ndemn--when, whatever may have been
our sins, He ignores them, and therefore positively admits us into the
accepted people. And He declares His willingness to do this simply
because a man believes in Jesus Christ. Let a man believe, or take God
in Jesus Christ at His gracious word, and the value of this act of
trust or allegiance is such that God reckons it for righteousness, and
admits a man into the accepted people, as if he were already fit for
such fellowship in his actual habits or character. There is
'imputation' here, but it is the right sort of imputation. It is
dealing with us not as we are, nor exactly as we are not, but as we are
becoming in virtue of a new attachment under which our life has passed:
and this, as the engrossing modern conception of development makes it
easy for us to perceive, is the only true and profound way of regarding
anything. Not the standard already reached, but the movement,
direction, or vitality is the important matter. Faith, then, is
'reckoned for righteousness' because it puts us upon the right {27}
basis and in the right relation to God; and therefore is a root out of
which, provided it continues to subsist, all righteousness can
healthily grow; whereas the most brilliant efforts or 'works' on a
wrong basis may have neither sound root nor principle of progress in
them. To believe in Jesus is to have the root of the matter in
oneself. Therefore, when a man first believes, God can ignore all his
previous life, and deal with him simply on the new basis, in hope. Of
course this preliminary acquittal or acceptance is provisional. As the
servant[29] who had been forgiven his debts found them rolled back upon
him when he behaved in a manner utterly inconsistent with the position
of a forgiven man, so our preliminary justification may be promptly
cancelled by our future conduct if we behave as one who has 'forgotten
the cleansing from his old sins[30].' The prodigal son, after he has
been welcomed home, may go back again to the 'far country.' But it
remains the fact:--of such infinite value and fruitfulness is faith in
God, as He has shown Himself in Jesus, that when a man first
believes--aye, whenever, over and over again, he returns to believe--he
is in God's sight on a new basis, however dark be the {28} background
of his previous sins; and he can be dealt with simply on the new basis,
according to the movement of the Father's heart of love which his faith
has set free.