Jesus Is Each Stage of Our Salvation (1)

How is Christ our life?
Christ is in every way the cause of the life of grace and glory. Not only the cause, but the root and spring as well. We have spiritual life from Christ and in Christ. We have it in Christ as a root, and from Christ as the working cause, and by Christ as the mediator. For Christ procured our life at God's hands by his sacrifice and death. We have it in Christ as a head, from him as a cause, together with both the other persons of the Trinity; and through him as mediator, who by his death made the way to life, appeasing the wrath of God. Christ is not only our life, but also is the matter of our life that we feed on.
After he has wrought spiritual life in us, the soul lives by faith in Christ, and feeds upon him. For as food nourishes the body, so the soul, when it experiences daily temptations, afflictions, troubles, and discomforts, must out of necessity be forced to look to Christ every day, and spiritually feed upon Christ. For he is a mediator forever; and he is in heaven to make good what he has done by his death; and he maintains the life he has begun.
Then after being justified by faith, we have the life of sanctification and holiness. For God out of his love, when he has pardoned our sin, he gives his Spirit as the best fruit of his love; and we having our consciences absolved and acquitted by the Spirit of God, through the obedience of Christ, we love God. With the stream of mercy open, there is a way made for another life, the life of sanctification by the Spirit. Upon pardon of our sins he gives the Spirit; and we, feeling that love, have love wrought in us to him again, and that love stirs up every Christian to obedience.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
The Hidden Life, Works, vol. 5, p. 209
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