Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 3 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
_John 16:11_—“_of judgment, because the prince of this world hath
been judged_”—the Holy Spirit leads the believer to ratify God’s
judgment against sin and Satan. Accepting Christ, the believer
accepts Christ’s death for sin, and resurrection to life for his
own. If it were otherwise, the first act of the believer, after
his discharge, might be a repetition of his offences. Such a
justification would offend against the fundamental principles of
justice and the safety of government. It would also fail to
satisfy the conscience. This clamors not only for pardon, but for
renewal. Union with Christ has one legal fruit—justification; but
it has also one moral fruit—sanctification.
A really guilty man, when acquitted by judge and jury, does not
cease to be the victim of remorse and fear. Forgiveness of sin is
not in itself a deliverance from sin. The outward acquittal needs
to be accompanied by an inward change to be really effective.
Pardon for sin without power to overcome sin would be a mockery of
the criminal. Justification for Christ’s sake therefore goes into
effect through regeneration by the Holy Spirit; see E. H. Johnson,
in Bib. Sac., July, 1892:362.
A Buddhist priest who had studied some years in England printed in
Shanghai not long ago a pamphlet entitled “Justification by Faith
the only true Basis of Morality.” It argues that any other
foundation is nothing but pure selfishness, but that morality, to
have any merit, must be unselfish. Justification by faith supplies
an unselfish motive, because we accept the work done for us by
another, and we ourselves work from gratitude, which is not a
selfish motive. After laying down this Christian foundation, the
writer erects the structure of faith in the Amida incarnation of
Buddha. Buddhism opposes to the Christian doctrine of a creative
Person, only a creative process; sin has relation only to the man
sinning, and has no relation to Amida Buddha or to the eternal law
of causation; salvation by faith in Amida Buddha is faith in one
who is the product of a process, and a product may perish.
Tennyson: “They are but broken lights of Thee, And thou, O Christ,
art more than they.”
Justification is possible, therefore, because it is always accompanied by
regeneration and union with Christ, and is followed by sanctification. But
this is a very different thing from the Romanist confounding of
justification and sanctification, as different stages of the same process
of making the sinner actually holy. It holds fast to the Scripture
distinction between justification as a declarative act of God, and
regeneration and sanctification as those efficient acts of God by which
justification is accompanied and followed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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