James Boyce originally wrote this over 100 years ago but its points remain
valid. It's an interesting and educational read into Biblical doctrine.
May God bless,
Carl
website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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JUSTIFICATION
by Rev. James Petigru Boyce, D. D., LL. D.,
Joseph-Emerson-Brown Professor of Systematic Theology
in The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
First published in 1887
No doctrine of Scripture is more important than that of justification. It
involves the whole method of the salvation of sinners. It is vitally
connected with all other fundamental doctrines. A correct conception of it
cannot exist when other truths are ignored, or only partially received. The
opinions held upon this point control in great part the theological views in
general of all Christian individuals and parties. The importance of a
correct knowledge of what God has taught on this subject cannot therefore be
exaggerated.
The discussion of this doctrine will be best presented by a definition of
the word Justification, accompanied by proof of the several statements
involved in that definition.
Justification is a judicial act of God, by which, on account of the
meritorious work of Christ, imputed to a sinner and received by him through
that faith which vitally unites him to his substitute and Saviour, God
declares that sinner to be free from the demands of the law, and entitled to
the rewards due to the obedience of that substitute.
I. It is a Judicial Act of God.
That God is its author is emphatically declared by Paul in Rom. 8:33; "It is
God that justifieth." As he is the lawgiver and judge so must he also be the
justifier.
The act is not one of sovereignty, as is election, because he does not
justify merely of good pleasure, but because the demands of the law have
been met. Yet his act is free, and of grace, because it is of his own choice
that he accepts a substitute, and because Christ and his meritorious work
have been graciously secured and given by God himself. See Rom. 3:24.
The virtue of the act consists in its being his judicial act. Any one might
perceive or declare the demands of the law to be satisfied upon knowledge of
that fact. Any one might proclaim that the rewards of Christ's merit have
been secured. But, whether declared of the value and efficacy of Christ's
work in itself or of its application to an individual, such a declaration
would not be justification. It only becomes so when uttered by God in his
capacity as Judge. All others could only recognize or declare the fact. The
declaration of the judge sets the sinner free from all demands of the law,
and confers upon him all the blessings appertaining to this new condition.
This judicial act of justification is made necessary because the law has
been broken. One who has completely fulfilled the law needs not to be
justified. His position before the law is that of one personally just or
righteous; not of one that is justified, or declared righteous, or treated
as such, though not personally so. He may be said to be justified, because
recognized or treated as such, though the ground of such action is that he
is personally just. Thus the term "justified" is properly applied to the
doers of the law, and that of "just" denied to the mere hearers of the law
in Rom. 2:13. But while the terms may thus be used of one personally just,
he, nevertheless, needs no such justification, because his righteousness is
not questionable. His position, like that of those who fully obey human
laws, is recognized without any special act affirming it.
Hence it is that the Scriptures so commonly use the word "just," dikaios, of
one who is, in some one or in all respects, perfectly conformed to the law
by his own acts, and who is, to that extent, therefore, personally holy,
applying the term not to men only or even to Christ, who was made under the
law, but also to God himself. See Matt. 1:19; 5:45; 9:13; Luke 23:50; Acts
3:14; 7:52; 22:14; Rom. 3:26. This usage has given rise to the opinion of
some that justification is not simply a judicial act, but that it involves
holiness in the one justified, and in the case of justified sinners an
infusion of holiness in the act of justification.
But that this is an error is obvious,--
1. From the fact that justification is presented as the opposite of
condemnation (Rom. 8:33, 34), and not of sinfulness. Condemnation is never
spoken of as the infusion of a corrupted nature, and consequently
justification would not involve that of a holy nature.
2. That the justified are not declared in Scripture to be free from sin or
possessed of holy natures, but are represented as still struggling against
sin, and not only sin which arises from outward temptations, but that
proceeding from the motions of sin within.
3. The change of nature which causes that of character is called in the
Scriptures "regeneration," and differs essentially from justification. The
former is the special work of the Holy Spirit. The latter is the act of God
the Father. That is an effect wrought inwardly, which develops itself in a
continuous and progressive process which the Scriptures call sanctification.
If justification includes an infused righteousness as the opposite of
sinfulness, then it includes sanctification, and there is no ground for the
scriptural distinction between them.
4. The usage of other words in connection with justification shows it to be
a forensic act. The term "righteousness," dikaiosune, which, like
"righteous," dikaios, is used in connection with personal righteousness, as
of God in Acts 17:31, and of Christ "the Faithful and True," Rev. 19:11, and
of the martyrs in Heb. 11:33, and of human obedience to the law in Rom.
