The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

(Continued from page 54).

IN confirmation of the point stressed in the concluding paragraphs of our first article on this subject we were impressed with a statement made by Dr. James Buchanan in his important work The Doctrine of Justification and we are taking the liberty of quoting it at length for the benefit of our readers. “The best preparation for the study of this doctrine,” says Dr. Buchanan, “is, neither great intellectual ability, nor much scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. A deep conviction of sin is the one thing needful in such an inquiry, a conviction of the fact of sin, as an awful reality in our own personal experience, of the power of sin, as an inveterate evil cleaving to us continually, and having its roots deep in the innermost recesses of our hearts, and of the guilt of sin past as well as present, as an offence against God, which, once committed can never cease to be true of us individually, and which, however He may be pleased to deal with it, has deserved His wrath and righteous indignation. Without some such conviction of sin, we may speculate on this, as on any other part of divine truth, and bring all the resources of our intellect and learning to bear upon it, but can have no suitable sense of our actual danger, and no serious desire of deliverance from it. To study the subject with advantage, we must have a heartfelt interest in it, as one that bears directly on the salvation of our own souls; and this interest can only be felt in proportion as we realise our guilt, and misery, and danger, as transgressors of God’s Law. The Law is still, as it was in the Jewish Church, ‘a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith’; and the Law must be applied to the conscience, so as to quicken and arouse it, before we can feel our need of salvation, or make any serious effort to attain it. It is the convinced, and not the careless, sinner, who alone will lay to heart, with some sense of its real meaning and momentous importance, the solemn question: ‘How shall a man be just with God?’ But more than this. As, without some heartfelt conviction of sin, we could have no feeling of personal interest in the doctrine of Justification, such as is necessary to command our serious attention in the study of it, so we should be scarcely capable of understanding, in their full scriptural meaning, the terms of which it is proposed to us, or the testimonies by which alone it can be established. The doctrine of salvation, which is taught by the gospel, presupposes the doctrine of sin, which is taught by the law; and the two together constitute the sum and substance of God’s revealed truth. They are distinct, and even different, from each other; but they are so related that, while there may be some knowledge of sin without any knowledge of salvation, there can be no knowledge of salvation without some knowledge of sin. As this is true of the general doctrine of

salvation, which includes deliverance from the power, as well as from the punishment, of sin, so it is equally true of each of its constituent parts, the special doctrines of justification and sanctification, with this only difference, that, in the one case, we must have some knowledge of sin, in its legal aspect, as guilt already incurred; in the other, of sin, in its spiritual aspect, as an inveterate inherent depravity “(p. 222, 223).

Words in Season: Owen.

1. The more eminent in any season are the real effusions of the Holy Spirit upon ministers of the Gospel and disciples of Christ, the more diligence and watchfulness against delusions are necessary. For, on such opportunities, it is, when the use and reputation of spiritual gifts is eminent, that Satan doth lay hold to intrude his own deceitful suggestions.

2. There is nothing excellent among men, whether it be absolutely extraordinary, or whether it consist in an eminent improvement of those principles and abilities, but it is ascribed to the Holy Spirit of God as the immediate operator and efficient cause. Of old He was all; now some would have Him nothing.

3. The chiefest privilege of the Church of old was but to hear tidings of the things which we enjoy.

4. It was not merely His enduring the penalty of the law that was the means of our deliverance; but the voluntarily giving Himself up to be a sacrifice in those holy acts of obedience, was that upon which, in an especial manner, God was reconciled to us.

5. Great opportunity for service neglected, and great gifts not improved, are oftentimes the occasion of plunging the soul into great depths.

6. It is easy to follow a multitude to do evil. Would any one have thought it possible that such and such professors, in our days, should have fallen into ways of self, of flesh, and of the world? To play at cards, dice, revel, dance? To neglect family and closet duties? To be proud, haughty, ambitious, worldly, covetous, oppressive? Or that they should be turned away after foolish, vain, ridiculous opinions, deserting the Gospel of Christ?

7. Do not deceive yourselves; it is not an indifferent thing whether you will come to Christ upon His invitation or not; a thing which you may put off from one occasion unto another. Your present refusal of it is as high an act of enmity against God as your nature is capable of.