Man the Rebel⤒🔗

In ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ we read of Christian walking about with a book under his arm, despair in his heart and crying out, ‘What must I do to be saved?’

He knew he was a loathsome sinner doomed to everlasting hell. He saw his sins and knew that God’s frown was upon him. The Book Christian carried plainly declared, ‘The soul who sins shall die’ (Ez. 18:20). Chris­tian knew the death spoken about was the eternal fires of hell.

All mankind are sinners, just as Paul wrote: ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Rom 3:23). We read in the Scriptures that ‘God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day’ (Ps. 7:11). We are not friends of the almighty, holy God who through His word declares, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’ (Rom. 3:10). Despite the sinners’ efforts to gain God’s favour by good works they face the clear teaching of Scripture, ‘By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight’ (Rom. 3:20). The law condemns us because our very best works are ruined by sin.

The Big Problem←⤒🔗

The question that confronted Martin Luther and all who seek after God’s smile is: ‘How can God be just and yet save sinners? God is holy and we live under His condemnation.’ Christians should be able to answer the ques­tion: ‘How can a guilty sinner be right­eous before God? How is it possible for a sinner who has offended the eternal and holy God to be freed from guilt and condemnation?’

The Answer←⤒🔗

Scripture provides the answer and it is not the answer that the world wants. Sinners argue, ‘If I do good; if I obey God’s law to the best of my ability, then God’s smile will be upon me.’ However, God has not relaxed His law and declared, ‘If you do your best you’ll get to heaven, for I love all sinners.’ Paul clearly taught that God is perfectly holy and that in order to gain citizenship in God’s kingdom a sinner needs God’s perfect holiness. Writing to the Philippians, Paul listed many things of which he was once very proud but concluded that it was all ‘rubbish’ (Phil. 3:8). He knew that such a ‘righteousness’ could never save him from God’s justice. He had come to know that the saving right­eousness he needed came ‘through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith’ (Phil. 3:9). The answer to man’s problem is found in Rom. 3:24-26: A man is ‘justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith ... that He (God) might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.’ The answer is ‘Justification through faith alone’ which the Shorter Catechism (# 33) defines in the following terms:

Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

To understand the doctrine of justifi­cation we must visualise the guilty sinner standing before the righteous Judge. Moses recorded in Deut. 25:1, ‘If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked...’ From this passage we see that when a judge ‘justifies’ a person, he simply declares the person to be righteous, or innocent. Justification is therefore a legal act of God in the court of heaven where He pronounces the guilty sinner as being not guilty in His sight and thus not subject to sin’s penalty. God pronounces the sinner to be legally righteous in His sight.

Pardon←⤒🔗

The question now is: ‘How can God be both just and declare the sinner to be forgiven?’ The answer is to be found throughout the Scriptures. David, in Psalm 32:1, 2 wrote: ‘Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity.’ The New Testament is the commentary upon those words. The apostle Paul wrote.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Romans 5:8

The sins of God’s people were im­puted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again Paul wrote, ‘He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the right­eousness of God in Him’ (2 Cor. 5:21). The Lord Jesus suffered the wrath of God in our place — He was our sin bearer. Our sins were laid to the account of Christ and He was judged as the sinner. It is as if Christ said to God as Paul said to Phile­mon concerning Onésimus, ‘if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account’ (Philemon 18).

Christ suffered the wrath of God owing to all of His people. All are pardoned, forgiven and cleansed by the precious blood of Christ.

Righteousness←⤒🔗

Forgiveness does not gain admit­tance into heaven because we are still sinners. To enter heaven we need perfect righteousness. How­ever, thankfully Christ was not just the substitute on the cross at Cal­vary, but He lived a substitutionary life. He lived the life that the sinner should have lived. His life was a life of perfect obedience to His Father. Thus Paul could write, ‘...by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous’ (Rom. 5:19). The perfect righteousness of Christ is laid to the repentant sinner’s account with the result that God looks upon all of the elect as if they had never sinned. In the parable of the Prodigal Son we read that he was not permitted to enter his father’s home until he was dressed in new, clean clothing. As well in Matthew 22:1ff we read of a wedding guest who was thrown out of the wedding feast because he was not dressed in the clothing given by the host.

Thus it is that God justifies the sin­ner on the basis of the perfect life of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. On the cross and in the court of heaven a transaction took place. My sins were imputed to Christ and His righteousness was imputed to me. Paul’s desire was to have a right­eousness ‘which is from God by faith’ (Phil. 3:9). In the Old Testa­ment Christ is called: ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ (Jer. 23:6).

Justification is therefore a once for all declaration in the court of Heaven. The believer’s sins have been forgiven and God will forever look upon the forgiven sinner through the imputed righteousness of His Son.

Thus the sinner can rejoice eter­nally, for Paul tells us: ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Je­sus’ (Rom. 8:1).

The Place of Faith in Justification←⤒🔗

Faith is not a good work done by the believer, for we are told: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast’ (Eph. 2:8, 9). Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the ‘instrument’ by which we receive His righteousness. This might be illus­trated as follows: A thirsty person needs a drink of water, but is unable to get to the tap. However a compassionate person brings the person a drink in a cup. Faith is that God-given cup and through faith we are justified.

We are not justified because of faith, as that would make faith a ‘work’.

Faith and Works←⤒🔗

What then is the relationship be­tween works and faith in the be­liever’s life? We are justified by faith alone. In Gal. 2:16 we read Paul’s words: ‘...a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ...’ Our works play no part in our justification. Indeed, we read that our works are like ‘filthy rags’ (Is. 64:6).

Can then the justified believer sin as he pleases knowing that his sins — past, present and future — are for­given? No, never! Works of right­eousness are a vital consequence of saving faith. Calvin wrote: ‘We are justified by faith alone, but the faith which justifies is never alone.’ Good works accompany saving faith. James puts it clearly that ‘...as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also’ (Jas. 2:26). Again he writes: ‘...faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say: ― You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works’ (Jas. 2:17, 18).

Paul plainly writes that good works are the fruit of saving faith: ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them’ (Eph. 2:10). What the Scriptures clearly teach is this — if you have a saving faith in Christ, and thus are justified by God, this faith MUST have the ac­companying good works. James is telling us: No good works means that you should check out your so-called faith, for it is a dead faith.

Peace of Heart←⤒🔗

Paul reveals that the justified sin­ner has peace of heart: ‘Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ...’ (Rom. 5:1). We have spiritual peace because God is at peace with us. There is no condemnation for any who have a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:1).

By the grace of God we are en­abled to look beyond our sins to the grace of God who has ac­cepted us in His beloved Son. We can look to the cross of Christ and hear His shout of triumph, ‘It is finished!’ (John 19:30).

He fulfilled the demands of the law on behalf of His people.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

The greatest exposition of the doctrine of justification is found in Paul’s epistle to the Romans. In 1552 Martin Luther wrote of this epistle:

This epistle is really the chief part of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel, and is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy him­self with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.

Let us daily live the life of faith, with joy in our hearts, knowing that we are justified, in the court of heaven, by faith alone, and that despite our sins our eternal destiny is heaven because Christ our Saviour is ‘THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’