A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine   '





vu/u111e 04, /vu. 3
December  I, 1987


 Contents                                                           ,December  I, 1987
Meditation  - Rev. Herman Hoeksema
ForUsAlso.................................,.........98                                             ISSN 0362-4692
Editorials -                                                                                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during  lune,  July,
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About This Special Issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I02           at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                                   EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Justification By Faith.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I02        Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                   Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Rev. Arie den Hartog,
Martin Luther And Justification By Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104                      Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. Barry Critters, Rev.
                                                                                                   Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman C. Hanko, Rev.
                                                                                                   Ronald Hanko, Rev. John A.  Heys,  Rev.  J.  Korter-
Praying With Assurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .          . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106    ing. Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Thomas C.
                                                                                                   Miersma, Rev. James  Slopsema,  Rev.  Cise  J. Van
Is the Truth of Free Justification An lmmora I Doctrine? . . . . .I08                              Baren,  Mr. Benjamin  Wigger.
                                                                                                   EDITORIAL OFFICE
                                                                                                   Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
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according to his works; with           which we dwelled; the wife of         has so corrupted his way and still
Whom there is no compromise or         our bosom and the child of our        confesses that he transgresses all
perversion of judgment and Who         own flesh and blood, heaven and       God's commandments, is that the
shall by no means clear the guil-      earth as the scene of our ac-         accused is perfectly righteous!
ty; Whose verdict is final and         tivities; the ear with which we          So righteous that the verdict
from Whose sentence there is no        heard or did not hear, the eye        could not be different if the ac-
appeal! And 0, do not conceive         with which we saw or did not          cused had never had or commit-
of this judgment as something          see, the mouth with which we          ted any sin, yea, as righteous as
remote and abstract, as a              spoke or did not speak, the light     he who always and perfectly
possibility in the future rather       of day and the darkness of night      kept the precepts of the Most
than as a present reality, for such    - all things with one accord          High!
vain imagination could arise only      testify against us . . . .               Nay, still more!
in the heart of him in all whose         And we plead guilty!                  The sentence is that he who
thoughts God is not! For this            And guilty of what? Guilty          was indicted of every con-
judgment of God is an eternal          that, perhaps, occasionally we        ceivable sin is so righteous, that
reality! Even though there shall       transgressed, while at other times    it is as if he had fully satisfied for
be a day of the revelation of the      we walked according to the com-       all his sin by an act of profound-
righteous judgment of God, when        mandments of the Most High?           est love and absolute self-
we must all appear before the          Guilty of having violated some of     negation, and so became worthy
judgment seat of Christ, the fact      the precepts of the Judge of          of eternal life and glory!
remains that God's judgment of         heaven and earth, while others          The sentence silences all the
you and me is a present reality.       we faithfully kept? No, but guilty    accusers!
God judges constantly, for He is       of having transgressed every one        The Word of the Judge carries
God, in Whom there is no vari-         of God's holy commandments            the divine sentence into the in-
ableness nor shadow of turning.        and of having kept none of them:      most heart of the accused!
His court is not occasionally in       of having corrupted our way, of         God is greater than his heart
session, so that you may be sum-       having seen when we should not,       and He knoweth all things!
moned, be judged, and be dis-          heard when we should not,               The accused believes on Him
missed. Always you and I stand         spoken when we should have            Who raised up Jesus our Lord
before the tribunal of God, and        kept silent; and failed to see and    from the dead!
always we are judged righteously       to hear and to speak when we            His own conscience is silent
by the Supreme Lord of heaven          should have seen and heard and        and condemns him no more!
and earth!                             spoken. Guilty of a foul fountain       He is justified and has peace
  And to be justified by faith in      of corruption, always bringing        with God, the peace that passeth
Him that raised up Jesus Christ        forth iniquity and evil, wanton       all understanding!
from the dead signifies that we        enmity against God Whom we              Marvellous blessing of grace!
stand before Him, consciously,         should love with all our heart                     * * * * *
aware of the awful reality of His      and mind and soul and strength.
just judgment!                         Nay, what is worse, in the hour         It is written!
  It implies that we are accused       of justification by faith we stand      But what? A Word of God is
from every side, from within and       before the supreme tribunal of        written. The only Word that mat-
from without, so that wherever         the Most High in the miserable        ters, it being the sole Word that
                                                                             is able authoritatively to inform
we look, our condemnation must         consciousness that even at the        us of the sentence of the Judge of
seem certain. From within, our         moment we still transgress God's      heaven and earth.
conscience accuses us that our         holy law in thought, word and           And what is the authoritative
sin is very great. From without,       deed!
the law of God indicts us and            And the Judge applies the in-       information of this divine Word?
loudly testifies that we did not       fallible and unchangeable             That God imputes righteousness!
                                                                             It is written on account of
abide in all that was written in       criterion of His perfect
her. The world in which we             righteousness!                        Abraham, who believed God,
lived, the enemies we hated and          And according to that most          Who raises the dead and calleth
the friends we loved, the city of      perfect standard of justice He        those things that are not as if
our habitation and the home in         pronounces His verdict!               they were; believed in hope
                                         And His verdict, so pro-            against hope; believed when all
                                       nounced, according to strictest       things that are seen militated and
                                       justice, upon that sinner who is
                                       so accused from every side, who

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  loudly testified against the Word       from any natural relation we sus-      sake, there to say: "Even here,
  of God which he believed, the           tain to the race of which we are       where I drink the cup of Thy
  Word of promise that Sarah              members.                               wrath to its dregs, I love Thee!"
  should have a son; believed                Yet, the righteousness that is        Such is satisfaction!
  when he was dead and the                imputed is real!                         That satisfaction effects atone-
  mother in Sarah was dead. It is           And the imputation of this           ment!
  written that God imputed his            righteousness to him who                 In that satisfaction there is the
  faith to him for righteousness.         believes that God raised up Jesus      blotting out of sin, the righteous-
     That is the contents of this         our Lord from the dead is accord-      ness for sinners, the marvellous
  Word of God.                            ing to strictest justice.              power to lift him out of the awful
     But more; for it was not writ-         He Who will by no means              misery of eternal desolation into
  ten on account of Abraham               clear the guilty does not deny         the glory of eternal life!
  alone, but also for us, for all who     Himself when He justifies the            And such is Golgotha! For it is
  believes on God Who raises the          ungodly!                               Christ that died! He Who knew
  dead and calls the things that are        And this is His Word, which          no sin, neither was guile found in
  not as if they were, and Who            He spoke in the resurrection of        His mouth; He Whose meat it
  now manifested this divine power        Jesus our Lord from the dead!          was to do the Father's will, even
  by raising up Jesus our Lord from         Golgotha is the hour of judg-        though that will should lead Him
 the dead!                                ment; the resurrection is the          to the lowest hell; He Who was
     God imputes righteousness!           divine sentence, that God justi-       consumed by the holiness of the
     But how? Does God, then,             fieth the ungodly according to ir-     Father's house; He died. He
  reckon what is not?                     reproachable justice!                  tasted as no man could taste it,
     Does not this imputation of            For, indeed, Christ died ac-         for His death was the death of
 righteousness to the sinner who          cording to the Scriptures. And         the Son of God in our flesh and
 stands accused before the                His death is the satisfaction, the     blood. He, in the hour of judg-
 tribunal of the Most High imply          full and perfect satisfaction for      ment, which was the hour of
 that he has actually no righteous-       sin, the satisfaction which actual-    Golgotha, stood before God's ter-
 ness whatsoever?                         ly justifies the sinner, and the       rible tribunal and received
     And if he is not righteous, is       satisfaction which makes the in-       sentence. He stood there, of His
 not God's own judgment of him,           dicted sinner worthy of eternal        own voluntary choice. And He
 that he is righteous, an                 life. What, then, is satisfaction?     loved God in the hour of His
 unrighteous judgment? Indeed             What may, indeed, atone for the        wrath against sin, so loved Him
 such is the implication of this im-      transgression of the sinner and        that He chose rather to descend
 putation! And for a right under-         remove all his guilt, at the same      into lowest hell than to see that
 standing and proper appreciation         time giving him a right to eternal     righteousness impeached. And
 of this imputation of righteous-         glory? Is it the mere bearing of       thus He descended, down into
 ness, and for the personal appro-        the punishment of sin? But this is     death, down into darkness, down
 priation and enjoyment of this           quite impossible, for sin is wan-      into the awful desolation of
 grace of our justification, it is in-    ton and active hatred of God,          wrath, whence He cried out: "My
 dispensable that we should               and the passive bearing of His         God, my God, why has Thou for-
 understand and fully consent to          wrath cannot justify supreme           saken me?"
 this implication. Judged by our-         justice and atone for sin. There is      It was the hour of judgment,
 selves, on our own merits, we            a bearing of God's wrath, a            not for Himself, but for the
 are sinners and nothing more;            suffering of eternal desolation        church chosen unto eternal life,
 our accusers are right, our con-         that never atones. It is the utter     given Him from before the
 science. is right; 1 we are, indeed,     despair of hell. Atonement must        foundation of the world.
 damnable before God and worthy           be satisfaction, and satisfaction
 of eternal desolation. And im-           must needs be an act, the expres-
 putation of righteousness does,          sion of purest love, the willing
 indeed, imply that the Most High         self-surrender of complete obe-
 reckons unto us a righteousness          dience, the desire to be con-
 that is not of our own works, that       sumed for the holiness of God's
 cannot be explained from any             house, the will to die for sin on
 personal, individual merit, nor          account of God's righteousness,
                                          the deliberate entrance and de-.
                                          scent into lowest hell for God's


