HOW SHALL A MAN BE JUST WITH GOD? by J. C. McClintock

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 5, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 30.

HOW SHALL A MAN BE JUST WITH GOD?

By J. C. McClintock

A BIBLE READING.

ONE of the earliest discoveries the thoughtful student of the Bible makes is that he is a sinner. Weighed in the balances of the holy law, he is found wanting. Reason and conscience indorse the standard which the law sets. It is right and just and good. But if the law is all right, the man is all wrong—guilty of endless transgression.

He knows that he is under the law—no getting away from that fact. He has made a bad record, and he cannot get away from his record. He cannot get away from the fact of his responsibility to God. He must meet his record at the Judgment. And now the awakened and alarmed soul cries, in view of these facts, How shall a man—a sinner—be just with God? Can he come before God in the Judgment, and live?

What does the Bible say to his anxious inquiry?

1. As to the ground on which God justifies:

(1) It is not on the ground of our works. Job 9:2, 3, 20; Gal. 2:16; Ps. 143:2; Rom. 3:19, 20. The reason is clear, for,—

(a) The law demands a perfect obedience in order to justification. Lev. 18:5; Deut. 27:26; James 2:10, 11.

(b) No man has ever met the law's requirements. Isaiah 64:6; Rom. 3:9-12; Ps. 130:3; 1 John 1:8, 10.

(2) The righteousness of Christ is the ground of justification; what the law fails to find in man, it does find in the God-man. Rom. 4:23-25; 5:18-21.

(a) Christ rendered a perfect obedience to the law. 1 Pet. 2:22.

(b) He suffered the full penalty. Gal. 2:20; Rom. 5:9.

2. The sinner obtains justification by faith. Rom. 5:1; Gal. 3:5-8; Acts 13:39; Rom. 3:27-31.

3. It is bestowed upon him of pure grace. Rom. 3:24; 4:16.

4. It is evinced by works. Eph. 2:10; Jas. 2:20-24; Matt. 5:16.—Rev. J. C. McClintock, in Interior.