JUSTIFICATION

^[p. 16] JUSTIFICATION

Solid peace must be based upon the knowledge of God as the Justifier. Neither intensity of conviction, nor depth of repentance, nor striking experience, nor religious fervour, nor earnest service can give peace with God. There must be the knowledge of God as the Justifier, that is, in the blessed character of grace in which He reveals Himself in the gospel.

But to appreciate what God is as the Justifier we need to know that He has searched us and known us, that He understands our thought afar off, is acquainted with all our ways, and that there is not a word in our tongue that He does not know altogether. (See Psalm 139.) In short, we need to know

OUR NEED OF JUSTIFICATION.

It is a very solemn thing for any of us to face the fact that we have passed under the searching eye of God, and that our every thought is exposed before Him. I suppose we have all, like the Psalmist, wished to evade the searchings of God. “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Psalm 139: 7 - 12).

A natural man cannot bear the thought of being searched by God; he cannot bear to think of being found out in his true character. But to a truly exercised soul it is a positive comfort to be assured that God knows everything about us;

^[p. 17] He knows the very worst about us that can ever be discovered. If God has thoughts of blessing concerning us, He has formed those thoughts notwithstanding His perfect knowledge of what we are. He has searched out all that we are, and in spite of all He has thoughts of blessing concerning us. There is, therefore, no fear of anything coming to light that might cause Him to change or reverse His thoughts of blessing.

That God knows our state thoroughly we may discover Take the following verses, for by reading Romans 3. example:

“We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are ALL UNDER SIN; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one ... . What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and ALL THE WORLD MAY BECOME SUBJECT TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD” (margin). “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin ... . There is no difference: for ALL HAVE SINNED, AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD” (Romans 3: 9 - 23).

These are sweeping and comprehensive statements. They are too plain to be misunderstood; and it is impossible for any sober-minded person to regard them with levity or indifference. They do not assert that Adam’s children are all alike as to sinful actions, but they do declare that all are alike “under sin”, “subject to the judgment of God”, and “come short of the glory of God”. The root-principle from which every sinful action proceeds is the same in every man, woman, and child of Adam’s race. It would be difficult to find two lives that were exactly alike outwardly, but when we pass beneath the surface and consider man’s state before God, we find “there is no difference”. This being the case,

^[p. 18] JUSTIFICATION is an absolute necessity for us if we are to be in the way of blessing at all.

Having realized this, we are prepared to learn that

THE SOURCE OF JUSTIFICATION

must be entirely outside man, and altogether of divine grace. It is very striking that in the Psalm already referred to (139), after the full exposure of man’s thoughts and ways, the Psalmist turns to God and says, “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand” (verses 17,18).

All blessing is the outcome of the thoughts of God, and those thoughts are “to usward” (Psalm 40: 5); they are thoughts of blessing for man. In spite of what man is, it is the thought of God to bless him. The gospel is the revelation of the thoughts of God, and it presents God to us as the Justifier; it is the thought of God to have men justified. So we read, “Being justified freely by his grace”; and again, “That he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”; and again, “It is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith”; and again, God is spoken of as “him that justifieth the ungodly” (Romans 3:24; Romans 3:26; Romans 3:30; Romans 4:5).

But it may be well, before proceeding farther, to read two or three scriptures which will give us some idea of

WHAT IT IS TO BE JUSTIFIED.

“In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve” (Jeremiah 50: 20). “He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel” (Numbers 23: 20, 21). “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4: 7, 8).

^[p. 19] These scriptures bring very clearly before us the fact that it is God’s mind to justify sinners, that is, to put away their iniquity and sins so as to clear them of all imputation, that He may be able to regard them according to His own thoughts of blessing for them. The more this grace is considered and apprehended, the more wonderful and attractive does it appear to the heart of an exercised sinner. Many would deny this grace, or, at any rate, rob our hearts of all enjoyment of it, by saying that it is impossible to know that our sins are forgiven, or to be sure that we are justified. But Scripture speaks distinctly of the “blessedness” of the justified man. There is not much blessedness in uncertainty, not much happiness in the heart of an exercised man who does not know whether he is justified or not. David, at any rate, was in no uncertainty when he described “the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works”, for he said plainly, “Thou forgavest the iniquity of my SIN” (Psalm 32: 5).

The believer’s iniquities are forgiven, and his sins are covered. This is the unvarying testimony of the Holy Ghost. (See Acts 10:43; Acts 13:38, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 1:14, Colossians 2:13; Hebrews 10:12 - 18; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2: 12; Revelation 1:5.)

Then, further, the justified man is one “to whom the Lord will not impute sin”. It is a settled thing in the mind of God, the outcome of His own grace on the righteous ground of the death of Christ, that He will not put sin to the account of the believer. “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel”. The believer is accounted by God to be clear of iniquity, sin, imperfection, inconsistency, and of all the unsuitability to God which attaches to him as a sinner in this world.

