The Two Pillars Of Salvation

The Two Pillars Of Salvation

(No. 2357)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, APRIL 22, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 19, 1888.

"We believe on Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead; who
was delivered for our offenses, and was raised, again, for our
justification." Romans 4:24,25.

FAITH–true, saving faith–is in all ages the same. It may exercise
itself upon different things, but the faith of Abraham is the same
faith as that which was in the heart of Paul–and the faith of Paul was
precisely the same faith as that which is in the heart of every
Believer at the present moment! We have "like precious faith" with the
godly of all the ages. It is always the same faith as it is always the
same God and the same Savior.

Paul shows us, in this chapter, that there is a remarkable likeness
between the faith of the Believer, now, and the faith of Abraham.
Abraham's faith went this length–he believed in God as able, even, to
quicken the dead, and that is precisely what we believe! He believed
that he, himself, when he was more than a hundred years old, with his
wife equally advanced in age, could be so quickened by the power of God
that they should be the parents of a seed which God had promised and,
although Sarah once laughed, and I should imagine that Abraham,
sometimes, had his fainting fits, yet they persevered in the solemn
conviction that it should be even as the Lord had promised. And the day
came when Sarah laughed in another sense, for a child was born to her,
whose name was called, "Isaac," that is, "Laughter," because of the joy
with which he filled his parents' hearts and home! Thus, you see,
Abraham believed that God could quicken the dead–he, himself, and his
wife, being as though they were dead as to all possibility, in the
ordinary course of nature– an heir should be born to them.

Further on in the Patriarch's history, God tried his faith again. He
bade him go and take his son, his only son, whom he loved, and offer
him up as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. Abraham only wished to know what
God commanded and he was prompt in obeying. It was not for him to
reason why, or make reply–it was for him to obey–so he went his three
days' journey, his much-loved son bearing the wood for the sacrifice.
They went to the top of the mountain and Abraham drew his knife to slay
his son. His hand was divinely stopped in due time and a ram was
offered in the place of Isaac. One reason why Abraham was able to give
this crowning proof of obedience was that he was sure that God would
keep His promise and that, even if his son must die, God would raise
him from the dead! This seems to have been the point to which his faith
always came–that God could raise the dead, that He could work what men
call impossibili-ties–that what was not within the range of human
nature was quite easy to that eternal arm to whose power there is no
limit!

Now, Beloved, this is one of the articles of our Christian faith–to
believe that God can raise the dead. You and I believe, if we are true
Believers, that God brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that
Great Shepherd of the sheep. We believe that Jesus assuredly died and
that He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, but that on the
third day He rose, again, and left the tomb, no more to die. This we
most firmly believe to be a matter offact–not a fiction, or a piece of
poetry–but a matter offact, like any other reliable history, and we
accept it without question. We also believe that we, too, though we may
die, shall live again and that, although worms may devour this body,
yet in our flesh we shall see God! At the sound of the archangel's
trumpet, the dead in Christ shall rise and all the dead from land or
sea shall gather before the Great White Throne. However scattered the
particles of their bodies may have been, in ten thousand devious ways,
it matters not–the body that was sown in weakness shall be raised in
power–that which was sown a corruptible body shall be raised in
incorruption!

This we unfeignedly believe and our faith also believes that, even now,
as to spiritual things, though by nature we are dead to the things of
God, yet He can raise the dead. When we feel heavy and dull, and the
music of our worship drags wearily, we believe that God can quicken us
and, though we know many who are, this day, without spiritual life, and
far from God by wicked works, we go and speak to them the everlasting
Gospel with the full persuasion that God can raise the dead, even those
who are dead in trespasses and sins! Though they were dead, yet shall
they live! We believe this and rejoice in it!

Thus I think I have shown you that the faith of Abraham is a fair
specimen of the faith of all Believers and in this way he is the father
of all Believers–and all the children bear a family likeness. In each
case, they have faith in Him who can quicken the dead.

Now let us come to our text, and I will handle it briefly with the
intense desire that if anybody wants to find the way of salvation, he
may find it tonight. True faith is of this character–"We believe on
Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead; who was delivered
for our offenses, and was raised, again, for our justification."