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  In that hour He must needs             His judgment was their judg-         peace with God through our Lord
stand alone, yet representing His      ment; God's resurrection-verdict       Jesus Christ, knowing that the
Body.                                  was the verdict over His church!       hour of judgment is passed, and
  And He finished!                       The hour of judgment is              that with our Lord Jesus we
  He was declared righteous by         passed! Zion was redeemed              emerged from the terrible billows
the supreme Judge of heaven            through justice! God's irrevocable     of wrath into the glory of His
and earth!                             sentence sounded from heaven,          eternal and heavenly tabernacle!
  For God raised Him from the          when He raised Jesus our Lord            It is imputed!
dead!                                  from the dead: Justified!                Faith is reckoned as righteous-
  That resurrection is God's ver-        It is written!                       ness! No, not because God
dict with respect to His servant,        Blessed Word!                        reckons what is not. Faith is no
as He stands at the head of His                  * * * * *                    substitute foi righteousness. Nor
own, that legal corporation,                                                  because faith is the work of
established in God's eternal             For us also!                         righteousness by which we are
counsel, which is His body!              For Abraham it was written,          justified. Nor even because by
  And that verdict is twofold. It      on account of him, with respect        faith we may again bring forth
is that his descent into the lowest    to him, that his faith was imputed     fruits of righteousness. But Christ
parts of the earth was, indeed,        to him for righteousness.              is our righteousness, and by faith
satisfaction for sin, and therefore      He believed that God fulfilled       we are united with Him, ap-
atonement; and it is, that in so       the promise though all things          propriate Him, receive Him, are
descending and performing the          were against him, and never            incorporated into Him, so that
act of profoundest and purest          faltered, knowing that God raises      His righteousness is ours!
love and most perfect obedience,       the dead and that He calls the           And though all the things that
the Son of God in human nature         things that are not as if they         are seen and experienced may
had merited the highest con-           were!                                  testify against us, we know that it
ceivable glory and had become            And so it is written for us also.    is written.
the rightful heir of all things!         Only, all is now realized! God         God imputes righteousness to
  That is the reality of the           did call the things that are not,      them that believe!
righteousness there is in Christ       when He sent His only begotten           Written, for us also!
for sinners!                           Son into the ,flesh, when He             Hallelujah!  q
  It is a righteousness that makes     called light out of darkness,
us legal citizens of heaven!           righteousness out of sin, life out
  Such is the testimony of the         of death, eternal glory out of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from      depth of hell into which His Ser-
the dead. For that resurrection        vant had descended! It is fin-
was no return into the world that      ished!
lies under God's judgment; nor           And we believe on Him!
even a return to the state of            It is written in order that we
original righteousness in              might know, and knowing might
Paradise; but a lifting up, a pass-    believe, and believing might trust
ing on into the higher glory of        in God as He revealed Himself in
eternal, heavenly life in Gods         the resurrection of Jesus, our         The Standard
tabernacle!                            Lord! And trusting in that God of
  The resurrection is God's            our salvation, might receive the
Word, testifying to the reality of     sentence of God's justification in     Bearer makes
that righteousness!                    our hearts: "That righteousness I
  And it is imputed!                   impute to you, who believe that I      a  thoughtful
  Imputed, not arbitrarily, but        raised Jesus your Lord from the
according to strictest justice! For    dead!" And receiving that              gift for the
Christ and His people, the elect,      sentence in our hearts, we have
formed into a corporation by
God's eternal decree, cannot be                                               sick & shut-in.
separated.




                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer  II01


I                                                About This Special Issue
~ Editorials                                     justification By Faith

       About This Special Issue                  Justification By Faith                       1) Justification from eternity.
          This is our first special issue of        What is meant by justification         In the decree of election we are
       the current volume-year and the           by faith?                                 justified from before the founda-
       fourth devoted to the general                The term justification as such         tion of the world. God has known
       theme of the Order of Salvation.          refers to the act of justifying, i.e.,    the elect in Christ as justified
       Strictly speaking, the fourth step        the act of making just, or                from all eternity. Even as He has
       in the Order of Salvation is justifi-     righteous. This must not be mis-          known the elect in Christ their
       ciation. Yet we refer here to justi-      understood, however. Justifica-           Head from all eternity, so He has
       fication by faith. This is due to         tion does not involve changing a          known the elect as justified in
       the fact that there is a very close       man from bad to good, from                Christ from all eternity. The
       connection and an essential rela-         unholy to holy, and in that sense         elect, therefore, are righteous
       tionship between faith and justifi-       from unrighteous to righteous.            before the tribunal of God from
       cation. It is impossible to speak         But it means "making" a man               before the foundation of the
       of the latter and properly to             just, or righteous, by God's de-          world. (cf. Numbers 23:21,
       understand the latter without             claring him righteous, passing            Romans 8:29, 30)
       reference to the fact that justifica-     sentence that he is innocent, just,          2) This justification is realized
       tion is strictly by faith.                righteous. We shall return to this        in time objectively in the crucifix-
          As has been the case with              idea a bit later.                         ion and death of our Lord Jesus
       other special issues, in this one           Justification, therefore, as the        Christ. Christ in atoning for His
       also we do not pretend that the           fourth step in `the Order of Salva-       elect people bore, and bore
       treatment is exhaustive. There is         tion, may be defined as "that act         away, all the guilt of all the elect
       a selection of important aspects          of God's grace whereby He im-             and obtained for them the in-
       of the theme.                             putes to the sinner that is in            alienable right to eternal life.
          We express a special word of           himself guilty and condemned,               3) Closely connected with this
       thanks to three of the writers in         but elect in Christ, the perfect          stands the truth that in the resur-
       this issue who are not staff              righteousness of God in Christ,           rection of Jesus Christ from the
       members, but who graciously               acquits him on the ground of              dead we have God's objective
      consented to write: the Revs. R.           Christ's merits of all guilt and          assurance of our justification.
       Dykstra, C. Terpstra. and Rev.            punishment, and gives him a               When God raised Christ from the
      Van Overloop.                              right to eternal life." (cf. Herman       dead, by that very deed He sealed
                                        I-ICH    Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics,             the fact that Christ had paid
                                                 p. 493)                                   the debt of our guilt and there-
                                                   In order to zero in on the              fore had the right to life - not as
                                                 meaning and significance of               a mere individual, but as the
                                                 justification as the fourth step in       representative Head of all the
                                                 the Order of Salvation, we should         elect. He "was delivered for (on
                                                 pay attention to the several              account of) our transgressions,
                                                 aspects of justification, the             and raised again for (on account
                                                 various senses in which Scripture         of) our justification." (Romans
                                                 speaks of justification. We may           4:25)
                                                 distinguish the following:


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   4) The fourth sense of justifi-        Nevertheless, the focus is on this         Thus it is in a far richer sense
cation is justification as declared       aspect.                                  with justification.
in the gospel. That gospel                   Let us try to understand a little       In himself the sinner is not
declares the righteousness of God         of the wonder of this justification.     righteous; but he is both guilty
for all the elect. It may be com-         It is rather easy when we engage         and corrupt. He is worthy of
pared with our legal citizenship          in a discussion of doctrine that         damnation. He is a sinner, ungod-
papers as citizens of the kingdom         we lose this aspect from view.           ly, both as to his state and as to
of God. Of justification in this          But justification is a tremendous        his condition.
sense Romans 1: 16, 17 speaks:            wonder, a wonderful blessing! In           But in justification the sinner is
"For I am not ashamed of the              fact; it is the key to all the bless-    declared righteous. God justifies
gospel of Christ: for it is the           ings of salvation. For remember:         the  ungodly!
power of God unto salvation to            God blesses only the righteous!            In justification we do not ap-
every one that believeth; to the             All the Reformed confessions          pear before God as righteous, but
Jew first, and also to the Greek.         which were composed shortly              as sinners. There is our original
For therein is the righteousness          after the Reformation in one way         guilt in Adam. There is the pollu-
of God revealed from faith to             or another stress this wonder of         tion of our nature inherited from
faith: as it is written, The just         justification, the same wonder           Adam. There is the mountain of
shall live by faith."                     that Martin Luther experienced           our actual sins and guilt. And we
  5) This righteousness we                after his long and painful struggle      have nothing to plead in
receive by faith only. It must be         of soul to find peace with God.          ourselves. Our own conscience
understood that faith is in no               What is that wonder?                  testifies that we are guilty sin-
sense another work and is in no              God justifies the ungodly!            ners. But God declares us
sense the ground of our justifica-        Those four words really express          righteous. Remember: in justifica-
tion. Faith is the God-given              it all.                                  tion God does not change our
power and activity whereby I                 To understand what this means         condition. No, we remain sinners.
cling to the power of God re-             we must remember that justifica-         But God declares us innocent,
vealed in Jesus Christ our Lord.          tion is a legal, or forensic, idea       righteous, worthy of eternal life.
As such it is the means whereby           and that it has to do with our           He changes our state.
I am ingrafted into Christ and            state, our legal position according        That is the wonder of justifica-
become partaker of all His                to the sentence of the judge.            tion!
benefits. "Now to him that                   Let me illustrate from every-           That is the wonder so beauti-
worketh is the reward not                 day life. Suppose that a man is a        fully set forth in Question and
reckoned of grace, but of debt.           citizen of the United States and         Answer 60 of our Heidelberg
But to him that worketh not, but          has all the rights and freedoms          Catechism - a statement unex-
believeth on him that justifieth          implied in such citizenship. Sup-        celled, in my opinion, in any
the ungodly, his faith is counted         pose, further, that this man goes        other Reformed confession: "How
for righteousness." (Romans-              on a crime spree. He breaks              art thou righteous before God?
4:4, 5)                                   every law of the land, engaging          Only by a true faith in Jesus
  6) Finally, Scripture speaks of         in theft, rape, kidnapping, and          Christ; so that, though my con-
our public justification in the day       multiple murders. Then the               science accuse me, that I have
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the day         police capture him, he is charged        grossly transgressed all the com-
of the revelation of the righteous        with numerous crimes worthy of           mandments of God, and kept
judgment of God. Then our                 capital punishment by the pros-          none of them, and am still in-
righteousness in Christ shall be          ecuting attorney, and brought to         clined to all evil; notwithstand-
publicly and universally declared,        trial. The outcome of the trial,         ing, God, without any merit of
and our public adoption as                however, though this man was in          mine, but only of mere grace,
children of God shall take place.         truth and in fact a criminal and         grants and imputes to me, the
  Now when we speak of justifi-           guilty as charged, is that the           perfect satisfaction, righteousness
cation by faith, of justification as      judge pronounces him innocent            and holiness of Christ; even so,
the fourth step of the Order of           of all charges and sets him free.        as if I never had had, nor com-
Salvation, we refer to justification      In that case the condition of such       mitted any sin: yea, as if I had
in the sense of No. 5 above. This         a man is still that of a criminal.       fully accomplished all that obe-
does not change the fact, of              His state (legal status), however,       dience which Christ has accom-
course, that this justification is in-    is that of an innocent citizen with      plished for me; inasmuch as I em-
separably related to justification        all the rights and freedoms im-          brace such benefit with a believ-
in all the other senses mentioned.        plied therein. He is in good             ing heart."
                                          standing before the law.

