of that promise. (Rom. iv. 3, 9, 24.) It was not Abraham's believing state of mind that was taken for righteousness. It is not faith in the believer now ; not faith as a virtue, or as a source of a new life, which renders us righteous. It is faith in a spe- cific promise. Righteousness, says the Apostle, is imputed to us, " if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." (Rom. iv. 24.) Or, as he expresses it in Romans x. 9, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be- lieve in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." The promise which Abraham believed, is the promise which we believe (Gal. iii. 14) ; and the relation of faith to justification, in his case, is precisely what it is in ours. He and we are justified simply because we trust in the Messiah for our salvation. Hence, as the Apostle says, the Scriptures are full of thanksgiving to God for gratuitous pardon, for free justifi- cation, for the imputation of righteousness to those who have no righteousness of their own. This method of justification, he goes on to show, is adapted to all mankind. God is not the God of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles. It secures peace and rec- onciliation with God. (Rom. v. 1-3.) It renders salvation cer- tain, for if we are saved not by what we are in ourselves, but for what Christ has done for us, we^ may be sure that if we are "jus- tified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (Rom. v. 9.) This method of justification, he further shows, and this only, secures sanctification, namely, holiness of heart and life. It is only those who are reconciled to God by the death of his Son, that are " saved by his life." (v. 10.) This idea he expands and vindicates in the sixth and seventh chapters of this Epistle.
The Parallel between Adam and Christ.
3. Not content with this clear and formal statement of the truth that sinners can be justified only through the imputation of a righteousness not their own ; and that the righteousness thus imputed is the righteousness (active and passive if that distinc- tion be insisted upon) of the Lord Jesus Christ ; he proceeds to illustrate this doctrine by drawing a parallel between Adam and Christ. The former, he says, was a type of the latter. There is an analogy between our relation to Adam and our relation to Christ. We are so united to Adam that his first transgression was the ground of the sentence of condemnation being passed on all mankind, and on account of that condemnation we derive from him a corrupt nature so that all mankind descending from him
154 PART IH. Ch. XVII. — JUSTIFICATION.
by ordinary generation, come into the world in a state of spirit- ual death. In like manner we are so united to Christ, when we believe, that his obedience is the ground on which a sentence of justification passes upon all thus in Him, and in consequence of that sentence they derive from Him a new, holy, divine, and im- perishable principle of spiritual life. These truths are expressed in explicit terms. " The judgment was by one (offence) to con- demnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification." (Rom. v. 16.) " Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the righteous- ness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (v. 18, 19.) These two great truths, namely, the imputation of Adam's sin and the imputation of Christ's righteousness, have graven themselves on the consciousness of the Church universal. They have been reviled, misrepresented, and denounced by theologians, but they have stood their ground in the faith of God's people, just as the primary truths of reason have ever retained control over the mass of men, in spite of all the speculations of philoso- phers. It is not meant that the truths just mentioned have al- ways been expressed in the terms just given ; but the truths themselves have been, and still are held by the people of God, wherever found, among the Greeks, Latins, or Protestants. The fact that the race fell in Adam ; that the evils which come upon us on account of his transgression are penal ; and that men are born in a state of sin and condemnation, are outstanding facts of Scripture and experience, and are avowed every time the sac- rament of baptism is administered to an infant. No less univer- sal is the conviction of the other great truth. It is implied in every act of saving faith which includes trust in what Christ has done for us as the ground of our acceptance with God, as opposed to anything done by us or wrought in us. As a single proof of the hold which this conviction has on the Christian consciousness, reference may be made to the ancient direction for the visitation of the sick, attributed to Anselm, but of doubtful authorship : " Dost thou believe that thou canst not be saved, but by the death of Christ ? The sick man answereth, Yes. Then let it be said unto him, Go to, then, and whilst thy soul abideth in thee, put all thy confidence in this death alone, place thy trust in no other thing, commit thyself wholly to this death, cover thyself wholly with this alone, cast thyself wholly on this death, wrap