Does God Delight in Justification or Holiness?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Happy Friday, everyone.

00:00:06.160 | Today we're gonna talk about the pursuit of holiness

00:00:08.280 | as justified believers, something we must get right.

00:00:12.880 | It's basically the question over whether God delights in us

00:00:15.500 | as justified children.

00:00:18.000 | Does he delight in us in our imputed righteousness

00:00:21.520 | or does he delight in our actual lived out holiness?

00:00:26.520 | The question is from Kelly, a listener who lives

00:00:28.600 | in the state of Georgia.

00:00:30.200 | Pastor John, hello, one of the most joy inspiring truths

00:00:33.640 | of the gospel is the imputed righteousness of Christ

00:00:36.920 | on our account, amen.

00:00:39.120 | I'm thinking here of 2 Corinthians 5 21.

00:00:42.000 | Is it safe to say then that God is fully pleased with me

00:00:45.360 | based on Christ's work alone?

00:00:47.920 | If so, how do you reconcile this with scriptures

00:00:50.160 | such as Colossians 1 10, where Paul encourages us

00:00:53.240 | to quote, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,

00:00:56.280 | fully pleasing in his sight, unquote.

00:01:00.200 | Does God's pleasure in me depend upon Christ's work

00:01:03.160 | or my own works or is it somehow both?

00:01:06.480 | Can you please explain this dynamic?

00:01:08.980 | - This is really crucial.

00:01:12.840 | It's a question that lies very close to my heart

00:01:16.680 | because as I look out across the longer term effects

00:01:22.400 | of the gospel centered movement of the last 40 years or so,

00:01:27.400 | one of my concerns is that the stress on justification

00:01:32.760 | by faith, which is a glorious doctrine,

00:01:34.920 | not to be diminished or compromised at all,

00:01:38.500 | has not been accompanied by a biblically proportionate

00:01:43.500 | focus on sanctification by faith.

00:01:48.340 | And one form that this neglect has taken

00:01:53.340 | is the hesitancy for some pastors to say to their people,

00:01:58.720 | you should seek to please the Lord by the way you live.

00:02:05.500 | And one of the reasons they're hesitant to say this

00:02:10.620 | is that they think it undermines

00:02:13.500 | the doctrine of justification,

00:02:15.740 | which says that we already stand pleasing or perfect

00:02:20.740 | before God clothed with the perfection and the righteousness

00:02:24.580 | and the obedience of Christ,

00:02:27.100 | which is counted as ours through faith alone.

00:02:31.140 | So this question is absolutely crucial

00:02:35.140 | in order to preach and live biblically

00:02:40.980 | because there's no doubt that throughout the gospels

00:02:45.980 | and throughout the epistles,

00:02:49.020 | we are exhorted to walk, that is live practically

00:02:53.060 | with our minds and our attitudes and members of our body.

00:02:58.060 | We're exhorted to walk in a way that pleases the Lord.

00:03:03.820 | And you may not please the Lord if you don't walk that way.

00:03:09.260 | Now that's not a peripheral teaching

00:03:11.740 | and it's not in conflict with justification by faith.

00:03:16.260 | So let me give some biblical foundation

00:03:18.380 | for each of those realities,

00:03:19.940 | namely justification is the imputation

00:03:23.980 | of Christ's obedience to us

00:03:26.180 | and sanctification as a way of life that pleases the Lord.

00:03:31.180 | And then, and I'll try to put them together.

00:03:34.500 | Second Corinthians 5, 21,

00:03:37.180 | for our sake, God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin

00:03:42.180 | so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God

00:03:48.180 | or Philippians 3, 9,

00:03:52.820 | that I may be found in him,

00:03:55.140 | not having a righteousness of my own that comes from law,

00:04:00.140 | but that which comes through faith in Christ,

00:04:04.580 | the righteousness from God that depends on faith

00:04:08.580 | or Romans 5, 19, as by one man's,

00:04:13.580 | namely Adam's disobedience,

00:04:16.020 | the many were appointed sinners.