                                                                                                     The  Standard Bearer  I 103


    In quoting this answer we have       a question which we can answer                 work-righteousness. In the
 already briefly answered the            only very briefly because of                   deepest sense of the word they
 question: on what ground does           space limitations. It is this: what            would take the church and the
 God justify us? In the illustration     is the relation between faith and              believer back into the despair
 used above, the judge who               justification?                                 from which we were delivered i.n
 declared the criminal innocent             Negatively, we point out that               the Reformation.
 and set him free was, of course,        faith is not the ground, or basis,               Positively, faith is the, means,
 derelict in his duty. He was guilty     of our justification; that ground is           or instrument, given by God
 of gross injustice. This can never      the perfect sacrifice of Christ.               whereby He unites us with Christ
 be true of God, the Sovereign           Neither is the relation such that              and whereby we receive Him
 and Righteous Judge of all the          we are righteous before God                    and all His benefits. This holds
 earth. He always judges a               because of the fruits of faith in              true whether you think of the
 righteous judgment. In fact, if this    our good works. Neither is faith a             power of faith or the activity of
 were not true, His sentence of          condition or prerequisite which                faith - and it is striking, by the
 justification would be worthless        we must fulfill in order to be                 way, how often Holy Scripture
 and undependable. But the               justified. Neither is faith the                speaks of faith in the active
 ground of our justification is in       "hand" which we must extend to                 sense, of believing, in connection
 the perfect sacrifice and righ-         accept God's proffered salvation.              with our justification. Faith is the
 teousness of Christ crucified and         All such views are character-                God-given power and activity
 raised. However, about this you         ized essentially by the same basic             whereby we cling to the power
 will find a separate article from       error: they change faith into                  of God in Jesus Christ, cling to
 the pen of Rev. Van Overloop.           another work, and thereby deny                 the God Who justifies the un-
    There is one more very impor-        the precious truth of justification            godly! q                         HCH
 tant question in this connection,       by faith as distinct from any





                                         Martin Luther  And
Herman C. Hanko                           ustif ication By Faith

                                            The great doctrine of justifica-              That this truth occupied such
                                         tion by faith is part of our                   an important position in Luther's
                                         glorious heritage, come down to                thought was due to his own per-
                                         us from the Protestant Reforma-                sonal struggle to come to the
                                         tion of the sixteenth century. It              assurance of salvation and peace
                                         was the unique contribution of                 with God. Everyone who has
                                         the work of the first of all the               even a passing acquaintance with
                                         reformers: Martin Luther. It                   the great Reformation of the six-
                                         became the central truth of                    teenth century knows of Luther's
                                         Luther's theology. Schaff writes:              great struggle, a struggle which
                                           Luther assigned to his solifidian (by        dominated a significant part of
                                         faith alone) doctrine of justification the     his life, a struggle which ended
                                         central position in the Christian system,      only when he discovered the
                                         declared it to be the article of the stand-
                                         ing or falling (Lutheran) church, and was      great truth of justification by faith
                                         unwilling to yield an inch from it, though     alone, a struggle through which
                                         heaven and earth should collapse.              God, in His all-wise providence,
Herman C. Hanko is professor of New
Testament and Church History in the                                                     led Luther so that this great
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                                                           Biblical truth was a truth which

104  I The Standard Bearer


Luther taught from the depths of                merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is    book filled with heart-rending
his own personal experience.                    written, "`He who through faith is              cries for mercy, with anxious
   The struggle to find assurance               righteous shall live." Here I felt that I       pleas for pardon, with bitter
                                                was altogether born again and had
not only lasted a long time, but                entered paradise itself through open            denunciations of sin, with long-
the gradual dawning of the truth                gates. There a totally other face of the        ings which are never satisfied.
of justification by faith also was              entire Scripture showed itself to me.           Never, not once, is there to be
not the insight of a moment, but                Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures          found so much as a breath of
a long and arduous struggle. It is              from memory. I also found in other terms        comfort. Imagine then what it
                                                an analogy, as, the work of God, that is,
perhaps best to let Luther tell the             what God does in us, the power of God,          meant that the Reformers came
story in his own words:                         with which He makes us strong, the              to people with the astonishing
  Meanwhile I had already during that           wisdom of God, with which He makes us           words: "We bring to you a gospel
year  (1514,  the year of his great "tower      wise, the strength of God, the salvation of     of comfort, acWord from God
experience,  " H.H.) returned fo interpret      God, the glory of God.                          which will take away the ache of
the Psalter (the Book of Psalms on which          And I extolled my sweetest word with          your soul, which will bring peace
he was lecturing in the university, H.H.)       a love as great as the hatred with which
anew. I had confidence in the  fact that I      I had hated the word "righteousness of          of heart, which will satisfy your
was more  skilful,  after I had lectured in     God." Thus that place in Paul was for           deepest longings, which will
the university on St. Paul's epistles to the    me truly the gate  to  paradise. Later I        change your cries of shame to
Romans, to the Galatians,  and the one to       read AugustineS  The Spirit and the Let-        songs of joyful praise."
the Hebrews. I had indeed been cap-             ter,  where contrary to hope I found that         Roman Catholic theology had
tivated with an  extraordinary ardour  for      he, too, interpreted God's  righteousness
understanding Paul in the Epistle  fo the       in a similar way, as the righteousness          no word of comfort for the saints.
Romans. But up till then it was not the         with which God clothes us when He               It had none because of its doc-
cold blood about the heart, but a single        justifies us. Although this was heretofore      trine of justification. It taught a
word in Chapter  1 (I  7), "In it the           said imperfectly and he did not explain         justification by works or a salva-
righteousness of God is revealed, " that        all things concerning imputation clearly,       tion which came to man by grace
had stood in my way. For I hated that           it nevertheless was pleasing that God's
word righteousness of God, which, ac-           righteousness with which we are justified       and human merit. As Schaff says,
cording  Co the use and custom of all the       was taught. Armed more fully with these         "In the Catholic system justifica-
teachers, I had been taught to under-           thoughts, I began a second time to inter-       tion is a gradual process condi-
stand philosophically regarding the for-        pret the Psalter.                               tioned by faith and good works."
mal or active righteousness, as they               Sometimes we become so ac-                   Roman Catholicism confused
called it, with which God is righteous and      customed to the rich truths of
punishes the unrighteous sinner.                                                                justification with sanctification
                                                our heritage that we take them
  Though I lived as a monk without                                                              and spoke of justification as a
reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before     for granted and do not appreciate               process of becoming more and
God with an extremely disturbed con-            what they really mean. E.g., our                more righteous through one's
science. I could not believe that He was        Heidelberg Catechism begins                     faith and one's good works. This
placated by my satisfaction. I did not          with the well-known words:
love, yes, I hated the righteous God who                                                        could not possibly bring peace of
                                                "What is your only comfort in
punishes sinners, and secretly, if not                                                          heart to the anxious child of God,
blasphemously, certainly murmuring              life and death? That I with body                for he knew, deep down within
greatly, I was angry with God, and said,        and soul, both in life and death,               himself, that his own works could
"As it indeed, it .is not enough, that          am not my own, but belong unto                  never accomplish anything. No
miserable sinners, eternally lost through       my faithful Savior Jesus
original sin, are crushed by every kind of                                                      wonder that Luther kept asking
                                                Christ . . . ." We can, I think,
calamity by the law of the decalogue,                                                           himself, wheri a monk, whether
without having God add pain to pain by          hardly appreciate how words of                  he was sufficiently hard on him-
the gospel and also by the gospel               this sort thundered throughout                  self, whether God would notice
threatening us with His righteousness and       the whole of Europe. Rome                       his hunger and his cold, whether
wrath!" Thus I raged with a fierce and          never could preach a gospel of
troubled conscience. Nevertheless, I beat                                                       any good could come from
                                                comfort. I recall not so long ago
importunately on Paul at that place,                                                            beating himself. Always a hollow
most ardently desiring to know what St.         reading The Prayers and Medita-                 and empty void filled him.
Paul wanted.                                    tions of St. Anslem, a pious man                  All this was made the worse
  At last, by the mercy of God,                 of the eleventh century who                     by his firm conviction, in keeping
meditating day and night, I gave heed to        served as Archbishop of Canter-
the                                                                                             with Roman Catholic thought,
        context of the words, namely, "In it    bury, one of the highest positions
the righteousness of God is revealed, as it                                                     that the Biblical term, "the
is written, He who through faith is             in the church. In all his prayers               righteousness of God," meant
righteous shall live." There I began to         and meditations, one can find no                God's fierce anger against sin
understand that the righteousness of God        word of comfort, no assurance of                because God was righteous and
is that by which the righteous lives by a       salvation, no joy in Christ. It is a
gift of God, namely by faith. And this is                                                       punished sin in His justice.
the passive righteousness with which


                                                                                                                  The  Standard Bearer  /  105


    But God led him to see, while             to do but accept and assent to          pieces the imposing citadel of
 struggling with the meaning of               the teachings of the church.            Rome's entire theological
 such passages of Scripture as                  Luther soon saw that faith is         system. It was the one powerful
 Romans 1:17, that the term,                  much more. Faith is that which          attack upon all Rome's heresy
 "righteousness of God," referred             puts the believer in abiding union      which swept it away as with a
 not to that attribute of God                 with Christ. It is exactly the op-      whirlwind, which swept salvation
 Himself according to which He                posite of works - of which              once and for all out of the hands
 hates and punishes sin, but re-              Luther had had his fill. It is that     of mere man, and which restored
 ferred rather to a righteousness             God-given power whereby the             salvation to God and His gracious
 which comes from God and is                  believer lives in Christ, and           work through Christ.
 freely and graciously given to the           Christ in the believer. It is a           And it formed the firm founda-
 sinner for Christ's sake. It is a            power which enables the believer        tion for the great truth of comfort
 righteousness judicially imputed.            to cling to Christ, lay hold on         for God's people. If comfort is to
 It is a single act of God whereby            Christ's perfect sacrifice as his       be found in what we do, in what
 God declares the sinner to be                own, find shelter and safety in all     our hands accomplish, in our
 without guilt, and clothes the sin-          the stormy seas of sin beneath          works, "we would always be in
 ner in the righteousness of Christ.          the cross of Calvary. And               doubt, tossed to and fro without
    Not what Luther did, the                  because precisely this faith is the     any certainty, and our poor con-
 Reformer suddenly saw, but what              opposite of works, it too is. God's     sciences continually vexed'
 God did - that was the heart of              work. God makes us one with             (Belgic Confession, Article XXIV).
 the whole matter.                            Christ; and making us one with          If comfort is to be found in what
    This amazing discovery led                Christ, God declares us to be           God does through Christ and in
 also to an understanding of what             righteous for Christ's sake.            that perfect righteousness of God
 faith is. Roman Catholic theology              No wonder that this became,           revealed in the cross and worked
 had interpreted faith as mere                for Luther, the all controlling         in us through faith, then truly we
 agreement on the part of the                 principle of his life, his theology,    have a firm comfort which car-
 member of the church that what-              and all his reformatory work. It        ries us safely through life and
 ever the church said is truth. The           was that one truth which, as a          death into the arms of Christ in
 church member had nothing else               crashing cannonball, smashed to         glory. Cl





Russell /. Dykstra                            Praying With Assurance

                                                The command of Christ to His          out all the old dispensation God
                                              disciples is, "After this manner        spoke, revealing Himself by
                                              therefore pray ye: `Our Father          various means: by dreams and vi-
                                              Who art in heaven . . ."' The           sions, by signs and wonders, as
                                              ability and the right to pray is        well as directly by the Angel of
                                              one of Gods greatest blessings          Jehovah. This revelation cli-
                                              upon His children. That God, the        maxed in the Incarnation when
                                              Almighty Creator God, would             God became flesh and dwelt
                                              stoop to the level of lowly man         among man, and man beheld
                                              to reveal Himself to man is cause       Gods glory and truth as he never
 Russell J. Dykstra is pastor of the Prot-    enough for amazement. Through-          had before. That is, you will
 estant Reformed Church of  Doon,  Iowa.

