The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 410

JUSTIFICATION

370 himself limited to the

moment

of his conversion, but feels that this

blessedness flows to him from the eternal depths of the hidden

life

of God. It

should therefore openly be confessed, and without any abbre-

viation, that justification does not occur

when we become conscious

on the contrary, our justification was decided from eternity in the holy judgment-seat of our God. There is undoubtedly a moment in our life when for the first time justification is published to our consciousness; but let us be careful to distinguish justification itself from its publication. Our Christian name was selected for and applied to us long before we, of

it,

but

that,

with clear consciousness, knew

it as our name; and altho there which it became a living reality to us and was called out for the first time in the ear of our consciousness, yet no man will be so foolish as to imagine that it was then that he actually received that name. And so it is here. There is a certain moment wherein that justification becomes to our consciousness a living fact but in order It does not to become a living fact, it must have existed before. spring />c;« our consciousness, but it is mirrored in it, and hence must have being and stature in itself. Even an elect infant which dies in the cradle is declared just, tho the knowledge or consciousness of its justification never penetrated its soul. And elect persons, converted, like the thief on the cross, with their last breath, can scarcely be sensible of their justification, and yet enter eternal Taking an life exclusively on the ground of their justification. analogy from daily life, a man condemned during his absence in foreign lands was granted pardon through the intercession of his Does this pardon take friends, wholly without his knowledge. effect when long afterward the good news reaches him, or when the king signs his pardon? Of course the latter. Even so does the justification of God's children take effect, not on the day when for the first time it i^ published to their consciousness, but at the moment that God in His holy judgment-seat declares them just.

was a moment

in

;

—

—

But and this should not be overlooked this publishing in the consciousness of the person himself must necessarily /ollo7v j and this brings us back again to the special work of the Holy Spirit. For

if

in

God's judiciary

justifies the

it is

more

particularly the Father

who

ungodly, and in the preparing of salvation more par-

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