While He Hath Not Faith About It

Summary

Bunyan argues that a person may be justified before God through Christ's work alone, even while remaining unaware of their justification or lacking conscious faith in it, citing Isaiah 40:2 and Matthew 9:2 to demonstrate that God's declarative act of justification precedes and is independent of the believer's subjective experience or knowledge of it. He contends that justification is an objective forensic reality grounded in God's sovereign pronouncement rather than dependent upon the sinner's awareness, emotional state, or developed faith. This teaching emphasizes the priority of God's imputed righteousness over human consciousness, distinguishing justification as a completed divine act from the believer's subsequent appropriation of it through faith.