In his epistle to the Galatians that which he terms a being “justified by faith” he also denominates a being “justified by faith in Christ” so that his justifying faith is not merely a belief of the truth of what God has spoken, but is connected in some manner with Christ, and that it is not the mere act of believing in Christ which is the ground of such justification is plain from this, that he expresses the same thing by the words, “being justified by Christ.” If it is true that we are justified by faith, and also justified by Christ, it must be meant in different senses, and to give effect to these words thus differently connected, it seems necessary to suppose the righteousness of Christ as the meritorious cause or ground of justification, and faith the instrumental. “To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on his name,” or at least as the concomitant of it, where all other requisites exist as well as grace for its production.
It is not the holiness of his faith that is accounted for righteousness to him: faith is a holy duty but not more so than some others, and not so much so as love, “now abide faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is love;” nor are christians ever said to be justified by love, joy, peace, patience, or by any other grace, except by faith. From whence it follows that it is not the holiness of faith for which the believer is justified, and yet that there is some property not common to any other grace or duty, which must be concerned in our justification; and no doubt it is because faith lays hold on him for whose sake alone we can be justified.
Or faith may be put for its object, as the words fear, hope, joy, and love are; God is our fear, our hope, &c. “Thy faith hath saved thee,” it was not her faith, but its object, Christ’s power, that healed her.
The seed which was promised embraced Christ, whose day Abraham saw afar off; so this faith had the Redeemer for its object. In the epistle to the Galatians there follow the quotation these words, “as many as are of faith are the children of Abraham,” these are called his spiritual seed, and believe in Christ, now if all who believe in Christ are thereby the children of Abraham, and Abraham their father or pattern of faith, his faith must have been of the same kind. There could have been little propriety in giving a faith of any other kind as a pattern to those who are to believe in Christ that they may be “justified by his blood.”
[53]. The quotations of Paul and James follow the lxx. in omitting the in.
[54]. Hammond.
[55]. Whitby. Macknight.
[56]. Macknight.
[57]. This opinion was propagated soon after the reformation, by Andr. Osiander, who lived a little before the middle of the sixteenth century.
[58]. This opinion was propagated soon after by Stancarus, in opposition to Osiander, whom Du Pin reckons amongst the Socinians, or, at least, that after he had advanced this notion, he denied the doctrine of the Trinity. [See Du Pin’s eccl. hist. sixteenth century, book iv. chap. 6.]