106  I The Standard Bearer


agree, astounding. But is it not      ment and worships, humbly re-           assurance of justification. It is the
also amazing that God would           questing Gods blessing.                 personal assurance of the forgive-
give man the right to speak to           The question is: How is justifi-     ness of his sins. It is the con-
Him, to call upon Him in prayer,      cation by faith related to prayer?      scious experience of peace with
bringing to God his praise and        It must be made plain from the          God and the awareness of God's
thanksgiving,< his needs and          outset that we are dealing with         love and favor upon him.
cares, and making bold requests       the consciousness or assurance of         This gift of God means every-
unto God? Who would dare to do        justification. Justification means,     thing to the Christian. With it he
such a thing, to cry out to God,      of course, that one is declared         has everything - the love of
"Bow down thine ear, 0 LORD           righteous. God's people are eter-       God, the forgiveness of sins, and
and hear?" The publican of Jesus'     nally justified. God always saw         the right to eternal life. In short,
parable scarcely dared pray at        them in Christ. In Him they are         he has all his salvation. Without
all. Some within the body of          righteous and God declares them         justification, he has nothing.
Reformed Churches believe they        as such forever. That justification       This gift comes through faith in
may not call upon God as their        was accomplished at the cross of        Christ. That is important. The
Father until God gives them a         Christ. Christ took the sins of His     man justified by his own works
definite indication that they are     own and the curse of God due to         does not need prayer. In his own
saved. Others, perhaps, call upon     them and paid for them all. The         mind he already has salvation in
God all too easily and even ir-       guilt of those sins was removed         himself, and his "prayer" will be
reverently. But Scripture teaches     and the righteousness Christ            only the speech of the Pharisee,
that only the man who has the         merited in perfect love and obe-        "thanking" God that he is "not as
assurance of his own justification    dience was imputed to the elect.        other men are." But faith takes
can truly pray. And pray he will,     Thus they are in fact righteous,        hold of Christ and His cross as
knowing that God has given him        are justified in God's sight. This      the only ground of his salvation.
this blessed privilege. It is that    justification gives the child of        Faith unites us to Christ so that
connection between prayer and         God the right to come to God in         His righteousness is ours. Apart
justification by faith that we in-    prayer.                                 from Him we have no righteous-
tend to set forth in this article.      The Scriptures testify plainly        ness and no forgiveness of sins.
  First of all, we face the ques-     that God does not hear the                That consciousness of justifica-
tion: What is prayer? Scripture       prayer of the ungodly. Notice the       tion makes it possible for the
does not give us a ready-made         Word of God in Proverbs 15%             child of God to approach God in
definition of prayer. Nevertheless    "The sacrifice of the wicked is an      prayer. But it does more than
it is obvious from Scripture that     abomination to the Lord: but the        that. It has a profound effect on
prayer is communication - man         prayer of the upright is high           his prayers, determining his at-
speaks to God through the             delight." And we read in John           titude while praying, as well as
Mediator, Jesus Christ. The           9:31: "Now we know that God             the content of his prayer.
speech is that of a dependent         heareth not sinners." The same is         Notice how the believer's at-
creature to the All-sufficient        true for God's people when they         titude is shaped by this sure
Creator. By the very fact that a      walk wilfully in sin. The prophet       knowledge that he is justified in
man prays, he acknowledges that       Isaiah warned Israel of this (59:2):    Christ. The first element of this
he is in need of what God alone       "But your iniquities have               knowledge is the awareness of
can supply. Prayer is also wor-       separated between you and your          his sins and misery. He sees the
ship. And worship consists of two     God, and your sins have hid his         mountain of his guilt for all the
parts - humiliation of self and       face from you, that he will not         sins committed against God.
exaltation of God. Thus in prayer     hear." On the other hand, "The          Realizing, therefore, that in
man humbly bows before His            eyes of the LORD are upon the           himself he deserves only God's
God, confessing himself to be         righteous, and his ears are open        wrath, he comes humbly before
nothing. At the same time he          unto his cry." (Psalm 34:15)            this great and holy God. He
adores this God, gives thanks to        Therefore, if the child of God        abhors himself; he humbles
Him, and speaks His praise.           is ever to draw near to God in          himself to the dust. Read the
  Thus by means of prayer, man        prayer, he must be conscious of         prayers of the saints recorded in
steps into the very sanctuary of      his own justification. This gift of     Scripture and you will discover
God and draws near to His             God to His people is the personal       this to be true of all their
throne. There, beholding the                                                  prayers. They are the words of
glory and majesty of the one true                                             seruants, conscious of their un-
God, he bows in total self abase-                                             worthiness to stand in the


                                                                                               The Standard  Bearer   I 107


 presence of God. They come with           mercy in this salvation, he most         sake of Christ, not once or twice,
 reverence and child-like fear.            certainly fills his prayer with          but every day, as long as he lives
    Yet at the same time, they             praise and thanksgiving. And, in         on the earth.
 come boldly. Notice that this is          almost every prayer, he cries out          And that assurance he receives
 not a contradiction of what we            for the forgiveness of his sins. It      by faith. How great is the
 just said. Coming boldfy is not           may seem strange that the                wisdom and grace of God! Not
 the same as coming irreverently.          believer, conscious of his justifica-    only is the consciousness of justi-
 God's people come reverently,             tion, continually asks for forgive-      fication necessary for the
 but also they come with the con-          ness, but he truly does. He does         believer to pray; but it is also
 fidence that God will hear them.          so first of all because the work of      through prayer itself that the
 How can that be? Because they             God's grace within him makes             believer's assurance of his
 come not on the basis of what             him acutely conscious of his sins        justification grows. Thus it was
 they are or have done; rather             and of the old nature within.            with the publican. Having only
 they come on the basis of what            Secondly, he is fully aware of the       the beginning of faith in Christ,
 Christ has done. That is their            fact that he has nothing in              and being overwhelmed with
 confidence. Only those who have           himself. All his salvation is in         grief because of his sins, he could
 the assurance of their justification      Christ. From Christ he must              only cry out, "God be merciful to
 by faith in Christ can and do             receive all his salvation in time        me, the sinner." But Jesus' word
 come boldly to the throne of              and eternity. That includes the          was: "I tell you, this man went
 God.                                      forgiveness of sins. And finally,        down to his house justified."
    This assurance also determines,        he continues to plead for God's          (Luke 18:14)
 to a large degree, the content of         pardon because his sins cut him            What more could be desired?
 the prayer. Conscious of his justi-       off from the experience of God's         Let us, therefore, pray without
 fication, the believer addresses          favor - from that lovingkindness         ceasing, only with the assurance
 God as his Father, because for            of God which means more than             of our justification by faith in
 the sake of Christ God is his             life to him. So he must beg for          Christ. And then we can pray
 Father. Overwhelmed by the                forgiveness, for the assurance           with confidence. Cl
 magnitude of G&l's grace and              that his sins are forgiven for the





                                           s The Truth Of Free
                                           lustif ication An
Arie den Hartog                            mmoral `Doctrine?

                                             The blessed and glorious doc-          was also made. Sometimes it is
                                           trine of free and perfect justifica-     heard again in our day, when
                                           tion has sometimes been ma-              justification is being reconsidered
                                           ligned as an immoral doctrine.           in the ecumenical debate. Even
                                           This is an age-oid calumny that          in Reformed circles, one some-
                                           was raised already in the days of        times hears charges against the
                                           the apostles by the Judaizers.           doctrines of sovereign grace that
 Arie den Hartog is pastor of the Prot-    During the debate on justification       are quite similar. It is doubtful
 estant Reformed Church of Randolph,       at the time of the Reformation it        that anyone has ever in earnest
 Wisconsin.

`108  I The Standard Bearer


sought to substantiate this charge      and sin. Therefore, why not sin          tized into His death? Therefore
by biblical argumentation. Rather       and follow one's lusts? To bring         we are buried with Him by bap-
it is a charge made in theological      the argument one step further,           tism into death: that like as Christ
debate by those who oppose the          according to the doctrine of free        was raised up from the dead by
truth of justification by faith         justification, man's sin glorifies       the glory of God the Father, even
alone without works of men. It is       the grace of God. The more the           so we also should walk in
an argument based solely on             Christian sins, the more glorious        newness of life. For if we have
human logic and reasoning, and          will finally appear the justifica-       been planted together in the like-
not upon Scripture. In a more           tion of God. This whole line of          ness of His death, we shall also
practical and subtle way, the           reasoning is of course very              be in the likeness of His resurrec-
devil himself seeks to overthrow        devilish; but this, say the op-          tion: Knowing this, that our old
the truths of sovereign grace           posers of perfect and absolute           man is crucified with Him, that
with the Christian. He will seek        justification, is the logical conclu-    the body of sin might be
to plant in our minds the imag-         sion of your doctrine.                   destroyed, that henceforth we
ination that because of the               This charge is answered only           should not serve sin." (Romans
truth of sovereign grace and free       by considering God's own won-            6:3-6)
justification we need not be so         derful way of salvation. There is          This is not the place to give a
serious about living the Christian      no better answer found in the            detailed exposition of this
life. After all, we have already        scriptures than the one which the        beautiful passage of Scripture, but
been made perfectly righteous           inspired apostle Paul himself            let us try to summarize briefly
anyway. The true child of God           gives to this charge in Romans 6.        Paul's argument. We have, says
who knows the Scriptures and            In the opening chapters of               the apostle, been made dead to
the experience of his own life          Romans the apostle clearly sets          sin. We were united to Christ and
knows how utterly false this            forth the doctrine of justification      crucified and raised with Him un-
reasoning is.                           by faith alone, through the              to newness of life. Therefore we
  The argument" that is used is as      righteousness of God that is free-       no longer serve sin. Paul does
follows. A Christian is made            ly given us by grace in Christ           not in Romans 6 mean to say
perfectly righteous by a                Jesus. It was especially these           that sin has been utterly
sovereign declaration of God that       chapters of the word of God that         destroyed in us so that we are
has nothing to do with any of his       convinced Martin Luther of this          now no longer sinners at all.
works. The basis of justification is    great doctrine. At the beginning         Such a teaching would contradict
solely the cross of the Lord Jesus      of chapter 6 of Romans, Paul             what he says in Romans 7 and
Christ. The imputed righteousness       raises the hypothetical question;        other passages of his epistles.
of Christ makes the Christian           "What shall we say then?" (that          Rather, because of our crucifixion
perfectly and unchangeably              is, to the doctrine set forth in the     with Christ, we have been prin-
righteous. Nothing that the Chris-      preceding chapters of this epis-         cipally and spiritually delivered
tian can do nor need do can in          tle). "Shall we continue in sin,         from the bondage of sin. There-
any way add or subtract from his        that grace may abound?" Shall            fore sin no longer has dominion
righteousness in Christ. This           we who have been justified freely        over us. Once by nature we were
leaves the Christian no reason          of grace in Christ Jesus continue        the slaves of sin. We served sin
nor incentive to do good works          in sin that grace may abound? To         willingly. We loved sin and hated
or live a life of sanctification.       this Paul answers as emphatically        God. Now by the work of God
Turning the argument around, it         as possible, "GOD FORBID! How            we have been delivered from the
does not really matter how the          shall we, that are dead to sin,          awful slavery of sin that we
Christian lives. No amount of evil      live any longer therein?" It is ex-      might live in newness of life and
will annul the righteousness that       actly because the Christian has          serve God. The result of this
he has in Christ, or change the         been made dead to sin that it is         work of God in the Christian is
sentence of God's righteousness.        spiritually impossible for him to        that he now willingly serves God.
Therefore it follows logically that     reason the way in which the op-          He hates sin and loves God.
the Christian can just as well live     posers of the truth do. All such         Because of the work of God in
as he pleases. Living as a serious      reasoning will be excluded and           him he is exhorted in this same
Christian is so much more dif-          even abhorred if we but under-
ficult than living in ungodliness       stand the wonderful work of
                                        God's salvation. "Know ye not,
                                        that so many of us as were bap-
                                        tized into Jesus Christ were bap-

