[Note: Waggoner emphasized that justify meant "to make righteous." He also said it could mean "to declare righteous." The following list includes all the E.J. Waggoner references listed on the Pioneer disk from the White Estate s.v., "to make righteous."]
"Righteousness and How Obtained" The Bible Echo 13, 12.
"Righteousness and How Obtained" The Bible Echo 13, 12.
E. J. Waggoner
"The doers of the law," says Paul, "shall be
justified." To justify means to make righteous, or to show one to be
righteous. It is evident that perfect obedience to a perfectly righteous law
would constitute one a righteous person. It was God's design that such
obedience should be rendered to the law by all His creatures; and in this way
the law was ordained unto life. Rom. 7:10. {March 21, 1898 EJW, BEST 89.1}
But for one to be judged "a doer of the law" it would be necessary that he had kept the law in its fullest measure every moment of his life. If he had come short of this, he could not be said to have done the law. It is a sad fact that there are in all the human race no doers of the law, for both Jews and Gentiles are "all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unpardonable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
###
Take the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." The apostle tells us of some "whose god is their
belly." Phil. 3:19. But gluttony and intemperance are self-murder, and so we
find that the first commandment runs through to the sixth. This is not all,
however, for he also tells us that covetousness is idolatry. Col. 3:5. The
tenth commandment cannot be violated without violating the first and second. In
other words, the tenth commandment coincides with the first, and we find that
the Decalogue is a circle having a circumference as great as the universe and
containing within it the moral duty of every creature. In short, it is the
measure of the righteousness of God, who inhabits eternity. {1890 EJW, CHR 50.4
[Christ and His Righteousness]}
This being the case, the correctness of the statement that
"the doers of the law shall be justified," is obvious. To justify
means to make righteous or to show one to be righteous. Now it is evident that
perfect obedience to a perfectly righteous law would constitute one a righteous
person. It was God's design that such obedience should be rendered to the law
by all His creatures, and in this way the law was ordained unto life. Rom.
7:10. {1890 EJW, CHR 51.1 [Christ and His Righteousness]}
"Justified."
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of
the law," "we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be
justified," said the apostle. The meaning of the word
"justified" is "made righteous." This is the exact term
that appears in other languages, which are not composed of foreign terms. The
Latin word for righteousness is justitia. To be just is to be righteous. Then
we add the termination fy, from the Latin word, meaning "to make,"
and we have the exact equivalent of the simpler term, "make
righteous." In an accommodated sense we use the term "justified"
of a man who has not done wrong in a thing whereof he is accused. But, strictly
speaking, such an one needs no justification, since he is already just; his
righteous deed justified him. He was justified in his deed. But since all have
sinned, there are none just or righteous before God; therefore they need to be
justified, or made righteous, which God does.
Now the law of God is righteousness. See Rom.7:12; 9:30,31;
Ps.119:172. Therefore Paul did not disparage the law, although he declared that
no man could be made righteous by the law, meaning, of course, the law written
on stones or in a book. No; so highly did he appreciate the law, that he
believed in Christ for the righteousness which the law demands but can not
give. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Rom.8:3,4. The law, which declares all men to be sinners, could not justify
them except by declaring that sin is not sin; and that would not be
justification, but a self-contradiction in the law. {1900 EJW, GTI 77.1 [The Glad Tidings]}
###
"Being Justified."-In other words, being made
righteous. To justify means to make righteous. God supplies just what the
sinner lacks. Let no reader forget the simple meaning of justification. Some
people have the idea that there is a much higher condition for the Christian to
occupy than to be justified. That is to say, that there is a higher condition
for one to occupy than to be clothed within and without with the righteousness
of God. That cannot be. {August 30, 1894 EJW, PTUK 549.3 [The Present Truth UK ]}
###
Justification Is Righteousness.-A friend has forwarded to me
a severe condemnation of a statement made some time ago, to the effect that to
justify means to make righteous. The criticism was based on the fact that
"Grove's Greek Lexicon" does not so define the Greek word from which
justify is translated. Opening Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, I find the
very first definition of the word in question is "to make righteous."
But that is only by the way. Appeals to Greek Lexicons do not edify people. It
was stated that "being justified" means "being made
righteous," because that definition is patent from the reading of the
English Bible. In addition to what has already been presented, read the
following:- {April 23, 1896 EJW, PTUK 259.5}
"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. But peace is for those
only who love and keep the commandments, which are righteousness. See Isa.
