Of Justification by CHRIST.
1 CORINTHIANS vi. 11.
_But ye are justified._
The whole verse is: _And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and by the Spirit of our GOD_.
IT has been objected by some, who dissent from, nay, I may add, by others also, who actually are friends to the present ecclesiastical establishment, that the ministers of the Church of _England_ preach themselves, and not CHRIST JESUS the LORD; that they entertain their people with lectures of mere morality, without declaring to them the glad tidings of salvation by JESUS CHRIST. How well grounded such an objection may be, is not my business to enquire: All I shall say at present to the point is, that whenever such a grand objection is urged against the whole body of the clergy in general, every honest minister of JESUS CHRIST should do his utmost to cut off all manner of occasion, from those who desire an occasion to take offence at us; that so by hearing us continually sounding forth the word of truth, and declaring with all boldness and assurance of faith, “that there is no other name given under heaven, whereby they can be saved, but that of JESUS CHRIST,” they may be ashamed of this their same confident boasting against us.
It was an eye to this objection, joined with the agreeableness and delightfulness of the subject (for who can but delight to talk of that which the blessed angels desire to look into?) that induces me to discourse a little on that great and fundamental article of our faith; namely, our being freely justified by the precious blood of JESUS CHRIST. “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and by the Spirit of our GOD.”
The words beginning with the particle _but_, have plainly a reference to something before; it may not therefore be improper, before I descend to particulars, to consider the words as they stand in relation to the context. The apostle, in the verses immediately foregoing, had been reckoning up many notorious sins, drunkenness, adultery, fornication, and such like, the commission of which, without a true and hearty repentance, he tells the _Corinthians_, would entirely shut them out of the kingdom of GOD. But then, lest they should, on the one hand, grow spiritually proud by seeing themselves differ from their unconverted brethren, and therefore be tempted to set them at nought, and say with the self-conceited hypocrite in the prophet, “Come not nigh me, for I am holier than thou;” or, on the other hand, by looking back on the multitude of their past offences, should be apt to think their sins were too many and grievous to be forgiven: he first, in order to keep them humble, reminds them of their sad state before conversion, telling them in plain terms, “such (or as it might be read, these things) were some of you;” not only one, but all that sad catalogue of vices I have been drawing up, some of you were once guilty of; but then, at the same time, to preserve them from despair, behold he brings them glad tidings of great joy: “But ye are washed; but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and by the Spirit of our GOD.”
The former part of this text, our being _sanctified_, I have in some measure treated of already; I would now enlarge on our being freely justified by the precious obedience and death of JESUS CHRIST: “But ye are justified in the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.”
From which words I shall consider three things;
_First_, What is meant by the word _justified_.
_Secondly_, I shall endeavour to prove that all mankind in general, and every individual person in particular, stands in need of being justified.
_Thirdly_, That there is no possibility of obtaining this justification, which we so much want, but by the all-perfect obedience, and precious death of JESUS CHRIST.
_First_, I am to consider what is meant by the word justified.