for them, the Holy Spirit, and all needful supplies of grace, to make the new creatures, and enable them to yield obedience unto God from a new principle of spiritual life, and that faithfully unto the end: so was he the surety of this better testament.”
“For the declaration of the righteousness of God in this setting forth of Christ to be a propitiation, and to bear our iniquities, the guilt of our sins was transferred unto him in an act of the righteous judgment of God accepting and esteeming of him as the guilty person.”
“The righteousness of Christ (in his obedience and suffering for us) imputed unto believers, as they are united unto him by his Spirit, is that righteousness whereon they are justified before God, on the account whereof their sins are pardoned, and a right is granted them unto the heavenly inheritance.”
“These things, therefore, are consistent, - namely, that the satisfaction of Christ should be imputed unto us for the pardon of sin, and the obedience of Christ be imputed unto us to render us righteous before God; and they are not only consistent, but neither of them singly were sufficient unto our justification.”
Owen, John. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith. sixth. V. East Peoria: Versa Press, Inc., 2007. 186-212. Print.
