GOD JUSTIFIETH THE UNGODLY
THIS MESSAGE is for you. You will find the text in the
Epistle to the Romans, in the fourth chapter and the fifth verse:
To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
I call your attention to those words, "Him that justifieth
the ungodly." They seem to me to be very wonderful words.
Are you not surprised that there should be such an
expression as that in the Bible, "That justifieth the ungodly?" I
have heard that men that hate the doctrines of the cross bring it
as a charge against God, that He saves wicked men and receives to
Himself the vilest of the vile. See how this Scripture accepts
the charge, and plainly states it! By the mouth of His servant
Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, He takes to Himself
the title of "Him that justifieth the ungodly." He makes those
just who are unjust, forgives those who deserve to be punished,
and favors those who deserve no favor. You thought, did you not,
that salvation was for the good? that God's grace was for the
pure and holy, who are free from sin? It has fallen into your
mind that, if you were excellent, then God would reward you; and
you have thought that because you are not worthy, therefore there
could be no way of your enjoying His favor. You must be somewhat
surprised to read a text like this: "Him that justifieth the
ungodly." I do not wonder that you are surprised; for with all my
familiarity with the great grace of God, I never cease to wonder
at it. It does sound surprising, does it not, that it should be
possible for a holy God to justify an unholy man? We, according
to the natural legality of our hearts, are always talking about
our own goodness and our own worthiness, and we stubbornly hold
to it that there must be somewhat in us in order to win the
notice of God. Now, God, who sees through all deceptions, knows
that there is no goodness whatever in us. He says that "there is
none righteous, no not one." He knows that "all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and, therefore the Lord
Jesus did not come into the world to look after goodness and
righteousness with him, and to bestow them upon persons who have
none of them. He comes, not because we are just, but to make us
so: he justifieth the ungodly.
When a counsellor comes into court, if he is an honest man,
he desires to plead the case of an innocent person and justify
him before the court from the things which are falsely laid to
his charge. It should be the lawyer's object to justify the
innocent person, and he should not attempt to screen the guilty
party. It lies not in man's right nor in man's power truly to
justify the guilty. This is a miracle reserved for the Lord
alone. God, the infinitely just Sovereign, knows that there is
not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not, and
therefore, in the infinite sovereignty of His divine nature and
in the splendor of His ineffable love, He undertakes the task,
not so much of justifying the just as of justifying the ungodly.
God has devised ways and means of making the ungodly man to stand
justly accepted before Him: He has set up a system by which with
perfect justice He can treat the guilty as if he had been all his
life free from offence, yea, can treat him as if he were wholly
free from sin. He justifieth the ungodly.
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a
very surprising thing--a thing to be marveled at most of all by
those who enjoy it. I know that it is to me even to this day the
greatest wonder that I ever heard of, that God should ever
justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of
corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love. I
know by a full assurance that I am justified by faith which is in
Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and
made an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; and yet by
nature I must take my place among the most sinful. I, who am
altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving. I
am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas
aforetime I was ungodly. Who can help being astonished at this?
Gratitude for such favor stands dressed in robes of wonder.
Now, while this is very surprising, I want you to notice how
available it makes the gospel to you and to me. If God justifieth
the ungodly, then, dear friend, He can justify you. Is not that
the very kind of person that you are? If you are unconverted at
this moment, it is a very proper description of you; you have
lived without God, you have been the reverse of godly; in one
word, you have been and are ungodly. Perhaps you have not even
attended a place of worship on Sunday, but have lived in
disregard of God's day, and house, and Word--this proves you to
have been ungodly. Sadder still, it may be you have even tried to
doubt God's existence, and have gone the length of saying that
you did so. You have lived on this fair earth, which is full of
the tokens of God's presence, and all the while you have shut
your eyes to the clear evidences of His power and Godhead. You
have lived as if there were no God. Indeed, you would have been
very pleased if you could have demonstrated to yourself to a
certainty that there was no God whatever. Possibly you have lived
a great many years in this way, so that you are now pretty well
settled in your ways, and yet God is not in any of them. If you
were labeled
UNGODLY
it would as well describe you as if the sea were to be
labeled salt water. Would it not?
