3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
3. Elements of Justification.These are two:A. Remission of punishment.(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”B. Restoration to favor.(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
These are two:
A. Remission of punishment.
(a) God acquits the ungodly who believe in Christ, and declares them just. This is not to declare them innocent,—that would be a judgment contrary to truth. It declares that the demands of the law have been satisfied with regard to them, and that they are now free from its condemnation.
Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”
Rom. 4:5—“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness”;cf.John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish”; see page856, (a), and Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:549.Rom. 5:1—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God”—not subjective peace or quietness of mind, but objective peace or reconciliation, the opposite of the state of war, in which we are subject to the divine wrath. Dale, Ephesians, 67—“Forgiveness may be defined: 1. inpersonalterms, as[pg 855]a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin; 2. inethicalterms, as a release from the guilt of sin which oppresses the conscience; 3. inlegalterms, as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death.”
(b) This acquittal, in so far as it is the act of God as judge or executive, administering law, may be denominated pardon. In so far as it is the act of God as a father personally injured and grieved by sin, yet showing grace to the sinner, it is denominated forgiveness.
Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!
Micah 7:18—“Who is a God like into thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?”Ps. 130:4—“But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayst be feared.”It is hard for us to understand God's feeling toward sin. Forgiveness seems easy to us, largely because we are indifferent toward sin. But to the holy One, to whom sin is the abominable thing which he hates, forgiveness involves a fundamental change of relation, and nothing but Christ's taking the penalty of sin upon him can make it possible. B. Fay Mills:“A tender spirited follower of Jesus Christ said to me, not long ago, that it had taken him twelve years to forgive an injury that had been committed against him.”How much harder for God to forgive, since he can never become indifferent to the nature of the transgression!
(c) In an earthly tribunal, there is no acquittal for those who are proved to be transgressors,—for such there is only conviction and punishment. But in God's government there is remission of punishment for believers, even though they are confessedly offenders; and, in justification, God declares this remission.
There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).
There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored thevis medicatrixof the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says:“I must pay my debt.”But the believer finds that“Jesus paid it all.”Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay.Ps. 34:22—“Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.”
A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re-established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father's forgiveness, however, will assure the father's help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.”As the Plymouth Brethren say:“It is not thesin-question, but theSon-question.”“Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more”(Heb. 10:17). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (Luke 15:22).
(d) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law's demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free.
Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”
Acts 13:38, 39—“Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him[lit.:‘in him’]every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses”;Rom. 3:24, 26—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus”;1 Cor. 6:11—“but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus”;Eph. 1:7—“in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”
This acquittal is not to be conceived of as the sovereign act of a Governor, but rather as a judicial procedure. Christ secures a new trial for those already condemned—a trial[pg 856]in which he appears for the guilty, and sets over against their sin his own righteousness, or rather shows them to be righteous in him. C. H. M.:“When Balak seeks to curse the seed of Abraham, it is said of Jehovah:‘He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel’(Num. 23:21). When Satan stands forth to rebuke Joshua, the word is:‘Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan ... is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?’(Zech. 3:2). Thus he ever puts himself between his people and every tongue that would accuse them.‘Touch not mine anointed ones,’he says,‘and do my prophets no harm’(Ps. 105:15).‘It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’(Rom. 8:33, 34).”It is not sin, then, that condemns,—it is the failure to ask pardon for sin, through Christ. Illustrate by the ring presented by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Essex. Queen Elizabeth did not forgive the penitent Countess of Nottingham for withholding the ring of Essex which would have purchased his pardon. She shook the dying woman and cursed her, even while she was imploring forgiveness. There is no such failure of mercy in God's administration.
Kaftan, in Am. Jour. Theology, 4:698—“The peculiar characteristic of Christian experience is the forgiveness of sins, or reconciliation—a forgiveness which is conceived as an unmerited gift of God, which is bestowed on man independently of his own moral worthiness. Other religions have some measure of revelation, but Christianity alone has the clear revelation of this forgiveness, and this is accepted by faith. And forgiveness leads to a better ethics than any religion of works can show.”
B. Restoration to favor.
(a) Justification is more than remission or acquittal. These would leave the sinner simply in the position of a discharged criminal,—law requires a positive righteousness also. Besides deliverance from punishment, justification implies God's treatment of the sinner as if he were, and had been, personally righteous. The justified person receives not only remission of penalty, but the rewards promised to obedience.
Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.
