SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service Theologian
REDEMPTION TRUTHS
CHAPTER 7
JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION THROUGH REDEMPTION
"Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from
God, and both righteousness and sanctification, even redemption." 1 Corinthians
1:30 RV
A CONVERSATION with a brother barrister
one morning long ago brought, very vividly before my mind the difference
between the theology of Christendom and the truth of Christ on the doctrine of
Justification. My friend began by taking me to task for preaching. He charged
me with "usurping apostolic functions." Having my Testament at hand, I showed
him from Acts 8 that, in the Stephen persecution, the Jerusalem Christians
"were all scattered abroad, except the Apostles," and that "they that were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word." The Apostles, therefore,
were the only Christians who did not, at that time, go out
preaching.
Baffled and silenced on this point, he tried to make a
diversion by declaiming against Protestant misrepresentations of his
Churchs teaching, for he was a Roman Catholic. "You think," he said,
"that we believe in salvation by works, whereas the Church teaches salvation
through Christ. But Christ died for the whole world. How is it, then, that some
are saved and others not? The Church and good works merely put people into the
right position to get saved through Christ."
To which I replied, "There
is one great truth of Christianity of which your Church knows absolutely
nothing."
"What is that?" he asked.
"Justification by grace," I
answered.
"You mean justification by faith," said he.
"No," I said, "I
mean justification by grace." After a little fencing, he told me plainly that
he did not understand me; and, with frequent interruptions on his part, I went
on to explain what I meant.
Between justification by faith and salvation
by works, as explained by my friend, there is, in theory at least, no necessary
antagonism. But the whole position is absolutely inconsistent with
justification by grace. For if a sinner has a claim of any kind for blessing or
mercy, there is no room for grace. Therefore it was that grace could not be
revealed till Christ came. Till then, men held relationships with God, based
either on creation, or on covenant, or on promise. But relationships are in
their very nature twosided; and as the Cross of Christ outraged every claim
which God had upon man, it destroyed every claim which man had upon God. The
whole world now stands on a common level of sin and wrath. For neither Church,
nor sacrament, nor personal effort, can avail to establish a difference, since
God has declared that there is no difference. The Cross has levelled all
distinctions, and shut men up to judgment; this is the dark background on which
"the grace of God, bringing salvation to all men, has been manifested." (Titus
2:11.)
And the grace of God is not, as some seem to think, a kind of
good influence imparted to the sinner to fit him to receive Divine blessing. It
is the principle on which God blesses sinners in whom He can find no fitness
whatsoever. And grace has now been manifested. In the Old Testament it was
implied, indeed, but veiled; in the New, it is an open revelation. Grace was
behind the promises. But neither in the case of God nor of man, is it grace to
fulfill a promise. There is no grace in bestowing favour upon one who has a
claim to favour, whether that claim depend upon promise or upon relationship.
But when men became "the betrayers and murderers" of the Son of God, every
promise was forfeited, every relationship sacrificed; sin reached its climax,
and a lost world was shut up to judgment, stern, relentless, and
terrible.
But now, judgment waits on grace. For all judgment has been
committed to the Son; and He has been "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to
give repentance and remission of sins." All amnesty has been proclaimed, and
during this day of grace the judgment throne is empty. GRACE is reigning
through righteousness unto eternal life, by our Lord Jesus Christ. (John 5:24;
Acts 5:31 (cf. 11:18); Romans 5:21.)
The sinner, then, is "justified by
grace" because God can find no reason, no motive, save in His own heart, for
blessing him at all. He is "justified by faith," because this is the only
principle of blessing consistent with grace.
And, thirdly, he is
"justified by blood," because the stern facts of Divine righteousness and human
sin make blessing impossible, save on the ground of redemption.
And
justification by blood is to be explained, not by the rites of ancient
paganism, but by the teaching of the Divine religion of the Old Testament. For
Scripture must be interpreted by Scripture. This caution is needed; for some
men speak of the blood in such a way as to provoke the taunt that Christianity
is "a religion of the shambles." In the symbolism of Scripture, "blood" means
death applied. Therefore it is that we are said to be justified by the blood of
Christ. Were it said to be "by His death," it would be true of every child of
Adam. Such, therefore, is its scope in Romans 5:18, where the justification has
reference to what theologians call "original sin." As wide as are the effects
of Adams "one offence," no less wide are the effects of that "one
righteous act, the death of Christ viewed as the acme of His
obedience."
The distinction here noticed is very marked in the ninth and
tenth verses of this same chapter. The "justification" is, as we have seen, by
the blood of Christ, for it is only for those who by faith become one with Him
in His death. But "reconciliation" is by His death, for reconciliation was
accomplished at the Cross, and is "received" by the sinner on believing. And
the believer is not only justified, but sanctified, and on the same ground.
