In Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, he lets us perceive, as in his own person, that “justification by faith,” which he is there defending, is no mere dogma, or proposition which may exercise the intellect or give a theme to the mind to discuss. He lets us know that he himself had proved it to be a truth full of life and power. There is this difference, among others, between these two epistles. In Romans we get this doctrine propounded in its moral glory with its bearings on the glory of God and on the condition of the believing sinner, as we have seen.
Paul Lives It
In Galatians the Apostle shows himself to us in connection with this doctrine. He lives it, rather than teaches or proves it, though he does that also. He is defending it against gainsayers and not simply propounding it to sinners. In fervency of spirit he is led forth of God to tell us how this doctrine, this principle of faith, illustrated its virtue in his own person, and that, too, in varied relationships, as towards the creatures around him, as towards gainsayers, as in God’s own presence, and as in connection with this present, evil world.
As towards the creature, this doctrine or principle of faith had made him independent. He could go down to Arabia. He could turn his back on Jerusalem and all that was there to countenance and refresh him, and look to the solitudes of the desert (Galatians 1).
As towards gainsayers, it made him as bold as a lion, not intimidated even by the presence of a Peter, who, at that moment, more than any other man, had all respect in the flesh (Galatians 2).
As in God’s presence, it made him free and happy, breathing there the spirit of adoption, and knowing the liberty of one accepted as in the Beloved (Galatians 4).
As in connection with this present, evil world, it gave him victory over it. He was crucified to it, and it to him (Galatians 6).
The Spring of Hope and Love
These are some of the reflections of the doctrine of divine righteousness, or justification by faith, in the soul of this dear apostle. It was no mere intellectual possession of a dogma that could do these things for the soul. This doctrine implies restoration to God —personal, immediate restoration. Adam, through sin, lost Him; the sinner, through faith, recovers Him. It is the spring of hope and of love — as he tells us in this same epistle (Gal. 5:56). Justification by faith is the religion of a sinner in personal, immediate confidence in God.
Upholding the Truth
The Apostle protects this truth against all trespassers, whether they are chief in creation like angels, chief in office, like apostles, or chief in the ways of God, as the law (Gal. 1:8; 2:11-21; 4:19-31). Angels must stand accursed, if they would gainsay this truth. Peter shall be withstood to the face without sparing him, if he tried to cloud it. The law, which was God’s own voice in its time and place, must be silent when this truth proclaims itself.
Thus we see the wealth of that place to which justification by faith brings the sinner. It brings him into the family of God, making him a child. It brings him into the hope or prospect of glory as his inheritance. There, in these wealthy places, it teaches him to breathe the air of freedom and of love (Gal. 3:26; 5:1,56).
J. G. Bellett, adapted from Short Meditations
Plain Words on Justification
It was a serious question that was put to Job by one of his friends more than three thousand years ago: “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4). After all these centuries we may still ask, “Is there such a thing as justification with God?” Evidently Bildad the Shuhite (Job 25) would have inclined to a negative answer, for he proceeds, in pathetic language, “Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” (Job 25:56). If we turn to the words of the psalmist David, we find (Psa. 143:2) that he speaks in a similar strain: “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant: for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”
New Testament Light
Happily we live in the bright light of the New Testament, and as we consult its pages we are at no loss to discover the true answer to our question. That wonderful third chapter of Romans, which stops every mouth and proves every man guilty before God, declares that by “the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (vs. 20). We are not surprised that Bildad and the psalmist should alike conclude there was no justification before God. For us, on the contrary, how blessed it is to find that when the Apostle summarily describes man’s condition and guilt in the brief words, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), it is but a preparatory clearing of the ground for the gracious assertion that follows in the same breath, “Being justified freely by His grace.” We read also in Galatians 3:8, “The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen.” And again, in Romans 8:30, “Whom He called, them He also justified.”
Who Is the Justifier?
Justification involves a justifier. Who then is this justifier? In Romans 3:26 we read those blessed words, “To declare, at this time His [God’s] righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” So also in Romans 8:30, “Whom He [God] called, them He also justified.” God, then, is the Justifier, and the importance of this can scarcely be overstated, for whom He justifies must be justified indeed! It is no fallible work, marked and marred by human imperfection, but an altogether divine thing of incontestable and immutable value for eternity. The magnitude and grandeur of this piece of divine truth fired the heart of the Apostle when he exclaimed, “It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?” (Rom. 8:33-34).
Who Are Justified?
