|
|
Justification is an
act of God's grace, flowing from his sovereign good will and
pleasure; the elect of God are said to be "justified by his
grace"; and as if that expression was not strong enough to
set forth the freeness of it, the word "freely" is
added elsewhere; "Being justified freely by his grace",
Tit 3:7 Ro 3:24. Justification is by many divines distinguished
into active and passive. Active justification is the act of God;
it is God that justifies. Passive justification is the act of
God, terminating on the conscience of a believer, commonly called
a transient act, passing upon an external object. It is not of
this I shall now treat, but of the former; which is an act
internal and eternal, taken up in the divine mind from eternity,
and is an immanent, abiding one in it; it is, as Dr. Ames {4}
expresses it, "a sentence conceived in the divine mind, by
the decree of justifying."
Now, as before
observed, as God's will to elect, is the election of his people,
so his will to justify them, is the justification of them; as it
is an immanent act in God, it is an act of his grace towards
them, is wholly without them, entirely resides in the divine
mind, and lies in his estimating, accounting, and constituting
them righteous, through the righteousness of his Son; and, as
such, did not first commence in time, but from eternity.
First,
It does not begin to take place in time, or at believing, but is
antecedent to any act of faith.
1. Faith is not the
cause, but an effect of justification; it is not the cause of it
in any sense; it is not the moving cause, that is the free grace
of God; "Being justified freely by his grace", Ro 3:24
nor the efficient cause of it; "It is God that
justifies", Ro 8:33 nor the meritorious cause, as some
express it; or the matter of it, that is the obedience and blood
of Christ, Ro 5:9,19 or the righteousness of Christ, consisting
of his active and passive obedience; nor even the instrumental
cause; for, as Mr. Baxter {5} himself argues, "If faith is
the instrument of our justification, it is the instrument either
of God or man; not of man, for justification is God's act; he is
the sole Justifier, Ro 3:26 man doth not justify himself: nor of
God, for it is not God that believes": nor is it a
"causa sine qua non", as the case of elect infants
shows; it is not in any class of causes whatever; but it is the
effect of justification: all men have not faith, and the reason
why some do not believe is, because they are none of Christ's
sheep; they were not chosen in him, nor justified through him;
but justly left in their sins, and so to condemnation; the reason
why others believe is, because they are ordained to eternal life,
have a justifying righteousness provided for them, and are
justified by it, and shall never enter into condemnation: the
reason why any are justified, is not because they have faith; but
the reason why they have faith, is because they are justified;
was there no such blessing of grace as justification of life in
Christ, for the sons of men, there would be no such thing as
faith in Christ bestowed on them; precious faith is obtained
through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ,
2Pe 1:1 nor, indeed, would there be any room for it, nor any use
of it, if a justifying righteousness was not previously provided.
Agreeable to this are the reasonings and assertions of Twisse
{6}, Maccovius {7}, and others. Now if faith is not the cause,
but the effect of justification; then as every cause is before
its effect, and every effect follows its cause, justification
must be before faith, and faith must follow justification.
2. Faith is the
evidence and manifestation of justification, and therefore
justification must be before it; "Faith is the evidence of
things not seen", Heb 11:1 but it is not the evidence of
that which as yet is not; what it is an evidence of, must be, and
it must exist before it. The "righteousness of God", of
the God-man and mediator Jesus Christ, "is revealed from
faith to faith", in the everlasting gospel, Ro 1:17 and
therefore must be before it is revealed, and before faith, to
which it is revealed: faith is that grace whereby a soul, having
seen its guilt, and its want of righteousness, beholds, in the
light of the divine Spirit, a complete righteousness in Christ,
renounces its own, lays hold off that, puts it on as a garment,
rejoices in it, and glories of it; the Spirit of God witnessing
to his spirit, that he is a justified person; and so he is
evidently and declaratively "justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God", 1Co 6:11.
