Good morning to everyone. You can turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 3. The focus this morning will be on chapter 4 verse 23 to chapter 5 verse 1, but we're going to read an extended context just to set us in the right frame of consideration as we look this morning at the the doctrine of justification.
Pastor Butler has been bringing us through this wonderful quest through the Gospel of John, this wonderful preaching through the Gospel of John. we're approaching the crucifixion and resurrection. And it's not a hard and fast rule, but by and large, in observing the New Testament scriptures, we can see or come to the conclusion that the gospel accounts give us the historical narrative, concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the epistles give us the purpose for the divine commentary on and the purpose for the life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ. And of course, some implications or some exhortations based on that.
The gospel accounts are the what, and the epistles are the why. And so here in Romans, we have that set forth for us, the why of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So this is Romans 3, beginning at verse 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works?
No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law.
What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted?
While he was circumcised or uncircumcised. Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still circumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe. though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
But if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect. Because the law brings about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace. so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who, contrary to hope, in hope, believed, so that he became the father of many nations.
According to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and for deadness of Sarah's womb, he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. And being fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to perform, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us.
It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us amen well let's ask our God for blessing upon this act of worship Heavenly Father we come to you in prayer once again asking that you would help us now in this act of worship, the preaching of your word, fill us with your Holy Spirit, help us to understand blessedly the things of Holy Scripture, help us to rejoice in you, our triune God, and to sing the praises of Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. We pray that in this act, you would be glorified and that Jesus Christ would be exalted upon the praises of this gathered congregation.
And we pray in his precious name, amen.
Introduction
Well, this book of Romans is a wonderful book. All books, of course, that God has inspired are wonderful books. But the book of Romans has a particular place in the New Testament, and it's set as an epistle first in the set of epistles. And we could sort of engage in some conjecture as to why it's placed first.
It wasn't the first written, so it's not a chronological placement. Some suppose that it's placed first because of its preeminence among the epistles, not that it is somehow more inspired than the other ones, but because of its great and extended, as we noticed in the reading, its extended presentation of justification by faith alone. justification by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, this portion that we read is only a portion of the book of Romans presentation on the doctrine of justification. A note of its preeminence is such that Christostom, it is said, had his assistants or whomever read the book in its entirety to him twice a week. which sort of sets forth to us something of what the early church thought of this Book of Romans.
And in only this portion that we read, we have this wonderful transition. We only read the end of the bad news, but Paul opens up the Book of Romans with that bad news. In fact, from 118, all the way through to 320, we have the bad news that Paul sets forth that there is universal condemnation upon all men because of their deadness and sin. In fact, in Romans 1 18, this language you'll no doubt recognize For the wrath of God, this begins the bad news, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
This first level of attack by the Apostle Paul comes to the Gentiles, those outside of the oracles of God, or those who weren't within the Jewish community and under their proselytism and that sort of a thing. So, you know, the heathen in the jungle or those heathens or Gentiles away from the special revelation of God. But the Jews are just as guilty as we read in 2.17. Indeed, you are called a Jew and rest on the law and make your boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law.
If we fast forward, we see What advantage, in verse 1 of chapter 3, then has the Jew? or what is the prophet of circumcision much in every way chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God but then notice in verse nine what then are we better than they that is the gentiles jews better than gentiles not at all for we have previously charged both jews and greeks that they are all under sin and so paul issues this universal condemnation upon all men And then we have this blessed transition though. We have something of a concluding statement in Romans 3, 19 to 20, 19 and 20. We have this nail, if you will, hammered into the coffin of works-based salvation. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
Let's just pause on that statement for a moment. What a statement that is because natural man is full of big words. As much as we like to think we're humble people, even in Christ Jesus, we are filled with pride, we're filled with a lack of humility, and we're filled very often with mouths that like to start and continue, not mouths that like to be stopped. We like to sing our own praises.
Mankind likes, we like to sing our own praises. An absolute testament to that is social media. We like to sing our own praises. We like to show our own praises.
