Sermon 17-"Christ and His Benefits: Justification"
Genesis 15
Psalm 32
Romans 3-4
"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested..."
"...That he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
What is this "righteousness of God" that has now been revealed?
How is God just in justifying those who have faith in Jesus?
As we have been working our way through the basics of the Christian faith,
we started our study of the plan of salvation
-as the scriptures do, and as our catechism does-
with the work of Christ in the accomplishment of redemtion.
And as we are now looking at the application of redemption,
we cannot help but keep our eyes upon Christ,
because it is that finished work that is applied to us.
Our justification is grounded in the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
All of the benefits of salvation are rooted in our union with Christ in our effectual calling.
As our catechism puts it:
Q. 32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and
the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.
So,
Q. 33. What is justification?
A. 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.
Justification is a legal term.
In Romans 1-4, Paul portrays our salvation in terms of the divine law court.
This was a familiar image to his hearers,
because the Old Testament is loaded with the imagery of the divine law court.
Psalm 2 speaks of the Lord sitting in the heavens and laughing at the rebellious kings,
and then declaring his legal decree to his Son,
giving him dominion over all nations-for the purpose of judgment.
Psalm 32, the Psalm we just sang, speaks of the judgment of God that is against the sinner,
but the joy and blessedness of the one who is forgiven.
The forgiven are called the "godly"
-those who repent of their sins and turn to the Lord for deliverance.
Isaiah 40 shows a picture of the Lord seated above the circle of the earth,
both as creator and judge.
So when Paul talks about salvation in this legal aspect,
he is drawing on very familiar language.
The Jews of his day agreed that God was a righteous judge,
and they believed that he would justify faithful Israel and condemn the wicked nations.
God had given Israel his law-his torah-and this law would be the basis for his judgment.
Those who believed his promises, obeyed his law,
and trusted in the prescribed sacrifices to deal with their sins, would be justified.
What Paul does to this is radical.
He starts off just fine in chapter one.
He declares that the wrath of God is revealed
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. (1:18)
He then chronicles the sins and wickedness of the Gentiles,
that no one is truly ignorant of the God of heaven,
and all have sinned against him (1:18-32).
So far, this is exactly what the Jews expected.
God, the righteous judge, will condemn the wicked Gentiles.
But then he turns to the Jews, and says that they are no better. (2:17-29)
It is not the case that the Jews will be justified, and the Gentiles condemned.
No, "both Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin" (3:10-18).
When it comes to justification, the law does not help us.
The law condemns us, because we too have sinned.
So in Romans 3:19-20, Paul portrays the whole world as under God's condemnation.
The legal verdict of the court of heaven against humanity is: "Guilty!"
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although, Paul is quick to point out, the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
The whole of the Old Testament points to this righteousness-but it does not contain it.
Whenever you see Paul use the word "now," keep your eyes open.
Because "now" in Paul's vocabulary has an eschatological ring to it.
For centuries God had worked through the law,
but "now" God has revealed his righteousness apart from the law.
What is this righteousness?
"The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe."
In other words, in the heavenly law court,
when God declares his final judgment,
all of humanity receives his verdict "Guilty!"
And Jesus alone receives the verdict, "Not guilty!"
It is not that Israel is declared righteous and the nations are condemned.
Rather it is Jesus who is declared righteous.
Jesus is the one who believed God's promises and obeyed God's law.
Jesus is the faithful Israel who accomplished all that Israel failed to do.
Therefore Jesus is the justified man.
He was vindicated by his Father and openly acquitted before the tribunal of heaven.
Or as Paul has already said earlier in Romans 1:4,
"He was declared to be the Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead."
You cannot talk about us being declared righteous,
until you show that Jesus was first declared righteous.
Justification means simply, "declared righteous."
As we have seen, it is a legal term.
With reference to Christ, it simply means that God declared Jesus to be righteous.
The verdict that God declared at the resurrection of Christ was simple:
Jesus was innocent, so God declared him innocent.
But we are guilty.
Our justification is not so simple.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith."
(3:23-24)
How can God justify the ungodly?
There must be a sacrifice.
There must be a propitiation.
The word "propitation" (hilasterion) is used also in Hebrews 9:5
to refer to the "mercy seat"-the lid of the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle.
