claims of justice against him are satisfied, and that he is enti- tled to the reward promised to the righteous. When God jus- tifies the ungodly, he does not declare that he is godly, but that his sins are expiated, and that he has a title founded in justice to eternal life. In this there is no contradiction and no absurdity. If a man under attainder appear before the proper tribunal, and show cause why the attainder should in justice be reversed, and he be declared entitled to his rank, titles, and estates, a decision in his favour would be a justification. It would declare him just in the eye of the law, but it would declare nothing and effect noth- ing as to his moral character. In the like manner, when the sinner stands at the bar of God, he can show good reason why he cannot be justly condemned, and why he should be declared en- titled to eternal life. Now the question is, " On what ground can God pronounce a sinner just in this legal or forensic sense ? " It has been shown that to justify, according to uniform Scriptural usage, is to pronounce just in the sense stated, that it is not mere- ly to pardon, and that it is not to render inherently righteous or holy. It has also been shown to be the doctrine of Scripture, what indeed is intuitively true to the conscience, that our moral excel- lence, habitual or actual, is not and cannot be the ground of any such judicial declaration. What then is the ground ? The Bible and the people of God, with one voice answer, " The righteous- ness of Christ." The ambiguity of words, the speculations of theologians, and misapprehensions, may cause many of the peo- ple of God to deny in words that such is the proper answer, but it is nevertheless the answer rendered by every believer's heart. He relies for his acceptance with God, not on himself but on Christ, not on what he is or has done, but on what Christ is and has done for him.
Meaning of the Terms.
By the righteousness of Christ is meant all he became, did, and suffered to satisfy the demands of divine justice, and merit for his people the forgiveness of sin and the gift of eternal life. The righteousness of Christ is commonly represented as including his active and passive obedience. This distinction is, as to the idea, Scriptural. The Bible does teach that Christ obeyed the law in all its precepts, and that he endured its penalty, and that this was done in such sense for his people that they are said to have done it. They died in Him. They were crucified with Him. They were delivered from the curse of the law by his be- ing made a curse for them. He was made under the law that he