I. To justify is the public act of a judge, declaring a person innocent, not liable to punishment. “It is God that justifieth” the ungodly. Justification, in its strict sense, and remission of sins, are two very different things. Job could forgive his friends; but he could not justify them. But in the gracious economy of the gospel, these are always immediately connected; nor these alone, but other and superior mercies—mercies infinite and unspeakable. Those whom God justifieth are not only forgiven, but also purified and renewed—not only delivered from condemnation, but also entitled to eternal life—not only redeemed from the curse of the law, but also blessed with the spirit and the privilege of adoption—not only liberated from bondage and imprisonment, but also constituted heirs “to an inheritance that fadeth not away.” They are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” They are kings and priests, and shall reign for ever and ever. God having given his Son as our surety, and published “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” and taken his seat upon the throne of grace in the character of a merciful judge, he proclaims the believer free from condemnation, and “accepted in the Beloved.” In a human court, a man may be either justified or forgiven. Sometimes the jury find the prisoner innocent, and he is acquitted; sometimes they find him guilty, and he is forgiven. The former is an act of justice; the latter, an act of mercy. No earthly court can go farther; no earthly court can justify the guilty. But God is able, through the wonderful economy of substitution and atonement revealed in the gospel, in the same court, from the same throne, by the same law, and in the same sentence, to proclaim full pardon and free justification to the sinner. By virtue of the obedience and suffering of Christ on his behalf, he is at once forgiven and justified. Faith unites us to Christ, and gives us an interest in him, as our Mediator, who “bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works:—Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” The righteousness by which the sinner is justified infinitely transcends all other righteousness in earth or heaven. It is the righteousness of the Second Adam—an invaluable pearl, to which all the members of Christ’s mystical body are equally entitled. It is the pure gold of the gospel, which cannot be mixed with the works of the law, or derive any increase of value from human merit. It lies upon the very surface of evangelical truth, like oil upon the water. It is the righteousness finished upon the cross—a complete wedding garment furnished by the Son of God, which the sinner has only to put on to be prepared for the marriage supper of the Lamb.