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Justification
Part 1 - Our Justification
Would you like to meet God? Are you sure? When God saved Israel out of slavery in Egypt and came down and met them at Mt. Sinai it says, Exodus 20:18-19, “18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses,“ You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” When God makes Isaiah a prophet, Isaiah is caught up to heaven in a vision and his reaction standing before the throne of God is recorded in Isaiah 6:5, “5And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’” At the very end of the Book of Job,
ch.42:5-6, God finally shows up to question Job and he comes in the form of a hurricane. And Job says, “5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, John the apostle, John who describes himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved”, John who was one of Jesus’ three best friends - that John sees the resurrected and glorified Jesus and John tells us, Rev 1:17, “17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.”
When sinful people stand before God they want to die because, as sinners, they are terrified of the holiness, awesomeness, and brilliance of God. Sin affects our status before God; it renders us inexcusably guilty, and liable to God’s just wrath, deserving of eternal condemnation. So, who wants to meet God?
ROMANS 4
Context
In Romans1-3, Paul has started to say that unrighteous men and women can stand before the righteous God AS righteous. They can stand before God not in fear but expectantly, ready to receive glory. AND, that these unrighteous men and women can stand righteous before God apart from obeying God’s law, apart from any good works, apart from doing good in life. That kind of talk did not sit well with a lot of people in Paul’s day. It was offensive to Jewish Christians in the church. It was offensive to religious, moralistic Christian Gentile types it counts for nothing before God? All that isn’t enough to save me? But someone on death row who has never done these things can accept Jesus on their deathbed and be saved?”
Yes, that is what Paul is saying, and Paul knows it is offensive because people have tried to kill him for teaching it. And, he knows the objections because he used to object to this gospel in every way. And, he knows false teachers in the church are perverting his message to say, “You have to bring your own righteousness to the table to be righteous before God. Sure, go ahead and believe in Jesus but you also have to keep the Law of Moses.”
Abraham’s Justification
Now, in Romans 4, Paul gives a simple, real world, universally applicable illustration to answer the objection: how does an unrighteous person stand before a righteous God and hear from God, “Well done, good
and faithful servant.” His illustration is Old Testament Abraham.
Paul says that Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, THE patriarch, has nothing to boast about before God. Remember Abraham was ungodly when he met God, an idolater from Ur of the Chaldeans. And God said to this pagan, “You follow me and I promise to give you a kingdom and you’ll be a blessing to the whole world.” And it says Abraham, the pagan idolater, did not do anything to stand before God as righteous; he just believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. At that moment the text does not say Abraham believed IN God although that was true. It says Abraham believed in God’s promise to him. God called leave his idolatrous nation because God was going to make him a new nation, a kingdom.
And what does a kingdom look like? You got to have a king, a people, and a land. Abraham gets to be 100 years old, his wife 90 years old, and they are still childless (no people, no king), and they are still homeless and wandering (no land) and, yet, Abraham still believed in God’s promise. God counted that faith as righteousness; not Abraham’s works, not because he followed the Mosaic Law(which did not yet exist).
David’s Justification
Next, Paul anticipates someone objecting that the Law which came 430 years later changed the situation such that now people must obey the Law in order to be justified before God. Paul references King David and what David says in Psa 32, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered, whose sins are not counted.” David did live in the era when God's people had the Mosaic Law and knew the Ten Commandments. But David believed he could not stand before God on the basis of his works, or by trying to balance the bad things in his life with the good things in his life, or by trying harder. David believed he could only stand before God and be accepted as righteous through faith in God’s promise of salvation.
The Counting in Justification (Forgiveness &Imputation)
When we hear Paul talk about justification and “counted to him as righteousness” we hear something like non-Euclidean geometry, orbital mechanics, partial differential equations, set theory. The good news about the good news is that it is not that kind of counting.
Justification does not mean God does not count your sin. He would be unjust if he just swept sin under the rug and forgot about it. God does count your sin. He just does not count your sin to you. He counts your sin to Jesus. This is what is involved in God forgiving you your sins.
The Counting in Justification (Double Imputation)
But we are not done counting. As glorious as the reality is that God forgives us all our sins
- that is not enough. That part of the equation is actually NOT Paul’s emphasis in Romans 4. You do not just need to be cleared of your law breaking; you also need the positive credit of law keeping.
Now, where does that come from? This is where some people mistakenly say, “This is where I come in with my good works. This is my job as a Christian. God forgives me and gives me a clean slate and brings me back to even and then I take it from there with my good works and my obedience. God forgives me and then it is my righteousness that gets me the rest of the way.” But, that is not the good news of the gospel. Because you are not good enough. You are not enough. And, your life will be full of insecurity and fear and despair if you think it is up to your righteousness to get you to heaven. You cannot pray enough, you cannot read your Bible enough, you cannot obey enough to fulfill all righteousness.
