was manifested by the faith of Christ, and which is "unto all and upon all them that truly believe';-a righteousness which, although imperfect in the Christian in this life, is nevertheless identical with, and of the same nature as, the righteousness of Christ, and is the reflection of His image! For the Apostle goes on to say, 'that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrec'tion, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made 'conformable unto His death, if by any means I may attain 'unto the resurrection from the dead' (Phil. iii. 8-11); and how necessary he regards this conformity to Christ is shown by the earnestness of endeavour with which he seeks it. Brethren,' he says, 'I count not myself to 'have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting 'those things which are behind? (or all past attainments), ' and reaching forth to those things which are before, I 'press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling ' of God in Christ Jesus' (Phil. iii. 13, 14).

6

CHAPTER VIII.

JUSTIFICATION.

SEEING, then, the absolute necessity of this personal righteousness of faith, which is unto all and upon all them that believe, the necessary effect of true faith in Christ, it is evident that justification by faith' means something more than a mere imputed justness; and that we are not to suppose that righteousness, or justness, is imputed to faith by an arbitrary decision of God, a decree by which He regards those as just who are not really so. The faith which justifies, is not only righteousness itself, but the root and principle of all righteousness. And if so, then God, when He imputes righteousness to faith, is chargeable with no arbitrary decree, or fictitious conclusion, but regards the believer as that which his faith really makes him, viz., just or righteous, a partaker of that faith which constituted the righteousness of Christ, which righteousness was the very righteousness of God; of that, in short, which unites those in whom it exists to God, and conforms them to His moral image.

The word 'justify' in the New Testament is used in two senses to make righteous,' and 'to recognise as righteous.' The simple and primary meaning of the English word is 'to make just, or righteous,' and, like 'glorify' or magnify,' etc., is compounded of the Latin word facere, to make. The Greek word of which it is the translation is the active verb dikaio, which is

derived from dikaios, just, or righteous, and is usually translated by the latter word, 'righteous'; but as we have no verb to righteousfy,' the Greek verb is translated by the equally correct word 'justify. It is the word used by the Septuagint in the passages in Isa. liii. 11 and Dan. xii. 3, before referred to, and which in the English Bible is rendered in the former passage 'justify,' and in the latter turn to righteousness.' They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.' It is clear that it is used in the same sense in the former passage, inasmuch as it is by the knowledge of the truth that the believer is sanctified, or made righteous or holy.

It is equally clear that its meaning is the same in Rom. v. 9: 'being justified by His blood' (i.e., by the death of Christ), we shall be saved from wrath through Him,' for the object and intention of Christ's death was to give life, or to wash, cleanse, and redeem all who believe in Him from the sin which made them at enmity with, and spiritually dead unto, God—that is, to make them just, or turn them to righteousness'; and, in order to more fully explain his meaning, the Apostle repeats the statement in another form for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son' (that is, given life or union with God, and thus made just), much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.'

So again where it is said, 'To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.' Some read this in the secondary meaning of the term 'justify.' But God never has recognised, and never will recognise, the ungodly as righteous or just. Those who 'justify the wicked,' or try to make them out as just, are His abomination (Prov. xvii. 15); and He declares of Himself, 'I will not justify

the wicked' (Exod. xxiii. 7). But God can change the hearts of the wicked and ungodly, and bestow on them the gift of faith, and thus make them righteous or just, and in this way only can He be said to justify the ungodly.' Those, therefore, however great their sins may be, who, conscious that they cannot make themselves righteous, and therefore work not,' but seek from God, and by belief in His Word, change of heart, repentance unto life, deliverance from sin, and that knowledge of the truth which is salvation, are already possessed of the faith which is righteousness, and the root and principle of all righteousness, and therefore their faith, says the Apostle, is counted as righteousness' (Rom. iv. 5).

The secondary sense occurs in Luke vii. 29, where the common people are said to justify God-that is, they recognised the righteousness of God in the matter in question; so likewise in the case of the scribe who wished to justify himself in the eyes of Jesus-i.e., he wished to prove to Christ that he was just or righteous.

The word is used in the same sense where Christ, comparing the prayer of the Pharisee and the publican, says that the latter was justified rather than the former -i.e., God recognised the publican as just or righteous rather than the Pharisee. Did, then, God impute a righteousness to him which he had not? Was not his poverty of spirit, which Christ pronounced to be blessed, and his hope in God's mercy, the evidence of the righteousness of faith? Humility or poverty of spirit is indeed the initial characteristic of all true faith in God, and without it none can truly believe. Man may indeed justify the wicked, that is, regard and represent them to be righteous when they are not so, but God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, will by no means clear the guilty,' and if, therefore, He declares a man to be just, it is because He recognises that he is so in reality.

Therefore, when the Apostle says, 'Being justified by faith we have peace with God,' it is clear that he refers only to those who are partakers of that righteousness of faith which was manifested by Christ, and who therefore are possessed of His Spirit, and in a greater or less degree conformed to His image; and if it can be shown that those who do truly believe in Christ are by the action of immutable moral laws changed into His likeness from glory to glory, it is plain that God is what the Apostle declares Him to be-' just,' or righteous, in being 'the Justifier,' or recogniser of him as just, 'who believeth in Jesus.'

There are many who insist on the distinction between justification and sanctification, regarding the one as resulting from the arbitrary fiat of God, an arbitrary imputation of righteousness which the believer has not in reality, and the other as the possession, in a measure, of a real righteousness. There is, indeed, this difference between them, in that the one refers to the state of God's mind with regard to the believer, or to the way in which He regards him from the first moment of his truly believing in Christ, and the other refers to the state of the believer himself. But it is clear that there is no such radical difference, as is supposed, between the state of justification and the state of sanctification. The one is merely the seed of which the other is the full corn in the ear, so that God recognises the weakest believer in Christ as justified, because having in him the principle of eternal life, although the growth of that life into the full image and stature of Christ, must be a work of time.

But those who suppose that there is a radical difference between the two, and that a belief in a certain dogma justifies, while holiness is only an after-addition, desirable but not absolutely necessary, will naturally be apt to rest satisfied with their possession of the former, proving thereby that their supposed justifying faith is