Sixth Chapter. Justification
Sixth Chapter.
XXX.
Justification.
“Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”—Rom. iii. 24.
The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that true conversion consists of these two parts: the _dying _of the old man, and the _rising again _of the new. This last should be noticed. The Catechism says not that the new life _originates _in conversion, but that it _arises _in conversion. That which arises must exist before. Else how could it arise? This agrees with our statement that regeneration precedes conversion, and that by the effectual calling the newborn child of God is brought to conversion.
We now proceed to consider a matter which, tho belonging to the same subject and running parallel with it, yet moves, along an entirely different line, viz., Justification.
In the Sacred Scripture, justification occupies the most conspicuous place, and is presented as of greatest importance for the sinner: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. iii. 24). “Therefore, being _justified _by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. v. 1); “Who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our _justification” _ (Rom. iv. 25); “Who of God is made unto us from God, wisdom and _righteousness _and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. i. 30).
And not only is this so strongly emphasized by _Scripture, _but it was also the very kernel of the _Reformation, _which puts this doctrine of “justification by faith” boldly and clearly in opposition to the “meritorious works of Rome.” “Justification by faith” was in those days the shibboleth of the heroes of faith, Martin Luther in the van.
And when, in the present century, a self-wrought sanctification presented itself again, as the actual power of redemption, it was the not insignificant merit of Köhlbrugge, that he, tho less comprehensively than the reformers, fastened this matter of justification, with penetrating earnestness, upon the conscience of Christendom. It may have been superfluous for the churches still truly Reformed, but it was exceedingly opportune for the circles where the garland of truth was less closely woven, and the sense of justice had been allowed to become weak, as partially in our own country, but especially beyond our borders. There are in Switzerland and in Bohemia groups of men who have heard, for the first time, of the necessity of justification by faith, through the labors of Köhlbrugge.
Through the grace of God, our people did not go so far astray; and where the Ethicals, largely from principle, surrendered this point of doctrine, the Reformed did and do oppose them, admonishing them with all energy, and as often as possible, not to merge justification in sanctification.
Regarding the question, how _justification _differs, on the one hand, from “regeneration,” and, on the other, from “calling and conversion,” we answer that justification emphasizes the idea of right.
Right regulates the relations between two persons. Where there is but one there is no right, simply because there are no relations to regulate. Hence by _right _we understand either the right of man in relation to man, or the claim of God upon man. It is in this last sense that we use the word right.
The Lord is our Lawgiver, our judge, our King. Hence He is absolutely Sovereign: as Lawgiver determining what is right; as Judge judging our being and doing; as King dispensing rewards and punishments. This sheds light upon the difference between justification and regeneration. The new birth and the call and conversion have to do with our _being _as sinners or as regenerate men; but justification with the _relation _which we sustain to God, either as sinners or as those born again.
Apart from the question of right, the sinner may be considered as a sick person, who is infected and inoculated with disease. After being born again he improves, the infection disappears, the corruption ceases, and he prospers again. But this concerns his _person _alone, how he is, and what his prospects are; it does not touch the question of right.
The question of right arises when I see in the sinner a creature not his own, but _belonging _to another.
Herein is all the difference. If man is to me the principal factor, so that I have nothing else in view but his improvement and deliverance from misery, then the Almighty God is in this whole matter a mere Physician, called in and affording assistance, who receives His fee, and is discharged with many thanks. The question of right does not enter here at all. So long as the sinner is made more holy, all is well. Of course, if he is made perfect, all the better. Clearly understanding, however, that man belongs not to himself, but to another, the matter assumes an entirely different aspect. For then he can not _be _or do as he pleases, but another has determined what he must be and what he must do. And if he does or is otherwise, he is guilty as a transgressor: guilty because he rebelled, guilty because he transgressed.
Hence when I believe in the divine sovereignty, the sinner appears to me in an entirely different aspect. As infected and mortally ill, he is to be pitied and kindly treated; but considered as belonging to God, standing under God, and as having robbed God, that same sinner becomes a guilty transgressor.
This is true to some extent of animals. When I lasso a wild horse on the American prairies for training, it never enters my mind to punish him for his wildness. But the runaway in the city streets must be punished. He is vicious; he threw his rider; he refused to be led and chose his own way. Hence he needs to be punished.
And man much more so. When I meet him in his wild career of sin, I know that he is a rebel, that he broke the reins, threw his rider, and now dashes on in mad revolt. Hence such sinner must be not only healed, but _punished. _He does not need medical treatment alone, but before all things he needs juridical treatment.
Apart from his disease a sinner has done evil; there is no virtue in him; he has violated the right; he deserves punishment. Suppose, for a moment, that sin had not touched his person, had not corrupted him, had left him intact as a man, then there would have been no need of regeneration, of healing, of a rising again, of sanctification; nevertheless he would have been subject to the vengeance of justice.