So where does that positive credit of law keeping come from? Jesus. Our sin is counted to Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness is counted to us.
Now that is NOT to say the counting in justification is simply our life of sin is counted to Jesus and his life of obedience is counted to us. Justification is fuller than that.
Paul’s emphasis in Romans 4 is v.25, “Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” So…
1) Our sinful life is counted to Jesus and consequently Jesus is COUNTED as guilty before God. Think of a courtroom, the throne room of God, and Jesus standing before the bar of justice and God on his throne as Judge. The verdict comes in and Jesus is declared guilty. Jesus stands guilty before God and his punishment is eternal condemnation; the wrath of God which he takes on the cross.
2) And, because Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience AND because he suffered the wrath of God in our place - he completes the work God had given him to do. Jesus’ work was to live AND to die for us (more on this to come when we discuss Jesus’ justification). And because he perfectly completes all of that work, the living and the dying - Jesus is then raised from the dead as God’s declaration that Jesus is JUSTIFIED!!!… Wait?!?!Was Jesus condemned or justified? Yes!
Jesus was guilty and condemned for our disobedience. But, then he was justified and raised because of his obedience in his life and death.
If Jesus remained in the grave then he was just another man who died on a Roman cross. And our “justification” is a legal fiction. It does not hold weight. There is no foundation to it. The objection would follow: How do you know Jesus saved you? The guy is dead.
Condemned on a Roman cross. The Old Testament says anyone who is hanged on a tree/cross is cursed by God.
BUT, Jesus was raised. So he really did accomplish the work given him to do and so it is not a legal fiction when God counts us righteous.
What does that have to do with us? This is where the counting really matters!!…
… 2) Jesus’ perfect life, and his death, AND resurrection is counted to us.
You, a sinner, stand before the bar of justice and God counts Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection (all of Jesus’ record) to you so your verdict is even better than “not guilty. ”You stand before God as completely righteous. Your verdict is justified; righteous.
And, your reward is not condemnation, it is glorification; eternal glory; God’s heavenly kingdom.
Substitutionary Atonement
It is the idea of substitution. If Christ's death was substitutionary, then his resurrection was as well. Just as we can say that Christ was condemned in our place, we can equally say that he was raised in our place. That means his justification is the BASIS for your justification.
Both traditional religion and hyper modernity exclude bad people. When tradition and modernity say: “Live a good life and you’ll get what you deserve...” - we are not comforted and we are certainly not saved.
Pessimism of Justification
On the one hand justification is the most pessimistic of news - it gives the most pessimistic assessment of man’s condition. More than any other religion the gospel is infinitely more pessimistic. Every other religion says you can save yourself. The gospel says we are all sinners and that God is so holy he could not possibly abide the presence of one sinner tainted with even one sin. The gospel of Jesus says Jesus is the Deliverer. The Rescuer. No other religion claims you need a Rescuer. Every other religion finds that idea of needing someone else to save you deplorable and offensive.
But Paul says Jesus is the one who has to enter into our world, this present evil age, and do everything for you and me to save us because we cannot possibly save ourselves. Do you see how pessimistic of news that is?
Hope of Justification
Jesus lived the most beautiful, faithful, loving, devoted life and yet on the cross he experiences the cosmic unraveling of eternal justice and wrath being poured out on him because God is treating Jesus on the cross like he is sin itself. This is an exclusive gospel but at the center of the exclusive gospel is the ONLY inclusive, exclusive Savior there is. While it is the ONLY good news there is, it is for the weak, the sinful, the broken, the suffering and dying. On the one hand it is true the gospel is for anybody, for every kind of person. On the other hand it is true the gospel is only for bad people. Which means there is hope for every person.
The exhortation we need is to be exhorted to faith - to come to God with empty hands so you can receive Jesus and his salvation. The faith that justifies is like empty hands but it is not an empty profession. The faith that justifies is a personal trust that clings to Jesus alone for salvation. The faith that justifies is a faith that repents turning again and again to Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Can you overcome God’s accusations against you? No, you cannot. And yet, you must.
How? Jesus.
Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism, Q.33
What is Justification?
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.
Is justification an act or work of God? Justification is an ACT in which unjust sinners are declared to be right in the sight of a just and holy God.
What is the ACT of justification that God does?
God declares, counts, reckons us righteous when he counts Jesus’ righteousness to us and counts our sin to Jesus.