00:04:18.380 | So by one man's, namely Christ's obedience,

00:04:23.180 | the many will be appointed righteous.

00:04:26.780 | We call this appointing imputation

00:04:31.140 | or being counted righteous.

00:04:34.780 | And this imputation happens by union with Christ

00:04:38.740 | through faith, not works, Romans 4, 5.

00:04:42.860 | And to the one who does not work,

00:04:46.260 | but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,

00:04:51.820 | his faith is counted as righteousness.

00:04:56.700 | So the moment, and this is the glory,

00:05:01.180 | the moment we experience authentic faith in Christ

00:05:06.180 | and are thus united to him,

00:05:10.660 | at that moment, his death counts as the punishment

00:05:15.660 | of all our sin so that all divine wrath

00:05:22.540 | is forever removed from us.

00:05:27.020 | And in that same glorious moment,

00:05:31.180 | Christ's entire obedience is counted as ours

00:05:36.180 | so that he fulfills for us every demand

00:05:41.420 | that the law made on us

00:05:43.700 | in order to be found in God's everlasting favor.

00:05:47.060 | From that moment on, for the rest of eternity,

00:05:50.840 | God is 100% for us,

00:05:55.840 | not 99% for us and a little bit against us,

00:05:59.780 | 100% for us, for us.

00:06:03.340 | That's the glory of justification by faith.

00:06:08.340 | Now, the fact that God reckons us to be perfect in Christ

00:06:13.340 | and thus acceptable to him in his holiness

00:06:19.840 | does not mean that God is willing

00:06:23.780 | to leave us in a condition,

00:06:27.260 | embattled by sin,

00:06:29.560 | where we can't fully enjoy him forever.

00:06:33.500 | The fact that God accepts us fully in Christ

00:06:36.680 | means he is fully committed to making us fully happy,

00:06:41.680 | forever, which means that he is displeased with anything

00:06:49.540 | short of our joyful perfection

00:06:54.540 | in attitude and heart and mind and body,

00:06:58.100 | because any imperfection is a dishonor to his worth

00:07:02.240 | and a diminishment of our joy.

00:07:05.640 | God cannot, as a justifying God,

00:07:09.340 | be indifferent to our everlasting happiness,

00:07:13.340 | which means being indifferent to our everlasting holiness.

00:07:16.700 | He cannot.

00:07:18.200 | That's what justification guarantees.

00:07:21.060 | So we have texts like the one Kelly points out

00:07:26.060 | in Colossians 1.10.

00:07:28.160 | "We pray for you," Paul says,

00:07:30.440 | "that you may walk," that's live,

00:07:32.800 | actually live in a manner worthy of the Lord,

00:07:36.940 | fully pleasing to him.

00:07:38.920 | That's what Paul's praying for.

00:07:40.800 | God does not only intend to count us righteous

00:07:45.300 | because of Christ, but to make us righteous

00:07:49.320 | because of Christ.

00:07:51.020 | To say that he sees us clothed

00:07:55.500 | with the righteousness of Christ

00:07:58.900 | for the sake of justification does not mean

00:08:02.700 | that he has become blind to the attitudes and thoughts

00:08:07.540 | and deeds of our life on earth.

00:08:10.380 | He has not become blind or indifferent

00:08:15.260 | to our lived out holiness.

00:08:18.180 | On the contrary, it's only because our sins

00:08:21.420 | are completely forgiven that we can get any victory

00:08:25.700 | over sinning at all.

00:08:28.660 | Practical holiness is only possible

00:08:33.660 | because of the prior imputed holiness.

00:08:38.700 | God means to get glory for Jesus,

00:08:41.460 | not only as the one who deals with the guilt of our sin

00:08:46.400 | by justification, but also the one who deals

00:08:49.880 | with the power of our sin by sanctification.

00:08:54.880 | Over and over, Paul tells Christians

00:09:00.160 | to make it their aim to please the Lord

00:09:04.120 | by the way they walk, that is the way they live.

00:09:07.860 | 1 Thessalonians 4, 1, we urge you to walk

00:09:12.860 | and to please God.