This refers to Leviticus 16,
which speaks of the High Priest's entrance into the Holy of Holies
once each year to remove the sins of the people.
The OT Day of Atonement pointed to Christ's work.
But whereas that propitiation had to be repeated every year,
the sacrifice of Christ has once-for-all dealt with sin.
"This was to show God's righteousness at the present time,
so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (3:26)
Sin must be dealt with before God can justify the ungodly.
The first half of justification consists in the forgiveness of sins.
The flip side of this is the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
This is simply the consequence of justification being rooted in union with Christ.
Remember that Paul has demonstrated that all are under sin.
ONLY Christ received the verdict of "not guilty."
How then could you be declared "not guilty"?
Paul explains this in Romans 5 (which we looked at when we discussed Original Sin).
In Adam all died.
Adam was the covenant head of the first humanity,
and in him and through him, sin, guilt and death came to all men.
But now, Christ is the head of the new humanity,
and all who believe in him receive justification and life. (5:12-21)
Because you are in Christ,
His righteousness is reckoned to your account.
God looks at you no longer in Adam, but in Christ.
But having stated in 3:26 the righteousness of God in justifying the one who has faith in Jesus,
Paul then turns to the practical consequences of this:
(3:27-31)
There is no ground for Jewish boasting.
God is the God of both Jews and Gentiles,
and in Jesus Christ both have equal access to him.
And both will be justified in exactly the same way-through faith.
In order to explain this,
Paul turns in chapter 4 to the example of Abraham.
How was Abraham justified?
"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)
Paul points out that this was before Abraham was circumcised (Gen 17),
so therefore Abraham is "the father of all who believe without being circumcised."
I should point out, also that the prepositions in this passage are important.
We are justified by grace. (3:24)
The grace of God in Jesus Christ is the ground of our justification.
God does not declare us righteous because of anything we have done or said.
Even faith is not the reason why God declares us righteous.
God declares us righteous simply and solely out of his good and gracious pleasure,
because he has chosen to unite us to Christ.
But we are justified by grace through faith. (3:22)
Or as Paul goes on to say in 3:25, our justification is "received by faith."
Faith, then, is the instrument by which we receive justification.
Paul puts it together in Ephesians 2:8,
"For by grace you have been saved through faith."
As our Confession puts it:
Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. (CF 11.2)
Paul makes it clear that faith is the instrument whereby we receive the grace of justification.
But he also makes it clear that this is a living and active faith.
What did Abraham's justifying faith look like?
When promised an heir,
"No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God,
but he grew strong in faith as he gave glory to God,
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised."
Abraham's justifying faith was a living and active faith.
A faith that not only assented to the truth of God's promises,
but then produced obedience God's commands.
I'd like to conclude with a comment about the timing of justification.
We often think about justification
as something that happens once at the beginning of the Christian life.
That's not the way that Paul talks here in Romans 3-4.
Consider Abraham.
When was Abraham justified?
Paul cites Genesis 15:6,
but is Paul saying that Abraham was not a believer back in Genesis 12,
when he left for the Promised Land?
Likewise, Paul speaks of Abraham's justifying faith when he was 100 years old, (4:19)
but that refers to the events recorded in Genesis 17
-when God promises a son to Sarah.
So Paul is not thinking about justification as something that happens once,
and then stops.
Our catechism puts it well:
A. 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.
Justification is not a process.
It is not a work that takes time.
It is an act.
It is a legal declaration.
But it is also an eschatological declaration.
It is God's last-days judgment declared in advance in Jesus Christ.
God declared Abraham righteous when Abraham first believed God.
God declared Abraham righteous every time that he believed God.
And God will declare Abraham righteous
when he stands before the judgment seat of Christ.
This is the point that Paul applies to us:
"But the words 'it was counted to him' were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.
It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."
Paul is speaking to Christians.
He is speaking to those who are already justified.
But he urges us to continue believing in him who raised Jesus from the dead,
because justifying faith is something that must continually be exercised.
There is nothing progressive about justification:
you are either forgiven or you're not;
you are either declared righteous in Christ, or not;
but there is something ongoing about it.
Our Confession speaks of this as a "state of justification" (11.5).
Like Abraham, we have confidence
that we will be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the final judgment,
because God continues to declare us righteous in Christ,
through faith in Jesus.