THERE is a good deal of mystery as to what Justification really is in the minds of many who are, doubtless, Christians. Perhaps the following simple illustration may bring light from God on this great and important truth to some inquiring one. The writer was once reading over some old municipal accounts of an ancient Scottish town, and found therein a statement like this: ―
“Hugh Brown, sentenced to be hung for highway robbery, was justified on Saturday morning.” The meaning of this was somewhat puzzling, and it was only by inquiring of one well versed in Scottish law that I found the statement simply meant that Hugh Brown had paid the penalty of his crime, and was consequently clear of the power of the law. So that justification for Hugh Brown meant clearance, a clearance purchased with his own life.
Now, my reader, man stands in the same case as regards God, the “Judge of all the earth,” as Hugh Brown stood in relation to his fellow-men and judge. For as this man had broken the law of the land in which he lived, so every son of guilty Adam’s race has broken the law of God, and trampled it under foot, and ever since the entry of sin into the world God has had a great controversy with man.
“How shall man be just with God?” (Job 9:22I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? (Job 9:2)) was the question of supreme importance asked by Job, and still asked by countless living men. Sin produces in the heart a sense of guilt, fear, and estrangement from God, and if man is ever to be brought into the very presence of God, and to feel perfectly at home there, he must needs first be cleared from his sin. The great point for us is, how is this clearance to be accomplished?
Job and David both knew experimentally, no doubt, that man in himself is helpless and powerless under the dominion of sin, and if man is to be delivered the power must come from another. What mind could have conceived that God Himself would take up man’s case and come in as “Justifier of the ungodly”? (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)). This is the position God has been enabled to take through the death and resurrection of His own Son.
In the Epistle to the Romans the whole question of justification is gone into by the apostle Paul. In chapter 3 both Jews and Gentiles are seen as alike guilty and subject to the judgment of God, and the conclusion arrived at is that by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified. Oh, how this simple scripture cuts every inch of standing room from under the feet of the multitudes who are trying by their own doings to justify themselves. “Ye are they which justify yourselves” (Luke 16:1515And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)), were the words of the Lord Himself to a company of hypocritical Pharisees.
But in Luke 7:2929And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. (Luke 7:29) we find a company who justify God. The man who seeks to work out a righteousness of his own is simply seeking his own glory, and will never be justified. But the one who justifies God owns his state by bowing to the judgment of God, and in so doing finds that God will justify him. In Romans 3 it is only when man is absolutely shut up, with his guilt fully proved, that God can come out as the One who justifies.
Oh, mystery of mysteries, that has set all heaven in rapturous amazement; God, the Judge of all the earth, has taken the place of Justifier. Instead of sending forth the armed hosts of heaven to take summary vengeance on the murderers of His Son, God sends by His Spirit a message of forgiveness and clearance for all who will have it.
But if God be the righteous One, as He most surely is, on what ground can He clear the guilty? “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom. 5:99Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9)). Justified by blood, cleared by blood, the blood, too, of God’s own Son. This is the only ground upon which God can justify man. “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)). “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” was, and is, and ever shall be true. For God must be just ere He can take the place of Justifier. It is not only that the Lord Jesus bore the punishment of our sins, but He actually passed into our position, as being under the condemnation of God; and in His death finished our history as after the flesh, so that now we have in Him a complete clearance: there is nothing chargeable to us.
Small wonder, then, that the apostle, in the eighth chapter, sends forth the challenge before all the universe, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” God Himself has given the clearance, and who can question His work? “Who is he that condemneth?”— again the challenge rings out, and the death and resurrection of Christ are the full and fitting answer to this. What a blessed thing it is to have a clearance such as this, wrought out by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and now administered by God the Father in perfect grace. Instead of seeking to clear myself, and going about to establish my own righteousness, I find that God clears me, and accounts me righteous in Christ.
But the question may arise, “For whom is this clearance, and on what principle does God act in giving it?” In Romans 3:2222Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: (Romans 3:22) we read, “Unto all and upon all.” It is what God desires for everyone, so no one can say, “It was not for me.” “All have sinned.” Yes, but the justification is for all. You may say, Must there be nothing in me to merit it? My dear friend, there is nothing in you to merit it, and the man who waits till he merits it will wait in vain. “Justified freely by His grace”— there lies the principle on which God acts. Grace means unmerited favor, and surely it is only on this footing that man can get blessing. One’s heart would sink after reading the solemn indictment in the first three chapters of Romans if one had to be anything or to do anything to merit justification. What, let me ask, can man do? Nothing but sin, Scripture says, so that if he comes into blessing at all it must be by the free grace of God.
What have we then? A clearance purchased by blood; given freely or unconditionally by God to all who seek it. Perhaps the reader may say, “In what way can I get into the good of it?” In the fifth of Romans you have the answer, “Being justified by faith” (vs. 1). Faith is like the hand that reaches out to God, and takes His precious gift. There is a good deal of mystification in many minds as to faith, but the Word of God is most simple on the subject. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:1717So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)). You have heard something of Him who came to be delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. Do you believe it so that in the strength of that belief you can stretch out your hand, so to speak, and accept what God freely offers? Then, and only then, will you have the deep, sweet assurance in your soul that you have been cleared by God. Cleared from what—the most wicked acts of my life, the great sins I have committed against God or man, or even my whole past history? Listen, friend, listen to the simple yet comprehensive statement of God’s blessed Word, “justified from all things” (Acts 13:3939And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)) “All things” great or small, forgotten or remembered. “All things,” yea, even my old self.
“What must I do to be saved?” came from the depths of a thoroughly awakened heart once. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” was the answer. Reader, let me ask the question once put by the Saviour Himself— “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” (John 9:3535Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? (John 9:35)). If so, you will know the blessedness of being―
J. K.