I. First, OUR FAITH LOOKS TO GOD THE FATHER IN THE MATTER OF SALVATION.
We do not, alone, look to Jesus Christ, as some say that we do, but,
"we believe on Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead." Not
on, "Jesus, our Lord," alone. We do believe on Him, but we also equally
believe on God that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead.

On this point there is an erroneous faith in two ways and one is sorry
to see either form of this error, since it mars the beauty of Divine
Truth. Some overlook the Father. They speak of Jesus as though we were
indebted to Him and to Him, only, for our salvation. We are
immeasurably indebted to Him, blessed be His name! But Jesus does not
save without the Father, or apart from the Father, or against the
Father's will! I like the expression that is used in the Book of
Genesis concerning Abraham and his son when they were going to the
Mount of Sacrifice–it is written, "They went, both of them, together."
And in the great Sacrifice that was made for human sin, I may say of
the Divine Father and His equally Divine Son, "They went, both of Them,
together." There was a secret agreement and concurrence between the
Father and the Son concerning our redemption, and the Father has our
love and gratitude, even as the Son has. Jesus gave Himself for us, but
the Father gave Jesus, His other Self!

Jesus says, "I and My Father are One." I might say, in a certain sense,
that it was God the Father who suffered for us, for He gave His Son,
whom He loved, to suffer on our behalf. He gave up the darling of His
heart and, in the Person of His Son, He became our Savior. It is, "God,
our Savior," as well as, "Jesus Christ, our Savior." Never dissociate
the Father from the Son in the work of redemption! Jesus did not come
into this world to die to make His Father gracious. No, the Covenant of
Grace was made from eternity and Jesus came to fulfill a stipulation of
the Covenant through which it behooved Him to suffer. The Father's love
is from everlasting and the death of Jesus is one of the streams that
flow from that eternal Fountain. The Father is to be praised, for He
delivered up His Son and raised His Son, again, from the dead. And we
must never forget the Grace which He has, in this way, manifested for
our salvation! Therefore, let us never fall into the error of those who
overlook the Father's part in our redemption.

It is an equally pernicious error if we overlook the Son. Oh, how many
talk about God, pray to God and speak of God's mercy–but what have
they to do with God if they ignore or despise His Son? God will not
hear you. He will not answer your prayers if you do not come to Him by
Jesus Christ! There is but one way of coming to the Father and that is
through His Son, Jesus Christ! And you cannot approach God without the
one Mediator between God and men. Why did He ordain a Mediator and why
did that Mediator shed His blood, if you and I can come to God without
His propitiatory Sacrifice? No, Beloved, we believe on Jesus Christ as
well as the Father. We believe on the Father, but we believe on Him as
the God that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead! It is not the
Father without the Son who saves, nor the Son without the Father–nor
these two without the Divine and ever-to-be-blessed Holy Spirit! It
needs the whole Trinity to make a Christian! And the whole Trinity,
co-operating in a Divine Unity, must be praised and adored for our
salvation!

But, now, what does the text say in bidding us trust to God the Father
in our salvation? Well, it says, first, that He delivered up His Son.
Of Jesus, we here read, "who was delivered for our offenses." We know
who it was that delivered Him, for we have in this same Epistle the
text, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not, with Him, also, freely give us all things?" It was
the Father who delivered His Son to be arrayed in human flesh. It was
the Father who delivered His Son to be despised and rejected of men. It
was the Father who delivered up His

Son to the traitor's kiss and to the cruel handling of the Roman
soldiers. It was the Father who delivered up His Son to the scourge and
then to the Cross–and to the bitterness of death, itself! The Father
gave up His Son to die for sinners! This was the supreme proof of the
Father's love to us.

And then, next, we are told that, in due season, it was the Father who
raised up Jesus from the dead–"We believe on Him that raised up Jesus,
our Lord, from the dead." The Resurrection of Christ is spoken of in
different ways in Scripture, but among other declarations it is
expressly said to have been worked by the power of the Father. Well,
then, we have to thank Him for a living Christ, a risen Christ! It was
the Father who breathed the life, again, into that dead body and
brought our Redeemer back to life. It was the Father who bade the
angels roll away the stone from the mouth of the sepulcher when the
resurrection morning dawned.

