Elementary, my dear Watson

Dr. John Watson (not of Sherlock Holmes fame, but a very real and respected medical doctor in the 19th century who was also an early Primitive Baptist minister), wrote these words about justification in The Old Baptist Test (pages 92-93)[1]:

“The remarks made in the introduction to the subject of eternal union between God and his people, apply with equal force to that of justification; which is eternal in the same sense that the union of Christ and his church is, and to bring forward the scriptures and arguments to prove it would be to repeat, the most in principle at least, that has been advanced on the subject of the Scriptural kinds of union between the Lord and his people. Hence, we will leave our reader to reflect on the subject, with this one remark, that justification on the part of God, according as he entertained from everlasting the Divine plan of salvation in his foreknowledge, purpose, covenant, &c., is eternal, and is one of those spiritual blessings, wherewith we were blessed in Christ, before the foundation of the world, and in time we receive it after our calling. Therefore it may be said to be eternal in a qualified sense, and not eternal in a qualified sense: for the sinner is not actually justified before he shall have received the blessing of justification, anymore than he is actually born again, or glorified, before he shall have received those blessings.”

Note that he believed that the elect are not actually justified before they are called, when we receive the blessing of justification, anymore than we are actually born again before we receive that blessing.  Indeed, on page 157 Watson lists the "full justification by faith in Christ" of the elect as one of the blessings to be faithfully preached by Old Baptist ministers.  There is indeed an eternal union of the elect with Christ, and we can say that God from eternity purposed in Christ to justify his elect from eternity.  But this does not, as many (if not most) among today's Primitive Baptists want to argue, mean that the elect are actually justified in eternity, and that they only receive the assurance of their justification in time.  

Effectual calling is necessary for justification (Rom. 8:30), and according to the NT, this calling brings the unbeliever to faith in Christ (2 These. 2:13-14).  That is so say, justification by faith is actually justification by faith, and not merely the assurance by faith of justification!  

Earlier in the same book, on pages 12-13, he writes:

“Thus did God elect, love, ordain and predestinate them whom He foreknew in eternity to be conformed to the image of his Son, to be called and justified in time, and after time is concluded, to be glorified, while they were passive nonentities in se, when as yet there were none of them, only as they were entertained in the divine mind.”  

Of course, Dr Watson is only saying what the apostle Paul said in Romans 8:30.  It is honestly confusing to me why some, in the name of magnifying God's grace, would want to short-circuit what the Bible actually has to say about justification by grace.  It is not to dethrone Christ or to diminish the sovereignty of God's grace to insist upon what the Bible insists upon: namely, that the elect are justified in time at the moment of faith when they believe the gospel.  

Watson is just repeating what faithful Baptists have said all along.  Benjamin Keach, in his A Medium Betwixt Two Extremes, published in 1698, wrote:

“All before they are in Christ are under condemnation, because the Holy Ghost frequently ascribes our actual or personal justification to faith; and can’t we read these Scriptures without offense?  Or do any think they understand this point better than Paul, or the other apostles? . . . [At this point, Keach quotes Rom. 5:1; 3:28; Gal. 2:16; 3:24; Acts 13:39; Jn. 3:36.]  Brethren, where is it said in the Scripture that any person was justified that believed not, or whilst an unbeliever, or before he believed?” (pages 20-21)[2]

Good question.  A few pages later, he makes this point: 

“Tho Christ was . . . justified, and we virtually in him, when he arose from the dead, and he received for us an actual discharge as our Surety, yet the Elect do not receive any actual discharge, or are not in their own persons acquitted or pronounced justified and righteous persons, until they have actual Union with Christ [and for Keach, “union with  Christ” was established through faith, as he makes perfectly clear in other places in the same document]; and such as call this a contradiction, do but betray their own ignorance” (page 29). 

Again. this is just the plain and straightforward teaching of the Bible.  As Sherlock Holmes would say, "It's elementary, my dear Watson."  And I think Dr Watson of The Old Baptist Test would agree.

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[1] One can read the text I am quoting from here: https://ia601209.us.archive.org/0/items/oldbaptisttest01wats/oldbaptisttest01wats.pdf 

[2] Keach's text can be read here: https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-medium-betwixt-two-e_keach-benjamin_1698/page/n19/mode/2up