3. Faith adds
nothing to the "esse" only to the "bene esse"
of justification; it is no part of, nor any ingredient in it; it
is a complete act in the eternal mind of God, without the being
or consideration of faith, or any foresight of it; a man is as
much justified before as after it, in the account of God; and
after he does believe, his justification does not depend on his
acts of faith; for though "we believe not, yet he abides
faithful"; that is, God is faithful to his covenant
engagements with his Son, as their Surety, by whose
suretyship-righteousness they are justified; but by faith men
have a comfortable sense, perception and apprehension of their
justification, and enjoy that peace of soul which results from
it; it is by that only, under the testimony of the divine Spirit,
that they know their interest in it, and can claim it, and so
have the comfort of it. But,
4. Justification is
the object, and faith the act that is conversant with it. Now
every object is prior to the act that is concerned with it;
unless when an act gives being to the object, which is not the
case here; for faith, as has been seen, is not the cause, nor
matter of justification; what the eye is to the body, that is
faith to the soul: the eye, by virtue of its visive faculty,
beholds sensible objects, but does not produce them; they are
before they are seen, and did they not previously exist, the eye
could not behold them; the sun is before it is seen; and so in
innumerable other instances: faith is to the soul, as the hand is
to the body, receives things for its use; but then these things
must be before they are received; faith receives the blessing of
justification from the Lord, even that righteousness by which it
is justified, from the God of its salvation; but then this
blessing must exist before faith can receive it, Ps 24:5.
Christ's righteousness, by which men are justified, is compared
to a robe or garment, which faith puts on; but then as a garment
must be wrought and completely made, before it is put on, so must
the justifying righteousness of Christ be, before it can be put
on by faith.
5. All the elect of
God were justified in Christ, their Head and Representative, when
he rose from the dead, and therefore they believe: Christ engaged
as a Surety for all his people from eternity, had their sins
imputed to him, and for which he made himself responsible; in the
fulness of time he made satisfaction for them by his sufferings
and death, and at his resurrection was acquitted and discharged:
now as he suffered and died, not as a private, but as a public
person, so he rose again, and was justified as such, even as the
representative of his people; hence when he rose, they rose with
him; and when he was justified, they were justified in him; for
he was "delivered for their offences, and was raised again
for their justification", Ro 4:25 1Ti 3:16 and this is the
sense and judgment of many sound and learned divines; as, besides
our Sandfords {8} and Dr. Goodwins {9}, the learned Amesius {10},
Hoornbeck {11}, Witsius {12}, and others. But,
Secondly,
Justification is not only before faith, but it is from eternity,
being an immanent act in the divine mind, and so an internal and
eternal one; as may be concluded,
1. From eternal
election: the objects of justification are God's elect; "Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? it is God that
justifies"; that is, the elect. Now if God's elect, as such,
can have nothing laid to their charge; but are by God acquitted,
discharged, and justified; and if they bore this character of
elect from eternity, or were chosen in Christ before the world
began; then they must be acquitted, discharged and justified so
early, so as nothing could be laid to their charge: besides, by
electing grace men were put into Christ, and were considered as
in him before the foundation of the world; and if they were
considered as in him, they must be considered as righteous or
unrighteous; not surely as unrighteous, unjustified, and in a
state of condemnation; for "there is no condemnation to them
which are in Christ", Ro 8:1 and therefore must be
considered as righteous, and so justified: "Justified then
we were, says Dr. Goodwin {13} when first elected, though not in
our own persons, yet in our Head, as he had our persons then
given him, and we came to have a being and an interest in him.''
