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D. THE ELEMENTS OF JUSTIFICATION.
We distinguish two elements in justification, the one negative, and the other positive.
1. The negative element.
There is first of all a negative element in justification, namely, the
remission of sins on the ground of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. This element is based more
particularly, though not exclusively, on the passive obedience of the Saviour. Calvin and some
of the older Reformed theologians occasionally speak as if this were the whole of justification.
This is partly due to the Old Testament representation, in which this side of justification is
decidedly in the foreground, Ps. 32:1; Isa. 43:25; 44:22; Jer. 31:34, and partly to their reaction
against Rome, which did not do justice to the element of grace and free pardon. In opposition
to Arminianism, however, Reformed theology has always maintained that justification is more
than pardon. That the forgiveness of sins is an important element in justification is evident, not
only from the Old, but also from the New Testament, as appears from such passages as Rom.
4:5-8; 5:18,19; Gal. 2:17.
The pardon granted in justification applies to all sins, past, present, and future, and thus
involves the removal of all guilt and of every penalty. This follows from the fact that justification
does not admit of repetition, and from such passages as Rom. 5:21; 8:1,32-34; Heb. 10:14; Ps.
103:12; Isa. 44:22, which assure us that no one can lay anything to the charge of the justified
man, that he is exempt from condemnation, and that he is constituted an heir of eternal life. It
is also implied in the answer to the 60th question of our Heidelberg Catechism. This conception
of justification, though eminently Scriptural, is not devoid of difficulty. Believers continue to sin
after they are justified, Jas. 3:2; I John 1:8, and, as Scripture examples clearly show, frequently
fall into grievous sins. Hence it is no wonder that Barth likes to stress the fact that the justified
man remains a sinner, though a justified sinner. Christ taught His disciples to pray daily for the
forgiveness of sins, Matt. 6:12, and the Bible saints are often pleading for pardon and obtaining
it, Ps. 32:5; 51:1-4; 130:3,4. Consequently it is not surprising that some felt constrained to speak
of a repeated justification. The Church of Rome infers from the data to which we called
attention that believers must in some way atone for sins committed after baptism, and
therefore also believes in an increasing justification. Antinomians, on the other hand, desiring
to honour the unlimited pardoning grace of God, maintain that the sins of believers are not
accounted as such to the new man but only to the old, and that it is quite unnecessary for them
to pray for the forgiveness of sins. For fear of this Antinomian position even some Reformed
theologians had scruples about teaching that the future sins of believers are also pardoned in
justification, and spoke of a repeated and even daily justification.[Cf. Brakel, Redelijke
Godsdienst I, pp. 876 ff.] The usual position of Reformed theology, however, is that in
justification God indeed removes the guilt, but not the culpability of sin, that is, He removes the