sermon 5 justification by faith to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Romans 4:5 how a sinner may be justified before God the Lord and judge of all is a question of no common importance to every child of man it contains the foundation of all our hope in as much as while we are at enmity with God there can be no true peace no solid Joy either in time or in eternity what peace can there be while our own heart condemns us and much more he that is greater than our heart and knoweth all things what solid Joy either in this world or that to come while the wrath of God abideth on us and yet how little hath this important question been understood what confused Notions have have many had concerning it indeed not only confused but often utterly false contrary to the truth as light is to Darkness Notions absolutely inconsistent with the Oracles of God and with the whole analogy of faith and hence airing concerning the very Foundation they could not possibly build thereon at least not gold silver or precious stones which would endure when tried as by fire but only hay and stubble neither acceptable to God nor profitable to man in order to do justice as far as in me lies to the vast importance of the subject to save those that seek the truth and sincerity from Vain jangling and strife of words to clear the confusedness of thought into which so many have already been LED thereby and to give them true and just conceptions of this great mystery of godliness I shall Endeavor to show first what is the general ground of this whole doctrine of justification secondly what justification is thirdly who they are that are Justified and fourthly on what terms they are Justified I am first to show what is the general ground of this whole doctrine of justification in the image of God was manade holy as he that created him is Holy merciful as the author of all is merciful perfect as his father in Heaven is perfect as God is love so man dwelling in love dwelt in God and God in him God made him to be an image of his own eternity an Incorruptible picture of the god of Glory he was accordingly pure as God is pure from every spot of sin he knew not evil in any kind or degree but was inwardly and outwardly sinless and undefiled he loved the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his mind and soul and strength to man thus upright and perfect God gave a perfect law to which he required full and perfect obedience he required full obedience in every point and this to be performed without any intermission from the moment Man became a living Soul till the time of his trial should be ended no allowance was made for any falling short as indeed there was no need of any man being altogether equal to the task assigned and thoroughly furnished for every good word and work to the entire law of Love which was written in his heart against which perhaps he could not sin directly it seemed good to The Sovereign wisdom of God to Super add one positive law Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree that groweth in the midst of the Garden annexing that penalty thereto in the day that thou eatest thereof Thou shalt surely die such then was the state of man in Paradise by the free unmar love of God he was holy and happy he knew loved enjoyed God which is in substance life Everlasting and in this life of love he was to continue forever if he continued to obey God in all things but if he disobeyed him in any he was to forfeit all in that day said God Thou shalt surely die man did disobey God he ate of the tree of which God commanded him saying Thou shalt not eat of it and in that day he was condemned by the righteous Judgment of God then also the sentence whereof he was worn before began to take place upon him for the moment he tasted that fruit he died his soul died and was separated from God separate from whom the soul has no light more life than the body has when separate from the soul his body body likewise became corruptible and Mortal so that death then took hold on this also and being already dead in spirit dead to God dead in sin he hastened on to death Everlasting to the destruction both of body and soul in the fire never to be quenched thus by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men as being contained in him who was a common father and representative of us all thus through the offense of one all are dead dead to God dead in sin dwelling in a corruptible mortal body shortly to be dissolved and under the sentence of death Eternal for as by one man's Disobedience all were made Sinners so by that offense of one judgment Came Upon all men to condemnation in this state we were even all mankind when God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to the end we might not perish but have everlasting life in the fullness of time he was made made man another common head of mankind a second General parent and representative of the whole human race and as such it was that he bore our griefs the Lord laying upon him the iniquities of us all then was he wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities he made his soul an offering for sin he poured out his blood for the transgressors he bare our sins in his own body on the tree that by his stripes we might be healed and by that one oblation for himself of himself once offered he hath redeemed me and all mankind having thereby made a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world in consideration of this that the Son of God hath tasted death for every man God hath now reconciled the world to himself not imputing to them their former trespasses and thus as the offense of one judgment Came Upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon on all men to justification so that for the sake of his well-beloved son of what he hath done and suffered for us God now vouch safes on only one condition which himself also enables us to perform both to remit The Punishment Due to our sins to reinstate us into his favor and to restore our dead souls to spiritual life as the earnest of life eternal this therefore is the general ground of the whole doctrine of justification by the sin of the first Adam who was not only the father but likewise a representative of us all we all fell short of the favor of God we all became children of Wrath or as the Apostle expresses it judgment Came Upon all men to condemnation even so by the sacrifice for sin made by the second Adam as the representative of us all God is so far reconciled to all the world that he ha given them a new covenant the plain condition whereof being once fulfilled there