Again it is objected, if we are justified on re ceiving Christ by faith as the Lord our righteous ness, and if this be the sole ground of salvation propounded by St. Paul, there is then a palpable discrepancy between him and St. James; for the former states, that a man is justified by faith with out the deeds of the law (Rom. iii :8; Gal. ii:16); while the latter says, 'a man is justified by works and not by faith only' (James ii:24). That there is a difficulty here there can be no question, and that it led Eusebius and Jerome, together with Luther and Erasmus, to question the authority of St. James' Epistle, is notable to every reader of ecclesiastical history.
(a) Roman Catholic View. The church of Rome builds her system of man's being justified by reason of inherent righteousness, on the assump tion that when St. Paul says 'by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified,' he means the cere monial and not the moral law. In this way she would establish her own system of human merit, and harmonize the two Apostles. But it is quite clear to the impartial reader of the Epistle to the Romans that the scope of St. Paul's argument must include both the moral and the ceremonial law; for Ile proves both Jew and Gentile guilty before God, and this with the view of establishing the righteousness of faith in the imputed merits of Christ as the only ground of a sinner's salvation. Leaving, then, this sophistical reconcilement, we come to that which our Protestant divines pro pose.
(b) Protestant View. This is of a twofold character, viz., first, by distinguishing the double sense of justification., which may be trrken either for the absolution of a sinner in God's judgment, or for the declaration of his righteousness before men. This distinction is found in Scripture, in which the word justify is used in both accepta tions. Thus St. Paul speaks of justification in for° Dci; St. James speaks of it in faro hominis. A man is justified by faith without works, saith the onc; a man is justified by works, and not by faith only, declares the other. That this is the true solution of the difficulty appears from the fact that the two Apostles draw their apparently op posite conclusions from the same example of Abra ham (Ram. iv :9-23; comp. James ii:21-24).
(c) Double Sense of Faith. Another mode of reconciling the Apostles is by regarding faith in the double sense in which it is often found in Scripture. St. Paul, when he affirms that we are
justified by faith only, speaks of that faith which is true and living, working by love. St. James, when he denies that a man is justified by faith only, disputes against that faith which is false and unproductive; when the true Christian, speaking to the hypocritical boaster of his faith, asks: 'Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.' (3) Final Objection. Considered. One objec tion more may be urged against this fundamental doctrine, that sinners are justified by the free grace of God through the imputed righteousness of the Redeemer, namely, that it weakens the ob ligations to holiness of life. This objection the Apostle himself anticipates when he asks, 'What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?' To which lie answers by rcjecting the consequence with the utmost abhor rence, and in the strongest manner affirming it to be without any foundation. 'How shall we,' lie continues, 'that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?' (Rom. A-2). He who expects justifi cation by the imputed righteousness of Christ, has the clearest and strongest convictions of the ob ligation of the law of God, and of its extent and purity. He sees in the vicarious sufferings of his Saviour the awful nature of sin and the infinite love of God; and this love of God, being thus manifested, constrains him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world. In a word, he loves much because lie feels that God has forgiven him much, because the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto him. What a practical illustration have we of this in the life of thc great Apostle of the Gentiles him self! (See Miner Raymond, Sys. Thcol.; Hodge, Sys. Theol.; Mortensen, Chris. Dogm.; D'Au bigne, His. of Ref.). J. W. D. JUSTUS (jiisqus), (Gr. loOirros, ee-ooce'tos).
1. Surname of Barsabas (Acts i:23). (See JosErit.) 2. A Christian at Corinth, with whom Paul lodged (Acts xviii :7). A• D. 54.
3. A surname of Jesus, a believing Jew, who was with Paul at Rome when he wrote to the Colossians (Col. iv A i). Thc Apostle names him and Marcus as being at that time (A. D. 64) his only fellow-laborers.