Hence man’s case in relation to his God must be considered _juridically. _Be not afraid of that word, brother. Rather insist that it be pronounced with as strong an emphasis as possible. It must be emphasized, and all the more strongly, because for so many years it has been scorned; and the churches have been made to believe that this _“juridical” _aspect of the case was of no importance; that it was a representation really unworthy of God; that the principal thing was to bring forth fruit meet for repentance.
Beautiful teaching, gradually pushed into the world from the closet of philosophy: teaching that declares that morality included the right and stood far above the right; that “right” was chiefly a notion of the life of less civilized ages and of crude persons, but of no importance to our ideal age and to the ideal development of humanity and of individuals; yea, that in some respects it is even objectionable, and should never be allowed to enter into that holy and high and tender relation that exists between God and man.
The fruit of this pestilential philosophy is, that now in Europe the sense of right is gradually dying of slow consumption. Among the Asiatic nations this sense of right has greater vitality than among us. Might is again greater than right. Right is again the right of the strongest. And the luxurious circles, who in their atony (Ed. Note: Def. “lack of bodily tone or muscle tone”) of spirit at first protested against the _“juridical” _in _theology, _discover now with terror that certain classes in society are losing more and more respect for the “juridical” in the question of property. Even in regard to the possession of land and house, and treasure and fields, this new conception of life considers the “juridical” a less noble idea. Bitter satire! You who, in your wantonness, started the mockery of the “juridical“ in connection with God, find your punishment now in the fact that the lower classes start the mockery of this “juridical” in connection with your money and your goods. Yea, more than this. When recently in Paris a woman was tried for having shot and killed a man in court, not only did the jury acquit her, but she was made the heroine of an ovation. Here also other motives were deemed more precious, and the “juridical” aspect had nothing to do with it.
And, therefore, in the name of God and of the right which He has ordained, we urgently request that every minister of the Word, and every man in his place, help and labor, with clear consciousness and energy, to stop this dissolution of the right, with all the means at their disposal; and especially solemnly and effectually to restore to its own conspicuous place the juridical feature of the sinner’s relation to his God. When this is done, we shall feel again the stimulus that will cause the soul’s relaxed muscles to contract, rousing us from our semi-unconsciousness. Every man, and especially every member of the Church, must again realize his juridical relation to God now and forever; that he is not merely man or woman, but a creature belonging to God, absolutely controlled by God; and guilty and punishable when not acting according to the will of God.
This being clearly understood, it is evident that regeneration and calling, and conversion, yea, even complete reformation and sanctification, can not be sufficient; for, altho these are very glorious, and deliver you from sin’s stain and pollution, and help you not to violate the law so frequently, yet they do not touch your juridical relation to God.
When a mutinous battalion gets into serious straits, and the general, hearing of it, delivers them at the cost of ten killed and twenty wounded, who had not mutinied, and brings them back and feeds them, do you think that that will be all? Do you not see that such battalion is still liable to punishment with decimation? And when man mutinied against his God, and got himself into trouble and nearly perished with misery, and the Lord God sent him help to save him, and called him back, and he returned, can that be the end of it? Do you not clearly see that he is still liable to severe punishment? In case of a burglar who robs and kills, but in making his escape breaks his leg, and is sent to the hospital where he is treated, and then goes out a cripple unable to repeat his crime, do you think that the judge would give him his liberty, saying: “He is healed now and will never do it again”? No; he will be tried, convicted, and incarcerated. Even so here. Because by our sins and transgressions we have wounded ourselves, and made ourselves wretched, and are in need of medical help, is our guilt forgotten for this reason?
Why, then, are such undermining ideas brought among the people? Why is it that under the appearance of love a sentimental Christianity is introduced about the “dear Jesus,” and “that we are so sick,” and “the Physician is passing by,” and that “It is, oh! so glorious to be in fellowship with that holy Mediator”?
Are our people really ignorant of the fact that this whole representation stands diametrically opposed to Sacred Scripture—opposed to all that ever animated the Church of Christ and made it strong? Do they not feel that such a feeble and spongy Christianity is a clay too soft for the making of heroes in the Kingdom of God? And do they not see that the number of men who are drawn to the “dear Jesus” is much smaller now than that of the men who formerly were drawn to the _Mediator of the right, _who with His precious blood hath fully _satisfied _for all our sins?
And when it is answered, “That is just what we teach; reconciliation in His blood, redemption through His death! It is all paid for us! Only come and hear our preaching, and sing our hymns!” then we beseech the brethren who thus speak to be serious for a moment. For, behold, our objection is not that you deny the reconciliation through His blood, but that, by being silent on the question of God’s right, and of our state of condemnation, and by being satisfied when the people “only come to Jesus,” you allow the _consciousness of guilt _to wear out, you make genuine _repentance _impossible, you substitute a certain discontent with oneself for _brokenness of heart; _and thus you weaken the faculty to feel, to understand, and to realize what the meaning is of reconciliation through the blood of the cross.