Luke 15:22-24—“Bring forth quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and make merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found”;John 3:16—“gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should ... have eternal life”;Rom. 5:1, 2—“Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”—“this grace”being a permanent state of divine favor;1 Cor. 1:30—“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
Gal. 3:6—“Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness”;Eph. 2:7—“the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”;3:12—“in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him”;Phil. 3:8, 9—“I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... the righteousness which is from God by faith”;Col. 1:22—“reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him”;Tit. 3:4, 7—“the kindness of God our Savior ... that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”;Rev. 19:8—“And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
Justification is setting one right before law. But law requires not merely freedom from offence negatively, but all manner of obedience and likeness to God positively. Since justification is in Christ and by virtue of the believer's union with Christ, it puts the believer on the same footing before the law that Christ is on, namely, not only acquittal but favor.1 Tim. 3:16—Christ was himself“justified in the spirit,”and the believer partakes ofhisjustification and of the whole of it,i. e., not only acquittal but favor.Acts 13:39—“in him every one that believeth is justified”i. e., in Christ;1 Cor. 6:11—“justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”;Gal. 4:5—“that we might receive the adoption of sons”—a part of justification;Rom. 5:11—“through whom we have now received the reconciliation”—in justification;2 Cor. 5:21—“that we might become the righteousness of God in him”;Phil. 3:9—“the righteousness which is from God by faith”;John 1:12—“to them gave he the right to become children of God”—emphasis on“gave”—intimation that the“becoming children”is not subsequent to the justification, but is a part of it.
Ellicott onTit. 3:7—“δικαιοθέντες,‘justified,’in the usual and more strict theological sense; not however as implying only a mere outward non-imputation of sin, but as involving a‘mutationem status,’an acceptance into new privileges, and an enjoyment of the benefits thereof (Waterland, Justif, vol. vi, p. 5); in the words of the same writer:[pg 857]‘Justification cannot be conceived without some work of the Spirit in conferring a title to salvation.’”The prisoner who has simply served out his term escapes without further punishment and that is all. But the pardoned man receives back in his pardon the full rights of citizenship, can again vote, serve on juries, testify in court, and exercise all his individual liberties, as the discharged convict cannot. The Society of Friends is so called, not because they are friends to one another, but because they regard themselves as friends of God. So, in the Middle Ages, Master Eckart, John Tauler, Henry Suso, called themselves the friends of God, after the pattern of Abraham;2 Chron. 20:7—“Abraham thy friend”;James 2:23—“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God”,i. e., one not merely acquitted from the charge of sin, but also admitted into favor and intimacy with God.
(b) This restoration to favor, viewed in its aspect as the renewal of a broken friendship, is denominated reconciliation; viewed in its aspect as a renewal of the soul's true relation to God as a father, it is denominated adoption.
John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.
John 1:12—“But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name”;Rom. 5:11—“and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation”;Gal. 4:4, 5—“born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons”;Eph. 1:5—“having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself”;cf.Rom. 8:23—“even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”—that is, this adoption is completed, so far as the body is concerned, at the resurrection.
Luther calledPsalms 32, 51, 130, 143,“the Pauline Psalms,”because these declare forgiveness to be granted to the believer without law and without works.Ps. 130:3, 4—“If thou, Jehovah, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared”is followed byverses 7, 8—“O Israel, hope in Jehovah; For with Jehovah there is lovingkindness, And with him is plenteous redemption. And he will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.”Whitefield was rebuked for declaring in a discourse that Christ would receive even the devil's castaways; but that very day, while at dinner at Lady Huntington's, he was called out to meet two women who were sinners, and to whose broken hearts and blasted lives that remark gave hope and healing.
(c) In an earthly pardon there are no special helps bestowed upon the pardoned. There are no penalties, but there are also no rewards; law cannot claim anything of the discharged, but then they also can claim nothing of the law. But what, though greatly needed, is left unprovided by human government, God does provide. In justification, there is not only acquittal, but approval; not only pardon, but promotion. Remission is never separated from restoration.
After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”
After serving a term in the penitentiary, the convict goes out with a stigma upon him and with no friends. His past conviction and disgrace follow him. He cannot obtain employment. He cannot vote. Want often leads him to commit crime again; and then the old conviction is brought up as proof of bad character, and increases his punishment. Need of Friendly Inns and Refuges for discharged criminals. But the justified sinner is differently treated. He is not only delivered from God's wrath and eternal death, but he is admitted to God's favor and eternal life. The discovery of this is partly the cause of the convert's joy. Expecting pardon, at most, he is met with unmeasured favor. The prodigal finds the father's house and heart open to him, and more done for him than if he had never wandered. This overwhelms and subdues him. The two elements, acquittal and restoration to favor, are never separated. Like the expulsion of darkness and restoration of light, they always go together. No one can have, even if he would have, an incomplete justification. Christ's justification is ours; and, as Jesus' own seamless tunic could not be divided, so the robe of righteousness which he provides cannot be cut in two.
