Are we justified completely by grace, completely by merit, or by both grace and merit? There is a constant warfare in which we are engaged concerning this topic.
We can quickly understand how we are pardoned, or forgiven, by God’s grace entirely. That seems to cause us no difficulty. But whether or not this makes us just, or right, and that this is accomplished by grace, is where the problem is. I can accept the fact that I am pardoned by His grace, but that I am just by His grace is a different thing. When a criminal is released from prison, having paid his penalty to society, is he just? He is free. He no longer has to pay a penalty. But is he just? Just means he is right and you can depend on him. He will do right from then on. Will he? We reason that, before we can be just or righteous, we must prove by our actions that we are that way. We must prove it for a long time. When we have not committed these sins for many years, then we may be regarded as righteous. But until that time, many people think we are simply kidding ourselves. Most Seventh-day Adventists call this justification by faith— that you are pardoned and forgiven completely by His grace, but that you must establish by your actions and behavior that you are just or righteous; and it does not matter what people think about it, you are not righteous until you prove you are. We go on thinking this is justification by faith. God might count us righteous because our sins are forgiven, but we are not truly righteous because we have not established it.
This is an assumption we make as we study the subject superficially. It appeals to us. I used to think that by praying, by trying, by seeking to better understand, by much Bible study, that someday I would truly be righteous, and therefore justified. God would know it, I would know it, and everyone else would know it. When someone disagreed with my understanding of this theory of justification, I usually branded them as quite permissive and of omitting human effort, which I knew the Bible taught; and therefore they must be wrong and I was certainly right. I also thought they were like those “Christians” who would eliminate the law and all obedience to it; and I could not believe them. They seem to think that grace eliminates the law and obedience, but that did not seem right to me. I did not believe in that kind of grace.
I would always argue strongly for my theory of justification, certain that I was right and others were wrong. But frequently, something would trouble me; and I hope it also troubles you. I was forced to think that all was not well in my own heart because many of my sinful habits were still with me; and with too many of them, there had been no improvement. Sometimes they had worsened. What made me think that I was on the road to righteousness? Sometimes I felt very guilty, and the harder I seemed to try do right the more I failed. You don’t have that trouble, do you? I tried to find a different interpretation of Romans 7 to suit my sinfulness, as many have succeeded in doing. I seemed to find very little love in my heart for people. When I mistreated people, I could justify that mistreatment by the fact that I was right and they were wrong. I did not like myself for some of these things; and time did not seem to help me. I waited and waited for time to improve my condition, but I could not see very much growth and progress. Yet I was sure I understood justification by faith. Do you find yourself in that kind of dilemma?
Then I read the following quotation: “They have not been instructed as they should have been that Christ is unto them both salvation and righteousness.” RH, September 3, 1889. Salvation means pardon from my sins, and I believed that; but I did not know what it meant to have Christ “unto” me as my righteousness. In fact, I was trying to do that for myself, and I believed that God wanted me to do that, that He demanded it, and that I must strive for righteousness. And since I was trying to do this myself, I had not received His righteousness. I did not even know He wanted to give it to me, until I had proven I was righteous. Then I would be good enough to receive it, meriting the acclaim of God and the title He placed upon me. I did not have His righteousness although I believed in His pardon.
More and more I began to see a duality in this message that I had missed before. “The repentant soul realizes that his justification comes because Christ, as his substitute and surety, has died for him, as his atonement and righteousness.” COR 67. Notice the duality of this. Atonement means He died for my sins, thus pardoning me. I believed that, but I did not believe He was my righteousness.
A two-fold action is also brought out here: “Through Christ, restoration as well as reconciliation is provided for man.” COR 95. I believed that Christ had taken my sins away, reconciling me, but I surely had not been restored, for I was deep in my sinful habits. I looked for restoration and thought it would come some day, if I lived long enough; but I did not have it.
“Genuine faith appropriates the righteousness of Christ, and the sinner is made an overcomer with Christ.” COR 96. I definitely was not an overcomer, although it took me a few years to recognize that. I thought that overcoming would take time, but eventually I would be righteous. But lots of time had gone by, and I was not an overcomer. Apparently I did not know what it was like to have Christ as my righteousness.
