Good evening, we're back again, Systematic Theology. This is gonna be session 54 tonight. And once again, continuing our study of redemption as we're going along through that, God's project of choosing a people for himself, accomplishing their redemption from sin, then applying that redemption to the elect. And you'll see in your notes that once again, the Ordo Salutis, this is what the Reformed use as a structure to organize how scripture describes the project of God applying redemption to us. And we're up to step 3A in the order, which is justification. And just to review, we looked at the definition of justification from the Westminster Confession of Faith, and also a definition from the 16th century reformed theologian, Amanda's Polonus, which I've also included in the handouts. And his definition is this. The justification is the free, the free justification of man. The sinner before God is the benefit of God by which he declares man by nature wicked, but by grace, truly believing. righteous and free from eternal condemnation, as well as a sharer of eternal life through the obedience of Jesus Christ, our mediator and savior alone. Now, in the last couple of studies, we've seen that justification is a benefit that's given only to God's elect. And it happens when God issues the effectual call to salvation and grants us saving faith. We also saw that God freely justifies the elect. We don't bring anything to the table to receive justification. We have nothing to give. Even saving faith is granted by God. And that's simply the empty hand of the destitute beggar reaching out to receive the gift from the rich man. We've seen that justification is forensic. And that's a legal term. It is God, the judge in the courtroom, bringing the gavel down and making a legal declaration, the declaration that we are righteous. It's an instantaneous action of God and a definitive action. By instantaneous, I mean that justification, it's not a process. Once we're saved, God begins then a lifelong process in us of forming us after the character of Christ, but that's sanctification, not justification. Justification, on the other hand, is not a process. It is an instantaneous action by God. And what do we mean when we say that justification is definitive? When we say that justification is definitive, we mean we'll never be more legally justified than we are at the moment of justification. We'll never be more justified than at that moment. Justification is all or nothing. Once God declares us legally righteous, we will never be more justified and we will never be less justified. Now, there's some teachers out there that falsely state that there's gonna be some kind of a second justification at the final day of judgment, and they might call this final justification. It's not true. Justification occurs at the moment of salvation, instantaneously and definitively. There is no second justification. At the moment of God applying salvation benefits to you, when God grants saving faith, God then justifies you. God declares you righteous and you'll never be more justified or less justified than at that moment. And in the last study, we looked at justification as meeting a dual need, a dual need. It addresses two things that we owe God under God's law. We owe God a debt we cannot pay because on the negative side, we are legally guilty for the sin of Adam and legally guilty for our own sins. But the law also has a positive command to keep the entire law, which goes right to the core of our hearts. The law demands that we do all righteousness and we failed there as well. So we owe a double debt under the law and we cannot pay either side of that debt. But the good news is that God's action of justification addresses both aspects of that debt under the law. Now this evening, we're gonna look at how Christ, in his perfect life under the law, in his work on the cross, provided the payment for this twofold debt for his people. Christ's work for his people is expressed in his being obedient where Adam did not obey, and where we have not obeyed. Adam's one sin in the garden, his singular disobedience, led to all of mankind being condemned. I'm going to read first from Romans 5, verses 18 and 19. Romans 5, verses 18 and 19. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. So you have these two verses that give a comparison and a contrast between Adam and Christ. Adam committed a single trespass and in that trespass, his disobedience, he broke the entire law of God because the law stands or falls as a whole. And there's another contrast in these verses. There's a contrast between two words, condemnation and justification. They're both legal terms. As we looked at before, they are forensic terms, terms of the courtroom. There was a legal determination of condemnation upon the human race because of Adam's one trespass, his disobedience. Adam is the federal head of the human race. In other words, in the garden, Adam was our man in Washington, so to speak. When Adam sinned, we all sinned because he represented all of us in the garden. His disobedience was imputed to us, meaning Adam's disobedience was counted to us, as though each of us had been in the garden ourselves and did the same thing. In the garden, The courtroom verdict of condemnation was pronounced against all those who come from Adam, who are represented by Adam. But the opposite forensic term, the opposite of condemnation is justification. This forensic term is where the judge pronounces the defendant