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only the forgiveness of sins on the basis of the passive obedience of Christ, and to exclude the
adoption of the sinner in favor by God or the basis of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The sinner is accounted righteous only on the basis of his faith or his life of obedience. The
Neonomians in England were in general agreement with them on this point. For Schleiermacher
and Ritschl justification meant little more than the sinner’s becoming conscious of his mistake
in thinking that God was angry with him. And in modern liberal theology we again meet with
the idea that God justifies the sinner by the moral improvement of his life. This conception of it
is found, for instance, in Bushnell’s Vicarious Sacrifice and in Macintosh’s Theology as an
Empirical Science.
C. THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF JUSTIFICATION.
Justification is a judicial act of God,
in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the
law are satisfied with respect to the sinner. It is unique in the application of the work of
redemption in that it is a judicial act of God, a declaration respecting the sinner, and not an act
or process of renewal, such as regeneration, conversion, and sanctification. While it has respect
to the sinner, it does not change his inner life. It does not affect his condition, but his state, and
in that respect differs from all the other principal parts of the order of salvation. It involves the
forgiveness of sins, and restoration to divine favor. The Arminian holds that it includes only the
former, and not the latter; but the Bible clearly teaches that the fruit of justification is much
more than pardon. They who are justified have “peace with God,” “assurance of salvation,”
Rom. 5:1-10, and an “inheritance among them that are sanctified,” Acts 26:18. The following
points of difference between justification and sanctification should be carefully noted:
1. Justification removes the guilt of sin and restores the sinner to all the filial rights involved in
his state as a child of God, including an eternal inheritance. Sanctification removes the pollution
of sin and renews the sinner ever-increasingly in conformity with the image of God.
2. Justification takes place outside of the sinner in the tribunal of God, and does not change his
inner life, though the sentence is brought home to him subjectively. Sanctification, on the other
hand, takes place in the inner life of man and gradually affects his whole being.
3. Justification takes place once for all. It is not repeated, neither is it a process; it is complete at
once and for all time. There is no more or less in justification; man is either fully justified, or he
is not justified at all. In distinction from it sanctification is a continuous process, which is never
completed in this life.
4. While the meritorious cause of both lies in the merits of Christ, there is a difference in the
efficient cause. Speaking economically, God the Father declares the sinner righteous, and God
the Holy Spirit sanctifies him.