“Through faith in His name, He imputes unto us His righteousness, and it [that righteousness] becomes a living principle in our life.” COR 98. His righteousness becomes a “living principle”— something active in me, functioning in me. And, of course, if His righteousness is functioning in me, it produces righteousness in my life. He imputes it to me—He gives it from Him to me. It becomes a living principle in my life. That bothered me terribly.
“The righteousness of Christ is not a cloak to cover unconfessed and unforsaken sin; it is a principle of life that transforms the character and controls the conduct.” COR 99. The righteousness of Christ transforms the character and controls the conduct. I was trying to be a different person. I was trying to control my sins, but was not succeeding. Yet the quotes I was reading say that His righteousness transforms my character when given to me. It controls my conduct. It was evident that this was not happening to me.
“Christ imputes to us His sinless character and presents us to the Father in His own purity. There are many who think that it is impossible to escape from the power of sin [and I was finding that], but the promise is that we may be filled with all the fullness of God [and that includes His righteousness].” COR 99. We aim too low. God wants to fill us with all His fullness. We escape the power of sin, not by our striving, but by His giving. He gives us His sinless character.
These quotes made me realize that I did not understand justification by faith, even though I had assumed I did. And it was definite that I had not experienced it. If the Spirit of Prophecy quotes were correct (and I knew they were), then my theory was wrong. But sad to say, I still could not give up my theory. Have you found that to be true? I found that these statements disagreed with me, but I could not give up my theory. The new way seemed too easy, like I was just lying down and He was doing it all for me. That is the way it appeared to me. Where was the striving? How could I be counted righteous when I had not established it by a righteous life? These are the arguments I used upon myself. I was more confused than ever. My theory seemed to be wrong, but I did not know how to find the truth concerning justification by faith; nor did I know how to experience it. Often I would defend my old theory because I just did not grasp the truth. Mine was the only theory I knew and I would cling to it.
Much of my confusion was an unwillingness to believe that God would do it for me by His grace. There is one thing we have never emphasized sufficiently, and that is God’s goodness to sinners—His grace that is wholly undeserved. There is almost no denomination in the whole world today that emphasizes God’s grace sufficiently. The consequence is that we try to do it ourselves. If God is not that gracious, then somebody must do it. I was sure I had to do something to deserve or establish justification. When I finally admitted my theory was wrong, I began searching for a better way.
Many of you reading this have had exactly the same experience. If you had to speak from a pulpit on this subject, we could figure it out it in five minutes. Almost anyone who understands it could tell.
Is justification by grace or by merit? Or by both? And especially the aspect of being accounted just or righteous. Do I establish righteousness by my actions, or does it come completely by God’s grace to me? Justification is more than pardon. It is being accounted just. It is predicting a future performance; and it tricks us that way.
The Bible teaches it very clearly in several texts. “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:24. “That being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7. We are justified by grace, and in no way are we justified by works. “Therefore by the deeds of the law [by my own obedience to that law or my actions to it] there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: [why not?] for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Not justified by the law but justified by Christ. Any activity in obedience to the law will not justify. “Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” Titus 3:5. Verse 7 talks about “being justified by His grace.” It is not our works that we have done that justifies. It is His mercy and His grace. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” 2 Timothy 1:9. The Bible teaches this repeatedly. We cannot escape from it.
One of the finest texts is one we seldom hear about. “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” Romans 11:6. Works and grace, in this context, are opposites; for if righteousness is by grace, it cannot be of works. Work earns, or deserves, or merits something. Grace is unmerited. They are not similar. It is impossible to have it by grace and also by works. The righteousness of the righteous is of God, and not of man.
There are more texts we need to see. “Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” Isaiah 45:24. In the Lord, not in myself. “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 54:17, last part. Where do they obtain it? From Him. “…and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jeremiah 23: 6 (the last four words are capitalized in the Bible!). The life He lived, which was a righteous life, was not for Himself. It was for me. He is the Lord, our righteousness. So the righteousness of the righteous is not of man; it is of God. Therefore, if you try to establish your own, you are definitely not receiving His.
