This is one of those ten excellent manuscripts that were found among Bunyan’s papers after he died in 1688. It had been prepared by him for publication, but he still wanted a few touches of his masterly hand and a preface in his characteristic style. He had, while a prisoner for nonconformity, in 1672, published a treatise upon this subject, in reply to Mr. Fowler, who was soon after created Bishop of Gloucester; but that was more peculiarly intended to prove that those who are justified by faith in Christ are placed in a safer, more honorable, and more glorious state than that possessed by Adam before his fall. Mr. Fowler took the popular view, that the sufferings of the Saviour were intended to replace man in a similar position to that of Adam when in a state of innocence; and to give him powers, that, if properly used, would enable him to save himself.
We must understand the meaning of the term ‘justification’ as used here. It is an acquittal on being tried by the law or proof that, upon the most penetrating scrutiny, we have, through life, fulfilled and performed all its requirements in word, thought, and deed, without the slightest deviation or taint of error. This is essential to salvation and must be done, either personally or by the imputation of the Saviour’s obedience to us. Multitudes vainly imagine that this can be attained by our partial obedience, aided, where we fail, by the imputation of so much of the Saviour’s obedience as, being placed in our account, will make up the deficiency. Justification must depend on the salvation of the soul. Bunyan was convinced that the sinner’s only hope was the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, which alone could justify him from all things and without which he must perish.
As ‘by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified,’ it becomes an important inquiry whether the law, which all must be tried and justified or condemned, is opposed to the gospel or glad tidings of salvation. God forbid that we should, for a moment, entertain such a thought! They both proceed from the same divine source, and the gospel confirms and establishes the law. This is clearly shown in the following treatise. Every Christian forms a part of that one mystical body, of which Christ is the head, and alone can fulfill every jot and tittle of the law. Bunyan’s controversy is with an opinion held by many that a man may, in his own person, by imperfect obedience to some of the requirements of the law procure, or aid in obtaining justification.
There can be no subject more intensely interesting than the means of a sinner’s justification before that God whose law is perfect, and who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity except with abhorrence; nor is there one upon which more fatal mistakes have been made.
The great delusion, which, like deadly leprosy, has involved a man in uncertainty and darkness in all his conceptions of purity and holiness, is the fallacious hope of producing some good works to blot out transgressions; or that man is not so polluted, but that he may justify himself by works performed through some kind of ability communicated by the Saviour—an ability which he might or might not use, but upon the proper use of which he considers that his salvation depends, leaving him in the most distressing uncertainty and doubt upon this all-important subject. All these, Bunyan is considered to be a specious and dangerous device of Satan, unscriptural, and contrary to the simplicity and design of the gospel.
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