Sermon Book: Romans

Sermon transcript

This evening we, hopefully, if I can get through this material tonight, we will complete our mini-series in the Doctrine of Justification, entitled The Wonder of Justification. And tonight we’re going to consider a passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Romans 8, verse 1, and then also verses 28 through 34. So please let us hear God’s holy word. Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then skip down to verse 28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called.

And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns. Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Again, please join me for a prayer for God’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Gracious Heavenly Father, once again, we pray that by your Spirit you would make our minds and our hearts open and receptive to that which the Spirit is teaching us in this portion of your God-breathed, infallible word.

We ask, O Lord, that you would grant us grace to hear and receive these truths and help us to see, O Lord, how these truths are to be lived out in our lives and in the Church. We pray all of these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is, The Wonder of Justification, Part Three, The Finality of Justification. And there’s four key words to be listening for tonight, security, finality, justification, and faith. And I want to challenge the children to count the number of times that I say justification in my sermon this evening. I suspect it’s going to be a lot of times, so keep track of that if you’d like to. Well, my dear listeners, what are we dealing with when we deal with the doctrine of justification?

What is justification? Well, the doctrine of justification deals with the most pressing spiritual issue in the life of sinful humanity, and that is the issue of how sinful people, sinful people like me and like you, can be accepted as just and righteous in the sight of an all-holy, perfectly righteous, infinitely just God. When we’re dealing with the matter of justification, it’s important to understand we are dealing with a matter that has to do with salvation and damnation. It has to do with eternal life versus eternal death. It has to do with heaven versus hell. Now, what is justification? Well, justification is a legal term. It has in view a courtroom setting. This is brought out in our passage for tonight, for example, where the Apostle Paul in verse 33 says, Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?

That’s legal language, someone bringing a charge in a court of law It says God is the one who justifies. And what’s the opposite of justification? Condemnation. God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? If you go into a human court and you’re accused of a crime, of a sentence, there’s one of two sentences that you can receive. Either you will be declared to be what? Guilty or innocent. condemned or justified with respect to the crime that you are accused of. So justification is a legal term and that’s so important to understand because justification has to do with our legal standing before God, considered in His role as the great judge of the universe. The term justification contemplates God as a judge presiding over His courtroom. Whereas the doctrine of adoption, for example, deals with God or contemplates God as a Heavenly Father dealing with us in the context of His family room, for example.

Justification is a term that means to declare righteousness. And that’s so important. Many church traditions that contradict what the Bible teaches on justification confuse justification and sanctification. because they do not realize, or they do not fully present the biblical truth, that justification does not mean to make one righteous, but to declare one to be righteous. Justification is not something that God does inside your soul, as God does, for example, with regeneration, causing you to be born again, or effectual calling, or sanctification. But justification is something that takes place outside of you. It is God’s verdict in the courtroom of heaven declaring you to be righteous in his sight, not because you’re righteous in yourself, because you and I, in Adam through our fall, we are all sinners. We’ve missed the mark. That’s what the term sin means.

It means to miss the mark of perfectly obeying God, perfectly loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, perfectly loving your neighbor as yourself. We all fall short. We all miss the mark. It’s like an archer taking aim at a target and not just missing the bullseye, but completely missing the target. In fact, the arrow goes off this way or that way. So justification is a legal term. And it has to do with God declaring us in the courtroom of heaven to be righteous in His sight. Not because we’re righteous in ourselves, but because of Christ’s perfect everlasting righteousness credited to us and received by faith alone, all through God’s grace alone. Now, on a recent Lord’s Day, we considered the biblical truth that it is impossible for us sinners to gain justification in the sight of God by our own good works of obedience to God’s commandments.

Why? Because God’s law requires perfect, personal, and entire obedience if we would gain heaven on the basis of our works or law keeping. and therefore we saw that justification must be by means of faith in Jesus Christ and Christ alone and apart from any of our own so-called merits or works of law obedience. We also observed from the scriptures that God’s provision for the sinner’s justification has its foundation in God’s amazing sovereign grace, its basis in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, his substitutionary atonement on the cross as a propitiation for our sins, and it is received by the sinner as a free gift through the appropriating instrument of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ alone. And there’s nothing meritorious in faith. Faith has well been described as the empty hand that reaches out to receive the gift of King Jesus.

If someone offers you a gift, And you can do one of two things. You can reject that gift, or you can reach out your hand and receive that gift. There’s nothing meritorious in receiving the gift that is offered to you. Faith is the empty hand of the soul that reaches out to grab hold of and receive the gift of salvation and justification that God offers to us in Christ. But you know, think about it, friends. It’s possible for a sinner to recognize all of this. by the grace of God. It’s possible for a sinner to recognize that he cannot save himself or be justified by his own good deeds, to recognize his need for God’s mercy and grace in Christ, to believe that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is the basis, the only basis, for his receiving forgiveness of sins and the gift of justification, and even to recognize that he must trust in Christ and Christ alone in order to be justified.

And it is possible by the grace of God for such a sinner to then place his faith in Christ. But then the following thoughts may arise in the mind of such a believing sinner. He might say to himself, well, you know, I believe in Christ as my Lord and Savior. I’ve trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior. I know that I’m now in a state of grace. I’m now justified, declared righteous in the sight of God. I know that the Bible says that I’m justified by faith in Christ alone, apart from works. But would it perhaps be possible for me at some point in the future, so to backslide, to backslide so seriously that I come to the point of actually rejecting Christ fully and finally and losing my justification before God? Is it possible for me, a justified sinner, justified by grace, is it possible for me to become unjustified, that is to lose my standing of justification before God.

Is losing my justification and salvation a real danger if I am truly in Christ? Or am I secure in my justification and salvation? This is what we’re going to deal with tonight. And this is what makes the Good News so good. Is that it not only offers a present standing in grace to those who received by the grace of God who receive and rest upon Christ. But it assures the true believer that if you are now in Christ, truly in Christ, you will always be in Christ. And though you may indeed, you will sin, though you may sin seriously, not that that’s in any way, not that the scriptures in any way encourage that. The scriptures strongly warn against such a loose idea. But though you may sin, even sin scandalously, the Lord will preserve you in Christ and will bring you back if you stray.

The good shepherd goes after his wandering and lost sheep and brings them back to the fold. The good shepherd does not abandon his sheep. The central truth that we consider this evening is that because of Christ’s saving work for his people, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, nor will there ever be. Those who are in Christ have passed from death unto life, and they shall not ever pass back over from life into eternal death. And therefore, the believer’s justification is final, irreversible, and unrepeatable, making the believer secure in God’s grace. Now, with this in mind, the first point I want to make this evening, beloved, and I know this is a little bit more of a topical sermon, though we will be dealing with and interacting with our text and other texts of Holy Scripture, but brothers and sisters, I would urge you, reject false views of the security of our justification.

There are many false views out there about justification. and about the security of our justification. And these false views, of course, don’t advertise themselves as false views. They advertise themselves as the true view, the biblical view. But be discerning. Watch out for them. And watch out for wolves in sheep’s clothing who propagate them. Let me just remind us that the Scriptures are replete with warnings against false teachers, false prophets, false teaching, false Gospels, But let me just take us to a few passages that warn us against that. Look, for example, at Mark 7, verses 15 through 20. Mark 7, in the midst of our Lord’s famous Sermon on the Mount. Let me just get there. Mark 7, beginning at verse 15, and this should be familiar to you. Jesus says this, Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Question, question that is often raised. What fruits is he talking about? Is he talking about, is Jesus talking about the fruits of their teaching and their doctrine? Or is he talking about the fruits of their lives when he says you will know them by their fruits? And I believe the answer to that question is yes. It’s both. You can tell false teachers and false prophets by their false doctrine, and also oftentimes by their ungodly lifestyles. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs, from thistles are they. So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire, so then you will know them by Consider also what the Apostle Peter writes in dealing with a heresy that he confronted, a heresy that is more of an antinomian heresy.

In 2 Peter 2, verses 1-3, we read this warning. Peter writes, but false prophets also arose among the people. just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” Let’s keep these biblical warnings against false teaching and false teachers in view as we consider false views of justification. And there’s many false and unbiblical or sub-biblical views of justification that are out there, but I just want to review a couple of them to make you alert to and warn you about.