00:09:15.220 | 2 Corinthians 5, 9, whether at home or away,

00:09:19.260 | we make it our aim to please him.

00:09:22.460 | Colossians 2, 20, children obey your parents in everything

00:09:26.980 | for this pleases the Lord.

00:09:29.820 | 1 Timothy 2, 3, I urge that supplications

00:09:33.620 | be made for all people.

00:09:34.940 | This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God,

00:09:38.580 | our Savior.

00:09:39.500 | 1 Timothy 5, 4, let them learn to make some return

00:09:43.220 | to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

00:09:48.220 | And the flip side of this repeated refrain

00:09:53.020 | that we can and should please the Lord by the way we live

00:09:58.020 | is the fact that we can displease the Lord

00:10:01.580 | by the way we live, even as justified, accepted, loved,

00:10:06.580 | children of God.

00:10:09.660 | Paul says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,

00:10:13.740 | Ephesians 4, 30.

00:10:15.280 | And in 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, he says,

00:10:17.800 | do not quench the spirit.

00:10:20.780 | And in Hebrews 12, God disciplines those he loves,

00:10:25.780 | his justified children.

00:10:28.020 | And then he explains what he's doing.

00:10:30.240 | It says, and this is verse 11 of chapter 12.

00:10:33.380 | For the moment, all discipline seems painful

00:10:39.060 | rather than pleasant, but later it yields

00:10:43.580 | the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

00:10:47.020 | That's not imputed righteousness.

00:10:48.880 | That's practical righteousness that happens

00:10:53.420 | because God is disciplining us in our need.

00:10:59.060 | So there is imputed righteousness

00:11:02.680 | and there is imparted righteousness.

00:11:06.040 | The imputed righteousness is the foundation

00:11:09.760 | of imparted righteousness.

00:11:13.040 | The only sin you can get any victory over

00:11:15.600 | is a forgiven sin, not the other way around.

00:11:19.040 | The imputed righteousness is the way

00:11:22.200 | we become the children of God

00:11:25.160 | so that he now exerts his omnipotent fatherly favor

00:11:30.160 | to impart his own righteousness to us by the spirit.

00:11:38.540 | So Kelly asks, does God's pleasure in me

00:11:44.260 | depend upon Christ's work or my works,

00:11:50.460 | or is it somehow both?

00:11:54.220 | And here's the way I would answer.

00:11:57.080 | Proverbs 3.12 says, the Lord reproves him whom he loves

00:12:02.080 | as a father, the son in whom he, get this word, delights.

00:12:11.900 | Delights.

00:12:15.480 | So God is seeking to make us delightful to him

00:12:22.840 | in our lived out holiness and happiness

00:12:26.940 | because we are delightful to him as his justified children.

00:12:31.940 | - So important.

00:12:35.500 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:12:36.680 | That's a great line here.

00:12:37.720 | As a justifying God, God cannot be indifferent

00:12:40.960 | to our everlasting happiness,

00:12:42.600 | which means being indifferent to our everlasting holiness.

00:12:47.200 | Yes and amen.

00:12:48.840 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:12:49.680 | Thank you for joining us today.

00:12:50.760 | You can ask a question of your own.

00:12:51.960 | Search our growing archive or subscribe to the podcast,

00:12:54.580 | all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:12:58.720 | And we have a listener of the podcast

00:13:00.800 | who was recently reading Colossians 2.12

00:13:03.680 | and he's wondering if faith causes regeneration

00:13:07.120 | or is it the other way around?

00:13:08.520 | Does regeneration, the new birth, cause faith

00:13:12.340 | or does faith cause regeneration?

00:13:14.160 | It's a great question.

00:13:15.520 | It's up next on Monday.

00:13:17.280 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke,

00:13:18.280 | and we will see you back here after the weekend.

00:13:21.200 | Thanks for listening.

00:13:22.320 | (upbeat music)

00:13:24.900 | (upbeat music)

00:13:27.480 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Does God Delight in Justification or Holiness?

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