Justification by Faith

As you take your seats, which you open your bibles to Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three, as we continue our examination of the great doctrine of salvation and the great subdoctrines, if you will, of salvation. We've already looked at the doctrine of the sin, the fall of man. We've looked at total depravity. We've looked at the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son and the Spirit, this covenant of redemption before the world began. And so far we've come to a place where we've recognized man in his guilt and his need for a savior. And today we turn the corner and we look at justification and atonement. Today we look at the answer to the question. If you remember, we started with those two questions, the question number one, are you a Christian? We talked about the fact that for most people, most of the people around us would answer that in the affirmative. But then the next question is where the problems come. The next question is how do you know? How do you know? And for most people that's where they begin to stumble. That's where we begin to get answers that do not align with the great doctrines of salvation that we find in the scriptures. And today we look at the right answer to that question, the only right answer to that question. So again in Romans chapter three, let's back up there. We've already looked at verses nine to eighteen. We'll read them again before we read our text for today. What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged at all. Both Jews and Greeks are under sin. It's a very important point, and we'll come to that again later. But remember what Paul has done here in Romans. As he has argued for the guilt of the gentiles and then argued for the guilt of the Jews, and basically summarize it with the guilt of all men, whether Jew or gentile. Verse ten, as it is written, no one is right, just no, not one. No one understands, No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive the venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths are ruined and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And in this transition 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 the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. It's the crux of the matter. Through the works of the law, no one will be justified. The law brings the knowledge of sin, but not the cure for our sin. Amen. So there has to be something else Verse twenty one. 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 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 Amen justification by faith. This is the crux of the matter. This is what separates Christianity from every other religion in the world, because every other religion in the world, regardless of what the tenets of that religion may be, regardless of whom they claim as their God, regardless of what their worship looks like, every religion in the world basically offers the same solution, and it is this, you need to have some kind of religious experience, and then from that moment forward you need to do more good things than bad things, and then hope for the best when you die. That's every other religion in the world in a nutshell. Is it an oversimplification only slightly. Essentially, that's what every other religion argues. You need to have a religious experience that looks different in different religions. It looks different for the Hindu than it does for the Muslim, etc. Etc. But it is you need to be initiated. You need to have some religious experience. That's the first step. And when you've had that experience, when you've been initiated into the religion, what do you do? Do more good things than bad things, and then hope for the best when you die. That's it. That's it, And unfortunately, for many people who claim to be Christians, that's actually their theology as well. I'm a Christian. Why because I had an initiation, I had an experience, I prayed a pair, I walked in aisle, I got dumped in some water. How do you know you're going to heaven when you die? Well, because I do more good things than I do bad things. And although I can't, you know guarantee, I'm hoping for the best. Unfortunately, that's how a lot of people perceive of Christianity, That's how a lot of people live their life as a so called Christian. But something's missing, And what's missing is this great doctrine of justification. What's missing is the centrality of the Cross of Christ. What's missing is the reality of Christianity. It's the heart of Christianity. And though there are many who want to remove that heart, that essence of Christianity and still call it christian. Without this, there is no Christianity at all. Our confession says this way in Chapter eleven of Justification, Paragraph one. 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 their persons as righteous, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone, Not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and soul righteousness they receiving and resting on Him and his righteousness faith, which faith they have, not of themselves, of themselves. It is the gift of God that is the doctrine of justification by faith. Several things. First, justification brings the righteousness that the law requires but cannot give. Justification brings the righteousness that the law requires but cannot give. You see that in the first part of our text. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested Apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The law and the prophets bear witness to this righteousness. But this righteousness is a righteousness apart from the law. It's a righteousness that the law cannot give, that the law cannot achieve. The law can let you know that you are not righteous, but the law cannot make you righteous. The law can only remind you of your inability to be righteous in and of yourself. And this is the great folly of those who try to justify themselves by being good enough, because you are not good enough. In order for something to be righteous, it has to be the right thing, done the right way, for the right reason. And here is the great irony of self justification. The God who created the world and who gave us his perfect law requires perfect obedience to the law. And not only perfect obedience to the law, but perfect obedience to the law to the glory and honor of God himself. That's our motivation. Well, if you are trying to justify yourself by keeping the law, you are actually trying to rob God of his glory by being that which only God can be. You lose before you even start. You're not righteous, and you can't get there from here. And this is the great problem with all of those other