There is no forgiveness in nature. F. W. Robertson preached this. But he ignored the _vis medicatrix_ of the gospel, in which forgiveness is offered to all. The natural conscience says: “I must pay my debt.” But the believer finds that “Jesus paid it all.” Illustrate by the poor man, who on coming to pay his mortgage finds that the owner at death had ordered it to be burned, so that now there is nothing to pay. _Ps. 34:22_—“_Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants, And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned._” A child disobeys his father and breaks his arm. His sin involves two penalties, the alienation from his father and the broken arm. The father, on repentance, may forgive his child. The personal relation is re‐established, but the broken bone is not therefore at once reknit. The father’s forgiveness, however, will assure the father’s help toward complete healing. So justification does not ensure the immediate removal of all the natural consequences of our sins. It does ensure present reconciliation and future perfection. Clarke, Christian Theology, 364—“Justification is not equivalent to acquittal, for acquittal declares that the man has not done wrong. Justification is rather the acceptance of a man, on sufficient grounds, although he has done wrong.” As the Plymouth Brethren say: “It is not the _sin_‐question, but the _Son_‐question.” “_Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more_” (_Heb. 10:17_). The father did not allow the prodigal to complete the confession he had prepared to make, but interrupted him, and dwelt only upon his return home (_Luke 15:22_). (_d_) The declaration that the sinner is no longer exposed to the penalty of law, has its ground, not in any satisfaction of the law’s demand on the part of the sinner himself, but solely in the bearing of the penalty by Christ, to whom the sinner is united by faith. Justification, in its first element, is therefore that act by which God, for the sake of Christ, acquits the transgressor and suffers him to go free. _Acts 13:38, 39_—“_Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him_ [lit.: ‘in him’] _every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses_”; _Rom. 3:24, 26_—“_being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ... that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus_”; _1 Cor. 6:11_—“_but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus_”; _Eph. 1:7_—“_in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace._”