ACBC Theology Exam 15 - Justification
00:00:00.000 | at 109 degrees right now,
00:00:02.580 | and just one of the hottest Labor Days,
00:00:06.520 | I think that I can remember,
00:00:08.880 | but I do hope that you're doing well and that you're staying
00:00:11.520 | cool wherever you are and that you're enjoying a happy Labor Day.
00:00:17.360 | Just praying for your studies that they will go well,
00:00:21.760 | and grateful that you've joined us tonight for
00:00:23.840 | our 15th class meeting here in Intermediate Biblical Counseling.
00:00:28.340 | We're going to be looking at the great doctrine of justification tonight,
00:00:32.840 | and I just pray and hope that this will be a great encouragement to each
00:00:38.200 | of our hearts as we look at the doctrine of soteriology,
00:00:43.520 | the doctrine of salvation,
00:00:44.920 | and we're continuing our study of soteriology,
00:00:48.680 | and I just pray that this will be a great encouragement to all of us tonight.
00:00:55.000 | Thanks so much for joining us.
00:00:56.900 | If you have any comments or questions,
00:00:58.920 | feel free to use the chat function on the website,
00:01:02.980 | and I hope you-all got your handouts for tonight's session.
00:01:08.860 | Well, for our opening devotional,
00:01:11.200 | I'd like to take us to Romans Chapter 5 verses 1-2,
00:01:15.080 | as we set our hearts and our minds tonight on the great subject of justification.
00:01:23.420 | The doctrine of justification has been called
00:01:26.720 | the article upon which the church stands or falls,
00:01:30.380 | and this is the topic of our theology exam tonight.
00:01:35.040 | Number 15 is the doctrine of justification,
00:01:39.800 | and I want to read for us Romans Chapter 5 verses 1-2,
00:01:43.720 | and just get our hearts thinking about the great truths
00:01:48.400 | of justification and its importance to the Christian life.
00:01:54.520 | Paul writes this, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
00:01:58.840 | we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:02:02.080 | Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
00:02:08.460 | and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
00:02:13.960 | I want to make a real simple observation from the book of Romans, and that is this.
00:02:22.560 | The Apostle Paul did not assume that Christians understood the doctrine of justification.
00:02:31.840 | He did not assume that just because you were a Christian,
00:02:36.300 | you understood this doctrine,
00:02:38.400 | and if you understood this doctrine,
00:02:40.960 | he did not assume that the church at Rome understood it too well or too thoroughly.
00:02:47.100 | We see that throughout the epistle of the book of Romans,
00:02:52.120 | Paul is writing to Christians.
00:02:54.680 | He says in Romans Chapter 1 verse 7,
00:02:57.440 | "To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints,
00:03:01.600 | grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
00:03:07.320 | In verse 8, he goes on to say,
00:03:08.920 | "I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,
00:03:12.640 | because your faith is proclaimed in all the world."
00:03:16.600 | Paul is writing to Christians.
00:03:19.320 | He is writing to true believers,
00:03:22.720 | and it seems that he's writing to believers who by and large are
00:03:27.160 | walking in the truths of the gospel unlike some other books in the New Testament.
00:03:35.080 | For example, the book of 1 Corinthians or the epistle to the Galatians,
00:03:40.520 | those books really had sharp rebukes or very strong corrections that Paul
00:03:45.960 | had for the church because the church was walking in error,
00:03:50.660 | and the book of Romans does not have any sharp rebukes or major corrections,
00:03:57.280 | which indicates to us that the church at Rome was by and large
00:04:01.600 | walking in the truth of the gospel.
00:04:06.000 | These are genuine Christians that Paul is writing to.
00:04:09.200 | These are true believers who are demonstrating a genuine faith in Christ,
00:04:15.320 | and yet Paul writes this epistle to the church at Rome in order to explain to them,
00:04:23.400 | and give them a greater understanding of the grace that they had received in their salvation.
00:04:30.200 | He writes to them to give them a greater understanding of the doctrine of justification.
00:04:38.280 | In other words, Paul didn't assume that just because a believer understood the gospel,
00:04:43.760 | that they had a thorough understanding of the doctrine of
00:04:48.200 | justification or a thorough understanding of what happened to them in their salvation.
00:04:55.880 | He sees the need for believers to understand the fullness of God's grace and salvation,
00:05:03.240 | and he writes to them to explain the doctrine of justification.
00:05:09.240 | We see this in many of the passages in the book of Romans, just a brief survey.
00:05:17.600 | He begins the book by saying in Romans 1 verse 16,
00:05:20.880 | "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
00:05:26.120 | everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
00:05:29.720 | For in it, that is in the gospel,
00:05:33.000 | the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written,
00:05:38.160 | the righteous shall live by faith."
00:05:43.200 | The book of Romans is going to be about the theme of righteousness.
00:05:49.000 | It's going to be about a righteousness that is received by faith,
00:05:55.000 | not a righteousness that is earned through works of the law.
00:05:59.720 | It is a righteousness that is obtained by faith and that
00:06:06.880 | is purely earned through the performance and the obedience of another.
00:06:15.680 | It is a righteousness that is earned through Christ,
00:06:18.840 | and Christ's perfect obedience to the law.
00:06:22.160 | Paul is going to write about this spotless record of
00:06:25.640 | perfect righteousness that is credited to
00:06:29.560 | the sinner's account by grace alone through faith alone.
00:06:34.200 | He's going to explain to the church at Rome
00:06:37.800 | the wonders of this justification that they have received,
00:06:43.640 | that was earned by Christ,
00:06:45.560 | and that they have received by grace alone through faith alone.
00:06:50.440 | Paul continues in Romans 3,
00:06:53.720 | verse 20 on this theme of righteousness.
