RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Justification Justin
character of that witness may not be lost sight of; in this, as well as in the possession of the Spirit, the Christian has the pledge of his salvation. In the same way may be denned the significance of self-examination for Christian assurance. If the Christian position is connected with faith, the serious Christian can not avoid testing faith and salvation by the criterion of the whole life. On the other hand, it can be of service to one in trouble when faith is hidden from him to become certain of it by means of its criteria. In both of these ways this self-examination is to be conceived as a point of departure. One recognizes the normality of the Christian assurance in its unreflecting appeal to the divine deed which produces the Christian position. All finally comes to this, that the pledge of faith is also the pledge of certainty. If the existing Christian position is assured to faith by historical divine revelation, apparently there is no occasion to go behind that historical revelation to an eternal counsel of God. Yet in reality not merely the Reformed view but also the Formula of Concord makes predestination fruitful for Christian assurance. In fact, recourse to this can not be dispensed with by one who seeks an assurance not simply for the present but also for the future. Only one must add immediately, certainty concerning one's election is to be sought in Christ alone. But wherever the believing Christian, so long as he believes, is certain of the divine election, he knows that his entire salvation, present and future, is in the hand of the eternal God. Two points yet require mention, the brevity of which bears no relation to their significance: (1) in the necessarily personal nature of faith and assurance of salvation one may not forget that these will be experienced in the community of believers in which the Word and the sacrament are in use; and (2) this is in precise analogy to the first — the energy with which, in the matter of the certainty of salvation, the entire life is related to God and to God alone, may not obscure the other truth, that after all man meets God only in the concrete reality of an individual life, and he therefore experiences and maintains the certainty of salvation in the limitless riches of the concrete situations of this life. Only where this is understood does one avoid isolating the witness of the Spirit from the actual life. And now it is possible to make fruitful the profound thought of James, that the Christian is blessed, and that too not by means of his deed but in his deed. (L. H. Ihmels.)
While a majority of critical authorities favor the
forensic interpretation of dikaioun, " pronouncing
righteous," as the only meaning in Paul's writings,
there is a not inconsiderable number of scholars
who defend the view that it also sig-
7- Addi- nifies " making or becoming actually tional Note, righteous." Among the passages cited to substantiate the latter claim are Rom. iii. 24, 26, 28, 30, vi. 7; Gal. ii. 16, 20, v. 6. That this word is there and in other places used in a real sense is evident from a variety of considerations, such as, the forensic view is inconsistent with an intelligible interpretation of Paul's words referred to above; the real interpretation alone meets the exegetical and rational demands; and in all the passages
dikaiosyne, "righteousness," is used in the proper sense as the basis of the judgment. Two further arguments for this position are adduced: the principle of character running through the whole of life is one and the same, being that on which the final judgment is based; faith which works by love is the essential principle of righteousness and is accordingly an inward quality of ethical excellence. Even when a forensic judgment is signified by dikaioun, this is grounded not in an outside condition but in an actual inner virtue. It does not, like works, make a demand on God, but it constitutes a ground on which one is forgiven who forsakes his sin and identifies himself with Christ. Some of those who hold this general view of dikaioun restrict its main reference to the initial moment of conversion, while others extend it to cover the entire period of Christian experience — one is justified according as he is sanctified. Justification may relate to that aspect of the new life in which the person freely and progressively accepts the grace of God in Christ, while sanctification refers to the gradual inner purification of the sources of desire, thought, and will. C. A. B.
Bibliography: On the N. T. side consult the works on N. T. theology, especially that of Beyschlag; the literature on the Apostle Paul; R. A. Lipsius, Die paulinische Rechtfertigungslehre, Leipsic, 1853; E. Riggenbach, Die Rechtfertigungslehre des Apostels Paulus, Stuttgart, 1897; H. Cremer, Die paulinische Rechtfertigungslehre, Gutersloh, 1900; K. F. Nosgen, Der Schriftbeweis fur die evangelische Rechtfertigungslehre, Halle, 1901; C. Clemen, Paulus, sein Leben und Wirken, 2 vols., Giessen, 1904; C. E. Woods, The Gospel of Rightness. A Study in Pauline Philosophy, London, 1909.
On the dogmatic and historical sides consult: G. S. Faber, The Primitive Doctrine of Justification, London, 1839; G. Bull, Harmony of St. Paul and St. James on Justification, 2 vols., in Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology, Oxford, 1841 sqq.; C. A. Heurtley, Justification, ib. 1846; G. Junkin, A Treatise on Justification, Philadelphia, 1850; P. D. Burk, Rechtfertigung und Versicherung, Stuttgart, 1854; C. Cholmondely, The Protestant Doctrine of Justification . . Confuted, London, 1854; J. Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, Edinburgh, 1867; A. Ritschl, Critical Hist, of the Christian Doctrines of Justification and Reconciliation, ib. 1872; C. Hodge, Systematic Theology, iii. 114 sqq., New York, 1873; R. N. Davies, A Treatise on Justification, New York, 1878; I. A. Dorner, System of Christian Doctrine, passim, 4 vols., Edinburgh, 1880-82; J. H. Newman, Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification, London, 1885; J. T. Beck, Vorlesungen iiber christliche Glaubenslehre, 2 vols., Gutersloh, 1886-87; T. R. Birks, Justification and Imputed Righteousness, ib. 1887; J. T. O'Brien, An Attempt to Explain and Establish the Doctrine of Justification by Faith only, Dublin, 1887; W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, ii. 538 sqq., New York, 1888; H. B. Smith, System of Christian Theology, ed. W. S. Karr, pp. 522-552, ib. 1890; H. Bushnell, Vicarious Sacrifice, ii. 177 sqq., ib. 1891; E. V. Gerhart, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ii. 717-759, ib. 1894; J. Miley, Systematic Theology, ii. 308 sqq., ib. 1894; R. V Foster, Systematic Theology, pp. 678 sqq., Nashville, Tenn., 1898; J. Macpherson, Christian Dogmatics, pp. 379-387, Edinburgh, 1898; J. Wilhelm and T. B. Scannell, Manual of Catholic Theology, ii. 246 sqq., London, 1901; H. W. Holden, Justification by Faith, ib. 1902; A. H. Strong, Systematic Theology, pp. 471-483, New York, 1902; H. C. G. Moule. Justification by Faith, London, 1903; the literature on Luther, and in general the works on the history of doctrine.
JUSTIN: A Gnostic writer refuted by Hippolytus (Haer., v. 18-22, x. 11; ANF, v. 69-73, 145). According to him there are three principles in the universe, two male— the Good and the Father of
Justin Martyr