to be righteous. So in these two verses in Romans, we see three contrasts, Adam and Christ, disobedience and obedience. and condemnation versus justification. The way that we can see the obedience of Christ during his earthly walk is as a singular obedience, but with two aspects. It's kind of like a coin. It's a single coin, but it has two sides. Christ rendered a singular obedience to the Father during his earthly walk, but there's two sides, two aspects to his obedience. And these two aspects of his obedience are called His active obedience and his passive obedience. Active and passive obedience. So let's define those terms. Active obedience and passive obedience. We'll look at the definition of active obedience first. And I like the definition given by that theologian, Amandus Polonus again, where he said, the righteousness of Jesus Christ by which we are justified before God is the most perfect obedience to the whole divine law, consisting of most exact conformity of the whole human nature of Christ and of all his actions and sufferings, the internal and external, to the whole law of God, which he most perfectly fulfilled in our place, so that he might obtain for us deliverance from eternal death and the right of eternal life. So we need to pick that apart a little bit. What was Christ's act of obedience? Christ's act of obedience was his perfect obedience to all the law of God during his entire earthly walk. In other words, Christ in his earthly walk completely fulfilled the law of God. He fulfilled all righteousness under the law. When Christ did this, he succeeded where Adam failed and where we fail. Then Polonus points out that Christ did this act of obedience in our place on behalf of his people. We owe perfect obedience to the law in order to be declared righteous and have a right to eternal life, but we failed at this. But Christ performed perfect obedience on our behalf. The God-man in his earthly walk earned the state of righteousness for us by his own perfect obedience. That righteousness is then accounted to his people. That's the first aspect of Christ's obedience that will cover his active obedience. But the other aspect of Christ's obedience is called his passive obedience, his passive obedience. This is Christ's obedience in willingly suffering for us. The word passive in passive obedience is something we can misunderstand. Christ's suffering was a very active work. He wasn't passive in that work. Why is his obedient and willing suffering called his passive obedience? Well, the word passive comes from the Latin passio, which means suffering. That's the Latin word at the root of what we call the passion of Christ, which is his suffering on the cross. The passive obedience of Christ took place during the entire time of his earthly walk in sufferings of both body and soul. But then it reached its culmination in what some call the passio magna, the great suffering, his work on the cross. His suffering was to bear the punishment due to us, his people, for our sins. Once again, I'm going back to Amanda's Polonus. He wrote this about these two aspects of Christ's obedience imputed to us for righteousness. He wrote from these, it is manifest that the righteousness of Christ through which we are established righteous before God, or which is imputed to us by God is the perfect obedience and fulfillment of the whole law, not only regarding the commandments, but also regarding the threatening of the penalty. In other words, we owed a double debt. We have failed to fulfill the law, and we also committed trespass against the law. In order to gain the right to eternal life, we must fulfill the law. In order to escape the punishment of eternal death, we must not sin against the law. We have debt, on both counts, but Christ paid our double debt in his active obedience, fulfilling the law, and his passive obedience, taking our penalty upon himself in his suffering, culminating at the cross. We'll go into more detail on both aspects of Christ's obedience on our behalf, and we'll look at the active obedience of Christ first. Then in the next study, we'll move on to the passive obedience of Christ. Right from the start of Jesus' public ministry, he proclaimed the focus of his work. And part of that focus was the fulfilling of righteousness on our behalf. And if you'd like to follow along, I'm gonna be next in the Gospel of Matthew chapter three. This passage tells us of the ministry of John the Baptist, who called the people to repentance in preparation for the arrival of the Messiah. He also called the people to be baptized with the baptism of repentance. But then we see what we might not expect, and that is Jesus coming to be baptized by John. And I'll start reading from Matthew 3, verses 13 to 15. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. Now John the Baptist sees this as a contradiction. Jesus, he doesn't need to repent or return to the Lord after wandering astray from the Lord. Jesus is without sin. John recognizes that Jesus is greater than him and John strenuously objects to baptizing Jesus. Instead, John desires to be baptized by Jesus with the promised baptism of the Holy Spirit. John actually began to forbid Jesus from going through with this. But then Jesus gives the response that I want to focus on. Jesus tells John in the imperative mood, a mood of command to do as he asks, even though John is correct that Jesus doesn't personally need this baptism of repentance. The reason that Jesus gives is for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." To fulfill all righteousness. Here on this occasion, we see Jesus pointing to both aspects of his obedience on our behalf. Both his passive and active obedience are on display when he tells John that it's fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. First, we see his passive obedience on display. That's his obedience in willingly suffering for his people. By being baptized with a baptism of repentance, a repentance that the people had to show because of their sins, Jesus was identifying with the sins of his people. The suffering of Jesus, his passive obedience was a taking of his people's sins upon his own shoulders. and by submitting to a baptism of repentance, he wasn't showing that he was himself in need of repentance, but that he was already suffering for his people by identifying with our sins. This identification with our sins would culminate in another three years at the cross, the passio magna, the great suffering, when Jesus would carry our sins on his shoulders to the suffering and the work of the cross. In submitting to the baptism of John, Jesus also stated that he was fulfilling all righteousness. It was the will of the father for Jesus to receive this baptism. And Jesus completely fulfilled the will of the father at all times. To fulfill all righteousness, to completely fulfill the law requires total obedience to God's revealed will. On this occasion of this most unique baptism in history, Jesus is showing his fulfilling of the entire law of God in every detail. He was showing this by submitting to the Father's will in receiving the baptism of John. The law requires loving God with all of our being. And in this submission to John's baptism, Jesus was fulfilling this part of the law. He followed the will of the Father at all times, including here at the Jordan River. This unique baptism of Jesus is an indication of both his passive and active obedience. He displayed his passive obedience, the obedience of suffering, by already identifying with the sins of his people. He also displayed his active obedience, his complete lifelong total obedience, fulfilling the law by submitting to the will of the Father. On this one occasion, we can see both. the active and passive obedience of Christ. To see the value of the fact that Christ fulfilled the law completely, that he fulfilled all righteousness, we can look at some passages that show our need for the righteousness of another. And I'm gonna go first to the book of Micah, chapter six, verse eight, Micah 6.8. In this section, the Lord has given Micah the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah. who would be born in Bethlehem. Then God gives his legal charges against Israel, a covenant lawsuit, if you will, because they've broken the covenant. In this legal indictment, God proclaims that he's not at fault in this breach of covenant. It is Israel that has wondered from God. If Israel responds with the question, what sacrifice can I bring to make things right? God answers that none of their animal sacrifices would address this relationship issue. The Lord is not pleased with even great quantities of animal sacrifices. I'll read a couple of verses before verse eight, verses six and seven, beginning in Micah 6.6. With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10,000 of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The Lord then responds with what is really a summary of the law. I'm going to read now from verse eight. He has told you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God. What does the Lord require? Do justice and love kindness. That's a summary of the second great commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Hebrew word for kindness in this verse is a word we've studied before. The word has said, This is the word we see in other places in the Old Testament for God's special covenant love. It's translated many times in the King James as loving kindness and in the ESV as steadfast love. That is the high bar of love we are called to. God's people are called to emulate God's love in a creaturely way than God summarizes the first great commandment to love God with all of our being with the phrase, to walk humbly with your God. Now this passage should show us two things. And there are two things about our relationship to God's law. You might remember in our previous studies, we looked at three proper uses of God's moral law, three uses of the law. The first use is to show us our sin and to drive us to Christ. The second use is as a restraint upon sin in the world. Then the third use is as our welcome guide once we are saved in order to live a holy life as fruit and evidence of salvation in gratitude to God. Now here in Micah 6.8, God is declaring what is pleasing to him, and that is obedience to his moral law, to love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves. For the Christian, one who is born again, one who is regenerated, Micah 6.8 is a welcome companion to remind us of the direction we need to go in the process of sanctification. It's an expression of the third use of the law. But this verse, Micah 6.8, also speaks of the first use of the law. An unsaved person should read this verse and be fearful. Who has perfectly fulfilled Micah 6.8? Have any of us perfectly done what is good? Have we loved our neighbor with perfect justice and emulating God's steadfast love, his has said? Have any of us perfectly walked with God in a humble