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 chapter not again to yield his              According to the catechism,           realizes that the hellish agonies
 members to iniquity, but rather          thankfulness to God is the great         which Christ endured on the
  to yield his members unto righ-         motive and incentive unto godly          cross were on account of his sins.
  teousness and holiness. This the        living. Those who believe in             He is amazed in wonderment and
 Christian does with thankfulness         work righteousness imagine that          awe at the loving and perfect
 to God for his wonderful                 there can be no motive for godly         sacrifice which Jesus the Son of
 deliverance from the bondage of          living except the whole idea of          God offered on his behalf. He re-
 sin through the cross of Christ          meriting before God our own              joices at the perfect righteousness
 and through his union with Christ        righteousness and salvation. On          that he finds by faith at the cross.
 in His death and resurrection. A         the contrary, the idea of work           Then surely he does not leave
 wonderful spiritual change has           righteousness can never be the           the cross to live a life of sin
 taken place in the justified Chris-      motive for true godliness. The           again. On the contrary, assured
 tian. That change was wrought            man who imagines that he must            of the peace and favor of God, he
 through his union with Christ and        merit his own righteousness will         goes out to live in thankfulness
 by the operation of the Spirit of        never have peace with God. He            to God. Constrained by the love
 God in him. That is the change of        will always live in fear and terror      and Spirit of Christ Jesus, he
 regeneration and sanctification.         of the righteous judgment of God.        strives to live no longer unto
 To put all of this in theological        He will always live in the dread         himself, but unto Him Who died
 language, the justified sinner is        that his works of righteousness          for him and rose again for his
 also immediately sanctified              will not measure up to the holy          justification.
 through his union with Christ.           and righteous standard of God,              From-a somewhat different
 God's work of sanctification in us       and that in the end he will be           perspective, it is charged that the
 will have the inevitable fruit that      condemned. The fear of judg-             doctrine of free justification is a
 we hate sin and love righteous-          ment can never be the motive             lawless doctrine. It sets forth a
 ness. It will mean that, rather          for true godliness and holiness.         justification that is without the
 than continuing in sin, we flee          Rather it is the child of God who        deeds of the law.*We are made
 from sin and strive against it with      knows the absolute gracious              righteous without the law and
 all our might, through the power         character of his salvation and the       only by grace alone in Christ
 of the grace of God within us. It        perfect righteousness that is his        Jesus. This is, of course, the ex-
 is therefore unthinkable that the        freely of grace in Christ Jesus,         act position of the apostle Paul in
 justified Christian who has been         that is, by the Spirit of God and        his letters, so this charge is made
 united to Christ shall say: "let us      the love of Christ he is con-            against the apostle's doctrine,
 continue in sin that grace may           strained to live a life of thankful-     and not against any human for-
 abound." Rather such a one says:         ness and gratitude to God in             mulation of that doctrine. Those
 "Thanks be to God. We have               righteousness and holiness.              who make this charge claim that
 been made free from sin and                All of this is in harmony with         therefore the doctrine of justifica-
 become servants of God unto              the real experience of the true          tion leads to and encourages the
 righteousness and holiness."             child of God. Justification brings       position of antinomianism. But  -
    The catechism is correct in           the true child of God again and          those who make this charge have
 answering the question; "But             again to the cross. He realizes          not truly studied the truth of the
 doth not this doctrine make men          more and more by the Spirit of           apostle and of the Lord Jesus
 careless and profane?" It is speak-      God every day of his life how im-        Christ. For Christ did not at the
 ing here exactly about the great         possible it is for him to merit          cross ignore the law of God.
 doctrine of justification by faith.      righteousness on his own ac-             Rather He offered Himself as a
 It answers; "By no means; for it         count. As a condemned and guil-          perfect sacrifice in obedience to
 is impossible that those, who are        ty sinner, the Christian goes to         the absolutely perfect and
 implanted into Christ by a true          the cross and finds perfect              righteous demands of the law. It
 faith, should not bring forth fruits     righteousness there. In the cross        is only because Christ fulfilled the
 of thankfulness." (Lords Day 24)         all condemnation and judgment            law on our behalf that we could
 Because of the work of God               has been removed. With his daily         be justified without the deeds of
 within the justified Christian, it is    sins the Christian goes to the
 a spiritual impossibility that he        cross. He stands at the cross, not
 should use the doctrine of perfect       careless about his sins because he
 and free justification as a reason       is justified in Christ, but rather he
 for sinning.                             abhors the awfulness of his sins.
                                          In deep humiliation and awe he


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 the law. When Christ fulfilled the        perfect standard of gratitude and        "Oh- how love I thy law, it is my
 law at the cross, He did not              thankfulness to God. The Chris-          meditation all the day long."
 abolish the law in its require-           tian can and does begin to keep          Having been delivered from the
 ments and demands. Rather He              the law of God because, as               curse of the law by the righteous-
 established the law as the perfect        justified in Christ, he is sanctified    ness of Christ by the Spirit of
 and unchangeable standard of              by the Spirit of Christ and longs        God, the Christian lives according
 God's righteousness. The law as           to live in obedience to God. The         to the law in gratitude and thank-
 fulfilled at the cross of Christ re-      justified Christian alone can say;       fulness to God, in holiness and
 mains for the Christian his                                                        obedience before Him. 0





                                           Saved By A Working
                                           Faith (An Exposition of
Robert D. Decker                           James 2:14-l 7>

                                             The gospel declares that all of         righteous, in principle to be sure,
                                           our salvation is in Jesus Christ.         but we are righteous. Not only
                                           This is true from a legal point of        are we freed from the guilt of
                                           view. By nature we are guilty,            sin, but we are also freed from
                                           dead in sin, worthy of the wrath          the power of sin. Not only are we
                                           of God. In Adam we all died.              forgiven, but we are also washed
                                           There is nothing we can do to            by the blood and Spirit of Christ
                                           erase that guilt. In fact, all we         from the filth of sin.
                                           can do is add to it. The natural            We receive all these benefits
                                           mind according `to Romans 8:7 is          by God's gift of faith. Faith is the
                                           hatred against God and it is not          living bond by which we are
                                           subject to Gods law, neither in-          united with Christ. Through the
                                           deed can be. By Gods grace,               living bond flow all the blessings
                                           however, we are from eternity             of salvation which are in Christ.
                                           chosen in Christ Jesus and justi-         By that bond of faith we are
                                           fied in His blood. The benefits of        given to know God as our Father
                                           that justification are that our           and Provider. And knowing God
                                           original as well as our actual sins       through Jesus Christ as the God
                                           are forgiven. Gods sentence is:           of our salvation, we trust in Him
                                           "Not guilty!" And having forgiven         for all things. We know and trust
                                           us, God also adopted us to be His         that nothing can be against us,
                                           children. As the adopted of God           but that all things are for us, and
                                           we are the heirs of everlasting           that we are in Christ Jesus more
                                           life and glory in Jesus Christ. Not       than conquerors. This living bond
                                           only so, but we are actually              of faith is God's gift of grace, for
                                           saved in Christ. No longer are we         the Scriptures declare: `"by grace
                                           dead in sin. We are alive in
Robert D. Decker is professor of New
Testament and Practical Theology in the    Christ Jesus, and sin has no more
Protestant Reformed Seminary.              lordship over us. We are actually

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 are ye saved, through faith and          and tremble. A person may even          warmed and filled" literally
 that not of yourselves: it is the        believe that he is a sinner and         means warm yourselves and fill
 gift of God." (Eph. 29) God unites       worthless in God's sight. One           yourselves. In other words take
 us to Jesus Christ and keeps us          may know the Bible from                 care of your own needs.
 one with Christ by means of the          Genesis to Revelation. But it is all      What does that profit? Does
 Word and sacraments. And there-          in his head and not in his heart.       that do your poor brother or
 fore we know Him and believe             One may attend church faithfully,       sister any good? Does your nice
 all that He has revealed and trust       send his children to catechism          talk put clothes on his back or
 in Him for time and eternity. All        and the Christian school, make          food in his hungry stomach? Of
 of this is ours by means of faith.       his contributions to the cause of       course not. What is the profit
    That living faith bears fruit in      the kingdom. One may know the           then? All you have is nice talk,
 good works. Exactly because it is        truth, the Reformed faith, and          but no works, no deeds of mercy.
 God's gift, it belongs to the very       even be able to detect heresy in        Depart in peace, I am sorry,
 nature of faith that it bears fruit.     its subtle forms. One may come          warm yourselves, feed your-
 Christ lives in us and we live out       to the table of communion and           selves. That is profitless, vain,
 of Him. Christ works in us both          confess thereby that he has faith.      and empty talk.
 to will and to do of His good            But the real character of the faith       In this same manner a faith
 pleasure and, therefore, we work         which that person claims to have        without the works of faith is
 out our salvation with fear and          is that it bears no fruit in good       dead. One says he has faith. That
 trembling. (Phil. 2:12, 13) Created      works. This man remains a               is his confession. He says: "I
 in Christ Jesus as God's work-           natural man. One cannot see his         believe the truth and know the
 manship unto good works which,           faith in his life. He lives no dif-     truth; I believe in God, in Christ,
 God has before ordained that we          ferently than the ungodly. There        in salvation and forgiveness of
 should walk in them (Eph. 2:10),         is no change. He keeps on claim-        sins; I believe the whole Bible to
 united by faith to Jesus, we live        ing to have faith but he continues      be the Word of God." And that
 in Him and bear fruit just as the        having no works of faith.               person comes to church and
 branches live in the vine. And             James, almost with a touch of         probably never or at least very
 that fruit of faith is the works of      impatience, asks: what doth it          seldom misses a service. This per-
 faith. The works of faith are per-       profit? What is the advantage of        son makes use of the sacraments,
 formed according God's law to            that kind of faith, a faith that is     he baptizes his children, and he
 the glory of His name. That is liv-      no more than a mouthing of              attends the Lord's Supper. By all
 ing faith. By that fruit-bearing gift    words? A faith that has no works        of this the person claims to have
 of grace, God saves us in Jesus          to the glory of God is worthless.       faith. But the works are not
 Christ.                                  Can that kind of faith save some-       there. This person hears sermon
    James in this`passage is speak-       one? The question is not: can           after sermon, but there is no
 ing of a dead faith. That is possi-      faith save him? But: can this faith     radical change in his life. The
 ble. Note well that James does           which has no works, save him?           Word of God speaks to him of sin
 not say: "If a man has faith, can        The answer is obviously no. That        and guilt, but never makes his
 faith save him?" That is absurd.         is a dead faith.                        heart tender. He claims to have
 He who has faith, as we have just          James illustrates precisely what      faith and he says he is sorry for
 described it according to the            he means. Suppose this happens:         his sins, but he never leaves
 Scriptures, that man is saved.           that a brother or sister comes to       them. He keeps right on in his
 James says: "If a man says he has        you naked, i.e., not entirely naked     sinful way. Lords Day after
 faith and has not works . . ."           but very poorly clothed and             Lord's Day this person is con-
 James is talking about people            destitute of daily food, i.e., lack-    fronted with the living Christ and
 who claim to have faith, but who         ing food sufficient even for one        He never sets his heart on fire.
 as a matter of fact have not the         day. This poor brother or sister        There is no real longing for Jesus
 works of faith. This is a dead           comes to you who have much.             and he never casts himself into
 faith. The man says he has faith.        And you say to him: "Depart in          His arms for time and eternity.
 He may believe many things, for          peace, be ye warmed and filled,"        There is never a fleeing to Him.
 example, that God is. James              but you do not give him those           Nor is there a breaking with the
 responds that devils believe, too,       things needful to the body. You         world of sin. Sunday after Sunday
                                          do not supply the necessities of        the Word warns this person that
                                          food and clothing. All you do is        he must seek first the kingdom of
                                          talk. "Depart in peace," was the        God, and that he cannot be one
                                          common Jewish farewell. "Be ye


