Sermon V

 

“Justification by Faith,” by John Wesley, (date not given)

Text: “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justfieth (sic) the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Romans 5:8)

In this sermon Wesley addresses the question of how a sinner may be justified before a holy and righteous God. He divides his material into four questions:

1. What is the grounding for justification?
2. What is the nature of justification?
3. Who are thejustified?
4. What are the terms on which they are justified?

Part One: What is the grounding for justification?

• Man was made in the image of God—holy, merciful and perfect
• God gave perfect man a perfect law
• That perfect law was the law of love, but he added another: prohibition against eating from that Tree
• In Paradise man was “holy and happy”
• Man disobeyed: “For the moment he tasted that fruit he died”
• Sin entered the world through Adam
• In Jesus have redemption—“a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world”
• God “vouchsafes” forgiveness, restoration and the promise of eternal life “on one only condition”
• That condition is justification

Part Two: What is the nature of justification?

• Justification, while naturally leading to sanctification, is sufficiently different from sanctification
• Jesus justifies, the Spirit sanctifies
• Romans nor Galatians teaches that justification is the removal of the accusation of Satan, though such is certainly the by-product
• Easier to take previous point for granted than prove it by Scripture
• “Least of all does justification imply, that God is deceived in those whom he justifies”
• Justification is simply the pardoning of Sins.

Part Three: Who are the justified?

• “the ungodly … the ungodly of every kind and degree; and none but the ungodly”
• This runs directly counter to some who insist that sanctification must precede justification
• Good Shepherd seeks and saves the lost, not the found-already—“sinner of every kind, of every degree”
• “These who are sick, the burden of whose sins is intolerable, are they that need a Physician; these who are guilty, who groan under the wrath of God, are they that need a pardon”
• “For his heart is necessarily, essentially evil, till the love of God is shed abroad therein”
• Good works in two senses

1. broad—generally beneficial to the whole of man
2. specific—arising out of a heart cleansed by God (speaks to intentions being purified)

• Wesley here considers all works done before justification as categorically “not good”
• Wesley’s logic of “truly and properly good” works:

1. “No works are good, which are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done”
2. “But no works done before justification are done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done”
3. “Therefore, no works done before justification are good”

• Since God commanded all works to be done in charity, and none of our works can be done in charity apart from the holy love of God residing in the heart, no works are good before justification

Part Four: What are the terms on which they are justified?

• Faith—to believe in Him that justifies the ungodly
• Faith is “conviction” that is “a sure trust and confidence that Christ died for my sins, that he saved me, and gave himself for me
• Faith is “a sure trust and confidence” that God has and will continue to forgive my sins
• Warning is issued against losing this confidence
• “Therefore, have a sure and constant faith, not only that the death of Christ is available for all the world, but that he hath made a full and sufficient sacrifice for thee, a perfect cleansing of thy sins….”
• Admits that man may have virtues and do good works before having justifying faith, “but he is still a child of wrath, still under the curse, till he believes in Jesus”
• Faith necessary condition of justification—thus God “treats us as though we were guiltless and righteous”
• Not necessary to understand this mystery to profit from it
• In fact it may not even be right for us to question this mystery of mercy
• One reason for this mystery may be “to hide pride from man”
• thus humility required to receive justification by faith

Here it is beneficial to quote Wesley’s final point, his benedictory call, at length:

“Thou ungodly one, who hearest or readest these words! thou vile, helpless, miserable sinner! I charge thee before God, the Judge of all, go straight unto him, with all they ungodliness. Take heed thou destroy not thy own soul by pleading thy righteousness, more or less. Go as altogether ungodly, guilty, lost, destroyed, deserving and dropping into hell; and thou shalt then find favour in his sight, and know that he justifieth the ungodly. As such thou shalt be brought unto the blood of sprinkling, as an undone, helpless, damned sinner. Thus look unto Jesus! There is the Lamb of God, who taketh away thy sins! Plead thou no works, no righteousness of thine own! no humility, contrition, sincerity! In nowise. That were, in very deed, to deny the Lord that bough thee. No: Plead thou, singly, the blood fo the covenant, the ransom paid for thy proud, stubborn, sinful soul. Who are thou, that now seest and feelest both thine inward and outward ungodliness? Thou art the man! I want thee for my Lord! I challenge thee for a child of God by faith! The Lord hath need of thee. Thou who feelest thou art just fit for hell, art just fit to advance his glory; the glory of his free grace, justifying the ungodly and him that worketh not. O com quickly! Believe in the Lord Jesus; and thou, even thou, art reconciled to God.”

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