THE apostle had been proving
that all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, were in their sins,
and refuting the doctrine so generally entertained by the
Jews, that they were a holy people and saved by their works.
He showed that justification can never be by works, but by
faith. He then anticipates an objection, like this, "Are we
to understand you as teaching that the law of God is abrogated
and set aside by this plan of justification?" "By no means,"
says the apostle, "we rather establish the law." In treating
of this subject, I design to pursue the following order:
I. Show that the gospel method
of justification does not set aside or repeal the law.
II. That it rather establishes
the law, by producing true obedience to it, and as the only
means that does this.
The greatest objection to the
doctrine of Justification by Faith has always been, that it
is inconsistent with good morals, conniving at sin, and opening
the flood-gates of iniquity. It has been said, that to maintain
that men are not to depend on their own good behavior for
salvation, but are to be saved by faith in another, is calculated
to make men regardless of good morals, and to encourage them
to live in sin, depending on Christ to justify them. By others,
it has been maintained that the gospel does in fact release
from obligation to obey the moral law, so that a more lax
morality is permitted under the gospel than was allowed under
the law.
I. I am to show that the gospel
method of justification does not set aside the moral law.
1. It cannot be that this method
of justification sets aside the moral law, because the gospel
everywhere enforces obedience to the law, and lays down the
same standard of holiness.
Jesus Christ adopted the very
words of the moral law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself."
2. The conditions of the gospel
are designed to sustain the moral law.
The gospel requires repentance,
as the condition of salvation. What is repentance? The renunciation
of sin. The man must repent of his breaches of the law of
God, and return to obedience to the law. This is tantamount
to a requirement of obedience.
3. The gospel maintains that
the law is right.
If it did not maintain the law
to its full extent, it might be said that Christ is the minister
of sin.
4. By the gospel plan, the sanctions
of the gospel are added to the sanctions of the law, to enforce
obedience to the law.
The apostle says, "He that despised
Moses' law, died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
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 unto the Spirit of
grace?" Thus adding the awful sanctions of the gospel to those
of the law, to enforce obedience to the precepts of the law.
II. I am to show that the doctrine
of justification by faith produces sanctification, by producing
the only true obedience to the law.
By this I mean, that when the
mind understands this plan, and exercises faith in it, it
naturally produces sanctification. Sanctification is holiness,
and holiness is nothing but obedience to the law, consisting
in love to God and love to man.
In support of the proposition
that justification by faith produces true obedience to the
law of God, my first position is, that sanctification never
can be produced among selfish or wicked beings, by the law
itself, separate from the considerations of the gospel, or
the motives connected with justification by faith.
The motives of the law did not
restrain those beings from committing sin, and it is absurd
to suppose the same motives can reclaim them from sin, when
they have fallen under the power of selfishness, and when
sin is confirmed by habit. The motives of the law lose a great
part of their influence, when a being is once fallen. They
even exert an opposite influence. The motives of the law,
as viewed by a selfish mind, have a tendency to cause sin
to abound. This is the experience of every sinner. When he
sees the spirituality of the law, and does not see the motives
of the gospel, it raises the pride of his heart, and confirms
him in his rebellion. The case of the devil is an exhibition
of what the law can do, with all its principles and sanctions,
upon a wicked heart. He understands the law, sees its reasonableness,
has experienced the blessedness of obedience, and knows full
well that to return to obedience would restore his peace of
mind. This he knows better than any sinner of our race, who
never was holy, can know it, and yet it presents to his mind
no such motives as reclaim him, but on the contrary, drive
him to a returnless distance from obedience.
When obedience to the law is
held forth to the sinner as the condition of life, immediately
it sets him upon making self-righteous efforts. In almost
every instance, the first effort of the awakened sinner is
to obey the law. He thinks he must first make himself better,
in some way, before he may embrace the gospel. He has no idea
of the simplicity of the gospel plan of salvation by faith,
offering eternal life as a mere gratuitous gift. Alarm the
sinner with the penalty of the law, and he naturally, and
by the very laws of his mind, sets himself to do better, to
amend his life, and in some self-righteous manner obtain eternal
life, under the influence of slavish fear. And the more the
law presses him, the greater are his pharisaical efforts,
while hope is left to him, that if he obeys he may be accepted.
What else could you expect of him? He is purely selfish, and
though he ought to submit at once to God, yet, as he does
not understand the gospel terms of salvation, and his mind
is of course first turned to the object of getting away from
the danger of the penalty, he tries to get up to heaven some
other way. I do not believe there is an instance in history,
of a man who has submitted to God, until he has seen that
salvation must be by faith, and that his own self-righteous
strivings have no tendency to save him.
