The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-20

peace to the child brings the child 10 the
mother So in the parable of the prodigal
son II IS said when he came to himself. he
said. will arise and go to my father. The
coming to himself was vitality one with
gong back to his father The going back
to his father inevitably accompanied his
coming to himself. The two are separable
IN statement they are one in fact.
Now it is curious to me that the Chris
on the theological question whether Paul
means by justification we are reconciled 10
God or we are brought al peace within our
selves. Does it mean, the theologians say,
God declares him to be right or God makes
MIN right? Neither and both; for the two
are one and the same. 1t is impossible that
Coo should declare a man 10 be right when
God sees him to be wrong. That would make
God liar He sees in man the beginning of
seeing the beginning of righteousness, rec
ognizes it, fosters it, broods it, develops it,
THEORY OF JUSTIFICATION.
TO the question: then, what is meant by
the statement man is justified, l answer
this is meant: lie is reconciled with God
and reconciled with himself. The beginning
of love is in him, and the reconciliation be-
tween him and God is accomplished. He
ceases to pout and climbs, into his mothers
lap. He comes to himself and he returns
to the father. And the two acts are one
and the same act. A similar discussion
has taken place respecting the words, The
Righteousness of Cod What does that
mean? One set of theologians have said the
righteousness of God means gift which
God bestows, something He gives TO men;
and another set of theologians have said it
means an attribute or quality of God. And
here again, with all respect to the theo-
logianS who have debated this question
through volumes that seem to me dreary
and dry as the dust. l think the two are
one and the same. You can regard them
from different points of view, but they are
not in fact separable; philoSophically diff
ferent, virtually one; in thought different.
in reality one. The righteousness of God is
Gods own character which He gives. lie
does not impart something Himself and He
has not anything in Himself which He is
not ready to impart. God gives His own
life to men. He pOurs Himself into men.
So that when Paul says we are justified by
Gods Righteousness. what he says is this:
We are made right in ourselves and we are
brought into right relationship by God, be-
cause God will pour himself into us the mo-
ment we are willing to receive Him.
The third question is, What is meant by
faith? l forget how many different kinds
Of faith the theologians have furnished us
with-historcal faith, justifying faith, saw
ing faith, intellectual faith, and so on. L
hapS more, perhaps less No wonder Paul
has been misunderstood. When a great
writer undertakes to set before the world
q great thought, and when, in changing
form and phraseology, he uses the same
word over and over again TO state the same
thought when there are certain great key
that he employs those key words with al
ways the same essential meaning; and this
is PaulS message over and over again:
Man is not justified by law; he Is justified
by faith. He cannot faith with different
meanings unless he has different messages
to impart with the same words Here,
again, our English language miSleadS US.
We~haVe the noun faith and no verb CORE
spending to it. So either have to say
belief and believe, or else we have TO say
faith and then the awkward circumlOcutiOn,
as faith or exercise of faith, or else we have
to do what we have done in our English
Bible-say faith when we use the noun and
belief when we use the verb. Now, in gen.
eral, the verb believe in the New Testament
corresponds to the word faith in the New
Testament-that is one is the verbal form
and the other is the noun form; and what
Paul says when he says are to believe
in Jesus Christ is that we are to have faith
in Christ or exercise faith in Christ. What
does he mean by this faith?
DEFINITION OF FAITH.
THE author of the Epistle to the He
brews. who, if not Paul himself was
disciple of Paul. teaching essentially
Pauline theology, has given us a kind of
definition of faith: Evidence of things I'M
seen, substance of things hoped for 1t is
primarily, in PauPs use of it. the pre-
ception of the invisible and the eternal. He
himself has given what is not in terms
but is in reality definition of it-'While we
look not at the things which are seen.
which are temporal, but at the things which
are unseen which are eternal 1t is look
ing upon the invisible and eternal world.
But 1t is more than looking, 1T is perceiVing.
But perceiving spiritual truth is only pos
sible when accompanied with receiving
spiritual life. The life is perceived only by
the receiving. and only as in some sense
we receive that which we perceive can we
perceive it. A thoroughly dishonest man
cannot understand honesty. A thoroughly
impure person cannot understand the glory
of purity. A thoroughly corrupt individual
cannot comprehend the splendor of self
sacrifice and generosity. 1t is only as we
percelVing go together.
What Paul says, then, is this: The
world is to be set right by receiving Gods
free gift of righteousness Belief is a pure
~ intellectual act. Faith is also an act of
the will. 1t is the substance of things hoped
as well as the evidence of things unseen.
We look-and you do not look without set
ting your eyes to look-we look at the things
which are unseen: They are not forces
around us; we deliberately turn our atten
ton toward them. This is the difference
between a creed and confession of faith:
A creed is simply the statement of an in
tellectual opinion. think God is. A con-
fession of faith is the acceptance of God.
receive Him as my Father.
''Fourthly-What does Paul mean by pro-
pitiatiOD. God hath set forth Christ as
Precipitation Perhaps L ought to say, spe-
officially, that my answer to this question
does not accord with the answer generally
given by orthodox teachers and by ortho-
doX commentators, and it is for that reason
| state to you why give the reason which
/ do. The word rendered Precipitation in
this passage occurs only once elsewhere in
the New Testament. 1t occurs frequently
in the Greek version of the Old Testament.
and wherever it occurs in either Greek Old
Testament or in the other places in the
New Testament, it means mercy seat The
temple at Jerusalem was divided into
courts, one within and rising above the
other. The interior court of all was the
holy of holes Behind the curtain which
yelled this holy of HOLES from profane view
was the ark of the covenant, and over the
ark of the covenant lid or cover guarded
by the cherubim known the mercy seat.
Within this holy of holes God was sup
posed in some special sense to reside, or at
least to come to it from time to time, and
once a year on a great solemn occasion,
the high priest. and he alone, was per
holy of HOLES, and there meet Jehovah at
the mercy seat.
MEANING OF THE FIGURE.
'I understand Paul, them to use this fig
ure-certainly he would have been so under
stood, it seems to me, 10y all Jewish readers,
who never used this word in any other
sense than to signify this mercy scat. And
what Paul means when he says Jesus
Christ is a Precipitation, as unfortunately
rendered both in the old and new version,
what he says is this: Jesus Christ the
mercy seat The figure is this: OF olden
time only the high priest could enter the
holy of holes OF olden time only he once
a year could meet in fellowship with God.
But now the veil is drawn aside, Jesus