And remember that, as these two things–the delivering up of Christ and
the raising of Christ from the dead–are ascribed to the Father, so the
two fruits that come of them are also of the Father. The first fruit is
the pardon of sin– "Who was delivered for our offenses." The second
fruit is justification–"And was raised, again, for our justification."
These are both the work of the Father! It is the Father who forgives
and it is the Father who justifies. "It is God that justifies," said
Paul, when he was carried away with a sort of Divine ecstasy. "It is
God that justifies. Who is he that condemns?" So, then, we cannot truly
trust to Jesus apart from the Father. To come back to the point on
which I have already spoken to you–to try to drive that nail home and
even to clinch it–we do not look to Jesus apart from the Father, any
more than we look to the Father apart from Jesus! This is the true
Scriptural faith, "We believe on Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord,
from the dead; who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised,
again, for our justification."

Now, Soul, if you would be saved, before anything else it is necessary
that you should trust your soul in the hands of God, the faithful
Creator, beholding always associated with those hands, the Lord Jesus
Christ, God and Man, who has died and risen, again, to put away your
sin! Such a faith now exercised will save you at once and will save you
forever and ever!

II. Now I advance a step farther and come to the second head, THE FAITH
WHICH SAVES THE SOUL CONCERNS ITSELF WITH JESUS CHRIST AS OURS. Listen
to this–true faith looks to nothing else that is ours. When it looks
within, this faith sees nothing there worth having and nothing worth
trusting to for salvation. Therefore it cries out against its own
righteousness, which is of the Law, and desires to count it only as
filthy rags! It views Jesus Christ, however, as its real treasure.

Do you notice, in my text, the word, "our," three times over? Just mark
with a pencil under that little pronoun each time it is mentioned. True
faith receives Jesus Christ as "our" Lord Jesus. "Jesus our Lord," our
Jesus, our Savior–not only a Savior, but our Savior–and being Lord as
well as Savior, we acknowledge Him as our Lord, Jesus, we take Him to
be our Lord. This is how He, Himself, puts it, "Take My yoke upon you,
and learn of Me," and this we desire to do. This, then, is the true,
unfeigned faith which saves the soul–the faith which appropriates
Jesus as our Savior and as our

Lord!

And the next appropriation is that true faith sees Christ as delivered
for "our" sins. "Who was delivered for our offenses." That means your
offenses and mine–"our offenses." Oh, my dear Hearers, it is of little
use to believe in Jesus Christ as delivered for the offenses of those
who lived in the ages past–we must believe that He was delivered for
our offenses! It will not save us to believe that Jesus Christ was
delivered for the sins of nations far remote from us. No, but we must
believe that He was delivered for our offenses. This is the faith that
says, "Jesus Christ bore my sins in His own body on the tree." Grasp
the Savior as your Sin-Bearer. "Look unto Me," He says, "and be you
saved, all the ends of the earth." Look unto Him, look unto Him at this
moment–you are saved the moment that you look! Trust Him as your
Savior! Touch Him, as did the woman of old–it shall suffice you if you
can but touch Him by faith and straightway you shall be saved from all
your transgressions–for true faith believes "He was delivered for our
offenses."

And then next, true saving faith appropriates Christ as raised for
"our" justification. It is a Scriptural doctrine that we are justified
through the death of Christ, but you must not leave it merely as a
doctrine–you must take it to yourself by faith and make it an
experience, as the text says–"Who was raised, again, for our
justification." For whose justification? For yours, dear Friends, and
mine–"for our justification." I like the word, "our," sometimes better
than the word, "my." When I get quite alone, I sometimes pray, "My
Father in Heaven." Still, I am thankful that the Lord did

not so word the model prayer that He gave to His disciples, but that He
put it, "Our Father"–that is, the Father of you, me and all of us who
love His dear name and trust His dear Son.

Yes, Jesus was raised for my justification–I praise Him for that
glorious fact! I see in front of me every morning, when I am washing,
that passage, "Who loved me and gave Himself for me," and I thank the
Lord that it is true. But, still, I like this word, "our," in our
text–"Who was raised, again, for our justification." Does "our
justification" mean your justification, dear Friends, as well as mine?
Who will ride with me in the double-seated chariot of this precious
pronoun, "our," saying, "He was raised, again, for our justification"?

Thus have I taught you two lessons. The first, that our faith looks to
God the Father in salvation. And secondly, that our faith concerns
itself with Christ as ours.

