Looking At Justification (part 1)

Aaron D. Hale

Sermon • Submitted 7 months ago • Presented 7 months ago

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What is it?

(An Illustration) In Luke 18:9–14 we have this wonderrful picture of justificaiton.

“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.””

God justifies the wicked by faith! Even today many professing Christian’s are offended and reject this idea! How do we define it?

“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.” JI PACKER

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

Justification is the main hinge on which salvation turns.

John Calvin

It is perhaphs hard for us who have grown up hearing these things to imagine how someone can read the same Bible and come up with different conclusions about how we are saved. But we see that it was a problem in Pauls day and so he wrote a lot about this matter. Let’s look at one of his writings from Romans 3

Romans 3:21-4:17

We see this language of counted, of gift, of grace

Abraham was declared rigtheoues by God, through faith. It was not earned by Abraham but granted to him by God’s grace! And it was not something he maintained, but because it is based upon Christ’s work it is fixed.

It is imputed, it is delared of Abraham. Rome speaks of infused righteounes, whihc is only a deposit that we must then work with and grow. But they reject imputed righteaousness.

To help guide out study the next few weeks I borrowed five questions that Michael Horton asked in his book, Pilgrim Theology. So I want to work through those five questions, for they are answered in our confession, just as they are in others like the WC. (read all five)

Question # 1 Is justification only a legal (forensic) verdict, or is it a process of moral renewal (sanctification) that leads to a legal verdict?

Now, the protestants (and I would argue Christ and the Apostles) believed the first part of each of these. However, deviations like the Romans Catholoci church, or the Quakers or even various Arminian positions actually hold to the second half! And we will look at a few of those examples as we go.

What’s frustating is we may use the same terminlogy (grace, salvation, Christ’s atonement, faith and so on) and yet be using them with very different defitinions.

Let us consider the two positions stated in the first:

Justificiaton is a legal verdict given to us

2. It is a life long process (and possibly even in the after life - like purgatory), that eventually leads to full pardon?

The church of Rome and other’s as well, believed that God infuses righteounesness into us, and this begins when an infant is baptized. And then justificaiton continues as the person cooperates with that grace and brings it to completion through confession, mass, prayer to the saints and so on.

But as Protestants believe that Scripture teaches that Justifiaction is an declarlation made over us on the basis of what Christ has done in his life and death and resurrection and assension to heaven.

SEVERAL METAPHORS:

The image of clothing

In the Garden - God made a covering for them

Joshua with dirty garmnets made clean: Zechariah 3:3–6 “Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua,”

Robes of White - Revelation 7:14 “I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

The image of banking:

Colossians 2:14 “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

Matthew 18:27 - Example of man forgiven debt.

The Sacrificial sytem - John 1:36 “and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!””

The righteouness that God is, is the Righteouness that God gives to us because of Christ. We are justified the instant we believe which is brought about by the New Birth.

In justification we are not made righteous, we are declared to be righteous—the thing is quite different.

Great Doctrines of the Bible (2), 169

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

FALSE TEACHERS RESPONSE:

At the Concil of Trent Rome declared an anathema upon any who taught these things!

Canon 9. If anyone says tthat the sinner is justified by faith alone…let him be anathema.

Canon 11: If anyone says that men are justified either by the solee imputation of the righteouness of Christ or by the sole remission of sins…let him be anathema.

(Examples of Arminian views)

1. Men like John Wesley did affirm justifcaiton by faith alone, but then would also over emphaiszie the perfection and inner holiness of the beliver so that justificaiton became muddied.

2. And you had a more aggressive form of Arminian thought in men like Charles Finney who said, “The neww birth is not a divine gift, but the result of a rational choice to turn from sin to obedience” he stated, “no one can be justified while sin, any degree of sin remains in him.”

Which is basically agree with the Roman Catholic church!

Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

Now the article of justification, which is our sole defense, not only against all the force and craft of man, but also against the gates of hell, is this: that by faith only in Christ, and without works, we are pronounced righteous and saved.

Martin Luther

Justification is a verdict delivered by God in a moment: not guilty, acquitted, accepted, forgiven, righteous!

John Piper

There is no peace between man and God until a man grasps this doctrine of justification. It is the only way of peace.

Assurance, 18

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

And that is why this is so important to understand! We cannot expereince true peace with God, true forgiveness and assurance if our justidication rests upon us in any way shape or form. It must be all of Christ! This is why Paul was so passionate to the Galatians. He understood that our salvation must depend upon what Christ did at the cross.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

1. What are some metaphors that helps us understand the doctrine of justification?

2. What is the difference between imputed and infused?

3. What other groups today would deny the doctrine of justification by faith alone?

Question #2 Is justification a declaration that is pronounced solely by virtue of Christ's imputed righteousness, while the believer is actually unrighteous in himself/herself, or is it a declaration that is pronounced upon those who have cooperated with grace by doing what lies within them?

Question #3 Is Christ's merit the only basis for justification, or do our merits (and those of Mary and the saints) also contribute to this right standing before God?

Question #4 In the act of justification, is faith merely resting in and receiving Christ alone (knowledge, assent, and trust), or is faith merely assent to church teaching and therefore something that must be transformed into love in order to be justifying?

Question #5 Can one know with assurance that he or she is justified now, or is this the sin of presumption, since even those who die in a state of grace require the fires of purgatory to pay the temporal penalty for their sins? To each of these questions, the Reformers gave the first answer and Rome the second.

Justification is through faith, not on account of faith.

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield

While justification and sanctification are to be sharply distinguished they must not be divorced.

Arthur Walkington Pink

In justification we are not made righteous, we are declared to be righteous—the thing is quite different.

Great Doctrines of the Bible (2), 169

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

There is always something that sounds dangerous in the preaching of justification by faith only; so if our preaching does not sound dangerous in this respect, probably the gospel is not being truly preached.

The New Man, 195

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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

John Calvin

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