Justification by L. F. STARR

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1909

Justification

By L. F. STARR

L. F. STARR

JUSTIFICATION is a divine act, just as pardon and adoption are. It is one of those extremely significant acts by which God justifies the sinner by revealing his saving grace. “And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:39. The hope of being justified “freely” by grace comes through Jesus Christ. It is an act of grace, and yet a judicial act. It is the duty of the judge to declare the one before him guilty or free from guilt. God, in declaring the sinner free from guilt, justifies him. “It is God that justifieth.” Rom. 8:33.

A clear acquaintance with the nature of true religion is of the utmost importance in these days of doubt and infidelity. It is important to the true Christian; for in this way only can he have comfortable assurance of his state and safety. It is important to the inquirer after salvation, as in this way will he learn to know the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. And how is this correct knowledge of true religion to be obtained?—By a close acquaintance with the Word of God. Here genuine piety is plainly described; the way back to our Father’s house is clearly set forth. It is clear that genuine religion includes justification as well as other acts of grace.

What is implied in justification? It refers to the judicial hindrance in re-establishing the original relation between God and man. There is a moral hindrance preventing the reunion between God and man, arising from the alienation of man’s heart through sin. Man is chargeable with transgression. This is true of both his heart and life. The great tide of sin soon engulfed the world: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6:5. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” But does man know his own heart, and can he curb his thoughts, without divine help? Viewing man’s condition in sin, Job asked: “What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” Job 15:14. In David’s account of sin he says: “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Ps. 14:2, 3. What a pitiable condition! None seeking God, and none doing good! Isaiah says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isa. 53:6. In Paul’s meditation of man’s sad and hopeless condition, he throws open the door of faith and hope in the following words:— “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

“We know,” he says, “that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.” Here is a law that is universal in its application. Every mouth is stopped; all the world is guilty. How, then, may man become righteous? Will the law give him righteousness? Could the tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written give him the righteousness of God?—Verily no! Where, then, is he to look for relief? The answer is given: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” Verse 21. The righteousness of God is manifest, being witnessed by the law. Whose righteousness is manifest apart from the law? “Even the righteousness of God which

is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Verse 22. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The transgression of man exposes him to punishment. Sin is opposed to God’s holy nature. “The wages of sin is death.” Though God is merciful, yet he by no means will clear the guilty.

Then what is included in justification? The term is sometimes interchangeable with pardon, or remission of sin. “By him all that believe are justified from all things.” Now to justify means to make righteous. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” How, then, does a man become righteous?—He is justified, or made righteous, by faith. This is the opposite of guilt and condemnation and danger of death. In a court of justice, a man may be justified upon the ground of innocence, when he can vindicate himself; or upon the ground of compensation, when he has met the demand of the penalty. The sinner can not be justified in either of these senses. He is guilty. Death is the penalty. But God saw man’s need; he saw him bound in the shackles of sin, and was sent to be the “propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:25, 26.

In Acts 13:39 the negative view is given. We can not be justified by the law of Moses. We can not be justified by any law, only as we accept the means of justification which is witnessed to by the law and the prophets. The law of God demands perfect obedience. It does not acknowledge repentance. Do and live is the mandate of the law. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze. 18:4. The penalty of the law can not be repealed. Could this be done, what would become of the moral character of the Lawgiver? What about his righteousness in giving such a law? “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Gal. 2:16. Here the positive means and medium of justification are asserted. “By him [Christ] all that believe are justified from all things.” Christ is the meritorious medium of justification. He met all the demands of that law which condemned the sinner.

The law required a holy nature, a nature which approved of the righteousness of its precepts and loved its holy standard. Christ possessed such a nature. His voice was heard saying: “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” The law required perfect obedience. He obeyed it both in spirit and in letter. He magnified the law and made it honorable. Isa. 42:21. It required an atonement for man’s guilt; satisfaction for his crimes. Christ paid the demands. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” Eph. 1:7. The dignity of Christ’s person and the preciousness of his blood, amply satisfied all the claims of the justice of God. Mark well the instrumental medium of justification. By faith “all that believe are justified from all things.”

God requires the sinner to comply with his divine appointments in obtaining the benefits of Christ’s death, not the works of his own righteousness. The fact of Christ’s death does not alter the truth of my being a sinner, nor does it make my sin a trifling matter, nor does it free me from the possibility of punishment and death; but it opens the way to deliverance, and makes my salvation possible and easy.

Justice demands that I pay the debt, but I am a slave and bound by the cords of sin. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.” Jer. 13:23. How may we, the unworthy objects of Christ’s love, see this change wrought?—By applying to Christ. I lay hold of him. Did I not rely on him and believe in him, what could I reply to justice? I am doubly condemned. The law condemns me as a sinner, the gospel as an unbeliever—one for crime, the other for unbelief. I am justified, not for faith, but by it, for Christ’s sake.

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1:18. Though they be heinous and numerous, the divine promise is: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Isa. 43:25; 44:22. In this way justification, or righteousness, is freely imputed to us who believe.

Takoma Park, D. C.