I. A state or condition--“justified.” This implies--
1. Previous dishonour. A truly righteous character needs no justification.
2. Complete satisfaction. A man who owes a debt can only be justified when that debt is paid; although it need not be paid by himself.
3. Perfect restoration--to all rights, privileges, position, etc. Justification does not mean righteousness. A man is justified although he is defiled in sin. The justification of man by God is His counting man as righteous.
II. A means or method--“faith.” Faith is that principle which unites a man with Christ, and so enables him to appropriate all the Saviour’s merits and righteousness. Substitution, to be effectual, not only requires its acceptance by the judge, but the acceptance of the Saviour by the sinner as his Substitute. Faith is that acceptance by the sinner. Notice--
1. That this act is difficult. It is contrary to human nature--men would rather trust themselves than God. Hence they add rites and ceremonies.
2. It includes acts as well as conviction and trust. “Faith without works is dead,” and a dead principle has no existence.
III. A result attained--peace with God. Peace is desirable with man, much more with God. True peace can be obtained in no other way but this. There is a state which is often mistaken for it, such as indifference, a numbed conscience. Gratuitous pardon without justification by atonement would not be able to give peace, but pardon through satisfied justice can. Nothing can satisfy the sense of justice but trust in the justice-satisfying Saviour. (Homilist.)
Justification
I.Its nature.
1. From the meaning of the word.
2. From the type (Lev_16:21).
(1) The two goats were necessary to set forth the perfect work of Christ: the first in atoning for sin, the other in bearing it away.
3. In its foundation (Rom_3:24-25; Rom_5:9).
(1) The foundation is solid.
(2) The grace is perfect.
II. Its condition. “By faith.” Consider--
1. The root meaning of the word.
2. The naturalness of the thing signified.
3. What is involved in unbelief.
III. Its fruits.
1. Peace (Rom_5:1).
(1) Its nature.
(2) With whom established.
(3) Through whom acquired.
2. Standing (Rom_5:2).
3. Joy (Rom_5:2).
(1) Its inspiration. “Hope of the glory of God.”
(2) Its strength. “In tribulations.”
(3) Its intellectual basis (Rom_5:4).
(4) Its internal evidence (Rom_5:5).
IV. Its source. The love of God.
1. The manner in which it was procured (Rom_5:8).
(1) “Commendeth” should be rendered “giveth proof of.”
2. The character of those for whom Christ died.
(1) “Those without strength” (Rom_5:6).
(2) “Sinners” (Rom_5:8).
(3) Such an exhibition of love unparalleled (Rom_5:7).
3. The purpose for which God gave His Son (Rom_5:9-10).
V. Practical lessons.
1. The blessing of which this lesson treats is the greatest need of man.
2. The sacrifice which Christ made to procure this blessing the most wonderful fact in history.
3. The condition on which this blessing may be obtained the most reasonable and easy.
4. The benefits which this blessing confers on the believer in this life are the most precious God can bestow.
5. The glory to which the believer by it lays claim is ineffable and eternal. (D. C. Hughes, A. M.)
Justification more than forgiveness
A friend with whom you have been long doing business falls into a condition of insolvency, and you find that he is your debtor to a large amount. There is no prospect of his ever being able to pay you back, and you have reason to know that this condition of debt arises not merely from his misfortune, but from his fault. Under these circumstances it would be possible for you to liberate him from his debt by an act of forgiveness. Let us suppose that you adopt this course; the man would no longer be in fear of a debtor’s prison, and would no doubt feel himself under a great obligation to you. But would such a state of things be likely to bring you into closer personal relations with each other? Would it not necessarily produce on the contrary a certain distance and constraint? On the other hand, the forgiven debtor must needs, me thinks, feel ashamed to look his generous creditor in the face, must feel ill at ease in his presence, and would shrink from familiar social intercourse with the family of one on whom his conduct has inflicted such serious losses. On the other hand, the forgiving creditor could scarcely be expected to select such a person for his friend, and to treat his past conduct as if it were a thing easily to be forgotten. But to illustrate our position further, let us now present another case. Let us suppose that the creditor is so convinced of the sincerity of the regret which his debtor professes, and has reason to believe that the severe lesson has wrought in him so great a moral change that he feels himself free to make an experiment which most of us would certainly regard as a perilous one; let us suppose that, instead of remitting his debt, he introduces him into partnership with his own son, with whose business he is himself closely concerned. This his new connection with a solvent and flourishing firm places him, we may say, in a position of solvency, removes the stigma of bankruptcy, puts him in the way of making a full return to his benefactor, to whom at the same time it greatly enhances his obligation. Now it is easy to see how this man--not merely forgiven, but in a certain sense justified--will be brought by such an arrangement into the closest relations with his benefactor. Friendly social intercourse will exist without restraint, and he who under the former mode of treatment might have seemed little better than an escaped convict will now be a recognised and respected member of the social circle in which his creditor moves. (W. H. Aitken, M. A.)
Justification by faith
There is no one who has not asked the question to which these words give the true answer. “How shall man have peace with God?” Wherever man is found, whether savage or civilised, rich or poor, he is found attempting to solve this problem. For everywhere man is found beset with present miseries, and haunted with the dread of some angry power that inflicts them. And, therefore, everywhere man is found endeavouring to appease this displeasure by making peace with his God. Now to this question there are three answers possible: that man might restore himself, or that God alone might restore man, or that God and man together might effect this restoration. The first is the religion of the heathen: he seeks to appease God by his own acts; he will give even his first born for his transgressions. The second is the religion of the Pharisee: “God, I thank Thee, I am not as other men are.” The third is the religion of the publican. “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Which is the true one?
I. Scripture everywhere asserts that God alone justifies (Mic_6:7; Psa_49:7; Isa_45:21-22). Hear the word of the Lord! Here, then, is a simple and an unerring test, by which to try every system of religion.
