Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 627
Delivered on Sunday Morning, April 30, 1865, by C. H. Spurgeon, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
“Whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Romans 8:30.
WELL said the Apostle in another place, “All things are of God.” And here in this passage all works of Divine Grace are evidently so. The pronoun, “He,” is repeated yet again and again, as if to set the Lord always before us. “Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.” “Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also justified and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” It is of God all the way through. There is not an inch of ground left to he covered by the creature’s foot. The eternal Creator works all things in the Covenant of Grace according to the counsel of His own will. Haldane has an admirable note on this passage which we will quote in full:
“In looking back on this passage we should observe that in all that is stated man acts no part, but is passive and all is done by God. He is elected and predestinated and called and justified and glorified by God. The Apostle was here concluding all that he had said before in enumerating topics of consolation to Believers. He is now going on to show that God is ‘for us,’ or on the part of His people. Could anything, then, be more consolatory to those who love God, than to be in this manner assured that the great concern of their salvation is not left in their own keeping? God, even their Covenant God, has taken the whole upon Himself. He has undertaken for them. There is no room, then, for chance or change, He will perfect that which concerns them.”
Does not this account for the majestic manner in which these Covenant mercies follow one another as in a triumphal procession? Foreknowledge leads the van with eyes beaming with love. Then come predestination, calling, justification, glorification—all in their proper order. Not one of these gigantic mercies limps along the road—but marching with stately tread, adorned in robes of glory, each one keeping its place—they make up a magnificent procession to the praise of the Glory of His Grace who has set them all in order and written His own name upon them all.
Observe, there is no “if,” no “but,” no “maybe,” no “perhaps” here. He foreknows. He predestinates. No creature lifts up its puny voice to object to the predestinating decree. Having predestinated, He calls and it is such an effectual calling, that we hear of no resistance. Having called, He justifies and “who is he that condemns?” Having justified without let or hindrance, He achieves His eternal purpose without impediment and brings forth the top stone of the temple of His Grace with shouting, as it is written, “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”
Let our souls be glad as we clearly see the mighty Presence of our God in every work of Divine Grace. And let us understand from where the force, the certainty, the immutability, the majesty of the whole matter comes—namely, from the fact that, “He orders all things according to the counsel of His own will.” “Who shall stay His hand, or say unto Him, What are you doing?”
This morning, God the Holy Spirit, I trust, will make it to your profit to weigh these two precious gems of loving-kindness, to count over these priceless treasures of mercy, to swim in these two seas of love, justification and glorification. And then we shall need time carefully to search after the connection between them both, for they are riveted together by rivets of diamonds. They are fastened together so fast and firmly that neither death nor Hell can separate them. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”
I. Let us begin, then, by considering WHAT IT IS TO BE JUSTIFIED. If you wish for an answer in a few words, ask your children who have learned our catechism and you have it—“Justification is an act of God’s free Grace, wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.”
Perhaps, however, I had better unfold this Truth of God in detail. You will perceive by reading the connection and by a moment’s reflection that the justification here meant is an act of God passed upon a person needing it— consequently passed upon a person who could not justify himself—a person naturally guilty of sin and being in a state of condemnation naturally and needing to be lifted out of it by an act of justification of a Divine order. It is not possible that God should have devised a plan of justification for those who were already justified by their own actions.
We do not talk with any wonder, or speak with any astonishment of a justification which a man achieves for himself. The guiltless need no justification. They have it already. If any man has kept the Law of God and made it honorable, he is in himself just and needs not to be made just—he is so already. Justification is an act of Divine Grace passed upon a sinner. Upon one who has transgressed the Law and cannot be justified by it and who, therefore, needs to be made just in another way—a way out of his own reach, above his own coming and going, as in the text—from God Himself. For it says, “He justifies.”