is no more condemnation for us but we are Justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ but what is it to be justified what is justification this was the second thing which I proposed to show and it is evidence from what has been already observed that it is not the being made actually just and righteous this is sanctification which is indeed in some degree the immediate fruit of justification but nevertheless is a distinct gift of God and of a totally different nature the one implies what God does for us through his son the other what he works in Us by his spirit so that although there some rare instances may be found wherein the term just Justified or justification is used in so Wiest senses to include sanctification also yet in general use they are sufficiently distinguished from each other both by St Paul and the other inspired writers now there's that far-fetched conceit that justification is the clearing us from accusation particularly that of Satan easily provable from any clear text of holy writ in the whole scriptural account of this matter as above laid down neither that accuser nor his accusation appears to be at all taken in it cannot indeed be denied that he is the accuser of men emphatically so-called but it does in no wise appear that the great Apostle have any reference to this more or less in all that he hath written touching justification either to the Romans or to the Galatians it is also far easier to take for granted than to prove from any clear scripture testimony that justification is the clearing us from the accusation brought against us by the law at least if this forced unnatural way of speaking mean either more or less than this that whereas we have transgress the law of God and thereby deserve the damnation of Hell God does not inflict on those who are Justified the punishment which they had deserved least of all this justification imply that God is deceived In Those whom he justifies that he thinks them to be what in fact they are not that he accounts them to be otherwise than they are it does by no means imply that God judges concerning us contrary to the real nature of things that he esteems us better than we really are or believes us righteous when we are unrighteous surely no the Judgment of the all-wise God is always according to truth neither can it ever consist with his uniring wisdom to think that I am innocent to judge that I am righteous or holy because another is so he can no more in this manner confound me with Christ than with David or Abraham let any man to whom God hath given understanding weigh this without prejudice and he cannot but perceive that such a notion of justification is neither reconcilable to reason nor scripture the plain scriptural notion of justification is pardon the Forgiveness of sins it is that act of God the Father whereby for the sake of the propitiation made by the blood of his son he showeth forth his righteousness or Mercy by the remission of the sins that are passed this is the easy natural account of it given by S St Paul throughout his this whole epistle so he explains himself more particularly in this and in the following chapter thus in the next verses but one to the text blessed are they saith he whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin to him that is Justified and forgiven God will not impute sin to his condemnation he will not condemn him on that account either in this world or in that which is to come all his sins all his past sins and thought word and deed are covered are blotted out shall not be remembered or mentioned against him anymore than if they had never been God will not inflict on that sinner what he deserved to suffer because the son of his love hath suffered for him and from that the time we are accepted through the Beloved reconciled to God through his blood he loves and blesses and watches over us for good even as if we had never sin indeed the Apostle in one place seems to extend the meaning of the word much farther where he says not the hearers of the law but the doers of the law shall be justified here he appears to refer our justification to the sentence of the great day and so our Lord himself unquestion be doth when he says by thy words Thou shalt be justified proving thereby that for Every Idle Word men shall speak they shall give an account in the day of judgment but perhaps we can hardly produce another instance of St Paul's using the word in that distant sense in the general tenor of his writings it is evident he doth not and least of all in the the text before us which undeniably speaks not of those who have already finished their course but of those who are now just setting out just beginning to run the race which is set before them but this is the third thing which was to be considered namely who are they that are Justified and the Apostle tells us expressly the ungodly he that is God justify the ungodly the ungodly of every kind and degree and none but the ungodly as they that are righteous need no repentance and so they need no forgiveness it is only Sinners that have any occasion for pardon it is sin alone which admits of being forgiven forgiveness therefore has an immediate reference to sin and in this respect to nothing else it is our unrighteousness to which the pardoning God is merciful it is our iniquity which he remember no more this seems not at all not to be at all considered by those who so vehemently contend that a man must be Saed Sanctified that is Holy before he can be justified especially by such of them as affirm that Universal Holiness or obedience must precede justification unless they mean that justification at the last day which is wholly out of the present question so far from it that the very supposition is not only flatly impossible for where there is no love of God there is no Holiness and there is no love of God but from a sense of his loving us but also grossly intrinsically absurd contradiction Victory to itself for it is not a saint but a sinner that is Forgiven and under the notion of a sinner God justifieth not The Godly but the ungodly not those that are holy already but the Unholy upon what condition he doeth this will be considered quickly but whatever it is it cannot be Holiness to assert this is to say the Lamb of God takes away only those sins which were taken away before does then the Good Shepherd seek and save only those that are found already no he seeks and saves that which is lost he pardons those who need his pardoning Mercy he saves from the guilt of sin and at the same time from the power Sinners of every kind