1. To “justify” means to “pronounce guiltless.” It never signifies to make just, but always to declare or pronounce just (Pro_17:15). This justification is indispensable to peace with God, for guilt cannot be at peace with justice. Before God can be at peace with any man, He must first pronounce him to be righteous.
2. Here, then, arise two great questions: first, what righteousness is this? and, secondly, how does it become ours? St. Paul tells us that it is through Christ. But even, for the sake of His dear Son, God cannot say the thing that is not. Unless there be perfect righteousness seen by Him, He cannot say He sees it. How, then, does Christ procure us this perfect righteousness? (2Co_5:21). In it is laid down, that Christ procured our righteousness by being made sin for us. Clearly, then, if we know how He was made sin, we know how we are made righteous. Was He, then, made really and truly sinful? God forbid. He, the Holy One, was, for our sakes, reckoned or accounted sinful. In the same way, therefore, we sinners are, for His sake, reckoned righteous; our sins are reckoned as if they were His; His righteousness is reckoned as if it were ours. To be “justified through Christ,” therefore, is to have the righteousness of Christ so imputed to us, that God reckons us, or pronounces us, just. This righteousness is bestowed upon us by faith. Faith is the link that joins together the justice of God and the satisfaction of Christ in the person of the believer, so that God can be just, and the justifier of him that believes.
3. Is there, then, no real righteousness in the believer? does God pronounce him who is unholy, holy; and admit the unclean, in his uncleanness, into His presence? Assuredly not. God never pronounced any man holy whom He did not also make holy. There is a righteousness external and a righteousness internal: both are real--both shall one day be perfect; but that which is wrought for us is perfect from the first; that which is wrought in us is imperfect, and gradually arrives at perfection: the one at once and forever justifies; the other progressively sanctifies.
4. But how does this doctrine make God alone the Saviour without any cooperation on the part of man? Is not faith a work of the mind? and is not this, at least in part, the cause of the sinner’s justification? We answer, No! for we are not justified because of our faith, but by our faith. Faith is the hand which the sinner stretches forth to receive the “free gift” of God’s mercy; but it is not the stretching out of the hand which induces the bestowal of the alms. Nay, more, that very hand is palsied; we have no power of ourselves to put it forth. Faith, itself, is a free gift of God; it is not until He has said, Reach forth thine hand, that we can, by doing so, receive the alms of His free mercy, which, because of Christ’s satisfaction, He is able, and, because of His own infinite love, He is willing, to bestow upon us.
5. This doctrine, then, fully answers the test to which we agreed to submit it: it reveals a salvation, which is God’s work, and His alone; prompted by His love, designed by His wisdom, and accomplished by His power. This work of man’s salvation has upon it the impress of divinity; it displays that wonderful union of power and wisdom that is found in all God’s works, which makes them seem at once so simple and yet so mysterious. View it in its aspect towards man, how simple it seems--“Believe and live!” View it in its aspect as regards God, as His plan devised for the salvation of man, without the compromise of any one of His attributes, it is the great “mystery of godliness.” This plan of salvation befits the majesty and the wisdom of God, while it is adapted to the ignorance and the weakness of man, This river of life is unfathomable, in its mysterious depths, by the mightiest of created beings; and yet the little child may kneel by its brink and drink of its sweet waters that flow softly, clear as crystal, from beneath the throne of God.
6. It is an ancient doctrine this; older than Luther, who revived it, or Paul, who defended it, or Abraham, who exemplified it. It was revealed by God, at the gate of Eden, to the first sinner who, by faith, hoped for deliverance yet to be accomplished by the seed of the woman. The first man who believed was justified by faith. The last saint that enters heaven shall enter it praising God, who, justifying him by faith, gives peace to his soul forever and ever, through Jesus Christ.
II. Let us now contrast with it man’s plan of salvation, in which he seeks to mingle his righteousness with that of God. The error of the self-righteous (Rom_10:3) is that he seeks a righteousness of his own, because he will not submit to be saved by the righteousness of God; as man fell by seeking to be his own God, so he remains fallen by seeking to be his own saviour. As he once refused to be entirely ruled by God, so he now refuses to be entirely saved by God. This is a most subtle and dangerous error.
1. The statement of this doctrine we will take from the Church of Rome, because Romanism is a religion of human nature, reduced to a regular system, and because we believe this difference between her and us is generally misunderstood.
(1) Let us clearly state how Rome and we are agreed in this matter. We are agreed--
(a) That man is so utterly fallen that he has no power to help himself.
(b) That he cannot be saved unless God bestow on him a perfect righteousness.
(c) That God does bestow this righteousness for Christ’s sake.
(2) Where, then, do we differ?
(a) As to the nature of this righteousness. We say that it is a righteousness imputed; she, that it is a righteousness implanted. We say it is a righteousness wrought for us; she, it is righteousness wrought in us. We say, God, for Christ’s sake, reckons us as perfectly righteous, and then proceeds to make us holy; she says, God, for Christ’s sake, makes us perfectly holy, and then pronounces us, because of this inherent holiness, to be righteous. In other words, we hold that God justifies and also sanctifies; Rome holds that He only sanctifies.
(b) As to the manner in which this righteousness is applied to us: we say, by faith only; she says, in the sacraments: she holds that this righteousness is infused into every baptised man, so that he is made perfectly righteous, and this state of justification, she holds, further, may be endangered by venial sin, and lost by deadly sin, and that it progresses so that a man may be more or less justified at one time than another. Now observe the subtlety of this error. It might be said this doctrine of Rome answers our test, for it ascribes all the work of salvation to God; it declares that this inherent righteousness is God’s free gift, just as you say your imputed righteousness is. Surely there is no claim here made for man’s righteousness. Let us see how our Lord disposes of this answer. “Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee the other a publican, and the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself--God, I thank Thee, I am not as other men are.” Where is self-righteousness here? The Pharisee claims no merit--he declares the righteousness which he presents to God, to be God’s work; God has made him to differ; he fasts, and prays, and gives alms, but the power to do these good works he acknowledges to have come from God; and yet it is said that he “trusted in himself that he was righteous.” Why? Because the righteousness he presented was a righteousness in him; it was not the righteousness of God, and it availed him nothing to say that it was God’s gift at first. It is self-righteous to present to God as a reason for pardon anything in man, whether that be said to be originally God’s gift or not; he who comes to Him must come as the publican, “God be merciful to me,”--not a justified or sanctified man, but “me a sinner!” Add to this, that even if the righteousness be God’s gift in the first instance, yet the preserving of it, the increase of it, by faith, and prayer, and penance, are the man’s own, upon this system, so that such an one must claim the reward of debt and not of grace.
