get us ready, here is Thomas Watson, in his "A Body of Divinity"
book. . . .
"WHAT IS JUSTIFICATION?
"Answer: It is an act of God's free grace, whereby He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteous-
ness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
"Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justi-
fication by Christ is a spring of the water of life. To have the poison of corrupt doctrine cast into this spring is damnable. It was a saying of Luther, 'That after his death the doctrine of justification would be corrupted.' In these latter times, the Arminians and Socinians have cast a dead fly into this box of precious ointment.
"I shall endeavour to follow the star of Scripture to light me through this mysterious point.
"What is meant by justification?
"It is 'verbum forense,' a word borrowed from law-courts, wherein a person arraigned is pronounced righteous, and is openly absolved. God, in justifying a person, pronounces him to be righteous, and looks upon him as if he had not sinned.
"What is the source of justification?
"The 'causa,' the inward impellant motive or ground of justification, is the free grace of God: 'Being justified freely by His grace.' Ambrose expounds this, as 'Not of the grace wrought within us, but the free grace of God.' The first wheel that sets all the rest running is the love and favour of God; as a king freely pardons a delinquent. Justification is a merry spun out of the bowels of free grace. God does not justify us because we are worthy, but by justifying us makes us worthy."