of every degree men who till then were all together ungodly in whom the love of the father was not and consequently in whom dwelt no good thing no good or truly Christian temper but all such as were evil and abominable Pride anger love of the world the genine fruits of that carnal mind which is enmity against God these who are sick the burden of whose sins is intolerable are they that need a physician these who are guilty who groan under the wrath of God are they that need a pardon these who are condemned already not only by God but also by their own conscience as by a thousand Witnesses of all their ungodliness both in thought and word and work cry aloud for him that justifieth the ungodly through the Redemption that is in Jesus the ungodly and him that worketh not that worketh not before he is Justified anything that is good that is truly virtuous or holy but only evil continually for his heart is necessarily essentially evil till the love of God is shed abroad therein and while the tree is corrupt so are the fruits for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit if it be objected nay but a man before he is Justified May feed the hungry or clothe the naked and these are good works the answer answer is easy he may do these even before he is Justified and these are in one sense good works they are good and profitable to men but it does not follow that they are strictly speaking good in themselves or good in the sight of God all truly good works to use the words of our church follow after justification and they are therefore good and acceptable to God in Christ because they spring out of a true and Living Faith by a parody of reason all works done before justification ation are not good in the Christian sense for as much as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ though from some kind of faith in God they may spring ye rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not how strange soever it may appear to some but they have the nature of sin perhaps those who doubt of this have not duly considered the weighty reason which is here assigned why no Works done before justification can truly can be truly and properly good the argument runs plainly thus no works are good which are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done but no Works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done therefore no Works done before justification are good the first proposition is self-evident and the second that no Works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done will appear equally plain and undeniable if we only consider God hath F and commanded that all our works should be done in charity and Agape in love in that love to God which produces love to all mankind but none of our works can be done in this love while the love of the father of God as our father is not in us and this love cannot be in us until we receive the spirit of adoption crying in our hearts ABA father if therefore God doth not justify the ungodly and him that in this sense worketh not then hath Christ died in vain then not withstanding his death can no flesh living be justified but on what terms then is he justified who is altogether ungodly until that time worketh not on one alone which is Faith he believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly and he that believeth is not condemned yeah he has passed from Death to life for the righteousness or mercy of God Is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe whom God has set forth for a propitiation through the faith in his blood that he might be just and consistently with his Justice the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the Deeds of the law without previous obedience to the moral law which indeed he could not till now perform that it is the moral law and that alone which is here intended appears evidently from the thing Words which follow do we then make void the law through faith God forbid yeah we establish the law what law do we establish by faith not the ritual law not the ceremonial law of Moses in no wise but the Great unchangeable Law of love the Holy Love of God and of our neighbor faith in general is a Divine Supernatural alas evidence or conviction of Things Not Seen not discoverable by our bodily senses as being either past future or spiritual justifying faith implies not only a Divine evidence or conviction that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself but a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins that he loved me and gave himself for me and at what times soever a sinner thus believes be it in early childhood in the strength of his years or when he is old and Hy haired God justifieth that ungodly one God for the sake of his son pardontheinterruption repentance indeed God had given him before but that repentance was neither more nor less than a deep sense of the want of all good and the presence of all evil and whatever good he hath or doeth from that hour when he first believes in God through Christ Faith does not find but bring this is the fruit of Faith first the tree is good and then the fruit is good also I can't describe the nature of this Faith better than in the words of our own church the only only instrument of Salvation where of justification is one branch is faith that is ass sure trust and confidence that God both hath and will forgive and will forgive our sins that he hath accepted us again into his favor for the merits of Christ's death and passion but here we must take heed that we do not halt with God through an inconsistent wavering Faith Peter coming to Christ upon the Water because he fainted in faith was in danger of drowning so we if we begin to waver or doubt it is to be feared that we shall sink as Peter did not into the water but into the bottomless pit of Hellfire therefore have a sure and con constant faith not only that the death of Christ is available for all the world but that he hath made a full and sufficient sacrifice for thee a perfect cleansing of thy sins so that thou mayest say with the Apostle he loved thee and gave himself for thee for this is to make Christ thine own and to apply his merits unto thyself by affirming that this faith is the term or condition of justification I mean first that there is no justification without it he that believeth not is condemned already and so long as he believeth not that condemnation cannot be removed but the wrath of God abideth on him as there is no other name given under Heaven than that of Jesus of Nazareth no other Merit whereby a condemned sinner can ever be saved