We cannot, therefore, be too decisive in marking that Jesus demands a real righteousness as the condition of entering into the kingdom of heaven-a righteousness which differs from that of the Jewish law only in being more inward, more intrinsic, more searching and absolute; a righteousness which in one place he does not hesitate to compare with that of God himself. Ye shall be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. The forgiveness which he offers to men-which we shall see he purchases for men-is free. But as he knows what is in men and searches the intentions of the heart, he grants forgiveness only to those who will make it the starting point of a new life.—“The Teachings of Jesus," by Robert F. Horton. CHAPTER X. GENERAL EXPOSITION (CONTINUED). IV. JUSTIFICATION AND GOOD WORKS. JUSTIFICATION by faith was a rediscovery of Christianity. Although the schoolmen and councils of mediæval times discoursed learnedly of justification, it was, as a doctrine, so thoroughly overlaid with ritualism and so-called sacraments that it no longer resembled the doctrine deduced from St. Paul's words of matchless simplicity, "the just shall live by faith." Doubtless even in those ages of spiritual night there were very many who in their hearts formulated the doctrine to its completeness and found "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." But the truth was hid from the wise and prudent. It was the despositum of the German. Reformation, as holiness was the depositum of the Wesleyan Reformation. On the general subject constituted of the two Mr. Wesley said that very few people at the beginning of the Wesleyan movement were clear in their minds with reference either to justification or sanctification, often hopelessly confusing the two. This the Tridentine doctors did, so far as their anathematizing canons could in any sense be styled doctrines. In this sense, then, justification by faith is a Methodist doctrine. It was Wesleyan theology that emancipated it from the entanglements of the schoolmen, and even the misconception of Luther, who included in it the doctrine of sanctification, so far as he comprehended the meaning of the scriptural doctrine. It was the task and the glory of Methodism to show the inseparable coincidence of justification and sanctification and yet to point out their synchronous or practically synchronous occurrence in different spheres-justification being what is done for us; sanctification being what is done in us—the beginnings of the latter following instantly upon the completion of the former. The first, justification, is instantaneous; but the latter is progressive. This is the preponderant teaching of Methodism, and with reference to the former this is the inference from the Article, which describes the issue between mediævalism and the evangelical spirit of the new ages. ARTICLE IX. OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings; wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. The doctrine of justification by faith is now a settled issue of Christianity so far as the evangelical Churches are concerned. There is scarcely a syllable of difference or dissent throughout the body, except where the doctrine of the ultraimmersionists may have introduced contradictions. But it is the prime difference between the Protestant bodies and Rome. Simple and direct faith in Christ without intermediation of rite, saint, or priest is the doctrine which Rome most dreads as the one most certainly destructive of the whole papal system. It is this that gives justification its place of preeminence in all Protestant confessions. It is the historical battle sign, and the token of a prophecy to complete its fulfillment in the evangelization of the nations. Mr. Wesley defines the position of Methodism on this doctrine, which is the doctrine of our Article, as it was that of the Anglican Article as follows: 1. That no good work properly so-called can go before justification. 2. That no degree of true sanctification can be previous to it. 3. That as the meritorious cause of justification is the life and death of Jesus Christ, so the condition of it is faithfaith alone. 4. That both inward and outward holiness are consequent on this faith, and are the ordinary, stated condition of final justification. 1. "We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Imputed righteousness is the doctrine of hope. It brings eternal life within the instant grasp of the believing sinner. Such a sinner is instantly justified, and in that moment is accepted as being righteous for the sake of the righteous Saviour in whom he trusts. Moreover, in that moment he becomes innocent in a double sense-namely, first, by reason of the divine pardon, and also through the operation of grace that gives him a new heart. In that moment he that an inconceivably short time before was but a condemned sinner is made meet to be a partaker of "the inheritance of the saints in light." |