"Justification
by Faith"; the phrase is weighty alike with Scripture and withhistory.
In Holy Scripture it is the main theme of two great dogmaticepistles,
Romans and Galatians. In Christian history it was the potentwatchword
of the Reformation movement in its aspect as a vast spiritualupheaval
of the church. It is not by any means the only great truthconsidered
in the two epistles; we should woefully misread them if weallowed
their message about Justification by Faith to obscure their messageabout
the Holy Ghost, and the strong relation between the two messages.
It
was not the only great truth which moved and animated the spiritualleaders
of the Reformation. Nevertheless, such is the depth and dignity ofthis
truth, and so central in some respects is its reference to other truths ofour
salvation, that we may fairly say that it was the message of St. Paul,and
the truth that lay at the heart of the distinctive messages of the non-Pauline
epistles too, and that it was the truth of the great Reformation ofthe
Western church.
With
reason, seeing things as he was led in a profound experience to seethem,
did Luther say that Justification by Faith was "the articles of astanding
or a falling church." With reason does an illustrious representativeof
the older school of "higher" Anglicanism, a name to me ever bright
andvenerable,
Edward Harold Browne, say that Justification by Faith is notonly
this, but also "the article of a standing or a falling soul."
IMPORT
OF THE TERMS
Let
us apply ourselves first to a study of the meaning of our terms. Hereare
two great terms before us, Justification and Faith. We shall, of course,consider
in its place the word which, in our title, links them, and ask howJustification
is "by" Faith. But first, what is Justification, and then, what isFaith?
By
derivation, no doubt, JUSTIFICATION means to make just, that is to say,to
make conformable to a true standard. It would seem thus to mean aprocess
by which wrong is corrected, and bad is made good, and goodbetter,
in the way of actual improvement of the thing or person justified. Inone
curious case, and, so far as I know, in that case only, the word has thismeaning
in actual use. "Justification" is a term of the printer’s
art. Thecompositor
"justifies" a piece of typework when he corrects, brings intoperfect
order, as to spaces between words and letters, and so on, the typeswhich
he has set up.
But
this, as I have said, is a solitary case. In the use of words otherwise,universally,
Justification and Justify mean something quite different fromimprovement
of condition. They mean establishment of position as before ajudge
or jury, literal or figurative. They mean the winning of a favorableverdict
in such a presence, or again (what is the same thing from anotherside)
the utterance of that verdict, the sentence of acquittal, or the sentenceof
vindicated fight, as the case may be.
I
am thinking of the word not at all exclusively as a religious word. Take itin
its common, everyday employment; it is always thus. To justify anopinion,
to justify a course of conduct, to justify a statement, to justify afriend,
what does it mean? Not to readjust and improve your thoughts; oryour
actions, or your words; not to educate your friend to be wiser ormore
able. No, but to win a verdict for thought, or action, or word, orfriend,
at some bar of judgment, as for example the bar of public opinion,or
of common conscience. It is not to improve, but to vindicate.
Take
a ready illustration to the same effect from Scripture, and from apassage
not of doctrine, but of public Israelite law:"If there be a
controversy between men, and they come untojudgment, that the judges may judge them,
then they shall justifythe righteous and condemn the wicked"
(Deuteronomy 25:1).
Here
it is obvious that the question is not one of moral improvement. Thejudges
are not to make the righteous man better. They are to vindicate hisposition
as satisfactory to the law.Non-theological passages, it may be observed,
and generally non theologicalconnections, are of the greatest use in
determining the true,native meaning of theological terms. For with
rare exceptions, which arefor the most part matters of open history, as in
the case of the Homousion,theological terms are terms of common thought,
adapted to a special use,but in themselves unchanged. That is, they were
thus used at first, in thesimplicity of original truth. Later ages may
have deflected that simplicity. Itwas so as a fact with our word
Justification, as we shall see immediately.
But
at first the word meant in religion precisely what it meant out of it. Itmeant
the winning, or the consequent announcement, of a favorableverdict.
Not the word, but the application was altered when salvation wasin
question. It was indeed a new and glorious application. The verdict inquestion
was the verdict not of a Hebrew court, nor of public opinion, butof
the eternal Judge of all the earth. But that left the meaning of the wordthe
same.
JUSTIFICATION
A "FORENSIC" TERM
It
is thus evident that the word Justification, alike in religious and incommon
parlance, is a word connected with law. It has to do withacquittal,
vindication, acceptance before a judgment seat. To use atechnical
term, it is a forensic word, a word of the law-courts (which in oldRome stood in the
forum). In regard of "us men and our salvation" itstands
related not so much, not so directly, to our need of spiritualrevolution,
amendment, purification, holiness, as to our need of getting,somehow
— in spite of our guilt, our liability,
our debt, our deservedcondemnation a sentence of acquittal, a sentence
of acceptance, at thejudgment seat of a holy God.