Man in sin even likes to shine forth his own supposed goodness, but Paul brings the hammer to the nail, driving it into the coffin of man's boisterousness in his own pride and in his own exuberance about himself, and he says, every mouth may be stopped. All the world may become guilty before God and then before the transition we have therefore by the deeds of the law No flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin Let's just stop there for a moment for any pseudo-Christian or for any, you know, supposed Christian, someone who says they fly the banner of Jesus Christ to try and wiggle in their own good works into an economy of salvation, rubs up against the absolute, unmitigated clarity of God's divine and holy word when he writes through Paul, therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And then we have two of the most blessed words in Holy Scripture, well, sort of, that follow, the but now. Remember, we visited that before, Jim and myself, on occasion, the but-now transitions that we have in Holy Scripture.
Here, the Apostle Paul sets before man, whether Jew or Gentile, whether Jew or Greek, the universal condemnation that man has and is under sin, but then we have this but-now, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. So, initially, the wrath of God is revealed, and now the good news comes with the righteousness of God, apart from the law being revealed. And so, fast-forwarding to our passage this morning,
Four Heads of Justification
we want to look at chapter 4, verse 23, to chapter 5, verse 1, under four heads. And those are simply the nature of justification, the receiving instrument of justification, the perfect ground of justification, and then the blessed result of justification. And
The Nature of Justification
notice first, then, the nature of justification, and maybe just before we look at the nature of justification, This will explore it a little bit, but justification concept, not conceptually, but really is truly opposed to condemnation. As we see in Romans 8.1, the term condemnation is used. So when we think about justification, let's think about it as the glorious antithesis, the opposite to condemnation. All those who are in Christ Jesus are justified, that is negatively not condemned.
So notice first the nature of justification. we see in 4.23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also to us it shall be imputed to us who believe.
Justification Is for All Who Believe
It is for all who believe justification. Firstly, the nature of justification is that it is for all who believe, praise God, that it wasn't just for Abraham and David. These are the two Old Testament figures that the Apostle Paul brings out here as those who were justified by faith. As if calling the Jews who were marked by a Judaism, perhaps, you know, those who were trying to smuggle in their own works and to an economy of salvation.
Yes, this Christ thing is nice, but we also must obey the laws of Moses in order to finally and truly be justified. As if they were to as if Paul is, not as if, he is anticipating and dealing with those objections and so he sets forth two of the Jewish heroes before the Jews and the Gentiles as those who were not justified by works, who were not somehow blessed by God, with a divine reward for the perfection of their performance, as if anyone could ever perform perfectly, but much rather, Abraham and David were justified by faith. And Paul brings out the reality of that, the historical reality of that, in rehearsing the life of Abraham and a psalm that David wrote. But getting back to this, it wasn't just for Abraham and David that justification is for.
In the immediate context, not just for Abraham, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, that is righteousness, the righteousness of God, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. So justification is for all who believe. There is an expansive nature to justification.
It's for all who believe. As we learn from the book of Revelation, that's men, women, boys, and girls from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Is there an exclusivity to Christianity? There is absolutely, but that exclusivity has to do with the fact that there is one God, the living and true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, And the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ, the Son.
The only way of salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ, our precious Savior. So that is the exclusivity. Christianity has the divinely appointed and divinely given truth wherein one can come to salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ, the Savior. But Christianity is very inclusive. very very inviting in the sense that it calls men and women from every tribe and tongue and people in nation to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Therefore have the righteousness of God imputed to you the forgiveness of sins You know think about this for a moment.
We're often charges Christians as being you know bigoted and intolerant because we subscribe to one way of salvation only that is through by grace through faith in Jesus Christ let's just move that argument for a moment and would it be intolerant for a doctor in an operation room to suggest to a a patient that the only way for them to be healed is to have their gaping wound cleaned, disinfected, and sewn up. If another doctor came along and said, well, I have another way. If we shove cotton candy in there and sprinkle some baking sprinkles on it and just give him a month, he'll also be OK. Well, it would not be intolerant for the doctor to say, you're mad.
That's absolute madness. There is only one way in which we can heal this man, and that is this particular way. And yet, in the realm of religion, we're charged with intolerance for giving the blessed message, the blessed and exclusive truth, that there is one way to heaven, that there is one way to God, that there is one way to everlasting life. And it's not by deeds of righteousness which we have done, but it's by deeds of righteousness which Christ alone has done for all who believe.
