The Doctrine of Justification: An Outline of its History in the Church and of its Exposition from Scripture

From the Author’s Introduction

‘It may be thought by some that the subject of justification is trite and exhausted; that, as one of the ‘commonplaces’ of theology, it was conclusively determined and settled at the era of the Reformation; and that nothing new or interesting can now be introduced into the
discussion of it.

But … may it not be said that, to a large class of minds in the present age, nothing could well be more new than the old theology of the Reformation? The gospel is older than Luther; but to every succeeding generation it is still new—good news from God—as fresh now as when
It first sprung from the fountain of Inspiration.

… The doctrine of justification, by grace, through faith in Christ, is the old doctrine of the Reformation, and the still older doctrine of the gospel; yet the vivid apprehension of its meaning and the cordial reception of its truth must be a new thing in the experience of everyone when he is first enabled to realize and to believe it.’