What Is Justification?
Answ. Justification is 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 alone.
Q. What benefit doth first in order flow from otsr unioa to Christ? A. Justification, Rom. viii. 30.
Q. What in general is meant by justification? ‘A. Not the making of our natures holy j but the holding and declaring of our persons righteous in law.
£). To what is justification opposed in scripture?
A. To condemnation, Prov. xvii. 15. Rem. viii. 1.
Q. Why is our justification called an act /
A. Because it is perfected in an instant.
Q. Who is the author of our justification?
A, God essentially considered in the person of the Fa* ther, Rom. viii. 33.
Q. How then doth Christ as a Prince exalted give remission of sins? A. He issues forth the sentence in his Father’s name, Acts v. 31. Mark ii. 5, 10. Isa. liii. 11.
Qj How doth the Spirit justify us? A. He applieth
the righteousness of Christ, and justification through it, to our conscience, 1 Cor. vi. 11. Luke xv. 22.
Gin what state are the elect before justification?
A. Though God loves them with an everlasting lovct and his providence secretly makes way for their union to Christ j yet, in respect of the law, and of God as a Judge, they are in a state of wrath and condemnation, Eph, ii. 3.
Q. What moves God to justify such persons?
A. His own free grace, Rom. iii. 24. Eph. i. 7.
Qj What are the parts of our justification before God?
A. His pardon of sin, and accepting us as righteous. Q. What is the pardon of sin? A. God’s taking
away the guilt of sin, or removing our obligation to punishment for sin, Rom. viii. 1. Psalm xxxii. 1, 2.
Qj. How is the pardon of sin described in scripture? A. As a blotting it out, forgiving, covering, and remission of it, purging it away, casting it behind God’s back, or into the depths of the sea, &c. Isa. xliv. 22. Q. What sins are pardoned in justification? A. All our sins, past, present, arid to come. Q. Plow are our past sins pardoned? A. Their guilt is formally removed from off our conscience, Jer. xxxiii. S.
Q. How is the sin of our nature, which is still present, pardoned? A. Justification translates us from under the law as a covenant, so that our indwelling sin, being no longer a breach of that covenant, it no more subjects us to eternal wrath, Rom. viii. 1. Jer. 1. 20. Isa. liv 9.
Q. How are our sins committed after justification pardoned in it? A Justification prevents the imputation of them as to the guilt of eternal wrath, Rom. viii. 1.
O. Do not our sins after justification deserve eternal wrath, as well as those before it? A. Yes -, and more so. Qj Can then these sins bring us under God’s wrath? A. No j there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ; and he has sworn he will not be wroth with them. Q. Whence does this proceed? A. From our being
no mope under the law of works, which denounceth wrath. Q. To what then do believers sins bind them over? A. To fatherly chastisements, Psalm lxxxix. 32. Q^ Do believers need the pardon of indwelling and actual sin every day they live? A. Yes *, they daily
need a fatherly, but no new legal pardon, Mat. vi. 12.
Q. Wherein does a fatherly pardon, and the legal pardon in justification, differ? A. A legal pardon in justification is an act of God as a Judge, forgives sins as against the covenant of works, frees from obligation to eternal wrath, changeth our state, and, is the source of gospel-repentance •, but fatherly pardon is an act of God, as a Father, forgives sins committed against the law as a rule of life, frees from chastisement, makes no change in our state, and is the consequence of gospel-repentance. Q. How prove you, that repentance for sin is not a
Sliest. 33, Of Justification, 155
condition of our pardon in justification? A. Because
repentance is a work of the law, by which none can be justified *, nor can an unpardoned sinner perform gospel-repentance, 1 Cor. xv. 56. Rom. viii. 7, 8. Eph. ii. 1.
Q. Doth not a legal repentance often go before justice anon?
A. Yes ‘, but that is an abomination to God, Isa. i.
Q^ What scriptures prove, that gospel repentance follows our legal pardon in justification?
A. Ezek. xvi. 62, 63. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shah know that I am the Lord: that thou mayesi remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thouhast done, saith the Lord God. See also chap, xxxvi. 25, 31. Luke vii. 42, 47, &c.