One view is the idea that justification is losable. This is a view that is typical among the Arminian wing of the Church. The Arminian view is the belief that a true believer can fully and finally apostatize from the faith and thus lose his or her salvation and therefore lose his or her justification. Now, what is the problem with the Arminian view? Well, this view, this Arminian view, contradicts the plain intent and meaning of our text for today and many other texts of Holy Scripture as well. Our text for today tells us that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Our text tells us that God is for us, his people, and therefore no one can be against us. And that no one, by the way, would include even ourselves.

It tells us that if God went so far as to deliver up his own beloved son for us and for our salvation, He will most certainly not neglect to freely give us all things necessary for our eternal salvation. And that would include the gift of persevering in our faith until the end of our lives. God gives the grace of perseverance to his elect children. This false view that justification is losable also contradicts many other plain passages in the Word of God that speak about the absolute security of the true believer in Christ. Just to review one such passage, I’d invite you to turn to our Lord’s Good Shepherd discourse in John 10, and let me read verses 27-30. John 10, verses 27-30. Jesus says this, And this is in the passage where Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.

He says, My sheep do what? They hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. One of the characteristics of the sheep of Christ is they follow Jesus. They hear his word as his word comes to them in scripture, because the scriptures are his word, and they follow after him. They trust him. They strive after a new obedience. And notice verse 28, and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. It’s my understanding that in the Greek in verse 28, the statement they shall never perish is emphatic. It’s as if he’s saying they shall never, no, not ever perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Christ’s sheep hear his voice. He knows them, meaning he loves them. with a saving, everlasting love.

They follow me. I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. We are kept secure and firm in the loving, merciful hand of Jesus. But not only that, he says in verse 29, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. We are loved, brothers and sisters, by the Good Shepherd. He knows us with a saving love. He gives us eternal life. I was sharing this morning, we were talking about these matters in the inquirer’s class this morning, and I pointed out the fact that if you could lose eternal life after having received the gift of eternal life, if you lose eternal life, how could it be eternal?

It wouldn’t be eternal to begin with. And so, friends, again, there are many passages in God’s word that contradict the view that justification is losable. This false view of Arminianism, the view that justification is losable, dishonors the absolute perfection of our Lord’s saving work on the cross. And it is contrary to the implications of the biblical gospel, which includes the implication that the salvation that our Savior offers in the gospel is a perfect and complete and final salvation, not one that man can lose. not one that man could yank out of the hands, the firm and strong hands of the father or of the son. If justification is losable, that means that Jesus is a failure as a savior. And I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a blasphemous view. Jesus Christ in the gospel offers not just the possibility of salvation if you jump through certain hoops, but he offers salvation full and free and complete, and the justification by which he justifies us is a once and for all and forever declaration of righteousness in the sight of God.

And that leads me to another very common misunderstanding of justification, and that is the view that justification is a process. This is essentially, as I understand it, the Roman Catholic view. In my pastor’s library, I have the Catholic Catechism, and if you read in the Catholic Catechism their section on justification, it’s clear that they confuse justification with renewal and sanctification. The Roman Catholic view, as I understand it, is essentially that justification is a process and it comes in stages. You receive initial justification at your baptism. You grow in that justification as you continue to participate in the sacramental life of the Church, as you live out your life as a good Catholic, and you go to Mass, and you pray the Our Fathers, and go to confession, and all of that. But final justification does not take place until the Judgment Day.

Again, this view confuses justification with sanctification, and it makes justification a process rather than a once and for all declaration of God. It has often been said that you are not more justified today than you were the moment you first believed. In fact, you will not be more justified at the moment you die and go to be with your Savior than you were the moment that you came to faith in Christ, because justification is complete upon faith. It is a once and for all irreversible declaration of God. But this view of justification as a process also seeps into some Protestant and even some professedly Reformed expressions as well. There is a Reformed neolegalism out there that talks about present justification being by faith alone, but final justification on Judgment Day coming by a faith plus works combination.

And so, for example, in this view, present justification takes place at conversion or in some cases at baptism. And some writers speak even of a progressive justification which takes place through the believer’s life as God continues to examine and judge the believer’s works, whereas final justification takes place on Judgment Day. This is the view that I read once in a book by some of you may be familiar with the author Gary North. He’s a Christian Reconstructionist author. I remember reading once his book Unconditional Surrender. It’s been a long time since I read that book. I don’t agree with his but he certainly would say that he affirms justification by faith alone, but that’s only initial justification. He then goes on to speak of progressive justification, that throughout the Christian life God continues to judge our works, and then final justification is by works on the judgment day.

This view, and ones similar to it, seem to have been advocated by, or at least are associated, whether rightly or wrongly, with former Westminster seminary professor, Dr. Norman Shepard, in his writings, his theses on justification. And some of the advocates of the so-called federal vision theology, also known as the Auburn Avenue theology, have followed Dr. Shepard in presenting this view. But friends, let me refute this view very quickly. First of all, this view denies the very definition of justification. Justification is a once and for all, irreversible, unrepeatable, and therefore final declaration of God. When the gavel of God goes down in the courtroom of heaven and declares you to be justified, you are justified not only at that moment, not only as you keep living out a justified life, but you are justified once and for all and forever.

Once God makes that, once God makes that declaration. It is a forever declaration. This view also misunderstands the nature of the believers judgment on the judgment day. The scriptures are very clear. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we’ll give an account of our lives. And many Christians are fearful of that day. But if you are in Christ, you have nothing to fear of judgment day because Christ took your shame on the cross. There will be no shame experienced by believers on Judgment Day. The shame will belong to those outside of Christ, to the unbeliever. What happens on the Judgment Day? Remember Matthew 25 where Jesus talks about himself as the son of man who judges on Judgment Day and the separation of the sheep and the goats? You’ll notice in that passage that humanity is divided into sheep and goats even before the judgment proceedings begin.

And most of humanity at that point in time will have already spent time in either heaven or hell prior to the Judgment Day. You will know what your eternal destiny is the moment you die. In fact, you can know it now if you are in Christ. You can know that you’re going to heaven when you die because your salvation and justification are secure. So, friends, this view of justification as a process and a final justification taking place on the Judgment Day misunderstands the nature of the believer’s judgment on Judgment Day. It is not a judgment for the purpose of deciding our eternal destiny. Rather, it is, in the words of our shorter catechism, it is an open acknowledgment and acquittal before gathered humanity. God can see our faith. God has already declared us righteous in the courtroom of heaven.

What will happen on Judgment Day, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, is that verdict that was issued by God in the courtroom of heaven in our justification will be openly declared to gather humanity. And the evidence of the reality of our faith will be the works that that faith has produced in our lives. So dear ones, and I could go on and speak of other false views as well, but dear ones be warned against false views of justification because such views can unsettle your faith and they can end up taking your eyes off of Jesus the author and the finisher of your faith. Instead, beloved, understand believer. This is the next point of application. Believer, take to heart the glorious truth that you are now and forever freed from the condemning wrath of God.

The words are plain. Paul makes it clear. Therefore, there is now no condemnation. for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who are in spiritual and saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you’ve heard the saying before, whenever you read in Paul’s letters, the word therefore, what’s the question you need to ask? What is the therefore? Therefore. What is it? It’s obviously referring back to the preceding context. Therefore, in this passage, in Romans 8.1, probably relates to everything that has been said up to this point in Paul’s argument and not simply to what immediately precedes this section in chapter 7. To quote from Charles Hodge, who comments on this verse, he says, those who are in Christ are not exposed to condemnation. And this, again, is not to be understood as descriptive of their present state merely, but of their permanent position.

Did you hear that, brothers and sisters? Let me quote from Brother Hodge again. This, again, is not to be understood as descriptive of their present state merely, but of their permanent position. The justified now will be justified forever. If you are a true believer, if Christ, if you are resting upon Christ alone for your salvation from sin, you are now justified and you always will be. Dr. Hodge goes on to say, They are placed beyond the reach of condemnation. They shall never be condemned. Paul isn’t just saying, well, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but you better behave yourself because if you fall away or you wander too far, you will fall back into condemnation. No, that’s not what he says. The implication is that now and forever there is therefore now nor will there ever be condemnation for those who are truly in Christ Jesus.

Jesus himself taught this in in passages such as John chapter 5 verse 24. I invite you to turn to that passage. Jesus speaks here and he speaks of the judgment of God and he says in verse 24, John chapter 5 verse 24, truly, truly, amen, amen. In other words, I say to you, Jesus speaks with his divine authority. Truly, truly, I say to you, He who hears my word, that word is the gospel, the good news. He who hears my word and believes him who sent me. Has eternal life, not will have, might have, may have, but has eternal life as a present possession. That’s the implication, not only does the one who Here’s the word of the gospel and believe in the father and the son, the father who sent his son to be the savior.

