The
apostle Paul had been proving that all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, were
sinners, and opposing the doctrine so generally entertained by the Jews, that
they were a holy people and saved by their works. He showed that justification could never be by works, but by
faith. He then anticipated this
objection: “Are you saying that the law of God is set aside and done away with,
by this plan of justification?”
“Certainly not,” Paul responded, “on the contrary, we establish the
law.” In discussing this subject
tonight, I plan to pursue the following order:
I.
I will show that the gospel method of justification does not set aside or
repeal the law.
II.
I will show that justification establishes the law, by producing true obedience
to it. In fact, gospel justification is
the only means that does this.
The
greatest objection to the doctrine of Justification by Faith has always been
that it is inconsistent with good morals, that it winks at sin, and opens the
floodgates of iniquity. Many people
argue that to maintain that people should not depend on their own good behavior
for salvation, but must be saved by faith in another, tends to make them
morally sloppy, and encourages them to live in sin while they depend on Christ
to justify them. Others argue that the
gospel releases them from their obligation to obey the moral law, so that a
more lax morality is permitted under the gospel than was allowed under the law.
I.
I will show that the gospel method of justification does not set aside the
moral law.
1. It cannot be true that this method of
justification sets aside the moral law, because the gospel everywhere enforces
obedience to the law, and lays down the same standard of holiness.
Jesus
Christ adopted the very words of the moral law, “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you
shall love your neighbor as yourself”.
(Matt 22:37-39)
2.
The conditions of the gospel are designed to support the moral law.
The
gospel requires our repentance as a condition of salvation. What is repentance? Repentance is renouncing sin! We must repent of our violations of the law
of God, and return to obeying the law.
This is the same thing as requiring obedience.
3.
The gospel maintains that the law is right.
If
the gospel does not fully uphold the law, it could be said that Christ is the
minister of sin.
4.
By the gospel plan, the rewards and punishments of the gospel are added to the
rewards and punishments of the law to enforce obedience to the law.
The
author of the book of Hebrews says, “Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies
without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you
suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot,
counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing,
and insulted the Spirit of grace?”
(Hebrews 10:28-29) Thus, the
awful sanctions of the gospel are added to those of the law to enforce
obedience to the precepts of the law.
II.
I will show that the doctrine of justification by faith produces sanctification
by producing the only true obedience to the law.
By
this I mean, that when our mind understands this plan of salvation, and
exercises faith in it, it naturally produces sanctification. Sanctification is holiness, and holiness is
nothing but obedience to the law, consisting in love of God and love of man.
To
support the proposition that justification by faith produces true obedience to
the law of God, my first position is that sanctification can never be produced
among selfish or wicked people by obeying the law itself, separate from the
considerations of the gospel, or the motives that are connected with justification
by faith.
The
motives of the law does not prevent selfish people from committing sin, and it
is absurd to think that the same motives can reclaim them from sin after they
have fallen under the power of selfishness, and when sin is reinforced by
habit. The motives of the law lose much
of their influence after a person has fallen.
They even exert an opposite influence.
The motives of the law, as viewed by a selfish mind, have a tendency to
cause sin to abound. This is the
experience of every sinner. When he
sees the spirituality of the law, and does not see the motives of the gospel,
it raises the pride of his heart, and confirms him in his rebellion. The situation of the devil is an excellent
example of what the law can do, with all its principles and sanctions, on a
wicked heart. Satan understands the
law. He sees that it is
reasonable. He has experienced the
blessedness of obedience, and he knows fully that to return to obedience would
restore his peace of mind. This he
knows better, than any sinner of our race, who never was holy, can know it, and
yet it presents to his mind not one motive that is powerful enough to reclaim
him; but rather, all this knowledge drives him even deeper into his
disobedience.
When
obedience to the law is presented to the sinner as the condition of life, he
immediately decides to make self-righteous efforts. In almost every situation, the first thing the awakened sinner
does is that he tries to obey the law.
He thinks he must first make himself better in some way before he can
embrace the gospel. He has no idea of
how simple the gospel plan of salvation by faith is, offering eternal life as a
mere gratuitous gift. Alarm the sinner
with the penalty of the law, and he naturally, and by the very laws of his
mind, tries to improve his life, and in some self-righteous way, he tries to obtain
eternal life under the influence of slavish fear. And the more the law presses him, the greater are his pharisaical
efforts as long as he has the hope that if he obeys God might accept him. What else can you expect from him? He is purely selfish, and although he should
immediately submit to God, because he does not understand the gospel terms of
salvation and his mind is focused on getting away from the danger of the
penalty, he tries to get to heaven some other way. I do not believe anyone has ever submitted to God before he has
seen that salvation must be by faith, and that his own self-righteous strivings
have no tendency to save him.