Q. How do you prove it impossible to perform gospel-repentance before justification?
A. Till the curse be removed in justification, we continue Under the reigning power of sin; nor can we turn to, but flee from God as an enemy, till his pardoning love encourage and inflame our heart, and melt it into godly
Q. How then is repentance sometimes in scripture represented as going before p, rdon of sin? A. In these texts, either repentance means only legal repentance, or pardon must be understood of fatherly pardon, or of the declaration of our pardon at the last day 5 or the connection between pardon and repentance is simply affirmed. -
£). Can there be any pardon without true repentance?
A. No; no more than the sun can rise without light.
“Q. How is it that believers can repent before receiving fatherly pardon I A. They are not under the curse,
which is the strength of sin j nor are their chastisements evidences of God’s wrath, but of his love, Heb. xii. 6, 11.
Q. Gan pardon of sin be the whole of our justification?
A. No *, for it includes not a title to eternal life.
Q. What then is the second part of justification?
A. God’s accepting us as perfectly righteous in law,
Q. Wherein do pardon and acceptance differ?
A. Pardon sustains us as innocent in law, and frees us from the sentence of death -, but acceptance sustains us as positively and perfectly righteous in law, and entitles us to eternal life, Eph. i. 6, 2 Con v. 21.
Q. In whose sight are we accepted as righteous?
A. In the sight of God as a just Judge, 2 Cor. v. 21.
Q. How can God sustain us as perfectly righteous in law, when we are ungodly?
A. He sustains us as righteous in law only as we are one with Christ, Isa. xlv. 24, 25.
Q. What about us is in justification accepted as truly and perfectly righteous? A. Our persons.
Q. Is not a foundation laid for God’s acceptance of our eood works? A. Yes; for the acceptance of
all the works we perform in faith, which is the bond which Unites our persons to Christ, Isa. lvi. 7. 1 Cor. xvi 38.
Qj Upon what ground or cause doth God pardon all our sins, and accept us as perfectly righteous?
A. Only for the righteousness of Christ, Rom. iii. 24.
Q. How then is justification an act of free grace?
A. God freely provides and bestows this righteousness of Christ upon us, 2 Cor. v. 21. Isa. lxi. 10.
Q How do you prove, that we are justified only for the righteousness of Christ? A. The scripture declares
all our own righteousness filthy rags; and that by the deeds of the law, nofiesh shall be justified in God’s sight.
Q. What is the righteousness of Christ?
A. His obedience and suffering, Phil. ii. 8.
Q. How is it ordinarily distinguished? A. Into his
obedience active and passive, Dan. ix. 4, &c.
£). What is his active obedience? A. His holiness
of nature, and righteousness of life, Rom. v. 19.
Q. What is his passive obedience? A. His satisfactory sufferings, which are a full compensation of all the injury done to the honour of God by our sin, Eph. v. 2.
Q. Why a*e Christ’s sufferings called obedience?
A. Because he suffered willingly, out of regard to God’s authority, and with a view to his glory, John xvii. 6.
Q. Why is our justifying righteousness called the righteousness of God? A. Because God the Father devised, accented, and bestows it •, God the Son fulfilled it, and God the Holy Ghost applies it, Isa. xlii. 21. and xlv. 24.
Q. Is Christ’s righteousness merely the price, condition, and merit. rious cause of our justification, as it is of our regeneration, sanctificaticn, &.c.
A. No; it is also the matter of our justification, which enters into itt as that very righteousness by which we arc
constituted perfectly righteous before God, and have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us, Rom. r. 19. viii. 4. and x. 4.
Q. How is the righteousness of Christ applied to us?
A. God gives and imputes it to us, and we receive it by faith, Isa. xlv. 24. xlvi. 13. and lxi. 10.
Qj. How doth faith give us an interest in the righteousness of Christ? A. It receives it from God as his free gift; and by uniting us to Christ as our Husband, gives us an interest in it as his, Rom. v. 17. Phil. iii. 9.
Q. What mean you by God’s imputing the righteousness of Christ? A. His accounting it to us, as if we had obeyed the law, and satisfied the justice of God in our own persons, Rom. viiic 4. 2 Cor. v. 21.
Q. How prove you that Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us ■? A The scripture declares, that it is untQ end upon all them that believe; and that we are made the righteousness of God in him, Rom. iii. 22. 2 Cor. v. 21.
