“Wisdom is justified of all her children” (Luke 7:3535But wisdom is justified of all her children. (Luke 7:35); Matt. 11:1919The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. (Matthew 11:19)) our Lord Jesus Christ tells us. All the children of Wisdom, from the days of Abel down to the present moment, have been marked by this great family trait. There is not so much as a single exception. All God’s children—all the sons of Wisdom have always exhibited, in some degree, this moral feature—they have justified God.
Let the reader consider this. It may be he finds it hard to understand what is meant by justifying God; but a passage or two of holy Scripture will, we trust, make it quite plain. We read in Luke 7 that
Here we have the two generations brought, as it were, face to face. The publicans justified God and condemned themselves. The Pharisees justified themselves and judged God. The former submitted to the baptism of John—the baptism of repentance. The latter refused that baptism—refused to repent—refused to humble and to judge themselves.
Here we have the two great classes into which the whole human family has been divided, from the days of Abel and Cain down to the present day; and, here too, we have the simplest possible test by which to try our “pedigree.”
Have we taken the place of self-condemnation? Have we bowed in true repentance toward God? This is to justify God. The two things go together—yea, they are one and the same. The man who condemns himself justifies God; and the man who justifies God condemns himself. On the other hand, the man who justifies himself judges God; and the man who judges God justifies himself.
Thus it stands in every case. And be it observed, that the very moment we take the ground of repentance and self-judgment, God takes the ground of a justifier. God always justifies those who condemn themselves. All His children justify Him, and He justifies all His children. The moment David said, “I have sinned against the Lord,” the answer was, “The Lord hath put away thy sin.” Divine forgiveness follows, with the most intense rapidity, human confession.
Hence it follows that nothing can be more foolish than for anyone to justify himself, inasmuch as God must be justified in His sayings, and overcome when He is judged (Comp. Psa. 51:44Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (Psalm 51:4); Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4).) God must have the upper hand in the end, and then all self-justification shall be seen in its true light.
The wisest thing therefore is to condemn ourselves. This is what all the children of Wisdom do. Nothing is more characteristic of the true members of Wisdom’s family, than the habit and spirit of self-judgment. Whereas, on the other hand, nothing so marks all those who are not of this family, as a spirit of self-vindication.
All these things are worthy of our most earnest attention. Nature will blame anything and everything, anyone and everyone but itself. But where grace is at work, there is ever a readiness to judge self, and take the lowly place. This is the true secret of blessing and peace. All God’s children have stood on this blessed ground, exhibited this lovely moral trait, and reached this grand result. We cannot find so much as a single exception in the entire history of Wisdom’s happy family; and we may safely say, that if the reader has been led, in truth and reality, to own himself lost—to condemn himself—to take the place of true repentance—then is he, in very deed, one of the children of Wisdom.