10:3, 5; Phil. 3:6, 9, is, in connection with God's justification of
sinners, applied, though chiefly by the Apostle Paul, to "the righteousness
which God bestows or accepts," and which is imputed to the sinner or
reckoned to his account.
Another term, dikaiosis, signifies "the act or process of declaring
righteous," viz., justification.
The word dikaioma, which means "that which is declared righteous," and hence
a statute or command, as something which the law of God declares to be a
righteous requirement, is used in connection with justification for "the
deed by which one declares another righteous, and is partially equivalent to
dikaiosis."
The principal word which is used for expressing the nature of God's action
in justification is dikaioo, "to justify," which means everywhere "to
declare righteous," "to regard and represent as righteous," and not "to make
righteous" in the sense of conferring personal righteousness.
This usage of terms shows plainly that justification is a judicial act of
God, in which he does not confer holiness, but only declares the relation
occupied to the law by the one who is in Christ.
II. The Ground of this Justification
It is manifest from what has already been said that the justification of the
sinner must depend on something not personally his own. The Scriptures teach
that it is due not to his own good works but to the meritorious work of
Christ which is imputed to him, or put to his account.
1. They teach us negatively that it is not due to his own good works.
(1.) They expressly deny that justification can be by the works of the law.
Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:11; Eph. 2:9.
(2.) They assert that, could it thus have been attained, Christ's death has
been useless. Gal. 2:21; 5:4.
(3.) Sinfulness is declared to be the condition of every man, which excludes
the possibility of works untainted by sin. Rom. 3:10.
(4.) The law is said to demand such complete obedience that "whosoever shall
keep the whole law and stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all."
James 2:10.
(5.) We are told that "if there had been a law given which could make alive,
verily, righteousness would have been of the law." Gal. 3:21.
(6.) It is likewise stated as necessary to the certainty of attaining
salvation that "it is of faith that it may be according to grace." Rom.
4:16.
These statements show that, not only are men not saved by works alone, but
not even by works combined with grace. Justification cannot arise,
therefore, from the good works of men. Not even has its condition been so
modified that a partial obedience can be accepted, whether this stands alone
or is supplemented by, or is supplementary to the merits of Christ.
Something entirely outside of man must constitute the basis of
justification.
2. The word of God declares this outside something to be the meritorious
work of Christ.
(1.) In general
(a) By declaring that the righteousness of God is connected with our
relations to, or belief in Christ. Rom. 3:22, 26; 5:1; 10:4; 1 Cor. 1:30.
(b) By stating that redemption is in Christ Jesus. Rom. 3:24.
(c) By setting him forth as the only foundation of salvation.
(d) By asserting salvation to be found only in Christ. Acts 4:12.
(e) By asserting a definite relation between our sin and Christ, and his
righteousness and ourselves. 2 Cor. 5:21.
2. More specifically by connecting the salvation and justification of man
with Christ's merits.
This may be shown.
(a) In connection with his sufferings, or what is usually called his passive
obedience.
1. Christ is presented as "the Lamb of God," John 1:29, in evident allusion
to the sacrificial offerings of the olden days, and Paul speaks of him as
one "whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by his blood."
Rom. 3:25.
2. He is presented as one who has died for us. Rom. 5:6, 8; 8:34; 14:15; 1
Cor. 8:11; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15; 1 Thess. 5:10; and specifically as having died
for our sins. 1 Cor. 15:3.
3. We are said to be justified by his blood (Rom. 5:9), and reconciled by
his death (Rom. 5:10), and by his cross (Eph. 2:16).
(b) Our justification is due also to the active obedience of Christ, and not
to passive obedience only.
1. Righteousness involves character, conduct and action, even more than
suffering endured as penalty. The sinlessness of Christ is therefore plainly
taught, and especially in connection with imputation. 2 Cor. 5:21.
2. The gracious salvation he brings is said to establish the law.
3. He assures us, that he came to fulfil the law. Matt. 5:17.
4. The obedience of Christ is not only contrasted with the disobedience of
Adam, but is declared to be the means by which many shall be made righteous.
Rom. 5:19.
