There is a day in spring When under all the earth the secret germs Begin to glow and stir before they bud.
The wealth and festal pomps of midsummer Lie in the heart of that inglorious day Which no man names with blessing, though its worth Is blest of all the world.
That is a symbol of all that lies in the first movement of new life in the soul ; no man may know or name it, but God knows and names it with the name of Christ.1
iii. By Faith.
1. Justification comes by faith. As the Apostle says, in the case of Abraham his faith was reckoned to him for righteousness ; therefore, he, too, was justified by faith. What, then, is faith in this connexion ? We must remember that in all his treatment of his subject the Apostle is advocating and expounding a doctrine of salvation by grace alone, in opposition to the familiar Jewish doctrine of salvation by works. God saves men out of His bound- less love. But who are the men whom He saves, and how do they appropriate the salvation He gives ? Are all saved, or only some ? and, if so, how is the selection made ? It cannot be by merit, for that would be salvation by works. It is, says St. Paul, by faith. Men receive and appropriate the benefits of Christ's saving work as they trust in Him and enter into that union with Him which perfect faith involves.
1 Walter Lock, St. Paul the Master- Builder, 77.
ROMANS v. i, 2 289
2. Faith is necessary in the adjustment of the legal relations of the saved sinner, called justification, in a peculiar sense and for a peculiar reason. The peculiar sense in which faith is necessary to justification is that, inasmuch as we must receive the righteous- ness of Christ in order to enjoy its legal benefits, we must have an instrument, or means of receiving it ; and faith is that instrument. The peculiar reason why faith is necessary, and no other grace is available, is found in its own nature as adjusted to the work of receiving things. It is not because of its superior moral value to other graces of the Spirit, for Paul makes it equal in this respect to hope, but inferior to charity. It is exclusively related to justification, because it is a natural gesture of acceptance. The hand is the bodily organ for receiving things; it is naturally adapted for that purpose. It would be absurd to require one to receive an offered gift on the back of the head, because it has no natural adaptation for the purpose. Faith, and not love, joy, or hope, is the instrument of justification, because of its adaptation, as a natural gesture of acceptance, to receive the free gift of the righteousness of Christ, which carries justification and all the other elements of salvation with it.1
3. Words would fail one to describe the immense power which justification by faith has wielded in the experience of Christian men. Wherever you find a Christianity that is not merely formal, but vital and experimental, and try to probe to its foundations, you will reach at last the belief that a man is justified by his faith. This is the great tap-root out of which spring the sanctified life, the full assurance of faith, the peace that passeth understanding, the everlasting hope.2
TJ If you want to do any good with a poor miserable sinful outcast, a wastrel of humanity, your first step must be to establish confidence between yourself and him. You will find that he is a very bundle of suspicions, and that until you can get his confidence, all your well-meant efforts will fail ; and it is just so between man and God. The natural attitude of sinful man towards a holy God is one of suspicion. It seems almost impossible to believe that He will not require something tremendous from us, that He can let bygones be bygones, and take and help us just as we are. And nothing but the sense of our justification can give us this con- fidence, the feelirjg that our redemption is God's matter, not ours, 1 C. R. Vaughan. 2 W. B. SelMe.
ACTS & ROM. — 19
29o THE HARVEST OF THE JUSTIFIED
that He takes us at a higher valuation than we dare set upon ourselves, and asks us not to do something for Him, but to let Him do everything for us. This it is which has been as the very opening of the prison-house to thousands of caged souls, and which has caused natures, starved and cold, to blossom out into new, warm, lovely life. And this it is which can deliver us from our bondage, and put a new song in our mouths.1
II.
Peace with God.
" Let us have peace with God " (R V.).
1. The rendering of the Authorized Version is, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The alteration is very slight, being that of one letter in one word, the substitution of a long o for a short one. The majority of manuscripts of authority read " let us have," making the clause an exhortation and not a statement. But is not all that Paul has been saying just this, that to be justified by faith, to be declared righteous by reason of faith in Him who makes us righteous, is to have peace with God ? Is not his exhortation an entirely superfluous one ? No doubt that is what the old scribe thought who originated the reading which has crept into our Authorized Version. The two things do seem to be entirely parallel. To be justified by faith is a certain process, to have peace with God is the in- separable and simultaneous result of that process. But that is going too fast. "Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God," really is just this — see that you abide where you are ; keep what you have. The exhortation is not to attain peace, but retain it. " Hold fast that thou hast ; let no man take thy crown." "Being justified by faith," cling to your treasure and let nothing rob you of it — "let us have peace with God." The declaration of " not guilty " which the sinner comes under by a heartfelt embracing of Christianity at once does away with the state of hostility in which he had stood to God, and sub- stitutes for it a state of peace which he has only to realize.