It is for all who believe.
Justification Is by Imputation
Notice, secondly, under the nature of justification, it is by an act of imputation. You know imputation isn't a word that theologians, you know came up with it's in our text In fact multiple times we have these wonderful Asian words. We've got propitiation in the text we have expiation elsewhere we have Reconciliation we have redemption with regards to justification which is another Asian word we have imputation and that's the language used here and that simply means a reckoning or an accounting of something and Righteousness is imputed to the believer, that is, we are accounted as or reckoned as righteous based upon, as we'll see, the righteousness of Christ. It's that righteousness accounted to us.
We don't have a righteousness that avails with God, no one ever will, but there is one who has and does a righteousness, that has a righteousness and performed a righteousness that avails with God. and that is Jesus Christ. But it is by an act of imputation. Let's turn back to the psalm that's cited here for a moment. Psalm 32.
It's a psalm that Paul brings up when he talks about David writing concerning the mercies of God. Psalm 32. A wonderful, beautiful psalm for the Christian to rehearse Perhaps in those low times you haven't been doing well, you've been stumbling, you've been sinning. We all do as Christians with our remaining corruption have those times where we do stumble, where we do trip, where we do require the aid of Christ, the aid of the risen Christ in the spirit to return to us the joy of our salvation.
And the answer is not to engage in some measure of self-atonement in order to make ourselves right with God, but simply to reflect blessedly on this. Psalm 32, a Psalm of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit that the wonderful reflections that the Christian can engage in contemplation is the word used in our English translation a Contemplation you know this is something that we are to do always as Christians last Lord's Day with the the sermons on the Lord's Supper we talked about this activity in the in the realm of remembrance.
Contemplation is very similar. We roll around in our Christian minds the blessings and the goodnesses of God, the love of God poured out on us through Jesus Christ. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity.
This is Gill on this passage. Their sins and iniquities he remembers no more. One of the things I forgot to say last Lord's Day is that the Lord's Supper in one sense is the remembrance of God's non-remembrance. That is, that their sins and iniquities he, God, remembers no more.
Not as if God, in his omniscience, he wouldn't be omniscient then, somehow just causes himself to forget these things ever happened, because he knows all things, he's not like man, he doesn't come and go with memory, nor can he force himself. to lose memory because of the perfection of who he is. It simply means that their sins and iniquities he remembers no more. That is, he does not charge them with them, Gill says, he does not reckon them or place them to their account, having imputed them to his son. Let's pause there for a moment.
That's the blessed transaction of the cross Our sins are imputed to christ those who believe in the lord jesus christ all those who believe in him Their sins are imputed to christ upon the cross and he bears divine wrath for those sins the blessed reciprocating transaction is that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, received by faith alone. Gil goes on, the Apostle Paul interprets this as inclusive of the imputation of righteousness without works, even the righteousness of Christ in which the blessedness of a man lies. For such an one is accepted with God, is justified in his sight, and is secure from condemnation and wrath. It is well with him at all times.
You can think of the hymn, It is well with my soul. When we sing, it is well with my soul, hopefully as you're singing that, you're not at the same time contemplating, because I did well this week in sanctification, you know, because I've, you know, I've, man, I've loved the Lord, my God, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and I've loved my neighbor as myself this week, it is well with my soul. We sing, it is well with my soul, because of the perfection of the work of Christ, because of the grace of God, because Christ Jesus came into this world, to perform a perfect righteousness and to secure forgiveness for us. For such in one is accepted with God, is justified in his sight, and is secure from condemnation and wrath.
It is well with him at all times, in life, at death, and at judgment. He is an heir of eternal life, will enter into it, and be forever glorified. What a wonderful thing to meditate upon as Christians, as those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we have such a champion who performed perfectly in our stead. And so it is by an act of imputation.
You can turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5. Many of you will know this passage. 2 Corinthians 5, here we have something of that double imputation, our sins imputed to Christ, his righteousness imputed to us, that is, accounted as ours or reckoned to us as ours. Notice in 5.18. Now all things are of God.
