EXTENT OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
By W. S. Chapman
PAUL tells the Ephesians that in Christ "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Chapter 1, verse 7. To the Romans he explains that, if we will believe it, the atonement of our Lord satisfies the law for all cases for the entire past life of the sinner, until the day his name is written in the Lamb's book of life, Jesus having been "set forth to be a propitiation [satisfaction] . . . for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God" (Rom. 3:24, 25), because the spilled blood of the blessed Sacrifice atoned for all sins of ignorance (Heb. 9:25, 26). As all out of Christ sin ignorantly (Eph. 4:17, 18), redemption through the blood of Jesus suffices for all (1 John 2:2; John 1:29; 6:51). If anyone believes this, and accepts Jesus as a personal Saviour in His own appointed way, all his past sins are forgiven, and the saved one stands justified before God, through the imputed righteousness of Christ and forbearance of God—a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17), rejoicing in the liberty of the gospel (Rom. 6:15-18; 8:2), cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Therefore the Saviour said through the Psalmist, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Ps. 32:1), or, as the Hebrew version renders it, "Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." It is one of the most difficult of all the acts of faith to grasp this, as the past will obtrude itself, and that at the most unexpected and inopportune times, generally when the spiritual condition is weak, causing doubt, our besetting sin (Heb. 12:1), and leading the mind to brood over past offenses. Paul's experience taught him this danger, which led him to ignore the past, and to strain every nerve to redeem the time, and reach the promised goal. See Phil. 3:13-15. To many a child of God it is difficult to realize that the old man, with his failings and sins, is dead; that old things have passed away (Rom. 6:6, 7; Eph. 4:21-24; 2 Cor. 5:17); and, as sad memories of past offenses rise, a doubt of forgiveness springs up, because, perchance, those particular individual sins were never confessed. In such cases knowledge is power, for to know that all the past is forgiven creates confidence, or faith in the efficacy of the atonement, thus quenching the fiery darts of the enemy. Eph. 6:16. This knowledge is the fundamental principle, which roots and grounds one in the love of Christ; it is to know the meaning of the atonement—that Jesus died to save sinners from their sins, so that, when a sinner accepts the redemption there is in Jesus, he obtains the remission of all past sins; be they ever so many or so few, all are remitted, covered, passed over, and a new life begins. Read carefully Heb. 10:11-18. When sin mars the new life, it becomes willful sin, for which no provision was made. These sins have to be brought to the mercy-seat and specially confessed, Jesus pleading the merits of his blood specially also. Notice 1 John 2:1 with Heb. 4:14-16. In the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:10-14), the latter simply confessed himself a sinner,—"God be merciful to me a sinner,"—yet by that confession, through faith in the spilled blood of Jesus, he became a partaker of the propitiation there is through faith in his blood, and "went down to his house justified," i. e., counted a just man, free from sin. Then take courage, dear soul, and bury the past. God "has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess. 5:9. God is love, and there is a wideness in his mercy like the wideness of the sea—broad enough to cover all our faults and failures, if we will only believe on Him who died that we might live, and will use the power with which He endues us, to overcome temptation and resist willful sin.