Not only does such a one presently have eternal life, notice what Jesus goes on to say. He does not come into judgment. That is, the believer does not come into the condemning wrath or judgment of God. It’s not denying that believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but we will not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. If, by the sovereign grace of God, you have been raised from spiritual death to newness of life in Christ, God, the Holy Spirit, will keep you secure and prevent you from ever falling back into a state of spiritual death. Isn’t this comforting to know, brothers and sisters? But some believers, well-meaning believers, are afraid of this teaching. They fear that this kind of teaching might be spiritually dangerous, that it will lead to loose living and ungodly presumption.

In fact, that was basically the response of the Council of Trent to the biblical Reformation understanding of justification by faith alone. The Catholic Church says, well, you can certainly have great hope that you will finally be saved, that your justification will be secured, but It is the sin of presumption to assume that you will go to heaven simply through faith in Christ. But I’m reminded of what the Apostle John writes in 1 John 5, 13. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. He’s writing to believers that you may know that you have eternal life. Not that you may hope so or guess so, but that you may know that you have eternal life. And I believe if you look that up, that verse up in a Catholic translation of the Bible, it says the same thing.

I write these things to you, believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. How is it that we believers can know that we have eternal life? Because our justification is final. It’s complete. You are not more justified today than you were the day you first believed, because justification is complete. And so, friends, the finality of our justification and the truth of our eternal security in Christ, these are our greatest incentives to pursue holy living. Those who say, no, no, no, we don’t want people to get lazy in their Christian life. We don’t want people to presume upon God’s grace. Well, again, If you’re arrogant and unrepentant in your sin, you should take no comfort in the doctrine of justification. But if God, in his mercy, has given you a humble and contrite heart, a heart that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, a heart that loves Jesus and wants to please him, which is what is at the heart of every true born-again Christian, then be assured, he who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion.

He has justified you, He is sanctifying you, fitting you for glory, and He will preserve you in His grace. Let’s imagine that you tell your child, let’s say little Johnny has a messy room, and you say, Johnny, I’d like you to go clean your room, and if you, you know, I’d like you to go clean your room. Let’s say that little Johnny Huffs around and puffs and says I don’t want to clean my room, but he he does it anyway But it’s very clear to you that he’s displeased Has little Johnny really obeyed you? No, but let’s say that you say to little Johnny Johnny I’d like you to clean your room and Johnny complies cheerfully willfully says I’m happy to clean my room and does it and What is it that pleases the father?

That we obey him because we fear punishment? If little Johnny only cleans his room because he doesn’t want to get a spanking, is that a good motivation for cleaning his room? Is that real obedience from the heart? No. But if Johnny cleans his room because he loves you as his father or mother, and he does it willingly, that is what pleases him. That is what pleases you as a parent. Likewise, our Heavenly Father is pleased when we obey, not because we are worried that if I don’t behave myself, God is going to condemn me again. He’s going to take away his verdict of justification. No. What is it that motivates us to walk after a new obedience, to strive after godliness and holiness? It is knowing that God loved us to such a degree that he gave his Son on the cross for us. and that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

Constantly striving to live a holy life out of crave and fear is displeasing to God, but striving to live a holy life and pursue godliness out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation, that is what a biblical understanding of justification leads to. And that brings me to my final point, and this will be very brief. I want you to note the reasons for the everlasting security and finality of our justification that are spoken of in our passage. Again, we could spend a lot of time in this passage. There are many riches here to mine, but we’ll just give a very quick overview. First of all, the first reason for the security and finality of our justification is the sovereign purpose of our gracious God, as we see in verses 28 through 30. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.

Who are those who love God? to those who are called according to his purpose. That’s talking about the effectual saving call of God according to his sovereign predestinating purpose. For those whom he foreknew, meaning he loved them from before the foundation of the earth with an everlasting saving love. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called These whom he called he also justified, and these whom he justified he also glorified. Notice, everyone who is predestined is called with this saving call. Everyone who is called is justified, and everyone who is justified is glorified. It doesn’t say, and some of those whom he predestined he called, some of those whom he called he justified, and some of those whom he justified he glorified.

No, it’s the golden chain of salvation. It all fits together. One flows into the other. They’re inseparable. So the ultimate reason for the everlasting security and finality of our justification is that it is in accord with the sovereign purpose of our gracious, merciful God. We also see it is based upon God’s determination to be for us, his people, which is shown in all that he has done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is what is spoken of in verses 31 through 34, where Paul, with this series of probing questions, rhetorical questions, he asks, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? What’s the answer that he assumes? to that question. If God is for you, who can be against you? The answer is no one.

If you’ve got God on your side, it doesn’t matter how many are on the other side. God is for you. You are safe. You are secure. And then he continues his reasoning. Verse 32. He who did not spare his own son. Think about it. This is his beloved son. The son whom he loves. And he spared not his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? If God loved us enough to send his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our sins, if he has justified us, how will he not also preserve us in a state of justification? Verse 33, who will bring a charge against God’s elect? The devil sure tries to bring a charge against us. He’s the accuser of the brethren.

And if we were outside of Christ, his accusations would stand. But because we believers are in Christ, cleansed through his blood, clothed in his perfect, everlasting righteousness, no one can bring a charge against God’s elect. Why? Verse 33, God is the one who justifies Who is the one who condemns? If God, the holy creator of the universe, justifies you, who can possibly condemn you? That means, by the way, you cannot even condemn yourself. Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Think about it. Jesus lived for you, he died for you, he rose for you, he reigns for you, he intercedes for you before the Father. With all of this being the case, do you not see how secure believer you are in your justification?

Oh, dear friend, take comfort, take comfort, dear believer, in the finality of your justification. You may say, well, Pastor Jeff, I still struggle with with sin. I still wrestle against the flesh. I think there’s something wrong with me. I just I can’t seem to make progress in my walk with Christ. And your heart aches for that. Take comfort. Jesus does not put out a smoldering wick. Jesus is kind to broken, humbled sinners. So continue to come to Christ. Oh, but I mean, I’m just confessing the same sins over and over again. I just can’t seem to overcome it. Well, get counsel, get encouragement, get prayer. But remember that your justification does not depend upon your performance. It depends upon Jesus’s performance for you. He’s the one who lived for you. He’s the one who died for you.

Rest in him. Rejoice in him. And then by his grace, as you continue to abide in him, he will give you the grace to overcome. He will continue to walk with you. You know, a lot of Christians think that that struggling with sin, well, that’s not a normal thing. If I’m in Christ, I shouldn’t be struggling with sin. Struggle is the essence of the Christian life. The flesh wars against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh. This is the normal Christian life. It’s a battle. We are the church militant. We are already in Christ triumphant, but we won’t experience the fullness of that until that final day. So don’t lose heart. Continue to cling to Christ. And by the grace of God, continue to pursue a new obedience, not in order to prove your salvation or secure your salvation, but out of gratitude for the salvation that God has already given to you in Christ.

And so let us, again, take our stand on this wonderful truth of our justification, and let us be confident for our justification is complete and final. Amen. Let us pray. Dear Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you, O God, that we are justified by your grace alone, through faith alone, apart from works, in Christ and Christ alone. And we thank you that we are secure in that justification, both now and forever. We ask, Lord, that this truth would not make us presumptuous, but instead fill us with gratitude that we might walk after a new obedience in the power of your spirit in union with Christ, for it is in his name that we pray. And all of God’s people said, Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

Sermon transcript

This evening I’ll be preaching a second sermon on the doctrine of justification. This is the second in a three-part mini-series called The Wonder of Justification, and our text for this evening, again as it was last week, is Romans 3, verses 19-21. Romans 3, verses 19-31. Let us hear God’s holy word. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 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. For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith, is one. Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be. On the contrary, we establish the law.

Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let us pray. O Lord and Father in heaven, you are a God of infinite holiness who engages in holy war against your enemies and you who deserve your wrath. And yet, Lord, you are a merciful God who has poured out upon Christ, your son, sevenfold vengeance, O Lord, for the sins that we have committed. We thank you that for those who are covered by the blood of Christ, there is full and free redemption. We thank you, Lord God, for this precious doctrine of justification by faith alone. We ask, Lord and Father in heaven, that you would grant that we would gain a deeper appreciation for, love for, and understanding of this wonderful gospel doctrine. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that as we gain further understanding of this doctrine, that it would impact our lives in a practical and powerful way, that we might indeed live out the truth of this doctrine with joy and in the fullness of your spirit, for it is in Jesus’ name that we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen.