Q. How prove you that Christ’s active obedience is imputed to us? A. Because otherwise the righteousness of the law could not be fulfilled in us -7 and it is bf the obedience of one (Christ) many are made righteous, Gal. iii. 12. Roir. viii. 4. v. 19. and iii. 22, 24.
Q^How can Christ’s active obedience be imputed, when his human nature owed obedience for itself?
A. Adam’s owing his obedience for himself hindered not the imputation of it to his seed j moreover, Christ’s obedience imputed to us, being an obedience to the latv as a broken covenant of works, is such as an human nature, united to a divine person, could never owe for itself Gal, iv. 4, 5.
Q. Is the righteousness of Christ itself, or only its effects, imputed to us? A. His righteousness itself is imputed, and its effects are imparted to us, Rom. v. 19.
Qj, For what end is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us? A. His passive obedience is imputed to found
our legal security from eternal death •, and his active to found our legal title to eternal life, John x. 10. Rom, v. 19,
Q^. Is Christ’s righteousness imputed partly to one, and partly to another: or his active and passive obedience separately imputed, the one to procure pardon, and the other acceptance? A. Nc •, his whole undivided righteousness is, in both its parts, jointly imputed to every? O believer as one complete righteousness, constituting him perfect hj righteous before God, Isa. lxi. 10. 2 Cor. v. 21.
Q^ Upon what ground is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us? A. Upon the footing of our union to
him as our surety and husband, Isa. liii. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12.
Q. In what do the imputation of our sins to Christ, and that of his righteousness to us, differ?
A. Our sin was imputed to him, that he, by bearing it for a time, might destroy it j but his righteousness is imputed to us that we might wear it for ever, Dan. ix. 24.
Q. What are the instrumental causes of justification?
A. The gospel-promise on God’s part, and faith on ours.
Q. How is the gospel an instrument in justification?
A. It reveals, offers, and makes over to us Christ and his righteousness, and justification through it, Isa. xlv. 24.
O. How is faith an instrument in our justification
A. It receives Christ’s person and righteousness, and justification through it, as offered in the gospel, Gal. ii. 16.
Q. Is the receiving act of faith, or our new obedience, imputed to us as our gospel-righteousness, or condition of right to Christ’s righteousness? A. No *, only the
righteousness of Christ, which faith receives, is imputed in our justification, Rom. xv. 5. Isa. xlv. 24. Phil. iii. 9.
Q^ How then is it said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to liimfor righteousness $ A. The
meaning is not, that Abraham’s act of faith, but that what he believed on was imputed to him for righteousness.
Q. Is faith the alone instrument of justification on our side? A. Yes *, we are justified by faith, without the deeds of the law, Rom. iii. 28. and v. 1. Phil. iii. 3, 9:
Q. Are all our goodvorks and resolutions deeds of the law? A. Yes; for they are all obedience to it.
Q. How then is it said, James ii. 24. By works a man is justified, and not by faith only f A. That is to
be understood of the justification of our faith before men, and not that of our persons before God.
Q^Can we be justified, and yet neglect the study of good works? A. No; faith without works is dead.
Q. If our good works are no cause of justification, what connection have they with it?
A. They flow from it, and evidence it, and testify our thankfulness to God for it, James u. 18. Rom. vii. 4.
Q. Is not faith itself a good work? A. Yes, but
it justifies not as a good work, but only as an instrument, receiving Christ and his righteousness for justification of life, Acts xxvi. 18. Isa. xlv. 24, 25. Phil. Hi. 9.
Q. Why hath God made faith alone the instrument on our part in justification?
A. That his free grace might clearly shine, and all pride and boasting of men be excluded.
Q. When are we justified? A. The sentence of
justification was conceived in the mind of God from eternity; but is not actually applied to our persors and conscience, till the moment in which we first believe in Christ.
Q. How doth God intimate the sentence of justification? A. In the powerful application of his promise to our conscience j which is manifested, in our good works: and he will publicly declare it at the last day.
Q. WTere believers under the Old Testament justified in the same manner as we are now?
A. Yes, Isa. xlv. 24, 25.
Q. How should we improve the doctrine of justification?
A. By renouncing all dependence on our works, and leaning on Christ as our only righteousness, Phil. iii. 9.