Our next question is, Who are they who are justified? If there is such a thing as justification, and God Himself is the Justifier, it is important for us to understand whom He justifies. Again we turn to Romans 3:26 and read there the conclusive words that He is “the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Nothing could be more plain. It is the believer, and the believer only, whom God justifies. We do not hesitate to say that no person can possibly know what it is to be justified who is not a believer in that blessed One — the Man of sorrows once, and the Man of glory forever! But perhaps it will be answered that in the next chapter we read of God’s justifying “the ungodly.” The word describes his state up to the time when he became a believer. This word “ungodly” then describes man’s state by nature, and that is fully unfolded in the fifth chapter, where three expressions are used descriptive of our natural condition. In the sixth verse we are “without strength,” in the eighth verse “sinners,” and in the tenth “enemies.” The first of these terms is negative—man powerless for good works. The next is positive — he is practically an evil worker, a sinner. The last is the worst of all, for he has a heart whose inmost springs are at enmity with God. This was clearly proved when Christ was here on earth, for God Himself was manifest in the flesh, dwelling among us in perfect love to man, and was hated without a cause. He was the song of the drunkard, and for His love they gave Him hatred. Such is man! Nevertheless, blessed be His name, “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). Such is God!
What Is Justification?
But it is time to ask the question, What is justification? We must refer to Romans 4:3 for God’s answer to our inquiry: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Again, in verse 5: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” And also in verse 9: “Faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.” The simple answer then is that justification is judicial righteousness; in other words, God’s accounting or adjudging us to be righteous before Himself — on what ground we shall see by-and-by. At present we must be clear as to the thing itself, and we would emphatically impress upon the reader’s mind this simple, but profoundly important truth, that justification signifies the being accounted by God and before God to be judicially righteous, which is the positive, absolute and changeless standing of the believer now and eternally. This and this only is justification. Thus it is not merely pardon or forgiveness, which is rather of a negative character, but a positive state of accomplished and ever-subsisting righteousness in Christ before God that we are already brought into by God’s own act, as the Justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
Christ’s Practical Righteousness
Here let it be noted that Scripture gives no support to the thought that Christ’s practical righteousness in His holy, blameless life on earth is accredited to our account for justification. That He magnified the law and put honor upon it in His own person is fully admitted, but nothing found in Scripture gives countenance to the mistaken notion that this was imputed to us. The scriptural doctrine of righteousness imputed signifies simply that we are accounted to be righteous apart from law-keeping as to the principle of it (Rom. 3:21) and apart from works of any kind practically (Rom. 4:5). It is our judicial standing which is signified by this imputation of righteousness, and it is based upon this ground alone that “we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 4:24). It is not that good works done by Christ are put to our account, which would be to make the life of Christ a vicarious thing, but rather that “as He is” (the glorified Man in the presence of God), “so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). This is the scriptural doctrine of the imputation of righteousness, and it beautifully exhibits the divine character of our justification.
On the Principle of Faith
Further, let us inquire, What is it by which we are justified? Romans 4:25 teaches that Jesus our Lord was raised for our justifying; Romans 5:1, that we are justified on the principle of faith; verse 9, that we are justified in the power of His blood. Each of these verses helps us to gather up an answer. In its intrinsic character our justification is according to the value of the blood of Christ to God. By that alone we are justified Godward, and according to its priceless worth is the character of our acceptance and standing in His holy presence. But looked at manward, it is by faith; that is, we get it on that principle and not on the principle of works. Practically we are not, and cannot be, justified until faith has been exercised by us. Thus we read in the peculiarly incisive language of Romans 4:5, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Accordingly Abraham, undistinguished for works but preeminent for his faith, is presented as the pattern of a justified man. Again, it is in direct connection with resurrection—the resurrection of Christ. He was raised, we read, for our justification, and unless we have part in His resurrection, we are not justified. God is our Justifier, and the risen Christ in His presence is our representative in justification, the expression of that state of ever-subsisting accomplished righteousness in which we are set as God’s justified ones in virtue of His death (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Results
Finally, let us ask, What are the results of it? The verses we were just now looking at supply the final answer. First, our sins (offences) are all gone, for the One who was thus raised had been delivered for them. He was delivered on account of them and for their putting away, and having been raised up, they can no longer have a place before the God who has righteously dealt with them. Second, having been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace is eternally established between us and Himself! Third, “being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” The first has to do with the past, for my sins were blotted out by His blood; the next with the present, for it is now that I have peace with God; the last with the future, for the wrath is the wrath to come, and I am assured, on divine testimony, that I am so cleared before God and so accepted and established in love that I am entitled to “have boldness in the day of judgment” (1 John 4:17).
How wonderful in every point of view is our justification before God! The Lord give us a truly scriptural apprehension of it, “to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6).
W. Rickards, adapted from
The Christian Friend, 1879