How Shall Man
be Just with God?

By Albert Barnes

I. The Importance and Difficulty of the Inquiry, How Man Can Be Justified.

THE question "How shall man be justified with God," (Job xxv. 4.) proposed by an Eastern Sage, may be regarded as an inquiry by man—by human nature. It expresses the deep workings of the human soul in all ages, on one of the most important and difficult of all subjects. The question means, How shall man be regarded and treated as righteous by his Maker? What methods shall he take to secure such treatment? What can he do, if any thing, to commend himself to the favourable regards of a holy God? What can he do, if any thing, to make amends for the past? What can he do, if any thing, to turn away future wrath? Can he vindicate himself before the Eternal Throne, for what he has done? If not, can he see how it is consistent for God to treat him as righteous? These questions meet us everywhere, and enter into and mould all the forms of religion on earth. The inquiry, as illustrating and expressing the feelings of human nature, may be considered with reference to two points:—its importance, and its difficulty.

1. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INQUIRY.

(1.) Its importance will be seen by this consideration—No one can be saved unless he is just, or righteous, in the sight of God. Unless there is some way, by which God can consistently regard and treat us as just or righteous, it is impossible to believe that we can enter heaven when we die. Unless man is personally so holy that he cannot be charged with guilt; or can justify himself by denying or disproving the charge of guilt; or can vindicate himself by showing that his conduct is right; or can appropriate to himself the merit of another as if it were his own, no one can believe, no one does believe that he can enter heaven. Probably there is no conviction of the human mind more deep and universal than this, and every man, whether conscious to himself of acting on it or not, makes it elementary in his practical belief. If any one is disposed to call this proposition in question, or if he is not conscious of acting on it, he will see that it must be true, by looking at it for a single moment. The proposition is, that no man can be saved unless he is just, or righteous, in the sight of God. Can God save a wicked man as such and on account of his wickedness? Can he hold him up to the universe as one who ought to be saved? Can he take the profane man, the scoffer, the adulterer and the murderer, to heaven, and proclaim himself as their patron and friend? Can he connect a life of open wickedness with the rewards of eternal glory? Nothing can be more clear than that if a man is made happy forever in heaven, there will be some good reason for it, and that reason cannot be that he was regarded as an unrighteous person. There will be a fitness and propriety in his being saved; there will be some reason why it will be proper for God to regard and treat him as righteous.

This view, which is perhaps sufficiently obvious, may be illustrated by a reference to a human government. No just government could become the patron and friend of the pirate and the murderer, or bestow its rewards on one who, in all respects, deserved to meet the penalty of the laws. On this belief also, every man acts in reference to his own salvation. Each one has a firm conviction that no man can be saved unless he is just in the sight of God. A man when he thinks of being saved, always either thinks that he has kept the law of God; or that he has a good excuse for not complying with it; or that he can make reparation by penances, pilgrimages, sacrifices, or fastings; or that he can appropriate to himself the merit of another. He never thinks of finding favour with God as a transgressor, or on account of his crimes; he never supposes that his iniquity can be the foundation of his salvation. God made the human soul, and he so made it, that it never could believe that he would save a man because he was wicked, or unless there was some way in which he could be regarded and treated as righteous.

(2.) Secondly, the importance of the inquiry is seen from the testimony of man everywhere. Man is apparently greatly indifferent to religion, and it often seems impossible to arouse his attention to the great and momentous questions connected with it. But, taking the race together, he is not so indifferent to the subject as he appears, and could we know all the secret thoughts and feelings of each individual, we should find that his indifference is often in appearance only. There are workings of the soul which are carefully excluded from public view. There are thoughts, which every man has, of which he would not wish others to know. There are deep, agitating, protracted questionings resulting in settled conviction, or tossing the soul upon a restless sea, which men would wish to hide from their best friends. There is often a deep interest in a man's mind on the subject of religion, when his whole soul seems to the world torpid and inactive, or when he would repel your inquiries, or when he would seem as "calm as a summer's morning."