It is quite possible to bring about reconciliation without touching the question of the right at all. By some misunderstanding two friends have become estranged, separated from, and hostile to each other. But they may be reconciled. Not necessarily by making one to see that he violated the rights of the other; this was perhaps never intended. And even if there was some right violated, it would not be expedient to speak of the past, but to cover it with the mantle of love and to look only to the future. And such reconciliation, if successful, is very delightful, and may have cost both the reconciled and the reconciler much of conflict and sacrifice, yea, prayers and tears. And yet, with all this, such reconciliation does not touch the question of right.
In this way it appears to us these brethren preach reconciliation. It is true that they preach it with much warmth and animation even; but—and this is our complaint—they consider and present it as an enmity caused by whispering, misunderstanding, and wrong inclination, rather than _by violation of the right. _And, in consequence, their preaching of reconciliation through the blood of the cross no longer causes the deep chord of the right to vibrate in men’s souls; but it resembles the reconciliation of two friends, who at an evil hour became estranged from each other.
XXXI.
Our Status.
“And he believed in the Lord: and he counted it to him for righteousness.” —Gen. xv. 6.
The right touches a man’s status. So long as the law has not proven him guilty, has not convicted and sentenced him, his legal status is that of a free and law-abiding citizen. But as soon as his guilt is proven in court and the jury has convicted him, he passes from that into the status of the bound and law-breaking citizen.
The same applies to our relation to God. Our status before God is that either of the just or of the unjust. In the former, we are not condemned or we are released from condemnation. He that is still under condemnation occupies the status of the unjust.
Hence, and this is noteworthy, a man’s status depends not upon what he is, but upon the decision of the proper authorities regarding him; not upon what he is _actually, _but upon what he is _counted _to be.
A clerk in an office is innocently suspected of embezzlement, and accused before a court of law. He pleads not guilty; but the suspicions against him carry conviction, and the judge condemns him. Now, tho he did not embezzle, is actually innocent, he is _counted _guilty. And since a man does not determine his own status, but his sovereign or judge determines it for him, the status of this clerk, altho innocent, is, from the moment of his conviction, that of a law-breaker. And the contrary may occur just as well. In the absence of convicting evidence the judge may acquit a dishonest clerk, who, altho guilty and a law-breaker, still retains his status of a law-abiding and honest citizen. In this case he is dishonorable, but he is _counted _honorable. Hence a man’s status depends not upon what he actually is, but what he is _counted _to be.
The reason is, that man’s status has no reference to his inward _being, _but only to the _manner _in which he is to be treated. It would be useless to determine this himself, for his fellow citizens would not receive it. Tho he asserted a hundred times, “I am an honorable citizen,” they would pay no attention to it. But if the judge declares him, honorable; and then they should dare to call him dishonorable, there would be a power to maintain his status against those who attack him. Hence a man’s own declaration can not obtain him a legal status. He may fancy or assume a status of righteousness, but it has no stability, it is no status.
This explains why, in our own good land, a man’s legal status as a citizen is determined not by himself, but solely by the king, either, as sovereign or as judge. The king is judge, for all judgment is pronounced in his name; and, altho the judiciary can not be denied a certain authority independent of the executive, yet in every sentence it is the king’s judicature which pronounces judgment. Hence a man’s status depends solely upon the king’s decision. Now the king has decided, once for all, that every citizen never convicted of crime is counted honorable. Not because all are honorable, but that they shall be _counted _as such. Hence so long as a man was never sentenced, he passes for honorable, even tho he is not. And as soon as he is sentenced, he is considered dishonorable, tho he is perfectly honorable. _And thus his status is determined by his king; _and in it he is accounted not according to what he is, but what his _king _counts him to be. Even without the judiciary, it is the king who determines a man’s state in society, not according to what he is, but what the king counts him to be.
A person’s sex is determined not by his condition, but by what the registrar of vital statistics in his register has _declared _him to be. If by some mistake a girl were registered as a boy, and therefore counted as a boy, then at the proper time she would be summoned to serve in the militia, unless the mistake were corrected, and she be counted to be what she is. It may be a _pretended, _and not the _real, _child of the rich nobleman in whose name it is registered. And yet it makes no difference whose child it really is, for the state will support it in all its rights of inheritance, because it passes for the child of that nobleman, and is _counted _to be his legitimate child.
Hence it is the rule in society that a man’s status is determined not by his actual condition, nor by his own declaration, but by the sovereign under whom he stands. And this sovereign has the power, by his decision, to assign to a man the status to which, according to his condition, he belongs, or to put him in a status where he does not belong, but to which he is accounted to belong.
