Though faith and repentance are inseparable and simul taneous, yet in the order of nature, faith precedes repentance. Zech. 12: 10, "They shall look on me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son." Acts 11: 21, Acts 11:21, "A great number believed and turned unto the Lord." This order is evinced by the following particulars: (a) Faith is the means, and repentance is the end. Faith leads to repentance, not repentance to faith. The Scriptures present God's mercy in redemption as the motive to repentance. Jer. 3: 14, “Turn, O blacksliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you." Joel 2: 13, "Turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful." (b) Repentance involves turning to God; but there can be no turning but through Christ. John 14:6, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." John 10: 9, "I am the door." (c) If repentance precedes faith, then it stands between the sinner and Christ. The sinner cannot go to Christ "just as he is," but must first make certain that he has repented. (d) If repentance precedes faith, then none but the penitent man is invited to believe in Christ. This contradicts Rom. 5:6, "Christ died for the ungodly." Impenitent sinners are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to the remission of their sins. (e) The doctrine that repentance precedes faith tends to make repentance legal: that is, a reason why Christ should accept the sinner. (f) God out of Christ, and irrespective of faith in Christ, is a consuming fire, Deut. 4:24. Heb. 12: 29. It is impossible to have godly sorrow with this view of God. Only remorse and terror are possible. In such passages as Mark 1: 15, "Repent ye, and believe the Gospel," and Acts 20:21, "Testifying repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," the end is mentioned first, and the means last. In a proposition, a term may have a position

the meanness and disgrace of sin is not the sense of its odiousness and illdesert.

verbally which it has not logically. fication is mentioned before pardon. me, for I will forgive their iniquity."

In Jer. 31: 34, sancti

1

"They shall all know

"Melanchthon taught that repentance was the effect of the law, and anterior to faith, and used forms of expression which were thought to imply that good works or sanctification, although not the ground of justification, were nevertheless a causa sine qua non of our acceptance with God. To this Luther objected; as true sanctification is the consequence, and in no sense the condition of the sinner's justification. We are not justified because we are holy; but being justified, we are made holy." Hodge: Theology, III. 238.

CHAPTER V.

JUSTIFICATION.

Augustine Enarratio in Ps. 50. Luther: On Galatians. Calvin: Institutes, III. xi.-xviii. Bellarmin: Disputationes (De Justificatione). Ursinus: Christian Religion, Qu. 12-14, 21, 59-64. Turrettin: Institutio, XIV. x.-xiv. Gerhard: Loci, Tom. IV. Davenant: On Justification. Hooker: Polity, VI. v.; Discourse on Justification. Pearson Creed, Art. X. Owen: On Justification; Holy Spirit, IV. Bunyan Justification by Imputed Righteousness. Edwards: Justification by Faith; Wisdom displayed in Salvation. Baur: Gegensatz (Lehre von der Rechtfertigung). Möhler: Symbolics. Dorner: Christian Doctrine 132. Ritschl: Doctrine of Justification. Faber: Primitive Doctrine of Justification. Buchanan: On Justification (Lect. viii.-xv.). Hodge: Theology, III. 114-212; Princeton Essays (On Imputation). Shedd: History of Doctrine, II. 203–375.

JUSTIFICATION is one of the most important doctrines in the Christian system. It supposes faith, and faith supposes regeneration. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God," 1 John 5:1. "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. For I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more," Jer. 31 : 33, 34. This order is given in the Larger Catechism, Q. 67. The "mind being enlightened," and "the will being renewed," the person is "enabled to accept Christ as offered in the gospel." Faith unites with Christ, and union with Christ results in justification. This is defined in the Shorter Catechism (Q. 33) to be "an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith." Acts

13:38, 39, "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." Rom. 3: 23, 24, " All have sinned and have come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom. 4: 5, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly; his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom. 4:6-8; 5:17-19; 8:30. 1 Cor. 1: 30, " Of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 2 Cor. 5:19, 21. Eph. 1:7; 2:8. Phil. 3:9. Jer. 23:6. Heb. 10:38, "The just [justified] shall live by his faith."

The justification of a sinner is different from that of a righteous person. The former is unmerited; the latter is merited. The former is without good works; the latter is because of good works. The former is pardon of sin and accepting one as righteous when he is not; the latter is pronouncing one righteous because he is so. The former is complex; the latter is simple.

The justification of the "ungodly" (Rom. 4:5; 5:6) includes both pardon and acceptance. Either alone would be an incomplete justification of the ungodly. In the case of a sinner, the law requires satisfaction for past disobedience and also perfect obedience. When a criminal has suffered the penalty affixed to his crime, he has done a part, but not all that the law requires of him. He still owes a perfect obedience to the law, in addition to the endurance of the penalty. The law does not say to the trangressor: "If you will suffer the penalty, you need not render the obedience." But it says: "You must both suffer the penalty and render the obedience." Sin is under a double obligation; holiness is under only a single one. A guilty man owes both penalty and obedience; a holy angel owes only obedience.

Consequently, the justification of a sinner must not only

deliver him from the penalty due to disobedience, but provide for him an equivalent to personal obedience. Whoever justifies the ungodly must lay a ground both for his delivery from hell, and his entrance into heaven. In order to place a transgressor in a situation in which he is díkalos, or right in every respect before the law, it is necessary to fulfil the law for him, both as penalty and precept. Hence the justification of a sinner comprises not only pardon, but a title to the reward of the righteous. The former is specially related to Christ's passive righteousness, the latter to his active. Christ's expiatory suffering delivers the believing sinner from the punishment which the law threatens, and Christ's perfect obedience establishes for him a right to the reward which the law promises. The right and title in both cases rest upon Christ's vicarious agency. Because his Divine substitute has suffered for him, the believer obtains release from a punishinent which he merits; and because his Divine substitute has obeyed for him, the believer obtains a reward which he does not merit.

The meaning of the term "justify" must be determined by its Scripture use and connection, and not by the etymology merely. It may have two meanings, like "glorify" and 'sanctify." To "glorify God," and to "glorify the body," are different significations of the word. The one signifies to declare to be glorious, the other, to make glorious. The clause, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts," employs the term "sanctify" differently from the clause, “Ye are sanctified." Similarly, "to justify" might mean to "make just" (justum facere), as well as to "pronounce just." But in Scripture, it never means to sanctify, or make inwardly holy.

In the New Testament, the verb Sikatów signifies: (a) To pronounce, or declare to be just. Luke 7:29, "And the publicans justified God." Rom. 3: 4, " That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings." (b) To acquit from condemnation. Acts 13: 39, "Justified from all things from which