2. Although we have gone to Rome for a definition of it, this doctrine is to be found among ourselves. How many are there who believe that God, for Christ’s sake, will accept them “if they do their best”--Christ’s merits making up for their deficiency! How many more are there who think that God, for Christ’s sake, will enable them to keep His holy law, and so accept them as righteous! And how many are there who imagine that God, for Christ’s sake, accepts their faith as something meritorious, justifying them because they hold the doctrine of justification by faith! In all these, from the open claim of heaven as a reward, to the more subtle claim of merit for having rejected all merit; and of righteousness for having renounced righteousness; in all these there is the same error--the presenting to God of something in us, instead of presenting the perfect righteousness of Christ. (Abp. Magee.)
Man saved
The words contain a golden chain of highest blessings bestowed by God upon all true Christians. Notice--
I. The Divine method of salvation.
1. Faith in Christ removes the condemnation. It means both a general trust in God’s revelations and grace, and a special trust in Christ as given by the Father’s love to be the Redeemer of His people. Understanding, will, affections, risking their all upon Him. Justification is not perfection. Not justified by the law of innocency, or of Moses, but by the law of Christ--“who died for our sins,” and “was raised again for our justification.”
2. Faith in Christ brings the believer into close communion with the Father. “By whom also we have access,” etc. They are reconciled, and in a State of love and friendship. Since man once sinned, God’s justice and man’s conscience tell us that we are unfit for God’s acceptance or communion immediately, but must have a suitable mediator. Blessed be God for a “daysman” appointed betwixt us and Himself! Without Him I dare not pray, I cannot hope, I fear to die; God would else frown me away to misery. All the hope and pardon that I have, come by this Author and Finisher of our faith:
(1) This is joyous intercourse--“Peace with God.”
(2) It opens up a bright future. “And rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
3. Faith in Christ strengthens the child of God in tribulation. “Not only so, but,” etc. The glory revealed unto us is so transcendent, and tribulation so small and short, that an expectant of glory may well rejoice in spite of bodily sufferings. It is tribulation for Christ and righteousness’ sake that we are to glory in; tribulation for our sins must be patiently and penitently born.
(1) “Knowing that tribulation worketh patience.” That which worketh patience should be a matter of joy; for patience can do more good for us than tribulation can harm. Why then do I complain under suffering, and study so little the exercise of patience?
(2) “And patience experience, and experience hope.” What profitable experiences are to be derived from patient suffering! Of God’s providence, of our own dependence upon a higher power, of the fickleness of human friendship, etc.
(3) “And hope maketh not ashamed.” That is, true hope of what God hath promised shall never be disappointed. They that trust in deceitful creatures are disappointed and ashamed of their hope; but God is true and ever faithful. All this shows the superiority of a free spirit over carnal weapons.
II. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is the source of all excellency in the Christian character.
1. By the “love of God shed abroad” is meant--
(1) The realisation of Divine life in the soul.
(2) The sweet experiences arising from the absence of doubts and fears.
(3) It leads God’s adopted children to love one another:
2. The Spirit within--
(1) Is helpful to overcome temptation. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”
(2) Mortifies the fleshly lusts that war against the soul. The desperately wicked heart is a hotbed of lusts and passions that require to be weeded, else they will choke the germs of the good seed. We cannot serve God and Mammon.
3. Points to a future life, and proves our title to it. There are some so blind as to think that man shall have no hereafter, because brutes have not. But it is enough for us to know that God hath promised it; and let it be our earnest prayer, “Shed more abroad upon my heart, by the Holy Spirit, that love of Thine which will draw up my longing soul to Thee, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.” (Richard Baxter.)
Justification by faith
The justification of which Paul speaks is--
1. Not that gracious constitution of God by which, for the sake of Christ, He so far delivers men from the guilt of Adam’s sin as to place them in a salvable state, and by virtue of which all infants dying in infancy are saved (see Rom_5:18); for justification is not common to the race, but is experienced by certain individuals.
2. Not the justification of those who lived under inferior dispensations, or who now live in countries where the gospel is not known. On this point there are two extremes.
(1) The unauthorised severity of those who hold that all heathens are doomed to damnation.
(2) The undistinguishing charity of those who insinuate that the heathen are perfectly safe, and need not be disturbed in their superstitions. Each of these is remote from the truth.
3. Not justification before men by the evidence of works (Jam_2:1-26), but the justification of penitent sinners before God, which is necessarily previous.
4. Not the justification of persevering believers at the last day. This will be pronounced on the evidence of works springing from faith, and evidencing its genuineness and continuance. Our business is with a present justification, “Being justified.” Let us look at:--
I. Its nature. We assume--
(1) That all men naturally are in a state of guilt and condemnation. Our hereditary depravity is odious to the God of Purity, while our consequent personal iniquity renders us liable to punishment.
(2) That the man of whose justification we are about to speak is convinced that this is his state.
2. What, then, is meant by justification in these circumstances? To justify a sinner is to consider him relatively righteous, and to deal with him as such, notwithstanding his past unrighteousness, by clearing and releasing him from various penal evils, especially from God’s wrath and the liability to eternal death. Hence justification and forgiveness are substantially the same (Act_13:38-39; Rom_4:5; Rom_4:8). Note that justification--
(1) Does not in the least degree alter the evil nature and desert of sin. It is the holy Lord who justifieth. The penalty is still naturally due, though graciously remitted. Hence the duty of continuing to confess and lament even pardoned sin (Eze_16:62-63).