If
you try to produce holiness by obeying the law, the very fear of failure tends
to draw your attention away from the objects of love, and from God and
Christ. The sinner spends all his time
walking around Mount Sinai, and looking at his footsteps to see how close he
comes to obedience. How can he get into
the spirit of heaven?
Let
me say again, that the penalty of the law has no tendency to produce love in
the first place. It may increase love
in those who already have it, when they think about the law as an exhibition of
God’s infinite holiness. The angels in
heaven, and good people on earth, think how appropriate and proper it is, and
see in the law the expression of God’s good will to His creatures. To them, it appears amiable and lovely, and
increases their delight in God and their confidence towards Him. But, it is just the opposite with the
selfish person. The selfish person sees
the penalty hanging over his own head, and he sees no way of escaping, and it
is not in his mind to fall in love with the Being that holds a thunderbolt over
his devoted head. From the nature of
his mind, he will flee from God, not run towards Him. The inspired writers never thought that the law could sanctify
men. The law is given rather to slay
than to make alive, to cut off men’s self-righteous hopes forever, and compel
them to flee to Christ.
Sinners
under the bare law, without the gospel, naturally and necessarily view God as
an irreconcilable enemy. They are
completely selfish; and apart from the considerations of the gospel, they view
God just as the devil views Him. No
motive in the law can be exhibited to a selfish mind that will produce
love. Can the influence of penalty do
it?
It
would be a strange plan of reformation to send men to hell to reform them; to
let them go on in sin and rebellion until the day they die, and then be
punished until they become holy. I am
surprised that the devil has not become holy!
He has suffered long enough, he has been in hell these thousands of
years, and he is no better than he was.
The reason is, there is no gospel there, there is no Holy Spirit there
to apply the truth, and the penalty only confirms his rebellion.
The
doctrine of justification by faith can relieve these difficulties. It can produce and it has produced real
obedience to the precept of the law.
Justification by faith does not set aside the law as a rule of duty, but
only sets aside the penalty of the law.
And preaching justification as a mere gratuity bestowed on the simple
act of faith, is the only way in which obedience to the law is ever brought
about. This I will now show from the
following considerations:
1.
The doctrine of Justification relieves the mind from the pressure of those
considerations that naturally tend to confirm selfishness.
While
our mind is looking only at the law, we only feel the influence of hope and
fear, perpetuating purely selfish efforts.
But justification by faith annihilates this spirit of bondage. The apostle Paul says, “For you did not
receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption
by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’”.
This plan of salvation produces love and gratitude to God, and leads the
soul to taste the sweets of holiness.
2.
The doctrine of justification also relieves our mind from the need to make our
own salvation our supreme goal in life.
The
believer in the gospel plan of salvation finds salvation full and complete,
including both sanctification and eternal life already prepared. Instead of being driven to the life of a
Pharisee in religion, of laborious and exhausting efforts, he receives the
gospel as a free gift, a mere gratuity.
He is now free to exercise unselfish love, and to live and labor for the
salvation of others, leaving his own soul unreservedly to Christ.
3.
The fact that God has provided and given him salvation as a gratuity is
designed to stimulate a concern for others in the heart of the believer, so
that when he sees them dying for the lack of this salvation, they may be
brought to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. How far from every selfish motive are those influences. It exhibits God, not as the law exhibits
him, as an irreconcilable enemy, but as a grieved and offended Father, willing
to be reconciled, yes, desiring that His subjects become reconciled to Him and
live. This is designed to produce
love. It exhibits God as making the
greatest sacrifice to reconcile sinners to Himself; and from no other motive
than a pure and totally unselfish regard for their happiness. Try this with your own family. The law represents God as armed with wrath
and determined to punish the sinner without hope or help. The gospel represents God as offended
indeed, but He is so anxious they should return to Him that He has made the
greatest conceivable sacrifices out of a pure unselfish love for His wandering
children.
I
once heard a father say that he tried to imitate the government of God with his
family. Once, when his child did wrong,
he reasoned with him and showed him his faults; and when the child was fully
convinced, confounded, and condemned so that he could not say a word, then the
father asked him, “Do you deserve to be punished”? “Yes, sir.” The lad
responded. “I know it, and now if I
were to let you go, what influence would it have over the other children? Rather than do that, I will take the punishment
myself.” Therefore, he laid the rod on
himself, and it had the most astonishing effect on the mind of the child. He had never tried anything so perfectly
subduing to the mind as this. And from
the laws of the mind, it must be so. It
affects the mind in a way that is entirely different from the law.
4.
