Sermons on Galatians
1
Grace and Justification
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law,
then Christ is dead in vain." Gal. 2:21.
The scope of the apostle Paul in this epistle, is to reprove the church
that he writes to, for a great and sudden apostacy from that faith of the
gospel that they were planted in. The apostle Paul himself was one of the main
planters amongst them; and quickly after his removal from them false brethren
crept in amongst them, and perverted them from the simplicity that was in
Christ: their great error lay here, in mixing the works of the law with the
righteousness of Christ, in the grand point of the justification of a sinner
before God.
Throughout this epistle the apostle argues strongly against
this error: they had not renounced the doctrine of Christ; they did not deny
justification by faith in him; but they thought that the works of the law were
to be added to their faith in Christ, in order to their justification. I shall
only take notice briefly of a few of his arguments against this error, as they
lie in the context, to lead you to the words that I have read, and mean to
speak to.
The former part of the chapter is historical, telling them what
he had done, and what had befallen him some years ago; how he was entertained
and received by the great servants of Christ at Jerusalem, Peter, James, and
John, that seemed to be pillars, and were indeed so: see the first ten verses.
The next thing that he breaks forth into, in point of arguing with them, is
upon the account of Peter's dissimulation, and Paul's reproof of him. The point
seemed to be very small: Peter had made use of his Christian liberty in free
converse with the believing Gentiles; but when some of the brethren of the Jews
came from Jerusalem, he withdrew himself, and separated from them, fearing them
of the circumcision; fearing that they would take it ill: a weak kind of fear
it was, and upon this small thing the apostle set himself against him with
great zeal. "I withstood him," saith he, "to the face, because he was to be
blamed," (ver. 11). By this withdrawing the use of his Christian liberty, he
hardened the Jews, and he weakened the hands of the weaker Jewish converts,
that thought the wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles was not yet
taken away.
1st, His first argument against mingling the works of the law
with faith in justification, is taken from the practice of the believing Jews.
What way did they take to be justified? "We who are Jews by nature, and not
sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of
the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works
of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified," (ver. 15,
16).
2dly, His next argument is taken from the bad effect and sad
consequence of seeking righteousness by the law, (ver. 17), which, because it
is something hard to understand, I would explain it a little in a few words:
"But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found
sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid." This is to say,
"If so be we that have sought righteousness in Jesus Christ, if we have yet any
dealings with the law in point of righteousness, we are found sinners still;
and if a justified man be found a sinner, why then Jesus Christ, instead of
delivering us from the bondage of the law, is found a minister of sin."
3dly, His third argument is yet strongest of all, and some way the hardest,
(ver. 20), "For I through the law am dead unto the law, that I might live unto
God." As if he should have said, "For my part, all the use that I got of the
law, the more I was acquainted with it, it slew me the more, and I died the
more to it, that I might live to God; all that the law can do to me in point of
justification, is only to condemn me, and it can do no more." And whensoever
the law enters into a man's conscience it always doth this; "When the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died: the commandment slew me," (Rom.
7:9,11).
4thly, His next argument is taken from the nature of the new life
that he led, (ver. 20), "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Words of extraordinary form, but of more extraordinary matter: words that one
would think seem to be some way opposed to one another: but yet they set forth
gloriously that gracious life that through Christ Jesus is imparted to
justified believers. "Christ died for me, and I am crucified with Christ; and
yet I live, but it is Christ that lives in me, and Christ lives in me only by
faith." My text contains two arguments more, drawn from a common natural head
of arguing against error, by the absurdities that necessarily flow from it; and
they are two the greatest that can be, "Frustrating the grace of God," and
"making the death of Christ to be in vain." And greater sins are not to be
committed by men: the greater sin, the unpardonable sin, is expressed in words
very like to this, (Heb. 10:29): "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God; and
hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace?" And how near to one
another are frustrating the grace of God, and doing despite to the Spirit of
grace, and making Christ's death to be in vain, and counting the blood of the
covenant an unholy thing!
There are two words to be explained before we go
any further:
1st, What is the grace of God?
2dly, What is it to
frustrate the grace of God?
First, What is the grace of God? The grace of
God hath two common noted acceptations in the scripture.
1. It is taken and
used in the scripture for the doctrine of the grace of God, and so it is
frequently used; the gospel itself is called the grace of God, (Tit. 2:11):
"The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men:" that is,
the gospel; for it is the teaching grace of God that is there spoken of, called
by the apostle "the gospel of his grace." And this grace of God may be received
in vain. Many may have this grace of God and go to hell. Pray that ye receive
not the grace of God in vain.
