Justification

(Article for publication week of 6-1-2011 AD)

“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

In our last few articles on the justice of God, we showed how that God will only save sinners on the terms of His strict justice. Perhaps some sinner has seen his ruined condition and has begun to cry from the depth of his soul, “I know it is so of a truth, but how shall man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). How can I, a guilty, bankrupt sinner be righteous before a thrice-holy God Whose justice is strict and inflexible? This is the most important question we can ask ourselves, and the answer is found in our text here in Romans 3:24.

The word “freely” in our text is translated from the Greek word “dorean”. This same word is translated in John 15:25 “without a cause”. Now here is the gospel my dear broken hearted fellow sinner friend. God justifies the believer in Christ without any cause he finds in the believer, but wholly, and solely for Christ’s sake alone. Poor, broken hearted sinner, there is no reason for God to save you, except for His sovereign grace that was treasured up in His eternal and coequal Son from eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished salvation by His redemptive work of being nailed to a cross as a sin bearer for all who would ever believe in Him. The cause of justification is in God Who justifies (Romans 8:33).

And so you see God saves His people in accord with His strict and inflexible justice. All sin must be punished and God will not acquit the wicked. But the believer in Christ, who is nothing but a rotten, wicked sinner in and of himself has Christ for his willing and able Substitute. The believer’s sins were transferred to Christ. God imputed the sins of all His elect to His Son and charged Him as a sinner (though He had no sin of His Own, for He is impeccable), and punished the sin bearer instead of the believing sinner. Christ was punished for all the sins of His people once and for all (Hebrews 10:10).

And so you see, God declares the believer “not guilty” because the record has been cleared by Christ the Suffering Substitute. So Paul asks in Romans 8: 33, “who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?“ Since God has declared the believer as just, not one charge can ever be brought against him. Christ has paid for the believer’s sins past, present and future. The believer has a record with God of having his sins absolved, and so he stands in right relation to the law of God. The believer is justified!

And so the salvation of poor sinners proceeds in accord with God’s inflexible and strict justice. The believer goes free, because his Substitute paid for his sins. Thus we see that God is indeed the “just justifier” (Romans 3:26). If God had simply said, “well I feel sorry for sinners, so I will just be merciful and not punish them for their sins”, He would have ceased to be a just God. And as I have written before, God won’t quit being God. So he maintained His justice by providing His only begotten Son as the sinner’s Substitute. So God is perfectly just and perfectly merciful at the same time.

Wonder of wonders! Poor sinners who have no righteousness of their own have a perfect righteousness in Christ Jesus the Saviour. Flee to Christ awakened sinner. Trust in Him for your whole and sole righteousness. Christ is able and willing to save the chief of sinners, so come to Him even as you read this truth.

Lord willing, we will have a series of articles on justification, when we finish with the attributes of God.

Sinners in the Hands of a Just God

(Article for publication week of 5-25-2011 AD)

“It is God that justifieth” (Romans 8:33).

Dear Reader, what is God’s verdict concerning you? Does the Judge of all the earth regard you as guilty, or not guilty in relation to His holy law? It will do you no good to try to justify yourself, or seek to be justified by your fellows. The Just and Holy and Sovereign God of heaven and earth knows what your record is before Him and whether you have perfectly obeyed His law. And mark it down dear Reader, you must have a perfect record with God, or you stand condemned and guilty and must bear the penalty of your transgressions.

Can you stand the scrutiny of the Just Judge? Are you ready and able to stand before His bar of justice and give an account for yourself? Be sure my friend you will give an account to God in the awful day of His judgment. You are in the hands of the Just Judge who will in no wise acquit the guilty. God’s holiness and His justice demand that everyone who is guilty of breaking His holy and just law be punished for their sins. Does this not strike terror into your heart, to know and realise that your sins must be dealt with?