Again; if you undertake to produce
holiness by legal motives, the very fear of failure has the
effect to divert attention from the objects of love, from
God and Christ. The sinner is all the while compassing Mount
Sinai, and taking heed to his footsteps, to see how near he
comes to obedience; and how can he get into the spirit of
heaven?
Again; the penalty of the law
has no tendency to produce love in the first instance. It
may increase love in those who already have it, when they
contemplate it as an exhibition of God's infinite holiness.
The angels in heaven, and good men on earth, contemplate its
propriety and fitness, and see in it the expression of the
good will of God to his creatures, and it appears amiable
and lovely, and increases their delight in God and their confidence
towards him. But it is right the reverse with the selfish
man. He sees the penalty hanging over his own head, and no
way of escape, and it is not in mind to become enamored with
the Being that holds the thunderbolt over his devoted head.
From the nature of mind, he will flee from him, not to him.
It seems never to have been dreamed of, by the inspired writers,
that the law could sanctify men. The law is given rather to
slay than to make alive, to cut off men's self-righteous hopes
for ever, and compel them to flee to Christ.
Again; Sinners, under the naked
law, and irrespective of the gospel--I say, sinners, naturally
and necessarily, and of right, under such circumstances, view
God as an irreconcilable enemy. They are wholly selfish; and
apart from the considerations of the gospel, they view God
just as the devil views him. No motive in the law can be exhibited
to a selfish mind that will beget love. Can the influence
of penalty do it?
A strange plan of reformation
this, to send men to hell to reform them! Let him go on in
sin and rebellion to the end of life, and then be punished
till he becomes holy. I wonder the devil has not become holy!
He has suffered long enough, he has been in hell these thousands
of years, and he is no better than he was. The reason is,
there is no gospel there, and no Holy Spirit there to apply
the truth, and the penalty only confirms his rebellion.
Again: The doctrine of justification
by faith can relieve these difficulties. It can produce and
it has produced real obedience to the precept of the law.
Justification by faith does not set aside the law as a rule
of duty, but only sets aside the penalty of the law. And the
preaching of justification as a mere gratuity, bestowed on
the simple act of faith, is the only way in which obedience
to the law is ever brought about. This I shall now show from
the following considerations:
1. It relieves the mind from
the pressure of those considerations that naturally tend to
confirm selfishness.
While the mind is looking only
at the law, it only feels the influence of hope and fear,
perpetuating purely selfish efforts. But justification by
faith annihilates this spirit of bondage. The apostle says,
"We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear."
This plan of salvation begets love and gratitude to God, and
leads the soul to taste the sweets of holiness.
2. It relieves the mind also
from the necessity of making its own salvation its supreme
object.
The believer in the gospel plan
of salvation finds salvation, full and complete, including
both sanctification and eternal life, already prepared; and
instead of being driven to the life of a Pharisee in religion,
of laborious and exhausting effort, he receives it as a free
gift, a mere gratuity, and is now left free to exercise disinterested
benevolence, and to live and labor for the salvation of others,
leaving his own soul unreservedly to Christ.
3. The fact that God has provided
and given him salvation as a gratuity, is calculated to awaken
in the believer a concern for others, when he sees them dying
for the want of this salvation, that they may be brought to
the knowledge of the truth and be saved. How far from every
selfish motive are those influences. It exhibits God, not
as the law exhibits him, as an irreconcilable enemy, but as
a grieved and offended father, willing to be reconciled, nay,
very desirous that his subjects should become reconciled to
him and live. This is calculated to beget love. It exhibits
God as making the greatest sacrifice to reconcile sinners
to himself; and from no other motive than a pure and disinterested
regard to their happiness. Try this in your own family. The
law represents God as armed with wrath, and determined to
punish the sinner, without hope or help. The gospel represents
him as offended, indeed, but yet so anxious they should return
to him, that he has made the greatest conceivable sacrifices,
out of pure disinterested love to his wandering children.
I once heard a father say, that
he had tried in his family to imitate the government of God,
and when his child did wrong he reasoned with him and showed
him his faults; and when he was fully convinced and confounded
and condemned, so that he had not a word to say, then the
father asked him, Do you deserve to be punished? "Yes, sir."
I know it, and now if I were to let you go, what influence
would it have over the other children? Rather than do that,
I will take the punishment myself. So he laid the ferule on
himself, and it had the most astonishing effect on the mind
of the child. He had never tried any thing so perfectly subduing
to the mind as this. And from the laws of mind, it must be
so. It affects the mind in a manner entirely different from
the naked law.
4. It brings the mind under an
entire new set of influences, and leaves it free to weigh
the reasons for holiness, and decide accordingly.