Failure to apprehend this positive aspect of justification as restoration to favor is the reason why so many Christians have little joy and little enthusiasm in their religious lives. The preaching of the magnanimity and generosity of God makes the gospel“the power of God unto salvation”(Rom. 1:16). Edwin M. Stanton had ridden roughshod over Abraham Lincoln in the conduct of a case at law in which they had been joint counsel.[pg 858]Stanton had become vindictive and even violent when Lincoln was made President. But Lincoln invited Stanton to be Secretary of War, and he sent the invitation by Harding, who knew of all this former trouble. When Stanton heard it, he said with streaming eyes:“Do you tell me, Harding, that Mr. Lincoln sent this message to me? Tell him that such magnanimity will make me work with him as man was never served before!”
(d) The declaration that the sinner is restored to God's favor, has its ground, not in the sinner's personal character or conduct, but solely in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Thus Christ's work is the procuring cause of our justification, in both its elements. As we are acquitted on account of Christ's suffering of the penalty of the law, so on account of Christ's obedience we receive the rewards of law.
All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.
All this comes to us in Christ. We participate in the rewards promised to his obedience:John 20:31—“that believing ye may have life in his name”;1 Cor. 3:21-23—“For all things are yours; ... all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”Denovan, Toronto Baptist, Dec. 1883, maintains that“grace operates in two ways: (1) for therebelit provides a scheme ofjustification,—this is judicial, matter of debt; (2) for thechildit provides pardon,—fatherly forgiveness on repentance.”Heb. 7:19—“the law made nothing perfect ... a bringing in thereupon of a better hope, through which we draw nigh unto God.”This“better hope”is offered to us in Christ's death and resurrection. The veil of the temple was the symbol of separation from God. The rending of that veil was the symbol on the one hand that sin had been atoned for, and on the other hand that unrestricted access to God was now permitted us in Christ the great forerunner. Bonar's hymn,“Jesus, whom angel hosts adore,”has for its concluding stanza:“'T is finished all: the veil is rent. The welcome sure, the access free:—Now then, we leave our banishment, O Father, to return to thee!”See pages 749 (b), 770 (h).
James Russell Lowell:“At the devil's booth all things are sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay: Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking; 'T is heaven alone that is given away, 'T is only God may be had for the asking.”John G. Whittier:“The hour draws near, howe'er delayed and late, When at the Eternal Gate, We leave the words and works we call our own, And lift void hands alone For love to fill. Our nakedness of soul Brings to that gate no toll; Giftless we come to him who all things gives, And live because he lives.”
H. B. Smith, System of Christian Doctrine, 523, 524—“Justification and pardon are not the same in Scripture. We object to the view of Emmons (Works, vol. 5), that‘justification is no more nor less than pardon,’and that‘God rewards men for their own, and not Christ's, obedience,’for the reason that the words, as used in common life, relate to wholly different things. If a man is declared just by a human tribunal, he is not pardoned, he is acquitted; his own inherent righteousness, as respects the charge against him, is recognized and declared. The gospel proclaims both pardon and justification. There is no significance in the use of the word‘justify,’if pardon be all that is intended....
“Justification involves what pardon does not, a righteousness which is the ground of the acquittal and favor; not the mere favor of the sovereign, but the merit of Christ, is at the basis—the righteousness which is of God. The ends of the law are so far satisfied by what Christ has done, that the sinner can be pardoned. The law is not merely set aside, but its great ends are answered by what Christ has done in our behalf. God might pardon as a sovereign, from mere benevolence (as regard to happiness); but in the gospel he does more,—he pardons in consistency with his holiness,—upholding that as the main end of all his dealings and works. Justification involves acquittal from all the penalty of the law, and the inheritance of all the blessings of the redeemed state. The penalty of the law—spiritual, temporal, eternal death—is all taken away; and the opposite blessings are conferred, in and through Christ—the resurrection to blessedness, the gift of the Spirit, and eternal life....
“If justification is forgiveness simply, it applies only to thepast. If it is also a title to life, it includes the future condition of the soul. The latter alone is consistent with the plan and decrees of God respecting redemption—his seeing the end from the beginning. The reason why justification has been taken as pardon is two-fold: first, itdoesinvolve[pg 859]pardon,—this is its negative side, while it has a positive side also—the title to eternal life; secondly, the tendency to resolve the gospel into an ethical system. Only our acts of choice as meritorious could procure a title to favor, a positive reward. Christ might remove the obstacle, but the title to heaven is derived only from what we ourselves do.
“Justification is, therefore, not a merely governmental provision, as it must be on any scheme that denies that Christ's work has direct respect to the ends of the law. Views of the atonement determine the views on justification, if logical sequence is observed. We have to do here, not with views of natural justice, but with divine methods. If we regard the atonement simply as answering the ends of a governmental scheme, our view must be that justification merely removes an obstacle, and the end of it is only pardon, and not eternal life.”
But upon the true view, that the atonement is a complete satisfaction to the holiness of God, justification embraces not merely pardon, or acquittal from the punishments of law, but also restoration to favor, or the rewards promised to actual obedience. See also Quenstedt, 3:524; Philippi, Active Obedience of Christ; Shedd, Dogm. Theol., 2:432, 433.