(2) Is not, as Romish and some mystic divines contend, the being made righteous by the infusion of a sanctifying influence, which confounds justification with regeneration.
(3) Extends to all past sins (Act_13:39). God does not justify us by degrees, but at once.
(4) However effectual to our release from past guilt, does not terminate our state of probation. As he who is now justified was once condemned, so he may again come into condemnation by relapsing into sin, as was the case with Adam.
(5) If lost, may be recovered (Psa_32:1-5; cf. Rom_4:1; Rom_4:8).
II. Its immediate results.
1. The restoration of amity and intercourse between the pardoned sinner and the pardoning God. “We have peace with God,” and consequently access to Him. The ground of God’s controversy with us being removed, we become objects of His friendship (Jam_2:23). This reconciliation, however, does not mean deliverance from all the evils which sin has entailed, viz., suffering and death, but it entitles us to such supports and such promises of sanctifying influence as will “turn the curse into a blessing.”
2. Adoption and the consequent right to eternal life. God condescends to become not only our Friend, but our Father (Rom_8:17).
3. The habitual indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As sin induced the Spirit’s departure, so the pardon of sin is followed by deliverance from it, because it makes way for His return to our souls (Gal_3:13-14; Gal_4:1; Act_2:38). Of this indwelling the immediate effects are--
(1) Tranquillity of conscience (Rom_5:5; Rom_8:15-16).
(2) Power over sin, a prevailing desire and ability to walk before God in holy obedience (Rom_8:1, etc.).
(3) A joyous hope of heaven (Rom_5:2, Rom_15:13; Gal_5:5).
III. Its method.
1. The originating cause is the free, sovereign, undeserved, and spontaneous love of God towards fallen man (Tit_2:11; Tit_3:4-5; Rom_3:24).
2. The meritorious cause is Christ; for what He did in obedience to the precepts of the law, and what He suffered in satisfaction of its penalty, taken together, constitute that mediatorial righteousness, for the sake of which the Father is ever well pleased in Him. In this all who are justified have a saving interest. Not that it is imputed to them in its formal nature or distinct acts; for against any such imputation there lie insuperable objections from both reason and Scripture. But the collective merit and moral effects of all which the Mediator did and suffered are so reckoned to our account that, for the sake of Christ, we are released from guilt and accepted of God.
3. The instrumental cause is faith.
(1) Present faith. We are not justified by--
(a) Tomorrow’s faith foreseen, for that would lead to the Antinomian justification from eternity.
(b) By yesterday’s faith recorded or remembered, for that would imply that justification is irreversible. Justification is offered on believing. We are never savingly interested in it until we believe; and it continues in force only so long as we continue to believe.
(2) The acts of this faith are:--
(a) The assent of the understanding to the testimony of God in the gospel, and especially that part of it which concerns the design and efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice for sin.
(b) The consent of the will and affections to this plan of salvation, such an approbation and choice of it as imply the renunciation of every other refuge, and a steady, decided, and thankful acquiescence in God’s revealed method of forgiveness.
(3) Actual trust in the Saviour and personal apprehension of His merits.
IV. Inferences.
1. That we are not justified by the merit of our works, inasmuch as no obedience we can render can come up to the requisitions of the Law of Innocence.
2. That repentance is neither the cause nor instrument of justification. Repentance makes no atonement, and therefore cannot supersede the blood of Jesus; nor does it secure any personal or justifying interest in it; this is the object of faith only.
3. That the Spirit’s work in regeneration and sanctification is not the previous condition of our justification, or the prerequisite qualification for it. For in that case we should be saved without a Saviour, which is a contradiction. The work of pardon for yon must precede the work of purification in you. In the cleansing of the leper, the blood was first to be used, then the oil (Lev_14:1-57). And in order to your salvation you must first bays “the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus,” and then you shall have “the renewing of the Holy Ghost.”
4. That our justification is not by the merit of faith itself a refined theory of justification by works.
V. Reflections.
1. How clear and urgent is the duty of seeking an experimental enjoyment of justifying grace.
2. How sacred are the obligations of the justified:
(1) Gratefully acknowledge it.
(2) Diligently improve it.
(3) Practically evidence your enjoyment of it. (Jabez Bunting, D. D.)
Justification by faith
I.Justification defined. Justification is the Divine judicial act which applies to the sinner believing in Christ the benefit of the atonement, delivering him from the condemnation of his sin, introducing him into a state of favour, and treating him as a righteous person. Though justifying faith is an operating principle which, through the Holy Spirit’s energy, attains to an interior and perfect conformity to the law, or internal righteousness, it is the imputed character of justification which regulates the New Testament use of the word. Inherent righteousness is connected more closely with the perfection of the regenerate and sanctified life. In this more limited sense justification is either the act of God or the state of man.
I. God the Justifier. The act of justifying is that of God as the Judge. Generally it is
äéêáé́ùóéò
, the word which pronounces the sinner absolved from the condemning sentence of the law, and it refers always and only to the sins that are past. Whether regarded as the first act of mercy, or as the permanent will of God’s grace towards the believer in Christ, or as the final sentence in the Judgment, it is the Divine declaration which discharges the sinner as such from the condemnation of his sin. “It is God that justifieth”--God in Christ, for all judgment is “committed to the Son,” who both now and ever pronounces as Mediator the absolving word, declaring it in this life to the conscience by His Spirit. It is the voice of God, the Judge in the mediatorial court, where the Redeemer is the Advocate, pleading His own propitiatory sacrifice and the promise of the gospel declared to the penitence and faith of the sinner whose cause He pleads. The simplest form in which the doctrine is stated is in Rom_8:33-34. Here the apostle has in view the past, present, and future of the believer; the death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ; and the one justifying sense against which there can be no appeal in time or in eternity. God is
Èåï̀ò ï̔ äéáêéù͂í
, in one continuous and ever-present act.
