Let me tell you the marks of a justified person. And let each of you examine yourselves by them and see whether they can be found in you.
- The conscience of the person who has been justified before God has accused him that he has grossly transgressed all the commands of God, and that he has kept none of them, and is still inclined to all evil. He knows this, not merely from hearsay, but he looks back and sees that his whole life has been without God. Even now he sees clearly and plainly every evil inclination rise up in him against God and His ways and against his neighbour. This distresses him and affects him with shame and concern, and he earnestly desires only to find grace. This urges him to prayer and to seek God, so that, though he is such a vile wretch, he may find grace and mercy with God. See this in the publican (Lk 18:13,14).
1Taken, with editing, from VanderKemp’s sermons on The Heidelberg Catechism, vol 1. He was a Dutch minister who lived from 1664 to 1718.
- Such a person seeks his righteousness and pardon only in Christ. At first he seeks relief for his distressed heart in forsaking evil and doing good. But he is soon driven from this, for he sees that whatever he does is so mixed with sin that, the more he strives to do anything, the more his evil inclinations appear and the more distress of mind he experiences on account of them, until his soul, entirely perplexed, hears the good report of the ability and willingness of the Mediator. Whereupon, being driven out of himself, he turns to the Mediator, surrenders himself to Him, chooses and accepts of Him, that he may be justified by Him before the throne.
How exceedingly low does he now rate his virtues, although he once valued them so highly, and how has Jesus risen in his esteem! Like Paul he says with his whole heart: “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil 3:8,9).
- The person who is justified before God is also sanctified. These two benefits always accompany each other (see 1 Cor 6:11). “There is forgiveness with Thee [God], that Thou mayest be feared” (Ps 130:4). David also says that there is no guile in the spirit of the justified person (Ps 32:2). Indeed faith alone justifies, but it does not by itself prove that a person is justified unless he proves it by good works. James demonstrates this by the most forcible arguments (see Jas 2:14-26). It is the nature of the justified person to be holy. He knows, he hates and opposes the wicked inclinations of the old man; he knows and loves the holy will of God and seeks to do it, for this purpose he surrenders himself to the Lord; love to God has captivated his soul and urges him to conduct himself according to God’s will. He strives, with justified Paul, to be conformed to Christ and to be perfect (Phil 3:10-14).
The hallmark of a faithful minister is his giving to God all the glory of any work that he is enabled to do. That which does not magnify the Lord will not bless men. The humble are the least likely to make others stumble.
What is there about the resurrection that is incredible to the man who knows “the power of God”? Surely He who created all things by the word of His power can, by that same power, raise the dead in His own appointed time.
CH Spurgeon