The Apostle says (1 Cor. i. 30), Christ " of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- demption." In this enumeration sanctification and righteous- ness are distinguished. The one renders us holy ; the other renders us just, i. e., satisfies the demands of justice. As Christ is to us the source of inward spiritual life, so He is the giver of that righteousness which secures our justification. Justification is not referred to sanctification as its proximate cause and ground. On the contrary, the gift of righteousness precedes that of sanc- tification. We are justified in order that we may be sanctified. The point here, however, is that righteousness is distinguished from anything and everything in us which can recommend us to the favour of God. We are accepted, justified, and saved, not for what we are, but for what He has done in our behalf. God " made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. v. 21.) As Christ was not made sin in a moral sense ; so we are not (in justification) made righteousness in a moral sense. As He was made sin in that He '* bare our sins ; " so we are made righteous- ness in that we bear his righteousness. Our sins were the ju- dicial ground of his humiliation under the law and of all his sufferings; so his righteousness is the judicial ground of our justification. In other words, as our sins were imputed to Him ; so his righteousness is imputed to us. If imputation of sin did not render Him morally corrupt ; the imputation of righteous- ness does not make us holy or morally good.
Argument from the General Teachings of the Bible. 5. It is unnecessary to dwell upon particular passages in sup- port of a doctrine which pervades the whole Scriptures. The question is, What is the ground of the pardon of sin and of the acceptance of the believer as righteous (in the forensic or judi- cial sense of the word), in the sight of God ? Is it anything we do, anything experienced by us, or wrought in us ; or, is it what Christ has done for us ? The whole revelation of God concern- ing the method of salvation shows that it is the latter and not the former. In the first place, this is plain from what the Scriptures teach of the covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son. That there was such covenant cannot be denied if the meaning of the words be once agreed upon. It is plain from Scripture that Christ came into the world to do a certain work, on a certain condition. The promise made to Him
158 part in. Ch. xvn.— justification.
was that a multitude whom no man can number, of the fallen race of man, should be saved. This included the promise that they should be justified, sanctified, and made partakers of eter- nal life. The very nature of this transaction involves the idea of vicarious substitution. It assumes that what He was to do was to be the ground of the justification, sanctification, and salva- tion of his people.
In the second place this is involved in the nature of the work which He came to perform. He was to assume our nature, to be born of a woman, to take part of flesh and blood with all their infirmities, yet without sin. He was to take his place among sinners; be made subject to the law which they are bound to obey, and to endure the curse which they had incurred. If this be so, then what He did is the ground of our salvation from first to last ; of our pardon, of our reconciliation with God, of the acceptance of our persons, of the indwelling of the Spirit, of our being transformed into His image, and of our admission into heaven. " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory," has, therefore, been the spontaneous language of every believer from the beginning until now.
In the third place, the manner in which Christ was to execute the work assigned as described in the prophets, and the way in which it was actually accomplished as described by Himself and by his Apostles, prove that what He did and suffered is the ground of our salvation. He says that He came " to give his life a ransom for many." (Matt. xx. 28.) " There is one God," says the Apostle, " and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; who gave Himself a ransom for all." (1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.) The deliverance effected by a ransom has no reference to the character or conduct of the redeemed. Its effects are due exclusively to the ransom paid. It is, therefore, to deny that Christ was a ransom, that we are redeemed by his blood, to af- firm that the proximate ground of our deliverance from the curse of the law and of our introduction into the liberty of the sons of God, is anything wrought in us or done by us. Again, from the beginning to the end of the Bible, Christ is represented as a sacrifice. From the first institution of sacrifices in the family of Adam ; during the patriarchal period ; in all the varied and costly ritual of the Mosaic law ; in the predictions of the prophets ; in the clear didactic statements of the New Testament, it is taught with a constancy, a solemnity, and an amplitude, which proves it to be a fundamental and vital element o>i the divine plan of re-
§ 6.] PROOF OF THE DOCTKiNE. 159
demption, that the Redeemer was to save his people by offering himself as a sacrifice unto God in their behalf. There is no one characteristic of the plan of salvation more deeply engraven on the hearts of Christians, which more effectually determines their inward spiritual life, which so much pervades their prayers and praises, or which is so directly the foundation of their hopes, as the sacrificial nature of the death of Christ. Strike from the Bible the doctrine of redemption by the blood of Christ, and what have we left ? But if Christ saves us as a sacrifice, then it is what He does for us, his objective work, and nothing subjec- tive, nothing in us, which is the ground of our salvation, and of all that salvation includes. For even our sanctification is due to his death. His blood cleanses from all sin. (1 John i. 7.) It cleanses from the guilt of sin by expiation ; and secures inward sanctification by securing the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Again, the whole Bible is full of the idea of substitution. Christ took our place. He undertook to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. This is taught in every possible way. He bore our sins. He died for us and in our place. He was made under the law for us. He was made a curse for us. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. The chastisement of our peace was laid on Him. Every- thing, therefore, which the Bible teaches of the method of salva- tion, is irreconcilable with the doctrine of subjective justification in all its forms. We are always and everywhere referred to some- thing out of ourselves as the ground of our confidence toward God.
In the fourth place, the effects ascribed to the work of Christ, as before remarked, are such as do not flow from anything in the believer himself, but must be referred to what has been done for him. These effects are expiation of sin, propitiation, the gift and indwelling of the life-giving Spirit of God ; redemption, or deliverance from all forms of evil ; and a title to eternal life and actual participation in the exaltation, glory, and blessedness of the Son of God. It is out of all question that these wonderful effects should be referred to what we personally are ; to our merit, to our holiness, to our participation of the life of Christ. In whatever sense these last words may be understood, they refer to what we personally are or become. His life in us is after all a form of our fife. It constitutes our character. And it is self-evi dent to the conscience that our character is not, and cannot be the ground of our pardon, of God's peculiar love, or of our eternal glory and blessedness in heaven.
160 PART HI. Ch. XVII. — JUSTIFICATION.