00:06:56.040 | He says, "For by the works of the law,
00:06:58.600 | no human being will be justified in his sight,
00:07:02.480 | since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
00:07:06.480 | But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
00:07:12.360 | although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
00:07:15.360 | The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
00:07:21.520 | For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
00:07:26.680 | and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
00:07:35.720 | You note there in verse 20,
00:07:37.840 | there is a contrast being made between
00:07:41.360 | a righteousness that is earned through works of the law.
00:07:45.320 | Paul says, "For by the works of the law,
00:07:48.920 | no human being will be justified."
00:07:53.240 | Paul says that's not the purpose of the law.
00:07:55.800 | The purpose of the law was to expose
00:07:57.600 | our sin and to show us that we need the righteousness of another.
00:08:03.760 | Then he says in verse 21, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
00:08:11.600 | the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ."
00:08:15.920 | This righteousness that Paul is speaking of in the Book of Romans
00:08:19.760 | is not a righteousness that is earned through works of the law.
00:08:25.240 | It is a righteousness that is earned through
00:08:28.480 | Christ's perfect obedience to the law on our behalf.
00:08:32.920 | That is credited to our account by grace alone through faith alone.
00:08:39.920 | Again, in chapter 4,
00:08:42.160 | Paul talks about this righteousness.
00:08:44.520 | He says in verse 3, "For what does the scripture say?
00:08:47.560 | Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness."
00:08:53.560 | Paul is answering the charge here that he may be teaching a new requirement for salvation.
00:09:02.280 | He's teaching something that was not taught in the Old Testament.
00:09:05.880 | Paul says, "No, we are justified in the New Testament era
00:09:10.760 | the same way that the patriarch Abraham was justified in the Old Testament era.
00:09:16.160 | Abraham did not earn his righteousness before God,
00:09:20.360 | but Abraham received his righteousness as a gift through faith.
00:09:26.360 | Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness."
00:09:33.080 | Then note again here the contrast between justification by faith alone
00:09:38.800 | and justification that is earned by works.
00:09:42.720 | Verse 4, Paul says, "Now to the one who works,
00:09:46.360 | his wages are not counted as a gift,
00:09:48.920 | but as is due, and to the one who does not work,
00:09:52.520 | but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,
00:09:57.400 | his faith is counted as righteousness."
00:10:02.320 | We talked about the example of Abraham.
00:10:04.960 | Here comes the example of David.
00:10:07.240 | Verse 6, "Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works."
00:10:19.800 | And then he quotes from Psalm 32,
00:10:22.640 | "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
00:10:27.240 | Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."
00:10:33.200 | So the main thought here is this, and we'll get more into the subject of justification in a moment.
00:10:42.040 | But just a simple thought here is that Paul did not assume that the believers at Rome had an adequate understanding of the doctrine of justification.
00:10:54.720 | Even though they were true believers,
00:10:57.280 | even though they were believers who were walking in the truth of the gospel,
00:11:03.160 | Paul did not assume that just because the believers at Rome had received the gospel and had believed the gospel,
00:11:12.880 | that they had a sufficient understanding of the central truth of the gospel,
00:11:19.120 | which is that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, based upon the work of Christ alone on our behalf.
00:11:30.160 | And the righteousness that makes us acceptable to a holy God is not a righteousness that we earn through works of the law,
00:11:39.560 | but a righteousness that we receive through faith in the perfect substitute, Jesus Christ, who obeyed the law on our behalf and through his sacrificial death,
00:11:53.200 | took all of our sins that we have committed in disobedience to the law and paid for that penalty in full,
00:12:03.160 | and then earned the blessings of the law through his perfect obedience to the law of God.
00:12:12.480 | And it is through his work on the cross that we have received the righteousness of God because of Christ alone.
00:12:23.160 | And so all of that leads us to the passage back in Romans 5, verses 1 to 2, where Paul says,
00:12:30.240 | "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith," so this is an encouragement to each of us this weekend,
00:12:42.640 | "aren't you glad to know that justification is a past reality?"
00:12:48.480 | Paul says that justification is a completed act. We have been justified.
00:12:56.520 | You'll note in verse 1 that Paul does not say that we are in the process of being justified.
00:13:05.120 | Paul is not speaking of justification as a present process, but he speaks of justification as a past completed reality.
00:13:18.520 | It is a completed act. In other words, we do not become more justified the more we become sanctified.
00:13:31.720 | We are not laboring at our sanctification in order to improve upon our justification.
00:13:41.120 | We have been, past tense, justified, and then he says, justified by faith, not by works of the law.
00:13:51.240 | And therefore, the result is in verse 1, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:13:58.760 | The word peace here speaks of more than just the absence of conflict or the absence of wrath.
00:14:06.360 | It is a word that speaks of a relational wholeness.
00:14:11.440 | The root verb airo literally means to bind together that which has been separated.
00:14:19.640 | Leon Morris writes that the justified person is no longer tormented by questions of his relationship with God arising from the fact that he is a sinner.
00:14:29.880 | Sinner though he is, he is at peace with God because of what God has done for him.
00:14:39.120 | Now, much more can be said about the doctrine of justification, and we will say more about justification in this hour.
00:14:45.800 | But the point of this introductory thought is simply this. When Paul wanted to build up the church at Rome, he did not immediately dive into issues dealing with sanctification.
00:15:07.200 | Paul could have done that. He could have written to the church at Rome and said, you need to be sanctified.
00:15:14.280 | You need to stop lying and you need to start speaking truth.
00:15:17.360 | You need to stop being self selfish and start being more of a servant.
00:15:26.600 | You need to stop being lazy and start reading your Bible.