But the consideration of this at once awakens the question, How can this be accomplished in righteousness; that is, in consistency with what God is and with all His attributes?

^[p. 20] for we read in Scripture that He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34: 7). The nature and attributes of God make it imperative that holy judgment should come upon sin, and yet it is the thought of His grace to justify the ungodly. Here we are confronted with a problem which only divine wisdom and love could solve, a problem which has found its solution, to God’s eternal praise and glory, in the death of Christ, which is

THE RIGHTEOUS GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION.

If we are “justified freely by his grace”, it is “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. The extreme penalty has passed upon all alike. “The wages of sin is death”. “And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 6: 23; Romans 5:12). The righteousness of God must be against sin, but in the death of Christ we see that righteousness declared in such a way that it becomes the foundation of blessing. God has expressed His judgment of sin in the fullest way without touching a hair of the sinner’s head. Nothing could show God’s hatred of sin so much as the fact that Christ has died to bear its judgment, while the fact that He has died has established the righteousness of God in relation to all His actings of grace. The one who was chief of sinners may go into glory on the ground of that death; forgiveness of sins may be proclaimed to the guilty and perishing millions of Adam’s race; and not even Satan can say that God is unrighteous in His ways of grace.

We can see God’s way of dealing with sin in the death of Christ. We see all that is due to God in respect of sin maintained in that death; in a word, we see His righteousness there. But it is all in our favour. We can fall in with God’s righteousness, with God’s way of dealing with sin, and find that it secures our blessing for ever. On the ground of the death of Christ, God is as righteous in justifying the ungodly sinner who believes in Jesus as He will be righteous in condemning everyone who has not “faith in his blood”. We must learn God’s righteousness either in grace or in judgment. The believer learns it in the death of Christ; the unbeliever will learn it at the great white throne. Apart from the precious blood of Christ, the whole weight of God’s righteousness must be against us. Thank God, that blood is available for us; we may by faith come under its cleansing efficacy and sheltering power; and then “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ” is upon us, making our blessing eternally sure.

We are justified in virtue of a work of atonement in which God has been glorified in righteousness as to the whole question of sin. The result of God searching man’s thoughts is that all the world is found to be subject to His holy judgment. But in wondrous and blessed contrast to this we see the manifestation of God’s thoughts of blessing in the fact that Christ has in love become subject to the judgment which lay upon man. In His death the righteousness of God is fully set forth, for therein sin has been judged in the most absolute way. But at the same time the way in which this judgment of sin has come about gives expression to the infinite love of God, for the judgment has been borne by One who came into it as sent and moved by divine love.

At the cross we see Christ in the place and under the judgment of the guilty sinner. The “guilty” has not been “cleared”; on the contrary, judgment has come upon him to the uttermost, but in the person of One who has borne that judgment in love. Nothing attaches to man as a child of Adam but SINS, and he justly lies under the condemnation of DEATH. But God has been so glorified in the death of Christ that His righteousness is “unto all”. That is, it is presented in the gospel to every creature under heaven as the only way and ground of blessing for sinners. God is approaching men in boundless grace according to the value of the death of Christ. He is not now in the attitude of a ^[p. 22] Judge, but a Justifier, and the death of Christ enables Him to be righteously in this attitude. He can approach men according to His own appreciation of the death of Christ, and according to all its meaning and value as known by Him. God is free to give effect to His own thoughts of blessing, and to declare Himself a Justifier and a Saviour-God. He is One “that justifieth the ungodly”. And when a sinner believes the testimony of God’s grace he is justified. He has faith in the blood of Christ, and God regards him as being under cover of the death of Christ. If God regards a man according to the efficacy of the death of Christ, how much of his ungodliness and guilt is left? Absolutely none! His state and all the guilt that attached to it have received their just condemnation in that wondrous death. The ungodly man who believes God is justified because God can regard him as being under cover of Christ’s death, as being entirely removed in that death, with all the iniquity that attached to him. It is a perfect and blessed clearance, that leaves no disturbing element behind.

Having thus seen something of what justification is, we may now briefly consider

THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH ALONE WE MAY BE JUSTIFIED.

The clear and simple statements of Romans 4 leave no uncertainty as to this. But, in the first place, we are warned against five roads which do not lead to justification.

1. This great blessing comes not by natural descent. It was not enough for the Jew to be descended from Abraham. He must needs walk in the steps of Abraham’s faith. Otherwise he would find himself among those “children of the kingdom” who “shall be cast out into outer darkness” (Matthew 8: 12). See Romans 4: 11 - 18. It is a great privilege to be a child of believing parents, but this will not justify.