religions of the world. One have your religious experience. Okay, fine, we can all do that. Two from now on, do more good things than you do bad things. Well, that's a problem. I don't do that. You don't do that either, because here's what I know about all of us, fallen men. Even when you do so called good things, you often do them with wicked motives. And then when you do the good thing, or I do the good thing, we are proud of the fact that we've done the good thing. Now, the pride is another sin we gotta make up for. If you can't say a man you ought to say out, it's a never ending cycle. It brings no assurance, and it gives you no rest. The text says, now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets were witness to it. How does this happen? How does this happen? The Law bears witness to it because it gives us a picture of the righteousness of God. It gives us a picture of the righteousness that we lack. The law bears witness to it, because the law gives commands that remind us of what we cannot do. In fact, the law is summarized in the two Great Commandments. What are those two Great commandments? Number one, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. You've never done that a second in your life. Amen, you've never done that. In fact, you can't even listen to this sermon without your mind wandering to other things occasionally. Huh, don't sit there? And how did he know that? Come on, now, you can't even focus completely on God during the entirety of a single church service. How can you then argue that you've loved Him with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your your strength. You've never done that, and you never can do that. And this is just a summary of that first table of the law, those first four commandments. That's what they require of you. So the only way that you could ever do that is to do what you can't even do for a single church service every second of every minute of every hour of every day of your life. You've never done it. You can't do it. And yet it's what the law requires. It is there to remind you you are guilty. And we haven't even gotten to the second one. Love your neighbor as yourself, Love your neighbor as yourself. Do do we even need to do? We even need to talk about this because if you can't do the first one, which is give God Almighty, the creator of the universe, the love that He requires of you, then you know you're not giving your neighbor the love that God requires of you, not even your closest neighbor. So, yes, the law does show this to us. But there is a righteousness apart from the law. Now it's not a righteousness that doesn't have anything to do with the law, but it's a righteousness that is apart from the law. It's a righteousness that the law cannot give us. It's a righteousness that you and I cannot achieve through mere means of the law itself. That's what he means by righteousness apart from the law. It is a righteousness that absolutely keeps the law amen. But it's apart from the law. Justification therefore must be by faith alone. It has to be by faith alone. If it's a righteousness of God that is apart from the law, and yet it will make you keep the requirements, or make you free from the requirements, or make you justified according to the requirements. Then somehow it's it's going to have to result from something that you did not do, because you can't do it yourself. Next part of the text the rights of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no why why is this? What the rights of this has to be? For there is no distinction, distinction? What's he talking about there? We'll get to that in a minute. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Therefore it's going to have to be by grace. It's going to have to be through faith. You're ruined, and the law reminds you that you're ruined. You're a sinner. The law reminds you that you're a sinner. And the more you try to achieve the law, the more you're reminded that you cannot achieve the law. But here sometimes what we do, what we what we do is we sort of we sort of tweak the law and change the law. This is why I love when Jesus has asked that question, was the greatest commandment? Is he going to say the First Commandment or the fourth Commandment or the tenth Amendment? He summarizes them. He summarizes them. That's for the people who are standing there and saying, you know, well, technically I've never killed anybody, therefore I haven't violated the sixth Commandment. You know, technically I've never had a sexual relationship with someone who's someone else espis, So technically he crushes that. And if that's the case, then this righteousness is going to have to be achieved outside of you. It's going to have to be what Martin Luther called an alien righteousness, a righteousness outside of yourself. And this is precisely what we see here, this universal application for all who believe. What is he talking about here specifically, well, if you put it in the context of the rest of Romans, he's saying for the jew as well as for the gentile. And this is an important point here because this is where a lot of Christians go off the rail. Our bad theology as it relates to salvation usually just doesn't arrive as a whole package. It starts with little mistakes we make that have implications and here's one of the mistakes that Christians make. They say the Jews in the Old Testament, before Jesus came, they were saved by the sacrificial system and by keeping the law. But now that Jesus has come, we're saved by faith in him. Newsflash, that's heresy. That's heresy. No person before the coming of Christ was saved by anything other than faith. No person before the coming of Christ was saved by the sacrificial system. No person before the coming of Christ was saved by keeping the law as best they could. There is no distinction. Turn with me if you will, to the Book of Hebrews. Don't take my word for it. Turns the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter ten, Hebrews chapter ten. And here in Hebrews chapter ten, Paul has in mind Leviticus sixteen. And in Leviticus sixteen there's very specific instructions from Moses about the day of atonement, about sacrificing a bull and spreading its blood on the altar. And then by there's two goats. There's one goat that sacrificed just like the bull is and this goat is sacrificed to make atonement by the way, they have to make atonement, even for the high priest. They have to make atonement so that the other atonement can be made. And then there's another goat, the scapegoat, and the high priest puts his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, and then the escapegoat is sent off into the wilderness, symbolically carrying the sins of the people away. So Leviticus chapter sixteen is what the author of Hebrews has in mind here in Hebrews chapter ten. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Did you catch that those sacrifices could not make anyone perfect? And God's righteous requirement is perfection. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Let me read it again, verse four, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. No jew in the Old Testament was saved by the sacrificial system, not one. No one was saved by cheaping the law, not one. Verse five. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices an offering you have not desired, But a body have you prepared for me? In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, Oh God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings, and burnt offerings, in sin offerings, these are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second, and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. In case you didn't catch that, in verse four, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he's perfected for all time. Those who are being sanctified. Justification is by faith alone. Justification has always been by faith alone. In the Old Testament, justification was by faith alone. In the New Testament, justification is by faith alone. What we have in the sacrificial system is a picture, a portrait, a foreshadowing of the one who was to come. No one was saved because of the sacrificing of bulls and lambs and goats. They were saved for believing in the once for all sacrifice. Who was to come, Jesus Christ, the only one who can wash away our sinds, the only one. And that seemingly small error, the belief that there was one way to be saved in the Old Testament and another way to be saved in the New Testament, becomes a giant error because ultimately what it means is a denial of justification by faith alone. It's huge. There is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, which means all have to be justified the same way. Thirdly, not only is justification by faith alone, but justification by grace alone, by faith alone, meaning not by works of the law, by faith alone, meaning not by the sacrificial system. By faith alone, and by grace alone. The text continued, and justified by His grace as a gift there in verse twenty four, and justified by His grace as a gift. Put it together back up the verse twenty one. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. It's apart from the law, but the law and the prophets bear witness to it. You don't get it from the law, but the law shows you what it looks like verse twenty two. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all of sin and falls short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift as a gift as a gift. This is different than whatevery other religion says, isn't it have a religious experience, do more good things than bad things, hope for the best when you die. But there's a word here, this word that we've heard repeatedly, this word justification. What does this word mean. It's actually a legal term, it's a judicial term. This word justification does not mean the same as being not guilty. It's the picture, is not you know, you come to trial, you stand before holy and righteous God. There's an argument that is made. The gabble comes down not guilty. No, no, no, that's not justification. Justification is actually a declaration of righteousness. In justification, the judge does not declare you not guilty. He actually declares you innocent. He declares you righteous. He declares you in right standing. And how does this come to the Christian? By grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is imputed to us. Remember in the Confession we read about that active obedience and the passive obedience. I've said this before. In his active obedience, Christ kept the whole law where we could not, and it is because of that that he can impute his righteousness to us. In his passive obedience, Christ receives in himself the penalty that is due to us because of our sinfulness, so that our sinfulness is imputed to him. And it is because of this double imputation our sin imputed to him his righteousness imputed to us that the judge declares righteous righteous. And here's where the picture breaks down. All illustrations ultimately break down, because ultimately, when we think about this judicial term, we think about us standing before God, the great judge, and God looking at us, and God saying to you and saying to me, you are righteous. No, actually it looks more like this. The son stands before the father, and the son is righteous. Not only is the son righteous, but he has imputed that righteousness to us and paid the price that we owe. So the Father is essentially not looking at me before his throne. He is looking at Christ. And because I, by faith, am in Christ. When Christ is declared righteous, I am declared righteous because I'm in Him, because of his active and his passive obedience. This is very different than what most of us believe. Most of us have a more Catholic understanding of this. For example, the Council of Trent Session six, Canon thirty. Here is what Roman Catholic doctrine teaches if any one says that the guilt remitted to every penitent sinner after the grace of justification has been received, and that the debt of eternal punishment is so blotted out that there remains no debt of temporal punishment to be discharged, either in this world or in the next inpurgatory before the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven can be obtained, let him be anathema the doctrine. The doctrine of justification by faith alone through grace alone, is condemned by Rome. It's condemned by Rome. If you say that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to wash away all of your sins. Rome says, that's a damnable heresy. Well do we agree with Rome or do we agree with Romans. Fourthly, this justification is through the atoning work of Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone. Why Because it's through the atoning work of Christ alone. As we continue through the redemption that is in Christ, Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith, the passive obedience of Christ a propitiation by his blood. We've talked about that word before. What that word means is it satisfies the wrath of God that you and I deserve. This is everything. Mark Dever writes, at Stake is nothing less than the essence of Christianity historically understood. Christ's atonement gives hope to the Christian in their sin and in their suffering. If we have any assurance of salvation, it is because of Christ's atonement. If any