the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." "If we confess our sins
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." And in accordance with
the way of salvation which He Himself has devised, we can now plead
with Him that He would be unjust not to forgive us when we have
complied with these conditions. And so we arrive at the conclusion that
justification is an act of God's grace by which our sins are pardoned
for the sake of Jesus Christ. And this act is instantaneous. God does
not pardon sins gradually, nor one at a time, nor by piecemeal, but to
every one who repents and believes, He utters the gracious language,
"Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee." As if by a single
stroke of the recording angel's pen, the whole dark record is blotted
out forever. "As far as the east is from the west so far hath He
removed our transgressions from us." Glory.

Regeneration is a work of grace which always accompanies justification.
God does not justify a sinner without, at the same time, giving him a
new life. This new life is a spiritual life imparted to the soul, which
before was dead in trespasses and sins, by the Divine energy of the
Holy Ghost. If a sinner should be pardoned, without, at the same time,
receiving a new nature, he would inevitably fall into sin again. His
lifetime on earth would be spent in sinning and repenting. But our
merciful Father having for Christ's sake looked upon him as just and
righteous, when he was not so in reality, now bestows upon him a new
nature which is just and righteous. He makes him a partaker, indeed, of
the Divine nature, and that is a nature which is holy and just and
good. And this is the new birth. Men may be full of physical life and
of intellectual life, but until they are born from above they are
totally destitute of spiritual life. Regeneration, therefore, is that
act of God's grace by which we are born again.