The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 414

JUSTIFICATION

374

And, since the Lord God is a Judge who trieth the reins and all our ways, in whom there can be no failure or mistake or ignorance, it is not thinkable, it is impossible, it is inconsistent with God's Being, that as the just Judge He ever could pronounce a judgment that is not perfectly in accordance with the conditions actually existing in man." Without the slightest hesitation we submit to this criticism. It The mistake whereby a boy can be registered as a is well taken. girl; the peasant's child for that of a nobleman; whereby a lawabiding citizen can be judged as a law-breaker, and vice versa, is out of the question with God. And, therefore, when He justifies the ungodly, as the earthly judge declares the dishonorable to be honorable, then these two acts, which are apparently similar, are utterly dissimilar and may not be interpreted in the same way. right.

who

is

acquainted with

And

yet the correctness of the objection does not in

validate the comparison. acts,

which are necessarily

itself in-

Scripture itself often compares men's sinful, to

the acts of God.

When

the

unjust judge, weary of the widow's tears and importunity, finally said, " I will

avenge

her, lest she

come

at last

and break

my head "

(Dutch Translation), the Lord Jesus does not for a moment hesitate it sprang from an unholy motive, to the Lord God, saying: " And shall not God avenge His own elect, who cry night and day unto Him?" For since all acts of men, even the It can not be otherwise. very best of the most holy among them, are always defiled with sin, either it would be impossible to compare any deed of man with the doings of God, or one must necessarily consider such deeds of men apart from the sinful motive, and apply to God only the third

to apply this action, tho

of the comparison.

And

as Jesus could not

mean

that at last

God must answer His

they come and break His head," but without speaking of the motive, simply pointed to the fact that the inopportune prayer is finally heard, so did we compare the wrong decision of the elect, " lest

judge, declaring the guilty innocent, to the infallible decision of

God, justifying the ungodly, since, in spite of the difference of mocoincides with a third of the comparison.

tive, it

Moreover,

human

mistakes are out of the question with reference

pardon and reinstatement. Hence this expression of royal sovereignty is indeed a direct type of the sovereignty of the Lord our God. to the granting of

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