III. Now, thirdly, OUR FAITH FOR SALVATION RELIES ON CHRIST'S DEATH AND
RESURRECTION– "Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised,
again, for our justification."

Observe, then, that a faith which only deals with the historical
narrative of Christ's life will not save you. If you believe that there
was such a Person as Jesus Christ, even if you truly believe that He
was both God and Man. If you believe all that Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John wrote, and all the Epistles, as well, yet, if you believe this
only in the sense that they are historically true, you have not yet
attained to saving faith! You must go beyond that if you are to possess
the faith mentioned in our text.

Note, next, that faith in the beauty of Christ's life will not save
you. Of late there has risen up a set of infidels of a very superior
character to the old-fashioned ones, in some respects. Instead of
abusing the Christian religion, they have written lives of Christ and
they have poured out all kinds of laudation upon the wonderful and
lovely Character of the Man, Christ Jesus. Now, mark you, I think that
Christ does not like their praise any better than He did the
blasphemies of those who came before them, because, if Jesus of
Nazareth was not the Son of God, if He was not really God, the Son, He
could not have been a good Man! His moral Character, though admirable
in many respects, would have been spoiled by the fact that He allowed
Himself to be worshipped and that He spoke of Himself in such a way
that millions of us believe Him to be truly God! And knowing and
foreseeing, as such a Man must have done, that this would be the result
of His teaching, He was a gross impostor if He was not very God of very
God! Therefore, if you believe Christ's Character to be beautiful, if
you do not also believe Him to be the Son of God, you are not yet on
the right track–you have not the faith of God's elect–you have to go
on another road than that if you would come, at last, to the Heaven
where He is.

There are some who do not truly believe, although they have faith in
the accuracy of Christ's teaching. "Yes," they say, "He is a wonderful
Teacher and whatever He taught is true"–but they do not practically
believe that. It is merely the doctrine that they take, and not the
God, the Christ, who gave the doctrine! They simply exercise their
brain intellectually, but they do not trust Him, spiritually, with
their heart. They do not trust God who raised Christ from the dead. In
fact, after all, they do not build upon the two main foundation stones
of saving faith, namely, the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ!

I venture also to say that you may have the most orthodox faith in
Christ's Godhead and believe in Jesus as being Lord, but if that is all
you believe, you have not yet obtained salvation. The faith that saves
centers in Him, "Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised,
again, for our justification." If you would be saved, fix your eyes
upon the sufferings of the Son of God–

"See, my Soul, your Savior see, Prostrate in Gethsemane."

I know that a sight of His life will do you good. It will be an example
to you, but you are not bid to look to that for your salvation. Your
eyes are to be fixed upon Him as delivered for your offenses. You are
to see Him as accused of sin, though in Him was no sin. You are to see
Him as made sin for you, as your Substitute, standing in your place,
and suffering in your place, delivered for your offenses. If you can
see this, then you have your eyes fixed upon that which will save
you–the Father laying your sin upon the Son, making it to lay upon
Him. The Father smiting the Son as if He were not only a sinner, but
all the sinners in the world rolled into one till His Son cries, "My
God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" "Who was delivered for our
offenses"–there lies your only hope! If you will not have Jesus Christ
as your Substitute, dying in your place, I know of no door of salvation
for you! But if you will take Him as God delivers Him,

not for your righteousness, but for your sins, to bear for you what you
ought to bear, and pay for you what you could never have paid–if you
will have Him so, then you have taken Christ in the right way!

But you must also believe in Him as risen from the dead. He did rise
from the dead and He always lives to make intercession for us–and it
is under that aspect that you are to be justified, cleansed by a dying
Savior, clothed by a risen Savior, washed from your iniquity by His
precious blood, raised into acceptance with the Father by His
everlasting life when He rose from the dead and led captivity captive,
and received gifts for men, yes, for the rebellious, also!

Behold, then, the Jachin and Boaz, the two massive columns that support
the temple of our salvation! Between these two great Truths of
God–Christ's death for us and Christ's Resurrection for us–lies the
King's highway to eternal life. And there is no other road to
salvation!

IV. So I close with the fourth point, OUR FAITH SHOULD LEARN TO SEE THE
DISTINCT RELATION OF

EACH WORK OF CHRIST TO ITS END–"Who was delivered for our offenses,
and was raised, again, for our justification." At first, for a poor
sinner, it is enough that he trusts Christ and does no more. But it is
for our comfort and edification to learn to distinguish the blessings
that flow from certain Divine Fountains–to look along the various
roads of the great King to see what comes this way and what comes that.