00:15:29.640 | Paul could have immediately sought to build up the church at Rome by diving into issues dealing with sanctification.
00:15:40.920 | But instead, Paul spends three chapters, at least, explaining and expounding upon the doctrine of past justification before he gets into issues dealing with present sanctification.
00:16:01.280 | In Romans 3-5, he deals with the subject of justification, that we are free from the penalty of sin.
00:16:11.080 | In Romans 6-7, he deals with the subject of sanctification, that we are free from the power of sin.
00:16:19.440 | In Romans 8, he deals with the subject of glorification, that we will be free from the very presence of sin.
00:16:30.480 | And one day we will worship Christ in holiness forever and ever.
00:16:35.160 | Paul first deals with justification before he gets to sanctification.
00:16:40.560 | And then he deals with glorification in order to present the future hope that one day we will be free from the very presence of sin.
00:16:54.240 | Now, I just want you to note, as biblical counselors in training, that the sequence in Paul's train of thought is important and it is instructive for all of us.
00:17:08.200 | First, he deals with justification, a past completed act, and he spends three chapters seeking to ground the believer's understanding in the past act of justification before he gets into matters of sanctification in Romans 6-7.
00:17:36.600 | Now, why are we tempted to jump right into issues dealing with sanctification?
00:17:42.600 | Well, the truth is that that's where we live. We live in, this is what we might call the Christian life or the daily Christian experience. It's issues dealing with sanctification, issues dealing with overcoming anger or overcoming anxiety or becoming more of a servant or becoming more disciplined in the Christian life.
00:18:07.920 | Those are all issues dealing with sanctification, and we're often tempted to jump right into sanctification issues without laying the groundwork of justification.
00:18:19.200 | This is true of the ministry of biblical counseling. Biblical counseling focuses on issues dealing with sanctification, and we as biblical counselors are very tempted to often jump right into issues dealing with sanctification, telling our counselees that they should stop being selfish and start being selfless, that they should stop being lazy and start being disciplined.
00:18:42.880 | We do need to do that in biblical counseling, but I just want you to note that Paul's train of thought is very important. First, he lays the groundwork of justification before he addresses issues of sanctification.
00:19:04.160 | The encouragement that I want to bring to us tonight is that like the apostle Paul, we as biblical counselors must never assume that our counselees understand justification, and if they do understand justification, we must never assume that they understand justification too well or too thoroughly.
00:19:33.040 | Paul knew that if he was to go hard after the issues of sanctification, that he needed to take his time to lay the groundwork of justification in their hearts and minds.
00:19:49.660 | So you might be saying, "Well, is the doctrine of justification practical? I mean, is it really relevant for biblical counseling? I mean, isn't justification something that you explain to your counselee just so you can kind of get it out of the way? I mean, does it really have relevance to our everyday lives? Can we actually use the doctrine of justification to help our counselees with the issues of life?"
00:20:15.700 | Well, let's go back to Romans 5, verse 1.
00:20:20.620 | Paul says, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, past reality, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:20:30.240 | Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings."
00:20:48.360 | Now, dear friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, I just want you to know what a powerful statement that is and how relevant verse 3 is to the ministry of biblical counseling.
00:21:04.260 | Before we talk about our potential counselees, let's just draw our attention to our own hearts tonight.
00:21:12.160 | Let me ask you a personal question tonight. When is the last time your justification, your righteous standing before the throne of God,
00:21:25.200 | when was the last time your justification was such a glorious reality in your heart that it led you to live in the experience of verse 3?
00:21:36.240 | Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. When is the last time that you found your justification such a glorious reality in your heart that it led you to say that no matter what the season of affliction might be,
00:21:53.580 | no matter if I lose my health, no matter if I lose my job or my finances, no matter if I lose my reputation or my career,
00:22:03.520 | my justification is such a glorious reality in my heart that it produces joy in the midst of my sufferings.
00:22:17.120 | What we need to learn from Paul's understanding of justification is that it has practical benefits for the Christian life.
00:22:28.620 | It has immense implications for how we deal with life and how we deal with suffering.
00:22:38.280 | And by no means are we to take the doctrine of justification and cast it aside as something that is for baby Christians or something that is to be in the peripheral aspect of the Christian life.
00:22:53.620 | But we are to return back to the doctrine of justification that we may properly pursue our sanctification in the Lord.
00:23:07.420 | Do not assume that your counselees understand justification too well. And if I can get real personal with you tonight on this online class, I'm not going to assume that any of you understand justification well enough or thoroughly enough.
00:23:29.980 | I'm going to assume that you are just like me and that you tend to learn the doctrine of justification and then maybe cast it aside and not think of it too often.
00:23:42.840 | And definitely you are tempted, just like I am, to not rehearse this doctrine on a daily basis so that it produces joy in your heart and in your life.
00:23:57.520 | And you can prove me wrong by the quality of your essay on Theology Exam No. 15, but otherwise I'm going to assume that you struggle with the same thing that I do, which is to jump straight into issues of sanctification without rehearsing and reviewing your understanding of justification.
00:24:24.800 | Martin Luther said this, "When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen. Therefore, it is necessary constantly to repetitiously teach and impress it, for it cannot be repeatedly taught and urged enough or too much."
00:24:45.800 | Listen to what he's saying there. He's saying that it is impossible to emphasize this doctrine too much.
00:24:56.300 | If you're saying, "Whoa, Dan, this is too much." I mean, you're repeating this emphasis too often on the doctrine of justification. Luther would disagree. He would say, "Keep repeating it and emphasizing it because this doctrine is at the center of our confession as Christians, and it is at the center of the Christian life."
