XIII. WE do believe Justification is a free Act of God's Grace,1 through that Redemption which is in Christ, (who, as our Head, was acquitted, justified, and discharged,2 and we in him, when he rose from the Dead) and when applied to us, we in our own Persons are actually justified,3 in being made and pronounced righteous,4 through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us; and all our Sins, past, present, and to come, for ever pardoned; which is received by Faith alone. And that our Sanctification, nor Faith it self, is any part of our Justification before God; it not being either the Habit, or Act of Believing, ⟨p. 13⟩or any Act of Evangelical Obedience imputed to us, but Christ,5 and his active and passive Obedience only, apprehended by Faith: and that Faith in no sense tends to make Christ's Merits more satisfactory unto God; but that he was as fully reconciled and satisfied for his Elect in Christ by his Death before Faith as after;6 otherwise it would render God only reconcilable,7 (not reconciled) and make Faith part of the Payment or Satisfaction unto God,8 and so lessen the Merits of Christ, as if they were defective or insufficient. Yet we say, it is by Faith that we receive the Atonement, or by which means (as an Instrument) we come to apprehend and receive him, and to have personal Interest in him, and to have our free Justification evidenced to our own Consciences.
XIII. WE do believe Justification is a free Act of God's Grace,1 through that Redemption which is in Christ, (who, as our Head, was acquitted, justified, and discharged,2 and we in him, when he rose from the Dead) and when applied to us, we in our own Persons are actually justified,3 in being made and pronounced righteous,4 through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us; and all our Sins, past, present, and to come, for ever pardon'd; which is receiv'd by Faith alone. And that our Sanctification, nor Faith it self, is any part of our Justification before God; it not being either the Habit, or Act of Believing, ⟨p. 13⟩or any Act of Evangelical Obedience imputed to us, but Christ,5 and his active and passive Obedience only, apprehended by Faith: and that Faith in no sense tends to make Christ's Merits more satisfactory unto God; but that he was as fully reconciled and satisfied for his Elect in Christ by his Death before Faith as after;6 otherwise it would render God only reconcileable,7 (not reconciled) and make Faith part of the Payment or Satisfaction unto God,8 and so lessen the Merits of Christ, as if they were defective or insufficient. Yet we say, it is by Faith that we receive the Atonement, or by which means (as an Instrument) we come to apprehend and receive him, and to have personal Interest in him, and to have our free Justification evidenced to our own Consciences.
- 1Rom. 3.23, 24, 25, 26.
- 2Eph. 1.6, 7. Tit. 3.7.
- 3Rom. 5.15, 16, 17, 18.
- 41 Cor. 1.30. 2 Cor. 5.21
- 5Act. 13.39.
- 62 Cor. 5.21.
- 7Phil. 3.7, 8, 9.
- 8Rom. 10.5.