Wesley Corpus

'"In the Lord shah all the house of Israel be justified"' . It ought unquestionably to be rendered 'By or through the Lord': this argument therefore proves nothing. 'Ye are complete in Him.' The words literally rendered are 'Ye are filled with Him'; and the whole passage (as any unprejudiced reader may observe) relates to sanctification, not justification. 'They are accepted for Christ's sake; this is justification through imputed righteousness' . That remains to be proved. Many allow the former who cannot allow the latter. 'The righteousness which justifies us is already wrought out' . A crude, unscriptural expression! 'It was set on foot, carried on, completed.' Oh vain philosophy! The plain truth is, Christ lived and 'tasted death for every man'; and through the merits of His life and death every believer is justified. 'Whoever perverts so glorious a doctrine shows he never believed' . Not so. They who 'turn back as a dog to the vomit' had once 'escaped the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of Christ.' 'The goodness of God leadeth to repentance' . This is unquestionably true; but the nice, metaphysical doctrine of Imputed Righteousness leads not to repentance but to licentiousness. 'The believer cannot but add to his faith works of righteousness' . During his first love this is often true; but it is not true afterwards, as we know and feel by melancholy experience. 'We no longer obey in order to lay the foundation of our final acceptance' . No; that foundation is already laid in the merits of Christ. Yet we obey in order to our final acceptance through His merits; and in this sense by obeying we 'lay a good foundation that we may attain eternal life.' '"We establish the law"; we provide for its honor by the perfect obedience of Christ' . Can you possibly think St. Paul meant this that such a thought ever entered into his mind The plain meaning is, We establish both the true sense and the effectual practice of it; we provide for its being both understood and practiced in its full extent.