The Bible teaches us that, in justification, this righteousness comes from God to us, “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Romans 3:22. It comes from Him to us. This is the process of justification.
The Bible teaches that it is a gift. “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in line by One, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Romans 5:18,19. By one Person’s righteousness, the free gift came unto all men. There is no way you can change these texts without destroying the truth. It is never our righteousness that makes us righteous. It is always and everlastingly His righteousness. And it comes from Him unto us in justification. I do not make myself just by trying to be righteous, by trying to be obedient. It is not accomplished that way. I accept by faith that He wants to give it to me. I believe it in my heart and it comes unto me. I claim it as my very own. This is righteousness by faith. His righteousness literally becomes mine, as we will study in a later chapter.
Here is a precious gem of truth that should never be forgotten: “The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.” MB 18. The righteousness that Romans 3:22 speaks of as coming unto us, is embodied in the person of Jesus. We receive righteousness by receiving Him. Righteousness is not striving and praying for patience, and then getting it. I receive patience in Jesus, in His person. I say, “Jesus, be my patience. Take away my impatience and my irritability. Live in my life and be patience for me.” This is called appropriating the righteousness of Christ, which we will study later. It is something He has that I lack and that I can never produce. It is impossible for me to satisfy the claims of the law. I cannot be patient. I cannot avoid those things the law forbids. I was born in sin, and I am prone to do them unless He comes in and lives His life in me. Then I receive Christ as my righteousness, and He performs in me that which is well pleasing to Him and to His Father.
Justification is always a dual blessing. It never merely pardons or forgives. That is only part of it. If you really understand pardon, then that is enough; but unfortunately we think pardon is different. We will clarify that later on.
According to the quotes we have seen, justification is both salvation and righteousness, atonement and righteousness, and it not only forgives but it transforms the life and controls the actions. I am forgiven, and then He gives me His righteousness; and this righteousness is something I receive, not something I produce by trying. It is a gift. Therefore it is all of grace.
The dual action that is involved in justification is described and illustrated in a parable that Jesus gave; and most of these complicated things we have been discussing are found in the parables. Parables are nice because they clarify mysterious, difficult topics. You probably never thought it was talking about this subject, but it very definitely is; and I learned it years ago reading the Spirit of Prophecy. “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man [that is my sinfulness], he [the unclean spirit] walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” Matthew 12:43-45. This is the empty house experience, or the casting out of a devil. He returns to the same house (or person) after he has been cast out. This has to do with pardon and righteousness.
The Spirit of Prophecy comments upon this parable: “The parable of the man from whom an evil spirit had been cast out, who did not fill the soul with the love of Christ, illustrates the necessity of not only emptying the heart [getting rid of the sins], but of supplying the vacuum with a Divine Occupant. The demon desired to return to the heart from which he had been expelled. He came, and though it was swept and garnished, he found it still empty and entered in with seven other spirits more evil than himself, so that the last state of the man was worse than the first. The man in His parable refused to do the work of Satan, but the trouble with him was that, after the heart was swept and garnished, he failed to invite the presence of the heavenly Guest. It is not enough to make the heart empty. We must have the vacuum filled with the love of God. The soul must be furnished with the graces of the Spirit of God. We may leave off many bad habits and yet not be truly sanctified [and that means set apart initially and not the whole experience] because we do not have a connection with God. We must unite with Christ. There is a reservoir of power at our command, and we are not to remain in the dark, cold, sunless cave of unbelief; or we shall not catch the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness.” RH, January 24, 1893.
We have to think about this for a while. Picture sin as being on the negative side of zero, zero as neutral, and all the positives on the opposite side of zero from the negatives. When I receive pardon, I take away all the negatives. But this only gives me an empty house experience, and puts me at zero. There is no sin there, but neither is there righteousness. Righteousness is not an empty house, a life void of sins. Righteousness is a positive. It is a doing. Somehow that house must be filled, and the house is you and I. We must be filled with the presence and graces of God—His righteousness. It is not sufficient to have pardon; I must also have righteousness. Too many are content with an empty house, and the devil comes back with sins that were once there and finds it empty; and he brings worse devils and comes back to live in you; and you ask, “How did I become so evil while going to church every Sabbath?” It is because your heart was never filled with the Divine presence and with the love of Christ. Far too many of us are content to just remain empty. We say, “I am so thankful the Lord took my sins away.” But what did He do in place of them? Christ is not our righteousness until positives come into our lives. Then we begin to live like Jesus, which is what He wanted to accomplish in the first place.
