Query 6. Justification, Holiness, and Glory
QUERY 6. — (1) Does a sinner, being justified, have all things at once that are necessary for salvation? And (2) Are personal holiness, and progress in holy obedience, not necessary to a justified person’s possession of glory, in case of his continuing in life after his justification?
Ans. — The ground of this query marked out to us, is in these words of holy Luther, — “For in Christ I have all things at once, nor do I need anything more that is necessary for salvation.” And to us it is evident that this is the believer’s plea, namely: [faith in] Christ’s most perfect obedience to the law, done for him in answer to its demand of good works for obtaining salvation, according to the tenor of the first covenant. Our Representation alleges that this plea is cut off and condemned by the Act of Assembly — but without saying anything about the old Popish reflection on the doctrine of free justification by faith, without works, as taught by Luther and other reformers; or anything about the hardship of having this question put to us, as if we had given some basis for being suspected as enemies of gospel holiness. Our consciences bear us witness, that it is our great desire to have this holiness advanced in ourselves and others; we are fully persuaded that without it, neither they nor we shall see the Lord.Heb 12.14 We answer the first part of the query —
That, since a justified person, having passed from death to life, translated from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son,Col 1.13 and blest with all the spiritual blessings in Christ,Eph 1.3 is by virtue of his union with him, brought into and secured in a state of salvation; and therefore, in the language of the Holy Ghost, he is actually, though not completely, saved already; and since, in Christ he has particularly a most perfect, law-binding, and law-magnifying righteousness, redemption in his blood, specifically the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, access, acceptance wisdom, sanctification, everlasting strength, and in a word, an overflowing, ever-flowing fulness from which, according to the order of the covenant, he does and shall receive whatever he wants. Hence, according to the Scripture, in Christ all things are his and in him he is complete. Considering these things, we say that we think a justified person has in Christ at once all things necessary to salvation, though of himself he has nothing.
To the second part of the query we answer, that personal holiness, and justification, being inseparable in the believer, we are unwilling, so much as the query does, to suppose their separation. Personal holiness we reckon is so necessary to the possession of glory, or to a state of perfect holiness and happiness — as the morning light is necessary to the noon-day warmth and brightness; as a reasonable soul is necessary to a wise, healthy, strong, and full grown man; as an antecedent is necessary to its consequent; as a part is necessary to the whole — for we take the difference between a state of grace and of glory, to be gradual only, according to the maxim, “Grace is glory begun, and glory is grace in perfection.” So necessary, again, as motion is necessary to evidence life, or in order to walk — not only habitual, but actual holiness and progress in holy obedience, one continuing in life, we are clear, are so necessary — that without them, none can see the Lord. And as it is not only the believer’s interest, but his necessary and indispensable duty, to still be going on “from strength to strength, until he appears before the Lord in Zion;”Psa 84.7 so the righteous, we believe, “will hold on his way; and he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.”Job 17.9 For even though the believer’s progress in holy obedience, by reason of the many stops, interruptions, and assaults he frequently meets with from Satan, from the world, and from in-dwelling corruption, he is far from being alike at all times. Yet “the path of the just,” though he frequently falls, will be “as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day.”Prov 4.18 Though he may, at times “become weary and faint in his mind,” yet he shall, by waiting on the Lord, “renew his strength, and mount up as with eagles’ wings,” etc. Isa 40.31 But still the believer has all this in and from Christ: for where can our progress in holiness come from, except from the supply of his Spirit? Our walking in holy obedience, and every good motion of ours, must be in him, and from him, who is the Way and the Life, who is our head of influences, and the fountain of our strength, and who “works in us both to will and to do.”Phil 2.13 “Abide in me,” he says, “and I in you. For without me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast away as a branch, and is withered.”Joh 15.5, 6.
But if the meaning of the query is that holy obedience is of such a necessity in order to possess glory, then as it imports any kind of causality, we dare not answer in the affirmative; for we cannot look at personal holiness, or good works, as properly federal and conditional means to obtain possession of heaven, though we admit that they are necessary to make us fit for it.