LECTURE CI.

NATURE AND GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION.

THE subject before us is so important, and in some respects attended with so many difficulties, that it requires statements and explanations still more particular and exact than those which were given in the last Lecture. Even repetitions will be deemed pardonable, if they may contribute to cast a clearer light on the doctrine under consideration, or to give it a more deep and enduring impression on the heart.

The word justification is forensic; in other words, it is taken from the proceedings of courts of justice. A man is accused of a crime. The charge against him is examined, and he is found to be not guilty. Of course he is regarded as an innocent, blameless man, and enjoys the privileges of an unoffending, upright member of the community. Such a man is justified in the literal sense. And here we see the only way in which a man, charged with a crime before a judicial court, can escape punishment and enjoy the privileges of a citizen. It must be made to appear that he is falsely accused, and the suit against him must be issued in his favor, and he must in this way stand justified before the court and before the public.

But human beings can never be justified before God in such a way as this. They are all charged with transgressing the divine law. The charge is true, and is proved to be true, and they are guilty and under condemnation. Now in what sense can such persons-persons known and acknowledged to be transgressors

be justified before God? In other words, what is justification in the gospel sense?

Here it is not to be supposed that God mistakes the character of men, thinking them to be innocent, while they are guilty; that he judges and declares those who are transgressors, not to be transgressors. On the contrary, God often declares men to be transgressors sinners without excuse, and deserving of condemnation. His justifying them must, then, be in another and very different sense. The question is, in what sense? I answer, it must be in a secondary or figurative sense. There is a real, though imperfect analogy, between justification in the literal or legal sense and justification in the gospel sense; and the language of Scripture, to which we have so often referred, is founded on this analogy. When God is said to justify the ungodly, the meaning must be, that he treats them and bestows favors upon them as though they were not ungodly, or as though they had always been obedient. He passes by their sins, he does not remember them, he blots them out; so that they do not prevent the bestowment of his favors. He exercises his kindness towards them, adopts them as his children, and admits them to the joys of his kingdom, as though they had never sinned. Some say, he regards them or looks upon them as innocent, or righteous. But their meaning must be, that while he knows them to be sinners, he does not doom them to suffer the penalty of sin, but treats them as though they were free from sin. If we say, he pronounces them to be just or righteous; our meaning is not, that he falls into a mistake, and thinks them and declares them not guilty when in truth they are guilty; but that he exempts them from punishment and confers upon them the blessings of his love, as really as he would do if they had never sinned. Such, according to my understanding, is gospel justification. It is a gracious proceeding, wherein God freely pardons all our sins and accepts and treats us as righteous persons not that we ourselves have, in his judgment, the personal righteousness required by the law, but that on some other account he accepts and blesses us, as though we had it.

Still justification does not imply, that God treats believers and bestows blessings upon them exactly in the same manner, or, at present, in the same degree, as he would have done had they been perfectly obedient. For the measure of present good which he confers upon them must conform to their present character, and their present capacity for enjoyment; and, as they are subject to so many faults, his manner of treating them must be such as will administer the necessary discipline. When God calls his people to endure suffering, or, as it is often expressed, chastens them, or inflicts punishment upon them, he does not do it as an execution of the penalty of the law; for the penalty is really remitted. They are truly pardoned. But, though pardoned, they are at present incapable of receiving precisely and in all respects the same treatment from God, as if they were without sin. The exact truth is, he now treats them substantially as though they possessed a complete personal righteousness; and will finally give them the enjoyment of that good which was promised as the reward of unceasing obedience the highest blessedness of those who have never offended. If a prodigal son, who repents and returns to his home, possesses less capacity for enjoyment than he would have possessed had he never gone astray; then, though he is fully pardoned and restored to favor, he cannot at once enjoy the same degree of happiness as though his faculties had not been injured by vice. If he has the remains of that ignorance and bodily disease which resulted from his wicked conduct, his father will put him, for his benefit, under the care of a skilful physician and a faithful teacher. And though some of the medicines administered to him may be unpleasant to his taste, and some of the lessons assigned to him hard to be learned, still they all come from paternal kindness, and do by no means interfere with his entire forgiveness, or his title to a full inheritance in his father's estate. I present this case to illustrate the propriety of the remark, that God does not treat penitent sinners, exactly and in all respects, as though they were, and always had been, wholly free from sin. But for ordinary purposes, it is sufficiently correct to say, he accepts and treats them as though they had never

offended, or as though they were themselves righteous. In truth, they could not be treated with more favor; they could not receive more abundant fruits of God's love, if they had never offended. Indeed it is plainly implied in the parable of the prodigal son, and in other parts of Scripture, that God will bestow upon his redeemed and penitent people some special favors, favors which will distinguish them above those who have never sinned.

The account I have now given of justification is sufficiently sustained by that remarkable passage in Romans iv, which has been already quoted. The Apostle speaks of God as justifying him that worketh not, but believeth on him who justifieth the ungodly; and then refers to a passage in Psalm 32, in which this same matter of justifying the believer, or counting his faith for righteousness, is set forth in another way. "Even as David also whom God imputeth

describeth the blessedness of the man to righteousness without works; saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." It is evident, that forgiving sin and not imputing sin are expressions of the same import; and the Apostle quotes them from David, to show the blessed state of those who are justified. But we cannot conclude from this, that justification includes no more than forgiveness, in the restricted sense. The quotation is pertinent, and answers the purpose of the Apostle, if forgiveness, or not imputing sin, is considered as not only an essential part of justification, but as inseparably connected with all the other parts, or as including all the blessings of salvation.

It has been made a question, whether justification is, as our Catechism expresses it, an act of God's grace, or whether it is not a mere fact, revealed to us by the word of God? But in my view there is no difficulty here. Justification is, indeed, a fact made known by revelation. God declares to us the truth, that those who believe are forgiven and accepted. Accordingly, as soon as sinners believe, they are pardoned and entitled to eternal life. But this happy state of believers, which God thus plainly declares, is also a matter in which his agency is concerned. For

he not only declares believers to be in a justified state, but he in fact brings them into that state, and then at once acts graciously towards them, in bestowing upon them the blessings of justification, and granting them the tokens and fruits of his Fatherly love. There is then a declaration of God in his word that believers are justified, and a corresponding act of his grace in his dispensations - a merciful agency towards them who believe, extending through their whole happy existence.

Having thus endeavored to show what justification is, I shall next inquire more particularly what is the ground of it, what is the special consideration or reason, on account of which God justifies believers. I refer to the primary ground, the meritorious condition implying a real worthiness or just desert of the good bestowed.

We have already seen that the Apostle Paul, who handles this subject of set purpose, and with great particularity and clearness, declares again and again, that we are not justified by works. "By grace ye are saved;" and salvation must surely include justification: "Not of works, lest any man should boast." He says this to Gentiles as well as Jews; so that works cannot mean merely an observance of the ritual law of Moses. For who could think it necessary to guard Gentiles against boasting on account of their having conformed to Jewish rites? The Apostle manifestly excludes works of every kind, whether before or after repentance, from being the meritorious ground of justification. The grace by which we are justified and saved, is unmerited favor. The Apostle teaches this as clearly and fully as language can teach it. What then is the true ground or meritorious condition of justification? Are sinners pardoned and saved on account of any personal.righteousness which they possess? This the Apostle strongly denies, and this the enlightened conscience of every Christian denies. According to the teachings of revelation, the ground, the meritorious condition of our justification is the mediatorial work of Christ, including his humiliation, his obedience and death, or "his obedience unto death." Rom. 5: 9, "We were recon