00:25:23.300 | He said in the commentary to the Galatians that, "I must hearken to the gospel which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, for that is the proper office of the law, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hath done for me, to wit that he suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this and to believe it, and this is the truth of the gospel.
00:25:51.300 | It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually."
00:26:10.300 | Luther didn't mince words when it came to the central truths of the gospel. He knew that the heart of man is forgetful. He knew that we need to continually remind ourselves of the central truths of the gospel.
00:26:28.300 | And so he said, "Take the doctrine of justification, repeat it, teach it, impress it upon people's hearts and minds, and then, if all else fails, beat it into their heads continually, so that if there is anything that we are known by, we are known by our understanding of the truth,
00:26:54.300 | that we stand before God not on the basis of the righteousness that we have earned through works of the law, but a righteousness that has been obtained by grace alone through faith alone, the righteousness that has been earned by another."
00:27:12.300 | And we'll get more into that as we go through the handout tonight. Let me pray for us and just thank the Lord for these truths. Let's pray together.
00:27:21.300 | Father, thank you for this study and just this look tonight at the doctrine of justification.
00:27:27.300 | We're so thankful for this opportunity that we have to rejoice once again at the completed, finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, the truth that we have obtained a righteousness that is earned by the performance of another credited to our account, received by faith.
00:27:52.300 | We just pray that, Lord, you would help us to handle these truths carefully and faithfully and learn to minister them to others. And we give this time to you. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:28:07.300 | Okay, on your handout, Theology Exam #15, we have the question, "Provide an explanation and biblical defense of justification." I encourage you to read your usual resources on this topic, Wayne Grunem Systematic Theology, Paul Enz's Moody Handbook of Theology, Charles Ryrie's Basic Theology, and Heath Lambert's Theology of Biblical Counseling.
00:28:33.300 | All of those have excellent sections on the doctrine of justification. I also want to encourage you to check out Milton Vincent's sermon at the IBCD conference. It is entitled, "Seeing Your Justification Clearly."
00:28:51.300 | Milton Vincent is the author of the Gospel Primer. He has a wonderful message there that I would highly encourage you to listen to and just to get pumped up in writing this essay. He makes the point that we as Christians have the right to make a big deal about justification.
00:29:12.300 | And I would agree with that statement. If you can catch the enthusiasm and the spirit of that message, I believe that you will write an excellent essay on this topic.
00:29:26.300 | Let me move to the next page on your handout. Some great statements there again by Martin Luther. Luther wrote that this doctrine, justification by faith, is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the Church of God.
00:29:44.300 | And without it, the Church of God cannot exist for one hour, for no one who does not hold this article is able to teach or write in the Church. That is why Satan, in turn, cannot but persecute it.
00:29:59.300 | If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time. There is no middle ground between these two righteousness, the active one of the law and the passive one which comes from Christ.
00:30:15.300 | Therefore, the man who strays from Christian righteousness must relapse into the active one. That is, since he has lost Christ, he must put his confidence in his own works.
00:30:27.300 | Therefore, it is necessary constantly to inculcate it and impress it, for it cannot be inculcated and urged enough or too much.
00:30:36.300 | Indeed, even though we learn it well and hold to it, yet there is no one who apprehends it perfectly or believes it with a full affection and heart.
00:30:46.300 | The article of justification must be learned diligently. It alone can support us in the face of these countless offenses and can console us in all temptations and persecutions.
00:31:00.300 | That is why we must be very certain of this doctrine and not doubt, otherwise all is lost and the Pope and the devil and all things gain the victory over us and are judged aright.
00:31:14.300 | So let me just encourage you as a biblical counselor in training, you ought to know the doctrine of justification backwards and forwards.
00:31:25.300 | You ought to be able to walk through a basic definition of justification and then point out the specific scriptures that teach this doctrine.
00:31:37.300 | And it really should not be difficult to find passages dealing with justification because there are so many passages which teach this doctrine.
00:31:50.300 | We already looked at Romans 3 verse 21 in the introduction to tonight's session, but that verse talks about the righteousness of God which is given as a gift.
00:32:06.300 | Romans 3 verse 21 "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."
00:32:21.300 | And then skipping down to verse 27, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By 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.
00:32:43.300 | 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."
00:33:00.300 | So Paul here says that the doctrine of justification removes all boasting. God gets all the glory in our justification because God has given all the grace that is necessary for our justification.
00:33:22.300 | The doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone leads us to affirm that salvation is to the glory of God alone. God gets all the glory and boasting is eliminated. It is removed.
00:33:39.300 | Milton Vincent makes the point that if you and I had made a 1% contribution to our salvation, if you and I made a 1% contribution to our righteous standing before God,
00:33:58.300 | if salvation was 99% of grace and 1% of works, then you and I would be insufferable in eternity.
00:34:10.300 | We would spend thousands of years in heaven boasting of our 1% contribution. We would be nudging each other in heaven saying, "Man, did you see the contribution that I made? Did you see my contribution to salvation?"
00:34:34.300 | If you make a 1% contribution to your salvation, then you have a 1% reason to boast of your righteousness. Praise God that God in His infinite wisdom designed salvation to remove all boasting.
00:34:51.300 | You and I cannot boast because we have contributed nothing to our salvation. It has been well said that the only thing that the sinner contributes to salvation is the sin that needs to be forgiven.
00:35:09.300 | The hymn writer says, "Nothing in my hands I bring, only to thy cross I cling." And so Paul says in verse 27, "What becomes of our boasting, it is excluded for we have been justified by faith apart from the works of the law."
00:35:33.300 | So one of the diagnostic questions that we ask in counseling ministry is a basic one. It's one that's used in many evangelistic settings, but one that we find to be useful in counseling ministry.