2. By the grace of God in the word is
understood the blessing itself; and this is never frustrated: that grace that
called Paul, that grace that wrought mightily with him, that was not given him
in vain: "The grace that was bestowed was not in vain, for I laboured more
abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."
The gospel of the grace of God is frequently frustrated, but the grace itself
is never so.
Secondly, What is it to frustrate this grace of God? The word
that I remember in the original is used, (Mark 7:9): "Ye make void (or reject)
the commandments of God." It is the same word with that in my text: to
frustrate the grace of God, is to defeat it of its end, to miss the end of it.
Luke 7:30, it is said the Pharisees and Lawyers frustrated the grace of God
against themselves; or, as we read it there, "they rejected the counsel of God
against themselves." The true grace of God itself can never be frustrated; it
always reaches its end, for it is almighty: but the doctrine of the grace of
God is many times rejected; and the apostle here in the text speaks of it as a
sin that they are guilty of that speak of righteousness by the works of the
law.
There is one thing that I would observe in general from the scope of
the apostle, viz. that in the great matter of justification the apostle argues
from his own experience: the true way to get sound light in the main point of
the justification of a sinner before God, is to study it in thy own personal
concern; if it be bandied about by men as a notion only, as a point of truth,
discoursing wantonly about it, it is all one in God's sight whether men be
sound or unsound about it; they are unsound in heart how sound soever they are
in head about it. The great way to know the right mind of God about the
justification of a poor sinner, is for all to try it with respect to
themselves. Would the apostle say, "I know how I am justified, and all the
world shall never persuade me to join the righteousness of the law with the
righteousness of Christ."
There are four points of doctrine that I would
raise, and observe from the first part of these words:
1. That the grace of
God shines gloriously in the justifying of a sinner through the righteousness
of Christ.
2. It is a horrible sin to frustrate the grace of God.
3.
All that seek righteousness by the law do frustrate the grace of God in the
gospel.
4. That no sound believer can be guilty of this sin.
I would
speak to the first of these at this time: That the grace of God shines
gloriously in the justifying of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ alone.
When the apostle speaks of it, how frequently is this term "grace" added?
"Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus," (Rom. 3:24). "That being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life." There are four things to be explained
here, that will make our way plain to the proof of this point. What is
justification? Who is it that doth justify? Who are justified? And upon what
account?
1st, What is justification? We read much of it in our Bible, and
the doctrine of it is reckoned one of the fundamental points of the true
Christian religion, and so indeed it is. This grand doctrine, the fountain of
our peace, and comfort, and salvation, was woefully darkened in the Popish
kingdom; and the first light of the Reformation, that God was pleased to break
up in our forefathers' days, was mainly about this great doctrine.
Justification is not barely the pardon of sin; it is indeed always inseparable
from it; the pardon of sin is a fruit of it, or a part of it. Justification is
God's acquitting a man, and freeing him from all condemnation; it is God's
taking off the condemnation that the broken law of God lays upon every sinner.
"Who is he that shall condemn? It is God that justifies," (Rom. 8:33).
Justification and condemnation are opposites; every one is under condemnation
that is not justified, and every justified man is freed from condemnation.
Justification is not sanctification; it is an old Popish error, sown in the
hearts of a great many Protestants, to think that justification and
sanctification are the same. Justification and sanctification are as far
different as these two: There is a man condemned for high treason against the
king by the judge, and the same man is sick of a mortal disease; and if he dies
not by the hands of the hangman today, he may die of his disease to-morrow: it
is the work of the physician to cure the disease, but it is an act of mercy
from the king that must save him from the condemnation. Justification is the
acquitting and repealing the law-sentence of condemnation; sanctification is
the healing of the disease of sin, that will be our bane except Christ be our
physician. Justification and sanctification are always inseparable, but they
are wonderfully distinct. Justification is an act of God's free grace;
sanctification is a work of God's Spirit: sanctification is a work wrought
within us; justification is something done about us, and therefore
justification is everywhere spoken of in the word in the terms of a legal act.