First, then, dear Friends, our forgiveness comes from the death of
Christ–"Who was delivered for our offenses." There is no pardon of sin
apart from Christ being delivered for our offenses. Of late I have
heard things that I never dreamed of, before–alleged, even, by
professedly Christian ministers, against the fundamental Doctrines of
God's Word! And some have even dared to say that the Substitution of
Christ–His suffering in our place–was not just! Then they have added
that God forgives sin without any Atonement whatever, but, if the first
is not just, what shall I say of the second? If God continually
forgives sin without taking any care of His moral government. If there
is nothing done for the vindication of His justice, how shall the Judge
of all the earth do right? Then, the very foundations of the universe
would be removed and what would the righteous do? Depend upon this,
whatever modern philosophy may say, "Without shedding of blood there is
no remission of sins," that is to say, without an Atonement, and an
Atonement consisting of the giving up of a Life of infinite value,
there is no passing by of human transgression!

But how is it that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is available for
the pardon of sin? I answer, first, in part from the majesty of His
Person. Being God, when He took upon Himself our nature, and became God
and Man, He had about His complete and adorable Person a Divinity and
majesty utterly indescribable! And for Him to die was a greater honor
to the stern justice of God than for the whole mass of rebellious men
to be cast into Hell! There was such a vindication of Divine justice in
Christ being nailed to the tree, that it is not conceivable that
anything else could ever have so established the foundations of
morality and righteousness. Oh, Sirs, Christ is infinitely better than
all of us put together! As the Son of God and God, the Son, He is
greater than all the rest of men throughout all ages–and greater than
all the holy angels, too–and if He must suffer, if He must die when
sin is but imputed to Him, and is not really His own, then God is truly
just in taking vengeance even on His Only-Begotten Son when He stands
in the sinner's place!

The next reason why Christ's death for us was so efficacious is found
in the freeness of His own condition. As God, He was not bound to come
under the Law. Indeed, it must have seemed inconceivable that He ever
could do so! I could not make an Atonement for you because whatever I
could do for God is already due from me to God. If I give all that I
have, I cannot pay my own debt, so I certainly cannot pay yours! But
our Lord Jesus Christ owed nothing to the Law of God! It was not
possible that He could be personally indebted to it and, therefore, all
that He did was, as it were, a surplus which He set to the account of
the guilty men whose Substitute He became.

The excellence of His Atonement also lay in the absolute perfection of
His Character. He was the Lamb of God, without blemish and without
spot. There is no excess in Him and there is nothing lacking–and such
a character as this entitled Him, when He came to suffer, to say that
He did not suffer for Himself. The Messiah laid down His life and was
cut off, "but not for Himself," since He was without sin and was under
no obligation to the Law.

And then, again, His Headship towards His people put Him in a position
in which He could fitly become a Sufferer in our place. Look, Sirs, the
first cause of your fall did not lie in yourselves. Your father Adam
sinned long ago, and you fell in him. Do you blame God for that
arrangement and begin to complain? Behold the door of hope there is for
you in this fact! Because you fell through one representative, you can
be restored by Another! When the angels fell, I suppose that they
sinned separately, and that they had no federal head as we had. They
transgressed, each individual spirit for

himself and, therefore, they fell hopelessly and eternally–and none of
them can ever be lifted up again. But our fall, happily for us, was in
our Covenant head, Adam. There is a solidarity of the race–Adam was
the head of it and when he sinned, we fell in him. Our fall being in
that way–it is retrievable by the Divine device of another Head coming
in and keeping the Law of God for us, and suffering the penalty of it
in our place that, thereby, we might be restored. Oh, Brothers and
Sisters, I wish you felt as much joy and delight as I do in this
wonderful Doctrine of Christ being delivered for our offenses! I go to
sleep at night upon it. "Yes," you say, "it makes you sleep." It does
and I wake in the morning with it, and it keeps me awake all day with a
stern resolve to serve my Lord and Master while I can, come what may of
it! Restful as this Truth of God is to the heart, it is also
stimulating to the highest degree. Believe it and you will find rest
unto your soul and you, also, will be stirred up to serve your God
while yet 'tis called today!