This is 2 Corinthians 5 18. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Just two important things there.
One that you might not care a lot about, but one that you might care more about. First off, the imputing of their trespasses to them. This is contemplating or reflecting upon the negative of imputation. Our sins are not imputed to us.
Not only do we have Christ's righteousness reckoned to our account, but we don't have our sins reckoned to our account, not imputing their righteousness to them. The other thing that we have or we don't have in this passage is that Roman Catholics argue from this passage for the ministry of penance by a priest in a booth, their doctrine of confession, as if Paul is rehearsing that to priests, to those with apostolic authority, there is this ministry of reconciliation, which is interpreted as a priest sitting in a booth with a little mesh thing. He sits sideways, you face him and you recite something, you confess your sins, he prescribes 10 Hail Marys, and then you're good with God again. It's simply saying that God has committed a ministry of reconciliation to the apostles.
That ministry of reconciliation is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what the ministry of reconciliation is. God, the ascended Christ, has given to his apostolate the charge to go forth unto all the nations to proclaim reconciliation, the gospel of peace. to all men and women, boys and girls. Now then, verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ.
As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. This is a blessed passage that brings forth to us that glorious transaction that at the cross, Christ's, our sins, the sins of all who believe in him are imputed to Christ. He bears divine wrath for those sins. that every sin ever committed, not just those up until our time of conversion.
And then after that, we got to sort of self atone for everything else. No, all sins ever committed. Christ has died for all of those sins ever committed by all those whom the father had given to him, his people, they are imputed to Christ and he upon Calvary's cross bears the punishment. in our stead, and reciprocally, that blessed thing, because if we reflect upon our own lives, if we think back to our careers as sinners prior to grace coming to us, if we reflect back upon our careers, that's probably not the best term, but our lives as Christians, with remaining corruption, it would take a long time for us to rehearse the sin, to rehearse the transgression, to rehearse the violation of God's law. Even just in the matter of time that we've all come into this building, we have sinned against God.
All of those sins ever committed, to use that language of Spurgeon again, if we were to peruse the diaries of our memories, we would there find the landmarks of sins committed. We would there find not sweet memory, but painful memory of all those times we sinned against one another and we've sinned against God. All of that is heaped upon Christ in that transaction of imputation, but a righteousness, His righteousness, the righteousness of one who never committed a sin, the righteousness of one who in those 33 years never transacted transgression against God, never sinned. Our minds can't wrap around that sort of reality because we just live with sin every day. in ourselves and with others, but one who never transgressed, never raised his voice in sinful anger against anyone, never stole, never had a lustful thought, never had a murderous thought, always and at all times loved the Lord his God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, never coveted, What an amazing thing we have in our Savior.
So if we reflect upon our careers as sinners, and then we reflect upon the blessed life of Jesus Christ as having never sinned, let's glory in the fact that He has provided us with that means of escape whereby we have His righteousness accounted, and He bears the penalty for our transgressions committed. What an amazing thing we have in the doing, in the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes with, thirdly under the nature of justification,
Justification and the Power of the Resurrection
it comes with the same power and promise behind the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Notice the language here in verse 23 of chapter 4 of Romans. I'm in 2nd Corinthians. I was reading that and that doesn't seem right at all.
I just read it. Romans 4, 23. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us, it shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. We've talked about this before.
You've heard it before that very often in the Christian milieu or the Christian landscape, there are some that are very, some that subscribe to the reality that there are still these powerful signs and miracles and wonders performed in our own day. We subscribe to the reality that those ceased with the completion of the New Testament canon. The Holy Spirit's activity, though, is very much alive and well, and we would want to argue that the salvation of a sinner, the salvation of a sinner, however great The healing of a blind person may be, if it actually happened by Joe Evangelist in a church somewhere, however amazing that would be, it would not even approach the glory and the power and the majesty of the triune God bringing forth a dead sinner to life by the very same power that brought creation into existence. So what we read in 2 Corinthians 4, by the very power that is behind the creation of all things out of nothing in the space of six days and all very good, by the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, by that same power, God brings us forth from darkness to light.