It thus appears, that the ground of justification is the whole meritorious
work of Christ. Not his sufferings and death only, but his obedience to, and
conformity with the divine law are involved in the justification, which is
attained by the believer. The question is here sometimes asked, how the
active obedience of Christ can avail to us, when he was himself a man and
under the law, and owed obedience personally on his own behalf. The answer
to this is twofold, in each case depending upon the doctrine of the
incarnation of the Son of God. On the one hand, the position was one
voluntarily assumed by the Son of God. He was under no obligation to become
man. He was not, and could not be made man without his own consent. In thus
voluntarily coming under the law, his obedience would have merit to secure
all the blessings connected with the covenant, under which he assumed such
relations. But besides this, the fulfillment of the law would not simply be
that fulfillment due by a mere man, which is all the law could demand of him
on his own behalf, so that the merit secured is that due to the Son of God,
thus as man rendering obedience to the law. That merit is immeasurable and
is available for all for whom he was the substitute.
III. The Imputation
This meritorious work of Christ, called in the Scriptures "the righteousness
of God," is imputed by God to those whom he justifies, as the ground or
cause of their justification. It is reckoned to their account. They are
treated as though they had themselves done that which Christ has done for
them.
This imputation is in accordance with the action of God throughout the
economy of human affairs. Adam as the representative of man sinned, and his
sin has been imputed to all of his descendants, and they are treated as
though personally sinners. Christ stood also as the representative of his
people and their sins were imputed to him and he was treated as though
personally a sinner. Likewise his righteousness is imputed to them, and they
are treated as though personally righteous.
In each of these cases there is, however, no such transfer as makes one
personally what he is representatively. It is not the imputed sin of Adam
which makes men personally sinners. The corrupted nature is one of the
natural consequences of that sin, and is a punishment of it. So the
imputation of our sin to Christ did not make him personally a sinner. He was
still of himself "the holy and righteous one." In like manner, the
imputation of Christ's righteousness does not make man holy and righteous
personally. In each of these cases it is only relation to the law which is
expressed.
IV. The Relation of Faith to Justification
It is not every sinner that is justified. It is the believer in Jesus. An
important inquiry, therefore, is as to the relation of faith to
justification. The Scriptures teach that faith is reckoned for
righteousness. Rom. 4:5, 9.
By this is not meant, that faith is accepted in the place of righteousness
as the cause of justification, for, as we have seen, that place is occupied
by the meritorious work of Christ. Nor is it meant, that the righteousness
of God has so lowered the law, that something less than obedience can be
accepted by him as a full satisfaction of that law; because the demands of
the law have not been lowered but have been completely fulfilled by Christ.
Besides this would be to make of faith a work, by which salvation is
secured, and the Scriptures deny that it has this character. Rom. 4:16. "We
are never said to be justified, dia pistin, on account of faith, but only
dia pisteos, through faith, or ek pisteos, of faith, eis pistin, unto faith,
and epi te pistei, by faith. The fact that faith is counted for
righteousness shows, that in itself it is not righteousness and has no
merit, but it only so "reckoned on the ground of something outside of
itself, viz.: the saving work of Christ."
It is evidently so reckoned, because by faith the sinner appropriates to
himself the work of Christ, and becomes vitally united with him. Faith may,
therefore, be regarded as the condition upon which justification is bestowed
upon those to whom Christ is presented as a Saviour, to be received and
rested upon for salvation. "Faith," says Dr. Charles Hodge, "is the
condition of justification. That is, so far as adults are concerned, God
does not impute the righteousness of Christ to the sinner, until and unless
he (through grace) receives and rests on Christ alone for salvation." Sys.
Theol. Vol. 3, p. 118. It is a condition which has in it no merit in itself,
but which only seizes upon merit in another. It is also an act of the
sinner, to which he is graciously disposed and led by God himself through
the power of the Holy Spirit.
V. The Relation of Works to Justification
We have already seen that works cannot enter meritoriously into
justification as its procuring cause. But the Scriptures evidently associate
works in some manner with justification. Paul himself says that "love is the
fulfillment of the law," Rom. 13:10, and declares that that which avails in
Christ Jesus is "faith working through love," and that "the whole law is
fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself." Gal. 5:6, 14. There is here an evident correspondence with, if not
allusion to, the frequent teachings of our Lord, and especially to his
answer to the Pharisee about the great commandment of the law. Matt.
22:34-40.
The teaching of the apostle James, is not, therefore, to be held to be
opposed to the other Scriptures when he speaks of a justification by works.
His language is very strong. He says that "faith apart from works is dead."
He asks, "was not Abraham, our father, justified by works, in that he
offered up Isaac, his son, upon the altar?" He inquires, "thou seest that
faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect," and
especially declares, "ye see how that by works a man is justified and not by
faith only." James 2:20, 21, 22, 24.
What then is the relation of works to justification?