2. Nor can we be justified by the law. For, if so, faith would be “made void, and the promise made of none effect” (Romans 4: 14). The law has the opposite effect to justifying — it “worketh wrath” (4: 15) — and in Romans 3: 20 we are plainly told that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin”. In another part of Scripture we read that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse”, and “that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them” (Galatians 3: 10 - 12).

3. It is equally impossible to be justified by works of any kind. Thus boasting is excluded, and all the pretensions of man set aside. (See Romans 3: 27; Romans 4: 2 - 4.) It is the faith of “him that worketh not” that is counted to him for righteousness. God imputes to the believer “righteousness without works” (Romans 4: 5, 6).

4. Nor have ordinances any part in this matter of justification. It was “not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision”, that “faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness” (Romans 4: 9 - 11). Neither baptism nor the Lord’s supper confers any saving grace or benefit. To suppose that they do is an awful perversion of those sacred institutions, and a soul-destroying delusion.

5. Finally, it might be urged that, at any rate, a man must be godly and pious before God would justify him. But the Scripture before us will not allow that this is the case. It is expressly said that God “justifieth the UNGODLY” (Romans 4: 5). So that it is neither by natural descent, nor of the law, nor by works, nor through ordinances, nor because of our piety, that we are justified. “Therefore we conclude that a man is”

“JUSTIFIED BY FAITH”,

without cause or merit in himself of any kind (Romans 3: 28). And three statements in Romans 4 will, I trust, make clear to us the nature of the faith that justifies: — 1. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (verse 3).

2. “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (verse 5).

3. “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed” (or counted) “to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed” (or counted), “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (verses 23 - 25).

It is well that we should ponder the deeply instructive illustration of faith which is here presented so prominently. Abraham was childless, and, according to nature, beyond the possibility of having seed, when God “brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be” (Genesis 15: 5). If Abraham had thought of himself, he would have said, “This is impossible”. But his eye was altogether turned from himself To GOD. There are no difficulties or impossibilities with GOD, and “Abraham believed GOD”. The thing promised was wholly outside the range of sight, reason, and experience. In fact, it was outside the course of nature altogether, and could only be brought about in the power of resurrection. The God in whom he believed was the “God who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were”.

Now the justification of an ungodly man is as great an impossibility, if you leave God out, as the birth of Isaac or the resurrection of a dead man. If we ask in the sphere of reason and nature, “Can a dead man be raised?” the answer would be “Impossible!” In the same sphere it is just as impossible for an ungodly man to be justified. But with God nothing is impossible, and He has raised One from the dead, and He does justify the ungodly sinner who believes ^[p. 25] on Him as the One who has done this. What a comfort and joy to the heart of a convicted sinner to know that God “justifieth the ungodly”! Do you believe on Him in this character? If so, your “faith is counted for righteousness”. Truly this makes nothing of us, but it makes much of God and of His wondrous grace, by which we are justified freely.

Mark this well, that righteousness shall be imputed to us “if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification”. This brings us to the consideration of

THE MEASURE AND CHARACTER OF JUSTIFICATION,

as set forth in Christ risen. The righteousness which God imputes to the believer is set forth in Jesus our Lord. He is for ever beyond the range of sin, law, judgment, and death, in absolute and eternal suitability to God, and to that new world which He has entered as raised from the dead. And HE IS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF EVERY BELIEVER. Our justification is set forth in CHRIST. Hence we are “justified by faith”. If we were justified in ourselves there would be no need for faith; it is because we are justified in Another that faith comes in. “In him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13: 39). If we look at ourselves, we see much that will not do for God; but if we look at our risen Saviour, we see nothing but perfect and eternal suitability to God. And all that is set forth in HIM is put to the account of the believer. We have been divested by His death of every spot and stain of sin, and now we see in HIM the perfection of the righteousness with which we are invested in the eyes of God. HE is our righteousness, and as we apprehend and appropriate Him thus we are “justified by faith”.

In the death of Christ we see the end of one order of things, and in His resurrection we see the beginning of another. Morally there was nothing connected with us but “offences”,

^[p. 26] and Christ went into death to remove all that by bearing its judgment, that thus He might bring to an end before God an order of things in which nothing but iniquity, transgression, and sin were found. But in His resurrection we see MAN introduced to an entirely new position, placed, as we have said, beyond death and judgment, and outside the range of sin and the law, in perfect and eternal suitability to the pleasure of God. That this is absolutely true of Christ no believer would think for a moment of doubting. But it is an immense thing to see that He has been raised again with a view to God’s thoughts concerning us — He has been raised “for our justification”. And if we would learn the character of the righteousness which is imputed to us by God, we must look at that risen One. We are identified before God — that is, in the mind of God — with all the perfection of Christ. Christ is made unto us righteousness.

