Jesus Saves! But How? PART 15 Justification

Andrew Grey continues the Sunday school series on Salvation, with the topic of Justification. This recording is from 3rd May 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Uh please take up a Bible and open Romans chapter three. Our topic this morning is justification. Romans chapter three and verse nineteen. Let me pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for all of your good gifts, and in particular we praise you this morning for your gift of your Son's righteousness. Teach us, encourage us, warm up our hearts, we pray, for Jesus' name's sake. Amen. So let's listen to the word of God. I'm going to read from Romans chapter 3 and verse 19. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By our law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one 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 God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law. Scoot on to chapter 4 and verse 20. Talking here about Abraham, the classic man of faith. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, thanks be to God for his word to us today. According to Martin Luther, justification is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls. And it is the doorway to peace with God. What we just read in Romans 5, verse 1. The handout this morning is very full and it looks quite complicated. There is hopefully, though, a flow to it. I'm going to try and show us from the Bible the logical story and the wonderful story of justification. So, first of all, what is justification? It is a legal declaration that we are right with God. The key Bible words that speak of justification are in English justify, justification, righteous, righteousness, and upright. They all come from the same word group in the original New Testament Greek, and they look more different in the English, in the pages of our Bible, than they actually do in the original Bible languages. When we speak of justification and all of these associated words, we're talking about this being declared righteous, being declared by God the judge to be in the right with him. Really importantly, justification is not a work that God does in us. It is often misunderstood. It does not mean making us inwardly righteous or inwardly good or holy or upright. Now, God does do that work. He does that in what the Bible would call regeneration and sanctification, and what he will complete that in our glorification. But justification does not refer to this inward renewing and sanctifying grace of God. This is one of the big errors historically of the Roman Catholic Church. And we'll see as we go on this morning why it's really important that justification is not in us, but it comes from outside of us, from God to us. At essence, justification is a legal declaration. It's a word from the law courts, you know, other words associated with it. Forensic, judicial, legal. That is the idea world in which justification belongs. Think for a moment about justification in a human law court. When a judge justifies an accused person, he doesn't actually make that person inwardly righteous. He cannot change the nature of that person. He simply pronounces that that person is not guilty of the accusation, but is upright in terms of the law that's relevant to his case. And Scripture uses justification in that way, meaning declare to be righteous. And it does actually use it sometimes of human judges declaring someone righteous or condemning the guilty. Scripture even uses it, Luke 7, of people justifying God. Sounds a very strange idea. So it's not that people are making God righteous, blasphemous thought, they're simply ascribing something to God. They're declaring or stating God to be righteous. Most important of all, justification is God's declaration that we are right with him. So where it leaves us is, well, have a look at the very end of Romans chapter 8, or near the end, Romans 8, 33 and 34. This is where justification leaves us. Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. So there is the Christian. And because of what God has done in this work of justification, there is no charge, no condemnation legally that can be brought against us. Helpful quote there from J.I. Packer. God's justifying decision is the judgment of the last day, declaring where we shall spend eternity brought forward into the present and pronounced here and now. It is the last judgment that will ever be passed on our destiny. God will never go back on it, however much Satan may appeal against God's verdict. Turn over, second side of the handout. Who does God declare to be righteous? And here is one of the greatest glories of the gospel. God justifies the ungodly. Now we, against the character and the law of our holy God, we are totally unrighteous and we deserve condemnation. He's a consuming fire. He is holy. We are sinful through and through, totally depraved, facing God's wrath. We deserve condemnation, not a verdict of righteousness. Now, what should a judge do with an unrighteous person? Now you ask the Bible that. Similarly, those verses from Romans 3 that we just read. God justifies the unjust. So every mouth is stopped before God, whether you're a religious person or an irreligious person. No one can come before God and say, on the basis of their life or their religion, that I am righteous. Everyone is silent before the tribunal of God. And if anyone is going to be made righteous, it's by a gift of God. But it's an ungodly person who comes before God in search for righteousness. How? How can we be declared right? How can God rightly say you are in the right even though you are in the wrong? That's actually a genuine problem. And it is mostly a problem when you consider the holiness of God. A holy and righteous God cannot do unrighteous things. He cannot just sort of cross his fingers and say that someone who is unrighteous is righteous. How can God do this justly? How can he be, as Paul puts it in Romans, how can God be just and the justifier of unjust people? So here we go. Third heading. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. Now this is the starting point. God gives us this, God gives righteousness. We do not justify ourselves. Now it's worth just stopping and thinking what justification is not. It is not us saying sorry to God, it is not our confession. It is not us trying to excuse ourselves before God. It is not anything that we might do, a religious work or a good work, however good it might be. Nothing that we do constitutes our justification. Even those good works done by a Christian in the power of the Holy Spirit do not, cannot, are not constitutive of our justification. Rather, God gives it. It comes from God, it is a gift. I've just listed some of the verses there from Romans that spell this out in different ways. You know, in the gospel, uh, Romans 1.17, a righteousness from God is revealed. Romans 3.22, this righteousness from God comes through faith in Christ Jesus to all who believe. Or Romans 5.17, the gift of righteousness, it is a gift. Paul in Romans 3, he desires nothing else and nothing more than to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. And to use Martin Luther's language, this righteousness is alien righteousness. That is, it is strange to us, it is other than us, it is not ours, it does not come from us. Rather, God treats the sinner on the basis of another's righteousness, not on the basis of our own. And specifically, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. And this is the specific answer to how can God justly justify the ungodly? So take Christ's righteousness for a minute. This is his obedience. Remember how Christ became a man, the incarnation, he became a true man and a new man. As a man, he obeys the law of God during the course of his perfect life. It's the active obedience of Christ. Then he's obedient unto death, enduring the penalty that we should have faced. Raised from the grave, he is vindicated. Literally, he is justified. He is no longer being punished for sin. Right remember weeks ago when we talk about the talked about the significance of the resurrection. It is his justification. And so there is Christ's righteousness, his perfect obedience, and by the grace of God, that righteousness is imputed to the believer, to sinners, to the ungodly. So imputed is a technical word, it means reckoned to my account. And there is a double imputation. My sin is imputed to Christ. So when we thought about penal substitutionary atonement, what's mine becomes his. My sin and the guilt which my sin deserves and Christ's righteousness is imputed to me. It's reckoned to me. Christ's righteousness, not mine. Such that when God considers me, He considers a Christian, He considers me as clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. Now, notice what a big deal this is. It's way bigger than we may have realized. There is a memorable old Sunday school definition of justification, and it's not quite right. So justification is just as if I'd never sinned. And I wouldn't say actually that I think that's quite unhelpful. Because justification is not a wiping of the slate, it's not sort of taking the Christian back to moral and spiritual ground zero. It is actually quite different to that. The obedience of Christ Himself is reckoned to my account. That is very, very wonderful. God cannot but accept into his favour those who are invested with the righteousness of his own Son. So, how is it that we call God our Father? How is it that we come before Him now in prayer and worship? How one day, you know, by not by faith, but by sight will we enjoy the heavenly vision of God the Holy Trinity? Well, here is the answer wearing the righteousness of Christ. How though is that just? We haven't actually nailed this one. The answer is in the context of our union with Christ. Imputation is just and right only because of the sinner's union with Christ. When we talk specifically about union with Christ, we saw how the Bible uses many analogies to describe it, and perhaps the most important is that of marriage, where God decides that two people truly, justly, legally become one in the covenant of marriage. And that that marriage union permits the transfer of certain things. So in union with Christ, his infinite merit can justly be transferred to me, and my infinite demerit can justly be transferred to him. So this imputation it happens and it happens justly because God takes sinners and he joins them in covenant union with the Saviour. And only those who are joined to the Saviour are justified. But because I am joined in union with Jesus, his justification, his vindication can become mine. Just some important scriptures. Look please at Romans 5 18 and 19. Therefore, as one talking here about Adam and Christ, Romans 5, 18, therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness led to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. So here we've got these two giants, uh Adam and Christ, two heads of the human race, or rather, two heads of two different human races. What Adam does affects all men, that is, all of those who are in Adam joined to him. But what Christ does affects all men, that is all of those who are joined in union with him. Adam's disobedience makes or constitutes people as sinners. Christ's obedience makes many righteous. Or 2 Corinthians 5 21. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The Bible puts it very strongly there in that verse. You notice it. Christ is made sin. Behind that lies the depth of union between Christ and the sinner, such that he can actually be made sin. The sinless one as he takes my sin and the deserved judgment of God against it, and similarly, we become the righteousness of God. So let's go on. How then do we receive it? Well, Christ's righteousness is imputed to those who believe. Justification is by faith, and it is only by faith, it is not by works. We thought about saving faith last Sunday. And we saw how faith is just an instrument, it's like a hand, an empty hand that reaches out to grasp the free gift of salvation. The meritorious ground of our salvation is all in Christ. Now, we are, of course, justified by works. I hope we've seen that, but it's not our works, it's the works and the obedience and the perfections of our Saviour. From us, we come with empty hands of faith, and we simply take hold. And there are so many scriptures that make this point. So here's Paul in Galatians 2, 15, 16. We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, we know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law. Because by observing the law no one will be justified. Paul says in Philippians 3 that everything is worthless apart from gaining Christ. Being found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. And it has to be by faith alone. So justification has to be by faith alone. Faith alone fits with grace alone. Just think about it for a moment. Salvation is of grace, it's a free gift from our gracious God, and faith fits with it. It's like a hand fits with a glove. Deserving or earning does not fit with grace. Those two things do not go together. God comes to us with grace, and we respond with faith. And we remember our plight. Nothing inside of us can deal with our problem. No righteous deeds in us are righteous enough. Even the saintliest Christian is still a sinner through and through. No work can ever earn merit. Just briefly, where though do good works fit in? If you just whip over the top of the back page of the handout, and this does fit with some of the things we've been thinking about in the book of James in recent preaching. We are not saved by good works, but we are not saved without works. Or put it another way, we are saved by grace alone, but saving grace is never alone. It is always accompanied