II. Man as justified. The state into which man is introduced is variously described, according to his various relations to God, to the Mediator, and the law. As an individual sinner he is forgiven: his justification is pardon, his punishment is remitted. As a person ungodly, he is regarded as righteous: “righteousness is imputed to him,” or his “transgression is not imputed to him.” As a believer in Jesus “his faith is counted for righteousness.” All these phrases describe, under its negative and its positive aspect, one and the selfsame blessing of the new covenant as constituting the state of grace into which the believer has entered and in which as a believer he abides. This is attested by passages running through the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles; passages which only confirm the promises of the Old Testament. Our Lord’s forerunner was fore-announced “to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins” (Luk_1:77). Our Saviour’s word was, “Man, thy sins are forgiven thee”; but he spoke of the publican as praying, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and as going down to his house “justified”--these words being introduced for the first time, and both being reserved for abundant future service, especially in the writings of St. Paul. He left the commission that “remission of sins should be preached in His name.” St. Peter preached that “remission of sins,” and afterwards varied the expression, “that your sins may be blotted out” (Act_2:38; Act_3:19)--counterparts in meaning. But St. Paul takes up the Saviour’s words and unites them (Act_13:38-39), and in this Epistle adds all the other terms and unites the whole in one charter of privileges (Rom_4:4-8). In this passage all the phrases are united without exception, and they are represented as the act of God and the state of man, the one and various blessing of habitual experience. To sum up: the state of
äéáêéïóṍíç
is that of conformity to law, which, however, is always regarded as such only through the gracious imputation of God, who declares the believer to be justified negatively from the condemnation of his sin, and positively reckons to him the character, bestowing also the privileges of righteousness. The former or negative blessing is pardon distinctively, the latter or positive blessing is justification proper. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
Justification by faith: an instance of
A minister of the gospel was once preaching in a public hospital. There was an aged woman present, who for several weeks had been aroused to attend to the concerns of her soul. When she heard the Word of God from the lips of His servant, she trembled like a criminal in the hands of the executioner. Formerly she had entertained hope of acceptance with God, but she had departed from her comforter, and now she was the prey of a guilty conscience. A short time after this the same minister was preaching in the same place, but during the first prayer his text and the whole arrangement of his discourse went completely from hint; he could not recollect a single sentence of either, but Rom_5:1 took possession of his whole soul: “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He considered this a sufficient intimation of his duty, and descanted freely on justification by faith and a sinner’s peace with God through the atonement of Christ. It was the hour of mercy to this poor distracted woman. A ray of Divine consolation now penetrated her soul, and she said to the minister, when taking his leave, “I am a poor vile sinner, but I think, being justified by faith, I begin again to have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I think Christ has now got the highest place in my heart; and oh! I pray God He would always keep Him there.”
Justification by faith: an instance of
Some years ago a clergyman was preaching on this text in the East End of London, and at the end of his sermon he invited any who were anxious to come and converse with him in the vestry. He was followed by an intelligent looking young man, who said, “I am going to leave England in two or three days, and perhaps this is the last opportunity I shall have of talking with a clergyman: My father and I have had a terrible quarrel, and it ended in his turning me out, telling me never to darken his door again. I wandered up to London, but knew not where to look for employment. At last I found a berth as sailor before the mast, and before I go I want to ask you, ‘What must I do to be saved?’” The clergyman endeavoured to make the way of salvation as clear as he could to him. They parted, however, without there being any apparent change in the young man’s spiritual condition, though he seemed awakened and much in earnest. Time wore on, and the incident had almost passed from the clergyman’s mind, when one day a sailor called at his residence. “Do you remember,” he said, “some months ago a young man coming to your vestry after the Sermon you had preached on the words, ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God?’” “Oh, yes; I remember it perfectly.” “Well, he went on board the London, and he and I became great friends, because I am a Christian, and I soon found out that he wanted to be a Christian too; so we used often to have long talks over our Bibles, and used to pray together; yet somehow or other I could never get him to see things quite clearly. I suppose he was looking to his feelings more than to Christ. Well, then came the terrible catastrophe, and that young man was told off by the captain, with myself and a few others, to man one of the boats. The boat was lowered, and soon was crowded; but by some means the poor fellow was left behind in the ship. We hardly knew what to do, for our boat was too full already. Besides, the ship was settling fast, and we were afraid of being dragged down with her. Yet we did not like to pull away. Then I heard him call me by name, as he clung to the rigging; and he shoutedacross the water, ‘Goodbye, mate! If you get ashore safe, inquire for the Rev. H. B--, of Limehouse Docks, London, and tell him that here in the presence of God I can say at last, “Being justified by faith, I have peace with God through my Lord Jesus Christ.”’ As he said the words, the ship gave her last lurch, and he disappeared in a watery grave.” (W. H. Aitken, M. A.)
Justification by faith: its effects
1. The effect of justification should be peace and holiness.
(1) A plan of deliverance which did not include both these would be a mockery. If it did not secure peace it would not meet our wants; if it did not secure holiness it would not meet God’s requirements.
(2) Accordingly we find that God describes His plan of salvation as effecting both. Christ has “made peace through the blood of His Cross” that He may “present us holy and unblamable and unreproachable in His sight.” It is “the very God of peace” who sanctifies us “wholly.”
2. The doctrine, therefore, which does not produce these effects is not the true one, and there can be no surer test by which to try the truth of any particular doctrine than this. The religion which really produces both had no man for its teacher, for these are the last things which men would ever think of joining together. All human teachers and lawgivers appeal to fear. All laws are accompanied by penalties. It certainly would never occur to any man to attempt to produce obedience by remitting all penalties; and therefore it is that the natural man always seeks to obtain one of these by the sacrifice of the other.
(1) Many try to forget God altogether, or they take refuge in some easy mode of appeasing Him--something said, done, or felt, which quiets conscience; and so they have peace--peace without holiness.