Now what is the effect of the soul’s apprehension of this by faith? Cloudless and everlasting peace. Every question is settled. Satan cannot touch our Lord Jesus Christ. He can never bring a spot or a cloud on the acceptance of that blessed One. And HE is our righteousness. We have come into the knowledge of what God Himself has effected that He might carry out His own thoughts of blessing to usward. He has taken everything into account, and has cleared away in holy judgment all that we were in our sins that He might impute righteousness to us. And the measure and character of that righteousness is set forth in Christ risen.

The soul that is thoroughly established thus in the grace of God is prepared to go further, and to learn something of what is meant by

“JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE”.

“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5: 18, 19). The Holy Ghost is here contrasting Adam and Christ as heads of races. According to nature we have derived character and constitution from Adam, but according to grace we derive a new moral character and constitution from Christ. Adam committed “one offence”, and its effect has extended to all his race “to condemnation”, for “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (verse 12). We have derived by natural descent a constitution of sin from Adam. By the disobedience of one man the many connected with him have been constituted sinners. But as believers we derive, in a spiritual way, a new moral constitution from Christ. The idea may be a little difficult to grasp for any who have not considered it, but it is in itself very simple and blessed, and will amply repay any prayerful meditation that may be given to it.

Christ has accomplished righteousness, and His “one righteousness” is “towards all men for justification of life”. The death of Christ, regarded from this point of view, has a very wide scope; it is “towards all men”. It is on God’s part the great setting forth to men of righteousness, of the true desert of sin, and of the holy judgment of God, and this withal in absolute grace. God would have men to learn righteousness in the death of Christ — that is, in the way of unmingled grace — that they may derive a new moral constitution from Christ, and have “justification of life”. By a new moral constitution I mean that the believer gets a true apprehension in his soul of righteousness according to God. The death of Christ sets forth that judgment must come upon all that we are as in the flesh, and the believer accepts this; yea, he rejoices in the fact that judgment has come upon him in the way of grace in the death of Christ. This is certainly a feature which could by no means be found in a natural ^[p. 28] man. All the lust, pride, and self-importance of man rebels against such a thought, but the believer, through grace, rejoices in it. He has an entirely new estimate of things — a divine estimate of sin and of righteousness. He recognizes that nothing attached to him as a man in the flesh but sin, and he rejoices to know that it has all been judged in the death of Christ. And, on the other hand, he loves to trace the moral beauty, the excellence, the perfection, of CHRIST as that alone which could be acceptable to God or appreciated by Him. He accepts the judgment which he once refused, and that which was once worthless in his eyes is now of inestimable value. He is thus “constituted righteous” as deriving morally from Christ. In short, he has acquired a new moral constitution by learning righteousness and love in the death of Christ, and by coming into the presence of all that grace and moral perfection which is set forth in the Lord Jesus Christ, all of which he enters into in the power of the Holy Ghost given to him to this end.

Hence the believer is not only accounted righteous, as we have seen before, but he is constituted righteous — he comes into “justification of life”. And the practical outcome of this is that he walks in self-judgment, and is taught by the grace of God to live “soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2: 12). He fulfils the righteous requirement of the law, and brings forth the fruit of the Spirit — “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”. It is well said that “against such there is now law” (Galatians 5: 22, 23). Such a one has “justification of life”.

In conclusion, I would like to refer briefly to a scripture which speaks of our being

JUSTIFIED BY WORKS:

James 2:17 - 26. If a man’s faith has no moral effect upon him, it is, as James says a “dead” faith. It has not really ^[p. 29] brought the light and blessing of God’s grace into his soul, and of what value is a faith which does not do this? But, on the other hand, it is important to see that the “works” by which a man is justified are not necessarily what men would call “good works” at all. The two examples given prove this very distinctly, for the first is that of Abraham offering up his son, and the second is that of Rahab betraying her country, neither of them very creditable things from man’s point of view. The works which justify are those works which FAITH produces, and which evidence that it is an operative principle in the soul of the believer, and not a mere assent to creeds and doctrines. Faith brings the knowledge of God into a man’s soul, and this makes him willing to give up what is naturally dear to him — his self-importance, his religious position and reputation in this world, and all the things in which he was most gratified as a natural man. It also breaks the power of those ties and associations which exist among men, and brings a man out of them to take his place with the people of God. Such are the works of faith, by which a man is justified.

There are many who assent to the doctrines of Christianity, or to the creeds of Christendom, and they call themselves “believers”. They would stoutly maintain, it may be, among other things, the doctrine of “justification by faith”. But their faith, such as it is, has no moral effect on them. It does not separate them from the world, or lead them to surrender what is gratifying to them as men in the flesh. They go on with their pleasures, their money-making, their hobbies and ambitions, and with all the social and political engagements of the world. Theirs is a faith without vitality — a faith which is worthless and “dead”. It is a very important truth, especially in days when the Christian faith is professed in some form by so many, that a man must be “justified by works”.