By that same power, God brings us forth from deadness to life. This connection between justification, maybe largely salvation, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely glorious. We look upon man's reality, and he's not just limping in sin. He's not just weakened by sin such that he needs a little bit of a spoonful of medicine of Jesus Christ and all will be well.
The Bible sets forth the grave and colossal reality that man is dead in his trespasses and sins. And so it is by divine power, the very same power that rose Christ from out of the grave, that God saves dead sinners. And this is behind the blessed reality of justification by faith. Now,
The Receiving Instrument of Justification
secondly, largely, we want to notice the receiving instrument of justification. We first see it in the passage as we read through verse 23 and verse 24. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us, it shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And then verse one of chapter five, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." So, we have this summary statement of the bad news that we've already rehearsed, where Paul sets forth the fact that it's not by the deeds of the law which any man shall be justified in the sight of God.
There's this negative statement. It's not by the deeds of the law. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. a man trying to argue that it is by his good deeds that he enters into eternal life. You'll hear this when you talk to some, and unfortunately, it's been the picture of Christianity presented to the world, largely speaking, that, you know, if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds, you know, we've done bad in the past, if we do good up until, you know, our dying breath, then there will be this divine sort of scale, and if the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds, Peter will open up the pearly gate and let us in.
It's a horrible picture of Christianity, an ineffectual and impotent view of Christianity. The one who says that he can work his way to justification, or even just partially work his way to divine favor, that God would issue this legal declaration of innocence, comes to this passage, his mouth is stopped, and he's guilty before God. And we have this statement, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh. will be justified in his sight. But then we have this blessed language of verse one of chapter five, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And as Paul builds his argument, there are a number of elements that he uses. He explicitly excludes works from the picture, but he also does something of the exclusion of boasting. You know, he uses the clear argument here, where is boasting then, 327, it is excluded. By what law of works?
No, but by the law of faith. This question, where is boasting then, is answered by the very next four words, it is excluded. Those are three words actually, there's a hyphen and then another line. It is excluded.
Boasting is excluded from the Christian economy of salvation and because of the reality of sin that Paul has already set forth and the inability for anyone to work themselves unto and against the holiness and the justice of God. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. We also read with regards to Abraham here that he had Something to boast in, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.
But not before God. Not before God. If anyone is a boaster in themselves before God, they will be cast down. Remember that God casts down the prideful, but he raises and lifts up.
The humble. We have this exclusion of boasting. There's that wonderful language in Galatians 5. Actually, turn there with me.
This language of the exclusion of boasting in Galatians 5. No, I'm sorry, Galatians 6. Galatians 6, 14. And this is in the context of those arguing that works contribute to divine favor.
For not even those who are circumcised, this is 13, keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. Now notice verse 14, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. This language here, but God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, just stop on that for a moment. Paul isn't saying this, you know, in the face of the reality that, you know, he could boast before God, but he just won't because he's going to boast in Christ.
As if, you know, he's so holy and so humble that he's not going to boast in legitimate arguments about his own performance, He's simply going to cast that legitimate argument aside and just boast in Christ. That's not it at all. Christians have nothing to boast in before God. God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The exclusion of boasting, the clear statement concerning justification, as we've already noticed, but notice in 328 therefore we conclude there's this therefore conclusion in Romans 328 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law the the the raging clarity if you'll allow that language of justification by faith alone in Christ alone jumps off the pages of the Bible and Dashes to pieces any argument for the inclusion of human good works to merit salvation If that is the case, as we've noted on many occasions, Pastor Butler noted it a couple weeks ago, that language of Galatians 2.21, if salvation comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. You know, that is one of the many implications, grave implications, of a doctrine of justification, even partially by works, faith plus works, for example, is that Christ died in vain, and his incarnation was vanity, his life was emptiness and vanity, and his death on the cross is vanity, if we are justified by the deeds of the law. Thirdly, we want to know well just before on receiving the instrument of on the receiving instrument of justification Being faith. We want to close with what that means therefore having been justified by faith We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ So what does it mean then the receiving instrument of justification? because next we're going to look at the perfect ground of justification and with time ticking on and We're going to look at a case this evening of justification in the Good Samaritan.