(2) But others are not so easily satisfied; their disposition is naturally anxious, or their consciences are scrupulous, and they cannot feel quite comfortable in their sins. Such seek to obtain peace by refraining from sin; but as their only motive is fear, they know of no other way of increasing their obedience than by quickening and strengthening this fear. In such religion takes a gloomy and terrible form. Here is an attempt after holiness, but it is holiness without peace.
3. And thus the mind of the natural man is ever oscillating between these two extremes of sinful peace or painful obedience, but never attaining to the union of these two; never imagining it possible for man to be at once fearless and obedient; and, accordingly, it is a remarkable fact that all false religions have two different aspects, one offering easy terms of salvation to the common crowd, who only desire a religion which shall allow them to sin without fear; the other providing austerities and penances for the few whose intellect or conscience cannot be so easily contented. All these religions, then, are but half religions; they attempt to satisfy man’s desire for peace or God’s demand for holiness; they never even profess to satisfy both. There is but one religion which does this; it is that which is proclaimed in our text.
I. Justification by faith gives peace.
1. He who believes that God, for Christ’s sake, reckons him holy, “not imputing his trespasses unto him,” has perfect peace, because he is trusting in a perfect work. The justice that demanded his condemnation now secures his forgiveness; the omnipotence once arrayed against him is now engaged in his defence. Here is the deep, abiding, perfect peace of him whose mind is stayed upon God.
2. On the other hand the doctrine of justification by inherent righteousness does not, and never can, give perfect peace; for it is a righteousness partly human and partly Divine, and therefore partakes of the uncertainty and imperfection of all things human. He who holds it believes, as Dr. Pusey says, that “he was once, in his baptism, placed in a state of justification; in which, having been placed, he has to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling through the indwelling Spirit of God working in him--a state which therefore admits of relapses and recoveries, but which is weakened by every relapse, injured by lesser, and destroyed for the time by grievous sin.” Now, if this be the nature of his justification, how can he be sure, at any given moment, that he is justified? All that such a man can say is this, that once in his life he had a perfect righteousness to present to God, and that, if it had pleased God then to take him to Himself he had been blessed, but that whether he has this righteousness still is a very doubtful matter; and yet that night that man’s soul may be required of him! What a miserable faith is this on which to bid a dying sinner rest his hopes for eternity! But this is not all the doubt and difficulty which this doctrine gives rise to, for the means by which justification is bestowed is said to be the sacrament of baptism. If so, perfect and complete justification can be had only once in each man’s life; therefore, if he ever entirely lose it by deadly sin, how can it be regained? To meet this, Rome has devised another sacrament by which the sinner may be again made perfectly righteous. But for those who are not Romanists “the Church has no second baptism to give, and therefore cannot pronounce the person who has sinned after baptism altogether free from his past sins. There are but two periods of absolute cleansing--baptism and the day of judgment.” Again, “if, after having been washed once for all in Christ’s blood we again sin, there is no more such complete absolution in this life, no restoration to the same state of undisturbed security in which God had, by baptism, placed us!” Mark this confession! We will not pause to contrast it with the teaching of him who told baptized men that if they confessed their sins “God was faithful and just to forgive them their sins.” We will not delay to inquire whether this way of salvation, which gives no “undisturbed security,” can be the same with that which He revealed who said, “Come unto Me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” or that which he taught, whose converts believing, “rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” We only ask, how can they who preach such a gospel as this claim to be the messengers of peace? what peace have they to offer? Picture to yourselves a teacher of this “other gospel” proclaiming this way of salvation beside a death bed.
3. But it is said this uncertainty and anxiety is just what is needed to make men zealous and cautious, and the doctrine may make fewer happy death beds but it will produce holier lives. We deny this, and, on the contrary, maintain--
II. That justification by faith does effect not only peace, but holiness; and that sacramental justification no more produces holiness than it does peace.
1. Holiness is conformity to God’s image. The perfect likeness of God, to which we are to be assimilated, is seen in Christ, who “loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.” A holy man, therefore, is not one who merely refrains from sin, nor yet one who strives to obey all God’s commands; he may do all this, and yet be utterly without holiness. But he is one who has become partaker of that Divine nature which was in Christ, the instinct of which it is to hate what God hates, and to love what He loves.
2. Now what is that power which can produce such conformity to Christ? Love is the only passion which assimilates to its object. Fear obeys, envy rivals, but love imitates. That religion will therefore most tend to holiness which most tends to produce in us love to God. Now we know that the belief which most powerfully moves us to love God must be that which most fully manifests the love of God to us. Which, then, of these two doctrines of justification displays most of the love of God to sinners? This question has received its answer from our Lord Himself (Luk_7:41). The publican went down to his house with a more loving and grateful heart than the Pharisee. The prodigal had doubtless a deeper love for the father than had the elder brother who had never given him cause of offence. There is more of loving, fervent, grateful joy in the heart of one penitent sinner who believes that “being justified by faith he has peace with God,” than there is in the heart of the ninety-and-nine just persons, who, believing that they have kept their baptismal righteousness, deem that they need no repentance. But if he who thus believes cannot but love, he who thus loves cannot but obey; the love of Christ constraineth him, the mercies of God persuade him, to present himself a living sacrifice unto God.
3. But this doctrine further tends to produce holiness because it tends to produce humility. No man is really holy until he is really humble. But who best learns humility--he who presents to God a righteousness in part his own, or he who confesseth that “in him dwelleth no good thing”?
4. This doctrine tends to produce holiness because it alone enables us to realise the promises of God. It is by these that we escape the “corruption that is in the world through lust.” Now he who believes that God will assuredly save him for the sake of Jesus Christ claims all the promises at once as his forever, so that he can say, “I am confident; ‘I know in whom I have believed, and that He is able to keep that which I have entrusted to Him against that day.’ ‘Faithful is He that calleth me, who, also, will do it,’” and “everyone that hath this hope purifieth himself even as He is pure.” For think what must be the feelings of that man who, truly loving God, and desiring His presence, really believes that he shall spend an eternity with Him. “Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also.” On the other hand, we think it is equally clear that justification by inherent righteousness does not tend to holiness, because for love it substitutes fear; for humility, pride; for assurance, uncertainty. Such a doctrine may make ascetics, hermits, confessors, martyrs even--but never saints. (Abp. Magee.)