00:35:48.300 | We want to get a sense of what is our counselee's understanding of the gospel and their salvation. And so I've sat with many counselees and asked them this question, "If you were to die today, and if God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' What would you say?"
00:36:10.300 | And brothers and sisters, I cannot tell you how many conversations I have had with people both inside the church and outside the church where the person has answered that question with some statement of works righteousness.
00:36:32.300 | "If God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' What would you say?" And in so many of these conversations I've heard the answer, "It's because I've been a good person," or "I've supported a family," or even in the church people respond, "It's because I've tried to live a good Christian life."
00:36:52.300 | I've even heard on numerous occasions the response that, "Because I've loved Jesus all my life and because I've done my best to love Him." And I just want to say, you have not loved Jesus all your life. The Bible says that you were born in sin and that you were dead in your sins and trespasses.
00:37:17.300 | You were an enemy of God, and by God's grace He has made you alive in Christ. But so many of these conversations I've heard this response of some form of works righteousness, and it just goes to show that we are losing a clear understanding of justification by grace alone.
00:37:42.300 | Not only in the community, but even in the church we are losing this clear understanding of justification by grace alone.
00:37:54.300 | What a counselee should be able to say to you when you ask the question, "If God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' What would you say?" A counselee should be able to say that the only reason that God would ever let me into His heaven is because I have trusted in the perfect work of Jesus Christ on my behalf.
00:38:15.300 | I have received a righteousness that is not my own. That all of my works are like filthy rags before a holy God. But Christ has accomplished all of my salvation through His perfect life, death, and resurrection.
00:38:31.300 | And He has granted to me the full record of His perfect righteousness as a gift of grace. And that is the only reason why I would ever be allowed into God's heaven.
00:38:47.300 | I have sat with people who have articulated that clear understanding of justification, and it is a joy when you do hear that from a counselee.
00:39:00.300 | But in so many cases, counselees cannot articulate a clear understanding of justification, and we need to labor with our counselees to help them to that end.
00:39:15.300 | It's not that every counselee has to be an expert theologian, but they should be able to articulate a basic understanding of righteousness that is not earned through human works, but a righteousness that is credited to our account by grace through faith.
00:39:35.300 | And if they can't do that, then we need to help them with that and disciple that into the counselee's understanding.
00:39:46.300 | On your handout, you have Romans 4, verse 1. "What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God."
00:40:00.300 | And then skipping down to verse 22, Paul says, "That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness."
00:40:10.300 | Note that language of counting or crediting, reckoning to another person's account, crediting to another a righteousness that has not been earned.
00:40:26.300 | He says, "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."
00:40:49.300 | And then we have the statement in Romans 5, verse 1, touching on this briefly. "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
00:41:00.300 | Let me skip down to verse 9 of Romans 5. Paul says, "Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."
00:41:16.300 | You have that "much more" language. "If God so loved us that he gave us his Son when we were his enemies, how much more will he bless us now that we have been justified and reconciled in a relationship with him?"
00:41:40.300 | This "much more" language is a wonderful aspect of this explanation of justification.
00:41:50.300 | And then at the bottom of your handout, you have Romans 8, verse 30, which says, "Those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified."
00:42:07.300 | A wonderful statement of the package of salvation spanning from eternity past to eternity future. No one receives just one aspect of this salvation. No one is predestined who is not also justified. No one is justified who is not also glorified. No one sinner is lost between justification and glorification.
00:42:29.300 | There is security there, as is indicated by Romans 8, verse 30.
00:42:36.300 | So, if you move to the next page of your handout, just some practical thoughts there. You have that statement by Milton Vincent in the Gospel Primer.
00:42:48.300 | We do use the Gospel Primer in our counseling ministry and find it to be really good, helpful work for many counselees to read and to think through.
00:43:01.300 | And Vincent says there that, "The gospel encourages me to rest in my righteous standing with God, a standing which Christ himself has accomplished and always maintains for me.
00:43:13.300 | I never have to do a moment's labor to gain or maintain my justified status before God.
00:43:20.300 | Freed from the burden of such a task, I can now put my energies into enjoying God, pursuing holiness, and ministering God's amazing grace to others."
00:43:31.300 | And then note the practical implications of this doctrine.
00:43:36.300 | Vincent writes that, "The gospel also reminds me that my righteous standing with God always holds firm, regardless of my performance, because my standing is based solely on the work of Jesus and not mine.
00:43:49.300 | On my worst days of sin and failure, the gospel encourages me with God's unrelenting grace toward me.
00:43:57.300 | On my best days of victory and usefulness, the gospel keeps me relating to God solely on the basis of Jesus's righteousness and not mine."
00:44:08.300 | You understand this as well as I in our daily experience.
00:44:13.300 | On the days when I fail, I am tempted to despair.
00:44:18.300 | On the days when I succeed, I'm tempted to grow proud.
00:44:24.300 | On the days when I just have a really terrible day spiritually, I am tempted to say, "Man, am I ever going to be a godly Christian?
00:44:35.300 | Am I ever going to be sanctified?
00:44:37.300 | Is there any hope for me?"
00:44:40.300 | And on the days when I do quite well as a Christian, and perhaps God uses me for some active ministry, I am tempted to say, "Hey, look at me.
00:44:52.300 | That was pretty good. It's because of my righteousness that God is using me and blessing me."
00:44:58.300 | And on both days, I need to come back to the doctrine of justification and orient my heart toward the perfect work of Jesus on my behalf.
00:45:12.300 | When I'm tempted to despair, I need to look to Christ and realize that there is hope for me because Christ has given his righteousness to me.
