AS believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we need to know what God has done for us, so that we may delight in Himself―the end for which He has saved us. If grace is working in out hearts we shall want Him; but we cannot joy in Him, as the object of our renewed nature, until we are in our consciences reconciled to Him.
Turning to Rom. 5 we find a word which, grasped by faith, brings us to God in peace, and makes Him our hope instead of our fear. It is a word often uttered, but little understood, therefore we affectionately beg the reader to ask himself what does God mean by declaring that a sinner who believes on Him, who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, is justified.
Justification is an act altogether of God on our account, and not an experience wrought in us by His Spirit. God delivered the Lord Jesus for all the offenses of the believer on Calvary’s cross, and the offenses being cleared away in His sight He justifies the believer. God now sees Christ before Him, and not the offenses. A risen, living Lord is our justification in God’s sight. By faith we see the Lord Jesus Christ raised by God for our justification, and through Him we have peace with God. Peace is the answer of our conscience to God’s act of justifying the sinner; peace with God is our response to God’s grace in counting us righteous and cleansing us from all guilt.
God is the Justifier, therefore we are always justified. We learn to think of ourselves, not as we may feel or imagine, but as God declares us to be in His sight. A living Saviour in the glory is our justification, and by Him we have access freely into this favor, this grace of God in which we stand.
The believer is always in the favor of God in Christ, for Christ is always for him in the glory of God; and this gives us a boast that has its strength in God Himself. God has given all His glory to shine upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are going to be with Christ, so we boast in hope of the glory of God. The tribulations of the way are sent in God’s love to His children to perfect patience in them, and to teach the children all that God is to them and for them in their sorrows and exercise. Never do they taste of wrath, though Satan may so insinuate. Tribulations are the dealings of God’s love which, shed abroad by the Holy Ghost in the heart, makes hope in Him not ashamed; for if He loved us when we were enemies, He will not cease to love us now He has reconciled us to Himself by the death of His Son.
And thus it is God and His Christ, His grace, and His love, from first to last; and the poor sinner has naught to do but to receive what God is for him as his Justifier, and thus he will have God Himself for his joy. R.