2dly, Who is he that justifies? I answer, God only: "Who shall lay any
thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies," (Rom. 8:33). Who
shall condemn? He only can justify that gives the law: he only can justify that
condemns for sin: he only can justify that is wronged by sin, (Mark 2:7). The
Pharisees blasphemed, it was in their darkness; but yet the truth that they
spake was good, though the application of it was quite naught: "Why doth this
man speak blasphemies? who can forgive sin, but God only?" In the case of the
man sick of the palsy, whose sins Christ first forgave before he healed him of
the palsy so that the forgiveness of his sins was his justification, and the
healing of his disease was as if it were the type of his sanctification, their
application was wrong, in that they did not know that Christ was God, and that
he had power on earth to forgive sins: but the truth itself was sound "none can
forgive sins but God only." Justification is an act of the judge; it is only
the judge and lawgiver that can pronounce it: and "there is but one lawgiver,"
saith James, "that can both save and destroy," (chap. 4:12). None properly
offended by sin but God, and nothing violated by sin so immediately as the law
of God.
3dly, Who is justified? Every one is not justified. What sort of a
man is he that is justified? Justification is the acquitting of a man from all
condemnation, and it is God's doing alone; but what sort of a man is it that is
justified? Is it a holy man? A man newly come from heaven? Is it a new sort of
a creature, rarely made and framed? No: it is a sinner: it is an ungodly man:
"God justifies the ungodly." The man is not made godly before he is justified,
nor is he left ungodly after he is justified; he is not made godly a moment
before he is justified, but he is justified from his ungodliness by the
sentence of justification: when he is dead in sins and trespasses, quickening
comes, and life comes, (Eph. 2:1).
4thly, Upon what account is all this
done? And this is the hardest of all. You have heard that justification is the
freeing of a man from all charge, and that it is done by God alone, and given
to a man before he can do any thing of good for no man can do any thing that is
good till he be sanctified, and no man is sanctified till he is justified; but
the grand question is, "How can God justly do this?" saith the apostle, (Rom.
3:26). "That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in
Jesus." How can God be just, and yet justify an ungodly man? "To justify the
wicked, and to condemn the righteous, are both an abomination in the sight of
God," when practised by man, Prov. 17:15. How then can God justify the ungodly?
The grand account of this is, God justifies the ungodly for the sake of nothing
in himself, but solely upon the account of this righteousness of Christ, that
the apostle is here arguing upon: "Being justified freely by his grace, through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood," (Rom. 3:24, 25). When God justifies a
man, the righteousness of Christ is reckoned to him, and God deals with him as
a man in Christ; and therefore his transgressions are covered, and the man is
made the righteousness of God in Christ, because Christ is made of God unto him
righteousness, (1 Cor. 1:30), "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us righteousness." Where is the poor man's righteousness that is
justified? It is in Christ Jesus. For, (2 Cor. 5:21), "He hath made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him." And to be made the righteousness of God, is nothing else but to be made
righteous before God in and through Jesus Christ.
These things considered,
the proof of this point is very easy. That the grace of God shines gloriously
in the way of justifying a sinner by the righteousness of Jesus Christ: I shall
therefore add but a few things more in the proof of it.
First, In this way
all is of God, and nothing of the creature's procuring, and therefore it is of
grace. Grace always shines most brightly where man appears least; every thing
that tends to advance the power and efficacy of man's working, always hinders
the shining forth of the glory of the grace of God; but in this way of
justifying us through the righteousness of Christ, grace shines forth most
gloriously, because it is all of God: we do nothing in it. To instance in a few
things here,
1. The finding out of this righteousness by which we are
justified is of God alone. If the question had been put to all the angels in
heaven, and to many worlds of men, if this one question had been put, How can a
just and holy God justify a sinner? No created understanding could ever have
been able to find out how it could be done; it was the infinite wisdom of God
alone that found out this way. He will send his own Son to be a sinless man,
that shall sustain the persons, and bear the sins, and take away the sins of
all that shall be justified. The natural understanding of all mankind is this:
when we know any thing of God, we know that it stands with his nature to
condemn sin, and hate the sinner; but how it can stand with his justice to
acquit a sinner, it is God only that could find out that.
2. As the finding
out of the way of our justification is of God alone, so the working out of it
is Christ's alone. There was no creature of God's counsel in finding out the
way, so there was no creature Christ's helper in making the way. All the great
work of fulfilling the righteousness of the law was done by Christ alone; none
could offer to help in the great work of bearing the weight of his Father's
wrath, and bearing the burden of the justice of God, for the sins of his
church. Our Lord was the alone bearer of this; he alone brought in everlasting
righteousness, and "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," (Heb. 9:26).
