In this and the following chapter our aim
will be fourfold. First, to demonstrate the impossibility of any sinner
obtaining acceptance and favour with God on the ground of his own performances.
Second, to show that the saving of a sinner presented a problem which nought
but omniscience could solve, but that the consummate wisdom of God has devised
a way whereby He can pronounce righteous a guilty transgressor of His Law
without impeaching His veracity, sullying His holiness, or ignoring the claims
of justice; yea, in such a way that all His perfections have been displayed and
magnified, and the Son of His love glorified. Third, point out the sole ground
on which an awakened conscience can find solid and stable peace. Fourth, seek
to give God's children a clearer understanding of the exceeding riches of
Divine grace, that their hearts may be drawn out in fervent praise unto the
Author of "so great salvation."
But let it be pointed out at the onset that, any
reader who has never seen himself under the white light of God's holiness, and
who has never felt His Word cutting him to the very quick, will be unable to
fully enter into the force of what we are about to write. Yea, in all
probability, he who is unregenerate is likely to take decided exception unto
much of what will be said, denying that any such difficulty exists in the
matter of a merciful God pardoning one of His offending creatures. Or, if he
does not dissent to that extent, yet he will most likely consider that we have
grossly exaggerated the various elements in the case we are about to present,
that we have pictured the sinner's condition in far darker hues than was
warranted. This must be so, for he has no experimental acquaintance with God,
nor is he conscious of the fearful plague of his own heart.
The natural man cannot endure the thought of
being thoroughly searched by God. The last thing he desires is to pass beneath
the all-seeing eye of his Maker and Judge, so that his every thought and
desire, his most secret imagination and motive, stands exposed before Him. It
is indeed a most solemn experience when we are made to feel with the Psalmist,
"O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and
mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path
and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word
in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me
behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me" (Psa. 139:1-5).
Yes, dear reader, the very last thing which the
natural man desires is to be searched, through and through by God, and have his
real character exposed to view. But when God undertakes to do this very
thing--which He either will do in grace in this life, or in judgment in the Day
to come--there is no escape for us. Then it is we may well exclaim, "Whither
shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I
ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in Hell, behold, Thou
art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold
me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light
about me" (Psa. 139:7-11). Then it is we shall be assured, "Yea, the darkness
hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and
the light are both alike to Thee" (v. 12).
Then it is that the soul is awakened to a
realization of Who it is with whom it has to do. Then it is that he now
perceives something of the high claims of God upon him, the just requirements
of His Law, the demands of His holiness. Then it is that he realizes how
completely he has failed to consider those claims, how fearfully he has
disregarded that law, how miserably he falls short of meeting those demands.
Now it is that he perceives he has been "a transgressor from the womb" (Isa.
48:8), that so far from having lived to glorify His Maker, he has done nought
but follow the course of this world and fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now it
is he realizes that there is "no soundness" in him but, from the sole of
the foot even unto the head, "wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores" (Isa.
1:6). Now it is he is made to see that all his righteousness are as "filthy
rags" (Isa. 64:6).
"It is easy for any one in the cloisters of the
schools to indulge himself in idle speculations of the merit of works to
justify men; but when he comes into the presence of God, he must bid farewell
to these amusements, for there the business is transacted with seriousness, and
no ludicrous logomachy practiced. To this point, then, must our attention be
directed, if we wish to make any useful inquiry concerning true righteousness;
how we can answer the celestial Judge, when He shall call us to an account. Let
us place that Judge before our eyes, not according to the spontaneous
imaginations of our minds, but according to the descriptions given of Him in
the Scripture; which represents Him as one whose refulgence eclipses the stars,
whose power melts the mountains, whose anger shakes the earth, whose wisdom
takes the subtle in their own craftiness, whose purity makes all things appear
polluted, whose righteousness even the angels are unable to bear, who acquits
not the guilty, whose vengeance, when it is once kindled, penetrates even to
the abyss of Hell" (John Calvin).
