SECOND NIGHT.
Sabbath evening again returned; and when the shutters were closed, and fresh wood had been piled on the fire, little Emma climbed on her grandmamma’s knee, and asked her to explain some more “Scripture doctrines.”
“I shall do so with pleasure, my child,” said Mrs Allan; “and I must ask you to give me to‐night your close attention, as I am going to speak to you about some very important and precious truths.”
Emma thanked her for her great kindness, in being at so much pains to instruct her; and her grandmamma thus began:—
|Of Justification.| “You will remember, my dear, that the Bible tells us we are all condemned by nature—in a lost and ruined state. In order to make us understand what this state is, it represents,—
|The Judge.| “God as a great Judge, ‘of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,’ and who cannot look upon sin.
|The Prisoner.| “It represents the sinner as standing at His bar, called to answer for his many thousand transgressions.
|The Witnesses.| “And, as in a court of earthly justice witnesses are brought in to condemn the prisoner, so Satan accuses the sinner—his own heart accuses him—God’s Law, which he has broken, accuses him.”
“And what more?” said Emma.
|The Sentence.| “These all,” said her grandmother, “pronounce the sinner ‘guilty’—the Holy Judge passes upon him a sentence of condemnation. Oh! how dreadful to think, that, if ‘out of Christ,’ we are at this moment in a condemned state! We have not to wait till a day of judgment to have the sentence pronounced upon us. The Bible tells us we are ‘condemned already,’ and that ‘the wrath of God abideth upon us.’ We are, as it were, shut up in a condemned cell; the kindness and clemency of our Judge alone delaying the execution of the awful sentence!”
“But is there no hope,” said little Emma, “for the poor sinner? Must he die in that state of condemnation and misery?”
|God’s Method of Mercy.| “No, dear child,” replied her grandmamma. “God is willing, for Christ’s sake, to ‘justify’ us.”
“But what do you mean by that word?” said Emma.
“Listen to me,” said the other, “and I will endeavour to explain. I have already told you that the sinner, standing in the court‐room of justice, with the chains of condemnation fastened round him, cannot answer a word for himself; his ‘mouth is stopped,’ and he has become ‘guilty before God.’
|The Advocate.| “But, in the midst of that court‐room, there is one who stands up to ‘answer’ for him!—it is the ‘Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’
“God the Judge asks, ‘Sinner! can you say anything to justify yourself?’ The sinner says, ‘Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O God! for in Thy sight no flesh living can be justified.’
|The Grounds of Pardon.| “God is about to execute the awful sentence; but Jesus, his advocate, stands up, and says, ‘I have suffered, “the Just for the unjust;” I have obeyed the law the sinner should have obeyed; I have been “made sin for him;” I have paid with my own blood the price of his redemption!’
|The Acquittal.| “The Great Judge says, ‘It is enough! Take the chains of condemnation off him. I pronounce him, for the sake of what Jesus has done and suffered, “not guilty!” Let him go out of the court‐room a “justified man;” for “there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”’”
“Do you mean to say, grandmamma,” said Emma, “that God thus graciously pardons all the iniquities of the sinner for the sake of Jesus?”
|Two parts of Justification.| |1. Forgiveness of Sin.| “Yes, my child; it is an amazing thought. But, on account of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, in pouring out His precious blood, this great and holy Judge looks upon the sinner as if he had never sinned at all! He is, in the eye of law, ‘justified’—considered ‘just.’ Jesus is said to be ‘wounded for his transgressions, and bruised for his iniquities.’ Like the scape‐goat under the Jewish law, God ‘has laid upon Christ the iniquities of us all.’ These He has carried away into a land of forgetfulness, where they can never more be found!”
“This is a wonderful doctrine indeed!” said little Emma, “and”——
“Stay, my child,” interrupted her grandmamma, “I have not yet told you the most wondrous part of it:—
|2. Acceptance as Righteous in God’s sight.| “In justifying sinners, God does more than merely pardon them. He not only reckons the sinner as ‘not guilty,’ but, for Jesus’ sake, He counts him as positively righteous. All the righteousness of Christ—His obedience, and patience, and love, and resignation, and forgiveness of injuries, and all the holy things of His holy life,—are put down to the sinner’s account; and a holy God actually counts as if they had all been done by the sinner himself. This is what is called Christ’s imputed righteousness.”
“Surely,” said Emma, “this explains the meaning of that verse I was reading to you this morning in Isaiah—‘He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness’?”
“Yes; you are right, my dear. The holy life, and virtues, and obedience of Jesus, are spoken of as a bright shining robe or garment, in which the poor sinner clothes himself. By nature, in his condemned state, he is black with sin; and his language is, ‘O Lord, look not on me, because I am black;’ but when he puts this imputed garment on, he can say, ‘O Lord, look upon me, for I am all bright and shining with a Saviour’s righteousness!’”
“How kind is God,” exclaimed Emma, “to do all this for vile sinners!”
|Justification all of Grace.| “Yes, my child; well may justification be called ‘an act of God’s free grace;’ for man has no part in it. He deserves nothing at God’s hand but wrath, and vengeance, and condemnation. He might have been sent away trembling from His bar, crying out, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!’ His justification proceeds from free sovereign mercy; and through all eternity his confession will be, ‘By the grace of God, I am what I am.’”
“I fear I may be wearying you,” said Emma; “but I have just one other question to ask you about this glorious doctrine—how can I be justified, and get the great God thus to pardon and accept ME?”
|Received by Faith.| “That is a very proper question,” replied her grandmamma, “and I am happy to think I can give you a simple and easy answer. You are justified ‘by faith;’ by believing that God is able and willing to receive you—that Jesus has shed His precious blood for you—that He died for you on earth, and now lives and pleads for you in heaven. ‘He that believeth on the Son of God hath life.’ ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.’ ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.’
“This glorious subject of Justification,” continued she, “has occupied us so long, that it will be better not to speak of any other doctrine to‐night. If spared till another Sabbath evening, I shall do so. I would have you, my child, think very much about this most precious Bible truth—How a sinner is justified before God.
|The Article of a Standing and Falling Church.| “Luther, the great father of the Reformation, said, that a church could not stand for a moment without this doctrine. Like a house without a foundation, it would fall to pieces. And an older saint than Luther—the apostle Paul—had his mind so full of it, that you cannot read his writings, and understand them, without keeping this blessed doctrine constantly in view.”
“Oh how peaceful, and safe, and joyous,” exclaimed Emma, “must the justified sinner be!”
“Yes, truly,” replied her grandmother. “He has nothing to fear. On the great day of judgment, however many his enemies and accusers may be, he can look around him on all of them, and exclaim, with the great apostle, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?’ Here is a beautiful verse of a hymn I should like you to learn by heart,” she added, repeating twice over to little Emma the following lines:—
“‘Jesus! Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress,
’Mid flaming worlds, in these array’d,
With joy I shall lift up my head!’”