Congregation, you may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is The Wonder of Justification, Part Two, God’s Provision of Justification. And there’s four key words to be listening for tonight. Those words, very important words, are the words grace, redemption, justification, and faith. Well, my dear listeners, how can a sinner be accepted before a holy God? That is the question that is at the heart of this doctrine of justification. The God revealed in the Bible is a God of infinite white-hot holiness. He is a God of infinite perfect righteousness and justice. And so the question is, how can an unjust man be justified, that is to say, be declared righteous and just in the sight of a perfectly just and righteous Creator? These are questions which are very significant for each of us to ask ourselves because the answer that we give to these kinds of questions can reveal the state of our souls before Almighty God.

When we’re dealing with the doctrine of justification, we are dealing with issues of eternal life or everlasting punishment. These are eternal issues that are at stake when we are dealing with this precious doctrine. If you’re resting on a false method of justification before God, then according to God’s word, it will most certainly result in your everlasting misery. Unless, of course, God in sovereign grace is pleased to graciously open your eyes before you die to the true pathway. of justification, namely Christ and Christ alone. On the other hand, if God has graciously taken the scales off of your eyes and has shown you the true method of justification as it is revealed in the word of God, and if he has opened your heart to embrace this true method of justification by embracing Christ alone for your salvation, then you are indeed blessed and your justification before God can serve as a wonderful foretaste of the everlasting happiness the everlasting joy that you will be experiencing in heaven.

Dear listener, are you justified before God, and do you know it? If you believe that you are, then what is the basis for your confidence? These are the matters that we are going to consider on this Lord’s Day evening. Now, on this Lord’s Day evening, as we continue our study of this vital gospel doctrine known as justification by faith alone, or to use the Latin, sola We understand and we remember the fact that this doctrine was at the heart and center of the Protestant Reformation. This doctrine was rediscovered in its full biblical clarity in that great move of God known as the Protestant Reformation. In the medieval church, this precious gospel truth had been greatly obscured and all but buried under a mass of papal superstition and Roman priestcraft for centuries. And pun is intended there, by the way, buried under a mass of superstition.

But in God’s kind providence, he raised up an Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther, who became a great reformer and also the likes of John Calvin. And these men and men like them rediscovered and reaffirmed this great gospel truth of sola fide, bringing eternal hope and peace to multitudes of souls, and as a result, transforming Western civilization and culture. That was sort of a ripple effect of the Protestant Reformation. Let us praise God for this precious truth of sola fide, and let us make sure that we understand and appreciate the precious heritage of faith that has been passed on to us from our Reformation forefathers. so that we might pass it on to our children, and by the grace of God should Jesus carry to our children’s children.” Now, again, what does this term, justification, mean?

Obviously, the Apostle Paul loves this term. He uses it often in this epistle especially, as well as in the epistle to the Galatians. It shows up in Philippians and so forth. What is justification? Well, it’s actually a legal term. It has in view a courtroom scene. Justification is a legal term that means to declare righteous. If you are accused of a crime and you come before a judge, there’s one of two verdicts that can be passed. Either you will be found guilty or not guilty. Either you will be justified or condemned with respect to the crime of which you are accused. And this is very important because the term justification throughout the history of the got confused in the minds of some, even some otherwise great men of God, who confused justification with sanctification. They can’t be separated, but they must be distinguished.

Justification does not mean to make righteous or to infuse righteousness, but to declare one to be righteous. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, as our shorter catechism rightly puts it. in distinction from sanctification, which is a work of God’s free grace. Sanctification is something that God does within your soul. Justification takes place outside of you. It takes place in the courtroom of heaven. When God justifies a sinner, the gavel of God in heaven goes down and declares that sinner to be righteous in his sight, not because the sinner is righteous in himself. He’s a sinner. He’s fallen short. He’s missed the mark. but because of the perfect, everlasting righteousness of Christ, credited to that sinner, received by faith, that is, personal trust in Christ and Christ alone. The central truth that we consider on the last Lord’s Day was the truth that it is impossible for law-breaking sinners, and that would be each and every one of us, apart from grace, it is impossible for law-breaking sinners like me and like you to be justified before God or saved. on the basis of our own keeping of God’s moral law, our own good deeds, our own personal merits, for we have none.

This is why justification must be by faith alone. There’s nothing meritorious in faith. There’s nothing in our faith that we give to God that earns his favor or gets his attention or makes him pleased with us. Of course, God is pleased with faith, but faith itself is a gift of God. purchased by the blood of Christ for elect sinners to whom it is bestowed. And so we learned last week that we cannot be justified on the basis of our keeping, our own keeping, of God’s moral law. And this is why, again, justification is by faith alone apart from works of the law or apart from law obedience. The central truth of this sermon this evening is that God’s provision for the sinner’s justification has its foundation in God’s grace, its basis in Christ’s sacrifice, and is received by the sinner through the appropriating instrument, that is, through the means of faith in Christ alone.

So let’s first of all consider the foundation of our justification. This is, if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first main point. Consider the foundation of our justification, and that foundation is God’s free grace. Look at verse 24. We’ve already established the fact on the last Lord’s Day that is spoken of in verse 23, that all have sinned, both Jew and Gentile, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified as a gift by His grace. By His grace. The foundation For our justification before God is God’s grace. Justification is not something we earn. It is not something we deserve. It’s not something we work for. It’s not something we contribute to. It is something that comes gratis as a gift. Again, as I pointed out on the last Lord’s Day, which shows us why we need God’s grace. as the foundation for our justification.

We considered on the last Lord’s Day that the law of God reveals God’s unchanging standard of ethics. Again, Romans 3.23 demonstrates that all mankind has fallen short of the divine standard and therefore we have fallen short of the glory of God. We also considered that the law of God condemns those who remain in Adam and therefore who remain under the demands of the original covenant of works that God made with Adam and his posterity before Adam’s fall. That was the point that we considered based on verse 19, where it says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world become accountable to God. The law of God silences our excuses and lays us bare before the infinitely holy God who created us.

We also considered that the purpose, one of the foundational major purposes or uses of God’s law is that it reveals the knowledge of sin, as verse 20 says, because by works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes what? The knowledge of sin. We know our sin and lawlessness when we reflect upon the law, when the law is like a mirror that shows us our own sinful heart. And this, again, is why we must be justified by faith alone. on the foundation or basis of grace. Contrary to what many folks think today, God’s word emphatically denies that it is possible to gain a just standing before God or to enter into heaven by the method of good works. Because of our sin, even our best attempts to keep God’s holy law are imperfect and tainted with our original corruption, and therefore they’re totally inadequate as the basis for our justification before God of infinite holiness.

Dr. G. James Kennedy, and I had issues with some of the late Dr. Kennedy’s approaches to preaching and so forth, but in his Evangelism Explosion program he offers an interesting illustration. Let’s say, as an illustration of this, let’s say that I invite you over, my wife and I invite you over one morning for breakfast, and I’m cooking up some omelets, and let’s say that I want to cook up an omelet that has five eggs in it, okay? And let’s say that four of those five eggs are fine, but the last egg that I crack into the skittle is a rotten egg. It stinks. Now, what if I reason this way, and I say, well, you know, four of those eggs are fine. They’re good eggs. If I just mix this rotten egg in with the rest of them, no one’s going to notice, are they?

Of course you would notice. Trying to present our good works to God as a basis for our justification is like trying to offer that omelet to a friend. That omelet that has just a little bit of rottenness in it. You wouldn’t be a very good friend if you tried to offer that omelet to And of course, the problem is not just that one of the eggs, spiritually speaking, if we’re talking about the human heart, it’s not just that there’s a little badness in there, it’s that we are totally depraved. That is to say, sin has impacted the totality of our being. It doesn’t mean that we’re as nasty or bad as we possibly could be, but we are as radically corrupt in our sin as we possibly could be. And only God’s common grace and restraining providence keeps us from acting out that sin nature as we would without those constraints.