A very slight acquaintance with the human mind, or with the history of opinions, is all that is needful to see the importance which the inquiry, on the subject of justification, has assumed in the view of man.

(a) It was seen in the investigations of ancient philosophers "How shall man be just with God?" was the question which pressed itself on the minds and hearts of the speakers in the book of Job, and it was a question which was echoed and re-echoed in the whole heathen philosophic world. Many who are profound and patient students on other subjects, often regard investigations on the subject of religion as unworthy their attention. They think them appropriate themes for contending theologians; for disputatious and subtle schoolmen; for the feeble in intellect, or for the. 6 dying; but they regard them as having slight claims on a philosophic mind. But would they go and take lessons of the masters of science and of profound thought, they would think differently. Will such men tell us what points of inquiry have most occupied the attention of the intellects of other times? Will they refer to the volumes which contain the results of their investigations of past ages? Will they let Socrates once more speak, and Plato give utterance to his views, and Cicero and Seneca declare what most engrossed their attention? One thing, they will end in all the past—one grand absorbing question they will meet with everywhere—one query to which all physical science was made subservient. It was the subject of religion; the question of man's acceptance with God; the grounds of his hope of future blessedness. The real inquiry among thinking men of all ages and lands has been, "How shall man be just with God?"

(b) The same earnest searching we find still in the heathen world. From the recorded views, and the religion of the heathen, we may learn much about man when he utters his sentiments without disguise; and what we find universally among them, we may regard as the language of human nature. Now there is no one thing expressed with more uniformity or more earnestness all over the Pagan world than this question, "How may we be just with God?" It was the foundation of all sacrifices, penances, pilgrimages, self-inflicted mortifications. All these things were intended so to make expiation for sin, or so to appease the anger of the gods, that they who thus performed the rights of religion, might be regarded and treated as righteous. Take this inquiry away, and their sacrifices and penances would be unmeaning. Take this away, and the earnestness of their religion would soon cease, and, degenerating into an empty form, would of itself soon expire.

(c) There is another method by which we may learn the views of the human soul about the importance of this inquiry. It is by contemplating the soul when under convictions of sin, and reflecting on its prospects about the future world. Then there is no thought so momentous in the view of the Mind as this, "How shall a man be just with God?" There are many more persons in this state than is commonly imagined. There is probably no one who reaches the years of mature reflection, before whose mind this inquiry has not at some period assumed an engrossing importance. With almost no danger of error, you may assume of every man that you meet, that his mind either has been, or is now deeply interested on the subject of his salvation, and that in his life there are periods when no subject appears so momentous as this. In his moments of solitary musing, Or in a time of bereavement, or under the preaching of the gospel, or when remembered truth seems to come with new-armed power to his soul, or when the recollection of guilt seems recalled to him by some invisible agency, or when lying on a bed of languishing, this great inquiry has come before him, "How may he be justified before his Maker?" How may the guilt of his sins be washed away? How may he be regarded and treated as a righteous man? To those who have been in this state and who has not been? It need not be said, that then no question seems more momentous than this. In time of revival of religion, the student in a college loses his relish for his ordinary studies, and almost the capacity to pursue them, absorbed in the more important study respecting salvation; the merchant loses his relish for his gains, engrossed in the greater inquiry how be may obtain everlasting life; the farmer, the mechanic, and the mariner feel that they can hardly pursue their wonted employments, for a more momentous subject has engrossed the soul. The eye may be on a passage in Horace or Livy, but the thought shall be elsewhere; and the hands may be employed in labour, but it shall be performed with a heavy heart, and when toil is pursued almost unconscious of what is done. The calm, fixed, steady, contemplative eye of the student, and the readiness of the man of business to leave his counting room and place himself under religious instruction, show with what intensity this inquiry has seized on the soul. The busy, the studious and the gay often become entirely absorbed in it, and then no honour of scholarship, no amplitude of gain, no brilliancy of pleasure or amusement, seem comparable in value to the solution of the question, "How shall man be just with God?" We need not pause here to consider whether this is a just estimate which the soul thus puts on the magnitude of this subject. We are concerned only in getting at the language of man himself when in his sober moments. It will at least be conceded. 8 that in those moments of profound absorbing thought; those moments when men of all classes are willing to turn aside from their usual pursuits; those times when the great inquiry can make the pleasures of the ballroom and the scenes of the splendid amusement, tasteless, and can loosen the hold of the votaries of gold on their gains, and cause the ardent student to turn aside from his books, that then the human mind is as likely as ever to judge correctly of the importance of what has come before it. Yet there is but one sentiment then that this question absorbs and annihilates all others.