00:45:23.300 | And on the days when I'm tempted to be proud, I need to look to Christ and his perfect righteousness and realize that I am accepted on the basis of his righteousness, not mine.
00:45:35.300 | So the doctrine of justification keeps me from swinging from extreme to extreme.
00:45:40.300 | Jerry Bridges does a really good job on this in a number of his works, just talking through how we relate to God on the basis of Christ's righteousness and not our own.
00:45:52.300 | And that keeps us from the twin extremes of despair and pride.
00:45:59.300 | So all that to say that the doctrine of justification is extremely practical.
00:46:06.300 | So if you look at your handout, you have a definition there that I think Wayne Grudem has a really good definition for justification.
00:46:14.300 | He says that justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us and declares us to be righteous in his sight.
00:46:29.300 | That's a beautiful definition. Let's unpack that together.
00:46:35.300 | So we see that just three truths related to justification, and I would encourage you to include at least the first two in your essay.
00:46:49.300 | I think the third will be helpful as well. But first of all, it's really important for us to understand that justification is a legal declaration.
00:46:59.300 | It is a legal declaration. We could use the word "forensic" or "legal."
00:47:08.300 | This is the truth that is spoken of in Romans 4, verse 3, where Paul says, "For what does the scripture say, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.'
00:47:18.300 | Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
00:47:33.300 | The root word for righteousness is used 39 times in the New Testament. It means to declare someone righteous in a legal or forensic sense. It does not mean to make one righteous in a moral or practical sense.
00:47:52.300 | The term "logizimi" means to count or to credit or to reckon. It means to put to someone's account.
00:48:01.300 | Synonym would be to impute. The word "impute" means to regard as belonging to, therefore to cause it to belong to someone.
00:48:11.300 | In the miracle of salvation, God takes all of my sins and he imputes it to the account of Christ, so that Jesus is treated on the cross as if Jesus had sinned every single one of my sins, although Jesus was perfectly holy and righteous.
00:48:30.300 | And then in the miracle of salvation, God takes all of Christ's righteousness that he has earned through his perfect obedience to God's law and imputes it or reckons it to my account, God treats me as if I have lived Christ's perfect life, although I am sinful and ungodly and unholy.
00:48:52.300 | In the instant that I placed my faith in Jesus Christ for my salvation, God pounded the gavel as it were in the courtroom of heaven and declared me to be not guilty.
00:49:05.300 | And not only did he pound the gavel declaring me not guilty, but he also declared me to be righteous.
00:49:17.300 | Charles Ryrie writes this, this isn't on your handout, but I'll put it on the screen here.
00:49:23.300 | Both the Hebrew and the Greek words mean to announce or pronounce a favorable verdict, to declare righteous.
00:49:34.300 | The concept does not mean to make righteous, but to announce righteousness.
00:49:41.300 | This is a courtroom concept, so that to justify is to give a verdict of righteous.
00:49:48.300 | Just as announcing condemnation does not make a person wicked, neither does justification make a person righteous.
00:49:57.300 | Now, why is that important? The distinction between imputed righteousness and imparted righteousness, the distinction of justification being a pronouncement of legal righteousness versus justification being a process in which a person is actually made more righteous.
00:50:20.300 | It's important because if you look at your handout there, you will see that the Catholic view of justification emphasizes that justification is infused or imparted to the sinner.
00:50:34.300 | A Christian Catholic source writes this, whence in the act of being justified at the same time that his sins are remitted, a man receives through Jesus Christ to whom he is joined the infused gifts of faith, hope, and charity.
00:50:51.300 | John Trent writes this, having therefore been thus justified and made the friends of God, they through the observance of the commandments of God and of the church, faith cooperating with good works, increase in that justice which they have received through the grace of Christ and are still further justified.
00:51:12.300 | Here's the important part. If justification has to do with infused righteousness instead of imputed righteousness, if justification, according to the Catholic church, is imparted righteousness, then guess what?
00:51:34.300 | You will be, through the process of your entire life, always in the process of becoming more righteous. You will be in the process of becoming more justified throughout your entire life.
00:51:53.300 | Justification, according to the Catholic church, is a process, not a completed act. And therefore, this is the practical implication, there is no assurance of salvation.
00:52:11.300 | There is no point in that process of becoming more justified throughout the course of life where a Catholic person, at least generally speaking, will say, "I have reached a place of justification where now it is enough and I have assurance of my salvation."
00:52:27.300 | This is why many of us, when we talk to Catholics and you ask the question, "If you were to die today, would you be sure that you went to heaven?" Oftentimes, a Catholic will say, "I hope so," or "I reason to believe," or "I sure hope that it's enough."
00:52:43.300 | But they will not say, generally speaking, that, "Yes, I believe that based upon the perfect righteousness of Jesus given to me at the moment of my salvation, that I'm assured that I will die today and I will go straight into the presence of God in heaven and live with Him forever."
00:53:07.300 | Because the Catholic church sees the Christian life as a process of laboring for their justification, a process of seeking to increase their justification, there is never a point where they have assurance that that justification is enough.
00:53:27.300 | And therefore, they say, oftentimes, "I hope that I will go to heaven," not, "I know that I will go to heaven."
00:53:39.300 | Dear friends, the Bible teaches that justification is not a process. Justification is a pronouncement. That's really good news, Romans 5 verse 1, since we have been justified.
00:53:57.300 | The good news is that you and I will never be more justified than we were on the day we trusted in Jesus Christ.
00:54:11.300 | On the day we trusted in Jesus Christ, the moment we trusted in Jesus for our salvation, God made this legal pronouncement that He credited all of our sins to Jesus at the cross.
00:54:25.300 | He credited all of Christ's righteousness to our account so that on the day we trusted in Jesus Christ, we were pronounced to be righteous because of what Christ has done for us.