Well, you may be thinking to yourself, “I know I have sinned, but I am going to try to amend my ways and start doing better.” Do you think that will pay for the sins you have already committed. Try telling that to a human judge! Do you think if you get a speeding ticket it will do any good to go before the judge and tell him that you have resolved to not speed any more?! He might say, “well that is good, but you must still pay the fine for the ticket you already have gotten.” Much less is the Judge of all the earth impressed with you’re amendments and resolutions. There is only one thing that God will do with you for your white lies and hypocrisies and idolatries and your covetousness and lusts and other sins, and that is to send you to hell forever. There is no sin so small that it does not deserve eternal damnation, and be sure God will give you what you deserve. Or you might be hoping that since God is known to be merciful, He will just forgive you for your sins. God is indeed merciful, but not at the expense of justice and He will only show mercy to those who are in Christ. Or, perhaps you have heard that God loves everybody and so He just can’t bear to see anybody get hurt. Friend, you will go to hell believing that lie.

Now, the Judge of all the earth has devised means whereby His banished be not expelled. He devised the means of justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ Alone, whereby His elect people are not banished because their sins are atoned for by the substitution work of Christ. By this means the believer in Christ is justified by God and stands before God as if he had never sinned, because all his sins are taken away by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Who died and rose again for our justification. Sinner, you must stand before God on your own by your own merits, or you must have an Advocate to stand for you to answer for your sins. Do not be so insane as to think that you can stand before the Judge of all the earth on your own righteousness. Flee to Christ and take Him as your Saviour, or perish forever in your sins. May the Lord spare you for Christ’s sake, for you are in the hands of a just God.

The Just Justifier

(Article for publication week of 5-18-2011 AD)

“To declare I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just and the justifier of Him that believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Since God’s justice is holy and inflexible, He will only save sinners in a way that is consistent with His justice. I would caution you not to found any hope of salvation on the mere mercy of God. God is certainly a merciful God, and we will cover that at the appropriate time, but God’s mercy is not at the expence of His inflexible and holy justice. Our text tells us that God will not save any sinner just because He feels sorry for Him. He is “just, and the justifier” of sinners who are joined to the Sin Bearer by faith.

The believer is not saved because of His act of believing. That would be “believe-ism”, rather than justification by faith. To be sure, no sinner is saved apart from a real and vital faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is Christ the sin bearer that saves the elect sinner. Salvation is not a sinner saving himself by any act of his own, including the act of faith. Rather, “it is God that justifieth” (see Romans 8:33) by charging Christ with the believer’s sins and punishing Christ instead of the believer.

We showed last week how that it pleased the Lord to bruise His eternally begotten Son (Isaiah 53:10) because His justice is so inflexible and holy that He must punish every sin. No sin may be committed in God’s universe without God punishing that sin. Everyone who has not Christ as his sin bearer must be punished in hell forever as a just recompence of reward. But everyone that trusts in Christ Alone for his whole and sole righteousness will never “pay” for his sins, because Christ has already paid the price in full. (God’s Fatherly chastisement of His people is another subject that we will take up another time, hopefully.)

Now, since God has imputed His people’s sins to Christ His eternal Son, He saves them in such a way as He maintains His justice perfectly . I want you to see that if God had simply said that He would have mercy on sinners and save them without Someone dying for them, He would have ceased to be just, and (I tremble to write it), He would have quit being God. God will not, and cannot (that is consistent with His holy character) quit being Who He is and What He is. He will not save a sinner just because he is merciful and feels sorry for that sinner. The sinner’s sins must be dealt with, and Christ was the only Person in the universe that could have been , and was, and is a sin bearer.

Believer, here thy comfort stands. Mercy and truth have met together in the glorious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Who died to set His people free from the awful penalty of God’s just and holy law. Trust in Christ Alone for salvation, for none will ever be disappointed who truly believes in the Sin Bearer. God is just and the justifier of every poor sinner who will cease from his rebellion and believe in the atoning work of Christ, for God is the Just Justifier.