This is the case even in matters where mistakes are out of the question. At the time of the king’s death and of the pregnancy of his widow, a prince or princess is counted to exist, even before he or she is born. And, accordingly, while the child is still a nursing babe, it is counted to be the _owner _of large possessions, even tho these possessions may be entirely lost, before the child can hear of them. And so there are a number of cases where _standing _and _condition, _without anybody’s fault or mistake, are entirely different; simply because it is possible that a man be in a state into which he has not yet grown.
The king alone can determine his own status; if it pleases him to register to-morrow _incognito, _as a count or a baron, he will be relieved from the usual royal honors.
We have elaborated this point more largely, because the Ethicals and the Mystics have got our poor people so bitterly out of the habit of reckoning with this _counting of God. _The word of Scripture, “Abraham believed, and it was counted to him for righteousness,” (Gen. xv. 6 and Rom. iv. 3) is no longer understood; or it is made to refer to the _merit _of faith, which is Arminian doctrine.
The Holy Spirit often speaks of this _counting _of God: “I am counted with them that go down into the pit” (Psalm lxxxviii. 4); “The Lord shall count them when He writeth up the peoples” (Psalm lxxxvii. 6); “And it was counted unto Phineas for righteousness unto all generations, forevermore.“ (Psalm cvi. 31) So it is said of Jesus, that “He was counted [numbered] with the transgressors” (Mark xv. 28); of Judas that “he was _counted _with the eleven”; of the _un_circumcision which keeps the law, that “It shall be counted unto him for circumcision”; of Abraham that “his faith was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom. iv. 3); of him “that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly,” that “his faith is counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom. iv. 5); and of the children of the promise that “they are _counted _for the seed.” (Rom. ix. 8)
It is this very counting that appears to the children of this present age so incomprehensible and problematic. They will not hear of it. And, as Rome at one time severed the tendon of the Gospel, by merging justification in sanctification, mixing and identifying the two, so do people now refuse to listen to anything but an Ethical justification, which is actually only a species of sanctification. Hence God’s _counting _counts for nothing. It is not heeded. It has no worth nor significance attached to it. The only question is what a man is. The measure of worth is nothing else but the worth of our personality.
And this we oppose most emphatically. It is a denial of justification in toto; and such denial is essentially mutiny and rebellion against God, a withdrawing of oneself from the authority of one’s legal sovereign.
All those who consider themselves saved because they have holy emotions, or because they think themselves less sinful, and profess to make progress in sanctification—all these, however dissimilar they may be in all other things, have this in common, that they insist on being counted according to their own declaration, and not according to what God counts them to be. Instead of leaving, as dependent creatures, the honor of determining their status to their sovereign King, whose they are, they sit as judges to determine it themselves, by their own progress in good works.
And not only this, but they also detract from the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, and from the reality of the guilt for which He satisfied. He who maintains that God must count a man according to what he is, and not according to what God wills to count him, can never understand how the Lord Jesus could bear our sins, and be a “curse” and “sin” for us. He must interpret this sin-bearing in the sense of a physical or Ethical fellowship, and seek for reconciliation not in the cross of Jesus, but in His manger, as many actually do in these days.
And as they thus make the actual bearing of our guilt by the Mediator unthinkable, so they make inherited guilt impossible.
Assuredly, they say, there is inherited stain, taken in a Manichean sense, but no original guilt. For how could the guilt of a dead man be counted unto us? It is evident, therefore, that by this thoughtless and bold denial of the right of God, not only is justification disjointed, but the whole structure of salvation is robbed of its foundation.
And why is this? Is it because the human consciousness can not conceive the idea of being counted according to what we are not? Our illustrations from the social life show that men readily understand and daily accept such a relation in common affairs. The deep cause of this unbelief lies in the fact that man will not rest in God’s judgment concerning him, but that he seeks for rest in his _own _estimate of himself; that this estimate is considered a safer shield than God’s judgment concerning him; and that, instead of living with the reformers by faith, he tries to live by the things found in himself.
And from this men must return. This leads us back to Rome; this is to forsake justification by faith; this is to sever the artery of grace. Much more than in the political realm must the sacred principle be applied to the Kingdom of heaven, that to our Sovereign King and judge alone belongs the prerogative, by His decision, absolutely to determine our state of righteousness or of unrighteousness.
The sovereignty which reposes in an earthly king is only borrowed, derived, and laid upon him; but the sovereignty of the Lord our God is the source and fountainhead of all authority and of all binding force.
If it belongs to the very essence of sovereignty, that by the ruler’s decision alone the status of his subjects is determined, then it must be clear, and it can not be otherwise than that this very authority belongs originally, absolutely, and supremely to our God. Whom He judges guilty is guilty, and must be treated as guilty; and whom He declares just is just, and must be treated as just. Before He entered Gethsemane, Jesus our King declared to His disciples: “Now are ye _clean _through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John xv. 3) And this is His declaration even now, and it shall forever remain so. Our state, our place, our lot for eternity depends not upon what we are, nor upon what others see in us, nor upon what we imagine or presume ourselves to be, but only upon what God _thinks _of us, what He counts us to be, what He, the Almighty and just judge, declares us to be.