And again, this is why we need Christ’s perfect righteousness credited or imputed to our spiritual account. You say, well, why can’t God kind of take it easy on us? Why can’t God grade on a curve? You know, you might remember your school days when if your professor or a teacher gave you a test and Everyone in the class fails, he might say, okay, those of you who didn’t fail so bad, I’ll kind of grade on a curve. I’ll kind of, you know, lower my standards to meet your performance on the test. And a lot of people think that that’s the way God works. That if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds and the scales of justice, that God will have to let us into having the problem, my friends. And I mentioned this last week.

Remember, God is perfect. infinitely holy, righteous, and perfect. Heaven is a perfect, sinless place. You need a perfect righteousness to get there. You need more than just to have your sins forgiven. Praise God, the atoning sacrifice of Christ, his substitutionary atonement on the cross is a propitiation, it’s satisfaction for our sins. But we also need a positive righteousness in order to gain access into heaven, to serve as our title to heaven. And we don’t have it. Even those who are born again by the Spirit, though we are renewed and regenerated and are enabled to do works that are pleasing to God through the Spirit. Nevertheless, even those good works are still tainted with sin. So there’s that mixture there. It’s like the omelet. They cannot serve those good works insofar as they are done in union with Christ.

They are good. and accepted through the mediation of Christ, but they’re not the basis of our acceptance with God. They’re the fruit and evidence of the new life that the Spirit has wrought within us. And so again, Christ’s obedience and sacrifice must serve as the basis and grounds for our justification. And that is why God’s amazing, free, and sovereign grace must serve as the very cornerstone and foundation of our justification before God. It can be no other way. It must be by grace or it will not happen at all. What is grace? Have you ever heard a definition of grace? I’m guessing that the definition you’ve heard is probably God’s unmerited favor. And that’s true so far as it goes. Yes, grace is God’s unmerited favor. But I would suggest to you that it is much more than that.

In particular, it is actually God’s demerited favor. It is God’s love and mercy and favor given to you in spite of the fact that you and I deserve his wrath and judgment and justice. It is God’s demerited favor. In the larger context of Romans, as Paul uses this term grace, he uses it, I believe, with some different nuances depending upon the context. But in the larger context of Romans, it’s clear that the term grace that by this term Paul has in mind the sovereign grace of God, that grace which unconditionally elects hell-deserving sinners to receive his undeserved, unmerited gift of salvation. If you skip ahead to chapter 4 in verses 4 and 5, Paul brings this out, especially as he just discussed the patriarch Abraham who was justified by faith, by trusting in God’s promise, and it says this, Now, to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

You go to work and you get a paycheck, right? It’s the wage that you have earned. If your boss comes up to you one day with your paycheck and says, hey, I’ve got a gift for you. Here’s your paycheck. You might not say it out loud because it’s your boss, but you might be thinking, this is not a gift. I earned this. I worked for this. That’s not how it works with justification. It says now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But verse five in Romans four, verse five, to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly. Think about it. The righteous God graciously justifies the ungodly. It’s amazing. one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

His faith is credited as righteousness.” That faith which receives the righteousness of Christ is what Paul is speaking of there. There’s a big difference between a paycheck and a birthday gift check. You know, if your mother or father or friend comes to you on your birthday, gives you a birthday check, But then expects you to kind of pay it back. You’d be insulted, right? That’s not a real gift. Just as the paycheck is not a real gift. But God gives salvation as a gift. Something that we don’t deserve. Something that we don’t earn. Believer, your justification is grounded in God’s rich and free grace. Revel in that. Rejoice in it. It’s a gift, it’s absolutely free, it’s absolutely undeserved, absolutely unmerited, and it’s given to you without any regard to your religious performance or your moral living, though indeed, if you experience God’s grace, it will bear fruit in your life, there will be a change, there will be a reorientation of your life, but you don’t have to improve yourself first.

Don’t fall in for the error, I would call it a heresy of preparationism, the idea that that first, before God is willing to deign to give you His mercy, you’ve got to clean up your life. No. You come to God as the sinner you are, receiving His grace freely, and then He begins to clean up your life. That’s the way it goes. So, dear listener, you know, we’ve all got a little Pharisee living in our hearts, a little legalist within our souls. Crucify that little Pharisee in your soul, that little Pharisee who’s always trying to assert his self-righteousness and contribute at least something to your salvation. When you hear that little voice saying, surely there’s some fine print, surely I’ve got to do something to contribute to my justification. Oh, take that little Pharisee out to the woodshed and don’t just give it a whipping, put it to death.

Get off the treadmill of works righteousness and stay off Only then will your walking after a new obedience be pleasing to God through Christ, for it will be motivated by gratitude and love for the God who loved you and redeemed you in Christ, not motivated by a craven fear or an attempt to merit God’s favor or bargain with God. Dear Christian listener, stand fast in the liberty that you have in Christ and realize that God’s amazing grace and His grace alone is the foundation of your justification, and do not ever let anyone bring you back again into the bondage of legalism. So we see that the foundation of our justification is God’s grace, His demerited favor, His mercy and love given to us in spite of the fact that we deserve His wrath and judgment.

But consider next, and this is point two in your outline, consider the objective basis of our justification, and that is Christ redemptive work. The objective basis of our justification is Christ’s redemptive work. Getting back to verses 24 and 25 of our passage for this evening. Being justified as a gift by his grace through what? Through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. There’s no redemption outside of Christ, outside of union with Christ. Redemption is in union with Christ Jesus. And then verse 25. whom God, meaning God the Father, 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 and so forth. This word redemption is a very important biblical word that we find here in verse 24.

What does that word mean? To quote from one scholar, it means freedom gained through the payment of a price. Here specifically released from the former condition of bondage and sin. This is accomplished through Christ’s death, the ransom price for our salvation. We believing sinners have been bought back to God through Jesus’s payment for our sins on the cross of Calvary. Thank God Jesus paid it all as we love to sing in that that beautiful hymn. He paid it all. We owe it all to him. He did it all for us. And through his sacrifice, he took our place. He died as our sin bearer, our substitute, in our stead. He paid the price for our sin in his own person as he died on the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we in him might become the righteousness of God.

Through his vicarious substitutionary atonement, an atonement which we celebrate and remember whenever we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, Christ has redeemed us to God by his own precious blood. And as verse 25 says, in this God, God displayed publicly Christ publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. What does that word propitiation mean? In the Greek, it is the word hilasterion. And it’s interesting, this word is often translated in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. It is translated as mercy seat. Get the imagery there, mercy seat. The mercy seat refers to the lid or cover that was placed on the Ark of the Covenant, where the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled once a year on the Day of Atonement. It indicates the appeasement of God’s righteous wrath through the satisfaction of his just demands.

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is said to be a propitiation in his blood. In other words, by his death on the cross, Christ, the Son of God, satisfies the demands of God’s justice against our sins. and thereby appeased God’s wrath, which had burned against us. He did that through his blood. And remember, in the Bible, the blood symbolizes or represents the life. When we say that Jesus poured out his blood for us, shed his blood for us, that means that Jesus gave his life in substitution for ours as our sin bearer, our substitute, and thus rendered a full, complete satisfaction to the Father. to the Father’s wrath against our sin. Jesus took that wrath upon himself. Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice on the cross demonstrates the infinitely deep love of God even for sinners who are under his wrath and curse.

Isn’t that amazing? Amazing grace indeed. My dear Christian friends, our Lord Jesus Christ offered up a propitiatory sacrifice on the cross as the sin bearer and substitute for his people. Through his perfect obedience to God’s law and through his death on the cross for our sins, Jesus has secured for us everlasting justification. Here’s the thing. Praise God that when God justifies you, you can’t become unjustified. That doesn’t mean you should live in a presumptuous or sinful way. That doesn’t give you a free ticket to live in sin. In fact, if you think that grace gives you the freedom to live in sin, you’ve misunderstood grace. The grace of God teaches us to pursue godliness out of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation. But nevertheless, you are secure, believer, in God’s everlasting love. And therefore, through His perfect obedience and death on the cross, we have everlasting justification.

You can’t bounce in and out of a state of justification. You can’t lose your justification. When the gavel of God goes down in the courtroom of heaven to declare you righteous in His sight and your justification, It goes down once and for all and forever. It’s irreversible. We’ll talk more about the finality of justification on the following Lord’s Day evening. But dear listeners, let this truth of the gospel bring comfort to your soul, joy to your life, and power to your walk with Christ. You know, one of the precious practical truths of this doctrine is that our Heavenly Father is no longer angry with us. He’s no longer wrathful toward us. Yes, our father in heaven does graciously discipline us, train us so that we may share in his holiness. He works in our lives and our sanctification and so forth.