But I find, next, we are told that being thus saved from sin by
Christ's death, we are justified by His Resurrection– "Who was raised,
again, for our justification." What does this mean?

I sometimes tell you that Jesus Christ was put in the prison of the
grave as a Hostage for us. He had paid our debt, but He must wait in
the grave till the certificate that the debt was paid was registered in
the court of Heaven. That being done for three days and nights–roughly
so styled, but very short, all of them–down flew the bright messenger
from Heaven, bearing the writ and warrant that the Hostage must go
free, for the debt was paid and the whole liability was discharged.
Then the stone was rolled away and when the angel had rolled it away,
what did he do? He went and sat down upon it. It always seems to me
that when the angel sat down, there, he seemed to say, "Now, Death and
Hell, roll the stone back if you can"–but they could not! The keepers
fled far away and Jesus Christ, Himself, came out to newness of life.
And now both the sinner and his Substitute are cleared, the captive and
the Hostage are both set free! He that owed the debt is cleared by his
Substitute and the Substitute, Himself, is cleared, for He has paid all
that Infinite Justice could demand and He has received a clean bill of
deliverance! Thus He comes forth out of durance vile, raised from the
dead by His Father's hand. That resurrection is your justification!

Now just look at this matter for a minute in another way. Suppose that
Jesus Christ had never risen and I were to tell you that He had made a
complete Atonement and died for our sins, but that He was still dead
and in that grave? Why, if you believed the message, you would always
be troubled! You could not feel any confidence in a dead Christ–you
would say, "He sees corruption, yet the true Christ was never to see
corruption. He is dead and what can a dead Christ do for us?" Beloved,
the dying Christ has purchased for us our justification, but the risen
Christ will see that we get it! The risen Christ has come to bring it
to us and herein we rest!

Oh, that you would all rest in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross
which is set forth to you in all its brightness by His rising again
from the dead! Put the two parts of our text together, "Who was
delivered for our offenses," "and was raised, again, for our
justification." You need them both! Trust in them both! Trust in the
Savior who died upon the Cross, and trust in the Christ who rose,
again, and is now the living Christ! Trust, in fact, in Christ as He
revealed Himself to John in Patmos–"I am He that lives, and was dead;
and behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of Hell and
of death." Lord Jesus, as such we trust You, as such we trust You now,
and we are saved!

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: Romans 3; 4:16-25.

Romans 3:1, 2. What advantage, then, has the Jew? Or what profit is
there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them
were committed the Oracles of God. It was a great thing to be a Jew in
those old times. When all the rest of the world was in the dark, the
Jews had the Light of God–"Unto them were committed the Oracles of
God."

3. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? That is to say, if they did not believe
God, did that make Him untrue?

4. God forbid: yes, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is
written, That You might be justified in Your sayings, and might
overcome when You are judged. Whatever men did under the old Law,
however faithless they might be, God was still true and faithful.

5. 6. But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God,
what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as
a man). God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? Whenever
anybody insinuates that God

is not just, Paul protests against such an idea. "No," he says, "He
must of necessity be just because He is God; for how could He judge the
world if He were unrighteous?"

7, 8. For if the Truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto His
Glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather, (as we are
slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil,
that good may come? Whose damnation is just. No Christian man ever
said, "Let us do evil that good may come." If anybody else ever does
say it, his condemnation is most just. Albeit that God, in Infinite
Wisdom, does cause even the sin of man to illustrate the greatness of
His Grace, yet that, by no means, excuses his sin, but leaves it an
abominable evil, most hateful in the sight of the thrice-holy Jehovah!

9. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have
before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. Read
the earlier chapters of this Epistle–chapters that are enough to make
the heart sick to read them–and to make the head ache with the memory
of them, and when you have read them, you will say that Paul has proved
that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin.

10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. Note in the
passage we are going to read how Paul rings the changes upon those two
words, "all," and, "none." He begins with the word, "none."

11. 12. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after
God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Yet men come
and talk to us about the righteous heathen whose virtues they
extol–the imaginary good people–for there are none such actually in
existence! Here the Lord, Himself, is speaking, and the Spirit of God
is quoting from passages of the Old Testament which He puts together to
describe the character of humanity. How sweeping are all the terms!
"There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands,
there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way,
they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good,
no, not one."