When He declares us just, when He thinks us just, when He counts us just, then we are by this very thing His children who _shall not lie, _and ours is the inheritance of the just, altho we lie in the midst of sin. And in like manner, when He pronounces us guilty in Adam, when in Adam He counts us subject to condemnation, then we are guilty, fallen, and condemned, even tho we discover in our hearts nothing but sweet and childlike innocence.
In this way alone it must be understood and interpreted that the Lord Jesus was _numbered _with the _transgressors, _altho He was holy; that He was made _sin, _altho He was the living Righteousness; and that He was declared a _curse _in our place, altho He was Immanuel. In the days of His flesh He was numbered with transgressors and sinners, He was put in their state, and He was treated accordingly; as such the burden of God’s wrath came upon Him, and as such His Father forsook Him, and gave Him over to bitterest death. In the Resurrection alone He was restored to the status of the righteous, and thus He was raised for our justification.
Oh, this matter goes so deep! When to the Lord God is again ascribed His sovereign prerogative to determine a man’s status, then every mystery of Scripture assumes its rightful place; but when it is not, then the entire way of salvation must be falsified.
Finally, if one should say: “An earthly sovereign may be mistaken, but God can not be; hence God must assign to every man a status which accords with his work”; then we answer: “This would be so, if the omnipotent grace of God were not irresistible.” But since it is, you are not esteemed by God according to what you are, but you are what God esteems you to be.
XXXII.
Justification from Eternity
“The righteousness which is of God by faith.” —Phil. iii. 9.
It has become evident that the question which most closely concerns us is, not whether we are more or less holy, but whether our status is that of the just or of the unjust; and that this is determined not by what we are at any given moment, but by God as our Sovereign and Judge.
In Adam’s creation God put us, without any preceding merits on our part, in the state of original righteousness. After the fall, according to the same sovereign prerogative, He put us, as Adam’s descendants, in the state of unrighteousness, imputing Adam’s guilt to each personally. And in exactly the same manner He now justifies the ungodly, i.e., He places him, without any previous merit on his part, in the state of righteousness according to His own holy and inviolable prerogative.
In the creation He did not first wait to see whether man would develop holiness in himself, so as to declare him righteous on the ground of this holiness; but He declared him originally righteous, even before there was a possibility on his part of evincing a desire for holiness. And after the fall He did not wait to see whether sin would manifest itself in us, so as to assign us to the state of the unrighteous on the ground of this sin; but before our birth, before there was a possibility of personal sin, He declared us guilty. And in the same manner God does not wait to see whether a sinner shows signs of conversion in order to restore him to honor as a righteous person, but He declares the ungodly just before he has had the least possibility of doing any good work.
Hence there is a sharp line between our sanctification and our justification. The former has to do with the quality of our being, depends upon our faith, and can not be effected outside of us. But
justification is effected outside of us, irrespective of what we are, dependent only upon the decision of God, our judge and Sovereign; in such a way that justification _precedes _sanctification, the latter proceeding from the former as a necessary result. God does not justify us because we are becoming more holy, but when He has justified us we grow in holiness: “Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Rom. v. 9)
There should never be the least doubt regarding this matter. Every effort to reverse this established order of Scripture must earnestly be resisted. This glorious confession, declared with so much power to the souls of men in the days of the Reformation, must continue the precious jewel, to be transmitted intact by us to our posterity as a sacred inheritance. So long as we ourselves have not yet entered the New Jerusalem, our comfort should never be founded upon our sanctification, but exclusively upon our justification. Tho our sanctification were ever so far advanced, so long as we are not justified we remain in our sin and are lost. And if a justified sinner die immediately after his justification is sealed to his soul, he may shout with joy, for, in spite of hell and of Satan, he is sure of his salvation.
The deep significance of this confession is faintly discernible in our earthly relations. In order to do business on the floor of the exchange, a trader must be an honorable citizen. If convicted of crime, justly or unjustly, he will be expelled from exchange, tho he be ten times more honest than others whose fraudulent transactions have never been discovered. And how will this dishonored man be restored to his former position? On the ground of future honest business transactions? That is out of the question; for as long as he is counted dishonorable, he is not allowed to do business on the floor. Hence he can not prove his honesty by any dealings on exchange or in the market. So in order to start again, he must _first _be declared an honorable man. Then, and not before, can he set up in business once more.
Call this doing of business _sanctification, _and this declaration of being a man of honor _justification, _and the matter will be illustrated. For as this merchant, being declared dishonorable, can not do business so long as he continues in that state, and must be declared honorable before he can begin anew, so a sinner can not do any good work so long as he is counted lost. And so he must first be declared just by his God, in order to transact the honorable business of sanctification.