(3.) There is another consideration which shows the importance of this inquiry. It is, that the views that are entertained of justification, modify and shape all the other doctrines of religion. It is the central doctrine in the whole system, and spreads its influence over every other opinion which man holds, on the subject of salvation. The views entertained on this subject, distinguish respectively the Protestant and the Papal communities; divide Protestants themselves into two great parties, evangelical and non-evangelical; separate heathens from Christians; give form to all the systems of infidelity and Deism, and constitute the peculiarity of every man's individual faith. When it is known definitely what a man thinks on this one point, it may be known whether he is a Papist, or a Protestant; a Christian or an infidel; a heathen or a friend of the Saviour; a formalist or a devoted servant of God. Luther did not say too much when he said of this doctrine of justification, that it was the article on which depended the permanency or ruin of the church, and with a sagacity equal to that of Talleyrand, when from a very slight matter he predicted that the throne of France would be overturned, Luther saw that the doctrine of justification would meet every corruption of the Papacy and eventually overturn the system. The fabric of the Papacy is an ingenious attempt, originated and arranged under the auspices of a higher than a human intellect, though fallen, to delude man with the belief, that there is some other way by which he may be justified with God, than by faith in the Saviour. The whole system of heathenism is an attempt to answer the question, "How man may be justified with God?" The systems of infidels, and of men who are depending on their own morality, or relying on penances and pilgrimages, are another answer which is given to the. 9 question.

If the observations now made are correct, it will be conceded that this doctrine has an importance which cannot be over-estimated. If it be so, that no man can be saved who is not justified in the sight of God; that the race everywhere, in the anxious inquiry of sages, in the systems and sacrifices of the heathen, and in the deep working of the soul rendering every other pursuit tasteless and valueless, has shown its sense of its importance and that it spreads its influence over every form of belief, the importance of the inquiry will be admitted.

2. THE DIFFICULTY OF THE INQUIRY.

The second point proposed to be noticed as preparatory to a consideration of the subject of justification is, the difficulty of the inquiry.

What is the difficulty? Why has the human mind been so much perplexed in relation to it? Why may not God admit man to heaven, and regard and treat him as if he were righteous? These questions can be answered in a single remark, and the whole difficulty may then be seen at a glance. It is, that man is in fact not righteous. The difficulty is to see how God can regard and treat him as if he were. It is easy to see how if he were righteous, God could treat him so, or how he could treat him as a sinner, that is, according to his real character. But how shall he treat him differently from what he deserves, or as if he had a character which it is known he has not? Whatever theories may be embraced by Men, or whatever opinions may be entertained on the subject of religion, it is true as a matter of fact that these perplexities have been felt by men, that they have given rise to grave and agitating questions, and that man has not felt that he could give a solution that was wholly. 10 satisfactory. There is no inquiry which has taken hold on man everywhere, under all forms of government and opinion, and in every climate and amidst every degree of progress, which has not had some real foundation in the nature of things. The race, in its soberest moments, does not busy itself with trifles, and especially will not allow itself to be troubled and tortured by questions that are of no importance. The difficulty which has been felt on this subject is therefore not imaginary, but from the fact that the inquiry has been so universal, and so beyond the human powers satisfactorily to explain, it is clear that God meant that it should be regarded by man as a point to be solved only by divine revelations. The real difficulties in the case, and the state of the human mind in regard to them, may be illustrated by the following observations:

