Iv.] : JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS. 231 certain Jews who had embraced the Gospel as a convenient system to be added to their own, and they insisted that circumcision and other works of the law were absolutely necessary to their justification these were the Judaizing Christians which caused so much trouble in the infancy of the Church. In order to establish their own authority, they had attempted to undermine that of Paul, insinuating that he was no real apostle, that he had never been with Christ, and could therefore only know His religion through means of others, having learnt it perhaps of some who but imperfectly understood it. It was to rebut this charge and to correct the error, that Paul wrote this Epistle he begins by showing that his commission was directly from Heaven, that he conferred not with man, but received all he had taught them by immediate revelation, and then he enters upon the main question. Justification by works is opposed to the whole system of the Gospel, and it is not less a stumbling-block to the unbelievers of this than it was to the Jews of St. Paul's day. The law of righteousness men will not seek by faith, but as it were by the deeds of the law. If a man be required to perform a certain duty, especially if it have the air of a religious exercise, and he be promised, in return, a meritorious reward; provided he can be persuaded that such reward awaits him, he may perhaps set about 232 THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION [LECT. the task, and in this way delight to seek his justification; but this the Scripture calls carnal, for the obvious reason that the heart and affections are untouched by it—the Divine operation, which is necessary to change the inner man, and is the very essence of a spiritual religion, is entirely omitted. A religion of this kind is very easily established, because it disturbs not the consciences of men, while it puts salvation into their own power; and if even the tasks allotted to them were painful, or the exercise were tedious, they would not shrink from doing it, and would hence derive their self-complacency and fallacious peace. But this is superstition, not the religion of the Gospel. There is no extent to which such a system as this may not be carried, and the more the ignorance and the vice of man prevail, the more readily are materials furnished for the practice and the preservation of their self-delusion. This, brethren, is the doctrine of justification by works, to which the Gospel is so opposed, and it will not in the least improve it, if a little portion of faith be added the system will still be erroneous. This was the Galatian heresy; for you cannot but observe that it makes no matter what the works are, if they be put forward as a ground of justification, the danger and the error are the St. Paul argues the case thus: "I testify to every man that is circumcised (who expects, same. IV.] NOT OF WORKS. 233 by his conformity to these rites, to be justified), that he is a debtor to do the whole law :" that is, if a man will take the law for his justification, he must abide by the issue, but let him observe this, if he does not keep the whole of it, but only offends in one point, he is guilty of all, and consequently comes under condemnation; whereas "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," so that the apostle called this law a yoke of bondage with which those Galatians had again entangled themselves. In this erroneous view of a title to God's favour, the doctrine of free grace cannot penetrate: Christ becomes of no effect, if we think to justify ourselves, or even partly to justify ourselves, we are certainly fallen from grace. That which is an act of free mercy, cannot at the same time be a reward of merit. The Gospel admits of no compromise, brethren, in this leading feature ; either Christ is a Saviour, completely so, or else he is of none effect: once let a man be persuaded that any work, however good, avails to his justification, and then, to say nothing of the pride which necessarily results from such a thought, it must diminish so much from the sovereignty of grace, and the value of that redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Suppose I were persuaded to go on a long pilgrim age, and gave all my goods to feed the poor, with the view of saving my soul, how could I be per 234 FAITH ALONE JUSTIFIES. [LECT. suaded at the same time that Christ was the only Saviour, and that through His blood alone was remission of sins? If we be to be our own saviours, which we should be if works availed for justification, then verily, as St. Paul saith, Christ is dead in vain. You will say then, wherein do good works stand? or in what place cometh the moral law? The law is fulfilled in one word, saith the same apostle, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." "This, then, I say," continues he, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh; if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." By all which expressions we are to understand, that in order to be in a condition to do good works, we must first be justified by faith alone; out of which faith, the good works are to spring: and what is this but to contend for purity of principle, the only safeguard of moral conduct? And this will be the difference-the works of the Spirit, which are really good works, will spring up in rich abundance, as the water bubbles in continued supplies from the copious spring,-not works to be offered unto God as a matter of merit, much less of justification, for this would necessarily create pride in the heart; but as an offering to God, acceptable only through Christ-as the very production of that grace or well-spring of life which He hath given. This process you know, is fre Iv.] GOOD WORKS FOLLOW FAITH. 235 quently illustrated in the Scriptures, by the tree and its fruit, whereby it is declared, that the tree being good, necessarily produces good fruit ; but the fruit maketh not the tree. I confess, it has often surprised me, in the course of my limited experience, to find men of strong minds and pious dispositions, contending against this wholesome and scriptural doctrine1; as if it were possible to "gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles:" as if men did not work better from disinterested than from selfish motives: in short, as if it were not God's truth, that fallen man must first be reinstated, and put into the path of righteousness, before he can be expected to walk in it. The Galatians, then, were tainted with this fatal error, and this it is which has been in all ages, in some shape or other, so hurtful to the truth of the Gospel. It was evident in the circumcision of those Jews of Galatia: it was the substance of the "vain talk" of the Pelagians it was shown in those ages of monkish 1 "It is a childish cavil," says Hooker, in his discourse of justification, &c. "wherewith, in the matter of justification, our adversaries do so greatly please themselves, exclaiming, that we tread all Christian virtues under our feet, and require nothing in Christians but faith, because we teach that faith alone justifieth." The restoration of this Scripture doctrine, was the grand theological feature of the Reformation, and is still the secret spring of all genuine piety, and Christian practice. |