In his classic work The Doctrine of Justification, James Buchanan has a marvelous section on what the best preparation is for the study of justification. It is rather long, but it gives great insight into the spiritual nature of the doctrine and what it takes to really understand it.
The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is—neither great intellectual ability, nor much scholastic learning,–but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. A deep conviction of sin is the one thing need-ful in such an inquiry,–a conviction of the fact of sin, as an awful reality in our own personal experience,–of the power of sin, as an inveterate evil cleaving to us continually, and having its roots deep in the innermost recesses of our hearts,–and of the guilt of sin, past as well as present, as an offence against God, which, once committed, can never cease to be true of us individually, and which, however He may be pleased to deal with it, has deserved His wrath and righteous condemnation. Without some such conviction of sin, we may speculate on this, as on any other, part of divine truth, and bring all the resources of our intellect and learning to bear upon it, but can have no suitable sense of our actual danger, and no serious desire for deliverance from it. To study the subject with advantage, we must have a heartfelt interest in it, as one that bears directly on the salvation of our own souls; and this interest can only be felt in proportion as we realize our own guilt, and misery, and danger, as transgressors of God’s Law. The Law is still, as it was to the Jewish Church, ‘a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith;’ and the Law must be applied to the conscience, so as to quicken and arouse it, before we can feel our need of salvation, or make any serious effort to attain it. It is the convinced, and not the careless, sinner, who alone will lay to heart, and with some sense of its real meaning and momentous importance, the solemn question—’How shall a man be just with God?’
But more than this. As, without some heartfelt conviction of sin, we could have no feeling of personal interest in the doctrine of Justification, such as is necessary to command our serious attention in the study of it, so we should be scarcely capable of understanding, in their full scriptural meaning, the terms in which it is proposed to us, or the testimonies by which alone it can be established. The doctrine of salvation, which it taught by the Gospel, presupposes the doctrine of sin, which is taught by the Law; and the two together constitute the sum and substance of God’s revealed truth. They are distinct, and even different, from each other; but they are so related that, while there may be some knowledge of sin without any knowledge of salvation, there can be no knowledge of salvation without some knowledge of sin. As this is true of the general doctrine of Salvation, which includes deliverance from the power, as well from the punishment, of sin so it is with equally true of each of its constituent parts,–the special doctrines of Justification and Sanctification,– this only difference, that, in the one case we must have some knowledge of sin, in its legal, aspect, as guilt already incurred, in the other, of sin, in its spiritual aspect, as an inveterate inherent depravity.
It might be shown, both from the general history of the Church and from the personal experience of individuals, that, in both cases alike, partial and defective views of sin have always been associated with partial and defective views of salvation.
The ramifications of what Buchanan says are enormous. If what he says is correct, then the doctrine of Justification must be studied and heard (to have real profit) from a heart that knows and feels its sin. The doctrine of Justification is not just an academic question; it is one that deals with the depths of the heart. No one understands the doctrine of Justification who does not know and feel the plague of his or her own heart. This teaching not only will not but cannot be understood apart from a heart that knows and feels the weight of sin in the heart. Jesus came as a Physician to sinners and to sinners alone.
It is important to note what he says about partial and defective views of salvation. They come from partial and defective views of sin. If Buchanan is right, then one answer for why so many have left the historic doctrine of Justification in the modern day leave because they do not understand sin in its awfulness and hideousness. When Justification is approached with a weak view of sin or from an academic sense only, it cannot be understood in a way that saves the soul. I think that this is why people believe in baptismal regeneration, the New Perspective, or even Auburn Avenue theology.
Last week in this newsletter we looked at propitiation and how it relates to Justification. We saw that a person must be declared just before God and that the sinner cannot be just before God apart from a just satisfaction for the sin that man has committed. Christ alone can take away the wrath of God so that man’s sin can be taken away. Now, we can see if a person has a defective view of sin that he might not think that Christ has to take away all of it, but that he can take care of some of it. Another might not think of sin as being so bad that it requires Christ to take care of the sin at all. But the person who has felt his sin deeply knows that there is no other way for his sin to be dealt with justly other than the glorious propitiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross. To feel the weight and horror of sin is to know the utter necessity of the sacrifice of Christ and the utter helplessness of man.
If a person has a hard time with the doctrine of propitiation, then the real problem is with understanding sin. Accepting a doctrine requires an understanding, yes, but it also requires a liking of the doctrine or seeing how it answers a particular need. This is also seen in the context of Paul’s teaching on Justification in Romans 3. Before Paul approached the Gospel in Romans 3:20, he taught the doctrines of sin thoroughly in1:18 through 3:19. He showed the depths of sin in man and of the need for the Gospel. Today, rather obviously, men want to start with the message of the Gospel (to some degree) and virtually ignore the teachings of Scripture on sin. Perhaps they might give some lip service to it, but they don’t really drive the teaching home in an effort for the person to be driven to despair of saving him or herself. People want to take men to Christ, in other words, apart from the tutor of the Law that Christ gave. However, without the tutor of the Law men simply cannot understand Justification.
It is when men have been to the school of the holiness of God as expressed in the Law that they see their own sins in such a way that they cry out to God for mercy. It is when men felt the weight of their sins in the Old Testament that they were to go to the Tabernacle of Temple and offer a sacrifice. These sacrifices pointed to Christ and yet they still teach us about what Christ did. Now we are to go to Christ who is the Lamb of God and lean on Him. But it is our sin that drives us there in the first place. Men who are without the tutorship of the Law will invariably have a weak view of sin and therefore of Justification.
A weak view of sin is tied in with the men wanting to understand Justification from the academic standpoint or from their intellectual understanding. It is far easier to understand the points of Justification than it is to burrow deep into one’s own soul and deal with the putrid nature of sin that is there. It is far easier to give an intellectual assent to Justification than it is to rest the entire weight of the soul on Christ for Justification. It is easier to slam the older writers for being introspective and morbid regarding sin and develop rational ways of looking at Justification rather than deal with the internal issues. This is exactly why many are dropping from the biblical doctrine of Justification and going on to “more rational ways” of understanding.
This is why I think that is far safer to study Justification as an experiential way of dealing with the soul. If the soul has not been turned to love God more than its self, it has not learned about sin from the Law and has not learned grace from Christ. If the soul has not been truly humbled where it sees that there really is no room for pride in the justified soul, then that soul has not been justified. The academic understanding may be important in its own way, but it will not humble the soul before God. Not only must the soul see that there is no room for boasting, it must be delivered from the inner boasting and the wanting people to see its humility. Truly Justification is the declaration of God that sinners are just based on nothing but Christ and Christ alone. However, the soul must be brought off of trust in itself and of the awful pride of thinking that it has some righteousness. The academic way will not do that as knowledge tends to puff people up and make them proud. The Gospel is for the humble. The Gospel is for those who have been broken and weaned from self-centeredness and self-love, not just those who are smart and study the intellectual aspects of Justification. It is, after all, the Gospel. There are few noble and few wise within the true Church.
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