To prove that this is effected absolutely without our own merit, doing or not doing, and entirely without our actual condition, we refer to the royal prerogative for granting pardon and reinstatement. Altho, among us, decisions of the judiciary are rendered in the name of the king, and yet not by the king himself, a certain opposition between the king and the judiciary is thinkable. It might occur that the judiciary declared a man guilty and dishonorable, whom the king wished not to be so declared. To keep the majesty of the crown inviolate in such cases, the prerogative of granting pardon and reinstatement is retained by almost every crowned head; a prerogative which in the present day is narrowly circumscribed, but which nevertheless represents still the exalted idea that the decision of the king, and not our actual condition, determines our lot. Hence a king can either grant pardon, i.e., remit the penalty and release the guilty person from all the consequences of his crime, or, stronger still, he can grant reinstatement, i.e., he can restore the accused and condemned to the condition of one who had never been declared guilty.
And this exalted royal prerogative, of which on account of sin there remains in earthly kings but a faint shadow, is the inviolable right in which God rejoices, Himself being the Source and all-comprehending Idea of all majesty. Not you, but He determines what His creature shall be; hence He sovereignly disposes, by the word of His mouth, the status wherein you will be set, whether it be of righteousness or of unrighteousness.
It is also evident that the sinner’s justification need not wait until he is converted, nor until he has become conscious, nor even until he is born. This could not be so if justification depended upon something within him. Then he could not be justified before he existed and had done something. But if justification is not bound to anything in him, then this whole limitation must disappear, and the Lord our God be sovereignly free to render this justification at any moment that He pleases. Hence the Sacred Scripture reveals justification as an _eternal _act of God, i.e., an act which is not limited by any moment in the human existence. It is for this reason that the child of God, seeking to penetrate into that glorious and delightful reality of his justification, does not feel himself limited to the moment of his conversion but feels that this blessedness flows to him from the eternal depths of the hidden life of God.
It should therefore openly be confessed, and without any abbreviation, that justification does not occur when we become conscious of it, but that, on the contrary, our justification was decided from eternity in the holy judgment-seat of our God.
There is undoubtedly a moment in our life when for the first time justification is _published _to our consciousness; but let us be careful to distinguish justification itself from its publication. Our Christian name was selected for and applied to us long before we, with clear consciousness, knew it as our name; and altho there was a moment in which it became a living reality to us and was called out for the first time in the ear of our consciousness, yet no man will be so foolish as to imagine that it was then that he actually received that name.
And so it is here. There is a certain moment wherein that justification becomes to our consciousness a living fact; but in order to become a living fact, it must have existed before. It does not spring from our consciousness, but it is mirrored in it, and hence must have being and stature in itself. Even an elect infant which dies in the cradle is declared just, tho the knowledge or consciousness of its justification never penetrated its soul. And elect persons, converted, like the thief on the cross, with their last breath, can scarcely be sensible of their justification, and yet enter eternal life exclusively on the ground of their justification. Taking an analogy from daily life, a man condemned during his absence in foreign lands was granted pardon through the intercession of his friends, wholly without his knowledge. Does this pardon take effect when long afterward the good news reaches him, or when the king signs his pardon? Of course the latter. Even so does the justification of God’s children take effect, not on the day when for the first time it is_ published to their consciousness, _but at the moment that God in His holy judgment-seat declares them just.
But—and this should not be overlooked—this publishing in the consciousness of the person himself must necessarily follow; and this brings us back again to the special work of the Holy Spirit. For if in God’s judiciary it is more particularly the _Father _who justifies the ungodly, and in the preparing of salvation more particularly the _Son _who in His Incarnation and Resurrection brings about justification, so it is, in more limited sense, the Holy Spirit particularly who reveals this justification to the persons of the elect and causes them to appropriate it to themselves. It is by this act of the Holy Spirit that the elect obtain the _blessed knowledge _of their justification, which only then begins to be a living reality to them.
For this reason Scripture reveals these two positive, but apparently contradictory truths, with equally positive emphasis: (1) that, _on the one hand, _He has justified us in His own judgment seat _from eternity; _and (a) that, _on the other, _only in conversion are we justified by faith.
And for this reason faith itself is fruit and effect of our justification; while it is also true that, for us, justification begins to exist only as a result of our faith.
XXXIII.
Certainty of Our Justification.
“Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”—Rom. iii. 24.
The foregoing illustrations shed unexpected light upon the fact that God justifies the _ungodly, _and not him who is actually just in himself; and upon the word of Christ: “Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John xv. 3) They illustrate the significant fact that God does not determine our status according to what we _are, _but by the status to which He assigns us He determines what we shall be. The Reformed Confession, which in all things starts from the workings of God and not of man, became again clear, eloquent, and transparent. So the divine Word, ordinarily lowered to a mere _announcement _of what God finds in us, becomes once more the _fiat _of His creative power. He found an ungodly man and said, “Be righteous,” and behold he became righteous. “I said to thee in thy blood, Live.” (Ezek. xvi. 6)
In this way the various parts of the redemptive work are arranged chronologically each in its own place.