Ah, my reader, tremendous indeed are the effects
produced in the soul when one is really brought into the presence of God, and
is granted a sight of His awesome majesty. While we measure ourselves by our
fellow men, it is easy to reach the conclusion that there is not much wrong
with us; but when we approach the dread tribunal of ineffable holiness, we form
an entirely different estimate of our character and conduct. While we are
occupied with earthly objects we may pride ourselves in the strength of our
visive faculty, but fix the gaze steadily on the midday sun and under its
dazzling brilliance the weakness of the eye will at once become apparent. In
like manner, while I compare myself with other sinners I can but form a wrong
estimate of myself, but if I gauge my life by the plummet of God's Law, and do
so in the light of His holiness, I must "Abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes" (Job 42:6).
But not only has sin corrupted man's being, it
has changed his relation to God: it has "alienated" him (Eph. 4:18), and
brought him under His righteous condemnation. Man has broken God's Law in
thought and word and deed, not once, but times without number. By the Divine
tribunal he is pronounced an incorrigible transgressor, a guilty rebel. He is
under the curse of his Maker. The law demands that its punishment shall be
inflicted upon him; justice clamours for satisfaction. The sinner's case is
deplorable, then, to the last degree. When this is painfully felt by the
convicted conscience, its agonized possessor cries out, "How then can
man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?"
(Job 25:4). How indeed! Let us now consider the various elements which enter
into this problem.
1. The requirements of God's Law. "Every
question therefore, respecting justification necessarily brings before us the
judicial courts of God. The principles of those courts must be determined by
God alone. Even to earthly governors we concede the right of establishing their
own laws, and appointing the mode of their enforcement. Shall we then accord
this title to man, and withhold it from the all-wise and almighty God? Surely
no presumption can be greater than for the creature to sit in judgment on the
Creator, and pretend to determine what should, or should not be, the methods of
His government. It must be our place reverently to listen to His own exposition
of the principles of His own courts, and humbly to thank Him for His goodness
in condescending to explain to us what those principles are. As sinners, we can
have no claim on God. We do have claim to a revelation that should
acquaint us with His ways.
"The judicial principles of the government of
God, are, as might be expected, based upon the absolute perfectness of His own
holiness. This was fully shown both in the prohibitory and in the mandatory
commandments of the law as given at Sinai. That law prohibited not only wrong
deeds and wrong counsels of heart, but it went deeper still. It prohibited even
wrong desires and wrong tendencies, saying, `thou shalt not be
concupiscent'--that is, thou shalt not have, even momentarily, one
desire or tendency that is contrary to the perfectness of God. And then as to
its positive requirements, it demanded the perfect, unreserved, perpetual
surrender of soul and body, with all its powers, to God and to His service. Not
only was it required, that love to Him--love perfect and unremitted--should
dwell as a living principle in the heart, but also that it should be developed
in action, and that unvaryingly. The mode also of the development throughout,
was required to be as perfect as the principle from which the development
sprang.
"If any among the children of men be able to
substantiate a claim to prefectness such as this, the Courts of God are ready
to recognize it. The God of Truth will recognize a truthful claim wherever it
is found. But if we are unable to present any such claim--if corruption be
found in us and in our ways--if in any thing we have fallen short of God's
glory, then it is obvious that however willing the Courts of God may be to
recognize perfectness wherever it exists, such willingness can afford no ground
of hope to those, who, instead of having perfectness, have sins and
short-comings unnumbered" (B.W. Newton).
2. The indictment preferred against us.
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, My
people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a
seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away
backward" (Isa. 1:2-4). The eternal God justly charges us with having broken
all His commandments--some in act, some in word, all of them in thought and
imagination.
The enormity of this charge is heightened by the
fact that against light and knowledge we chose the evil and forsook the good:
that again and again we deliberately turned aside from God's righteous Law, and
went astray like lost sheep, following the evil desires and devices of our own
hearts. Above, we find God complaining that inasmuch as we are his creatures,
we ought to have obeyed Him, that inasmuch as we owe our very lives to His
daily care we ought to have rendered Him fealty instead of disobedience, and
have been His loyal subjects instead of turning traitors to His throne. No
exaggeration of sin is brought against us, but a statement of fact is declared
which it is impossible for us to gainsay. We are ungrateful, unruly, ungodly
creatures. Who would keep a horse that refused to work? Who would retain a dog
which barked and flew at us? Yet we have broken God's sabbaths, despised His
reproofs, abused His mercies.
