The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 412

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XXXIII. Certainty of

Our ••

The that

Justification. Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom. iii. 24.

foregoing illustrations shed unexpected light upon the fact

God

justifies the ungodly,

and not him who

himself; and upon the word of Christ:

"Now

is

actually just in

are ye clean through

have spoken unto you." They illustrate the sigGod does not determine our status according to what we are, but by the status to which He assigns us He determines what we shall be. The Reformed Confession, which in all things starts from the workings of God and not of man, became again clear, eloquent, and transparent. So the divine Word, ordinarily lowered to a mere announcement of what God finds in us, becomes once more Xh&Jiat of His creative power. He found an ungodly man and said, " Be righteous," and behold he became the word which

I

nificant fact that

righteous.

" I

said to thee in thy blood, Live."

In this way the various parts of the redemptive work are arranged chronologically each in its own place. So long as the false and narrow idea prevailed that a man was justified after conversion on the ground of his apparent holiness, justification could not precede sanctification, but must follow it. Then man becomes first holy, and, as a reward or as a recognition of his holiness, he is declared righteous. first,

and

value, for

The

Hence

sanctification is

justification second ; a justification, therefore, without

what

is

the use of declaring that a ball

is

any

round?

Scripture refuses to acknowledge a posterior justification.

All other is always the starting-point. and follow it. " Christ was made unto us wisdom and righteousness," and only then " sanctification and redemption." " ThQTGiore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also have access." In Scripture, justification

things spring from

it

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