Not
that it has nothing to do with our inward spiritual purification. It hasintense
and vital relations that way. But they are not direct relations. Thedirect
concern of Justification is with man’s
need of a divine deliverance,not from the power of his sin, but from its
guilt.
MISTAKEN
INTERPRETATIONS
Here
we must note accordingly two remarkable instances of misuse of theword
Justification in the history of Christian thought. The first is found inthe
theology of the School-men, the great thinkers of the Middle Ages inWestern
Christendom — Peter Lombard, Thomas
Aquinas, and others.(See T. B. Mozley, "Baptismal
Controversy," Chap. VII.) To themJustification appears to have meant much
the same as regeneration, thegreat internal change in the state of our nature
wrought by grace. Theother instance appears in the sixteenth century,
in the Decrees of theCouncil of Trent, a highly authoritative
statement of Romanist belief andteaching. There Justification is
described (vi. c. 7) as "not the mereremission of sins but also the
sanctification and renovation of the innerman." In this remarkable sentence
the Romanist theologians seem tocombine the true account of the word,
though imperfectly stated, with theview of the Schoolmen. It is not too much
to say that a careful review ofthe facts summarized above, as regards the
secular use of the wordJustification, and the Scriptural use of it in
the doctrine of salvation, isenough to negative these explanations. They are
curious and memorableexamples of misinterpretation of terms; that
most fruitful source Of further,wider and deeper error.
JUSTIFICATION
NOT THE SAME AS PARDON
The
problem raised then, in religion, by the word Justification, is, Howshall
man be just before God? To use the words of our Eleventh Article, itis,
How shall we be "accounted righteous before God?" In other words,How
shall we, having sinned, having broken the holy Law, having violatedthe
will of God, be treated, as to our acceptance before Him, as to our"peace
with Him" (Romans 5:1), as if we had not done so? Its questionis
not, directly, How shall I a sinner become holy, but, How shall I a sinnerbe
received by my God, whom I have grieved, as if I had not grieved Him?
Here
let us note, what will be clear on reflection, that Justification meansproperly
no less than this, the being received by Him as if we had notgrieved
Him. It is not only, the being forgiven by Him. We do indeed assinners
most urgently need forgiveness, the remission of our sins, theputting
away of the holy vengeance of God upon our rebellion. But weneed
more. We need the voice which says, not merely, you may go; youare
let off your penalty; but, you may come; you are welcomed into Mypresence
and fellowship. We shall see later how important this difference isin
the practical problems of our full salvation. But one thing is evident atfirst
sight, namely, that this is implied in the very word Justification. ForJustification,
in common speech, never means pardon. It means winning, orgranting,
a position of acceptance. "You are justified in taking this courseof
action," does not mean, you were wrong, yet you are forgiven. It means,you
were right, and in the court of my opinion you have proved it. Inreligion
accordingly our Justification means not merely a grant of pardon,but
a verdict in favor of Our standing as satisfactory before the Judge.
THE
SPECIAL PROBLEM OF OUR JUSTIFICATION
Here
in passing let us notice that of course the word Justification does notof
itself imply that the justified person is a sinner. To see this as plainly aspossible,
recollect that God Himself is said to be justified, in Psalm51:4,
and Christ Himself, in 1 Timothy 3:16. In a human court of law,as
we have seen above, it is the supreme duty of the judge to "justify therighteous"
(Deuteronomy 25:1), and the righteous only. In all suchcases
Justification bears its perfectly proper meaning, unperplexed, crossedby
no mystery or problem. But then, the moment we come to the concrete,practical
question, how shall we be justified, and before God, or, to bring itcloser
home, how shall I, I the sinner, be welcomed by my offended Lordas
if I were satisfactory, then the thought of Justification presents itself tous
in a new and most solemn aspect. The word keeps its meaningunshaken.
But how about its application. Here am I, guilty. To be justifiedis
to be pronounced not guilty, to be vindicated and accepted by Lawgiverand
Law. Is it possible? Is it not impossible?
Justification
by Faith, in the actual case of our salvation, is thus a "shortphrase."
It means, in full, the acceptance of guilty sinners, before God, byFaith.
Great is the problem so indicated. And great is the wonder and theglory
of the solution given us by the grace of God. But to this solution wemust
advance by some further steps.