The doctrine of justification brings a person’s mind under an entirely new set
of influences, and leaves us free to weigh the reasons for holiness, and decide
accordingly.
Under
the law, only motives of hope and fear can operate on the sinner’s mind. But under the gospel, the influence of hope
and fear are set aside and a new set of considerations are presented revealing
God’s entire character in all the attractions He can command. It gives the person the most heart-breaking
sin-subduing views of God. The gospel
presents God to his senses. It exhibits
God’s unselfish love. The way Satan
prevailed against our first parents was by leading them to doubt God’s unselfishness. The gospel demonstrates the truth and
corrects this lie. The law represents
God as the merciless enemy of the sinner, as securing happiness to all who
perfectly obey, but thundering down wrath on all who disobey. The gospel reveals new features in God’s
character not known before. There is no
doubt that the gospel increases the love of all holy beings and gives greater
joy to the angels in heaven, greatly increasing their love, confidence, and
admiration when they see God’s amazing pity and forbearance towards the
guilty. The law drove the devils to
hell, and it drove Adam and Eve from Paradise.
But when the blessed spirits see the same holy God waiting on rebels, in
fact, pouring out His own heart and giving His beloved Son for them, and
suffering unwearied pains for thousands of years to save sinners, do you think
it has no influence in strengthening the motives in their minds to love and
obey?
The
devil, who is a purely selfish being, is always accusing others of being
selfish. He accused Job of being
selfish, “Does Job fear God for nothing?”
To Adam and Eve, he accused God of being selfish, and that the only
reason that God forbid them to eat of the tree of knowledge was because God was
afraid that they might come to know as much as Himself. The gospel reveals that God is not selfish. If God were selfish, He would not make such
an unselfish effort to save those whom He could easily crush in hell. Nothing can make selfish people ashamed of
their selfishness, like seeing unselfish love in others. As a result, the wicked are always trying to
appear unselfish and fair. Let the
selfish individual, who has any heart, see true unselfish love in others, and
it is like coals of fire being dropped on his head. The apostle Paul understood this when he said, “Therefore if your
enemy hungers, feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink; for in so doing you
will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Nothing is so designed to cut down an enemy, win him over, and make him
a friend.
This
is what the gospel does to sinners. The
gospel shows them that in spite of all that they have done to God, God still
exercises unselfish love towards them.
When the sinner sees God stooping from heaven to save him, and understands
that it is indeed TRUE, Oh, how it melts and breaks down his heart, strikes a
deathblow to selfishness, and wins him over to unbounded confidence and holy
love. God has so created our minds that
we naturally pay homage to virtue. We
must do this, as long as we retain the powers of moral agency. This is as true in hell as it is in
heaven. Even the devil feels this. When an individual sees that God has no
interested or selfish reasons to condemn him, when he sees that God offers
salvation as a mere gratuity through faith, he cannot but feel admiration of
God’s unselfish love. The individual’s
selfishness is crushed. The law does
its work. He sees that all his selfish
endeavors have done no good; and the next step is for his heart to reach out in
unselfish love.
Suppose
someone was under sentence of death for rebellion and he had tried every
practical way to recommend himself to the government, but he failed because
everything he did was hollow-hearted and selfish. He sees that the government understands why he does everything,
and he is still not reconciled. He
knows that everything he tried was hypocritical and selfish. He was moved by the hope of favor or the
fear of wrath, and that the government has become more and more incensed at his
hypocrisy. Now, let us say that a paper
is brought to him from the government, offering him a free pardon on the simple
condition that he would receive it as a free gift without even thinking about
his own works; what influence will it have on his mind? The moment he finds the penalty set aside,
and that he no longer needs to indulge in any self-righteous efforts, his mind
is filled with admiration. Now, let it
be revealed that the government has made the greatest sacrifices to obtain this
pardon; his selfishness is slain, and he melts down like a child at his
sovereign’s feet, ready to obey the law because he loves His sovereign.
5.
All true obedience turns on faith.
Faith secures all the required influences to produce
sanctification. It gives the doctrines
of eternity access to our mind and a hold of our heart. In today’s world, the motives of time are
addressed to our senses. The motives
that influence the spirits of the just in heaven do not reach us through our
senses. But when faith is exercised,
the wall is broken down, and the vast realities of eternity act on our mind
here with the same kind of influence that they have in eternity. Mind is mind everywhere. And if it were not for the darkness of
unbelief, we would live here just as they do in the eternal world. Sinners here would rage and blaspheme, just
as they do in hell; and saints would love, obey, and praise God, just as they
do in heaven. Now, faith makes all
these things real. It breaks our mind
loose from the hindrances of the world.