2. Justification
may well be considered as a branch of election; it is no other,
as one expresses it, than setting apart the elect alone to be
partakers of Christ's righteousness; and a setting apart Christ's
righteousness for the elect only; it is mentioned along with
election, as of the same date with it; "Wherein", that
is, in the grace of God, particularly the electing grace of God,
spoken of before, "he hath made us accepted in the
beloved", Eph 1:6. What is this acceptance in Christ, but
justification in him? and this is expressed as a past act, in the
same language as other eternal things be in the context, he
"hath" blessed us, and he "hath" chosen us,
and "having" predestinated us, so he hath made us
accepted; and, indeed, as Christ was always the beloved of God,
and well pleasing to him; so all given to him, and in him, were
beloved of God, well pleasing to him, and accepted with him, or
justified in him from eternity.
3. Justification is
one of those spiritual blessings wherewith the elect are blessed
in Christ according to election-grace, before the foundation of
the world, Eph 1:3,4. That justification is a spiritual blessing
none will deny; and if the elect were blessed with all spiritual
blessings, then with this; and if thus blessed according to
election, or when elected, then before the foundation of the
world: and this grace of justification must be no small part of
that "grace which was given in Christ Jesus before the
foundation of the world was", 2Ti 1:9. We may say, says Dr.
Goodwin {14}, of all spiritual blessings in Christ, what is said
of Christ, that his goings forth are from everlasting--in Christ
we were blessed with all spiritual blessings, Eph 1:3 as we are
blessed with all other, so with this also, that we were justified
then in Christ!
4. Christ became a
Surety for his people from everlasting; engaged to pay their
debts, bear their sins, and make satisfaction for them; and was
accepted of as such by God his Father, who thenceforward looked
at him for payment and satisfaction, and looked at them as
discharged, and so they were in his eternal mind; and it is a
rule that will hold good, as Maccovius {15} observes, "that
as soon as one becomes a surety for another, the other is
immediately freed, if the surety be accepted;" which is the
case here and it is but a piece of common prudence, when a man
has a bad debt, and has good security for it, to look not to the
principal debtor, who will never be able to pay him, but to his
good bondsman and surety, who is able; and so Dr. Goodwin {16}
observes, that God, in the everlasting transaction with Christ,
"told him, as it were, that he would look for his debt and
satisfaction of him, and that he did let the sinners go free; and
so they are in this respect, justified from all eternity.''
5. The everlasting
transaction, the same excellent writer thinks, is imported in 2Co
5:19. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them". And the very
learned Witsius {17} is of opinion, "that this act of God
may be called, the general justification of the elect." And,
indeed, since it was the determination of God, and the scheme and
method he proposed to take in Christ for the reconciliation of
the elect, not to impute their sins to them, but to his Son,
their Surety; then seeing they are not imputed to them, but to
him; and if reckoned and accounted to him, then not to them; and
if charged to him, then they must be discharged from them, and so
justified; and a non-imputation of sin to the elect, is no other
than a justification of them; and thus the apostle strongly
concludes the imputation of Christ's righteousness; which is the
"formalis ratio", or the form of justification, from
the non-imputation of sin, and the remission of it, Ro 4:6-8.
6. It was the will
of God from everlasting, not to punish sin in the persons of his
elect, but to punish it in the person of Christ; and that it was
his will not to punish it in his people, but in his Son, is
manifest from his setting him forth in his purposes and decrees,
to be the propitiation for sin; and from his sending him forth in
the likeness of sinful flesh, to condemn sin in the flesh; and
from his being made sin and a curse, that his people might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Now, as has been often
observed, no new will can arise in God; God wills nothing in
time, but what he willed from eternity; and if it was the eternal
will of God not to punish sin in his people, but in his Son, then
they were eternally discharged, acquitted from sin, and secured
from everlasting wrath and destruction; and if they were
eternally discharged from sin, and freed from punishment, they
were eternally justified: Dr. Twisse {18} makes the very quiddity
and essence of justification and remission of sin, which he takes
to be the same, to lie in the will of God not to punish; and
asserts, that this will not to punish, as it is an immanent act,
was from eternity.
