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I. WHAT IT IS TO JUSTIFY A SINNER. Justification is a law term taken from courts of judicature, wherein a person is accused, tried, and, after trial, absolved. Thus it is opposed to accusation and condemnation (chap. Romans 8:33, 34; Deuteronomy 25:1). And so it is declared to be a sin to justify the wicked (Proverbs 17:15), not to make them righteous but to pronounce them righteous. Hence it follows that justification —

1. Is not a real but a relative change of the sinner's state.

2. Is an act done and passed in an instant in the court of heaven, as soon as the sinner believes in Christ, and not a work carried on by degrees.

II. THE PARTS OF JUSTIFICATION.

1. That we may the more clearly take up this matter, we must view the process of a sinner's justification.

(1) God Himself sits Judge in this process. He gave the law; and as He is the Lawgiver so He is the Judge. And He only can justify authoritatively and irreversibly. For —

(a)  He only is the Lawgiver, and He only has power to save or to destroy, and therefore the judgment must be left to Him (James 4:12).

(b)  Against Him the crime is committed, and He only can pardon it.

(2) The sinner is cited to answer before God's judgment seat by the messengers of God, the ministers of the gospel (Malachi 3:1). Every sermon is a summons put into the sinner's hand to answer for his sin. But, alas! sinners are so secure that they slight the summons and will not appear. Some keep themselves out of the messenger's way; some never read the summons; others tear it in pieces, or affront the messengers (Matthew 22:6). And so they act till Death bring them under his black rod before the tribunal in another world, where there is no access to justification.

(3) The Judge sends out other messengers who apprehend the sinner to carry him before the judgment seat. And these are, the spirit of bondage and an awakened conscience (John 16:8, 9; Proverbs 20:27; Jeremiah 2:27). They apprehended Paul, and left him not till he appeared and submitted himself. But some when caught are unruly prisoners, and strive against the Spirit and their own consciences (Acts 7:51); they go no farther with them than they are dragged. They get the mastery at length, and get away to their own ruin; like Cain, Saul, Felix, etc.

(4) When at length the prisoner, in chains of guilt, is brought to the bar (Acts 16:29, 30), what fear and sorrow seize him while he sees a just Judge on the throne, a strict law laid before him, and a guilty conscience within!

(5) Then the indictment is read, and the sinner is speechless (Romans 3:10-19). And sentence is demanded agreeable to the law (Galatians 3:10).

(6) Then the sinner must plead guilty or not. If he were innocent he might plead not guilty, and thereupon he would be justified. But this plea is not for us. For —

(a)  It is utterly false (Romans 3:10; Ecclesiastes 7:20; James 3:2).

(b)  Falsehood can never bear out before God's judgment seat. There is no want of evidence. Conscience is as a thousand witnesses, and the Judge is omniscient. The sinner then must needs plead guilty.

(7) The sinner being convicted is put to it to plead, why the sentence should not pass against him. Shall he plead mercy for mere mercy's sake? Justice interposes that the Judge of all the earth must do right. The truth of God interposes that the word already gone out must be accomplished — That without shedding of blood there is no remission. Whither shall the sinner turn now? Both saints and angels are helpless. So —

(8) The despised Mediator, the Advocate at this court, who takes the desperate causes of sinners in hand, offers Himself now, with His perfect righteousness, and all His salvation. The sinner by faith lays hold on Him, renounces all other claims, and betakes himself to His alone merits and suretyship. Now has the sinner a plea that will infallibly bring him off. He pleads, he is guilty indeed; yet he must not die, for Christ has died for him. The law's demands were just, but they are all answered already.

(9) Hereupon the judge sustaining the plea passes the sentence of justification on the sinner, according to the everlasting agreement (Isaiah 53:11), who is now set beyond the reach of condemnation (chap. Romans 8:1).

2. This great benefit consists of —

(1) The pardon of sin (Acts 13:38, 39). Here I shall show —

(a) What pardon is. It is not the taking away the nature of sin; God justifies the stoner, but will never justify his sin. Nor is it the removing of the intrinsic demerit of sin; it still deserves condemnation. Nor is it a simple delay of the punishment; a reprieve is no pardon. There are four things in sin: — Its power, which is broken in regeneration (Romans 6:14); its blot and stain, which is taken away in sanctification (1 Corinthians 6:11); its indwelling, which is removed in glorification (Hebrews 12:23); its guilt. Now pardon is the taking away of guilt, the dreadful obligation to punishment. Pardon cuts the knot whereby guilt ties sin and wrath together, cancels the bond obliging the sinner to pay his debt, and puts him out of the law's reach.

(b) Its properties — full (Micah 7:19; Colossians 2:13); free; irrevocable (Romans 11:29).

(c) Its names discovering its nature. It is a blotting out of sin (Isaiah 43:25), an allusion to a creditor who, when he discharges a debt, scores it out of his count book; a not imputing of sin (Psalm 32:2), a metaphor from merchants, who, when a rich friend undertakes for one of their poor debtors, charge their accounts no more upon him; a taking of the burden of sin from off the sinner (Psalm 32:1; Hosea 14:2); a washing of him (1 Corinthians 6:11; Psalm 51:2; Isaiah 1:18; 1 John 1:7); a dismissing or remission of sin (Matthew 6:12; Romans 3:25), as the scapegoat bore away the iniquities of the people; the dispelling of a thick cloud (Isaiah 44:22), which pardon, like the shining sun, breaks through and dissolves, or, like a mighty wind, scatters; a casting of sin behind the Lord's back.(Isaiah 38:17); a casting it into the depth of the sea (Micah 7:19); a covering of sin (Psalm 32:1); a not remembering of sin (Jeremiah 31:34).

(2) The acceptation of the person as righteous in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 5:2l; Romans 4:6; Romans 5:19). There is a two-fold acceptation which must be carefully distinguished. First, of a man's works as righteous (Galatians 3:12). Works in a full conformity to the law are thus accepted. But since God's judgment is according to truth, He cannot account things to be what really they are not; it is evident that even a believer's works are not righteous in the eye of the law. So that this acceptation has no place in our justification. Secondly, of a man's person as righteous (Ephesians 1:6). This may be done, and is done, to the believer. This is an unspeakable benefit; for thereby —

(a) The bar in the way of abounding mercy is taken away, so that the rivers of compassion may flow towards him (Romans 5:1, etc.; Job 33:24, etc.)(b) He is adjudged to eternal life (2 Thessalonians 1:6, 7; Acts 26:18).

(c) The accusations of Satan and the clamours of evil conscience are hereby to be stilled (Romans 8:33, 34).

(T. Boston, D. D.)

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KJV: Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

WEB: being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;