Faith alone the condition of justification
It is faith alone which justifies, and still the faith which justifies is not alone. Ears, feet, and hands are given to us at the same time that our eyes are, yet it is the office of the eye alone to see. In like manner repentance, love, obedience, are the invariable companions of faith; yet it is faith alone for which we claim the power and faculty of justifying. (J. Calvin.)
Justifying faith
I. Without works.
1. Faith is a condition of justification opposed to man’s own righteousness which is of the law.
(1) Faith acknowledges that the legal, proper, primitive sense of the term justify, as the pronouncing him to be righteous who is righteous, is forever out of the question.
(a) As to the law: it has been broken, and its condemnation is acknowledged; it demands an obedience that never has been rendered since the fall.
(b) Then as to man himself, faith renounces all trust in human ability. It utterly abjures the thought of a righteousness springing from self. It acknowledges past sin, present impotence, and the impossibility of any future obedience cancelling the past (Gal_2:16). It disclaims all creaturely righteousness as such; the nullity of this is taught by conviction, felt in repentance, and confessed in faith.
(2) Hence the specific Evangelical phrase, “Faith is counted for righteousness.” This implies the absence of personal righteousness, and the reckoning of a principle, not righteousness, in its stead by a kind of substitution. In its stead: not as rendering good works needless, but displacing them forever as the ground of acceptance. Therefore faith does not justify as Containing the germ of all good works; as “fides formata charitate,” or faith informed and vivified by love. Not justifying through any merit in itself, it justifies as the condition on which is suspended the merciful application of the merits of Christ. Faith is not righteousness, as justifying; it is “put to the account” of a man in the mediatorial court as righteousness; not as a good work, but reckoned instead of the good works which it renounces. Lest the faith as itself a work should be regarded as righteousness the apostle varies the expression. He also says again and again inversely that righteousness--not, however, Christ’s--is imputed to the believer; not to faith itself, as if God regarded the goodness wrapped up in it (Rom_4:6; Rom_4:22; Rom_4:24). It is the man, in the naked simplicity of his self-renouncing, work-renouncing trust in God on whom the sentence of justification is pronounced.
(3) Imputation or reckoning has two meanings; the ascribing to one his own and what is not his own. The latter predominates in the three great theological imputations; that of the sin of Adam to the race, that of the race to Christ, and that of the benefit of Christ’s righteousness to the believer, as through the imputation of “one man’s disobedience many were made sinners” (verse 19), and as “the Lamb of God bore the sin of the world,” “being made sin for us” by imputation as a sin offering “who knew no sin,” so the ungodly who in penitence believes has the efficacy of Christ’s obedience reckoned to him.
(4) This faith as a negative condition is of the operation of the Holy Ghost. He enables the soul to renounce every other trust. He convinces the mind of guilt and impotence; awakens in the heart the feeling of emptiness and longing desire; and so moves the will to reject every other confidence than Christ. But, though the influence of the Spirit produces it, it is so far only negative--a preparation for good rather than itself good.
2. Faith is the active instrument as well as the passive condition of justification.
(1) It is its instrumental cause; the originating being God’s love; the meritorious, Christ’s atoning obedience; the efficient, the Holy Ghost.
(2) Its object is God in Christ. In this as in all, “I and My Father are one.” Yet the specific object is not God absolutely, nor Christ in His revelation generally, but Christ as the mediatorial representative of sinners, and God as accepting the atonement for man (Act_16:31; Gal_2:16). In two ways this Epistle describes God as the object. Rom_4:5 implies what had preceded (Rom_3:25-26); and in relation to His resurrection (Rom_4:24). But the God of our whole redemption in Christ is the object of faith (Joh_3:16; Rom_8:32; Rom_8:11). He is the One God of the One Christ.
(3) It is never said that we are justified “on account of” faith, but “through” faith. Faith as the act of the soul by which it unites itself with the Lord, makes the virtue of His merit its own. It apprehends Christ and His atonement; ascribing all to Him, it receives all from Him.
(4) Faith is not assurance; but assurance is its reflex act. The same Spirit who inspires faith--which is alone (and without assurance) the instrument of salvation--ordinarily and always, sooner or later, enables the believer to say, “He loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal_2:20; Eph_1:13).
(5) Faith, whether receptive or active, is an exercise of the human heart under the influence of the Holy Spirit through His actual revelation of Christ to the soul, the eyes of which are at the same moment opened. The unveiling of the Saviour and the unveiling of the sight to behold the Lamb of God in one and the same critical moment is the sufficing definition of saving trust. And at the same moment the active energy and passive renunciation of saving faith are, brought to the perfection of their unity.
II. Faith and works.
1. The works of faith declare the life and reality of the faith which justifies. Those works did not declare its genuineness at first when forgiveness was received (Rom_4:6; Rom_4:13); but afterwards and to retain that justification its works must absolutely be produced (Jam_2:18; Jam_2:21; Jam_2:24). In the whole sequel after receiving Christ, a man is justified not by faith only--which in this connection is no faith at all--but by faith living in its works (Jam_2:26)Here is the origin of the term living or lively faith; it is remarkable, however, that the invigorating principle is not from the faith to the works, but from the works to the faith.