1. Certainly not as a procuring cause, or a meritorious ground. The faith
with which James associates works, and upon a level with which he seems to
place them, does not itself occupy this position.
2. The works are not such as precede justification or are contemporaneous
with it, and hence cannot be a cause, nor even a condition such as we have
seen faith to be. Even in the case of Abraham the justifying work referred
to occurred long after the justification which he attained by faith. Compare
Rom. 4:9-11; Heb. 11:8; Gen. 15:6; 17:1-27; 22:1-19.
3. The works are referred to as means of manifesting as well the faith as
the justification claimed to be by faith. James 2:18.
4. The apostle's object is to deny the living character of any faith which
has not wrought with works and has not been perfected through works.
It is thus evident that works occupy the position of subsequent, not
antecedent, accompaniments of justification. They manifest that
justification has taken place, because they are invariable consequence. They
do this, however, not before man only, but God also, and consequently he, as
well as man, perceives them, and because of them the believer performing
these good works is justified before God. But such justification is not that
actual justification which takes place in connection with faith, which is
the judicial act of God declaring the relation of the believer to the law,
but that declarative or manifesting justification, which cannot exist except
as the result of the actual justification, but which is so inseparably
connected with the latter that by its presence, or absence, the existence or
non-existence of justification is distinctly established.
VI. The Benefits Included in Justification
The benefits conferred by justification are many.
1. Freedom from the condemnation of the law. This includes:
(1) Forgiveness of all sin. Not for the past only, but throughout the
Christian's life.
(2) Discharge from his relation to the law as a rule of bondage, for which
is now exchanged his service to it in the newness of the spirit. Rom. 7:6.
(3) Peace with God,--assured peace,--because dependent on the merits of
Christ and not those of himself.
These and all other blessings which may be included under the general idea
of pardon are necessary results of justification.
2. But justification confers righteousness as well as pardon. Not only are
sins remitted but men are made partakers of the righteousness procured by
Christ which is imputed to them. They are thus recognized before the law as
righteous persons, not simply as persons pardoned for breaking the law, but
as those who are rewarded for having fulfilled all its demands.
3. But there are other blessings which arise from the relation to Christ of
those whom God justifies. That relation was shown in the chapter on Faith.
It is a vital and spiritual as well as a legal and federal union between
Christ and his people. By virtue of this they are identified with him in his
relation to God as their Representative and Covenant Head, and are made
partakers of all the blessings which he has obtained as an inheritance. It
is thus that they are adopted into the family of God and become his sons and
daughters; thus are they sanctified by the Holy Spirit partly in this life,
and progressively advance until complete holiness shall be theirs in Heaven.
Thus also do they persevere in the divine life, being preserved or kept by
God through faith unto complete salvation. By the same act of faith which is
the condition of justification is secured by those united to Christ, the
privilege of complete participation in the rewards of their federal head.
They shall be heirs with him, shall reign with him, shall be partakers of
his glory. No imagination can compass the reward which shall be theirs
together with Christ. The Scriptures seem to teach that whatever Christ
shall be or possess in his human nature they also shall be and possess.
VII. The Time of Justification
We may finally inquire into the time at which justification occurs.
1. It does not occur periodically but is a single act, and not one repeated
with reference to new sins. This arises from its nature as an act of God
declaring the relation of the believer to the law and from the ground of
that act, the never failing merits of Christ. The pardon which the Christian
seeks of God is that of a child for offences against a father's love, and
not of a culprit before an avenging judge. The sufferings which Christians
endure are not avenging punishments for sin, but chastisements from a Father
who chastises those whom he loves and scourges those whom he receives.
2. It is an instantaneous and not a continuing work as is sanctification. It
is God's act declaring the sinner's relation to the law. That sinner is
under condemnation until justified. As soon as justified his condemnation
ceases. He cannot be partly condemned and partly justified. He is under
condemnation until brought into that condition which secures his
justification. When that moment comes God must justify.
3. But when is that moment? The Scriptures teach that it is when man
believes. It is in the moment of trust in a personal Saviour.
It was not at the time that Christ finished his work and laid the foundation
of justification in his merits and satisfaction. By these justification was
secured but not bestowed. It was not in Eternity as is Election by which the
subjects of the future justification were chosen. It is at the moment of
belief when faith, which is its condition, is experienced. Then is
consummated that which was purposed in eternity and which was made possible
and certain by the work of Christ. The hour of faith was even the period of
justification before the incarnation of Christ because of the faith which
rested personally upon him through the promises of God, and the acceptance
by God of the meritorious work of Christ as though already existing because
of the absolute certainty that it would be performed.
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