Article in British and Foreign Evangelical Review, July, 1880.
(Continued from page 165.)
3. Observe, “the sinner that believeth.”
For there is manifestly a third new principle required, in order that this justification by sovereign grace through imputed righteousness may take effect, may actually take effect in each separate instance. The whole world is not justified en masse, simply because there is a source of justification in the grace of God and a ground of justification in the suretyship of Christ. Personally and individually, one by one, each for himself, must sinful men come under the operation of these principles if they are to enjoy actual justification before God. And what, it may be asked, is actual justification before God. And what, it may be asked, is it that brings one and not another, that brings some and not all; what is it that brings any into contact or connection with the grace which is the origin of this privilege, or the righteousness which is the foundation of it? Evidently there is necessity for some third new principle, not requisite, and indeed inadmissible, in the justification of the holy and unfallen. It is the principle of Faith:—Faith, by which, as an act and habit of the heart, the sinner appeals to the grace of God; by which, as by a mental spiritual instrument, the sinner appropriates the righteousness of Christ.
And it is evident that this personal and appropriating faith on the sinner’s part is required on God’s part not by a mere arbitrary decree, any more than his own act of grace is a mere arbitrary and groundless deliverance. In the very nature of the case faith is requisite in order that this justification by grace may actually take effect. For it must take effect and terminate in the sinner’s own conscience. It must so transpire and be enacted there, as that he may be free from guilt in his conscience—free from all sentence, prosecution, and condemnation there. But a justification thus taking effect in the inmost spiritual being of an intelligent responsible subject of the divine government—the first condition and commencement of his intelligent friendship with God—cannot possibly accomplish its own design, save where it is understood and acquiesced in, where it is embraced and rested on, where it is intelligently appreciated, appealed to, and appropriated by the individual. But to do this is the very office of faith. Without faith therefore it is impossible to be justified before God, impossible to please God, or to be pleasing and accepted in His sight. Without faith, transferring the soul and all its confidence to the new foundation laid in Zion, to the atoning, accepted substitute, it is impossible to have any personal interest in the new righteousness of justification. Without faith confiding in the grace and free promise of God, it is impossible to lean on the new righteousness which is itself the provision and the gift of grace. Without faith, the sinner stands alone, and aloof from the Lord our righteousness; and not being in him as the Lord his righteousness, the imputation of righteousness to such an one on God’s part would be a mere fiction or mistake; he remains, therefore, destitute of righteousness, unjustified, condemned. So indispensable is faith as a means of bringing the sinner into the grace of justification, and under the ministration or imputation of its righteousness.
Here, then, is the third principle introduced, namely, Faith; securing the connection of the individual with the ground of justification, which is the righteousness of Christ, and with the source of justification, which is the grace of God.
Here we may pause with advantage, and notice in the light of these remarks the different senses in which Holy Scripture attributes our justification to three different causes—distinct yet conspiring—distinct and therefore conspiring.
(1) In the first place, we are said to be justified by the grace of God, as in Romans iii, 24: “Being justified freely by his grace.” For being, as sinners, under the righteous wrath of God, our justification in such circumstances must be an act of eminent and singular, of free and unfettered grace. Its very origin must be in grace. Its very possibility, its very idea or conception, pre-supposes grace. We are justified by grace as the originating cause.
(2) In the second place, we are said to be justified by the righteousness or obedience of Christ, including of course, his death, as the most eminent act of his obedience, as in Romans v, 19: “By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” For, being destitute of all righteousness ourselves, and justice demanding a perfect satisfaction and impregnable title ere it remit the sentence of death, and confer the reward of life, and Jesus in our room bearing the curse, and bringing in the righteousness to which God has regard in justifying us, we are thus justified by the righteousness of Christ as the procuring cause.
(3) And, thirdly, we are said to be justified by faith, as in Romans v, 1: “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,” or in Gal. ii, 16: “A man is justified by the faith of Jesus Christ,” and the reason is that faith as an instrument embraces and pleads the righteousness of Christ, and appeals and gives glory to the grace of God. We are justified by faith, as the instrumental cause.
Thus do these three causes—the originating cause, the procuring cause, the instrumental cause—conspire, each in its own place, and for its own end, to put us in possession of a merciful and holy, a pleasurable and sure justification. We attribute all to the grace of God alone, as its source. We rest all on the righteousness of Christ alone, as the sure and sufficient ground. We hold all in actual possession by faith, and faith alone.
Thus much for the sketch we proposed to give of the three principles inevitably introduced into justification, if it is to be the justification of one worthy of death.
(To be continued.)