JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS by T. S. Parmele

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1903

JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS.

By T. S. Parmele

Not by Man's Works, but by God's Works.

A MAN is not justified by his own works of the law, but by God's works of the law; and by that only. Christ's life of obedience to the law is accepted in the place of every believer's failure to perform that law. This makes righteous that part of the believer's life that he lived before he believed; but it is only a part of man's justification by the works of God.

Nothing but good works will secure the reward of righteousness. The whole life must be filled with good works, and good works only; so a man must have good works when he believes as well as before he believed. As when he believes, he has Christ's good works which were done for him covering the part of his life that he lived before he believed; so when he believes, he has Christ's good works done in him. That is, he does right because Christ dwells in him, doing the right in him; whereas before he believed, Christ did the right for him outside of him, which doing appears in God's sight as tho done by the one who is now a believer. He has all his present righteousness as well as past righteousness simply by faith, and takes no honor to himself; but says, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. To this agree the words of the prophet Isaiah, as it is written, “Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us; for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us.” Isa. 26:12. The Apostle Paul bears a similar testimony. He says, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” Rom. 8:4.

Christ dwells in the heart by faith. Man has no strength in himself, without Christ, to do the works of righteousness that must be done; so we read, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” No man can justify himself in God's sight by attempting to do even a perfect law, for flesh can not do it; “it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Yet every person who is justified in the sight of God is justified by the works of the law; Christ's works of the law for him, and in him, “being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” Rom. 3:21. “Through the obedience of the One shall the many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19.

“Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?” James 2:21. Whose works?—God's works.

“Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” Verse 25. Whose works?—God's works.

“Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.” Verse 24. Thus God works in man.

The following text is no contradiction:—“Not by works of righteousness which we have done.” Whose works?—Man's works.

Many people seek to be justified by faith, and yet ignore good works; but God's plan is to “purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14. Whose zeal?—God's zeal. Whose good works?—God's good works working in us. “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.”

“All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Whose works?—Evidently the works of the one who could boast, if he could be saved by them.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. Whose good works?—God's good works; in which the purified people will walk. God's purity is a gift. It is given to the vilest sinner who will accept it.

Those Galatians who had fallen from grace, and then received circumcision, were trying to do something to save, or to help to save, themselves. Circumcision was not required then. It was said, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing;” but if they had tried to do something that was required for the sake of saving or helping to save themselves, their condition would have been the same.

And, at the present time, a person who thinks he can save himself or help save himself by being baptized, has fallen from grace just as certainly as those “foolish Galatians” had fallen from grace; and yet baptism is required of every believer.

Man's baptism not of faith, is not essential to righteousness. Christ's baptism, either in the man as the man of faith goes down into the water and comes up out of the water, or in Christ for the man, when Christ went down into the water and came up out of the water, is just as essential as every other act of obedience that Christ fulfils in the believer or for the believer before he believed. “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.”

Even the thief, who was converted on the cross, will go into heaven as a baptized believer. The Saviour was baptized for him and for all others who are saved and yet can not possibly be baptized; not for any, however, who cherish the least particle of rebellion against that or any other ordinance of the Lord.

If the thief could have been baptized when he had faith, his baptism would have been a part of Christ's righteousness, every particle of which righteousness is essential for the salvation of every person who is saved. This is why Jesus was so careful to be baptized, as well as to fulfil every other duty. When He came to John to be baptized, He said, “Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”

In conclusion, in the words of the apostle, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.” T. S. PARMELE.