Sanctification by blood is a lost truth. Not only in popular preaching and
teaching, but even in our standard theology, the verb "to sanctify" is
generally used to express only a progressive change in the Christians
life; and yet it is never once so used in the New Testament. Christ is made
unto us both righteousness and sanctification; and the Corinthians, to whom
these words are written, are addressed by the Apostle as "them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints." Not "called to be saints," but
saints by their calling. To become a saint is the effort of the religionist;
but the redeemed sinner is a saint in virtue of his redemption. The struggle of
the religionist is to become what he is not; the aim of the Christian is to
realize what he is - to "walk worthy of the calling wherewith he is called."
"Saints and sinners" is an ignorant and false antithesis; for every saint is a
sinner, though every sinner is not a saint. The Reformation has taught us how
false is the teaching of the religion of Christendom as to justification; but
seemingly we have yet to learn that its doctrine of sanctification is no less
erroneous. The Divine grace which freely justifies a sinner, and then teaches
him to live righteously, also sanctifies and teaches him to live holily. He
does not live righteously ill order to become justified, but because he has
been justified; neither does he live holily in order to become sanctified, but
because he has been sanctified.
And as he is justified, so also is he
sanctified, by the blood of Christ. Or, to drop the language of the types, when
the sinner, on his believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, becomes one with Him in
His death, "the merits" of that death are his, and he stands before God both
righteous and holy in Christ. This is not a mystical theory, but a glorious
Divine fact. And in keeping with it, "saint" is the characteristic title
usually given to the Christian in the Epistles.
And as with
justification and sanctification, so also with redemption. "The redemption of
the world" is a theological expression which has no sanction in Scripture. Most
true it is that Christ "gave Himself a ransom for all "; but redemption
includes not merely the payment of the ransom but the deliverance of the
ransomed. Hence the language of Scripture, "In whom we have redemption through
His blood." Not that we would set limits to the Gospel of the Grace of God.
That Gospel is "preached in all creation under heaven." (Colossians 1:23.) The
great amnesty is for all. But while the reconciliation of the world is a Divine
truth, the redemption is only for those who "have received the
reconciliation."
But this is somewhat in the nature of a digression, for
salvation by grace is here my theme. And there is no truth which the natural
mall, whether Christian or pagan, so resents. If "there is no difference" in
Gods sight between one man and another, what is the use of "religion"?
The Pharisee is in as bad a case as the publican. Yes, so it is. Indeed, the
Book says he is in a worse case. Not because there is any merit in the
publican, but because he acknowledges his condition and throws himself on
Divine mercy.
If, as in effect Paul said to the Athenians, men would but
use their brains, they would understand that the God "who made the world and
all things therein" cannot stoop to receive anything from men. (Acts 17:23-25.)
He is the One who gives. But the great GIVER is "the unknown God" - unknown not
only to Athenian idolaters but to multitudes who call themselves
Christians.
A lady of my acquaintance, well known in the higher ranks
of London society, called upon me one day to ask for police help, to relieve
her from certain annoyances. Her evident distress at my inability to give her
the protection she sought, led me to remark that the peace of God in the heart
was a great antidote to trouble.
"Ah," said she, "if I was only like you!"
"If it depended on merit," I replied with real sincerity, "it is you who would
have the peace, not I." Presently her manner changed, and with tears in her
eyes she told me something of her spiritual struggles. If she could be more
earnest, more devout, more prayerful, she was sure that God would accept her.
"I was greatly interested," I remarked, "by what I heard about the supper you
gave the tramps last week. Did they offer you anything for it? Of course, they
had no money, but they might have brought you some of their coats or
shirts."
"If you had only seen their coats and shirts!" she exclaimed
with a smile. "Filthy rags they were, Im sure," said I, "and what you
dont believe is that in Gods sight all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags! " But no, people will not believe it. And so they put from
them the blessing that awaits every sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith," the Gospel declares.
"Faith, yes; we must get faith "; this is the very last plank to which the
sinner clings in his struggle to assert himself in some way. What good works
are to the Roman Catholic religionist, faith is to the Protestant not, of
course, a ground of salvation, but a means by which a sinner can raise himself
above the common level, and thus obtain the good offices of the Saviour. But
"it is of faith, that it may be by grace." (Romans 4:16.) Faith is not
something which the sinner gives to God, but merely the receiving what God has
got to give to him.
"By grace are ye saved, through faith." But error is
so insidious and so vital that the Scripture does not stop at a positive
statement of the truth, but adds the words, "and that (salvation) not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should
boast."
To speak of earning a gift would be a contradiction in terms;
but though a gift can not be earned by works, it may be deserved on that
ground. Mens gifts, indeed, are seldom bestowed upon the undeserving.
Therefore it is that they so often give ground for boasting. But salvation is
not only unearned, but undeserved; it is not only a gift, but a gift by grace.
And so, in the passage already cited, words are piled up to describe the
sinners ruin and doom. By nature we are
"Children of
wrath,"
"Dead in sins,"
"Without Christ,"
"Aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel,"
"Strangers from the covenants of
promise,"
"Having no hope,"
"And without God in the world."
And
mark the contrast: "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are
made nigh by the blood of Christ, for He is our peace." In ourselves
nothing but evil, and absolute and utter ruin; in Christ all that we can need,
and all that God requires.
Go To Chapter Eight
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