Justification # 3

Justification # 3

3. Let me show you, in the third place, the ROCK from which justification and peace with God flow. That rock is Christ. The true Christian is not justified because of any goodness of his own. His peace is not to be traced up to any work that he has done. It is not purchased by his prayers and regularity, his repentance and his amendment, his morality and his charity. All these are utterly unable to justify him. In themselves they are defective in many things and need a large forgiveness. And as to justifying him, such a thing is not to be named. Tried by the perfect standard of God's law the best of Christians is nothing better than a justified sinner, a pardoned criminal. As to merit, worthiness, desert, or claim upon God's mercy - he has none. Peace built on any such foundations as these is utterly worthless. The man who rests upon them is miserably deceived.

Never were truer words put on paper than those which Richard Hooker penned on this subject 280 years ago. Let those who would like to know what English clergymen thought in olden times, mark well what he says. "If God would make us an offer thus large - Search all the generations of people since the fall of your father Adam, and find one man, who has done any one action, which has past from him pure, without any stain or blemish at all - and for that one man's one only action,, neither man nor angel shall find the torments which are prepared for both - do you think this ransom, to deliver man and angels, would be found among the sons of men? The best things we do have something in them to be pardoned. How then can we do anything meritorious and worthy to be rewarded?"

To these words I desire entirely to subscribe. I believe that no man can be justified by his works before God in the slightest possible degree. Before man he may be justified - his works may evidence the reality of his Christianity. Before God he cannot be justified by anything that he can do - he will be always defective, always imperfect, always short-coming, always far below the mark, so long as he lives. It is not by works of his own that anyone ever has peace and is a justified man.

But how then is a true Christian justified? What is the secret of that peace and sense of pardon which he enjoys? How can we understand a holy God dealing with a sinful man - as with one innocent, and reckoning him righteous notwithstanding his many sins?

The answer to all these questions is short and simple. The true Christian is counted righteous for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is justified because of the death and atonement of Christ. He has peace because "Christ died for his sins according to the Scriptures." This is the key that unlocks the mighty mystery. Here the great problem is solved, how God can be just and yet justify the ungodly. The life and death of the Lord Jesus explain all. "He is our peace." (1 Cor. 15:3; Eph. 2:14).

Christ has stood in the place of the true Christian. He has become his Surety and his Substitute. He undertook to bear all that was to be borne, and to do all that was to be done - and what He undertook He performed. Hence the true Christian is a justified man. (Isaiah 53:6).

Christ has suffered for sins, the "just for the unjust." He has endured our punishment in His own body on the Cross. He has allowed the wrath of God, which we deserved, to fall on His own head. Hence the true Christian is a justified man. (1 Pet. 3:1-8).

Christ has paid the debt the Christian owed, by His own blood. He has reckoned for it, and discharged it to the uttermost farthing by His own death. God is a just God, and will not require his debts to be paid twice over. Hence the true Christian is a justified man. (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19).

Christ has obeyed the law of God perfectly. The devil, the prince of this world, could find no fault in Him. By so fulfilling it He brought in an everlasting righteousness, in which all His people are clothed in the sight of God. Hence the true Christian is a justified man. (Dan. 9:24; Rom. 10:4).

Christ, in one word, has lived for the true Christian. Christ has died for him. Christ has gone to the grave for him. Christ has risen again for him. Christ has ascended up on high for him, and gone into heaven to intercede for his soul. Christ has done all, paid all, suffered all that was needful for his redemption. Hence arises the true Christian's justification - hence his peace. In himself there is nothing but sin - but in Christ he has all things that his soul can require. (Col. 2:3; 3:11).

Who can tell the blessedness of the exchange which takes place between the true Christian and the Lord Jesus Christ! Christ's righteousness is placed upon him - and his sins are placed upon Christ. Christ has been reckoned a sinner for sinner for his sake - and now he is reckoned innocent for Christ's sake. Christ has been condemned for his sake though thee was no fault in Him - and now he is acquitted for Christ's sake, though he is covered with sins, faults, and short-comings. Here is wisdom indeed! God can now be just and yet pardon the ungodly. Man can feel that he is a sinner, and yet have a good hope of heaven and feel peace within. Who among us could have imagined such a thing? Who ought not to admire it when he hears it? (2 Cor. 5:21).

This may well be called a "love that passes knowledge!" It no way could free grace ever have shone so brightly as in the way of justification by Christ. (Eph. 3:19).

This is the old way by which alone the children of Adam, who have been justified from the beginning of the world, have found their peace. From Abel downwards, no man or woman has ever had one drop of mercy - except through Christ. To Him every altar that was raised before the time of Moses was intended to point. To Him every sacrifice and ordinance of the Jewish law was meant to direct the children of Israel.

Of Him all the prophets testified. In a word, if you lose sight of justification by Christ, a large part of the Old Testament Scripture will become an unmeaning tangled maze.

This, above all, is the way of justification which exactly meets the needs and requirements of human nature. There is a conscience left in man, although he is a fallen being. There is a dim sense of his own need, which it in his better moments will make itself heard, and which nothing but Christ can satisfy. So long as his conscience is not hungry, any religious toy will satisfy a man's soul and keep him quiet. But once let his conscience become hungry, and nothing will quiet him but real spiritual food - no food but Christ.

There is something within a man, when his conscience is really awake, which whispers, "There must be punishment and suffering because of my sins - or no peace." At once the Gospel meets him with Christ. Christ has suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, to bring him to God. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. By His stripes we are healed. (1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18).

I know there are thousands of professing Christians who see no peculiar beauty in this doctrine of justification by Christ. Their hearts are buried in the things of the world. Their consciences are palsied, benumbed, and speechless. But whenever a man's conscience begins really to feel and speak, he will see something in Christ's atonement and priestly office which he never saw before. Light does not suit the eye nor music the ear, more perfectly than Christ suits the real needs of a sinful soul.

This is the one true way of peace - justification by Christ. Beware lest any turn you out of this way and lead you into any of the false doctrines of the Church of Rome. Alas, it is amazing to see how that false Church has built a house of error near by the house of truth! Hold fast the truth of God about justification, and be not deceived. Listen not to anything you may hear about other mediators and helpers to peace. Remember there is no mediator but one - Jesus Christ. Remember there is no purgatory for sinners but one - the blood of Christ. Remember there is no sacrifice for sin but one - the sacrifice once made on the Cross. Remember there are no works that can merit anything - but the work of Christ. Remember there is no priest who can truly absolve - but Christ. Stand fast here, and be on your guard. Give not the glory due to Christ, to another.

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 4)