We'll spend a little bit of time with him this evening, but I want to bring forth the fourth point this evening, the blessed result of justification. But moving on, before we move on to the perfect ground of justification, what does it mean then to be justified by faith? First,
Faith as Instrument, Not Merit
what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that our act of believing justifies us. That's not what justification by faith means, because if our faith justified us, if our act of believing justified us, then that is a works-based salvation. Faith is the empty hand that receives the imputation of the righteousness of Christ and the forgiveness of sins.
Faith doesn't bring to table the table of salvation, the merit that warrants justification. It is that receiving instrument. Faith, our believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, is that whereby we receive the righteousness of Christ. So we're not received by our act, we're not justified that is, by our act of believing, were justified by what the perfect ground of justification is, that is, by the cross and the tomb of Christ.
The Perfect Ground of Justification
Notice, as we look then at the perfect ground of justification, Christ by cross and tomb, verse 25, who was delivered up because of our offenses. So it's speaking about the one we believe in, Jesus, our Lord, who was raised from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. There is the two-fold ground to our justification, and the two-fold ground is captured in The the context of the deliverance up to the cross who was delivered up because of our offenses You've heard you've heard us say this before and it's very important It's important to the apostle paul because he gets to this in chapter 5 12 and following when he talks about the adam Christ comparison or the Adam Christ juxtaposition. Adam fell in the garden.
He sinned against God and he thrust all of his progeny, all of humanity into sin and depravity and transgression. which merited only condemnation and wrath in this world and that which is to come. Christ, the second or last Adam, comes and provides the blessed and glorious remedy for Adam's transgression. Christ comes and he performs that which Adam failed to do and he dies for the sins of all those who fell in Adam. He answers the question of Adam's transgression.
But notice this language, who was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. Captured in that, and we won't spend a whole lot of time on that, but captured in that is what we just said. Christ's obedience where Adam lacked. the perfection of Christ's adherence to the entire law of God. We'll notice tonight by alluding to and reading from the parable of the Good Samaritan.
It's interesting there, see, because there are those in our day who are trying to pit Paul against Jesus. Those who fly the banner of Christianity, but are animated by Satan himself, who are rejecting justification by faith and arguing that Jesus taught the proper, view of justification. For example, in the case of the Good Samaritan, where in this case, the Samaritan asks, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And there is this rehearsal that Jesus brings of the where Jesus responds with a question concerning the law of God.
What is written? What does the law say? And the Samaritan answers, and he says that he gives that two-fold summary of the Decalogue, or the two-fold summary of the Ten Commandments. The first table of the law, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
The second table of the law, and love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus Christ says, do this and you will live. So now, is Christ somehow in opposition to Paul here? Because Paul is saying, not by the deeds of the law.
It's not by the deeds of the law that you will have everlasting life. So, what is Christ saying? Well, in the context, and we'll see that tonight, he's bringing to the Samaritan the weight and the heaviness of the law to find the Samaritan out because he is the one who excludes, or to find the Jewish fellow out because he is the one who excludes Samaritans from the grace of God. And he's bringing to bear the weight of the law to this man because the man is arguing for his, it says in the text that he's seeking to justify himself.
And so Christ brings the weight of the law and says, do this and you will live. In other words, to say, you can't do it. The weight of the law is such that, yeah, if you could do it perfectly, you would merit everlasting life. But the reality is such that man in sin cannot do so.
So he finds the Samaritan out, and he brings the Samaritan to the foot of Christ himself, who is the good Samaritan in the parable, and he says, it is only in essence by me that you can have everlasting life. Getting back to this then, it is Christ's obedience to the whole law that is imputed to us when we receive that blessedness by faith. Again, rehearsing our careers as sinners, we ought to glory in the fact that we have a righteousness that avails with God. And it's not our righteousness because that never would. not by deeds of righteousness, which we have done, Paul writes in Titus, but according to your mercy, his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
And this language is pointedly centered around the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered up because of our offenses. The focus is on the cross. Often when we, if you ever read language in the New Testament that is only capturing the cross, we're not to see that as an exclusion of the life of Christ, but as that which culminates the perfect life of obedience that Christ exercises. For example, in Philippians chapter two, it gives us the purpose of the incarnation, that Christ would be obedient unto his cross death.
