Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - It's been declared!
Righteousness was earned. The work was completed. Justification declared. And we didn't do it, Christ did. We don't yet fully know or experience our positional justification, but it is true nonetheless.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Justification, which is basically the meaning of this, is to declare righteous. Okay, to credit righteousness to someone's account, sometimes called impute righteousness, but the simplest way to say it is to declare something, declare a state of righteousness. So three points about justification, all again associated with Abraham. He's our peg. Justification occurs at a moment in time, at the beginning of our salvation. That's the most helpful point. Okay, in other words, what we're saying here is justification is not a process like something that's ongoing, but rather it's like a legal declaration in a court of law. If you get declared righteous, or just in a case when the gavel goes down, that's the decision it's been made. It's at a moment in time. It's not something that's going on and on in the process you're becoming just over the rest of your life. It's something that happens at a moment in time when the gavel goes down and the declaration is made of your justice or righteousness in the case. So justification occurs at a moment in time. That means God declares you righteous and the point at which he does that is when you have faith. So if you're five years old and you believed when you were just sitting there with your mom or dad or grandmother or grandfather, at that point you were justified, that is, you were declared righteous. Now, where does this righteousness come from? That's point two. It's asking about the source of the righteousness. So the righteousness of justification is sourced in Jesus Christ. What do I mean by that? I mean that he generated it in his time on earth, in the incarnation, by fulfilling the Mosaic law. That's what I mean. I mean. Let me ask you a question Was the Mosaic law a perfectly righteous law? Was the Mosaic law a perfectly righteous law? Yes, it was given by God at Mount Sinai and obviously, if he gave it, then that means it is perfectly righteous, perfectly just. Jesus Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. See, the Pharisees thought that he had come to abolish it because he wasn't keeping it in the way that they taught it was to be kept.
Speaker 2:Things like Sabbath, for example, sabbath in the Old Testament. I know this is really hard to imagine, but it simply meant a day of rest. It is not a day of corporate worship in the Old Testament. It is not a day of corporate worship in the Old Testament. Obviously, by the New Testament, that's the day they're going to synagogue to corporately worship. That is not the intention of Sabbath. Sabbath was supposed to be a day of rest. That's it.
Speaker 2:The Pharisees had attached over 1,000 little rules to Sabbath which made the Sabbath actually a burden, and Jesus talks about this in the New Testament. So he didn't come to it. They thought you're doing away, you're abolishing things like Sabbath. And he's like no, I didn't come to abolish it, I came to fulfill it, in other words, keep it as it was intended to be kept. So he kept the law as it was intended to be kept, and this generated the righteousness that is declared of us the moment we believe. So, in other words, what I'm saying, then, about the source of the righteousness, is that, first of all, it's not arbitrary. God didn't just say you're righteous. No, the righteousness was actually generated in space and time by the person of Jesus Christ in his earthly life. We'll talk about this when we get into the life of the king.
Speaker 2:Another thing I'm not saying, or I'm saying is not true, is that somehow you get the attribute of God. You get an attribute of God. Nobody will ever get an attribute of God. You get an attribute of God. Nobody will ever get an attribute of God. Okay, I mean, we have everlasting life, but guess what? We all have a beginning and God doesn't have a beginning. So everlasting life is not the same thing as God's attribute of eternality, because God doesn't have a beginning. He's always been Righteousness. Okay, god has a characteristic of righteousness.
Speaker 2:You don't suddenly become righteous in the same exact sense as him. First of all, in the sense that he's eternally righteous, are you? No, I mean, you've actually known sin, you've actually sinned. Has God ever done that? No, so obviously, god's righteousness and the righteousness that is declared of you is not identical, but they are in harmony with one another so that we can spend eternity with God.
Speaker 2:So here's the thing You'll never have any attributes of God. Okay, you can't, because all of his attributes are eternal by nature. So you can't and you're not eternal. So by that simple logic, again, you cannot ever pick up an attribute of God. And this is important because, again, in Mormonism, just as an example I'm not picking on him today, but as an example you do become God. You become your own God and goddess, by the way, goddesses, and together you will populate your own planet, as this planet was populated by their first two, god and goddesses. You know who had Jesus and his brother Lucifer, and so forth. They're a big story, okay, but the thing is see, this is different. This is different than all that. We have a source for the righteousness. That source is Jesus Christ, who in his life kept the Mosaic law perfectly, and he declares it of us when we believe in him at that moment. Third point Christ's righteousness is imputed. It's not infused. Infused is a word that's used in Roman Catholic theology of justification, so I point this out.
Speaker 2:A lot of people have a Roman Catholic background. Roman Catholics talk about justification, but justification for them is a process of righteousness being infused into the individual. That is, the individual, over time, through keeping the seven sacraments, becomes righteous. Now the problem for most people in Roman Catholicism is they don't meet the criteria that they have for quote-unquote sainthood. Only certain people meet their requirements for being a saint. So most Catholics will die, and it's not usually a good day.
Speaker 2:Because where are they going? Purgatory, why are they going there? You say what is this doctrine there for? Why do they have this? Well, this is to burn off the remaining impurities so that you actually become righteous, because that's a part of the process of being justified. In Roman Catholicism, see, justification is a process, in their way of thinking, and you're not justified until the end of purgatory, when all impurities are gone and you are truly, let's say righteous, and then you're justified and you can go and be in heaven. Okay, but in Protestantism, what Luther discovered in others was that, no, you are justified at the beginning. At the moment you have faith, and it's not that you become actually righteous in and of yourselves, but you're declared to be righteous.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.