7. It deserves
regard and attention, that the saints under the Old Testament,
were justified by the same righteousness of Christ, as those
under the New, and that before the sacrifice was offered up, the
satisfaction given, and the everlasting righteousness brought in;
for Christ's blood was shed for the remission of sins that were
past, and his death was for the redemption of transgressions
under the first Testament, Ro 3:25 Heb 9:15. Now if God could,
and actually did, justify some, three or four thousand years
before the righteousness of Christ was actually wrought out,
taking his Son's word and bond as their Surety, and in a view of
his future righteousness; why could he not, and why may it not be
thought he did, justify all his elect from eternity, upon the
word and bond of their Surety, and on the basis of his future
righteousness, which he had engaged to work out, and which he
full well knew he would most certainly work out? and if there is
no difficulty in conceiving of the one, there can be none in
conceiving of the other.
There are many
objections made to this truth; some are so trifling as to deserve
no notice; a few of the more principal ones I shall briefly
answer to, and chiefly those made, for the most part, by the
learned Turretine {19}.
7a. It is objected,
that men cannot be justified before they exist; they must be,
before they can be justified; since "non entis nulla sunt
accidentia", &c. of a nonentity nothing can be said, nor
anything ascribed to it. To which I answer, whatever is in this
objection, lies as strongly against eternal election, as against
eternal justification; for it may as well be said, how can a man
be elected before he exists? he must be before he can be chosen,
or be the object of choice. I own, with Maccovius {20}, that this
is true of non-entities, that have neither an "esse
actu", nor an "esse cognitum", that have neither
an actual being, nor is it certain, nor known that they shall
have any future being: but though God's elect have not an actual
being from eternity, yet it is certain, by the prescience and
predetermination of God, that they shall have one; for
"known unto God are all his works from the beginning",
or from eternity, Ac 15:18. And besides this, they have an
"esse representativum", a representative being in
Christ; which is more than other creatures have, whose future
existences are certain; even such a being as makes them capable
of being chosen in Christ, and blessed in him before the
foundation of the world, and of having grace given them in him
before the world was; and why not then of being justified in him?
Eph 1:3,4 2Ti 1:9. Moreover, as the same writer {21} observes,
"Justification is a moral act, which does not require the
existence of the subject together with it; but it is enough that
it shall exist some time or other."
7b. It is further
objected, that if God's elect are justified from eternity, then
they were not only justified before they themselves existed, but
before any sin was committed by them; and it seems absurd that
men should be justified from sins before they were committed, or
any charge of them brought against them. To which may be replied,
that it is no more absurd to say, that God's elect were justified
from their sins before they were committed, than it is to say,
that they were imputed to Christ, and he died for them, and made
satisfaction for them before committed; which is most certainly
true of all those that live, since the coming and death of
Christ: such that believe the doctrines of the imputation of sin
to Christ, and of his satisfaction for it, ought never to make
this objection; and if they do, they, ought to be fully content
with the answer. As for the charge of sin against God's elect,
that is not first made when brought to the conscience of an
awakened sinner; justice brought the charge against all the
elect, in the eternal transactions between the Father and the
Son; or how came Christ to be bail and Surety for them? or how
otherwise could there be a transfer of the charge from them to
Christ? and where is the grace of a non-imputation of sin to
them, and of an imputation of it to Christ, if it was not
imputable to them, and chargeable on them?
