(Continued from page 244.)
3. JUSTIFICATION IS WITHOUT THE LAW AND ITS WORKS.
It is evident from what we have considered that the full blessing of justification is derived from being in Christ. Now Gal. 5:4 gives us an important principle:"Ye are deprived of profit from Christ, ye who are justified by law." Furthermore, as righteousness and justification are linked together, it follows that if we were to be justified by law we must have a righteousness according to the law; which, as the apostle points out, would be that, " If righteousness be through the law, then Christ hath died in vain" (Gal. 2:21). Such a consequence strikingly shows that law and its works have no connection with our justification in Christ. Quotations are from J. N. D, 's translation.
Let us, then, seek to apprehend what place the law properly occupies.
Rom. 3:20. " Wherefore by works of law no flesh shall be justified before Him; for by law is knowledge of sin." Man being a sinner, as before proved (vers. 9-19), all the works of law he could do would not change his character. In putting forth efforts to obey the law he acquires the knowledge of what he is in himself. The very efforts to keep the law show to the sincere soul that sin is in his very nature. The efforts themselves are good and acceptable in God's sight, but they cannot avail to justify, as the law demands a complete obedience, and by reason of failure in this he finds out the sinful nature that is in him. With all the good that he might possibly do, no justification can be gained, for there ever remains something against him, and justification means that nothing can be found against the person.
The conclusion from this, and the succeeding verses which we considered in our first study is, " We reckon that a man is justified by faith, without (or apart from) works of law." And that in a two-fold way:1st, they cannot of themselves avail to justify; and, they cannot be a meritorious cause added to faith for justification. This is evident, says the apostle, for "the just shall live by faith" (Gal. 3:n).
The important truth that justification is linked with a new, a divine, life received by the believer, is here confirmed; and this life we have "in Christ" through an accomplished righteousness (Rom. 5:17, 18). The three are unseparably linked together. The law could not give life, it only condemned; it was therefore a "ministration of death." Hence righteousness could not be by the law, nor justification therefore (Gal. 3:21, 22).
Read Gal. 2:16, 17 as confirming the absence of all connection between justification and law and its works.
In Ps. 143:2 we read, " For in thy sight shall no man living be justified." This points to the truth that apart from death in some way coming in, justification is impossible for the responsible creature. Living men, believers, are justified, but it is as having "life in Christ." For such death has come in; they have died with Christ, and with Him are risen in a new life. In the psalm, man is viewed in his natural life, and God cannot justify such; death is their portion. Therefore the Psalmist pleads,'' Enter not into judgment with Thy servant. "
But the Christian is no longer in this perilous position, for, as we have said, we are looked at as having died out of that position in which we are by nature, and to which justification cannot attach; the Christian has life "in Christ" to which righteousness and justification do fully attach. The law's sentence, death, having been executed upon Christ, our Substitute, we are justified as being in Him, and the law, then, has nothing to say to us. It can only deal with man in the flesh; but we have died at the cross with Christ, and are risen with Him out of the law's dominion.
Acts 13:39; Rom. 4:2, 5 still further confirm that law and works have no connection with justification before God. There is a justification by works which James teaches. Not works of law however. But this we hope to consider separately. They are works which proceed from faith, the very opposite of proceeding from law.
Now the fact that there is no justification by law or works of law, and therefore no blessing for man on the principle of law, involves three questions which we will briefly consider.
I. Is the law made of no effect? (Rom. 3:31.) The apostle answers, "No; we establish the law." How is it established by the fact that we are justified by faith ? It has been established, or made to stand, in the place that really belongs to it; and this is very far from its being made void. And what is that place ? In believing we condemn ourselves; we accept God's testimony against us, and we take Christ as Saviour. But in doing this, the law's sentence of death and judgment is owned as righteous in every way. To this end God gave the law, that man might hear its speech of condemnation, not merely of the Jew who was under it, but of the whole world. And those who through faith are justified, not only hear but bow to its speech; in this we show that the law stands; that it is not overthrown. It produces thus a very important effect in the economy of God's dealings.
2. Why did the law come in ? (Gal. 3:19.) The answer to this we have already partly anticipated. The apostle answers, "It was added for the sake of transgressions." Man indeed was a sinner before the law came; death, the flood also, prove it; but the law came in to show man his sins, to show them as transgressions of God's holy requirements; to show that man's sins did not simply affect himself and his fellows as to the affairs of this life, but that they were transgressions against God Himself, bringing divine condemnation upon him. Thus it was a "ministration of death" to man-bringing sentence of death upon the sinner.
3. " Is then the law against the promises of God?" (Gal. 3:21.) This question naturally arises in connection with what the apostle had just shown, that the inheritance is according to promise, and therefore to those who, like Abraham, have faith in God's word. This promise was entirely apart from law, for by works of law the inheritance cannot be secured. The inheritance is by promise of God- not by the fulfilment of legal obligations. Is the law then against these promises ? No, says the apostle. For if the promises were through law, then it must be a law able to give life, able to provide righteousness. But all are shut up under sin, without a shred of righteousness, under sentence of death and judgment; judicially dead! The law was not given to meet this terrible condition, but to prove its existence. Thus by the law the whole world is brought down to a common level, that the blessing might be given to those who believe. The law has acted the part of a tutor, teaching and proving that only through Christ, the Seed, and faith in Him, the blessing could come in. It is not against the promises, but rather points to them, to Christ as the only way of obtaining them. J. Bloore
(To be continued.)