Justification, being an act of Divine Mercy exerted towards the soul, does not leave it as it found it,—cannot but make it what it was not before, as has been shown at length. It stands to reason that a soul that is justified is not in the same state internally as if it had not been justified,—is not in the state of others which are not justified. No one would assert that one who is justified is in all respects the same in his inner self as another who is not; even a professed Antinomian will generally allow that he has certain spiritual feelings, as he falsely calls them, or experiences, or an assurance, or the consciousness of renouncing merit, to distinguish him from those who remain in a state of wrath.
We know well what that state of wrath consists in, or what is the formal character and condition of those who are in it; disobedience, an evil heart of unbelief, hatred of the truth, guilt, fear of judgment to come, hardness of heart; such as these are the constituting parts of that state, and go to make up or define it. Now, on the other hand, what is the state of a justified man? or in what does his justification consist? This is the question which is now more exactly to be treated, as was proposed in a former place; and it is one of no small importance.
2.
As far as the name is concerned, there is a general agreement among all parties; it is called “righteousness.” But this is not the question; nor, again, what the meaning of the name is, which all allow to be equivalent to acceptableness, or acceptable obedience, though one school of opinion puts a second sense upon that word, and understands it also to mean an obedience which is short of acceptable, or a righteousness of sanctification. Nor is it now the question what is meant by justification, which some take for accounting, others for being made, righteous. But the question is, what is that which is named righteousness? what is that object or thing, what is it in a man, which God seeing there, therefore calls him righteous? what is the state in which a justified person is, or that which constitutes him righteous in God’s sight? just as one might ask what is really meant when it is said that a man is alive, what is the thing denoted by Scripture in saying that God “breathed into Adam the breath of life”?—the sense of the word breath being indisputable.
Now Luther, as we have seen, considers it to be Christ’s obedience imputed; the Roman Schools consider it to be the new and spiritual principle imparted to us by the Holy Ghost. But before entering upon the subject, I wish to insist that there really must be, as I have said, in every one who is justified, some such token or substance of his justification; I insist upon it, because many persons will try to slip away from so plain a truth. They so greatly dread our priding ourselves on anything that is good in us, that one cannot assert that there are distinctions between the justified state and the state of nature, without being at once accused of treating these as meritorious causes; therefore, I will insist on the point at the hazard of being tedious.
It is certain, then, that all men are not justified; some are, some are not; what is it they differ in? To justify is to account or declare righteous; this is God’s act; this is a movement of the Divine Mind, and altogether external to the subject of that justification. If the only real difference between a justified man and a man unjustified, be Almighty God’s thoughts concerning him, then those who are justified are justified from eternity, for God sees the end from the beginning. They are in a justified state even from the hour of their birth; before their conversion, while they are wallowing in all sin and unholiness, they are justified, if justification be an act of the Divine Mind and nothing more,—a conclusion which has before now been maintained. Yet, unless we go these lengths, we must allow that there is a certain distinctive state of soul to which the designation of righteousness belongs. What, then, is the criterion within us, which God sees there (of His giving surely, but still given) the seal and signature of His elect, which He accepts now, which He will acknowledge at the last day?
In asking, then, what is our righteousness, I do not mean what is its original source, for this is God’s mercy; nor what is its meritorious cause, for this is the life, and above all the death of Christ; nor what is the instrument of it, for this (I would maintain) is Holy Baptism; nor what is the entrance into it, for this is regeneration; nor what the first privilege of it, for this is pardon; nor what is the ultimate fruit, for this is everlasting life. I am not inquiring about anything past, or anything future, or anything on God’s part, but of something present and inward. We should not say that animal life consisted in being born, or in having parents, or in breathing, or in sensation, or in strength, or in a certain period of years, or in God’s will, or in God’s attributes, or in God’s knowledge of us. We should feel that nothing past, or to come, or external, could be a fit account of that which we call animal life, and that all answers so framed were beside the mark. It would be intelligible, for instance, to say that life consisted in the presence of the soul; but whether we said this or anything else, in any case we should fix on something in us, not out of us. And in like manner, when I ask what is that called righteousness, which God first clothes us with as with a robe, then looks upon and accepts, I do not ask why God so looks upon it, but what it is He looks upon.