7c. It is urged,
that strictly and accurately speaking, it cannot be said that
justification is eternal, because the decree of justification is
one thing, and justification itself another; even as God's will
of sanctifying is one thing, and sanctification itself another;
wherefore, though the decree of justification is eternal, and
precedes faith, that itself is in time, and follows it. To which
it may be answered, that as God's decree and will to elect men to
everlasting life and salvation, is his election of them; and his
will not to impute sin to them, is the non-imputation of it; and
his will to impute the righteousness of Christ unto them, is the
imputation of it to them; so his decree, or will to justify them,
is the justification of them, as that is an immanent act in God;
which has its complete essence in his will, as election has; is
entirely within himself, and not transient on an external
subject, producing any real, physical, inherent change in it, as
sanctification is and does; and therefore the case is not alike:
it is one thing for God to will to act an act of grace concerning
men, another thing to will to work a work of grace in them; in
the former case, the will of God is his act of justification; in
the latter it is not his act of sanctification; wherefore, though
the will of God to justify, is justification itself, that being a
complete act in his eternal mind, without men; yet his will to
sanctify, is not sanctification, because that is a work wrought
in men, and not only requires the actual existence of them but an
exertion of powerful and efficacious grace upon them: was
justification, as the papists say, by an infusion of inherent
righteousness in men, there would be some strength in the
objection; but this is not the case, and therefore there is none
in it.
7d. It is observed,
that the apostle, reckoning up in order, the benefits which flow
from the love of God to the elect, in his famous chain of
salvation, sets calling before justification, as something
antecedent to it, Ro 8:30 from whence it is concluded, that
calling is in order of time, before justification. To which I
reply, that the order of things in scripture is frequently
inverted. The Jews have a saying {22}, that there is nothing
prior and posterior in the law; that is, that the order of things
is not strictly observed; to put that first which is first, and
that last which is last; but the order is changed, and therefore
nothing strictly can be concluded from thence; even the order of
persons in the Trinity is not always kept to, sometimes the Son
is placed before the Father, and the Holy Spirit before them
both; which, though it may be improved into an argument for their
equality, yet not to destroy the order among them; and so with
respect to calling, it may be observed, that it is sometimes
placed before election, 2Pe 1:10 but none but an Arminian would
argue from thence, that it is really before it in order of time,
or that men are not elected until they are called: on the other
hand, salvation is placed before calling, 2Ti 1:9. "Who hath
saved us, and called us", &c. from whence we might, with
as great propriety, argue, that salvation, and so justification,
precedes calling; as to argue, from the other text in Romans,
that calling precedes justification, in order of time. Indeed,
nothing is to be concluded with certainty, one way or another,
from such modes and forms of expression. Justification, as a
transient act, and declarative, follows calling; but as an
immanent act in God, it goes before it, of which we are only
speaking, as ought always to be remembered.
7e. It is affirmed,
that those various passages of scripture, where we are said to be
justified through faith, and by fairly, have no other tendency
than to show that faith is something prerequisite to
justification, which cannot be said if justification was from
eternity. To which the answer is, that those scriptures which
speak of justification, through and by faith, do not militate
against, nor disprove justification before faith; for though
justification by and before faith differ, yet they are not
opposite and contradictory. They differ, the one being an
immanent act in God; all which sort of acts are eternal, and so
before faith; the other being a transient declarative act,
terminating on the conscience of the believer; and so is by and
through faith, and follows it. But then these do not contradict
each other, the one being a declaration and manifestation of the
other. What scriptures may be thought to speak of faith, as a
prerequisite to justification, cannot be understood as speaking
of it as a prerequisite to the being of justification; for faith
has no causal influence upon it, it adds nothing to its being, it
is no ingredient in it, it is not the cause nor matter of it; at
most, they can only be understood as speaking of faith as a
prerequisite to the knowledge and comfort of it, and to a claim
of interest in it; and this is readily allowed, that no man is
evidentially and declaratively justified until he believes; that
is, he cannot have the knowledge of it, nor any comfort from it;
nor can he claim his interest in it, without faith; and this
being observed, obviates another objection, that if justification
is before faith, then faith is needless and useless. It is not
so; it is not of use to justify men, which it is never said to
do; but it is of use to receive the blessing of justification,
and to enjoy the comfort of it.
