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). 

Nehemiah Coxe, another early and prominent English Particular Baptist, in his book Vindiciae Veritatis, published in 1677, writes about faith as the instrument of our justification:

True and lively Faith whereby we receive Christ and his bene∣fits freely given of God to us, and rest on him and his Righteous∣ness, is the instrument of our Justification, Joh. 1. 12. Rom. 5. 17. So that Faith alone justifieth (though justifying Faith is never alone, but worketh by love) and that Righteousness for the sake of which we are justified before God, was wrought out and fulfilled only by Christ; who was made sin for us, although he knew no sin, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him. And therefore in the business of Justification, Faith is opposed to all good works, as exclusive of them from any influence into the ob∣taining of our pardon and acceptance with God, Rom. 3. 20, 21, 22. & v. 28. chap. 4. 4, 5. Gal. 2. 16. ch. 3. 11, 12.  (page 105) [3]

  

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.

Final note: I don't put incredible stock in ChatGPT, but this is it's analysis of the numbers of early English Particular Baptists who believed in Eternal Justification (as opposed to justification in time through the instrumentality of faith):

"Based on surviving writings from 1640–1700:

• 70–80% held to justification in time (mainstream Calvinistic orthodoxy)

• 15–25% held to decretal justification with some EJ-leaning language

• <5% held to strict eternal justification (the elect justified from eternity in the same sense as in time)

Strict eternal justification was a very small minority within early Particular Baptist life."

I do think its analysis is probably correct in this instance.  There were a few English Baptists, like Samuel Richardson, who embraced eternal justification, but this was definitely a minority opinion among 17th century Particular Baptists. Thomas Kilcop, the pastor of the Petty France Congregation in London, debated Samuel Richardson on the issue of justification, arguing for justification by faith in opposition to Richardson's view of eternal justification.[4]  I think we could also safely add the names of Hanserd Knollys and William Kiffin to the list of men who embraced justification at the moment a person believes in Christ.

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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

[3] One can read Coxe's text here: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A34850.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext#backDLPS6

[4]. See https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A87719.0001.001/1:6.10?rgn=div2;view=fulltext, especially chapter 10, pages 78, ff.