And so here we have captured, though, this deliverance has to do with the cross of Jesus Christ. He was delivered up, that is, to the cross because of our offenses. And that deliverance is twofold, if you'll turn with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 2, that deliverance is twofold, and Paul is probably capturing divine purposivity. the divine purpose in salvation, but there is a twofold delivering up as we'll notice in Acts 2 at verse 22.
Men of Israel Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Now notice him being delivered by the determined purpose and for knowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. So this delivering up captures the reality of the cross of Jesus Christ. And yes, it does capture, of course, the lawless deeds of wicked men who took him and delivered up to that bloody massacre upon that Roman gibbet of execution.
But it also captures the reality that according to divine purpose and foreknowledge, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who are under the law and provide to them the blessings of salvation, including justification by faith alone.
Delivered Up for Our Offenses
He was delivered up because of our offenses. And we ought to see that language and understand in that language the weightiness of the suffering that Christ undertook upon Calvary's cross. We noted last time that it wasn't only, and chiefly, bodily suffering. Though that's often what we think about because that That's really the only way, the only sort of part of that that we can even partially enter into.
Physical pain. We know nothing about what's really going on with regards to the soul travail, the spiritual travail of Christ upon the cross. We know nothing about bearing substitutionarily the sins of millions of people. That is immense and undiscoverable.
And he was, Christ was, delivered up because of our offenses. All those whom the Father had given to him before the foundation of the world, all of their sins imputed to Christ, he bearing the punishment do those sins upon Calvary's cross. And we have this wonderful language here,
Raised for Our Justification
and was raised because of our justification. What does this mean? because his resurrection is not that which justifies us. The language seems to carry that weight and was raised because of or for our justification. It's not his resurrection that provides our justification, but the language here is that his resurrection is the vindication of our salvation.
That means it is a testament to the blessed reality that Christ really did save us. This is what Gill writes. He was raised again from the dead by his father, to whom this is often ascribed, and by himself by his own power, which proves him to be the mighty God. And this was done not only that he might live an immortal and glorious life in our nature, having finished the work he undertook and came about, but for our justification.
He died in the room instead of his people, and by dying made satisfaction for their sins. He rose again as their head and representative, and was legally discharged, acquitted, and justified, and they in him." Now notice, Christ's resurrection did not procure the justification of his people, that was done by his obedience and death, but was for the testification of it, that is, the weight of its truthfulness, but was for the testification of it that it might fully appear that sin was atoned for and an everlasting righteousness was brought in. and for the application of it, or that Christ might live and see his righteousness imputed and applied to all those for whom he had rotted out." So that wonderful resurrection that we celebrate, I imagine Pastor Butler next Lord's Day may preach on the resurrection, given the Sunday that we happen to fall on there, Easter Sunday. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a powerful, God-honored, blessed vindication or testament to the reality that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are and shall be saved. What a blessing that we have.
So Christians here this morning, if you come back tonight, we're going to look at the blessed result of justification from 5.1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Application: Contemplate Christ
Christians, this morning, this is the stuff of the highest and the sweetest contemplations. When we read in these headers to the Psalms, or these introductions to the Psalms, where it says a Psalm of David, a contemplation, I want you to latch on to that language of contemplation. and engage in that. When you read your scriptures, we are not simply to engage in some superficial or surface act of simply reading and then slapping her closed. We're to open up our Bibles and read with a mind to contemplate the glories and the majesty of God.
We're to open up our Bibles with an eye and with the mind to engage in these in this sweet remembrance of Jesus Christ in this context as we read Romans 3 19 through through 5 5 we're to look at Christ and we're to rejoice in God were to Reflect if only for a moment upon our sinful careers and fly quickly to the one who provides remedy atonement and glorious substitutionary obedience for us imagine if you were Imagine if you were, you're in a, you've committed horrendous crimes, and you're in court, and you're, you know, you're sitting in the defendants, behind the defendants table, whatever they call it, and you're dead to rights. You've committed these crimes. The judge knows you have, the jury knows you have, the prosecution knows that you have. There there is no out there is no remedy.