All of this is explained in this marvelous quote: “We must be emptied of self [or move from the negative side to zero]. But this is not all that is required; for when we have renounced our idols, the vacuum must be supplied. If the heart is left desolate, and the vacuum not supplied, it will be in the condition of him whose house was ‘empty, swept, and garnished,’ without a guest to occupy it. The evil spirit took unto him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entered in and dwelt there; and the last state of that man was worse than the first. As you empty the heart of self, you must accept the righteousness of Christ [which is the positive]. Lay hold of it [the righteousness of Christ] by faith; for you must have the mind and spirit of Christ, that you may work the works of Christ. If you open the door of the heart, Jesus will supply the vacuum by the gift of His Spirit, and then you can be a living preacher in your home, in the church, and in the world.” COR 119.
This is justification by faith in its truthfulness. All other versions are deceptions and misunderstandings. Somehow we must come to the place where we begin to realize how good and filled with grace is our God. He knew we could not perform, and He gave us dozens of texts in the Bible to show this. He loved us and made us in the beginning, and He knew that in order to save us, He must come and do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He came to offer that to us. He so loved that He came and provided in Jesus all these necessities. Yet somehow we go on and try to eliminate Christ in His fullness by seeking to do for ourselves what He came to do for us.
Always remember that in justification, there is a dual action: both an emptying and a filling. It is not enough to be forgiven or to be emptied of self. Christ in His righteousness must abide in my heart. He must be a full, complete God to me. His presence must come into this emptied, pardoned, cleansed house.
The Spirit of Prophecy describes this same experience in another illustration that is very simple, especially if you like gardening. “The garden of your heart must be cultivated. The poisonous, Satanic plants must be uprooted. The soil must be prepared, thoroughly ploughed by the Word of God; and the precious seeds of truth must be sown and tended by a wise and skillful Gardener.” RH, January 24, 1893. You are not the gardener. There is not one parable about a husbandman that calls us the gardener. He is always the Gardener. It is not only tearing out the old weeds and preparing the soil (which is pardoning); somebody must plant the right seed and tend and cultivate the garden; and that Somebody is Jesus. The seed is Christ and His righteousness. Jesus is called the “seed” in Genesis 3:15, in Genesis 12:7, and in Galatians 3:19.
Christ must be planted because He will bring forth the fruits of righteousness in my heart. He must cultivate, He must water; He must brighten us with the sunshine of His love. He is the wise, skillful Gardener. I am not. I receive this by receiving Christ Jesus. When I try to do it myself, you can tell right away that I am a foolish gardener, and a very poor one when it comes to cultivating righteousness. I must be submissive and yielding, allowing Him to break up the fallow ground of my heart and to plant the seed of righteousness in my heart. This He longs to do for me. Forgiveness and pardon is the uprooting of the Satanic plants. The planting of new seed is putting Christ into my life; and then He begins to produce after His kind.
“I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5. If you are not attached to Jesus, there is no life in you. Without Jesus we are utterly helpless. Jesus must do the work. He is the living vine. We live only as we are attached to Jesus.
While I can do nothing without Him, Philippians 4:13 tells us the converse: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Without Him I am helpless; with Him I can do all things.
If we do not accept this, if we do not receive Christ as our righteousness, we will do exactly as the Jews did. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:3. There is a righteousness that is better than yours or mine. It is the “righteousness of God” that He wants to give to us. But if I will not receive His righteousness, and accept it or believe that it is by grace, then I will go about to establish my own as though I were ignorant of His. And that is a sad plight. While you think you are becoming better as you try to clean up the outside of the cup, you leave the inside dirty, as Jesus said, being like a white-washed sepulcher—beautiful on the outside but full of dead men’s bones. While you think you are a sweet-smelling Christian, everyone holds their nose when you come around, including your children and your spouse and your neighbor. Because the person who seeks to establish his own righteousness always has an “I” and a “me” problem; and people get tired of a two-note song. Our lives become a monotone, and a disgusting and boring one. And it is very apparent to others that Christ is not my righteousness; and we wonder why we have so few friends. We chase them away with our pride of self-attainment and selfachievement.