Under the law, none but motives
of hope and fear can operate on the sinner's mind. But under
the gospel, the influence of hope and fear are set aside,
and a new set of considerations presented, with a view of
God's entire character, in all the attractions he can command.
It gives the most heart-breaking sin-subduing views of God.
It presents him to the senses in human nature. It exhibits
his disinterestedness. The way Satan prevailed against our
first parents was by leading them to doubt God's disinterestedness.
The gospel demonstrates the truth, and corrects this lie.
The law represents God as the inexorable enemy of the sinner
as securing happiness to all who perfectly obey, but thundering
down wrath on all who disobey. The gospel reveals new features
in God's character, not known before. Doubtless the gospel
increases the love of all holy beings, and gives greater joy
to the angels in heaven, greatly increasing their love and
confidence and admiration, when they see God's amazing pity
and forbearance towards the guilty. The law drove the devils
to hell, and it drove Adam and Eve from Paradise. But when
the blessed spirits see the same holy God waiting on rebels,
nay, opening his own bosom and giving his beloved Son for
them, and taking such unwearied pains for thousands of years
to save sinners, do you think it has no influence in strengthening
the motives in their minds to obedience and love?
The devil, who is a purely selfish
being, is always accusing others of being selfish. He accused
Job of this, "Doth Job fear God for naught?" He accused God
to our first parents, of being selfish, and that the only
reason for his forbidding them to eat of the tree of knowledge
was the fear that they might come to know as much as himself.
The gospel shows what God is. If he was selfish, he would
not take such pains to save those whom he might with perfect
ease crush to hell. Nothing is so calculated to make selfish
persons ashamed of their selfishness, as to see disinterested
benevolence in others. Hence the wicked are always trying
to appear disinterested. Let the selfish individual, who has
any heart, see true benevolence in others, and it is like
coals of fire on his head. The wise man understood this, when
he said, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he is thirsty,
give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire
on his head." Nothing is so calculated to cut down an enemy,
and win him over, and make him a friend.
This is what the gospel does
to sinners. It shows them, that notwithstanding all that they
have done to God, God still exercises towards them disinterested
love. When he sees God stooping from heaven to save him, and
understands that it is indeed TRUE, O, how it melts and breaks
down the heart, strikes a death blow to selfishness, and wins
him over to unbounded confidence and holy love. God has so
constituted the mind that it must necessarily do homage to
virtue. It must do this, as long as it retains the powers
of moral agency. This is as true in hell as in heaven. The
devil feels this. When an individual sees that God has no
interested motives to condemn him, when he sees that God offers
salvation as a mere gratuity, through faith, he cannot but
feel admiration of God's benevolence. His selfishness is crushed,
the law has done its work, he sees that all his selfish endeavors
have done no good; and the next step is for his heart to go
out in disinterested love.
Suppose a man was under sentence
of death for rebellion, and had tried many expedients to recommend
himself to the government, but failed, because they were all
hollow-hearted and selfish. He sees that the government understands
his motives, and that he is not really reconciled. He knows
himself that they were all hypocritical and selfish, moved
by the hope of favor or the fear of wrath, and that the government
is more and more incensed at his hypocrisy. Just now let a
paper be brought to him from the government, offering him
a free pardon on the simple condition that he would receive
it as a mere gratuity, making no account of his own works--what
influence will it have on his mind? The moment he finds the
penalty set aside, and that he has no need to go to work by
any self-righteous efforts, his mind is filled with admiration.
Now, let it appear that the government has made the greatest
sacrifices to procure this; his selfishness is slain, and
he melts down like a child at his sovereign's feet, ready
to obey the law because he loves his sovereign.
5. All true obedience turns on
faith. It secures all the requisite influences to produce
sanctification. It gives the doctrines of eternity access
to the mind and a hold on the heart. In this world the motives
of time are addressed to the senses. The motives that influence
the spirits of the just in heaven do not reach us through
the senses. But when faith is exercised, the wall is broken
down, and the vast realities of eternity act on the mind here
with the same kind of influence that they have in eternity.
Mind is mind, every where. And were it not for the darkness
of unbelief, men would live here just as they do in the eternal
world. Sinners here would rage and blaspheme, just as they
do in hell; and saints would love and obey and praise, just
as they do in heaven. Now, faith makes all these things realities,
it swings the mind loose from the clogs of the world, and
he beholds God, and apprehends his law and his love. In no
other way can these motives take hold on the mind. What a
mighty action must it have on the mind, when it takes hold
of the love of Christ! What a life-giving power, when the
pure motives of the gospel crowd into the mind and stir it
up with energy divine! Every Christian knows, that in proportion
to the strength of his faith, his mind is buoyant and active,
and when his faith flags, his soul is dark and listless. It
is faith alone that places the things of time and eternity
in their true comparison, and sets down the things of time
and sense at their real value. It breaks up the delusions
of the mind, the soul shakes itself from its errors and clogs,
and it rises up in communion with God.