So long as the false and narrow idea prevailed that a man was justified _after _conversion on the ground of his apparent holiness, justification could not _precede _sanctification, but must follow it. Then man becomes first holy, and, as a reward or as a recognition of his holiness, he is declared righteous. Hence sanctification is first, and justification _second; _a justification, therefore, without any value, for what is the use of declaring that a ball is round?
The Scripture refuses to acknowledge a _posterior _justification. In Scripture, justification is always the _starting point. _All other things spring from it and follow it. “Christ was made unto us wisdom and righteousness,” and only then “sanctification and redemption.” (1 Cor. i. 30) “Therefore _being justified by faith, _we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also have access.” (Rom. v. 1) “Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. iii. 24) And, “Whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Rom. viii. 30)
For this reason the Reformation made justification by faith the starting-point for the conscience, and by this confession bravely and energetically opposed Rome’s justification by good works; for in this justification by good works that priority of sanctification found its root.
The Church of Christ can not deviate from this straight line of the Reformation without estranging itself and separating itself from its Head and Fountain of Life, vitally injuring itself. Sects which, like the Ethicals and the Methodists, See section 5 of the author’s Preface. detract from this truth sever the faith from its root. If our churches desire once more to be strong in the doctrine and bold in witness-bearing, they must not repose in lethargy on the mere form of the doctrine, but must heartily embrace the doctrine; for it presents this cardinal point in a superior and excellent manner. He only who heroically dares accept _justification of the ungodly _becomes actual partaker of salvation. He only can confess heartily and unreservedly redemption which is sovereign, unmerited, and free in all its parts and workings.
The _last question _that remains to be discussed is: How can the justification of the ungodly be reconciled with the divine Omniscience and Holiness?
It must be acknowledged that, in one respect, this whole representation seems to fail. It must be objected:
“Your argument is wittily thought out, but it does not stand the test. When an earthly sovereign decides that a man’s state shall be otherwise than it actually is, he acts from _ignorance, mistake, _or _arbitrariness. _And since these things can not be ascribed to God, these illustrations can not be applied to Him.”
And again: “That an earthly judge sometimes condemns the innocent and acquits the guilty, and makes the former to occupy the status of the latter, and _vice versa, _is possible only because the judge is a fallible creature. If he had been infallible, if he could have weighed guilt and innocence with perfect accuracy, the wrong could not have been committed. Hence if sin had not come in, that judge could not have acted arbitrarily, but he would have acted according to the right, and decided for the right because it is right. And, since the Lord God is a judge who trieth the reins and who is acquainted with all our ways, in whom there can be no failure or mistake or ignorance, it is not thinkable, it is impossible, it is inconsistent with God’s Being, that as the just Judge He ever could pronounce a judgment that is not perfectly in accordance with the conditions actually existing in man.”
Without the slightest hesitation we submit to this criticism. It is well taken. The mistake whereby a boy can be registered as a girl; the peasant’s child for that of a nobleman; whereby a law-abiding citizen can be judged as a law-breaker, and _vice versa, _is out of the question with God. And, therefore, when He justifies the ungodly, as the earthly judge declares the dishonorable to be honorable, then these two acts, which are apparently similar, are utterly dissimilar and may not be interpreted in the same way.
And yet the correctness of the objection does not in itself invalidate the comparison. Scripture itself often compares men’s acts, which are necessarily sinful, to the acts of God. When the unjust judge, weary of the widow’s tears and importunity, finally said, “I will avenge her, lest she come at last and break my head” (Luke xviii. 5 Dutch Translation), the Lord Jesus does not for a moment hesitate to apply this action, tho it sprang from an unholy motive, to the Lord God, saying: “And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry night and day unto Him?” (Luke xviii. 7)
It can not be otherwise. For since all acts of men, even the very best of the most holy among them, are always defiled with sin, either it would be impossible to compare any deed of man with the doings of God, or one must necessarily consider such deeds of men apart from the sinful motive, and apply to God only the third of the comparison.
And as Jesus could not mean that at last God must answer His elect, “lest they come and break His head,” but without speaking of the motive, simply pointed to the fact that the inopportune prayer is finally heard, so did we compare the _wrong _decision of the judge, declaring the guilty innocent, to the _infallible _decision of God, justifying the ungodly, since, in spite of the difference of motive, it coincides with a third of the comparison.
Moreover, human mistakes are out of the question with reference to the granting of pardon and reinstatement. Hence this expression of royal sovereignty is indeed a direct type of the sovereignty of the Lord our God.
But this does not settle the question. Altho we concede that the unholy motive of mistake can not be attributed to God, yet we must inquire: What is God’s motive, and how can the justification of the ungodly be consistent with His divine nature?