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” Romans 10:4. He is the perfect fulfillment of the law. He establishes the law by His achievements. He perfectly obeyed the law and is the fulfillment of it for righteousness to everyone that believes. That is why He became a man. He could not give to us the righteousness of God while remaining away from us as another Being. Only when He became a human being and was identified with the human family could He give righteousness to us.
Elder Daniels quoted in his book what Martin Luther wrote about the difficulty in trying to establish our own righteousness, and this is what Luther wrote: “If the article of justification be once lost, then is all true Christian doctrine lost….He then that strayeth from this ‘Christian righteousness,’ must needs fall into the ‘righteousness of the law;’ that is to say, when he hath lost Christ, he must fall into the confidence of his own works….For if he neglect the article of justification, we lose it altogether. Therefore most necessary it is, chiefly, and above all things, that we teach and repeat this article continually.” COR 90. It is true that we need to go over and over these truths so that we never resort back to our own righteousness.
Luther’s quote continues: “Yea, though we learn it and understand it well, yet is there not that taketh hold of it perfectly, or believeth it with his heart….Therefore I fear lest this doctrine be defaced and darkened again, when we are dead. For the world must be replenished with horrible darkness and errors, before the latter day come.” COR 91. How right he was. If once neglected, while we think we are children of light we might be children of darkness, because Christ is not our righteousness. We may have some truth, but that becomes darkness in us when Christ is not our righteousness. We distort truth and pervert it by self-efforts, by contaminating it with sinful self; and its glory, its unselfishness, its love, its grace are all gone! Why? Because man becomes so prominent in his doing of truth that you cannot find the real truth any longer. The Sabbath doctrine easily becomes a perversion of the Sabbath when it is not the Sabbath as Jesus kept it. It is merely the correct twenty-four hours. The how and why of keeping it and what blessings are found in it get lost in our arguing and debating. We distort everything by self unless Christ operates in us.
We must receive Christ as our Savior for pardon, and as our righteousness for right doing (obedience). And it is all done by grace and not by merit. Christ is both salvation (pardon) and righteousness to me. All my hope is in Him, every bit of it. There is that marvelous text: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. If He is not in me, I have no hope. He must be in me; and there is no way He can come into me without being my righteousness. There is no way He can abide, or stay there, unless He can do His will. And His will is His Father’s will, which is the keeping of the law. He can perform that law flawlessly. He is the fulfillment of it. He is the epitome of righteousness. As Christ comes into my heart by faith and by love for Him, as I receive Him and know that He is a God of grace, then, low and behold, for me to live is Christ.
The world today wants to see Jesus, not you, not me. The world is tired of weak human beings. We do not perform flawlessly. They say as the Greeks did, “We would see Jesus,” but they will never see Jesus in us until He is both salvation and righteousness. This very moment, He is waiting to bestow the treasures of heaven, in the righteousness of Christ, to you and to me. He stands with His hands outstretched, filled with His righteousness, and He asks us, “Why will you die? Why do you try to establish your own righteousness when Mine is so freely given and completely available. When I am knocking and trying to get in, you won’t let Me in with My righteousness. Instead of going about with your own filthy rags, won’t you let Me take them off and put on the spotless robes of My righteousness? Won’t you trust Me? Don’t you believe I am that good? Why do you diminish My goodness? I am the mighty One.”
Friend, why will you go on in a miserable existence, trying to be good enough to be accepted when you are already accepted in Christ? All you have to do is receive Him. May God help us this day to see the truth of justification by faith—that Jesus is both salvation and righteousness. What a marvelous truth. May God help us to understand it and receive Him in the fullness of our hearts, in the fullness of His grace.