joy, it flows from Christ's work on the Cross. The atonement protects us from our native tendency to replace religion with morality and God's grace with legalism. Apart from Christ's atoning work, we would be forever guilty, a shamed and condemned before God. Amen. And Yet, and yet, this is a contemptible doctrine to many. Doctor Jeffrey John, Dean of Saint Albans, one of the highest ranking theologians in the Church of England, says this of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. He says, it's the Church's traditional understanding of the cross of Christ is both repulsive and insane. The idea that Christ died for sin he finds repulsive and insane. He says, and I quote that explanation of the cross just doesn't work, though sadly it's one that's still all too often preached. It just doesn't make sense to talk about a nice Jesus down here placating the wrath of a nasty, angry Father God in heaven. Christians believe Jesus is God incarnate, as he said, whoever sees me has seen the Father. Jesus is what God is. He is the one who shows us God's nature, And the most basic truth about God's nature is that he is love, not wrath and punishment. And so he rejects the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. Through the cross of Christ, Christianity is gone. And yet he wears the robes and does the duties. He's gutted the faith of its essence. And yet we find throughout the script, as Isaiah says, all we like sheep, had gone astray, each of us had turned his own way. But God poured upon him the iniquity of us all Mark ten forty five. For even the son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. This is what Jesus says with his own words, said Corinthians five twenty one. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. I'm sorry for our sakes. He made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. One Peter two twenty four. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, we have been healed Colossians two thirteen to fifteen. And you, who were dead in your trespace and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive together with him, Having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us, with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. This is what the Bible teaches. If you're repulsed by this, you're repulsed by what God says about himself. But if you're repulsed by this, here's my question. What other answer do you have? If there is a holy and righteous God and we are sinful people. What other answer do you have? And don't tell me for God to just forgive us. You know better than that. That's why one of the first things you learned how to say was that's not fair. I don't care what language you learn first. One of the first things you learned how to say in any language is that's not fair. Because there is a sense of justice inside you. You know that there are things that are right and there are things that are wrong, and you also know that things that are wrong need to be set right. How can you in your soul know that to be true and not believe in the substitutionary atoning death of Jesus Christ Because in your own life there are things that are just not fair. Things you've done, things you've said, things you've thought. How do you fix those apart from the cross? The answer is you don't and you can't, which is why ultimately justification is not just by faith alone and through grace alone, through the work of the Cross alone, but it's to the glory of God alone. Listen to the way Paul finishes 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. Two things. Number one, this answers the question that some of you may have already asked, and that is this, Well, if the blood of bulls, lambs and goats didn't take away sins under the old Covenant, then what how is that right? Jesus hadn't come yet, how were they forgiven? Well, they were forgiven by faith in the Savior who was to come. But even so, note what Paul says. It was to show his righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. In other words, there was forgiveness because of faith in the Savior who was to come. But the only way that that forgiveness is justifiable is if the Savior ultimately comes, and he did come in the person of Jesus Christ. But there is another issue, and the issue is this, how can God be just on the one hand and punish sin and on the other hand justify sinners. The answer the cross, The perfect, sinless, spotless lamb lays down his life to redeem sinners. He pays with His precious and perfect blood. And it says, though the God of the universe says to all scoffers, is that not enough? What could be more? There is nothing more that is not only enough, It is more than enough, and it is the only answer. How dare we, in light of this trust in ourselves? How dare we ENLiGHT of this believe in, have a religious experience, do more good things than bad things, and hope for the best when you die. How dare we forget trusting in someone other than Christ? How dare those of us who claim the name of Christ pervert the Gospel by turning it into the same thing. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that to the glory of God alone. And if you are here today and you have come trusting in anything other than this, then my plea to you is a simple one. Turn from whatever you are trusting in, repent of the sin of trusting in that, and flee to Christ, cling to the Crist, for it is indeed your only hope, My grace alone, through faith alone in Christ, finished work alone, to the glory of God alone. That's it. That's it. That's it. Oh well, are you saying I can then just go live any way I want. Yes, because when you're saved, he changes what you want. But that's the next sermon on sanctification. For now, this is about our justification. This is about how our hearts are changed so that our lives are changed. Righteousness can only be manifested when it's possessed, and can only be possessed when we're justified by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. It will absolutely bear much fruit. Amen. But before you can bear fruit, there has to be planting. And we do that through turning from self reliance, through turning from sin, through turning from trusting in anyone or anything else, and fleeing to Christ, clinging to the Cross, not as though it's our only hope, but because it is our only hope. Let's pray God grant us repentance and faith, grant that we might turn from sin, from self and from any substitutes, and cling to Christ and his finished work alone. For we know indeed that this is our only hope, and we therefore ask it and the name of our Lord, Master, Savior, Redeemer, and soon coming King Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen,