Justification By Faith Alone (Part 1)

(DATED NOVEMBER 1734 – PREPARED FROM TWO SERMONS)
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)

SUBJECT: We are justified only by faith in Christ, and not by any manner of goodness of our own.

The following things may be noted in this verse:

1. Justification respects a man as ungodly. It is evident that these words, “that justifieth the ungodly,” cannot mean less than that in the act of justification, God acknowledges that nothin in man is or could be justified. Neither does God regard man as having godliness or any goodness in him at all. Immediately before justification, God beholds him only as an ungodly creature. Godliness in the person to be justified is not so much a necessary term for his justification, but only to be the cause of it. When it is said that God justifies the ungodly, it is as absurd to suppose that our godliness, taken as some goodness in us, is the basis of our justification. It is absurd to assume that when Christ gave sight to the blind, that sight was prior to the basis of that act of mercy in Christ. Equally absurd would be to suppose that in Christ’s bounty, He has made a poor man rich as the basis for justification, or to suppose that it was the wealth of this poor man that was the basis of this bounty towards him and the price by which it was procured.
2. In this verse, “him that worketh not” is not meant as one who merely does not conform to the ceremonial law. He “that worketh not” and “the ungodly” are evidently synonymous expressions. By the manner of their connection, they appear to signify the same. If not, then why is the term, “the ungodly,” used? The context gives no other occasion for it, but to show that by the grace of the gospel, God, as He justifies man, has no regard for any godliness of ours. The verse that precedes it reads, “Now to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” In that verse, it is evident that Spiritual grace consists in the reward being given without works. In the verse that immediately follows it and is connected with it in a sense, gospel grace consists of a man’s being justified as “ungodly.” Reviewing these two verses in concert, it is plain that ” him that worketh not,” and he who is “ungodly” mean the same thing. Therefore not only works of the cermonial law are excluded in this business of justification, but also works of morality and godliness.
3. In the works, it is evident that by that faith, by which we are justified, is not the same thing as obedience or righteousness. Here faith is expressed as “believing on him that justifies the ungodly.” Those who oppose the literalists, as they call them, adamantly insist that we take the words of Scripture concerning this doctrine in their most natural and obvious meaning. As they cry out their insistence, they cloud this doctrine with obscure metaphors and unintelligible figures of speech. But is this the right way to interpret Scripture – according to its most obvious meaning? When Scripture speaks of our “believing on him that justifies the ungodly” (“the breakers of His law”), it is literally interpreted as performing a course of obedience to His law, and avoiding the breaches of it. Believing that God is a Justifier is certainly different from submitting to God as a Lawgiver, especially when believing on Him as a Justifier of the ungodly and rebels against the Lawgiver.
4. It is evident that the man who is the subject of justification is without any righteousness in himself. In fact, it is said that “it is counted, or imputed to him for righteousness.” The phrase, as the apostle uses it here and in this particular context, manifestly declares that God, in His sovereign grace, is pleased in His dealings with the sinner. Therefore, the consequences of one who has no righteousness will be the same as if he had. This interpretation, however, may be from the respect it bears to something that is indeed righteous. It is plain that this is the force of the expression in the preceding verses. In all the preceding verse but one, it is manifest. The apostle lays the stress of his argument for the free grace of God on the words “counted” or “imputed” from that text of the Old Testament about Abraham. He supposed that God will show His grace in counting something for righteousness. In His consequential dealings with Abraham, that was not righteousness in itself.
   
   And in the next verse, which immediately precedes the text, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt,” the translated word is “reckoned.” It is the same word that in the other verses is translated as “imputed” and “counted.” It is as if the apostle had said, “As to him who works, there is no need of any gracious reckoning or counting it for righteousness. No reward will follow as if working was the same as righteousness. For if he has works, he has that which is a righteousness in itself, to which the reward properly belongs.” This is made further evident by the words that follow in Romans 4:6, “Even as David also described the blessedness of man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” What can here be meant by imputing righteousness without works, but imputing righteousness to him who has none of his own? Verse 7 and 8 read, “Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquites are frgiven, and whose sins are covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
   
   How do these words of David speak to the apostle’s purpose? How do they prove that righteousness is imputed without works, unless it is because the word “imputed” is used; and the subject of the imputation is a sinner, by his nature and without moral righteousness? David says no such thing, because the sinner is forgiven without the works of the ceremonial law. There is neither hint of the ceremonial law nor reference to it in David’s words. I will therefore venture to interpret this doctrine from the words and use it as the subject of my present discourse.
   
   We are jusstified only by faith in Christ, and not by any manner of virtue or goodness of our own.
   
   I sense that many will be ready to call this assertion absurd and largely inconsistent, belying a great deal of ignorance. But I ask everyone’s patience until I have finished. In explaining and defending this doctrine, I will:
   
   1. Explain the meaning of it, and show how I woud be understood by such an assertion.
   2. Proceed to considering the evidence of the truth of it.
   3. Demonstrate how evangelical obedience is concerned in this affair.
   4. Answer objections.
   5. Consider the importance of the doctrine.
   
   SECTION 1
   Explaining the Meaning of Justification by Faith Alone
   
   WHAT DOES “BEING JUSTIFIED” MEAN?
   
   A person is justified when he is judged by God as being free from the guilt of sin and its deserved punishment, and as having that righteousness that entitles him to the reward of life. By this interpretation, we can understand it as God accepting a person as having both negative and positive righteousness. God, as Judge, looks on him as being not only free from any need for punishment, but also as just, righteous, and entitled to a positive reward. This interpretation is not only the most agreeable to the etymology and natural translations of “to pass one for righteous in judgment,” but also manifestly consistent with the force of the word as it is used in Scripture.
   
   Some suppose that nothing more is intended by justification in Scripture than merely the forgiveness of sin. If so, it is very strange, particularly if we consider the nature of the case. For it is most evident, and none will deny that Scripture says that we are either justified or condemned with respect to the rule or law of God under which we live. Now what is it to justify a person as the subject of a law or rule, but to judge him as standing right with respect to that rule?
   
   To justify a person in a particular case is to approve of him as standing right, as subject to the law in that case. To justify in general is to pass judgment on him, as standing right in a state correspondent to the law or rule in general. But certainly, there is a great difference between being judged as being obedient to the rule in general or the law of God than being free from the guilt of sin.
   
   To be judged righteous we need something far more positive. We are no more justified by the voice of the law or of Him who judges according to it and issues a mere pardon of sin than Adam, our first surety, was justified by the law at the first point of his existence. He was not justified when he obeyed the law. In fact, he had not so much as any trial to determine whether he would fulfill his obligations to the law or not. If Adam had finished his course of perfect obedience, he would have been justified. And certainly his justification would have implied something more than what is merely negative. He would have been approved as having fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and would have been adjudged to the reward of it accordingly.
   
   Christ, our second Surety (whose justification virtually justifies all for whom His is Surety), was not justified until he had done the work the Father had appointed Him, and kept the Father’s commandments throughout all trials. Only then, in His resurrection, was He justified. When Christ had been put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18), He who had been manifest in the flesh was justified in the Spirit (1 Timothy 3:16). God, when He justified Christ by raising Him from the dead, released Him from the humiliation of His sin, and acquitted Him from any further suffering or abasement for it. In justification, God admitted Him to that eternal and immortal life, and to the beginning of that exaltation that was the reward for what He had done. And indeed the justification of a believer is nothing more than being admitted to communion in the justification of this Head and Surety of all believers.
   
   Christ suffered the punishment of sin not as a private person, but as our Surety. So after this suffering, when He was raised from the dead, He was ata that moment justified — not as a private person, but as the Surety and Representative of all who believe in Him. Christ was raised again not only for His own justification, but also for ours. According to the apostle in Romans 4:25, ” … who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” The apostle continues in Romans 8:34, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again.”
   
   A believer’s justification implies not only forgiveness of sins or acquittal from the wrath due because of them, but also entitlement to that glory which is the reward of righteousness. This refinement in the definition is reflected in the Scriptures, particularly in Romans 5:1-2. In these verses, the apostle mentions both of these as joint benefits implied in justification: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Remission of sin and inheritance of glory among those who are sanctified are mentioned together as being jointly obtained by faith in Christ in Acts 26:18: “That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith that is in me.”
   
   Both forgiveness and inheritance are without doubt implied in passing from death to life. Christ speaks of them as the fruit of faith, and opposes condemnation. In John 5:24, He says, “Verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
   
   Justification is by faith alone, and not by any virtue or goodness of our own. When discussing justification by faith, the great difficulty has been with the emphasis and force of the small word, “by.” It raises the question of the influence that faith has on the affair of justification, specifically as it is expressed in Scripture: “being justified by faith.”
   
   If I may humbly express what seems evident to me, although faith is indeed the condition of justification as nothing else is, this matter is not clearly and sufficiently explained by saying that faith is the condition of justification. Indeed, the word seems ambiguous, both in common use and in divinity. In one sense, Christ alone performs the condition of our justification and salvation. In another sense, faith is the condition of justification. In yet another sense, other qualifications and acts are also identified as conditions of salvation and justification. There seems to be a great deal of ambiguity in the expressions commonly used (which yet we are forced to use).
   
   Consider salvation. Different people interpret the conditions of salvation and justification in terms of the covenant very differently. And besides, as the word “condition” is very often understood in the common use of language, faith is not the only thing in us that is a condition of justification. By the common use of the word “condition,” we mean anything that is connected with consequences, especially if the proposition is both affirmative and negative, and as the condition is either affirmed or denied. If a thing happens as a result of something and cannot happen without it, then the “something” is a condition.
   
   In this sense, faith is not the only condition of salvation and justification. For there are many things that accompany and flow from faith — with which justification will be and without which, it will not. Therefore, these things are found in a multitude of places in Scripture in conditional propositions with justification and salvation. Some of these conditions are love of God, love to our brethren, forgiving men their trespasses, and many other good qualifications and acts. And there are many other things besides faith which are directly proposed to us, to be pursued or performed by us in order to receive eternal life. If these things are done or obtained, we will have eternal life. If they are not done or not obtained, we will surely perish.
   
   If faith were the only condition of justification, I would not hesitate that to say faith was the condition of justification. Indeed, I would draw our attention exclusively to that verse of Scripture that refers to being justified by faith. But there is a difference between being justified by a thing, and that thing universally, necessarily, and inseparably attending justification. There are a great many things by which we are not justified. It is not the inseparable connection with justification that the Holy Ghost would signify (or that is naturally signified) by such a phrase, but some particular influence that faith has in the affair, or some certain dependence that effort has on its influence.
   
   FAITH AS AN INSTRUMENT OF JUSTIFICATION
   
   Some, aware of this, have supposed that the influence or dependence might well be expressed by faith’s being the instrument of our justification. This is a misunderstanding injuriously represented and ridiculed by those who deny the doctrine of justification by faith alone, as though they supposed that faith is used as an instrument in the hand of God to pass that act of approving and justifying the believer.
   
   Faith was not intended to be the instrument wherewith God justifies, but rather the instrument through which we receive justification. It is not the instrument wherewith the Justifier acts in justifying, but through which the receiver of justification acts in accepting justification. Yet, we must acknowledge that this is an obscure way of speaking, and there must certainly be some impropriety in calling it an instrument wherewith we receive or accept justification. For the very people who explain the matter speak of faith as being the reception or acceptance itself. If this is truly the case, how can it be the instrument of reception or acceptance? Certainly there is a difference between the act and the instrument. Besides, by their own descriptions of faith, Christ, the Mediator by whom and through whose righteousness we are justified, is more directly the Object of this acceptance and justification, and the benefit arising from which more indirectly. Therefore, if faith is an instrument, it is more properly the instrument by which we receive Christ than the instrument by which we receive justification.
   
   FAITH AS PURCHASE
   
   But I humbly think we have been ready to look too far to find out what that influence justification has on faith, or how faith depends on it. When we use the expression, “being justified by faith,” we overlook that which is most obvious: that if there is a Mediator who has purchased justification, faith in this Mediator is suitable in the sight of God. Being suitable, the believer, rather than others, should have this purchased benefit assigned to him. This purchased benefit, which God sees as the suitable thing, should be assigned to some rather than others, because He sees them differently qualified. That qualification wherein the worthiness of this benefit consists, is already in us, and is by which we are justified.
   
   If Christ had not come into the world and died to purchase justification, no qualification whatever in us could render justification a suitable or fit thing for us. But because Christ has actually purchased justification by His own blood for infinitely unworthy creatures, there may be certain qualifications found in some people. God can render suitable one of these qualifications, either from the relation it bears to the Mediator and His merits, or on some other account, suitable. They should have an interest in this purchased benefit. If any are lacking this qualification, they are unfit and unsuitable for justification.
   
   The wisdom of God in His constitution doubtless appears much in the fitness and beauty of them, so that those things are established to be done that are fit to be done, and are connected in His constitution that are agreeable one to another.
   
   No doubt, God justifies a believer according to His revealed constitution, because He sees something in this qualification that renders it fit to be justified. God accepts the qualification because faith is the instrument or the hand by which He has purchased justification, or because of the acceptance itself, or whatever else. To be justified is to be approved by God as a worthy recipient of pardon with a right to eternal life. Therefore, when it is said that we are justified by faith, what else can it mean other than faith is that by which we are rendered approvable, fitly so, and indeed, worthy recipients of this benefit?
   
   This is something different from faith being the condition of justification, although inseparably connected. So are many other things besides faith, and yet nothing in us but faith renders us worthy of receiving justification, as I will presently show in answer to the next inquiry.
   
   (To be continued ….)