http://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3990/RhyneSubjective.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
SUBJECTIVE JUSTIFICATION: The Doctrine And Its Relationship To OBJECTIVE JUSTIFICATION
[Presented to the South Atlantic District Pastor-Teacher Conference : January 27, 1983] by Robert Rhyne
“Men, what must I do to be saved?” the jailer at Philippi asked Paul and Silas. It’s the most important question anyone can ask. The answer is the teaching we call “subjective justification.” This doctrine tells us how a person comes to possess the salvation gained by Christ on the cross. In Paul’s words it is expressed simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” In subjective justification, God applies to the individual sinner through faith the objective justification granted to the whole world in Christ. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (objective justification) that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (subjective justification). Even though Paul expressed this doctrine in eleven words to the jailer, it requires all the words in the Bible to express to the Holy Spirit’s satisfaction the glory and grace of God in granting such justification, the spiritual depravity of man in necessitating such justification, the work of the incarnate Son in accomplishing such justification, the comfort and favor which belongs to those who appropriate such justification... As John wrote, the whole world would not contain the books that could be written about our salvation in Christ.
In our discussion here we will narrow the topic to focus particularly on the relationship between subjective and objective justification. Such an emphasis is called for at the present time because of confusion about the validity of objective justification. We will be concerned primarily with the nature and function of saving faith, because faith is where objective and subjective justification meet. Faith is the relationship between the two. Specifically, objective justification provides a foundation which is indispensable if any individual sinner is to believe that Jesus died for him. We will consider the topic in the following parts: I. Faith is a “hand” in which the individual receives the objective justification won by Christ on the cross. II. Without objective justification, individual faith has nothing to receive.