00:54:42.300 | So as Bruce Demarest writes, we define justification as God's gracious legal verdict in respect of those who believe in Christ, forgiving their sins and declaring them righteous through the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
00:55:00.300 | The Westminster Catechism writes, "It is an act of God's free grace wherein He pardons all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone."
00:55:17.300 | Now if you look at the next page of your handout, you see a second truth related to justification, and that is this. Justification involves a double imputation.
00:55:31.300 | Justification involves a double imputation. The first imputation, our sins imputed to Christ's account. The second imputation, Christ's righteousness imputed to our account.
00:55:43.300 | 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, "For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."
00:55:53.300 | R.C. Sproul has that great illustration. If you have a billion dollar credit card debt that you could never pay off if you work for a hundred years and some great rich benefactor came along and in a moment's time paid your credit card debt in full, Sproul says, "What would you be?"
00:56:14.300 | He says you would be bankrupt. It is true you would not owe a billion dollars on your credit card, but you also would have no money of your own. You would be debt free, but you would also be penniless.
00:56:31.300 | You would have received amazing grace if someone would pay off your debt, but you would not be rich because you would have no money.
00:56:42.300 | But Sproul says, say that same rich benefactor comes to you and not only pays your billion dollar credit card debt in full so that the enormous debt you carried is now removed, but he also makes a transfer from his bank account of a billion dollars of positive funds into your bank account at the same time he pays your debt.
00:57:11.300 | What would you be if that double blessing was received? You would not just be debt free. You would now be rich, and you would be rich indeed.
00:57:27.300 | Sproul uses that illustration to highlight the importance of this double imputation. The truth is that we owed more than a billion dollar credit card debt. We owed an infinite payment that we could never pay because we had sinned against the Holy God, and we have received a righteousness that is worth infinitely more than a billion dollars that would be credited to a person's bank account.
00:57:55.300 | The point being this, justification is a double imputation. It's not just that Christ pays all of my debt. It is also that Christ gives me all of his righteousness.
00:58:09.300 | As Wayne Grudem writes, if Christ had only earned forgiveness of sin for us, then we would not merit heaven. Christ had to live a life of perfect obedience to God in order to earn righteousness for us.
00:58:21.300 | He had to obey the law for his whole life on our behalf so that the positive merits of his perfect obedience would be counted for us.
00:58:31.300 | Sometimes this is called Christ's active obedience, while his suffering and dying for our sins is called his passive obedience. It is not just moral neutrality that Paul knows he needs from Christ, that is a clean slate with sins forgiven, but a positive moral righteousness.
00:58:49.300 | Christ had to fulfill all righteousness for our sake. Unless he had done this for us, we would have no record of obedience by which we would merit God's favor and merit eternal life with him.
00:59:03.300 | There are a number of passages found there on your handout, but let me move to truth number three at the bottom of that page there, the lasting consequences of justification.
00:59:19.300 | So justification has lasting consequences. We want to do away with this idea that when you become a Christian, you become justified, and then you kind of take the doctrine of justification and you put it aside.
00:59:31.300 | And you just get really serious about sanctification, but you get rid of the doctrine of justification, or at least don't make it central in your life.
00:59:41.300 | That was not Paul's approach to the Christian life, as you see from the epistle to the Romans. According to Paul, the Christian life begins with justification, and then we return time and time again back to the doctrine of justification as the basis and foundation for our sanctification.
01:00:03.300 | We go back to the doctrine of justification in order to get joy, in order to get hope. Romans 5.9, "Since therefore we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."
01:00:21.300 | I know that we do minister to people who struggle more on the libertine side, who struggle more with antinomianism and just kind of saying, "Because I have the grace of God, I can do whatever I want."
01:00:34.300 | And we do need to be able to minister to those counselees. But I do want you to know there are counselees who really struggle with condemnation, who struggle with legalism, who struggle with feeling that God is never happy with them, that they can never do enough, that they can never measure up.
01:00:56.300 | Their prayer lives are dry, and their prayer lives are very formal because they don't know the blessings of coming to God their Father on the basis of Christ's righteousness.
01:01:09.300 | And so they just have this sort of very dry and formal relationship with God. You find counselees oftentimes when they sin, that functionally, although they say they're not Catholic, functionally, they are performing some kind of penance in their relationship with God.
01:01:27.300 | They sin and they say, "Well, I have to do these acts of service, and then I can work my way back into God's good favor." And they're not enjoying the blessings of their justified status before God.
01:01:40.300 | And we want to do away with this notion that you can simply get to the imperatives of the Christian life without grounding yourself in your justified status.
01:01:54.300 | Again, I appeal to the sequence of Paul's train of thought in Romans 3-5. Before he gets to sanctification, he spends much time in justification, and that is in his ministry to believers, not to unbelievers.
01:02:12.300 | And so you have this much more language. I love the statement by Douglas Moo in his commentary to the Romans. Just listen to this and see if this resonates at all with your experience.
01:02:25.300 | He's talking about the effect that the doctrine of justification ought to have on our hearts. He writes in this paragraph, Paul invites us to join with him in celebrating the marvelous benefits conferred upon the justified believer.
01:02:40.300 | The apostle speaks as one who is extremely happy and full of joy. It is now the believer who is speaking. In fact, we might almost say singing.
01:02:50.300 | The word peace moves beyond the largely negative signification of the word in secular Greek peace as cessation or absence of hostilities to a more positive nuance, the well-being, prosperity, or salvation of the godly person.
01:03:04.300 | This background defines for us what Paul means by peace with God, not an inner sense of well-being or feeling of peace, but the outward situation of being in relationship of peace with God.