But he’s not angry with you in the sense of wrath. If you are in Christ, he sees you in Christ and he is just as pleased with you as he is pleased with his son because you are in the son. So walk in freedom. You belong, both now and forever, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Your justification makes it secure. But that raises the question, how does what Christ did on the cross get applied to the sinner? How is it that the elect come to receive the gift of justification, that gift which has its foundation in God’s sovereign grace and its ground and basis in Christ’s all-sufficient redemptive work on the cross? Well, that leads me to my final point, and it’s going to be a brief point, I promise you. Take to heart, beloved, the appropriating instrument of our justification, and that is faith in Jesus Christ.

Notice in the context of this passage how often Paul mentions faith. Look at verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through what? Through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. Skip down to verse 25. whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through what? Through faith. Let’s get down again to verse 26. For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has what? Faith in Jesus. And then verses 28 to 30. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law, or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God will justify the circumcised by what?

By faith and the uncircumcised through faith. That God is one. It’s not that the Jews are justified by faith plus law keeping, that the Gentiles get in by faith alone. No. Whether you’re Jew or Gentile in your background. The method of justification is one and the same. It’s by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And what is this justifying faith of which Paul speaks in this passage and in many other parts of his writings that is spoken of throughout the scriptures? Again, I think our short of catechism offers a wonderful Bible-based definition. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace. In other words, it’s not something you work up or within yourself. It is something that is given by God’s grace. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he’s offered to us in the gospel.

This evening I look out in this congregation and I see all of you resting in the pews that you are sitting on. What does it mean to rest? the weight of your body on those pews. It means you trust the pews to hold up your weight. That’s a wonderful picture of faith. It’s simply resting. Resting the weight of your eternal salvation upon Christ and what he has done and upon him alone. Not upon what you do to prove yourself or prove your worthiness to God or demonstrate your faith even. Faith in Jesus Christ receives and rests. doesn’t give to God anything, although once we receive faith, it does work itself out through love. But nevertheless, to receive the gift of salvation, purely passive, purely receptive. And of course, the theologians speak of the three basic elements of justifying and saving faith.

And those elements are knowledge, assent, and trust. Knowledge of at least the basic truths and facts of the gospel. You may have a childlike understanding of the gospel, But if the one that you are trusting in is the biblical Christ, that childlike trust is sufficient to connect you to him and to receive that grace that he offers in the gospel. But it’s not enough to know the basic truths and facts about the gospel. For example, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins and rose from the dead so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. You can know about those truths but reject them. So true justifying faith involves not only knowledge, but assent to those truths and facts. But the crowning element of true saving faith, justifying faith, is personal trust in Jesus Christ as one’s very own Lord and Savior.

Fiducia, trust. Do you trust Jesus? Do you rely upon him alone for your salvation? Oh, I don’t know, Pastor, my faith is so weak. It’s not the amount of faith that you have that matters. Remember, Jesus talks about faith the size of a mustard seed. And Jesus often rebuked his disciples, oh, you have little faith. You may have little faith. You may have weak faith. You may have small faith. But if that faith is directed to the Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered death on the cross and rose from the dead, then that little faith is enough to connect you to him and to receive all of the benefits of his redemption, including justification before the Father. So the object of our faith, again, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ as he is offered in the gospel.

The bottom line is that faith equals forsaking all, I trust him. As we are told in passages, and there’s many passages I could quote to illustrate this, but I want to leave us with one of my favorites from John chapter 1. verses 12 and 13. In this particular passage, he’s talking about our adoption, but he says this, As many as received him, that is, received Christ, the Word made flesh, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. It’s clear that in verse 12 there in John 1, receiving Christ and believing in his name are one and the same actions. who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Faith is resting in Jesus, recognizing that in him you have a merciful, forgiving God.

Dear listener, do you have this kind of faith in Christ? Have you forsaken all of your self-righteousness, all of your idols, all of the known sins in your life that you may trust and take him alone to be your Lord and Savior? And by the way, once you come to Christ in faith, The Holy Spirit is going to come and show you more sin that needs to be dealt with. Initial conversion leads to a lifetime of daily renewed repentance and faith. But our justification occurs once and for all and forever as we put our faith and trust in Him alone to save us from our sins. May God give you the grace to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does the scripture say? Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

That’s God’s promise. He doesn’t make his promises with his fingers crossed behind his back. So rest in him. Trust in him. He is trustworthy. And if you’re looking to Christ alone for your salvation, God’s word assures you the gavel of God in heaven has gone down and he has declared you, dear believing sinner, to be just in his sight. Justify, not because you’re righteous in yourself. but because of Christ’s righteousness given to you as a gift, imputed to you, received by faith alone. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you for your amazing, sovereign grace. We thank you for the redemptive work of Christ, our Savior. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who calls us through the gospel to receive and rest upon Christ. Lord, we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would indeed enable us to simply rest in Jesus and to know the joy that comes from resting in Him.

And may that joy work itself out in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

Sermon transcript

Please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. This evening, and for the following two Lord’s Days, or the following two evening services, we’re going to take a break from the book of Psalms to consider the biblical doctrine of justification. So I’m doing a three-part mini-series on the wonder of justification. And this evening, My sermon text is Romans chapter 3, and I’ll read verses 19 through 31, although our focus will be especially on verses 19 and 20. So let us hear God’s holy word. Romans 3, beginning at verse 19 and reading to the end of the chapter. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 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. For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?

Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be, on the contrary, we establish the law. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing on the preaching of his word. Our gracious God and Father in heaven, we thank you again for your amazing grace to us. And we pray that by your grace and through the Holy Spirit, you would open our minds and our hearts to that which is revealed in this portion of your holy word.

We ask, Lord, that your word would find a lodging place in our souls and may it be spiritual food unto us and bear spiritual fruit in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this evening is, The Wonder of Justification Part One, Why Faith That’s the question, and there’s only two key words to listen for tonight, children, and those are the words law and justification. That’s a mouthful, justification. Well, here’s a little bit of a trick question, although I think with this congregation it’s probably not too much of a trick question, but my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, do you know what holiday is soon coming up on the calendar? Someone said Halloween. Well, Thanksgiving is coming up too.

Reformation Day. That’s right. You see, on October 31st, in 1517, there was an Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther, who became a great reformer. And it is on that date that he is believed to have nailed his 95 feces on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. And that that event ignited a chain reaction of events which led up to what we now call the Protestant Reformation. Luther wasn’t setting out to start a Reformation or the Reformation, but in God’s providence that’s precisely what happened. Now since we find ourselves in this month of October, in which Reformation Day is soon to be upon us, I thought that it would be both helpful and edifying to review one of the major Bible doctrines that was rediscovered in the Protestant Reformation, and that is the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

This evening’s sermon begins, as I mentioned, a three-part mini-series on the doctrine of justification. Now, what is justification, if you know your shorter catechism? Justification is what? It’s an act of God’s free grace where he pardons all our sins and it counts us righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone.” It’s interesting, our catechism rightly calls justification an act of God’s free grace, wherein when it talks about sanctification, sanctification is described as a work of God’s free grace. Justification is an act because it’s something that God does outside of us, whereas sanctification is a work what God does within us to conform us more and more into the image of Christ. In justification, it’s a legal term, in justification God declares us to be righteous in his sight because of the righteousness of Christ imputed or credited to us and we receive that righteousness by grace through faith in Christ alone.

Now, why bother to study this doctrine of justification? Well, I could spend a long time talking about the many reasons why we should study this doctrine. Obviously, one of the major reasons is that the Bible teaches it, and we should be concerned to know what the Bible teaches about justification. But there are some other reasons as well. One of the reasons is that because there is widespread ignorance of this doctrine, even among those who would profess themselves to be Protestant and Evangelical Christians. And just to illustrate this, some of you are familiar with Dr. Michael Horton, he’s a Reformed theologian, professor at, I believe, Westminster Seminary West, and he wrote a book a while ago, a number, actually several decades ago, entitled Putting Amazing Back Into Grace, and in that book he recounts an experience that he once had at a non-denominational Christian high school.

Let me just quote from his book. Dr. Horton says, the Bible teacher, An old college friend asked me to spend a day defending the Reformation position on grace. In six class periods with a total of 160 Christian high school students, only one person raised her hand when I asked, how many here have ever heard the term justification? Think about that. This is a Christian high school. It’s a high school with 160 Christian young people. He asked, Who’s ever heard of justification? Only one person raises her hand. Out of 160, he goes on to say, out of 160 Christian young people, only one person had even heard of, much less understood, the central tenet of the Protestant Reformation and indeed of the gospel itself. When I explained the doctrine, hands shot up all over the place in each period.