by good works, always accompanied by Holy Spirit filled and empowered good works that show here is a new Christian, here is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has worked, giving them a new heart, inclining them to the Lord and giving them the gift of repentance and faith. So good works do not justify us, but good works are evidence of justification. Lastly, how we apply this and summarize Romans 5, verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God. Peace with God, firstly, is my and your objective relationship with God your Creator. There is obviously a felt dimension to it, but before it becomes something that we feel or experience, it is objective. Are you still an unrepentant and unbelieving person, a sinner in the hands of an angry God, such that your relationship with God you could effectively say is war? The Christian clothed in the righteousness of God has been brought to God, adopted, welcomed. That war terminated because of the justifying work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Martin Luther wrote very beautifully and powerfully in his, you can Google it if you want, his autobiographical fragment is what it's called, about how he discovered this. How he knew, firstly, that the righteousness of God condemned him because God is so righteous. But then, well, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, he was shown the gospel in the scriptures. And from that moment he wrote, the whole face of scripture appeared to me in a different light. And this parrot this passage in Paul, he's talking about Romans 3 and 4, this passage in Paul became the very gate of paradise for me. So just to summarise, some helpful bits from the Westminster Confession. Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting them as righteous. It is not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, that they are justified. It is not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other act of Christian obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ to them who receive and rest on him and his righteousness by faith. Unless we have got this bit wrong, still, they want to drum it in. Men do not have this faith of themselves. It is the gift of God. Next paragraph, faith. Receiving and resting on Christ, and his righteousness is the only instrument of justification. Yet, it is not the only grace in the person justified, but is always accompanied by all other saving graces. Justifying faith is not dead, but works by love. God be praised. We've got ten minutes. Why not take uh three or four minutes? Just chat with a neighbour, things that have encouraged you, any questions we've got, and then we'll take five or six minutes and share those questions and talk about them together. Does anyone have a question that they would like to ask? That's a great question. So, what about uh Jewish people before the coming of Christ? Obviously, didn't know in Christ, the one in whom justification is only found. Well, the Bible teaches that they were called to obey the promises of God, which he gave in the Old Testament, and they were promises of God which actually held out Christ to them. And as they exercised faith, not looking for righteousness because of their own goodness, but trusting in those promises, for example, shown in the sacrificial system, he gave them ways to become right with him, uh, sacrifices and blood sacrifices, all of which were little kind of uh pictures of the Christ who was to come and of the cross. And as they exercised faith in God and showed it in those uh those those things, that they were justified. They were justified in exactly the same way. So the work of Christ on the cross uh and its application by the Holy Spirit, it kind of worked retroactively in time as well as prospectively through time. So there's only one way to be saved, has only ever been one way to be saved, and that that was true for our Old Testament brothers and sisters in the Old Testament church. So obviously, we we know far more than Christ, and there are other differences that come in the New Covenant age, but actually the shape of salvation is exactly the same. I mean, as for your your the sort of the other bit of your question, for folk say nowadays who have never heard, well, I mean, really briefly, that's what Paul talks about in in Romans chapter 1. So he will say, Romans chapter 1 and verse 19, that what can be known about God is plain because certain things about God, verse 20, have been shown since the creation of the world in what he's made. So God has left his fingerprints all over the creation, such that all people everywhere uh know something about the true God and therefore are culpable, but we're also told in Romans 1 that every single person everywhere suppresses that truth and goes off and worships idols. So there is no person who has an excuse, all people everywhere are without excuse. I guess the second part of it, and that's why the church kind of needs to go to every nation, tribe, and tongue with the gospel, doesn't it? So they get to hear about Jesus. Maybe time for one more question, Victoria.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Because it's a Johnny lot of trouble making the world allowing human history to progress, him himself become a human and die, and it's such a big trouble. And so why? Maybe there's no answer to that, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

I think one could say an awful lot, but yeah, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit the one true God is glorious, and all that he does is glorious, and so he wisely and powerfully uh works out all things to bring maximum glory to himself, and wonderfully he loves us and kind of sweeps us up into his glory train. So, yeah, what what a what a load of trouble, but it's it's a glorious thing, and obviously he knows that there can be no greater way to glorify himself. So creation, creation is glorious and it brings glory to the creator, but in a sense, there's something even greater that creation is built for, which is to glorify the Redeemer. Let me pray. Father, the things of which we've spoken this morning, for many of us they are uh familiar, yet they are also uh wondrous. We thank you for your majesty and your wisdom and your power. Supremely this morning, we praise you for your goodness and your love. Um, that in your mind and eternal counsels you both purpose the work of redemption through your Son. But also those particular people. You you considered them, considered us as the ungodly, wretched people we are, and yet purpose to love and save. And so we bless you for that. Encourage our hearts, we pray. We thank you that uh Christian people tonight, like every night, can go to bed, knowing that we have been justified with faith, faith by faith, and we therefore are at peace with you, and we bless you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.