xlviii. 18; Ps. cxix. 165, 172. Moreover, "with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10. {April 23, 1896 EJW, PTUK 259.6}
We are "justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus," through faith in His blood, because
His righteousness is declared "for the remission of sins that are
past." Justification is therefore the forgiveness of sins. {April 23, 1896
EJW, PTUK 259.7}
Forgiveness Makes Righteous.-But to be forgiven is to be
made righteous. Forgiveness is not an imaginary thing, but is real. If I
forgive a fellow-man, it makes no difference in him; the effect is only upon
himself. But when God forgives us, He continues the same, but the forgiveness
effects a change in us. It takes away the sin. But when sin is taken away,
righteousness must take its place. A new life-the righteous life of Christ-is
given in place of the old life of sin. {April 23, 1896 EJW, PTUK 259.8 [The
Present Truth UK ]}
Forgiveness and Cleansing.-The same precious truth is taught
in the oft-quoted words of John: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9. Note that the forgiveness and the cleansing
are immediately consequent upon the confession. When we confess we are forgiven
and cleansed. We have already seen that we have forgiveness of sins through the
blood of Christ (Col. i. 14), and we read also that "the blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7. So we find that
forgiveness and cleansing are really one and the same thing, wrought by the
appropriation of the life of Christ. The life of Christ is all righteousness,
and so its reception cleanses from all sin; but nothing less than the life of
Christ can cleanse a single sin. {April 23, 1896 EJW, PTUK 259.9 [The Present
Truth UK }
}
###
"The Just Shall Live by Faith." -This is proof
that no one is justified by the law; for if one were righteous by works, then
it would not be by faith. There is no exception, no dividing up. It is not said
that some of the just shall live by faith, or that they shall live by faith and
works, but, "The just shall live by faith." All of the just shall
live by faith alone. The law and the works of the law have nothing whatever to
do in the work of justifying men, although the law itself "is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good." Rom. vii. 12. {March 3, 1898
EJW, PTUK 131.6 [The Present Truth UK ]}
Who Are the Just?- In other versions than the English, as,
for instance, the German and Danish, these texts are made much plainer, because
they use the word which conveys the idea more perfectly than the word
"just" does to us. This is the way it is: "But that no man is
made righteous by the law in the sight of God it is evident; for, the righteous
shall live by faith." The words "just" and "righteous"
really mean the same thing, but in the word "justify" the majority of
readers do not readily recognise the phrase "to make righteous." We
see, therefore, that righteousness is the end to be attained. Righteousness
means right doing, and the law is the standard of right doing. The only question
before us is how this desired object is to be attained. How is the sinner to be
made righteous-to be made a doer of the law? Not by the law itself, for that
does nothing; it simply points out the right way; but we ourselves are
"without strength." Righteousness therefore must come from without,
from some living thing, and when attained in genuineness will be
"witnessed by the law and the prophets." Rom. v. 21. {March 3, 1898 EJW,
PTUK 131.7 [The Present Truth UK ]}
###
2. But "there is none righteous, no, not one." Rom.
3:10. "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Verse 12.
"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Verse 23.
Consequently, all are guilty before God. Verse 19. Now a good law cannot
justify a wicked man. To justify means to make righteous, or to show that one
is already righteous. But a righteous law cannot do this for a wicked man; for
if it should say that he had done no wickedness, it would bear false witness,
and thus show that it was not good itself; and it cannot take away his sin, so
as to make him righteous. Therefore since "the law is holy, and the
commandment holy, and just, and good" (Rom. 7:1;2), and since all men have
broken the law, it is very evident, as Paul says, that "no man is
justified by the law in the sight of God." Gal. 3:11; Rom. 3:20. {June 30,
1890 EJW, SITI 391.5 [Signs of the Times]}
###
"Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
{September 1, 1890 EJW, SITI 466.16 Signs of the Times]}
This is the grand conclusion of the apostle's argument, so
far as the law alone is concerned in its relation to sinful men. It is so
reasonable that anybody can see it, and so just that no one ought to lay
anything to the charge of the law, on account of it. It is a fact that every
soul, both of Jews and Gentiles, is guilty before God. Now what can the law do?
Can it justify them? To justify means to make righteous, or to declare
righteous. But they are not righteous, therefore the law cannot say that they
are. If it did, it would not be a good law. The fact that it will not justify
sinners-will not declare them righteous-is a standing proof that it is good.
So, instead of burying the law because it will not justify sin for us, we
should applaud it. {September 1, 1890 EJW, SITI 467.1 [Signs of the Times] }
###
"Being Justified." -In other words, being made
righteous. To justify means to make righteous. God supplies just what the sinner
lacks. Let no reader forget the simple meaning of justification. Some people
have the idea that there is a much higher condition for the Christian to occupy
than to be justified. That is to say, that there is a higher condition for one
to occupy than to be clothed within and without with the righteousness of God.
That can not be. {January 23, 1896 EJW, SITI 51.41 [Signs of the Times]}
###
Who Are the Just?- In other versions than the English, as,
for instance, the German and Danish, these texts are made much plainer, because
they use the word which conveys the idea more perfectly than the word
"just" does to us. This is the way it is; "But that no man is
made righteous by the law in the sight of God it is evident; for, the righteous
shall live by faith." The words "just" and
"righteous." Really mean the same thing, but in the word
"justify" the majority of readers do not readily recognize the phrase
"to make righteous" really mean the same thing, but in the word
"justify" the majority of readers do not readily recognize the phrase
"to make righteous."
We see, therefore, that righteousness is the end to be
attained. Righteousness means right-doing, and the law is the standard of
right-doing. The only question before us is how this desired object is to be
attained. How is the sinner to be made righteous-to be made a doer of the
law?-Not by the law itself, for that does nothing; it simply points out the
right way; but we ourselves are "without strength." Righteousness,
therefore must come from without, from some living thing, and when attained in
genuineness will be "witnessed by the law and the prophets." Rom.
5:21. {February 1, 1899 EJW, SITI 83.7 [Signs of the Times]}
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