(1.) There was the impossibility of man's vindicating himself from the charges of guilt brought against him. If he could do this, all would be clear, for God will not condemn the innocent. But it could not be done. These charges were brought in such a way, and enforced in such a manner that man could not so meet them as to escape the conviction of their truth. They are brought, where there is a revelation by God himself in his word; and where there is not, as well as where there is, by conscience. Man is told in the word of God that he is a sinner; his recollection of what he has done, assures him that it is so; the dealings of God with him, convince him that there must be some cause of alienation between himself and his Maker; and every sick bed, and every grave, and every apprehension of future wrath, confirms the conviction. If man were to undertake to convince himself that he is not held to be guilty, the argument could not be derived from the dealings of God with him in this world. It is not easy for a man to satisfy himself that he is not a sinner, when the earth is strewed with the dying and the dead; when his best friends are cut down all around him; when he himself is to die, and when he is so made that he cannot but tremble at the apprehension of the judgment. If one wished to construct an argument to prove that he is not a sinful man, and that man can be just with God, he would desire to be removed to some world where he would not see so many things that seem to be mementoes of human depravity, and so many evidences that his Creator regards him and his fellow-men as guilty. Men have everywhere felt this difficulty. There is no one sentiment in which men more uniformly agree than in this. Every man regards every other man as a sinner, and puts himself on his defence against him, for his locks, and bolts, and notes, and bonds, and securities all demonstrate this; and every man knows that he himself also is a sinner. There is nothing of which he is better apprised, nothing he believes more firmly than this. There is not a living man that could bear the revelation of his thoughts to others for a single day, and that not merely because others have no right to know what is passing in his mind, but because he feels that they are wrong. Confusion, blushes, shame, and shrinking would diffuse themselves over every assembly, and through every crowded thoroughfare in the streets of a great city, and in every lonely path where strangers should meet strangers, if each one knew that another was surveying closely the thoughts of his heart, and saw what was passing there. If every man felt that his bosom were so transparent that all the workings of his soul could be observed by others, no one would venture out of his chamber; no one would move along the pathways where he might encounter a fellow man; the thronged places of business would be deserted, and our great and crowded cities would become like the cities of the dead. No man would venture, at midnight on the mountain top, or on the lonely prairie, to stretch out his hands to Heaven, and say, "I am pure as the stars that shine upon me, or as the God that made them." So universal is the consciousness of guilt, and so certain does every man feel, in his sober moments, that he cannot vindicate himself before God. How then shall man be just with God?

(2.) There is the difficulty which must have been early apparent to men, and which any one can see now, if the guilty were saved, or if they were regarded and treated as righteous. How could this be done? Man does not do it himself, in reference to those who are guilty, and how could God? No father feels that it would be proper to regard and treat an offending child as if he were obedient; no friend acts thus toward one who professes friendship; and no government acts thus toward its subjects. All order and happiness in a family would cease at once if this were to occur; and. government on earth would be unknown. There is a great principle of eternal justice which seems engraved in the convictions of the soul, that every one ought to be treated according to character, and that there ought to be a difference in the divine dealings toward the good and the evil. But what if God treats all alike? What if he makes no distinction in regard to character? What if he admits all to favour; punishes no one, and rewards piety and impiety, fraud and honesty, vice and virtue, reverence and blasphemy, alike with the same immortal crown? What if the murder of the innocent, and the highest deed of benevolence were equally a passport to his favour? What if he met the licentious, and those of virgin purity of soul, when they came before him, with the same smile of approbation? Would not the universe feel that he was regardless of character? Would it be possible to correct the impression?

