“What is this life but a wallowing in a sink, a converse in the dregs of creation, in an earth polluted by the sin of man, wherein we every day behold fresh affronts of God, and find motions in us dishonorable to ourselves?
But Christ by His death has provided a better place than this, yea, a place more glorious than Adam’s paradise, which was designed for our habitation by the first creation; a place not only built by the word of God, but cemented and prepared by the blood of Christ.
By the law against sin we were to have our bodies reduced to dust, and our souls lie under the sentence of the wrath of God.
But our crucified Saviour has purchased the redemption of our body, to be evidenced by a resurrection, Rom. 8:23, and a standing security of our souls in a place of bliss, to which believers shall have a real ascent, and in which they shall have a local residence, which is called the purchased possession.
As Adam brought in the empire of death, so Christ hath brought in the empire of life: Rom. 5:17, ‘Shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.’
He has not purchased for us a paradisiacal life, or restored us to the mutable state wherein Adam was created.
He has not linked us forever to the earth, and the use of the creatures for our support.
He has purchased for us an eternal life, and prepared for us eternal mansions, not only to have the company of men, or the society of the blessed angels, but to be blessed with the vision of God, to reside in the same place where His glorified person is adored by the happy spirits, to ‘live with Him,’ Rom. 6:8, a life wherein our understandings shall be freed from mists, and our wills from spots, and our affections from disorder.
We lost a paradise by sin, and we have gained a heaven by the cross.”
–Stephen Charnock, “The Knowledge of Christ Crucified,” The Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 4 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1865/2010), 4: 503.
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