Argument from the Ground of Justification.
5. The nature of justification is determined by its ground. This indeed is an anticipation of another part of the subject, but it is in point here. If the Bible teaches that the ground of justi- fication, the reason why God remits to us the penalty of the law and accepts us as righteous in his sight, is something out of our- selves, something done for us, and not what we do or experience, then it of necessity follows that justification is not subjective. It does not consist in the infusion of righteousness, or in making the person justified personally holy. If the " formal cause " of our justification be our goodness ; then we are justified for what we are. The Bible, however, teaches that no man living can be jus- tified for what he is. He is condemned for what he is and for what he does. He is justified for what Christ has done for him.
Justification not mere Pardon.
For the same reason justification cannot be mere pardon. Par- don does not proceed on the ground of a satisfaction. A prisoner delivered by a ransom is not pardoned. A debtor whose obliga- tions have been cancelled by a friend, becomes entitled to free- dom from the claims of his creditor. When a sovereign pardons a criminal, it is not an act of justice. It is not on the ground of satisfaction to the law. The Bible, therefore, in teaching that justification is on the ground of an atonement or satisfaction; that the sinner's guilt is expiated ; that he is redeemed by the precious blood of Christ ; and that judgment is pronounced upon him as righteous, does thereby teach that justification is neither pardon nor infusion of righteousness.
Argument from the Immutability of the Law.
6. The doctrine that justification consists simply in pardon, and consequent restoration, assumes that the divine law is imperfect and mutable. In human governments it is often expedient and right that men justly condemned to suffer the penalty of the law should be pardoned. Human laws must be general. They can- not take in all the circumstances of each particular case. Their execution would often work hardship or injustice. Human judg- ments may therefore often be set aside. It is not so with the di- vine law. The law of the Lord is perfect. And being perfect it cannot be disregarded. It demands nothing which ought not to be demanded. It threatens nothing which ought not to be inflicted.
126 PART m. Ch. XVII. — JUSTIFICATION.
It is in fact its own executioner. Sin is death. (Rom. viii. 6.) The justice of God makes punishment as inseparable from sin, as life is from holiness. The penalty of the law is immutable, and as little capable of being set aside as the precept. Accordingly the Scriptures everywhere teach that in the justification of the sinner there is no relaxation of the penalty. There is no setting aside, or disregarding the demands of the law. We are delivered from the law, not by its abrogation, but by its execution. (Gal. ii. 19.) We are freed from the law by the body of Christ. (Rom. vii. 4.) Christ having taken our place, bore our sins in his own body on the tree. (1 Pet. ii. 24.) The handwriting which was against us, he took out of the way, nailing it to his cross. (Col. ii. 14.) We are therefore not under the law, but under grace. (Rom. vi. 14.) Such representations are incon- sistent with the theory which supposes that the law may be dis- pensed with ; that the restoration of sinners to the favour and fellowship of God, requires no satisfaction to its demands ; that the believer is pardoned and restored to fellowship with God, just as a thief or forger is pardoned and restored to his civil rights by the executive in human governments. This is against the Scrip- tures. God is just in justifying the sinner. He acts according to justice.
It will be seen that everything in this discussion turns on the question, Whether there is such an attribute in God as justice ? If justice be only " benevolence guided by wisdom, " then there is no justification. What evangelical Christians so regard, is only pardon or sanctification. But if God, as the Scriptures and conscience teach, be a just God, as immutable in his justice as in his goodness and truth, then there can be no remission of the penalty of sin except on the ground of expiation, and no justification except on the ground of the satisfaction of justice ; and therefore justification must be a judicial act, and neither sim- ply pardon nor the infusion of righteousness. These doctrines sustain each other. What the Bible teaches of the justice of God, proves that justification is a judicial declaration that justice is satisfied. And what the Bible teaches of the nature of justi- fication, proves that justice in God is something more than be- nevolence. It is thus that all the great doctrines of the Bible are concatenated.
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