Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

During the month of October, we are talking about the men, events, and teaching of the Protestant Reformation.

We have already talked about John Wycliffe, who is considered to be the grandfather of the Reformation.

We also talked about John Huss, that fiery forerunner.

Today I want to talk about the one of the solas that’s the hallmark of the Reformation.

All the solas developed over time.

“The earliest phrases were sola gratia (by grace alone) and sola fide and sola scriptura” (https://heidelblog.net/2008/09/whence-the-reformation-solas).

Sola fide was used by Martin Luther in his translation of Galatians 3.

He also used it in his lectures on Galatians (ibid., heidelblog.net).

This sola is what Paul said in the last part of Romans 1:17, which is a quote from Hab.2:4, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

Two questions arise out of this verse:

One...

Whose righteousness?

and two...

Whose faith?

The doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls.

This article is so important that Luther said, “if we lose it, we lose Christianity.”

If you don’t have the doctrine of justification by faith alone, you don’t have the gospel, and if you don’t have the gospel, the church has no reason to exist.

The church itself ceases to be a church and falls into apostasy because it is the article that answers the question, what must I do to be saved?

(R.C.

Sproul)

The Roman Catholic church required the continued performance of good works in order to be saved.

In Catechism #837 it says, “Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved.”

Other works according to their catechism includes “baptism” (#1257) and various sacraments (#1129) and the keeping of the Ten Commandments.

Catholic theology views justification as an infusion of grace that makes the sinner righteous.

In Catholic theology, then, the ground of justification is something made good within the sinner—not the imputed righteousness of Christ.

The Council of Trent, Rome’s response to the Reformation, pronounced anathema on anyone who says “that the [sinner] is justified by faith alone—if this means that nothing else is required by way of cooperation in the acquisition of the grace of justification.”

(John MacArthur, the Gospel According to the Apostles)

It was Martin Luther who said...

The first and highest, the most precious of all good works is faith in Christ.

A Treatise on Good Works (1520)

John Calvin said...

Justification by faith is the hinge on which all true religion turns.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones also said...

If there has been one word that has stood out more prominently, especially in the history of Protestantism, than any other, it has been this great word justification.

Great Doctrines of the Bible (2), 167

A definition of what the Bible teaches about justification would simply be...

Justification is “God’s act of remitting the sins of guilty men, and accounting them righteous, freely, by his grace, through faith in Christ, on the ground, not of their own works, but of the representative lawkeeping and redemptive blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf.”

J. I. Packer

Paul said in Romans 3:24-25, “24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”

There are 3 terms in this passage that I want us to understand this morning.

The first is the word..

LESSON

I. “Justified” (v.24)

The Fact that Sinners Have to Be Justified Illustrates Man’s Ultimate Problem

What is man’s problem?

He is a sinner

I don’t say that lightly...

Scripture Teaches All Have Sinned

Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”

Romans 3:12, “All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

The righteousness that God requires sinners cannot provide

The only righteousness man possesses or attains within himself is unrighteousness, because that is the character and substance of his fallen nature.

Isaiah describes in a sinner’s righteousness as a filthy garment.

He says in Isaiah 64:6, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

The light of righteousness comes only from above.

That’s why man must be born from above.

So the righteousness that God requires is that which He alone gives .

Before we look further at this, let me say that...

Justification is not pardon

It is a legal declaration or forensic declaration.

Forensics has to do with judicial judgment or declaration.

Charles Hodge said that “justification, instead of being an efficient act changing the inward character of the sinner, is a declarative act, announcing and determining his relation to the Law and justice of God.”

R.C. Sproul said, “If we define forensic justification as a legal declaration by which God declares a person just and we leave it at that, we would have no dispute between Rome and Evangelicalism.

Though Rome has an antipathy [deep-seated feeling of dislike] to the concept of forensic justification, this antipathy is directed against the Protestant view of it” (Imputed Righteousness: The Evangelical Doctrine).

Forensic justification “is God’s declaration that all the demands of the law are fulfilled on behalf of the believing sinner through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

This declaration changes the judicial standing of the sinner before God.

In justification, God imputes the perfect righteousness of Christ to the believer’s account then declares the redeemed one fully righteous (MacArthur).

There are 6 different aspects of justification in the NT:

The Bible says we are justified by grace—that means we do not deserve it.

The Bible says we are justified by faith (Rom.5:1)— that means we have to receive it by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says we are justified by blood (Rom.5:9)— that refers to the price the Savior paid in order that we might be justified.

The Bible says we are justified by power (Rom.4:24,

25)—the same power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead.

The Bible says we are justified by God (Rom.8:33)—He is the One who reckons us righteous.

The Bible says we are justified by works (Jas.2:24)—not

meaning that good works earn justification, but that they are the evidence that we have been justified.

So when the believing sinner is justified, given the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, who fulfilled every aspect of the Law, and declared righteous.

Again J.I. Packer says, “Justification is “God’s act of remitting the sins of guilty men, and accounting them righteous, freely, by his grace, through faith in Christ, on the ground, not of their own works, but of the representative lawkeeping and redemptive blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ on their behalf.”

The second word in this passage that we need to understand is...

II.

Redemption (v.24)

Being justified as a gift by His grace is only possible through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus

The word “redemption” is the Greek word apolytoseous which comes from apo (from) and lutroo (to redeem)

Taken together it would be “to redeem from,” and it means “to let go free for a ransom” (WSNTDICT).

It is translated “release” in Hebrews 11:35.

Apolutrosis was commonly used of paying a ransom to free a prisoner from his captives or paying the price to free a slave from his master (MacArthur).

The Lord Jesus bought us back from the slave market of sin.

His precious blood was the ransom price which was paid to satisfy the claims of a holy and righteous God (MacDonald).

Listen to several passages that talk about this:

1 Corinthians 1:30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,”

1 Corinthians 6:20, “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

1 Corinthians 7:23, “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.”

Acts 20:28, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

This is the meaning of “redemption”

We have been bought out of the slave market of sin

“Justified…redemption”.

The third word is found in verse 25...