2. The expression “living faith” suggests the vital relation of this subject to union with Christ. When St. Paul says “that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2Co_5:21), he means more than the non-imputation of sin. “That we might become”; our forensic justification being included of necessity, our moral conformity to the Divine righteousness cannot be excluded. These closing words are a resumption of the preceding paragraph, which ended with, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.” “The righteousness of God in Him” is the full realisation of the new method of conforming us to His attribute of righteousness. It is impossible to establish the distinction between “in Christ” for external, and “Christ in us” for internal righteousness; still the distinction may be used for illustration. We are “accepted in the Beloved,” “in whom we have redemption through His blood,” in order that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph_1:6-7; Eph_3:17), that His grace “may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” The vital union of faith secures both objects: our being reckoned as righteous because “found in Him,” and our being made righteous because He is in us as the Spirit of life and strength unto all obedience (Rom_8:2; Rom_8:4).
3. The justification of faith itself in and through its works, forms the Scriptural transition to internal and finished righteousness, which, however, is generally viewed as entire sanctification; improperly, however, if sanctification is regarded as finishing what righteousness leaves incomplete. To him who insists on bringing in the doctrine of sanctification to supplement as an inward work what in justification is only outward, St. James replies, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” (Jam_2:22). Here is the finished result of “faith which worketh by love” (Gal_5:6); that one and indivisible “work of faith” (1Th_1:3), in the assertion of which at the outset of his teaching St. Paul, by anticipation, declared his agreement with St. James. Both show that justifying faith in a consummate religion is “made perfect” in its effects; and both with reference to the law, as again Antinomian renunciation of it (see also Rom_8:4). If “righteousness is fulfilled in us,” that must be by our being “made righteous” while reckoned such. But always, whether at the outset where works are excluded, or in the Christian life when they are required, whether on earth or in heaven, justification will ever be the imputation of righteousness to faith. Works only declare faith to be genuine and living. This alone can secure eternal life to those who, though as holy as their Lord Himself, will be apart from Him and in the record of the past, sinners still (Jud_1:21). (W. B. Pope, D. D.)
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace with God
There is a peace which is not with God. A dull bovine contentment is the stagnancy of life, and not peace with God. Absence of conscience presenting lofty ideals and urging effort; and in place thereof a series of compromises with evil, making things easy all round, is not peace with God; it is the peace of the lowest organism. Peace with God is within the soul, the balmy, vital peace of the summer day, when the forces of Nature are working mightily with the repose of power, moving on without strain or care unto the harvest. Peace with God is:--
I. Peace with God’s retributive righteousness.
1. God’s laws are holy, just, and good. Disobedience ought, therefore, to be followed by punishment. And so the wrath of God, therefore, is revealed from heaven. Plainly is that wrath visible in the miseries of a dishonest and vicious society, in the life and doom of a Jezebel, a Caesar Borgia, or a Macbeth. But when the disobedience is manifested in a prudently selfish and godless life, the wrath is not so visible. Often such sinners, if they are clever, have little trouble. Most, however, who are not reconciled to God are uneasy and apprehensive. They feel at times as if some doom were on their track, now and again life feels like a prison, and in death they have no hope. The feeling of the fugitive and of the prisoner is the retributive providence of God, a foreshadowing of the judgment to come.
2. How, then, can transgressors be at peace with this retributive righteousness of God? Only by being justified through our Lord Jesus Christ, Now what is the right position for us to take up to God taking this gracious position to us? Plainly, to repent of the sin and to accept the forgiveness He thus offers. Taking this position, God justifies us--i.e., He acquits us from all penalty, and He declares us to be right with God. God is for us; who then can be against us? We are no longer as a fugitive pursued; we are at the feet of God, accepted as a child returned home; we are in right relations, and no soul can have peace till it is right.
II. Peace with God’s revealed truth; that is, that God is the Heavenly Father, that Jesus is His Christ and Son, who died for sin, and rose again.
1. How many in this day have not peace? Some are in honest doubt concerning it, but do not oppose it. Others, however, go to geology for stones to throw at it, to biology for theories to discredit it, to physical law as a great engine against it, and when fighting it forget their philosophic calm and their scientific modesty. Some raise a prejudice against it by holding up its professors to ridicule or by making merry with some of its facts. Accompanying this army is a motley crowd of camp followers, old sinners and thoughtless youths, the disappointed and the bitter, lacking courage for the fight, and caring not for the victory, but for the spoils--greater freedom for evil. Then, at a safe distance, is a great company of onlookers, not knowing which side to take. These are not to be envied. They who are definitely opposed have, it may be, a certain intellectual peace; they are not troubled with doubt, but their peace is not a peace with God. But they who doubtfully watch the fight are to be sympathised with. To be swung this way by this argument, then that way by that argument, and to feel, pendulum-like, no approach to the hour when the mind shall strike the truth, is a restless, painful state of mind. Being justified, we are delivered from such dispeace.
2. It is faith, and faith only, which can give certainty to our faith of the truth. Being justified, then, by faith, we have no doubt, no strife as to the truth of the truth. As our conscience has had peace with God by our being put right with God, so now our intellect has peace with God’s revealed truth by being assured of that truth.
III. Peace with God’s holy commandment. In commandment I include both God’s purpose and precept for our life.
1. There are works of fiction which have been written by two authors. Of course they must have decided the plot and its details between them, and each mast have worked in harmony. But suppose each had had a plot of his own, and had wrought each part according to his own particular plot! In the working or writing of our lives there are two--ourselves and our God. God’s purpose is, “Seek first the kingdom of God,” etc. But the purpose of many is at war with this. It is, “Seek first the other things, and then, if you can, add God and religion unto them.” Absorbed in their own selfish purpose, they forget the purpose of God. Consequently, in their lives there are strife, dispeace.
2. The whole question of keeping God’s commandment is simply a question of disposition, as the whole question of justification is simply a question of position with God. Love is good disposition, and love is the fulfilling of the law. Being justified by faith, we receive this disposition. Believing in this position of God toward us, we see His infinite love. Hence there is peace within--peace with the holy commandment; we want to fulfil it, we strive to fulfil it; it is no longer to us a task; it is a delight, and the burden is when we fail through weakness to fulfil it.
IV. Peace with God’s disciplinary providence.
1. Even where the purpose of our life is at one with God’s and we love His precepts, there fall