13-16. Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have
wed deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full
of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood:
destruction and misery are in their ways. How true that last verse is
of many today! Their sins are destroying them! The lusts of the flesh
destroy the body! Drunkenness and such like sins are destructive habits
and they make those who practice them to be miserable–"Destruction and
misery are in their ways." What miserable persons, what miserable
families, what miserable countries are made by indulgence in sin! There
is no true happiness without holiness!

17. And the way of peace have they not known. Quietness, happiness, and
rest are not known by sinful men. They are not in the way of finding
peace.

18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. How true is this
terrible accusation, especially of this present age! Men seem to be
casting off all fear of God. Anyone who reads human history will, I
think, detect that the present condition of society in our country,
religiously, is wonderfully like the condition of France before the
great Revolution which brought so much bloodshed with it. Everything
seems loosening, broadening, tending downwards and, especially, "there
is no fear of God before their eyes."

19. Now we know that what things soever the Law says, it says to them
who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped and all the
world may become guilty before God. Every man by nature tries to open
his mouth and say the best he can for himself, but it is the objective
of God's Law to shut every man's mouth–and when we come to that
condition, there is hope for us! When we have nothing to say for
ourselves, then the Lord Jesus will open His mouth for the dumb and
plead for the guilty in the courts of God.

20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified
in His sight: for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. All the Law can
do is to show us our sin. The Law is a mirror and, looking in it you
can see your spots, but you cannot wash in a mirror. If you want to be
cleansed from your stains, you must go somewhere else. The objective of
the law of God is not to cleanse us, but to show us how much cleansing
we need–to reveal our disease–not to find a remedy for it.

21. 22. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested,
being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets; even the righteousness of
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. You see, we cannot become righteous by the Law. Paul says that
there is no one who has ever obtained righteousness in that way. We, on
the contrary, have so sinned that we can never become righteous through
the Law. But there is a new way of righteousness–

the way of the righteousness of God–and God's righteousness is much
better than the best human righteousness can ever be conceived to be!
There is a righteousness which comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ,
not by doing, but by believing–a righteousness which is freely
bestowed upon all them that believe.

22-24. For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short
of the Glory of God; being justified freely by His Grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I have heard persons ask, "Why do
you say, 'Free Grace'? If it is Grace, it must be free." Well, we say,
"Free Grace," because the Scripture says, "freely by His Grace," and as
the Lord never uses superfluous words, we conceive that we are not
guilty of tautology when we say, "Free Grace."

25, 26. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this
time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him
which believes in Jesus. Not of him who works for salvation, but of him
who believes! Not of him who merits, but of him who trusts! This is
God's way of righteousness and we are sent to declare it. Oh, that the
Spirit of God may be given to make the declaration acceptable to your
hearts!

27. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. Shut out, done with.

27. By what Law? Of works? No, no, the Law of works would have allowed
us to boast! We would have merited whatever we earned by our own
excellence and we might have gloried in it.

27-31. No, but by the Law offaith. Therefore we conclude that a man is
justified by faith without the deeds of the Law. Is He the God of the
Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith,
and uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make void the Law through
faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the Law.

Chapter 4:16. Therefore it is offaith, that it might be by Grace; to
the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only
which is of the Law, but to that, also, which is of the faith of
Abraham; who is the father of us all. Abraham is the father of all who
believe, whether they are circumcised or not, and the promises made to
him belong to them also.

17, 18. (As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations),
before Him whom he believed, even God, who quickens the dead, and calls
those things which are not as though they were. Who against hope
believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations,
according to that which was spoken, So shall your seed be. He was an
old man, with a very aged wife, yet the Lord promised that he would be
"the father of many nations." He firmly believed that which was spoken
and, in due time, it came to pass.

19-21. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now
dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully
persuaded that what He had promised, He was able, also, to perform.
That is the kind of faith we need–the faith that does not enquire how
God can perform His promise, but believes that He will do it!

22, 23. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it
was not written for his sake, alone, that it was imputed to him. The
imputation would be enough for Abraham without any writing, but as it
is written–it is for our instruction and for our comfort.

24, 25. But for us, also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on
Him that raised up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead; who was delivered
for our offenses, and was raised, again, for our justification. May the
Lord bless to us our meditation upon this precious portion of His Word!