There is no escape but but one comes To bear the penalty for you and goes in your place an amazing thing. That would be in the earthly realm Knowing that you've committed such violence knowing that you've committed whatever crimes they may be someone Innocent takes your place. That would be something else if someone who was also guilty of the same crimes came and said, well, I'll take his place. Well, you were with him.
That's not efficacious at all. But someone comes innocent. Someone comes not only innocent to provide a righteousness, but someone comes innocent to bear also the penalty that the judge is going to render based upon the obvious truth. In that earthly sphere, in that earthly realm, you would rejoice, wouldn't you?
Well, let's transfer that and we must transfer that to the glorious macrocosm and universal and greater reality of God through Christ reconciling the world to himself. Sending Christ in our stead to perform obedience in a perfect manner. to every jot and tittle of the law, to die upon Calvary's cross as a vicar, as a substitute, as one in our place, to bear the wrath of God, which again, we cannot plumb the depths of the justice and the holiness of God, visited upon multitudinous infractions of His most holy law. We have Christ who goes for us in our place. Christian, that's the stuff of the sweetest contemplation.
As you read your Bibles, as you reflect upon the boons to the Christian soul that jump off its pages, you are to reflect and roll around in your mind, reflect upon the doing and the dying and the rising again of Jesus Christ, that resurrection. for our very vindication, to show us that yes, the victory was victory, that the champion has won. And unbeliever, if you're here this morning, hopefully you've heard something of God, you've heard something of sin, the language of Romans 3 comes to you, 19, we know whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that is every breathing human being, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. If you're an unbeliever here this morning, you stand guilty before God. You stand before the bar of divine and holy justice and righteousness, and you stand before it as one guilty, having sinned time upon time, just like all of us, before God met us by His grace and brought us to a place that, though we sin, we have justification through Christ.
But you're in a place where you don't have justification, you have righteous condemnation resting upon you, the wrath of God, the just and holy wrath of God for having violated His law, for having sinned with every day that you've drawn breath. But there is blessed hope in this Christ. There is blessed and there is only hope in this Jesus Christ who came into this world, assumed our humanity, that he might live in our place, that he might die in our place, and that he might rise again on the third day to bring many sons to glory with the punctuated message that his work has been completed. His work has been perfected, and He will bring those many sons to glory, with no one interfering, with no one molesting the blessed salvation that He affords.
All of us will be those who believe on that great day, brought into Emmanuel's land, where we'll sing the glories of the Lamb forever and ever. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
Closing Prayer
Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your truth. We thank you for the Holy Scriptures. We thank you for what this passage teaches us regarding the blessed reality of justification by faith alone.
We thank you that we are saved not by righteousness, which we have done, because those righteousnesses are as filthy rags, as you say, through the prophet Isaiah. And we know and we rejoice in the fact that it is by Christ alone, the perfection of his righteousness and the perfection of his death that we have justification, that we have salvation. Help us always to, as the psalmist, engage in contemplation, to reflect with great joy, not upon ourselves, but upon Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. Do go with us into the rest of this Lord's Day.
Help us to rejoice in you. Help us to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of grace, knowing that we've been saved by amazing and victorious grace through the perfect work of Jesus Christ. bring us back this evening that we might once again worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.
Well, let's all stand. We'll sing a doxology, not the doxology, but you can turn in your hymn books to 568. We'll stand and sing 568 as we close. is As you saw that was the doxology I was just making sure everybody was still awake 564 I was thinking of Back to sacred things though. Let's close with this benediction from the book of Jude.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Lord, go with us now. We rejoice in your truth.
We rejoice in this benediction. We pray that we would give you glory, that we would give you honor, that we would give you praise. And we thank you for the perfection of salvation through Christ our Savior. Do animate us to show ourselves and to shine forth as lights in this lower world. to be able to preach to others the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ, and to, as we've prayed, conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of your gospel, knowing that it's by grace we've been saved through Christ and Him alone.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. Amen. We'll have a brief time of prayer. When the piano's finished, you're dismissed.