It is a lingering death. It is not easy to get the law killed; something of a legal disposition remains even in the believer while he is in this world. Many a stroke does self and self- righteousness get, but still it revives again. If he were wholly dead to the law, he would be wholly dead to sin; but so far as the law lives, so far sin lives. They that think they know the gospel well enough, bewray (expose) their ignorance; no man can be too evangelical; it will take all his lifetime to get a legal temper destroyed. Though the believer be delivered from the law, in its commanding and condemning power and authority, or in its rightful power over all that are under it; yet he is not delivered wholly from its usurped power, which takes place many times upon him, while here, through remaining unbelief.Christianity is sort of the odd child of the world religion family. It is the only one (that I know of) that calls people to do nothing. One of the hardest things for man to do is to do nothing for his own salvation. Passively receiving grace seems to go against something that is deeply entrenched in our "legal temper" as fallen beings.
The beauty of the doctrines of grace is that they emphasize the imputed righteousness of Christ. This means that all that we do, even in our most righteous moments, are but as filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6), who demands perfection for those who are to be in His holy presence, because sin cannot exist in His presence. There is nothing that we can do to merit the mercy of God, because our hearts, tainted by sin, cannot possibly muster up any sort of righteousness which can please Him (Romans 8:8).
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:24-25)
Graciously, it is the true (and only) righteousness of Jesus, the Holy Lamb of God the Father Almighty, which has been imputed - or ascribed - to His redeemed bride, and when God looks upon us, He no longer sees our filthy rags, but only, and ever, the righteousness of His Son.
What Erskine acknowledges in the above excerpt is that it is exceedingly difficult for us to completely, and continually, accept this imputation, to realize that the pardon for our sins has already been purchased, the price of our redemption already paid, our death already died in our place by Another.
But to forget, ignore, or deny this is to confuse our justification with our sanctification, to blend the two together. Our standing in God's sight is declared as righteous because of the justification that we receive - definitively, once and for all! - upon our salvation. However, this is also the beginning of our sanctification, of God's conforming us to the image of His Son. Unfortunately, since we still live in this world, our sanctification process will not be completed until the Beatific Vision, our perfected glory not fully realized until that magnificent day when we see Christ upon our death or His return.
If we ignore this fact, we may be tempted to become discouraged so greatly upon the recognition of our lingering sinfulness, that we confuse justification with sanctification: that we believe we are no longer seen as righteous in God's eyes if we fail to act righteously. But since it is not our righteousness that matters - our own righteousness being but filthy rags - we can boldly claim our justification by the blood of Christ, and therein find the assurance of our faith and salvation.
It is this aspect of dying to the Law that lingers in us, stressing the importance of proclaiming the gospel not only to the unbelieving masses, but also to ourselves and fellow believers, in a regular - even daily - manner. Don't assume that you've ever fully understood the gospel; instead, preach it to yourself always, dying to the Law, and basking in the beauty of the imputed righteousness of the spotless Lamb of God, ascribed to you by grace through faith.
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