Of Justification
Section 11.5
God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified: and although they can never fall from the state of justification; yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.
As justification is an act completed at once, so those who are justified cannot come into condemnation : " There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." — Rora. viii. 1. The sins which they afterwards commit cannot revoke the pardon which God has graciously given them ; but they may subject them to his fatherly displeasure, and to temporary chastisements. — Ps. Ixxxix. 30—33. Here we must advert to the well-known distinction between judicial and /atJierly forgiveness. Though God, m the capacity of a judge.
1 36 CONFESSION OF FAITH. QcHAP. XI.
pardons all the sins of believers, in the most free and unconditional manner, in the day of their justification, yet that forgiveness which, as a father, he bestows u})on his justified and adopted children, is not, in general, vouchsafed without suitable preparation on their part for receiving and improving the privilege. They ought, therefore, to humble themselves before God, make ingenuous confession of their oifences, renew their faith and repentance, and earnestly supplicate the removal of his fatherly displeasure, and the restoration of his paternal smiles.
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Chapter 11: Of Justification
Justification by faith alone through the imputed righteousness of Christ
Of Justification
Section 11.1
Those whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.
Of Justification
Section 11.2
Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.
Of Justification
Section 11.3
Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to His Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet, inasmuch as He was given by the Father for them; and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both freely, not for anything in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice, and rich grace of God, might be glorified in the justification of sinners.
Of Justification
Section 11.4
God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect, and Christ did, in the fulness of time, die for their sins, and rise again for their justification: nevertheless, they are not justified, until the Holy Spirit doth, in due time, actually apply Christ unto them.
Of Justification
Section 11.5
God doth continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified: and although they can never fall from the state of justification; yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.
Of Justification
Section 11.6
The justification of believers under the old testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the new testament.
This Section teaches that justification changes radically and permanently the relation which the subject of it sustains both to God and to the demands of the divine law, viewed as a condition of favour. Before justification, God is an angry Judge, holding the sentence of the
condemning law for a season in suspense. After justification, the law instead of condemning acquits, and demands that the subject be regarded and treated like a son, as i provided in the eternal covenant, and God, as a loving Father, proceeds to execute all the kind offices which belong to the new relation. This requires, of course, discipline and correction, as well as instruction and consolation.
All suffering is either mere calamity, when viewed aside from all intentional relation to human character; or penalty, when designed to satisfy justice for sin; or chastisement, when designed to correct and improve the offender. Irrespective of the economy of redemption, all suffering is to the reprobate instalments of the eternal penalty. After justification, all suffering, of whatever kind, is fatherly chastisement, designed to correct their faults and improve their graces. And as they came, in the first instance, to God in the exercise of repentance and faith in Christ, so must they always continue to return to him after every partial wandering and loss of his sensible favour in the exercise of the same repentance and faith ; and thus only can they hope to have his pardon sensibly renewed to them. Examine the proof-texts appended above to the text of this Section of the Confession.