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Page 43
"Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."
CHAPTER XXI.
JUSTIFICATION.
Among all the doctrines of our holy Christian faith, the doctrine
of Justification by Faith alone, stands most prominent. Luther calls
it: "The doctrine of a standing or a falling church," _i.e._, as
a church holds fast and appropriates this doctrine she remains pure
and firm, and as she departs from it, she becomes corrupt and falls.
This doctrine was the turning point of the Reformation in the
sixteenth century. It was the experience of its necessity and efficacy
that made Luther what he was, and equipped him for a Reformer.
Naturally, therefore, it occupies the chief place in all our
Confessions, and is prominent in all the history of our Church.
In these chapters on the "Way of Salvation," it has been
_implied_ throughout. There is indeed no doctrine of salvation
that is not more or less connected with or dependent on this one.
Some time ago we noticed a statement of a certain bishop in a
large Protestant Church, declaring that "not Justification, but the
Divinity of Christ, is the great fundamental doctrine that conditions
the standing or falling of a church." At first sight this seems
plausible. But when we come to reflect, we cannot but see that the
true doctrine concerning the Person of Christ is not only implied, but
embraced in the doctrine of Justification by Faith. A man might be
sound on the Divinity of Christ, and yet not know aright the Way of
Salvation. But a man cannot be sound on Justification without being
sound, not only on the Person of Christ, but also on His work and the
Way of Salvation through Him.
So much has been written and preached in our Church on this
subject, that it is not necessary for us to enter upon a full
discussion here. We will endeavor, therefore, merely in outline, to
call attention to a few of its most prominent and practical features.
We inquire briefly into its meaning and nature. Justification is
an act of God, by which He accounts or adjudges a person righteous in
His sight. It is not a change in the person's nature, but it is a
change in his _standing_ in the sight of God. Before justification he
stands in the sight of God, guilty and condemned. Through
justification, he stands before God free from guilt and condemnation;
he is acquitted, released, regarded and treated as if he had never
been guilty or condemned. The justified person stands in the sight of
God, as if he really had never committed a sin and were perfectly
innocent. Thus it is clear that justification treats of and has regard
to the sinner's _relation_ to God. It has nothing to do with his
change of nature. It is of the utmost importance that this be kept
constantly in mind. It is by applying justification to the change in
the sinner's nature that so many become confused, and fall into
grievous and dangerous errors.
The original source, or moving cause of justification, is God's
love. Had God not "_loved the world_" there would have been no
divine planning or counseling for man's justification. Truly it
required a divine mind to originate a scheme by which God "_could be
just and yet justify the ungodly_." All the wisdom of the world
could never have answered the question: "_How can mortal man be just
with God_?"
Man stood, in the sight of God, as a rebel against His divine
authority, a transgressor of divine law, guilty, condemned, and wholly
unable to justify himself, or to answer for one in a thousand
offences. God had given His word that, because of guilt, there must be
punishment and suffering. This word was given before sin was
committed, and was repeated a thousand times afterwards. There must
then be obedience to an infinite law, or _infinite_ punishment
for transgression. How could this gulf be bridged, and man saved?
There was only one way. "_God so loved the world that He gave
His only-begotten Son._" That Son, "_the brightness of the
Father's glory and the express image of His person_," "_in whom
dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily_," came into our
world. He came to take the sinner's place--to be his substitute.
Though Lord and giver of the law, He put Himself under the law. He
fulfilled it in every jot and tittle. He did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Thus He worked out a complete and perfect
righteousness. He did not need this righteousness for Himself, for He
had a righteousness far above the righteousness of the law. He wrought
it out not for Himself, but for man, that He might make it over and
impute it to the transgressor. Thus then while man had no obedience of
his own, he could have the obedience of another set down to his
account, as though it were his own.
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