REMARKS.
I. It is as unphilosophical as
it is unscriptural to attempt to convert and sanctify the
minds of sinners without the motives of the gospel.
You may press the sinner with
the law, and make him see his own character, the greatness
and justice of God, and his ruined condition. But hide the
motives of the gospel from his mind, and it is all in vain.
II. It is absurd to think that
the offers of the gospel are calculated to beget a selfish
hope.
Some are afraid to throw out
upon the sinner's mind all the character of God; and they
try to make him submit to God, by casting him down in despair.
This is not only against the gospel, but it is absurd in itself.
It is absurd to think that, in order to destroy the selfishness
of a sinner, you must hide from him the knowledge of how much
God loves and pities him, and how great sacrifices he has
made to save him.
III. So far is it from being
true, that sinners are in danger of getting false hopes if
they are allowed to know the real compassion of God, while
you hide this, it is impossible to give him any other than
a false hope. Withholding from the sinner who is writhing
under conviction, the fact that God has provided salvation
as a mere gratuity, is the very way to confirm his selfishness;
and if he gets any hope, it must be a false one. To press
him to submission by the law alone, is to set him to build
a self-righteous foundation.
IV. So far as we can see, salvation
by grace, not bestowed in any degree for our own works, is
the only possible way of reclaiming selfish beings.
Suppose salvation was not altogether
gratuitous, but that some degree of good works was taken into
the account, and for those good works in part we were justified--just
so far as this consideration is in the mind, just so far there
is a stimulus to selfishness. You must bring the sinner to
see that he is entirely dependent on free grace, and that
a full and complete justification is bestowed, on the first
act of faith, as a mere gratuity, and no part of it as an
equivalent for any thing he is to do. This alone dissolves
the influence of selfishness, and secures holy action.
V. If all this is true, sinners
should be put in the fullest possible possession, and in the
speediest manner, of the whole plan of salvation.
They should be made to see the
law, and their own guilt, and that they have no way to save
themselves; and then, the more fully the whole length and
breadth and height and depth of the love of God should be
opened, the more effectually will you crush his selfishness,
and subdue his soul in love to God. Do not be afraid, in conversing
with sinners, to show the whole plan of salvation, and give
the fullest possible exhibition of the infinite compassion
of God. Show him that, notwithstanding his guilt, the Son
of God is knocking at the door and beseeching him to be reconciled
to God.
VI. You see why so many convicted
sinners continue so long compassing Mount Sinai, with self-righteous
efforts to save themselves by their own works.
How often you find sinners trying
to get more feeling, or waiting till they have made more prayers
and made greater efforts, and expecting to recommend themselves
to God in this way. Why is all this? The sinner needs to be
driven off from this, and made to see that he is all the while
looking for salvation under the law. He must be made to see
that all this is superseded by the gospel offering him all
he wants as a mere gratuity. He must hear Jesus, saying, "Ye
will not come unto me that ye may have life: O, no, you are
willing to pray, and go to meeting, and read the Bible, or
any thing, but come unto me. Sinner, this is the road; I am
the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the
Father but by me. I am the resurrection and the life. I am
the light of the world. Here, sinner, is what you want. Instead
of trying your self-righteous prayers and efforts, here is
what you are looking for, only believe and you shall be saved."
VII. You see why so many professors
of religion are always in the dark.
They are looking at their sins,
confining their observations to themselves, and losing sight
of the fact, that they have only to take right hold of Jesus
Christ and throw themselves upon him, and all is well.
VIII. The law is useful to convict
men; but, as a matter of fact, it never breaks the heart.
The gospel alone does that. The degree in which a convert
is broken hearted, is in proportion to the degree of clearness
with which he apprehends the gospel.
IX. Converts, if you call them
so, who entertain a hope under legal preaching, may have an
intellectual approbation of the law, and a sort of dry zeal,
but never make mellow, broken hearted Christians. If they
have not seen God in the attitude in which he is exhibited
in the gospel, they are not such Christians as you will see
sometimes, with the tear trembling in their eye, and their
frames shaking with emotion, at the name of Jesus.
X. You see what needs to be done
with sinners who are under conviction, and what with those
professors who are in darkness. They must be led right to
Christ, and made to take hold of the plan of salvation by
faith. It is in vain to expect to do them good in any other
way.
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