from the guilt of sin so there is no other way of obtaining a share in his Merit than by faith in his name so that as long as we are without this faith we are strangers to the Covenant of promise we are aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and without God in the world whatsoever virtu so-called a man may have I speak of those unto Whom The Gospel is preached for what have I to do to judge them that are without whatsoever good works so accounted he may do it profit profiteth not he is still a child of Wrath still under the curse till he believes in Jesus Faith therefore is the the necessary condition of justification yay and the only necessary condition thereof this is the second Point carefully to be observed that the very moment of God given faith for it is the gift of God to the ungodly that worketh not that faith is counted to him for righteousness he hath no righteousness at all antecedent to this not so much as negative righteousness or innocence but faith is imputed to him for righteousness the very moment that he believeth not that God as was observed before thinketh him to be what he is not but as he made Christ to be sin for us that is treated him as a sinner punishing him for our sins so he cth us righteous from the time we believe in him that is he doth not punish us for our sins ye treats us as though we were Guiltless and righteous surely the difficulty of ascending to this proposition that faith is the only condition of justification must arise from not understanding it we mean thereby thus much that it is the only thing without which none is Justified the only thing that is immediately indispensably absolutely requisite in order to Pardon as on the other hand though A man should have everything else without faith yet he cannot be justified so on the other though he be supposed to want everything else yet if he hath Faith he cannot but be justified for suppose a sinner of any kind or degree in the full sense of his total ungodliness of his utter inability to think speak or do good and his absolute meekness for Hellfire I say this sinner helpless and hopeless casts himself wholly on the mercy of God in Christ which indeed he cannot do but by the grace of God who can doubt but he is Forgiven in that moment who will affirm that any more is indispensably required before that sinner can be justified now if there ever was one such instance from the beginning of the world and have there not been and are there not 10,000 time 10,000 it plainly follows that faith is in the above sense the so condition of justification it does not become poor guilty sinful worms who receive whatsoever blessings they enjoy from the least drop of water that cools our tongue to the immense Riches of glory and Eternity of Grace of mere favor and not of debt to ask of God the reasons of his conduct it is not meat for us to call him in question who giveth account to none of his ways to demand why did thou make Faith the condition the only condition of justification wherefore did thou decree he that believeth and he only shall be saved this is the very point on which St Paul so strongly insists in the ninth chapter of his of his epistle that is that the terms of Pardon and acceptance must depend not on us but on him that calleth us that there is no unrighteousness with God in fixing his own terms not according to ours but his own good pleasure who may justly say I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy namely on him who believeth in Jesus so then it is not of him that nor of him that runneth to choose a condition on which he shall find acceptance but of God that showeth Mercy that ACTH none at all but of his own free love and unmit his unmerited goodness therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have mercy that is on those who believe on the son of his love and whom he he will that is those who who believe not he hardeneth leaves at last to the hardness of their hearts one reason however we may humbly conceive of God's fix fixing this condition of justification if thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ Thou shalt be saved was to hide Pride from man Pride had already destroyed the very angels of God had cast down a third part of the stars of Heaven it was likewise in great measure owing to this when the tempter said ye shall be as gods that Adam fell from his own steadfastness and brought sin and death into the world it was therefore an instance of wisdom worthy of God to appoint such a condition of reconciliation for him and all his posterity as might effectually humble might abase them to the dust and such is Faith it is peculiarly fitted for this end for he that cometh unto God by this Faith must fix his eyes singly on his own wickedness on his guilt and helplessness without having the least regard to any supposed good in himself to any virtue or righteousness whatsoever he must come as a mere Sinner inwardly and outwardly self- destroyed and self- condemned bringing nothing to God but godliness only pleading nothing of his own but sin and misery thus it is and thus alone when his mouth is stopped and he stands utterly guilty before God that he can look unto Jesus as the whole and sole propitiation for his sins thus only can he be found in him and receive the righteousness which is of god by faith thou ungodly one who hearest or readest these words thou vile helpless miserable sinner I charge thee before God the judge of all go straight unto him with all thy ungodliness take he thou destroyed not thy own soul by pleading thy righteousness more or less go as altogether ungodly guilty lost destroyed deserving and dropping into hell and thou shalt then find favor in his sight and know that he justifieth the ungodly and such thou Hast been brought unto the blood of sprinkling as an undone helpless damned sinner thus look unto Jesus there is the Lamb of God who taketh away thy sins plead thou no Works no righteousness of thine own no humility Contrition sincerity in no wise that were in very deed to deny the Lord that bought thee no plead thou singly the blood of the Covenant The Ransom paid for thy proud stubborn sinful Soul who art thou that that now seest and feel us both thine Inward and outward ungodliness Thou Art the man I want thee for my Lord I challenge thee for a child of God by Faith the Lord hath need of thee thou who feest Thou Art just fit for hell art just fit to advance his glory the glory of his free Grace justifying the ungodly and him that worketh not oh come quickly believe in the Lord Jesus and thou even Thou Art reconciled to God