7f. It is asserted,
that justification cannot be from eternity, but only in time,
when a man actually believes and repents; otherwise it would
follow, that he who is justified, and consequently has passed
from death to life, and is become a child of God, and an heir of
eternal life, abides still in death, and is a child of wrath,
because he who is not yet converted, and lies in sin, abides in
death, 1Jo 3:14 and is of the devil, 1Jo 3:8 and in a state of
damnation, Ga 5:21 but this latter especially cannot be admitted
of, with respect to God's elect, even while unconverted. And now,
to remove this seeming difficulty, let it be observed, that the
elect of God may be considered under two different
"heads", Adam and Christ, and as related to two
covenants at one and the same time; as they are the descendants
of Adam, they are related to him as a covenant head, and as such,
sinned in him, and judgment came upon them all to condemnation
and death, and so they are, by nature, children of wrath, even as
others. But as considered in Christ, they are loved with an
everlasting love, chosen in him before the world was, and always
viewed and accounted righteous in him, and so secured from
everlasting wrath and damnation; hence it is no contradiction to
say, that the elect of God, as in Adam, and according to the
covenant of works, are under the sentence of condemnation; and
that as in Christ, and according to the covenant of grace, and
the secret transactions thereof, they are justified, and saved
from condemnation. This is no more a contradiction, than that
they were loved with an everlasting love, and yet are children of
wrath, at one and the same time, as they most certainly are; nor
than that Jesus Christ was the object of his Father's love and
wrath at the same time, he sustaining two different capacities,
and standing in two different relations, when he suffered in the
room and stead of his people; as the Son of God he was always the
object of his love; as the Surety of his people, bearing their
sins, and suffering for them, he was the object of his wrath, Ps
89:38.
7g. It is urged
what the apostle says, 1Co 6:11. "Now ye are
justified"; as if they were not justified before; but the
word now is not in the text; and was it, and admit that to be the
sense of it, it does not follow that they were not justified
before: for so they might be "in foro dei", in the
court of God, and in his account from eternity, and in Christ
their Head and Surety, and especially when he rose from the dead,
before now; yet not till now be justified in "foro
conscientiae", in their own consciences, and by the Spirit
of God; which is the justification the apostle is there speaking
of. In a word, the sentence of justification pronounced on
Christ, the representative of his people, when he rose from the
dead, and that which is pronounced by the Spirit of God in the
consciences of believers, and that which will be pronounced
before men and angels at the general judgment, are only so many
repetitions, or renewed declarations, of that grand original
sentence of it, conceived in the mind of God from all eternity;
which is the eternal justification pleaded for; and is no other
than what many eminent divines of the highest character for
learning and judgment, have asserted, as before observed; and it
is to such as these Dr. Owen {23} refers, when he replied to Mr.
Baxter, who charged him with holding eternal justification;
"I neither am, nor ever was of that judgement; though as it
may be explained, I know better, wiser, and more learned men than
myself, (and he might have added, than Mr. Baxter,) that have
been, and are."
_____________________________
Endnotes:
{4} Medulla
Theologiae, c. 27. s. 9.
{5} Aphorism, 56.
{6} Vindiciae Gratiae, l. 1. par. 2. s. 25. p. 197.
{7} prwton yeudoV, Arminian, c. 10.
{8} De Descensu Christi. l. 3. s. 30. p. 59.
{9} Work, vol. 4. part 1. p. 105, 106.
{10} Medulla ut supra.
{11} Summa Controvers. l. 10. p. 705.
{12} Animadv. Irenic c. 10. s. 2. see the words of these authors
at length, and of others before referred to, in my treatise on
Justification.
{13} Ut supra.
{14} Ibid.
{15} Theolog. Quaest. loc. 31. qu. 6.
{16} Ut supra.
{17} Ut supra.
{18} Ut supra, p. 104.
{19} Institut. Theolog. tom. 2. loc. 16. qu. 9. s. 3.
{20} Loc. Commun. c. 69. p. 609.
{21} Theolog. Ouaest. loc. 31.
{22} T. Bab. Pesachim: fol. 6. 2.
{23} Doctrine of Justification vindicated from the animadversions
of R. B. p. 9. see also p. 4.