3. The applying of this righteousness is only of God also. It is the work
of the Holy Spirit to bring it close unto the sinner by faith; and here we have
as little to do as in the former. There was none of God's everlasting counsel
in the finding out this way, nor had Christ any helper in the work of
redemption; and we help the Spirit of God as little in his work of applying
this: for till the grace of God prevails upon the heart, there is a constant
struggling against it. There are many poor sinners that have struggled with the
Spirit of God seeking to save them, more than many believers have ever strove
with Satan seeking to destroy them. All unbelievers are led more tamely to hell
by the devil, than believers are led quietly to heaven by the Spirit of God.
4. The securing all this by the everlasting covenant is of God only. We
seal God's covenant by our faith for the benefit of it; but it is Christ's
great seal that is its security, even the seal of his own blood: "This is my
blood of the new testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins,"
(Matt. 26:28). And so much for this first thing: The grace of God shines
gloriously in the way of justifying a sinner by the righteousness of Christ;
because it is altogether of God, the sinner hath no hand in it. Secondly, This
will further appear, if we consider what vile creatures the receivers of it
are; they have nothing to procure it, nothing to deserve it, but a great deal
to deserve the contrary, In that, Rom. 5, they have three names: Ver. 6, we are
called "ungodly," " In due time Christ died for the ungodly." Ver. 8, we are
called "sinners," ? "Whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Ver. 10,
we are called "enemies," ? " When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son." Here are three names: Ungodly! Sinners! Enemies! the
highest words whereby ill-deserving can be well expressed; and it is the usual
way of the Spirit of God to lay open the worst in a poor sinner, when God is
about to give the best; and all they that receive it receive this grace under
these names. "God be merciful to me a sinner," saith the poor publican; and
"this man," saith our Lord, "went down to his house justified," (Luke 18:13,
14). "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief,"
saith Paul, (1 Tim. 1:15).
And not only is it so that they are undeserving
and unworthy, but they are also very proud and vain, and have a great opinion
of themselves; and must it not be great grace then to justify such men? "Thou
sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," saith
our Lord to the church of Laodicea;" and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" even when Christ is courting
them to buy of him his gold and white garment, (Rev. 3:17, 18). Thirdly, The
grace of God in justifying a sinner through the righteousness of Christ appears
to be very glorious, even in the very naming of it: it is the grace of God; it
must be great grace, for it is the grace of God; it is the grace of a holy God;
it is the grace of a just God; it is the grace of a powerful God; it is the
grace of that God that can do every thing: every name that exalts the glory of
God, doth also raise the value of this grace: it is the grace of God towards
vile sinners, and that makes it great indeed.
Let us consider this grace of
God a little. This grace of God is dear to God, and therefore it is the more
grace. The grace of God in justifying us is dear to God; it cost the Father
dear to part with his own Son; it cost the Son dear to part with his own life
to bring in this righteousness; and, if I may so say, it cost the Holy Ghost
dear to work the faith of this righteousness in the heart of a poor sinner.
When we consider how all things else that God did were easily done but this.
When the world was to be made, no more is to be done but "Let it be;" but when
the world was to be redeemed, "Let it be" will not do; a body must be prepared
for the Son, and that body must be sacrificed for sin, and be slain, and
sustain the wrath of God, and the curse of the law; and all this to bring in an
everlasting righteousness.
Again, this grace that was so dear to God comes
to us good cheap, we give nothing for it: the Lord will take nothing for it, we
have nothing to give: the apostle doth not think it enough to say, "being
justified by his grace;" but he adds, "being justified FREELY by his grace,"
(Rom. 3:24), "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life FREELY ," (Rev.
22:17). Taking implies some freedom in it, but taking freely is a redoubling of
the expression. This grace of God that is so dear to God, comes good cheap to
us, it cost us nothing. Again, this grace of God is everlasting; it is the
eternal garment of all believers, even of them that are in heaven. Saith the
apostle, Rom. 5:21, "Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord." Observe, neither grace, nor righteousness, nor
eternal life, nor Jesus our Lord, cease in heaven; they are all there together;
Christ as the author of eternal life, and worker of righteousness; and the
believer as the possessor of eternal life, and the enjoyer of this life; and
grace as the high spring of all: grace is in heaven; the reign of grace is only
in heaven. That of Rev. 19:8. is by most understood to relate to the other
world; and it is said there, that "unto the Lamb's wife it was granted to be
arrayed in fine linen, clean and white;" and that fine linen is the
righteousness of Christ, in which the saints stand everlastingly accepted
before God. "Behold I and the children that thou hast given me!" saith our
Lord, (Heb. 2:13), and their glory in heaven is to behold the glory that he had
with the Father, as their head, before the world began, (John 17:24).
