THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
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lllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllll■ll■ll■llllllll■llllllllllllUllnll■llllll^^ JUSTIFICATION | ' By REV. BEN COX § Memphis. Tenn. " 111 tilllllllllllllllllllllllHVIIIIIIlllllltlllillllllllllllll HI 11111111111 ( 1 *
Justification. In the old-fashioned hymn which is not sung much now, and which I wish we could revive, we find— “ Grace first inscribed my name in God’s eternal book; ’Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb, who all my sorrows took. Grace first contrived a way to save rebellious man; And all the steps that grace display, which drew the wondrous plan.” All the plans of all the inventions and all the wonderful buildings in the world are nothing beside the Plan of Salvation. What wonderful wisdom it requires to bring' together people from the Arctic regions to the temperate and torrid zones. The wise and the ignorant. The janitor who sweeps out the build ing and the professor who sits in the chair. The messenger boy who works for the bank and the bank president. The old man and the young. Paul emphasizes this wonderful Plan of Grace when he writes to Timothy in 2 Tim. 1:9: “Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” And he says preceding it:-r—'“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but Ije thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” And after the verse he says, “ For the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to. keep that which I have committed unto him aigainst that day.” ' ■ In the third place we have the Ground of it, which is Blood, and at which the world scoffs. Romans 5:9— “ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” The blood is the life. There is no Virtue in the literal blood. St. Peter’s Cathedral is the most won- SOUL SAVING INVESTMENTS
PRESENT to you six texts on the tremendously important question of “ Justification.” FIRST Justification by God,
the Author of it. SECOND Justification by Grace, the source, of it. THIRD Justification by Blood, the ground of it. FOURTH Justification by Faith, the application of it. FIFTH Justification by Resurrec tion, the acknowledgment of it. As a climax, let us have another— Justification by works, the manifesta tion of it. This is a very blessed doctrine. It means more than pardon. The gover nor may pardon the criminal but no one has power to justify one criminal. Only God can do this. It is very ap propriate, therefore, that we come to consider first of all the Author of Justi fication. Romans 3:26 tells us— “ To declare, I.say, at this time his righteous ness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”,, With a free translation you may render this “ in the now season.” It is a blessed fact for us right here and now that “ God is Just and the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.” The same God who condemns the sinner is the God who justifies the sinner through Jesus, so that with Paul we can say, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justl- fieth.” Secondly, we consider the Source of Justification as found in Romans 3:23 —- “ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Grace is our only hope for
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