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with the world. And Monday                      judgment seat of Jesus Christ, all     in word but in deed and in truth.
after Monday he goes into that                  of our talking about having faith      This kind of faith bears one
world and sings its songs, fellow-              will not do us a bit of good.          another's burdens and so fulfils
ships with its citizens, takes part             Many will say in that day, "Lord,      the law of Christ.
in its pleasures, seeks its                     Lord." But the Judge will say to          That faith saves. By it we are
perishing treasures, and his heart              them: "Depart from me, you             led into an ever deeper aware-
is set on these things. And this                worker of iniquity. I never knew       ness of our sin, and we confess
person has no time to read his                  you."                                  those sins in godly sorrow, and
Bible, no time to pray, no time to                Do we have genuine, .working         rejoice in the forgiving mercies of
study the Scriptures with his                   faith? The evidence will be in the     God which are ours in the shed
fellow saints. And no one can see               fruit. Saving faith, living faith      blood of the Sgviour. By the
that he has been with Jesus. His                works. In this context, faith prays    power of that faith we fight the
life is no different than the                   without wavering, endures temp-        battle of faith, strive for the
ungodly. He satisfies himself                   tations, does not blame God for        kingdom, and seek the glory of
rather than denying himself. He                 sin, receives the Word with            God, and live and walk together
bears no cross and refuses to                   meekness, is slow to wrath, slow       as members of the one body of
follow the Lord.                                to speak, does not merely hear         our Lord in brotherly love. God's
  What is the profit? Can that                  the Word but does the Word,            name is glorified through that
kind of faith save him? Never!                  bridles the tongue, visits the         faith.
That is a dead faith. If that be                fatherless and widows in their af-        Do we have that faith? We
true of us, God says to us there is             fliction and remains unspotted         confess that we do, but do we
not a wit of salvation in our                   from the world. That faith bears       really have faith? Or is it just
souls. All we have is talk, just a              the fruit of God's love. It is         talk? If so,' it is dead faith and ut-
mouthing of empty words.                        without admiration of the ungod-       terly worthless. Are the works of
"Depart in peace, be warmed and                 ly rich and never despises Gods        faith present? Rejoice. By grace
filled." We must not say this. We               poor. That faith strives to live in    we are saved through faith, and
must not say that we have faith                 obedience to the royal law and         that not of yourselves: it is the
when we really do not. We must                  speaks and does as those who           gift of God. Cl
not make the claim when the                     will be judged by the law of
works are not there. If we do, we               liberty. In one word that faith
are only deceiving ourselves.                   bears the fruit of the love of God
And when we stand before the                    and reveals that love not merely
                                           -





                                           Justif ication's Only Basis:
Ronald /. Van Overloop                     Jesus' Atonement

                                                  Anyone who is truly interested       where their worm dieth not and
                                                in heaven and in the right to live     the fire is not quenched. Only
                                                with God is concerned with the         with the guilt of sin removed,
                                                existence of sin. Sin incurs guilt;    can one enter into the glorious
                                                guilt receives punishment; and         new heavens and new earth.
                                                the punishment is eternal              Somehow and in some way prop-
Ronald J. Van Ooerloop is a missionary-         residence in hell, where there is      er and adequate payment must
pastor of the Protestant Reformed               weeping and gnashing of teeth,
Churches in Northwest Chicago.

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  be made to God for the sins com-      do what the law of God requires.          Fulfilling all the typical
  mitted against Him and His law.       Man is Gods enemy, alienated            sacrifices of the Old Testament,
     The question the Christian         from God, lacking even the              He is the Sacrifice Who provides
  wants answered is: how can pay-       desire to be reconciled to God          His own life in order to deliver
  ment for sin be made? How can         (Rom. 5: 10).                           His people. All the requirements
  God receive sufficient payment in        The Bible makes plain that           for our justification were met in
  order to be satisfied? What is re-    there is only one solution to the       the life and death of Christ. The
  quired for God to declare a sin-      difficulty: God justified sinners       penalty for our sins was paid,
  ner to be justified?                  because of the work of Jesus            and He, Who is the Son of God in
     On what basis can God forgive      (Romans 3:24; 59, 19; 8:l; II Cor.      our flesh, was God's answer to
  me, adopt me, and give me the         5:21). This work of Jesus, which        the demands of His own law.
 sure promise of everlasting life?      results in the justification of sin-      The result of Jesus' work upon
               * * * * *                ners, is called the atonement.          the cross was great. Sins were
     One of the most important          The atonement may be described          blotted out at the cross. "Blotting
 points of controversy between          as that act or work of payment          out the handwriting of or-
  the Church of Rome and the Re-        which satisfies the eternally           dinances that was against us,
  formers concerned the ground of       righteous God. Or to use the            which was contrary. to us, and
 j u s t i f i c a t i o n .            word "atonement", it is that            took it out of the way, nailing it
     Rome taught and still teaches      reconciliation which makes God          to His cross" (Colossians 2:14).
 that man is justified either           and man (those for whom Jesus           "He was wounded for our trans-
 because of an inherent righteous-      died) to be "at one" with each          gressions, He was bruised for our
 ness infused into man's heart as       other.                                  iniquities: the chastisement of our
 the result of the cooperation of         There are two things which            peace was upon Him, and with
 the human will and grace, or           the atonement for sins demand-          His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah
 because of his good works. This        ed: 1. that all the punishment          53). We are "justified freely by
 the Reformers denied, maintain-        which our sins demand was suf-          His grace through the redemp-
 ing that the Bible taught clearly      fered by Christ, and 2. that all        tion that is in Christ Jesus"
 that man is justified freely by the    the obedience and work of love          (Romans 3:24).
 grace of God (Rom. 3:24), and          of the law, which we left entirely        God was pleased with His
 that he cannot possibly be             undone, be performed. It is the         work and accounts that to His
 justified by the works of the law      removal of the guilt of sin and         people. God accounted those for
 (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 2:16; 3:ll). The      the meriting of all the gifts of        whom Jesus died as fully just
 Reformers preached that the            grace and blessings of salvation        before Him (Rom. 4:25).
 ground for the justification of a      so that the recipients are given          The cross is atonement, not
 sinner can be found only in the        the right to heavenly glory. It is      merely making salvation possible.
 perfect righteousness of Jesus         the covering which takes away           Atoning means saving! It means
 Christ accomplished on the cross,      the terrible reality of sin.            saving from sin, the blotting out
 which is imputed to the sinner in        In the Old Testament, this            of iniquity, and the removing of
 justification.                         covering or atonement was por-          guilt. It means that the demands
    This issue remains very impor-      trayed through the sacrifice. Sin       of Gods justice for our salvation
 tant in the Church of Christ on        required that the life of the           are fully satisfied. As Jesus
 earth.                                 animal, its shed blood, be              Himself said, "It is finished!"
               * * * * *                presented to God. It was life-for-                *  * * * *
                                        life. The sinner deserved to die
     The ground for justification       under the just wrath of God, but          This atonement of Christ is
 cannot be found in man. First, no      God allowed an animal sacrifice         often misconstrued. No one who
 man is able to make payment of         as a picture or type of that which      calls himself a Christian will deny
 any kind to meet the debt of his       God requires in order to deliver        that Jesus pays for sins. But some
 guilt. There is nothing he can         His people. This teaches clearly        insist that Jesus only opens the
 give to God in order to deliver        that the consequences of sin is         way unto salvation, making
 himself from his sin and its           death. To escape death, another         salvation possible to whoever
 punishment. Because the wages          life must be given in the place of      wants to be saved. This presenta-
 of sin is death, the payment re-       that of the sinner.                     tion may piously say that without
 quired involves an active bearing        Jesus, the Christ, accomplished       the cross there is no entrance in-
 of the sentence of death. Also, no     the atonement.                          to heaven, but it insists that once
 man is in the spiritual position to                                            the roadblocks are removed,
                                                                                anyone has the ability to walk

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 that road to glory - it remains                place on the cross; He endured           elect? It is God that justifieth.
 only a matter of man's own                     the agony of hell for the sins           Who is he that condemneth?" He
 choosing.                                      they committed. This is because          fully paid the debt and gave the
   A horror is created by such a                He did not atone for all, but only       wealth of an eternal inheritance.
 presentation of the atonement.                 for those given Him of the                 All those who repent from
 The horror is that the atonement               Father. Therefore, His atonement         their sins and believe on the Lord
 is destroyed. What did Jesus real-             was real satisfaction, not just the      .Jesus Christ know that they
 ly accomplish on the cross? The                possibility of justification.            belong to Him. All these have
 cross becomes only a payment of                           *  *  *  *  *                 the assurance of salvation and
 some sins in general, and not for                                                       the certainty of life everlasting.
 all the sins of certain people. The              What a comfort!                        They are justified. They need not
 atonement then becomes a                         Jesus not only died for sins,          be troubled about whether there
 failure, failing actually to save              but for His sheep. He fully paid         is still something lacking, some-
 many of those for whom He died.                for the sins of all of His people.       thing which they failed to do, in
   The Scriptural presentation of                 What a sense of peace for the          order to gain their salvation.
 the death of Christ is that He ful-            Christian, who can go to bed at          They need seek no further inter-
 ly pays for sins of a certain,                 night with the assurance that            cession by any saint. They do not
 chosen people. Every obstacle to               there is now nothing that can be         even have to work themselves
 their entrance into heaven is                  brought to his charge. Christ has        first into a state of willingness to
 removed, and they most certainly               done it all. When He triumphant-         be saved. All that needs to be
are saved. "Thou shalt call His                 ly shouted, "It is finished," all the    done has been done by Jesus on
 name Jesus: for He SHALL SAVE                  punishment our sins deserve was          the cross.
 HIS PEOPLE from their sins"                    gone. In strict justice God will           The glory of this atonement
(Matt. 1:21). This text emphatical-             never demand that it be endured          must be ascribed to God alone.
 ly states that He "shall save", and            again. All the reason for the            His love is displayed in saving
that those saved are "His                       punishment of those whom Christ          His people from their deserved
 people." He fully atoned for all               represented on the cross has             eternal death in hell. To all eter-
their sins; they are fully justified            been taken away. Our future              nity we shall extol His Name for
 before God. Jesus laid down His                damnation is impossible. Their           all He has `done. Presently, we
 life, not for everyone, but "for               future glory is sure. Not one sin        most gratefully strive to walk
 the sheep" (John 10:15, 26).                   past, present, or future shall call      before Him and be perfect
   The sins of all those for whom               for their eternal condemnation.          (Genesis 17: 1). Cl
.Jesus died are actually removed                "There is therefore now no con-
because of the vicarious (substitu-             demnation to them which are in
tionary) atonement. Jesus died in               Christ Jesus." "Who shall lay any-
 the stead of others; He took their             thing to the charge of God's