01:03:19.300 | Those who understand their justified status before God sing. Christians sing. Christians sing because we're justified. We don't chant. We don't just mumble. We sing because of this great doctrine of justification.
01:03:43.300 | On the last page of your handout, I just want you to note this. This is the how much more language. It reminds me of that infomercial or those infomercials you may have watched them on TV where they're always saying, and that's not all.
01:04:01.300 | If you buy this for $29.95, four easy payments, you also get this great cutlery set. You also get this great can opener. You also get this great spoon and fork collection, whatever it might be.
01:04:21.300 | It's always this more, how much more, and that's not all. That's the language of Romans 5 where Paul says, since we have been justified by faith, we've received this imputed righteousness, and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
01:04:38.300 | You might be saying, well, that's all that there is to say. There isn't anything more. I mean, isn't that enough to have peace with God, to have a standing in grace, but then you have throughout the book of Romans this much more language.
01:04:56.300 | Verse three, not only that, but rejoice in our sufferings. Verse nine, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Verse 11, more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
01:05:10.300 | Chapter eight, verse one, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Just a practical counseling note there. People who are suffering or who have been diagnosed with a physical illness or who have received a great calamity in their lives may struggle with, is this God punishing me?
01:05:32.300 | And as a biblical counselor, you need to be able to bring the truths of Romans 5 to 8 to bear upon that counseling situation and minister the truth that whatever this is, it is not condemnation. It is not punishment because Christ has satisfied God's wrath on our behalf.
01:05:51.300 | How much more will God bless us now that we have been justified by faith?
01:06:00.300 | So Carl Truman tells a story and I'll close with this. It is well known in his writings and table conversation, Luther would often refer to visits from the devil, how the devil would come to him and whisper in his ear, accusing him of all manner of filthy sin.
01:06:13.300 | Martin, you are a liar, greedy, lecherous, a blasphemer, a hypocrite. You cannot stand before God. To which Luther would respond, well, yes, I am.
01:06:22.300 | And indeed, Satan, you do not know the half of it. I have done much worse than that. And if you care to give me your full list, I can no doubt add to it and help make it more complete. But you know what? My Savior has died for all my sins.
01:06:37.300 | Those you mentioned and those I could add, and indeed those I have committed, but am so wicked that I am unaware of having done so. It does not change the fact that Christ has died for all of them. His blood is sufficient.
01:06:52.300 | And on the day of judgment, I shall be exonerated because he has taken all my sins on himself and clothed me in his own perfect righteousness.
01:07:02.300 | As C. H. Spurgeon says, my hope lives not because I'm a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness.
01:07:17.300 | My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is and what he has done and what he is now doing for me.
01:07:29.300 | Dear friends, I hope that this will encourage you this weekend to rejoice in the great truth of your justification.
01:07:39.300 | I hope this will motivate you to write a great essay to articulate these truths of justification being a legal declaration, a pronouncement that has been made in the past, a completed act in which the righteousness of Christ has been credited to our account.
01:07:57.300 | I hope you articulate an understanding of double imputation, not just the billion dollar debt being paid for in full, but the billion dollar positive infusion, the positive imputation of the positive credit of Christ being given to our account by grace through faith.
01:08:19.300 | And I do pray that you will be equipped to use this doctrine in counseling ministry.
01:08:29.300 | You can go much harder after the issues of sanctification once you have grounded your counselee in the doctrine of justification.
01:08:39.300 | And so I pray that we will be able to use this doctrine well to bring hope and help and joy to other believers.
01:08:49.300 | So make this study of this doctrine your lifelong pursuit, and I pray that God will bless your study of this truth this week.
01:08:58.300 | All right, well, I am out of time, and what I'm going to do is close us in prayer and wish you all a very wonderful Labor Day.
01:09:08.300 | And I hope you stay cool this weekend and are able to hang with the heat this weekend, but trust that God will bless your studies this week and join us again next Sunday at 5 o'clock p.m.
01:09:23.300 | We'll get back to our study in theology exam number 16, and we'll be here at the same time.
01:09:28.300 | So let me pray for us, and we'll close our time together.
01:09:33.300 | Well, Father, thank you so much. We just rejoice in these truths.
01:09:38.300 | Lord, thank you for Christ and his perfect righteousness.
01:09:43.300 | Thank you that you have clothed us with the righteousness of Christ so that we have boldness and confidence to come into your presence.
01:09:52.300 | We thank you that we don't need to work our way into your good favor, that we don't need to twist your arm into blessing us, that we don't need to overcome, Lord, a reluctance on your part to bless us or to grant us your kindness.
01:10:14.300 | But Lord, because of our justified status, because we come to you through Christ's perfect work, that we can come with boldness and confidence, knowing that your throne to us is a throne of grace, that unmerited favor flows into our lives through the work of Jesus on our behalf.
01:10:34.300 | Lord, help us as counselors in training to love this doctrine, to continually reorient our lives around the great truth of our justified status.
01:10:49.300 | And on the basis of our understanding of justification, may we pursue sanctification and holiness in the Lord.
01:10:58.300 | Thank you that we do not become more justified the more we are sanctified.
01:11:03.300 | Thank you that we are not pursuing sanctification in order to work our way into your favor.
01:11:10.300 | We thank you that we can pursue sanctification because we know that we already have been justified.
01:11:17.300 | We just praise you for these truths.
01:11:19.300 | Thank you for each student who has tuned in tonight and pray that you would bless the study this week.
01:11:26.300 | And we give our time to you in Jesus name. Amen.
01:11:31.300 | Amen. Well, God bless you guys. Thank you for joining us tonight.
01:11:34.300 | Have a wonderful weekend and we will see.