It was a radically new concept. they never had heard before in all their years of Christian churches, camps, conferences, and youth groups, or in their homes. Parents, I hope you’re teaching your children about justification. That’s kind of a sad commentary, though, isn’t it? Now, this book was written, like I said, several decades ago. How true this must be today, where it seems doctrinal ignorance has even grown since that time. So we need to understand this doctrine because there’s a great deal of ignorance, even in the church world, about this doctrine. Another reason we should study and understand this doctrine is because we must understand the doctrine of justification by faith alone if we desire to have a secure, stable, and maturing Christian faith. Sola Fide, which is Latin for faith alone, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is one of the doctrines that is absolutely necessary for having a secure and stable Christian faith.

The more you understand what God has done for you in your justification, and the more that your soul embraces that truth, and the more it sinks into your heart, the more stable and joyful your faith will be. Now, I’m not saying it’s the only gospel doctrine that’s important. There are many other doctrines that are important. doctrine of the authority and inerrancy of the Bible, a very central foundational doctrine, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the deity of Christ, his substitutionary atonement, his physical resurrection from the dead, the new birth, the doctrine of regeneration. These are all vitally important gospel doctrines. But understanding this doctrine of justification is particularly important because it will help us to avoid being deceived by false gospels. And there are many false gospels out there. And it can also help to protect us and to protect our children from becoming prey to cult groups and false religions.

When we understand this doctrine and when it gets into our souls, it has the potential to radically change our outlook and transform our lives for the glory of God. So what is the value of having a good grasp of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, or sola fide? Well, like I said, when we grasp and wholeheartedly embrace this precious gospel truth, it has the potential to transform our lives. Dear ones, this is not just a dry, abstract theological doctrine fit only for the ivory tower of the theological seminary. Rather, it is a life-transforming truth. I mean, think about it for a few moments. See, when you, dear listener, when you understand That you are no longer under the condemning wrath of God. That Jesus took that wrath upon himself in your place, in your stead.

And that he credits, that his righteousness is credited to you. When you understand that. When you understand that God the Father is no longer angry at you. He poured out his wrath upon his Son. And that you are no longer under a covenant of works. You no longer have to be on this religious treadmill, constantly worrying, am I pleasing my father in heaven? Is he upset with me? Is he going to squash me? When you understand that the father views you, believer, as clothed in the perfect, everlasting righteousness of his eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ. when you understand that your justification makes you secure in the everlasting love of God. When you understand these things, when you understand this doctrine and its practical implications, and they are many, it has the potential to fill you with joy and transform your outlook on life.

Also, understanding this doctrine, and again making sure our children understand it, can help us and our families to walk with wisdom and discernment in the midst of a very muddle-headed and undiscerning culture. We live in a time where there is very little in the way of wisdom or discernment. So what is the central truth that we’re going to consider tonight in relationship to this doctrine of justification? Well, again, our focus is especially going to be on verses 19 and 20. And the central truth is that, brothers and sisters, we must understand that it is impossible for us sinners to be justified, declared righteous before God or saved on the basis of our own keeping of God’s moral law, or even on the basis of our partial keeping of God’s moral law. Again, to read verses 19 and 20, now we know that whatever the law, and he’s speaking there of God’s moral law, he’s speaking of the law as a covenant of works and so forth.

We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. The law holds us accountable to God’s holy standard and it shows us, it shuts our mouths, it shuts our excuses, it shuts off our excuses, it holds us accountable. Why? Verse 20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Now let’s recall the context of this passage. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a portion of Scripture that is very logical and very connected, and everything fits together. Paul’s argument, the flow of his argument, he builds one thing upon another thing upon another thing. And up until this point in his letter to the Roman Church, Paul’s main concern has been to establish the fact that all human beings, not just Gentiles but even Jews, are under the power and dominion and guilt of sin.

God’s revelation to mankind in nature and the human conscience makes people inexcusable before God. It makes us inexcusable, as Paul asserts in chapters 1 and 2. But the moral law of God especially, that law that was revealed from Sinai, especially reveals mankind’s guilt and corruption before God. And that brings us to my first point of application from for this evening. Understand, beloved, that the law of God reveals God’s unchanging standard of ethics. We are told that we cannot, that no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. What is the law? The law of God is that which reveals God’s unchanging standard of ethics. God is not a moral relativist. God’s law is grounded in his righteous and holy character. The moral law, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, is the transcript of God’s righteous character.

The moral law is as unchanging as God himself is unchanging, because the moral law is a revelation of God’s unchanging righteous character. Again, this is contrary to very popular thinking today, the popular thinking of moral, ethical relativism, the idea that morality is ever evolving, ever changing. And oftentimes people today will say, come on, we live in the 21st century, get with the times. You know, I think the times need to get with God’s will revealed in his holy law. God’s law does not change whatever century we might happen to find ourselves in. Now again, what is this moral law of God, as I mentioned? It is, we believe, summarized in the Ten Commandments. As our Shorter Catechism puts it in answer to question 41, the moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments. That’s just an old-fashioned way of saying God’s moral law is summarized in the Ten Commandments.

And every commandment can be put under the umbrella of one or several of the various laws that are revealed in the Ten Commandments. And the Apostle Paul himself, there’s many passages of Scripture that we could look at to bolster this statement, this assertion, but I just want us to consider one. If you stay in the book of Romans, but go to Romans 13 and look at verses 9 and 10, Romans 13 verses 9 and 10, where he talks about the law of love, Let me start it actually at verse 8, Romans 13, 8 through 10. Paul writes, and this is in the context where he’s just talked about our responsibility to be subject to the governing authorities. Excuse me. He says in verse 8, Oh, nothing to anyone except to love one another for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law for this.

You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. Those sound familiar? Those commandments sound familiar? And if there is any other commandment is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And so again, the moral law Paul quotes from the Ten Commandments when he talks about the fulfillment of the law of God’s requirement to love our neighbor. And, of course, love for God and love for our neighbor are inextricably intertwined one with another. Another reason why we believe that the moral law of God is summarized in the Ten Commandments is because God himself spoke those commandments, thundering them forth audibly to his people from Mount Sinai. He spoke his word, he spoke his Ten Commandments, and that’s what makes the Ten Commandments distinct from the other Old Covenant commandments, such as the ceremonial commandments and the sacrificial laws, and the laws having to do with the civil theocracy of Israel.

All of those other laws were revealed privately to Moses, and he wrote them down on the ancient equivalent of paper. But the moral law of God, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, was spoken audibly by the very voice of God himself. These laws that God thundered forth from Mount Sinai were also written by the finger of God, again distinguishing them from the ceremonial laws, which were written by Moses’s fingers at the direction of God, of course. The Ten Commandments were written on tablets of stone. which indicates permanence of obligation, and they were placed in the Ark of the Covenant, again setting them apart from the ceremonial and civil and sacrificial laws, and thus indicating their special status and permanence. The other laws or commands in the Bible are either ceremonial, or their applications of the moral law to specific cases, or their civil laws that were pertinent to or relevant to the state of the people of Israel under the Old Covenant theocracy, and so forth.

So friends, the point here is that this moral law of God summarized in the Ten Commandments has timeless relevance because it is the unchanging ethical standard that applies to all people at all times and in every culture, whether they realize it or not. And so when we consider justification, what is the standard by which God declares us to be righteous in his sight? Well, it has to be a standard of righteousness as he defines righteousness. Thank God that God provides for us the perfect righteousness of Christ. Christ earned that righteousness for us. But nevertheless, that righteousness was earned by his keeping the precepts and suffering the penalties of the law of God. Let me ask you, dear listener, what is your standard of ethics? Do you seek to be autonomous, that is to say, a law unto yourself?

Or do you recognize that you are ethically bound to the unchanging requirements of God’s unchanging moral law. If you have a relativistic view of ethics, then you will not understand or appreciate your need to be justified in the sight of an all-holy God, because God’s law requires perfect personal and entire obedience with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if you’ve got a morally relativistic view of right and wrong, good and evil, well then You might think, well, God sort of grades on a curve, right? He kind of lowers His standard and His expectations to meet my behavior. But that’s not the way it works. God does not grade on a curve. He requires perfect obedience. His holiness, His justice, His righteousness requires perfect obedience. And therefore, that brings me to my second point, and we’ll get a little more into the details here in verse 19.