                                                Teaching Our Children
Charles /. Terpstra                             Justification By Faith

                                                  I trust that every parent who          chief responsibilities in the cove-
                                                reads this is under the conviction       nant of grace. Parents who take
                                                that we must be teaching our             the Word of God seriously know
Charles  J. Terpstra is pastor of the  Prot-    children the truths of the gospel.       it to be their calling to "suffer the
estant Reformed Church of  Pella,  Iowa.        This is undoubtedly one of our           little children to come" to Jesus

                                                                                                           The Standard Bearer  /  II5


 (Mk. 10:14) and to bring up their      the midst of societv.  Thev sin        accomplished all that obedient3e
 children "in the nurture and ad-       with their minds, with their           Christ has accomplished for th
 monition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4).      mouths, and with their hands and       (cf. Heid. Cat. L.D. 23, Q & A 6e;.
 This they do when they bring           feet - in thought, in word, and        Along with this we should teatch
 their covenant youth, both little      in deed. They sin against their        them that in the cross God OUI
 ones and adolescents, the gospel       parents, teachers, and pastors;        Father adopted them, too, as I\is
 of salvation in Jesus Christ. The      they sin against their classmates,     children, and thus in Christ theZY
 truth of justification by faith        neighborhood playmates, and            also are "heirs according to the
 forms the heart and core of the        brothers and sisters; and in so do-    hope of eternal life" (Tit. 3:7).
 gospel. Hence, it is particularly      ing they sin chiefly against God.      And we need to tell them that
 this truth we must teach them.           But at the same time our             they can know and have joy i n
 Rev. D. Engelsma makes this            children, regenerated and con-         these blessings in the way of
 point in his pamphlet, As A            verted by Gods sovereign grace,        their faith in Jesus Christ. And
 Father Pitieth His Children: `fThe     are sensitive to these sins. They      last, but certainly not least, WI
 main truth that parents must           become burdened with them.             must tell them that this their
 teach their children is Gods           Their consciences are pricked          justification is rooted in God's
 redemption of them from their          and their tender hearts touched        great and amazing love for theem
 sins by the cross of Jesus Christ,     by the knowledge of their sins.        in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:8).
 the forgiveness of sins in Jesus'      What Christian parent has not            Maybe some parents are re;IdY
 blood, received and enjoyed            had a child come to him with           to object at this point with the
 through believing on Him. Every        tears in his eyes and a humble         words, "I'm not qualified to teach
 father and mother must be able         confession upon his lips, because      my children this. I don't have all
 and ready, having perceived the        of the conviction of sin against       the theology straight; I don't
 distress of the child and having       God. Even then when you and I          know all the details of this truth.
 carefully drawn out the confes-        cannot detect this outwardly, we       And besides, I find it difficult t:o
 sion of sin that burdens the child,    can be sure that our children are      communicate to my children.
 to speak the gospel of grace to        troubled and distressed by their       How can I get down to their
 the child's troubled heart." (p.       sins when God works in them by         level?" If this is true of you, ttren
 10).                                   His Spirit.                            perhaps you do need to prepare
    Not only should we see that           Hence, they need to be               yourself somewhat for this in-
 this is our duty as parents, but       brought the message of the             struction by reviewing this tru th
 we should also understand that it      gospel of free justification. When     of the Scriptures from the Biblle
 is what our children need. They        they approach us with their            itself and from our Reformed
 need to be taught the truth of         burden of sin, we must needs tell      standards. But too often this ob-
 justification by faith in Jesus        them that they have sinned and         jection is raised because parents
 Christ precisely because they too      come short of the glory of God         think they have to be astute
 are sinners. By nature also our        (Rom. 3:23). We need to tell them      scholars and articulate speakers
 covenant children are "shapen in       that God has freely justified them     in order to be able to teach these
 iniquity" and conceived in sin         by His grace through the re-           things to their children. And this
 (Ps. 51:5). With our Form for the      demption that is in Christ Jesus       is simply not the case. You do
 Administration of Baptism we           (Rom. 3:24), and that through          not need great skills and
 acknowledge that our children          faith in His blood they can know       qualifications. There is, however,
 are "partakers of the condemna-        the blessedness of him whose in-       one qualification which is in-
 tion in Adam", and are therefore       iquities are forgiven and whose        dispensable. And that is that we
 "children of wrath". Yes, our          sins are covered (Ps. 32:l; Rom.       ourselves as parents know the
 children are guilty, polluted sin-     4:7). And then we can go on to         truth of justification by faith. By
 ners, condemned and worthy of          tell them that they may have           that I mean that we know in the
 eternal death.                         peace with God (Rom. 5:1),             depths of our hearts and from
    The harsh reality of this is all    because there is no condemna-          our own concrete experience this
 too well known by those of us          tion to them who are in Christ         blessing of God's grace.
 who labor with children of every       :Rom. 8: 1).                             This indispensable requisite we
 age group. Our children and              Moreover, we need to tell            may take note of from David's
 young people transgress God's          them that for Christ's sake God        experience as recorded in Psalm
 law every day - in the home            accounts them perfectly                5 1. It was only after David
land school, in the church, and in      righteous, yea, so fully as if they    himself had repented in godly
                                        never had had nor committed
                                        any sin: yea as if they had fully

116  I The Standard Bearer


sorrow for his sins and tasted         Christ. And when they manifest           teach them anv differently. It is
                                                                                               "
anew the blessing of justification,    true sorrow, we must be ready to         especially with these kinds of sins
that he could say, "Then will I        say to them, "God forgives you           that they need to know that they
teach transgressors thy ways; and      for this, and therefore so do we         are forgiven. And they must
sinners shall be converted unto        your parents." With our little           know that in the way of sincere
thee" (Ps. 51:13). So it must be       children this can be done very           sorrow for their sin, they may
for us. We must know for               simply and briefly. With our             have full assurance of
ourselves what it means to be          young people we will probably            forgiveness, too.
forgiven and to be righteous in        have to do this in more detail             Second, it should also be made
Christ. We must know for               and repeatedly.                          clear to our young people that
ourselves what it is to be adopted       If and when our children have          with justification comes sanctifi-
into the family of God and to be       to suffer the consequences of            cation. They should understand
an heir of life everlasting. We        their sins, and they are tempted         that while God freely forgives,
must ourselves have trusted            to despair and/or rebel against          He also demands, as a conse-
Christ fully for deliverance from      this, we have an excellent oppor-        quence of their forgiveness,
the guilt and penalty of sin. Then     tunity to reveal an important            holiness of life. The truth of.
we are ready and qualified to          aspect of their justification: that      Romans 6 should be impressed
teach our sinful youth these           God as Father deals with them as         upon them again and again. They
glorious truths.                       with sons. We must explain to            are after all Gods adopted and
  There are countless oppor-           them that their Father is chasten-       begotten children; they must
tunities to teach our children and     ing them because He loves them,          walk in obedience to their
young people justification by          and that they must not despise           heavenly Father. Their liberty as
faith. Probably the best oppor-        this chastening, nor despair for         the sons of God is not license to
tunity is when we discipline           His rebuke (Prov. 3:11, 12; Heb.         live as they please.
them. In this context we have a        12:5, 6). They must know that              Yet there are many other ways
real sin-situation, and therefore a    while "no chastening for the pres-       besides discipline in which we
chance to drive home to them           ent seemeth to be joyous, but            can teach our children justifica-
the gospel of justification.           grievous: nevertheless afterward         tion by faith. An excellent oppor-.
Discipline, we should remember,        it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of       tunity affords itself in our times
is much more than using the rod        righteousness" (Heb. 12: 11).            of family worship. When we read
and handing out other penalties          In this connection two things          those portions of Scripture where
for wrong-doing. According to          should be-stressed with regard to        this truth is on the foreground,
Proverbs 29:15 it is the "rod and      the discipline and instruction of        we have a prime opportunity to
reproof" that give wisdom. This        our young people. First, we must         instruct our children. Around the
reproof must be far more than          teach them that their sins, no           family table we can also teach
just a negative rebuke; it must        matter how great and many, are           our children this truth when we
also include positive instruction,     forgiven in the blood of Jesus           pray with them and teach them
the teaching concerning justifica-     Christ. Sometimes our young              to pray. Let our children learn to
tion by faith.                         people get the impression from us        hear the words, "And forgive us
  When our children and young          that certain of their sins are too       our sins for Jesus' sake," in our
people sin and require discipline,     terrible and great for the blood of      prayers. And let them learn to in-
then we must begin by pointing         Christ. They may come confess-           clude the petition for the forgive-
out to them their sin. Specifically    ing a sin against the seventh            ness of sins in their prayers at
and directly from the Bible we         commandment, or they may con-            the table and at their bedside.
must show them what their sin is       fess that they have used drugs or        About the family altar we also
and what God says about it (A          abused alcohol, and then we in           have opportunity to teach our
valuable help in this matter is        holy horror rebuke them for their        children through song. It is good
Bruce A. Ray's book, Withhold          sins, but say nothing positive to        for our children to learn justifica-
,/Vat Correction, which has an ap-     them, thereby leaving the im-            tion from the versifications of
pendix with a listing of topics        pression with them that such sins        Psalms 26, 32, 51, 103, 130, and
and texts for parents). From.this      cannot be forgiven; they are too         many others in our Psalter, as
point they must be told that in        awful. But this is wrong. If we          well as from the sound, sacred
the way of their repentance God        believe that Christ is the only, all-    hymns of the church which focus
forgives them for the sake of          sufficient Saviour, and that His         on the cross of Christ.
                                       death did fully cover all our and
                                       the,ir sins, then we must not