Possibly you are a person of another sort; you have
regularly attended to all the outward forms of religion, and yet
you have had no heart in them at all, but have been really
ungodly. Though meeting with the people of God, you have never
met with God for yourself; you have been in the choir, and yet
have not praised the Lord with your heart. You have lived without
any love to God in your heart, or regard to his commands in your
life. Well, you are just the kind of man to whom this gospel is
sent--this gospel which says that God justifieth the ungodly. It
is very wonderful, but it is happily available for you. It just
suits you. Does it not? How I wish that you would accept it! If
you are a sensible man, you will see the remarkable grace of God
in providing for such as you are, and you will say to yourself,
"Justify the ungodly! Why, then, should not I be justified, and
justified at once?"
Now, observe further, that it must be so--that the salvation
of God is for those who do not deserve it, and have no
preparation for it. It is reasonable that the statement should be
put in the Bible; for, dear friend, no others need justifying but
those who have no justification of their own. If any of my
readers are perfectly righteous, they want no justifying. You
feel that you are doing your duty well, and almost putting heaven
under an obligation to you. What do you want with a Saviour, or
with mercy? What do you want with justification? You will be
tired of my book by this time, for it will have no interest to
you.
If any of you are giving yourselves such proud airs, listen
to me for a little while. You will be lost, as sure as you are
alive. You righteous men, whose righteousness is all of your own
working, are either deceivers or deceived; for the Scripture
cannot lie, and it saith plainly, "There is none righteous, no,
not one." In any case I have no gospel to preach to the self-
righteous, no, not a word of it. Jesus Christ himself came not to
call the righteous, and I am not going to do what He did not do.
If I called you, you would not come, and, therefore, I will not
call you, under that character. No, I bid you rather look at that
righteousness of yours till you see what a delusion it is. It is
not half so substantial as a cobweb. Have done with it! Flee from
it! Oh believe that the only persons that can need justification
are those who are not in themselves just! They need that
something should be done for them to make them just before the
judgment seat of God. Depend upon it, the Lord only does that
which is needful. Infinite wisdom never attempts that which is
unnecessary. Jesus never undertakes that which is superfluous. To
make him just who is just is no work for God--that were a labor
for a fool; but to make him just who is unjust--that is work for
infinite love and mercy. To justify the ungodly--this is a
miracle worthy of a God. And for certain it is so.
Now, look. If there be anywhere in the world a physician who
has discovered sure and precious remedies, to whom is that
physician sent? To those who are perfectly healthy? I think not.
Put him down in a district where there are no sick persons, and
he feels that he is not in his place. There is nothing for him to
do. "The whole have no need of a physician, but they that are
sick." Is it not equally clear that the great remedies of grace
and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the
whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you, dear friend,
feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into
the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your
sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I
say that the Lord of love had just such as you are in His eye
when He arranged the system of grace. Suppose a man of generous
spirit were to resolve to forgive all those who were indebted to
him; it is clear that this can only apply to those really in his
debt. One person owes him a thousand pounds; another owes him
fifty pounds; each one has but to have his bill receipted, and
the liability is wiped out. But the most generous person cannot
forgive the debts of those who do not owe him anything. It is out
of the power of Omnipotence to forgive where there is no sin.
Pardon, therefore, cannot be for you who have no sin. Pardon must
be for the guilty. Forgiveness must be for the sinful. It were
absurd to talk of forgiving those who do not need forgiveness--
pardoning those who have never offended.
Do you think that you must be lost because you are a sinner?
This is the reason why you can be saved. Because you own yourself
to be a sinner I would encourage you to believe that grace is
ordained for such as you are. One of our hymn-writers even dared
to say:
A sinner is a sacred thing;
The Holy Ghost hath made him so.
It is truly so, that Jesus seeks and saves that which is
lost. He died and made a real atonement for real sinners. When
men are not playing with words, or calling themselves "miserable
sinners," out of mere compliment, I feel overjoyed to meet with
them. I would be glad to talk all night to bona fide sinners. The
inn of mercy never closes its doors upon such, neither weekdays
nor Sunday. Our Lord Jesus did not die for imaginary sins, but
His heart's blood was spilt to wash out deep crimson stains,