3. The sentence of the law. This is
clearly announced in the Divine oracles, "Cursed is every one that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal.
3:10). Whoever violates a single precept of the Divine Law exposes himself to
the displeasure of God, and to punishment as the expression of that
displeasure. No allowance is made for ignorance, no distinction is made between
persons, no relaxation of its strictness is permissible: "The soul that sinneth
it shall die" is its inexorable pronouncement. No exception is made whether the
transgressor be young or old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile: "the wages of sin
is death"; for "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. 1:18).
4. The Judge Himself is inflexibly just.
In the high court of Divine justice God takes the law in its strictest and
sternest aspect, and judges rigidly according to the letter. "But we are sure
that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such
things... Who will render to every man according to his deeds" (Rom. 2:2, 6).
God is inexorably righteous, and will not show any partiality either to the law
or to its transgressor. The Most High has determined that His Holy Law shall be
faithfully upheld and its sanctions strictly enforced.
What would this country be like if all its judges
ceased to uphold and enforce the laws of the land? What conditions would
prevail were sentimental mercy to reign at the expense of righteousness? Now
God is the Judge of all the earth and the moral Ruler of the universe. Holy
Writ declares that "justice and judgment," and not pity and clemency, are the
"habitation" of His "throne" (Psa. 89:14). God's attributes do not conflict
with each other. His mercy does not override His justice, nor is His grace ever
shown at the expense of righteousness. Each of His perfections is given free
course. For God to give a sinner entrance into Heaven simply because He loved
him, would be like a judge sheltering an escaped convict in his own home merely
because he pitied him. Scripture emphatically declares that God, "will by no
means clear the guilty" (Exo. 34:7).
5. The sinner is unquestionably guilty. It
is not merely that he has infirmities or that he is not as good as he ought to
be: he has set at nought God's authority, violated His commandments, trodden
His Laws under foot. And this is true not only of a certain class of offenders,
but "all the world" is "guilty before God" (Rom. 3:19). "There is none
righteous, no, not one: They are all gone out of the way, they are together
become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10,
12). It is impossible for any man to clear himself from this fearful charge. He
can neither show that the crimes of which he is accused have not been
committed, nor that having been committed, he had a right to do them. He can
neither disprove the charges which the law preferred against him, nor justify
himself in the perpetration of them.
Here then is how the case stands. The law demands
personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity to its precepts, in heart and act,
in motive and performance. God charges each one of us with having failed to
meet those just demands, and declares we have violated His commandments in
thought and word and deed. The law therefore pronounces upon us a sentence of
condemnation, curses us, and demands the infliction of its penalty, which is
death. The One before whose tribunal we stand is omniscient, and cannot be
deceived or imposed upon; He is inflexibly just, and swayed by no sentimental
considerations. We, the accused, are guilty, unable to refute the accusations
of the law, unable to vindicate our sinful conduct, unable to offer any
satisfaction or atonement for our crimes. Truly, our case is desperate to the
last degree.
Here, then, is the problem. How can God justify
the willful transgressor of His Law without justifying his sins? How can God
deliver him from the penalty of His broken Law without compromising His
holiness and going back upon His word that He will "by no means clear the
guilty"? How can life be granted the guilty culprit without repealing the
sentence "the soul that sinneth it shall die"? How can mercy be shown to the
sinner without justice being flouted? It is a problem which must forever have
baffled every finite intelligence. Yet, blessed be His name, God has, in
His consummate wisdom, devised a way whereby the "chief of sinners" may be
dealt with by Him as though he were perfectly innocent; nay more, He pronounces
him righteous, up to the required standard of the law, and entitled
to the reward of eternal life. How this can be will be taken up in the next
chapter.