But it will be said, perhaps, might he not pardon the guilty, and the fact of pardon constitute a ground of distinction which the universe would understand? True, if it would be proper to pardon in this state of things. But are there no difficulties attending the subject of pardon? Can it always be done? Can it be done to an unlimited extent? Does a father feel that it is safe and best to adopt it as a universal rule, that he will forgive all his children as often as they may choose to offend him, and to do it without any condition? Any one may easily see the difficulty on this subject. There are thousands of men confined in penitentiaries; many of them are desperate men, regardless of all the laws of heaven and earth. Would it be felt to be safe or proper at once to open their prison doors? Who would wish to be in the neighbourhood when they should be turned impenitent and unreformed upon the world? If the community is scarcely safe now with all the precautions and guards of justice, what would it be if they were all withdrawn? These difficulties must occur to any one when he asks the question, How can the guilty be justified?

(3.) It is a matter of simple fact that men have felt this difficulty, and the methods to which they have resorted to devise some way of justification, show how perplexing the subject has been. to the human mind. We may learn something of the embarrassments which men feel, by the devices to which they resort to overcome them. Look then for a moment at some of the methods to which men have been driven in order to answer the question satisfactorily, How can man be just with God?

(a) One class have denied the charge of guilt, and have endeavoured to convince themselves that they are righteous and that they may safely trust to their own works for salvation. If this could be done, all would be well. But the mass of men have felt that there are insuperable difficulties in the way of doing this. We shall hereafter inquire whether it is practicable.

(b) Many have endeavoured to excuse themselves for their conduct, and thus to be justified before God. They are sensible that all is not right, but if they can find a satisfactory excuse, that is, if they can show that they had a right to do what they have done, or could not help it, they feel that they would not be condemned. And they are right in this. To do it they lay the blame on Adam, or on ungovernable passions, or on a fallen nature, or on the power of temptation, or on the government of God. They attempt to show that they could do otherwise than they have done; that is, they have a right to do it in the circumstances, and of course are not to blame. We shall inquire hereafter whether this position can be made out.

(c) Many have endeavoured to make expiation by blood, and have sought to be justified in this way. Hence the sacrifices of the heathen the flowing blood and burning bodies of lambs, and goats, and bullocks, and prisoners of war, and slaves, and of children offered to appease the anger of the gods. Thousands of altars smoke in this attempt, and the whole heathen world pants and struggles under the difficulty of the inquiry, How may a guilty conscience be justified with God?

(d) Many have sought the same thing by pilgrimages and penances; by maceration and scourging; by unnatural and painful postures of the body; and by wounds which their own hands. have inflicted on themselves. The victim of superstition in India lies down beneath the car of his idol, or fastens hooks in his flesh, or holds his arm in one posture till it is rigid. Simeon in Syria, on an elevated column, spent his years in misery. Antony in Egypt went and lived in a cave, and Benedict originated the monastic system in Italy. Mecca is crowded by pilgrims seeking for righteousness by a visit to the tomb of the prophet; and the shrines inclosing the bones of the saints are encompassed by throngs in Italy for a similar purpose; the garment of hair frets and tortures the body, and the sound of the lash is heard in the cells of the convent, and the whole system of penance and self-inflicted torture all over the world is just a commentary on the question, How shall man be justified with God?

(e) To crown all this, another device has been resorted to. It has been held that there were extraordinary merits of saints who lived in former times; that they performed services beyond what were required, that these merits were garnered up as a sacred treasure, and are placed at the disposal of the head of the papal community, to be distributed at his pleasure to those who are conscious of guilt; and this is one of the answers given to the question, How shall man be justified with God?

From these remarks it will be seen what men have thought of the difficulty of this question. In these various ways, human nature speaks out and reveals what is passing in the bosom. They are the methods to which men have resorted as the best answer which they can give to this inquiry. To see the real difficulty, however, we should be able to go down into the depths of the soul, to gauge all the agonies of guilty consciences; to look at the woes and sorrows which men are willing to endure that they may be justified, and then to see how one and all of these plans utterly fail; how they leave the conscience just as defiled as it was before, the propensities to evil unchecked, the grave as terrific as ever, and the judgment bar as full of horrors. When we stand and survey these things, we ask with deep concern whether any one of these is the way by which man can be justified.with God? If not, is there any other way, or is there none?