The law of God condemns those who remain in Adam and therefore under the demands of the covenant of works. This is implied in verse 19. The law of God condemns those who remain in Adam and therefore are under the demands of the covenant of works. It says in verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, let me pause there. Paul has just quoted from a series of Old Testament passages that underscore the fact that, well, as it says back in verse 10, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside and so forth. There is none who does good. There is not even one. In God’s eyes, no one does good by the standard of his holy law. We have all transgressed the law of God.

So it says, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. God shuts off and shuts up our excuses, God’s law, God’s holy standard. It shuts us up and it makes us accountable before our holy creator. Now, what does Paul mean when he speaks of those who are under the law and the scholars debate who Paul in particular has in mind. It is possible that, well, I would suggest that Paul probably has in mind the Jews in particular here, but his point seems to be that if even the Jews who were entrusted with the law of God, entrusted with the oracles of God, and taken as God’s covenant people, his point seems to be that if even the Jews who had been privileged to receive the scriptures were condemned by those very scriptures, by the law, then certainly the whole world, both Jew and Gentile, stand guilty before the infinitely holy Creator God.

So it’s important for us to understand, beloved, that according to Scripture, all men are represented by Adam. Adam was our original covenant head and representative. We are covenant creatures. We were created in covenant with God through our solidarity with Adam, our original covenant head and representative. And God’s covenant with Adam before the fall was a covenant of works. If Adam and Eve had perfectly obeyed God, which they were capable of doing before they fell into sin, and if they had obeyed, if they had passed the probationary test, remember God says you can eat from any tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam had done his duty and guarded that holy sanctuary of Eden and judged the serpents which is the true judgment between good and evil, then he would have been confirmed.

He and all whom he represented would have been confirmed in righteousness and thus justified, declared to be righteous forever in the sight of God. Our Confession of Faith in Chapter 7, Section 2 says, The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works wherein life was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. You may say, well, Pastor, I don’t see that in the Old Testament, but it is clearly implied in passages like Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17. I’m just going to read those really quickly. Genesis 2, verses 16 and 17. It says, The Lord God commanded the man, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.

Now the word covenant is not used there, but the elements of a covenant are there. God makes an arrangement with Adam. He says you can eat from any other tree, but then he threatens a curse for disobedience. And the implication is that there is life. There’s the tree of life as well, the sacramental tree for obedience, but there is curse and death for disobedience. And we know what happened with Adam and Eve. They ate the forbidden fruit. They disobeyed God. They became covenant breakers. And because Adam represented us, we are by nature in Adam covenant breakers. But again, in the covenant of works arrangement, God promised Adam eternal life, glorified life in a glorified heaven and earth. If he continued to render perfect personal and entire obedience to God’s moral law, and also if he passed the probationary test in the garden.

Adam, our original representative, of course, failed the probationary test and he broke the covenant of works by eating the forbidden fruit. And therefore, when he fell, we fell in solidarity with him. This is called the representative principle. You know, it amazes me. Some, some Christians, they, they object to the idea that Adam represented us. Well, I didn’t, I didn’t choose Adam. I, you know, that’s unfair. Why would God judge me based on what Adam did? Well, if that’s unfair, then Jesus representing you is also unfair. It’s not unfair. It’s God’s covenantal arrangement. And God chose a perfect covenant head when he chose Adam. Adam perfectly represented us, and he did what we would have done the same thing, also, if we’d had the opportunity. And so, all who are born in Adam are born covenant breakers.

This is confirmed, for example, in Romans chapter 5. If you look at Romans 5 verse 12, I’m not going to read this whole section, but the Apostle Paul shows the parallel between the first Adam and Jesus, the last Adam. In verse 12, it says, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, all sinned in Adam. And then if you skip down to verses 15 through 19, it says, But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, that would be Adam, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.

For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation. But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, speaking of Adam’s transgression, even so through one act of righteousness, that’s Christ’s righteousness, there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. Well, dear listener, do you understand how serious our sin problem is? We are sinners by our fallen nature in Adam, and we act out of that nature unless the sovereign grace of God intervenes.

And sin is not just the bad stuff you do on the outside, although that that is included in sin. But sin isn’t just external. It’s in your heart. It’s in your disposition. It is your bent, your fundamental bent apart from Christ. It’s the corrupt nature you inherited from Adam. That is why outward reformation of life is not enough. It may be very beneficial to change your ways, you know, to stop, you know, if you’re addicted to alcohol, to get help and intervention. If you’re if you’re overweight or whatever, to seek to remedy that and so forth. Outward Reformation can be helpful and beneficial to you and to others in your life, but it cannot save your soul. You need regeneration, you need to be born again, if you would see and enter into the kingdom of God, and if you would exercise that faith which receives and rests upon Christ alone for salvation.

We need a perfect sacrifice in order to provide atonement for our sins, And we need a perfect righteousness credited to our account in order to have the title to enter a perfect heaven and to stand uncondemned before the God of infinite righteousness. Praise God by his merit and sacrifice. Our Lord Jesus Christ secured forgiveness of sins and a right standing before God for all who put their faith and trust in him alone for salvation from sin. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust in him? for your salvation. Oh, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and God will justify you by grace alone. But the final point I want to make as we close things up this evening, based on verse 20, we see here that the law of God is valuable.

It’s not valuable as a way of justification. You cannot be justified by works of the law. As we’ve been learning from verse 19, God’s law requires perfect personal and entire obedience. And heaven requires a perfect obedience in order to gain entrance. Your title to heaven is a perfect righteousness, and you and I don’t have that righteousness in ourselves. That’s why it has to be the righteousness of another. An alien righteousness, as the Reformers put it. A righteousness that is outside of us. Not little green men from Mars or whatever, but an outside righteousness. And that righteousness is Christ’s righteousness. If you have Christ as your righteousness, you have full and free access to glory because his righteousness earned that glory. But the law of God, while it is not of value as a way of salvation, a way of earning justification, the law of God is valuable in that it reveals the knowledge of sin.

This is my final point. The law of God reveals the knowledge of sin and thus reveals our need for a savior. As it says in verse 20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. See, when the law of God has its intended effect, it shows us that we are wretched sinners who couldn’t possibly save ourselves or contribute anything to salvation. I need to correct myself. You do contribute something to your salvation. You want to know what it is? It’s your sin. You can’t save yourself. You can add nothing to what Jesus has done. And so the law of God shows you this, and it is intended to make you long for a perfect, sinless, spotless Savior. This was the law’s effect in Paul’s own life, as he attests in Romans chapter 7.

He talks about how the law worked in his own heart to show him his sin. If you consider Romans 7, verses 7 through 12, it says this, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be. Paul is not saying that the law is bad. The law is good. He says, on the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law. And then he gives an example of how the law convicted him and showed him that he was not righteous as he had thought he was, but desperately needed a savior. It says, on the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law, for I would not have known about coveting If the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind.

For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me.” And so forth. He says, for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. The problem is not with the law. The problem is with us. We who are sinners, lawbreakers. So, dear ones, why must we sinners be justified by faith in Christ alone? Because there’s no other way. It’s impossible for sinful people. to be justified by keeping the moral law of God, for the moral law requires perfect obedience. God is perfect. He’s infinitely righteous and perfect.

Heaven is a perfect place. You need a perfect righteousness to get there, and you don’t have it in yourself. But the good news is that what we lack, Christ provides for all who through sovereign grace believe in him. Praise be to God that our Heavenly Father, out of His infinite grace, His amazing love, as we sang earlier in the service, and praise God that He has made it possible for us sinners to be justified in His sight by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to rise again from the dead for our justification so that all who believe in Him, all who trust in Him alone for salvation, might not perish but have everlasting life. Thanks be to God for his amazing grace. Amen.

Let us pray. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you, O God, for the wonder of our justification and that we are justified by your grace alone through God given faith alone in Christ and Christ alone apart from works of the law. We do thank you, O God, for the law, for it shows us our sin. It shows us our need. It diagnoses our problem. We thank you, Lord, also, most especially for the gospel, for the gospel shows us good news that in Christ we have a merciful, forgiving God. So, Lord, help us to take these truths to heart. And during this season, when we remember your mighty move of grace in the Protestant Reformation, we ask, Lord, that you would help us to come to appreciate in a deeper and more experiential way the wonder of the gospel of justification by faith alone.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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