CHRISTIAN RIGHTEOUSNESS

Christian reighteousness or justification by faith is a cardinal doctrine in theology and for this reason occu­pies a controlling position in the entire Christian system. It is the particular point in saving grace, where the soul is brought into an acceptable relation to God through Christ, and therefore determines all further advances in the Christian life. Martin Luther spoke of justifica­tion as the articulus stantis aut cadentis eccleskE or the "article of a standing or falling church." "It spreads its vital influence through all Christian experience, and operates in every part of practical godliness." The prac­tical importance of this truth is ably set forth by Bishop Merrill in his Aspects of Christian Experience. He says, "Here His life and spirit and power come into efficient contact with awakened consciences and penitent hearts, bringing the throbs of a new life and the gleams of a new day to the soul lost in darkness and sin. Destroy this link of the chain and the whole is useless. The name of Christ, if retained, will have lost its charm. His blood will be robbed of its meritorious efficacy, and His Spirit will be reduced to a sentiment or a temper, with no power to quicken the soul into the life of righteousness. Along with this displacement of Christ will come an un­due exaltation of human virtues and the diminution of the turpitude of sin, till the presence of guilt shall cease to alarm, and the need of humiliation become a dream. Then the pomp of worship will take the place of inward groaning for salvation, and the services of the sanctu­ary will be required to charm the senses, to minister to

The first reformers regarded justification by faith as the central queltion in their gigantic assault upon corrupt Christendom: induced proximately by the abuse of indulgences, and ultimately by the fervent study of St. Paul's doctrine of righteousness. They made this the start­ing point of all controversy, and relied upon its settlement for the re­moval of every abuse.-Pope, Compend. Chr. Th. II, p. 439.

the esthetic tastes, and to nourish the vanity of the heart, without disturbing the emotions or stirring the depths of the soul with longings after God and purity."

Definitions of justification Arminius gives us this definition: "Justification is a just and gracious act of God by which, from the throne of His grace and mercy, \He absolves from his sins man, who is a sinner but who /is a believer, on account of Christ, and His obedience and righteousness, and considers him righteous to the salvation of the justified person, and to the glory of the (divine righteousness and grace." Mr. Wesley defines justification as "that act of God the Father, whereby, for the sake of the propitiation made by the blood of His Son, He sheweth forth His righteousness (or mercy) by the remission of the sins that are past." According to Wakefield "Justification is an act of God's free grace, by which He absolves a sinner from guilt and punish­ment, and accepts him as righteous, on account of the atonement of Christ," A definition found in Watson's Dictionary, and quoted by Wakefield, Ralston and Pope, is that of Dr. Bunting. He says, "To justify a sinner is to account and consider him relatively righteous; and to deal with him as such, notwithstanding his past un­righteousness, by clearing, absolving, discharging and

Watson speaks of justification as "being the pardon of sin by a judicial sentence of the offended Majesty of heaven, under a gracious constitution."-Watson, Institutes, II, p. 215.

Wakefield quotes favorably the definition of Dr. Schmucker, that "Justification is that judicial act of God by which a believing sinner, in consideration of the merits of Christ, is released from the penalty of the law, and is declared to be entitled to heaven."-Wakefield, Chr. Th. p. 406.

Among the Calvinistic definitions may be mentioned the following:Strong defines justification as "that judicial act of God, by which, on account of Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith, He declares that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of the law, but to be restored to His favor" (Syst. Th. III, p. 849). Boyce defines it as 'a judicial act of God, by which on account of the meritorious work of Christ, imputed to a sinner and received by him through that faith which vitally unites him to his substitute and Savior, God declares that sinner to be free from the demands of the law, and entitled to the rewards due to the obedience of that substitute." (Syst. Th. p. 395.) According to Fairchild, justification as a fact under the gospel, is "the pardon of sin that is past; and the doctrine of justification is simply the doctrine of the pardon of sin" (Elements of Th. p. 277). E. Y. Mullins defines justi­fication as a "judicial act of God in which He declares the sinner free from condemnation, and restores him to divine favor" (Chr. Relig. p.389).

releasing him from various penal evils, and especially from the wrath of God, and the liability to eternal death, which by that past unrighteousness he had deserved; and by accepting him as if just, and admitting him to the state, the privileges, and the rewards of righteous­ness." Our own Article of Faith, while intended pri­marily as a statement of belief, is nevertheless definitive in its nature. "We believe that justification is that gracious and judicial act of God, by which He grants full pardon of all guilt and complete release from the penalty of sins committed, and acceptance as righteous, to all who believingly receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior" (Article IX). We may now sum up these vari­ous aspects of truth and express themjm the following definition "Justification is that judicial or declarative

ingly accept the solved from their sins, released from their penalty, and accep±edas righteous before Him"

The Scriptural Development of the Doctrine. Con­cerning the doctrine of justification, varioui opinions have been asserted and defended by theologians. But before considering these positions, it will be well to give attention to those Scriptures which bear directly upon this subject, in order to apprehend as clearly as possible, the light in which divine inspiration has presented it. A variety of terms is used-justification, righteousness, nonimputation of sin, reckoning or imputation of right­eousness, and like terms, all of which have substantially the same import, but with various shades of meaning. The seed thought of the new and divine righteousness is given us in the following words from our Lord him­self, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteous-

The Wesleyan statement as found in Article IX of the Twenty-five Articles is as follows: "We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior 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." This is the same as Article XI of the Thirty-nine Articles, with the omission of the words "as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification." The Methodist Catechism has the following statement. "Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His 8ight, only for the sake of Christ,"

ness (Matt. 6: 33). This was later developed by St. Paul. The following are the more important passages. (1) Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that 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 (Acts 13: 38, 39). Here it is evident that forgive­ness and justification are synonymous terms, the one explanatory of the other but with a shade of difference.