Again, it is grace, because it is very abundant: it is an usual thing in
the Old Testament to call great things by the name of God, as the trees of God,
the city of God, the river of God; now this grace of God is so called because
it is great, exceedingly abundant: saith the apostle Paul concerning it, "The
grace of our Lord Jesus was exceeding abundant towards me," (1 Tim. 1:14). Did
ever any of you know how many sins you had? Yet you must have a great deal more
grace, or you can never be saved; there must be more grace than sin, or you
cannot be saved, (Rom. 5:20): "The law entered that sin might abound; but where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound." I do not say, no man can be saved
unless he hath more inherent grace than he hath inherent corruption in him;
but, unless there be a greater abundance of the grace of God for covering of
sin, than there is of sin to be covered, no man can be saved: the apostle adds
a much more abundance to it. One would think there was enough of sin and guilt
in the disobedience of the first Adam; and so there was; but, saith the
apostle, the matter is far greater here: "And not as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift
is of many offences unto justification: for if by one man's offence death
reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the
gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Christ Jesus," (ver. 16, 17,
of that 5th chapter of the Romans).
There is abundance of grace, and of the
gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ, needful to save any sinner. When
the Lord makes this matter to balance in the eyes of his people, and there are
great discoveries made to them of the aggravations and of the multitude of
their sins; this is a common wicked thought arising in their awakened
consciences, Can God forgive? Can God pass by so many and so great
transgressions? It is a sinful thought; the plain meaning of it is, "Is there
more grace in God than there is sin and guilt with me?" We were all undone if
it was not so; if Christ's righteousness was not more able to justify than the
first Adam's sin was to condemn, no man could be saved. The grace of God shines
in this way of the justification of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ, in
that there is an abundance of it imparted to all them that partake of it.
APPLICATION. You have heard that the grace of God shines gloriously in the
justification of a sinner by the righteousness of Christ: in all your dealings,
then, with God, think much of grace: they that never had an errand to God for
the blessing of justification, they may possibly be saved; but they are not yet
in the way to salvation that were never yet concerned about this question, How
shall a man be acquitted before God? Or that never treated with God about
justification. In all your dealings with God still remember grace: when you
come for justification, plead for it as grace: when you receive it, receive it
as grace: and when you praise for it, praise for it as grace; and thus will you
behave as the people of God have done. When you plead for it, plead for it as
grace; bring nothing with you in your hand, offer nothing to God for your
justification; it is a free gift: if God be pleased to give it, in his great
bounty, you shall be saved. You have no reason to quarrel if God doth not give
it: you have no reason to fear but God will give it. Though you do not deserve
it, yet he hath promised it. As there is a fulness of righteousness in Christ
to procure grace, so there is a fulness of grace in the tender of the gospel;
and you are to believe that Christ is willing to make all this over to sinners.
When you receive justification, receive it as grace: sometimes we beg it as
an alms, and sometimes in the gospel the Lord offers it as a gift, and we are
to receive it as such. If the Lord tenders you the gift of righteousness
through Jesus Christ, do not say you cannot receive it; do not say you are not
meet for it. The question is, Are you in need of it? Are you not guilty? and is
not a pardon suitable for the guilty? Receive it as a grace. The true reason
why so many neglect right dealing with God for justification, and slight God's
dealing with them about receiving it, is because their hearts stand at a
distance from, and they have a sort of a quarrel with mere grace. As it is
certain that nothing but grace can save the sinner, so it is as certain there
is nothing more unpleasing to the sinner than grace; than that good, which when
received he must always own the bounty of the Giver, and never to eternity be
able to say, "My own hand hath made me rich:" Christ will bring none to heaven
that are in that mind. He that will not be rich in Christ, must be poor and
condemned still in the first Adam. "Know ye not," saith the apostle, "the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, yet he became poor, that we
through his poverty might be made rich," (2 Cor. 8:9). The riches of a believer
stands in the poverty of Christ; and every true believer counts Christ's
poverty his riches.
Do Not Frustrate the
Grace of God