SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
THE GOSPEL AND
ITS MINISTRY
JUSTIFICATION BY
WORKS.
"WAS not Abraham our father justified by works when he had
offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Thou seest how faith wrought with his
works, and by works faith was made perfect. "And so," says many a one, closing
the book, "we see how the Scripture which says "Abraham believed God, and it
was imputed unto him for righteousness, is guarded and explained." "And so,"
continues the Apostle James, "the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham
believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called
the friend of God."
Justification by works, as an article of man's
religion, is opposed to justification by faith, and therefore it denies the
grace of God, and dishonours the blood of Christ. Justification by works,
according to the Epistle of James, is the complement, so to speak, of
justification by faith. It owns grace, and does homage to the blood.
But "it is of faith that it may be by grace" and grace puts works, and merit in
every phase of it, out of court altogether. What then if a man regard his faith
as a meritorious thing? He thereby denies grace entirely. He makes a saviour of
his own faith; and "can faith save him?" It is no longer a question between
God's grace on the one side, and the sinner's merit on the other ; but merely a
rivalry between faith and works. The Epistle to the Romans is essentially
doctrinal, and the practical is based upon the doctrine. The Epistle to the
twelve tribes scattered abroad," is essentially practical, the doctrinal
element being purely incidental. Paul's Epistle unfolds the mind and purposes
of God, revealing His righteousness and wrath. The Epistle of James addresses
men upon their own ground. The one deals with justification as between the
sinner and God, the other as between man and man. In the one, therefore, the
word is, To him that worketh not, but believeth." In the other it is, "What is
the profit if a man say he hath faith, and have not works?" Not "If a man have
faith," but "If a man say he hath faith"
proving that, in the case
supposed, the individual is not dealing with God, but arguing the matter with
his brethren. God, who searches the heart, does not need to judge by works,
which are but the outward manifestation of faith within; but man. can judge
only by appearances.
Faith identifies a sinner with a Saviour God. But
it is nothing in itself. A man cannot show another his faith, any more than he
can show him his charity. One who says he has faith, but whose conduct is not
that of a believer, is like a man who says he has charity, but does no
charitable actions who dismisses a starving beggar with kind words and nothing
more. "Even so," says the Epistle. just in the same sense, "faith, if it hath
not works, is dead, being alone." You believe in one God. Well, quite right so
do the devils ; and what comes of it? They tremble, and so ought you. Believing
cannot, therefore, be in itself a meritorious thing. But if it be indeed, to
use a favourite metaphor, a laying hold of God, it will declare itself by
results. Abraham's case is an instance. He believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness. That is, Abraham believed and God blessed him, "He
was holden for righteous, in virtue of faith." Well, the result was that
Abraham acted God discerned the faith; man judged of the acts. He believed, and
God declared he was righteous. He acted, and man acknowledged he was righteous.
He was justified by faith when judged by God, for God knows the heart. He was
justified by works when judged by his fellow-men;, for man can only read the
life. And just as faith is made perfect, or fulfilled, by works, so the
Scripture which says "He was justified by faith," is made perfect, or
fulfilled, by the declaration, "He was justified by works."
So then,
though in onc sense a man is justified by faith without works, in another sense
we see "how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Justified by
faith before God ; justified by works before men. This is not mere assertion
nor is it a plausible piece of sophistry. It is not only that these Scriptures
admit of no other explanation, but that this explanation is thoroughly in
keeping with the respective characters of the two epistles. And, moreover, just
as in the 23rd verse, the Apostle James guards the truth of justification by
faith; so, in the Epistle to the Romans, the Apostle Paul alludes to the,
aspect of the truth here insisted on- "If Abraham were justified by works," he
declares, "he hath whereof to glory, but not before God."
Chapter Thirteen JUSTIFICATION BY BLOOD.
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