(2)           Being justified freely by his grace through the re­demption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom. 3: 24-26). This is considered one of the classical passages on justification, and sets forth the Pauline position in a variety of terms. Another passage also considered class­ical is the following: (3) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifleth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David de­scribeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (Horn. 4: 5-8), St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians deals with the subject of justification also, but emphasizes more especially the relation of faith and works.

THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATION

The term justification has several applications. First,

sonal justification or justification on the ground of per­fect obedience or personal worthiness. The word dikaio ~'&KawU)) is frequently used in the New Testament in is forensic sense of pronouncing a person just or right­

~.             Thus, Wisdom is justified of her children (Matt.

11: 19). And all the people that heard him, and the pub­licans, justified God (Luke 7: 29); and the doers of the law shall be justified (Rom. 2: 13). Second the term may be applied to one agains±_whom_ wcnsptioñ ha&been made but not sustained If there be a controversy be­tween men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked (Deut. 25: 1). This is legal justification on the ground of innocence or the righteousness of the cause. Third, it is applied to one who is accused, is guilty and condemned How can such a óiiébe justified? In one sense only-that of pardon. By the act of God, his sins are pardoned for ChrIst's sake, his guilt canceled, his punishment remitted, and He is accepted before God as righteous. He is therefore declared righteous, not by legal fiction, but by judicial action, and stands in the same relation to God through Christ, as if he had never sinned, This is evangelical justification, and is possible only through the redemp­tion that is in Christ Jesus.

Evangelical j ustification is the remission of sins. The importance of acquiring and maintaining this simple and distinct view of justification, will appear on further con­sideration of the subject. "The fist point which we find established by the language of the New Testament says Mr. Watson, "is that justification, the pardon and remission notn ins the nonimputation of sin, and the im­putation of righteousness, are terms and phrases of the same import " (Watson, Institutes, II, p. 212). But this position must be carefully guarded. While the remission of sins is an act of mercy, it is not an ex se of the divine prerogative apart from law, but consistent with law. It is thus distinguished from mere forgiveness. This position must be further distinguished on the one hand, from the mere imputation of Christ's righteousness as taught by the Antinomians; and on the other, from the idea of justification upon the ground of inherent right­eousness as held by the Roman Catholic Church. That justification means the pardon or remission of sins, is

not only a tenet of Arminianism, but is the "vital fact" in the teaching of all orthodox Protestant divines.

Justification is both an act and a state ale. It is an act of God_whereby men are declared to be just or righteous;

and it is a          of man into which h introduced as

a consequence of this declaration                       tion But whether as an

act or as a state, the word in its true connotation, is never used in the sense of making men righteous, but only in the sense of declaring or pronouncing them free from the guilt and penalty of sin, and therefore right­eous. Thus salvation is a broader term than justifica­tion, and includes regeneration, adoption and sanctifi­cation. The terms used in the Scriptures carry a certain exactness of meaning, indicating an act, an act in pro­cess, an act as fully accomplished or perfected, and a state following the accomplishment of the act. (1) &Katow or the simple verb form is expressive of the act of justification. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifleth (Rom. 8: 33). (2) &KaLcocnc signifies the act in process of completion. Who was delivered for our off ences, and was raised again for our justification (Rom, 4: 25). The free gift came upon

Mr. Wesley states that "the plain scriptural notion of justification is pardon, the forgiveness of sins," "It is that act of God the Father, whereby, for the sake of the propitiation made by the blood of His Son, He 'showeth forth His righteousness (or mercy) by the remission of the sins that are past.' This is the easy, natural account of it given by St. Paul, throughout this whole epistle."-Wesley, Sermon, Justification by Faith,

Knapp takes the position that "one who is guilty is said to be justi. fled when he is declared and treated as exempt from punishment, or innocent, or when the punishment of his sins is remitted to him. This is called 'justificatio externa,' The terms justification, pardon, account­ing righteous, occur in the Bible much more frequently in this sense than in any other, and so are synonymous with forgiveness of sin,"- Knapp, Chr. Tb. p. 387.

The words forgiveness and remi8sion have, sometimes, each a spe. cific sense. The word pardon is sometimes specifically synonymous with remission, and sometimes equal to both forgiveness and remission. When an aggrieved party forgives the aggressor, there is a change in the feel­ings of the aggrieved toward the aggressor; he regards him, feels toward him, and treats him the same as though he had never done him an injury. This may occur between private individuals in cases where the offense is not a violation of public law, where the aggrieved has not authority to inflict penalty. Remission has respect not to the feelings of the ag­grieved, or to the personal feelings of the magistrate, but to the penalty incurred by the transgression. To remit sin is to release from obligation to punishment; it is to order authoritatively the nonexecution of penalty.

·         Raymond, Syst. Tb, II, p. 323,

all men unto justification of life (Rom. 5: 18, last clause). (3) kaiwua signifies the act as already accomplished. The free gift is of many off ences unto justification (Rom. 5: 16) ; Even so by the righteousness of one