SACRIFICE

SIN 33

AND THE

THE JUDGE.-

God Himself (Rom. 8:33).

THE PRISONER.-

Who is `guilty', exposed to `judgment',

and without a `plea' (Rom. 1:32; 3:9).

THE ACCUSERS.- (i) The Law (John 5:45); (ii) Conscience

(Rom 2:15); (iii) Satan (Zech. 3:1,2;

Rev. 12:10).

THE CHARGE.-

Drawn up in legal handwriting

(Col. 2:14).

`When a man is tried before an earthly tribunal, he must be either CONDEMNED or ACQUITTED; if he be

condemned, he may be PARDONED, but he cannot be JUSTIFIED; if he be acquitted, he may be justified, but he

cannot stand in need of pardon' (Scott's Essays).

In the Court of God, however, a wondrous change takes place. The gospel provides the guilty man with an all-

sufficient plea (Rom. 3:23-26), a plea provided in love by the Judge, Who could and did condemn sin in the person

of the Saviour, the Lord Himself being the Advocate (1 John 2:1,2). The sinner who believes the gospel receives

complete remission, justification and acceptance, together with a title to life and inheritance (Rom. 8:33,34; 2 Cor.

Justification includes:

(1) The remission of sins, viewed as a debt.

(2) The pardon by a Sovereign of a condemned criminal, whose

offence is blotted out of His book.

(3) The `covering by cancellation' of his guilt.

(4) The imputation of a righteousness.

Justification is a change in regard to our standing before God:

`Our justification is not a righteousness performed, but a righteousness received' (Dewar's Elements).

`Justification changes our state; sanctification changes our nature' (Dewar's Elements).

If we enquire as to the grounds of our justification in the gospel, we discover the following:

We are justified by His (Christ's) blood, through redemption (Rom. 5:9; 3:24).

We are justified freely, by grace (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7) .

We are justified by faith (Acts 13:39; Rom. 3:28).

Negatively: no flesh can be justified by the deeds of the law, or by works of any kind (Rom. 3:20,28; 4:2;

Gal. 2:16; 3:11; 4:4).

Free grace is the source, the atonement is the meritorious cause, and faith the only recipient.

`Justification may therefore be ascribed, either to the source, to the meritorious cause, or to the recipient of it:

even as (to use a familiar illustration) a drowning person may be said to be saved, either by a man on the bank of

the river, or by the rope thrown out to him, or by the hand laying hold on the rope' (Scott's Essays).

The meaning of, and reason for, faith.- The Scriptures speak of justification by faith (Rom. 5:1), and of

justification by grace (Rom. 3:24; Titus 3:7). Faith is not a work. It merits nothing. Grace, charis, means `favour'

(Luke 1:30), and the way in which the word is used in the epistles of Paul shows that grace is favour shown to the

unworthy. Grace is at the other extreme to either `reward', `debt' or `work'.

`The reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt' (Rom. 4:4).

`If by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace' (Rom. 11:6).

To be under law and to be under grace at the same time is impossible (Rom. 6:14). To be `justified' by law is to

fall from grace (Gal. 5:4).