                                                                                                     The Standard Bearer  /  117


     Finally, we have a golden op-       the Lords supper, then He antici-        pollution of our souls (Heid. Cat.
 portunity to teach our children         pated the questions of the youth         LD 26, Q & A 69, 70). And when
 justification by faith when we          in Israel and instructed the             they ask us concerning the holy
 bring them to the house of God          fathers concerning what to say in        supper of which we partake, then
 for public worship. Here they will      response to them. We read in Ex.         we may speak to them at their
 hear the preaching of the gospel,       12:26, 27, "And it shall come to         level of the truth of pardon for
 which is the "word of reconcilia-       pass, when your children shall           sin and righteousness through the
 tion" (II Cor. 5:19), and in which      say unto you, What mean ye by            shed blood and broken body of
 the "righteousness of God is            this service? That ye shall say, It      our Lord.
 revealed from faith to faith," so       is the sacrifice of the LORD's             Many then are the oppor-
 that they will learn that "the just     Passover, who passed over the            tunities and ways in which we
 shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:16,        houses of the children of Israel in      can teach our children justifica-
 17). Here, too, in the midst of the     Egypt, when he smote the Egyp-           tion by faith. In conclusion, we
 church they will learn to sing of       tians, and delivered our houses."        should remember that while we
 their redemption through the            We may expect the same ques-             must teach, only God is able to
 blood by means of the Psalter           tioning from our naturally inquisi-      work this saving grace and
 numbers. And here, too, they            tive children, who readily relate        knowledge in the hearts of our
 may receive this truth through          to the "picture" of the                  covenant children. Let us be
 the "visible words" of the              sacraments.                              diligent and faithful in using the
 sacraments.                               When they ask us therefore             above mentioned means to teach
    It may be said that the sacra-       concerning the baptism of infants        our youth this gospel. Let us in-
 ments present a unique teaching         in the church, we can easily             struct them concerning justifica-
 tool for our children, especially       teach them that this external            tion by faith by our words and
 our young ones. This is already         washing with water is a picture          by our godly example. But let us
 indicated in the Old Testament.         of our having the remission of           do so with conscious dependence
 When God gave Israel the feast          sins through the blood of Christ,        on God and His Spirit, Who alone
 of the Passover, which prefigured       and of being washed by His               can give the increase. q
                                         blood and Spirit from all the




                                         Book Review

 Five Views On Sanctification, ME.       presents the Pentecostal view. J.          2) In the nature of the case, a
 Dieter, A.A. Hoekema, SM. Horton,       Robertson McQuilkin presents the         written symposium of this kind does
 J.R. McQuilkin, J.F. Walvoord; Grand    Keswick view. John F. Walvoord           not, of course, offer the opportunity
 Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Pub-        (Dallas Theological Seminary)            for give-and-take which an oral sym-
 lishing Co. (Academic Books); 254       presents the Augustinian-Dispensa-       posium offers. There are single
 pp. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. H.C.    tional view.                             responses to the one writer by the
 Hoeksema]                                 My positive comment.on this book       other four, but then no reply by the
    This book is a kind of symposium     is that it furnishes (though perhaps     one to the four.
 in writing. In it five authors, with    too briefly) a quick overview of           3) In my opinion, Anthony
 five different views, present their     various viewpoints on the doctrine.      Hoekema does not faithfully present
 views on the doctrine of sanctifica-    of sanctification.                       the Reformed view of sanctification,
 tion. After each chapter the other        My negative comments are as            particularly with respect to the sub-
 four authors respond briefly with       follows:                                 ject of the old and the new man. He
 their critique. Melvin E. Dieter          1) I receive the impression that       follows a recent trend among
 presents the Wesleyan view. An-         the critics, for the most part, are      Reformed theologians of denying
 thony A. Hoekema (professor             "too nice" to one another. They          that Romans 7:13-25 speaks of the
 emeritus of Systematic Theology at      evince too much of a willingness and     Christian. John F. Walvoord is quick
 Calvin Seminary) presents the Re-       striving to agree and find points of     to focus on this significant deviation
 formed view. Stanley M. Horton          agreement and not sufficient inclina-    of Hoekema.
                                         tion to clash.                             Recommended. 0

118  / The Standard Bearer


                                            News From
Ben Wigger                                  Our Churches

                     December 1, 1987       R. Cammenga from Loveland par-         Reformation Still Important To-
    First some news about some of           ticipated in this installation ser-    day?" The Rev. C. Terpstra of
 our churches and their pastors.            vice. The congregation welcomed        Pella spoke at his church. Rev. K.
    The Rev. K. Koole of Redlands           visitors from Edmonton and             Hanko, home missionary in Nor-
 has declined the call he received          Lynden, Washington. The follow-        ristown, spoke on "Freedom of
 from our congregation in                   ing Sunday Rev. Kuiper chose for       Religion". And Rev. D. Engelsma
 Holland, Michigan.                         his first sermon as pastor: "Pray-     spoke at a Reformation Remem-
    Rev. K. Hanko, currently mis-           ing for the Minister of the            brance at South' Holland spon-
 sionary to Norristown, Pa.,                Gospel," based on Ephesians            sored by the Illiana Christian
 declined the call extended to him          6:18-19. And only two weeks            High School. His Reformation ad-
 by First Church in Grand Rapids,           after his arrival, Rev. Kuiper was     dress was entitled "Here I stand'.
 to serve as our churches' second           the featured speaker at a Refor-          Our congregation in Randolph
 missionary to Jamaica.                     mation Day Lecture sponsored by        is sponsoring a special course on
    Rev. D. Kuiper and his family           our Lacombe congregation.              Basic Christian Truth as another
 arrived in Lacombe, Alberta,                 Rev. Kuiper was not the only         evangelism effort in their com-
 Canada, Thursday evening, the              one of our pastors to give a           munity. They wanted to try to
  15th of October after a safe trip         Reformation Day address. It            encourage people who are
 and an easy crossing at the                seems that just about every one        presently not attending any
 border. The following Monday,              of our churches was busy with          church to come. They had six to
 the 19th, he was installed as the          this endeavor.                         ten volunteers from the con-
 first pastor of our newest congre-           The Reformed Witness Com-            gregation sign up for this course
 gation. The Rev. T. Miersma                mittee in Iowa presented Rev. R.       to serve as a support group for
 from Edmonton along with Rev.              Dykstra of Doon who spoke on           any visitors who might come.
                                            the topic, "The Reformation and        The course will run for six con-
                                            the Lords Supper - The Sacra-          secutive Tuesday evenings, start-
                                            ment restored to Gods People."         ing with November 10.
                                              Our churches in the West               The last newsletter of the
                                            Michigan area sponsored a lec-         Reformed Witness Committee
                                            ture on "Public Worship and the        gave an update on the work be-
                                            Reformed Faith," given by Rev.         ing done in the Sioux Falls area.
                                            B. Gritters `of our Byron Center       As you may remember, evening
                                            Church.                                worship services were to begin
                                              The Rev. B. Woudenberg was           there back in August. However
                                            the featured speaker at a public       the committee was unable to find
                                            address sponsored by the North-        a suitable meeting place until
                                            west Mission in Chicago. He            recently. Sunday evening ser-
                                            spoke on the subject, "Is God the      vices were scheduled to begin on
                                            Cause of Evil? Why do Bad              November 1st. These services
                                            Things Happen to God's People?"        will be conducted by the Pastors
                                              Rev. Cammenga spoke in his           of Doon, Hull, and Edgerton on a
                                            church in Loveland on the topic,       rotational basis. There are
                                            "The Reformation's Recovery of         already several families living in
                                            the Office of all Believers".          Sioux Falls who are members of
Ben Wigger is an elder in the Protestant      Randolph's congregation spon-        the Protestant,Reformed Chur-
Reformed Church of  Hudsonuille,            sored their pastor in a lecture en-    ches. Basically the reason for
Michigan.                                   titled "Are the Great Issues of the    their living there is the

                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer  /  119.


  THE                                     .-~ ---~--~  ~.
STANDARD                                                                                      SECOND CLASS
                                                                                              Postage Paid at
 Bl54RER                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan
 PO. Box 6064                                           .--____   -~--~-~_   _
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



 economical situation in the area.      your 1988 calendar for the week      "In my Father's house are many
 It is increasingly difficult for       of August 8.                         mansions: if it were not so I
 these families to obtain work in         Mr. Hank Brands, a member of       would have told you. I go to
 the immediate area of our chur-        Southwest, presented a slide pro-    prepare a place for you." (John
 ches, and Sioux Falls, having          gram on Alaska as one fund           14:2)
 more to offer in jobs; has become      raiser for the upcoming conven-      Charles E. Van Meeteren, Vice Pres.
 an alternative to moving to            tion. About $400 was raised from     Edwin B. Critters, Clerk
 Grand Rapids or some other ur-         that event. Cl
 ban area near our churches.                                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    Our churches' Committee of                                                    The members of the Hope
 Contact received a request from                                             Protestant Reformed Choral
                                        NOTICE!!!
 the Bible Presbyterian Church of                                            Society extend their heartfelt
                                           Classis East will meet in
 Larne, Northern Ireland to cancel                                           Christian sympathy to Mike and
                                        regu.lar session on Wednesday,
 the planned visit scheduled for                                             Elaine Rau, in the death of their
                                        January 13, 1988 at 9 a.m. at
 late October, since the congrega-                                           sister, ROSIE RAU.
                                        the First Protestant Reformed
 tion is dealing with internal prob-                                              "The iord knoweth the days
                                        Church, Grand Rapids, Michi-
 lems concerning our sister                                                  of the upright and their inheri-
                                        gan. Material for this session
 church relationship. However,                                               tance shall be forever." (Psalm
                                        must be in the hands of the
 since the scheduled meetings in                                             37:18)
                                        Stated Clerk at least three
 England had been publicly an-                                               Don Lotterman, President
                                        weeks prior to the convening of      Karen Buiter, Secretary
 nounced, the committee decided         this session.
 to continue this part of the trip.     John  j. Huisken                     40TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 This reduced the length of the         Stated Clerk                         ANNOUNCEMENT
 trip from one month to two                                                        MR. AND MRS. GORDON
 weeks. Rev. and Mrs. Korteking         NOTICE!!!                                       VAN  OVERLOOP
 along with Rev. and Mrs. Van              Hope Protestant Reformed               We, their children and grand-
 Baren made the trip. Public            Christian School, Walker, Ml, is     children, rejoice with them at
 meetings were scheduled for            in need of an Administrator/         what God has wrought.
 Saturday through Monday (Oct.          Teacher for the 1988-89 school            We thank our God with them
 31 - Nov. 2) in Barnsley; Wednes-      year. Please contact Cordon          for the gift of forty years of
 day and Thursday (Nov. 4-5) in         Terpstra, (616) 453-l 364. His       marriage.
 Bristol; and Saturday and Sunday       mailing address is: 600 Kenowa            We also thank our Cod for
 (Nov. 7-8) in Bideford, with per-      Ave., S.W., Grand Rapids, Ml         them and the faithful  covenan-
 sonal contacts in between.             49504.                               tal instruction they have given
    Rev. C. Haak, our pastor in                                              us, their children and grand-
 Lynden, spoke for the Trinitarian      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY               children.
 Bible Society at the Free Re-            The Consistory and Congrega-            And with them we pray that
 formed Church in Langley, B.C. It      tion of Hope Protestant Re-          God will continue to bless,
 was a public meeting and the           formed Church of  Redlands ex-       them, and us through them, in
 congregation was invited to at-        press their heartfelt sympathy to    the years to come.
 tend.                                  Rev. K. Koole and family in the      Ron and Sue Van  Overloop
    The Southwest Young People's        sudden death of Pat's sister,        Jim and Linda Van  Overloop
 Society has accepted the               ROSIE RAU, whom the Lord             Tom and Vicky Van  Overloop
 privilege to sponsor the 1988                                               Greg and  Vicki Van  Overloop
                                        called to her Heavenly Home.
 Young People's Convention. If                                               Randy and Ellen Van  Overloop
                                           We find comfort in the words      Dave and Julie Van  Overloop
 you would like to attend, mark         of our Lord who assures us that           and 21 grandchildren


120 f The Standard Bearer


