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Hope
Unlimited
Chapter
3: "It
Is God Who Justifies" (Rom 8:33)
A
WONDERFUL THING it is, this being justified, or made just [declared
to be righteous and eternally innocent when you are not]. If we had
never broken the laws of God we should not have needed it, for we
should have been just in ourselves. He who has all his life done the
things which he ought to have done, and has never done anything
which he ought not to have done, is justified by the law. But you,
dear reader, are not of that sort, I am quite sure. You have too
much honesty to pretend to be without sin, and therefore you need to
be justified.
Now,
if you justify yourself, you will simply be a self-deceiver.
Therefore do not attempt it. It is never worth while.
If
you ask your fellow mortals to justify you, what can they do? You
can make some of them speak well of you for small favors, and others
will backbite you for less. Their judgment is not worth much.
Our
text says, "It is God who justifies," and this is a deal
more to the point. It is an astonishing fact, and one that we ought
to consider with care. Come and see.
In
the first place, nobody else but God would ever have thought of
justifying those who are guilty. They have lived in open rebellion;
they have done evil with both hands; they have gone from bad to
worse; they have turned back to sin even after they have smarted for
it, and have therefore for a while been forced to leave it. They
have broken the law, and trampled on the gospel. They have refused
proclamations of mercy, and have persisted in ungodliness. How can
they be forgiven and justified? Their fellowmen, despairing of them,
say, "They are hopeless cases." Even Christians look upon
them with sorrow rather than with hope. But not so their God. He, in
the splendor of his electing grace, having chosen some of them before
the foundation of the world, will not rest till He has justified
them, and made them to be accepted in the Beloved. Is it not
written, "Whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and
whom he called them he also justified: and whom he justified, them
he also glorified"? Thus you see there are some whom the Lord
resolves to justify: why should not you and I be of the number?
None
but God would ever have thought of justifying me. I am a wonder to
myself. I doubt not that grace is equally seen in others. Look at
Saul of Tarsus, who foamed at the mouth against God's servants.
Like a hungry wolf, he worried the lambs and the sheep right and
left; and yet God confronted him down on the road to Damascus, and
changed his heart, and so fully justified him that ere long, this
man became the greatest preacher of justification by faith that ever
lived. He must often have marveled that he was justified by faith in
Jesus; for he was once a determined stickler for salvation by
the works of the law. None but God would have ever thought of
justifying such a man as Saul the persecutor; but the Lord God is
glorious in grace.
But,
even if anybody had thought of justifying the ungodly, none but God
could have done it. It is quite impossible for any person to forgive
offenses which have not been committed against himself. A person has
greatly injured you; you can forgive him, and I hope you will; but
no third person can forgive him apart from you. If the wrong is done
to you, the pardon must come from you. If we have sinned against
God, it is in God's power to forgive; for the sin is against
Himself. That is why David says, in the fifty-first Psalm:
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in
thy sight"; for then God, against whom the offence is
committed, can put the offence away.
That which we owe to God, our
great Creator can remit, if so it pleases Him; and if He remits it,
it is remitted. None but the great God, against whom we have
committed the sin, can blot out that sin; let us, therefore, see
that we go to Him and seek mercy at His hands. Do not let us be led
aside by those who would have us confess to them; they have no
warrant in the Word of God for their pretensions. But even if they
were ordained to pronounce absolution in God's name, it must still
be better to go ourselves to the great Lord through Jesus,
the Mediator, and seek and find pardon at His hand; since we are
sure that this is the right way. Proxy religion involves too great a
risk: you had better see to your soul's matters yourself, and leave
them in no man's hands.
Only
God can justify the ungodly; but He can do it to perfection. He
casts our sins behind His back, He blots them out; He says that
though they be sought for, they shall not be found. With no other
reason for it but His own infinite goodness, He has prepared a
glorious way by which He can make scarlet sins as white as snow, and
remove our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the
west. He says, "I will not remember your sins." He goes
the length of making an end of sin. One of old called out in
amazement, "Where is another God like you, who pardons the sins of the survivors among his people? You cannot stay angry with your people, for you love to be merciful."
(Micah 7:18 LB)
We
are not now speaking of justice, nor of God's dealing with men
according to what they deserve. If you profess to deal with the
righteous Lord on law terms, everlasting wrath threatens you, for
that is what you deserve. Blessed be His name, He has not dealt with
us after our sins; but now He treats with us on terms of free grace
and infinite compassion, and He says, "I will receive you
graciously, and love you freely." Believe it, for it is
certainly true that the great God is able to treat the guilty with
abundant mercy; yea, He is able to treat the ungodly as if they had
been always godly. Read carefully the parable of the prodigal son,
and see how the forgiving father rushed out and received the returning wanderer
with as much love as if he had never gone away, and had never
defiled himself with harlots. So far did he carry this that the
elder brother began to grumble at it; but the father never withdrew
his love.