We reply by pointing to the beautiful answer of the Catechism, question 60: “How art thou righteous before God? Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, tho my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ; even so as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ hath accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.”
That the Lord God justifies the ungodly is not because He enjoys fiction, or delights by a terrible paradox to call one righteous who in reality is wicked; but this fact runs parallel with the other fact, that such an ungodly one is really righteous. And that this ungodly one, who in himself is and remains wicked, at the same time is and continues righteous, finds its reason and ground in the fact that God puts this poor and miserable and lost sinner into partnership with an infinitely rich Mediator, whose treasures are inexhaustible. By this partnership all his debts are discharged, and all those treasures flow down to him. So tho he continues, in himself, poverty-stricken, he is at the same time immensely rich in his Partner.
This is the reason why all depends upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; for that faith is the bond of partnership. If there is no such faith, there can be no partnership with the wealthy Jesus; and you are still in your sin. But if there is faith, then the partnership is established, then it exists, and you engage in business no longer on your own account, but in partnership with Him who blots out all your indebtedness, while He makes you the recipient of all His treasure.
How is this to be understood? Is it the Person of the Christ who takes us into partnership? And, since God has no longer to reckon with our poverty, but can now depend upon the riches of Christ, does He therefore count us good and righteous? No, brethren, and again, no! It is not so, and it may not so be presented; for then there would be no justification on God’s part. You have a bill to collect from a man who failed in business, but who was accepted as the partner of a rich banker, who discharged all his debts. Is there now the slightest mercy or goodness on your part, when you indorse that man’s check? Doing otherwise, would you not flatly contradict solid and tangible facts?
No, the Lord God does not act that way. Christ does not blot out the debt, and obtain us treasure _outside _of God; nor does the ungodly enter, through faith, into partnership with the wealthy Jesus _independently _of the Father; neither does God, being informed of these transactions, justify the ungodly, who already had become a believer. For then there would be no honor for God, nor praise for His grace; it would be not the ungodly, but, on the contrary, a believer that was justified.
The matter is not transacted that way. It was the Lord God, first of all, who, without respect of person, and hence without respect to faith in the person, according to His sovereign power, chose a portion of the ungodly to eternal life; not as judge, but as Sovereign. But being judge as well as Sovereign, and therefore incapable of violating the right, He who has chosen, that is, the Triune God, has also created and given all that is necessary and required for salvation; so that these elect persons, at the proper time and by appropriate means, may receive and undergo the things by which in the end it will appear that all God’s doing was majesty and all His decision just.
And, therefore, this whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace; and in this Covenant of Grace the ordering of the Mediator; and in the Mediator that of all satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness; and of that satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness, first the imputation, and after that the gift.
Wherefore God does indeed declare the ungodly just _before _he believes, that he may believe, and not _after _he believes. This justifying act is the creative act of God, in which is also deposited the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, and from which flow also the imputation at a granting of all these to the ungodly. Wherefore there is in this act of justification not the slightest mistake or untruth. He alone is declared just who, being ungodly in himself, by this declaration is and becomes righteous in Christ.
In this way alone it is possible fully to understand the doctrine of justification in all its wealth and glory. Without this deep conception of it, justification is merely the pardon of sin, after which, being relieved of the burden, we start out with newly animated zeal to work for God. And this is nothing else than genuine, fatal Arminianism.
But, with this deeper insight, man acknowledges and confesses: “Such pardon of sin does not avail me. For I know:
“1st. That I shall be again daily defiled with sin;
“2d. That I shall have a sinful heart within me until the day of my death;
“3d. That until then, I shall never be able to accomplish the keeping of the whole law;
“4th. That, since I am already condemned and sentenced, I can not do business in the Kingdom of God as an honorable man.”
The answer of justification, such as Scripture reveals and our Church confesses it, covers these four points most satisfactorily. It accepts you not as a saint, with a self-assumed holiness, but as one who confesses: “My conscience accuses me that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and have kept none of them, and that I am still inclined to all evil”; and yet, you are not cast out. It tells you that you can not depend upon any merit of your own, but must rely on grace alone. Wherefore it begins with putting you in the ranks of the law-abiding, of them that are declared good and righteous, “even so as if you never had had nor committed any sin.” As the ground of godliness it does not require of you the keeping of the law, but it imputes and imparts to you Christ’s fulfilment of the law; esteeming you as if you had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for you. And effacing hereby the difference of your past and future sin, it imputes and grants unto you not only Christ’s satisfaction and holiness, but even His original righteousness, in such a manner that you stand before God once more righteous and honorable, and as tho the whole history of your sin had been a dream only.
But the closing sentence of the Catechism should be noticed: “Inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.” And that “believing heart,” and that “embracing”—behold, that is the very work of the Holy Spirit.