We behold God and we understand His law and His love. There is no other way that these motives can
take hold on our mind. What a mighty
action it must have on our mind when it takes hold of the love of Christ! What a life-giving power when the pure motives
of the gospel crowd into our mind and stir it up with divine energy! Every Christian knows that, in proportion to
the strength of his faith, his mind is buoyant and active; and when his faith
flags, his soul is dark and listless.
It is faith alone that places the things of time and eternity in their
proper perspective, and sets down the true value of the things of time and
sense. It breaks up the delusions of
our mind. Our soul shakes itself from
its errors and obstructions, and we rise up in communion with God.
REMARKS.
I.
It is as un-philosophical as it is unscriptural to try to convert and sanctify
the minds of sinners without the motives of the gospel.
You
may press the sinner with the law, and make him see his own character, the
greatness and justice of God, and his ruined condition. But, if you hide the motives of the gospel
from his mind, then everything you say will all be in vain.
II.
It is absurd to think that the offers of the gospel are designed to produce a
selfish hope.
Some
are afraid to place into the sinner’s mind the whole character of God; and they
try to make the sinner submit to God by casting him down in despair. This is not only against the gospel, but it
is absurd. It is absurd to think that,
in order to destroy the selfishness of a sinner, you must hide from him the
knowledge of how much God loves and pities him, and the great sacrifices God
that has made to save him.
III.
Sinners are not in danger of getting false hopes if they are allowed to know
the real compassion of God. In fact,
while you hide God’s compassion, it is impossible to give the sinner anything
other than a false hope. Withholding
from the sinner who is writhing under conviction the fact that God has provided
salvation as a free gift, is the best way to confirm his selfishness; and if he
receives any hope at all, it must be a false hope. To force a person into submission by the law alone is to
encourage him to build a self-righteous foundation.
IV.
As far as we can see, preaching that salvation is by grace, not bestowed in any
degree because of our own works, is the only possible way of reclaiming selfish
beings.
Suppose
salvation was not altogether a gracious gift, but that some degree of good
works must be taken into account, and for those good works we are, in part,
justified. The more we consider this,
the more it stimulates selfishness. You
must get the sinner to see that he must completely depend on free grace, and
that a full and complete justification is bestowed on his first act of faith as
a gift, and no part of it is equal to anything he does. This alone dissolves the influence of
selfishness and secures holy action.
V.
If all this is true, sinners should be put in the fullest possible possession,
and in the fastest way possible, of the whole plan of salvation.
They
should be made to see the law, and their own guilt, and that they have no way
to save themselves; and then, the more fully the whole length and breadth and
height and depth of the love of God is spread out before them, the more
effectively you will crush his selfishness and subdue his soul in love to
God. Do not be afraid, in witnessing to
sinners, to show the whole plan of salvation, and give the fullest possible
exhibition of the infinite compassion of God.
Show him that, in spite of his guilt, the Son of God is knocking at the
door and pleading with him to be reconciled to God.
VI.
Can you see why so many convicted sinners today are endlessly walking around
Mount Sinai with self-righteous efforts to save themselves by their own works?
How
often do you find sinners trying to get more feeling, or waiting until they
have said more prayers and they try harder, expecting to recommend themselves
to God this way. Why do they do all of
this? The sinner needs to be led away
from this. He needs to be made to see
that he is looking for salvation under the law. He must be made to see that all this is superseded by the gospel
offering him all he lacks as a free gift.
He must hear Jesus, saying, “You
will not come to Me that you may have life: Oh, no, you are willing to
pray. You are willing to go to meetings
and read the Bible, or to do anything but come to Me. Sinner, here is the road: I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No man comes to the Father but
through Me. I am the resurrection and
the life. I am the light of the
world. Here sinner, this is what you
want. Instead of trying your
self-righteous prayers and efforts, here is what you are looking for, only
believe and you shall be saved.”
VII.
Can you see why so many professing Christians are always in the dark?
They
are looking at their sins, confining their observations to themselves, and
losing sight of the fact that they have only to take a proper hold of Jesus
Christ, throw themselves on Him, and everything will be fine.
VIII.
The law is useful to convict men; but, in fact, it never breaks the heart. The gospel alone does that. The degree in which a convert is
brokenhearted is in proportion to the degree of clearness with which he
apprehends the gospel.
IX.
Converts, if you can call them converts, who entertain a hope under legal
preaching, may have an intellectual approval of the law, and a sort of dry
zeal, but they never make mellow, brokenhearted Christians. If they have not seen God in the attitude in
which He is exhibited in the gospel, they are not the kind of Christians that
you will sometimes see with a tear trembling in their eye, and their bodies shaking
with emotion at the name of Jesus.