Oh my brother, however guilty you may be, if you will only
come back to your God and Father, He will treat you as if you had
never done wrong! He will regard you as just, and deal with you
accordingly. What do you say to this?
Do
you not see - for I want to bring this out clearly, what a splendid
thing it is - that as none but God would think of justifying the
ungodly, and none but God could do it, yet the Lord can do it? See
how the apostle puts the challenge, "Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies." If God
has justified a man it is well done, it is rightly done, it is
justly done, it is everlastingly done. I read a statement in a
magazine which is full of venom against the gospel and those who
preach it, that we hold some kind of theory by which we imagine that
sin can be removed from men. We hold no theory, we publish a fact.
The grandest fact under heaven is this - that Jesus by His precious
blood does actually put away sin, and that God, for Jesus' sake,
dealing with men on terms of divine mercy, forgives the guilty and
justifies them, not according to anything that He sees in them, or
foresees will be in them, but according to the riches of His mercy
which lie in His own heart. This we have preached, do preach, and
will preach as long as we live. "It is God who justifies"
- that justifies the ungodly; He is not ashamed of doing it, nor are we of
preaching it.
The
justification which comes from God himself must be beyond question.
If the Judge acquits me, who can condemn me? If the highest court in
the universe has pronounced me just, who shall lay anything to my
charge? Justification from God is a sufficient answer to an awakened
conscience. The Holy Spirit by its means breathes peace over our
entire nature, and we are no longer afraid. With this justification
we can answer all the roarings and railings of Satan and ungodly
men. With this we shall be able to die: with this we shall boldly
rise again, and face the last great judgment.
Bold
shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
While by my Lord absolved I am
From sin's tremendous curse and blame.
Friend,
the Lord can blot out all your sins. I make no shot in the dark when
I say this. "All manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be
forgiven unto men." Though you are steeped up to your throat in
crime, He can with a word remove the defilement, and say, "I
will, be thou clean." The Lord is a great forgiver.
"I
believe in the Forgiveness of Sins." Do You?
He
can even at this hour pronounce the sentence, "Thy sins be
forgiven thee; go in peace;" and if He do this, no power in
Heaven, or earth, or under the earth, can put you under suspicion,
much less under wrath. Do not doubt the power of Almighty love. You
could not forgive your fellow man had he offended you as you have
offended God; but you must not measure God's corn with your bushel;
His thoughts and ways are as much above yours as the heavens are
high above the earth.
"Well,"
say you, "it would be a great miracle if the Lord were to
pardon me." Just so. It would be a supreme miracle, and
therefore He is likely to do it; for "He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be
counted." (Job 5:9 NIV)
I
was myself stricken down with a horrible sense of guilt, which made
my life a misery to me; but when I heard the command, "Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God
and there is none else" - I looked, and in a moment the Lord
justified me. Jesus, He who was made sin for me, was what I saw, and
that sight gave me rest. When those who were bitten by the fiery
serpents in the wilderness looked to the serpent of brass they were
healed at once; and so was I when I looked to the crucified Saviour.
The Holy Spirit, who enabled me to believe, gave me peace through
believing. I felt as sure that I was forgiven, as before I felt sure
of condemnation. I had been certain of my condemnation because the
Word of God declared it, and my conscience bore witness to it; but
when the Lord justified me I was made equally certain by the same
witnesses. The word of the Lord in the Scripture says, "whoever believes in him is not condemned," and my conscience
bears witness that I believed, and that God in pardoning me is just.
Thus I have the witness of the Holy Spirit and my own conscience,
and these two agree in one. Oh, how I wish that my reader would
receive the testimony of God upon this matter, and then full soon he
would also have the witness in himself!
I
venture to say that a sinner justified by God stands on even a surer
footing than a righteous man justified by his good works, if such there
be. We could never be surer that we had done enough works;
conscience would always be uneasy lest, after all, we should come
short, and we could only have the trembling verdict of a fallible
judgment to rely upon; but when God himself justifies, and the Holy
Spirit bears witness to this by giving us peace with God, why then
we feel that the matter is sure and settled, and we enter into rest.
No tongue can tell the depth of that calm which comes over the soul
which has received the peace of God which passes all understanding.
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