[February 10th, 1867.]
The relation of God to fallen men. God is holy, man is polluted. God is just, man is guilty. God is infinite in all his attributes. His acts, or all his manifestations, in relation to his creatures are determined by his nature. He can no more act contrary to his holiness and justice than contrary to his reason. He, therefore, as holy repudiates the unholy, and as just he condemns the guilty. His nature is opposed to them. He is to them from his nature a consuming fire. There is nothing in the nature of God to render it necessary that he should save sinners. Not in his infinite love, for he has allowed the angels to perish without redemption. That God can pardon the guilty, that he can restore the unholy to his favor, cannot be learned, therefore, from any knowledge we have of his nature; nor from any thing which we find revealed in ourselves. Much less is the fact that he will receive and pardon sinners, a matter of human discovery or knowledge, but purely of supernatural revelation.
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It was revealed simply that God could and would receive and pardon the guilty.
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The method was perhaps made known from the beginning, so far, at least, as it was to be, a. In a way consistent with the character of God. b. And, therefore, in such a way as would secure satisfaction to justice; c. That this satisfaction was to be rendered for us, not by us. In the course of time all this was more clearly made known as it is now in the gospel.
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That the eternal Son of God assumed our nature. 2. That he took our place. 3. That he fulfilled all righteousness in our behalf, satisfying both the justice and the law of God. 4. That this righteousness is freely offered to all who will receive and trust in it. 5. That those who do thus believe are justified, i.e., it is declared that so far as they are concerned, justice is satisfied, and they are restored to the favor of God.
The effects of this justification are declared to be, 1. Peace with God and peace of conscience. 2. Freedom of access to God. 3. The enjoyment of his favor and gift of the Spirit. This secures sanctification. 4. Security from the accusation of the law, from the power of Satan, from apostacy, from any cause of evil. 5. Participation with Christ in all the benefits of his redemption. We become the sons of God, and if sons, then heirs.
Justification and sanctification are therefore inseparably connected. And the objection that this doctrine leads to licentiousness is declared by the apostle to be self-contradictory. It proceeds on an entire mistake of our relation to Christ, through which our justification is secured. We are justified by his righteousness only because we are united to him, but if united to him, we are partakers of his life; and if partakers of his life, we live as he lives. It is impossible, therefore, that any unholy person, i.e., any one who determines to live in sin, or who does not strive to die unto sin and to live unto God, can have any scriptural hope of justification. God justifies only the members of Christ’s body. Their sanctification is not the ground, but it is the evidence and effect of it.
This doctrine has been the corner-stone of the Church in all ages. It stands opposed,
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To the rationalistic and Pelagian doctrine that men are justified by their own moral character.
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To the doctrine that they are justified in virtue of the works done under the power of the Spirit or from a renewed heart.
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To the doctrine that we are justified by obedience to the demands of the gospel as a lower rule of duty.
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To the doctrine that justification is a subjective change in the man himself. All these views are inconsistent with Scripture, and effectually destroy the grounds of the sinner’s hope, and are unfriendly to morals and holy living.
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