manner, loving God with all of our being? You know, there's many who abuse this verse by thinking, well, it's just a foundation for governmental social programs. But other people, you know, they look at Micah 6, 8 as kind of one of those promise box verses. One of those things that people put a needle point and hang on their wall. That approach is thinking that Micah 6, 8, well, it's kind of easy to fulfill. It's sort of like a proverb, like early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. But the fact is Micah 6, 8 is a summary of the law and thinking of it as easy to live by. It's very low view of the law of God. What we should see in Micah 6, 8 is the law of God. in its first use and its third use. As regenerated Christians in the process of sanctification, we welcome Micah 6.8 as a guide, but the unsaved should approach it in fear. In order to have the righteousness of God that he requires, we would have to fulfill all righteousness. We have not done Micah 6.8 perfectly. We cannot bring our own righteousness before God to earn salvation. But the good news of the gospel is that we have a champion who has fulfilled all righteousness on our behalf. Instead of trying in vain to create our own righteousness under the law to attain the right to eternal life, we come before God clothed with the righteousness of our champion. I'll be in Galatians chapter four next, Galatians chapter four. In Galatians, Paul is comparing the law and the gospel. The law is good, but because of our sin, our attempts at salvation by our own law keeping are not effective. Indeed, salvation is by grace, not by our own efforts. Because of our sin, the law brings a curse, but Christ redeemed us from the law's curse. Now we come to Galatians chapter four, and Paul shows how Christ has set us free from the law's curse. I'll read from Galatians four, verses four and five. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law. to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. This passage in Galatians teaches an incredible thing. If you look at verse four, it says that Christ was born under the law. Christ, the law giver himself was born under the law. To be under the law means to be accountable to fulfilling the law throughout one's life. God sent his son and his son was born under the law. The lawgiver himself was willingly born into a position where he was accountable to completely fulfill the law, the very law he gave. Here's how the Puritan William Perkins explains how Christ in his earthly walk was subject to the law. In Perkins' commentary on this passage here in Galatians, he wrote, how was the son of God subject to the law? Answer, by a two-fold obedience, namely, by the obedience of his passion and by his obedience in fulfilling the law. And then Perkins goes on and writes, by the second obedience, In fulfilling the law, the Son of God performed for us all things contained therein, that we might have right to life everlasting, and that, according to the tenor of the law, do all these things and live. Those four scary words, do this and live. We couldn't do this and live, Christ did. In other words, we owe God a double debt. We owe the debt to fulfill the law with our mind, will, and strength. Second, we owe a debt to die for our breaking of the law. We cannot bring to God the payment to release ourselves from these two debts. But our champion, our substitute, our new representative, Christ, has paid these two debts for us. He did so by his active obedience, a perfect obedience and fulfilling of the law. his suffering and death on the cross, his passive obedience. Why did Christ, the law giver, willingly humble himself to being accountable to fulfill the entire law during his earthly walk? Verse five explains it. It was to redeem those who were under the law. Adam had an obligation to fulfill the law in the garden and he failed. We who are in Adam, our representative also failed in Adam, then we ourselves, each of us have failed personally to fulfill the law. Adam failed to fulfill the law of God in the garden, and we failed to fulfill the law. But Christ succeeded in fulfilling the law. In the Gospel of John, Jesus, the second Adam, states his purpose in obeying where the first Adam failed. And I'll read from the Gospel of John chapter eight next. And here in this passage, Jesus is declaring to the Pharisees that it was the father who sent him. I'll read from John chapter eight, verses 28 and 29. So Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone for I, always do the things that are pleasing to him. Verse 29 is where Jesus testifies of his act of obedience. For I always do the things that are pleasing to him. That little word always is powerful. That word always speaks of unwavering obedience. Here's what Matthew Henry had to say about Jesus' affirmation of his own total obedience. No mere man since the fall could say such a word as this, for in many things we offend all. But our Lord Jesus never offended his father in anything, but as became him, he fulfilled all righteousness. This little word always speaks of absolute perfection in the fulfilling of all righteousness. Never once strained from total obedience to the father in what he came to do. This complete fulfilling of all righteousness includes along with perfect obedience, perfect motivation, perfect motivation. Christ was the one who perfectly loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Christ didn't obey the law grudgingly. The totality of his mind, will, and affections were engaged in obedience. One word to describe this is the word zeal. In his earthly walk, Christ had a zeal for righteousness. I'm gonna turn next to an episode in the Gospel of John that we're familiar with to focus on Christ's zeal for righteousness. I'll be in the Gospel of John chapter two, verses 14 to 17. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, Take these things away. Do not make my father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. Jesus confronted the profiteers in the temple area with great moral power, telling them in the sense of the original Greek, stop making my father's house an emporium. The Greek word emporion is used here, which is where our word emporium comes from. It is as though in his zeal for righteousness, Jesus was saying, how dare you make my father's house an emporium, a common marketplace. At that moment, a phrase from Psalm 69 struck the disciples, zeal for your house will consume me. His zeal for righteousness was, a mark of the fulfillment of this prophecy of the Messiah. The total obedience of Christ to every letter of the law was not only shown outwardly, but in the total engagement of his mind, will, and affections toward righteousness. In other words, Christ had zeal for righteousness. Another passage that points to the zeal of Christ for obedience is once again in the Gospel of John. We'll move forward a couple of chapters to John chapter four and read verses 31 to 34. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not know about. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat? Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Now this comes at the end of the account of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. And in this conversation, Jesus had brought spiritual light to this Samaritan woman and revealed himself to her as the Messiah. And the woman went back into town, told her story, and the town came out to meet Jesus. And then a little bit later on, Verse 39 tells us that many of them became believers. Now, one of the aspects of Jesus' ministry was to bring spiritual light to dispel spiritual darkness. He had a zeal at Jacob's well to do exactly that. He then told the disciples, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Obedience, it wasn't a grudging obedience for Jesus. He compared his zeal for obedience to the need for food. There's an interesting comparison between Jesus comparing his own zeal for obedience to the need for food and the opposite in Psalm 78, which is where I'll be next. In Psalm 78, Asaph recounts God's faithfulness to Israel in the wilderness, even in the face of their continued rebellion and disobedience. If you'd like to follow along in Psalm 78, I'll read verses 17 to 19. Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved. They spoke against God saying, can God spread a table in the wilderness? The words of Jesus. at the well of Jacob compared his zeal to his need for food. And here in Psalm 78, well, food's mentioned again. But in Psalm 78, food is a focus of the people's rebellion. In their rebellion, they demanded the food they craved. In their rebellion, they challenged God by saying, can God spread a table in the wilderness? These two passages that speak of food provide a contrast. Jesus told the disciples that he had food they didn't know about. Obedience was like his very food and drink. The rebellious Israelites in the wilderness showed their disobedience by ignoring their true need to know and joyfully obey God in favor of making demands for food. This might remind us of the devil's temptation of Christ in the wilderness when Jesus was hungry and the devil tempted him to command the stones to become bread. Jesus responded with zeal for righteous obedience. In this passage, I'll read from Matthew chapter four, verse four. But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The core of the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden was they believed the devil's lie. that they could be an independent source of truth to themselves. They didn't live by every word that came from the mouth of God. Dependence on every word that comes from the mouth of God means we're not independent. God's word places us under obligation to obey. Adam failed in this test, but where Adam failed, our champion, Christ, the second Adam, succeeded. Christ firmly rejected the devil's suggestion to turn stones to bread like some kind of magician in a way independent from the father in pure self-indulgence. Instead, Christ countered the devil's suggestion with God's word. Food is essential to life, but God's word has greater priority to life. And the word that he quoted affirmed a dependence on God's word. Jesus undid Adam's failure by answering the devil properly. The modern theologian, Michael Horton wrote this about the two aspects of Christ obedience. He was not only sinless, but righteous, not only a non transgressor of the law, but the joyful fulfiller of all righteousness. His commission was to bring not only forgiveness of sins, but also that positive righteousness that God wills for us in his world. As Michael Horton wrote, Jesus was not only the one who did not sin against the law, but he was also a fulfiller of all righteousness. And this fulfilling, of all righteousness was a joyful fulfilling. It was not a grudging obedience. Jesus obeyed perfectly, and part of that perfection was zeal in that obedience. Christ's active obedience was perfect in mind, will, and affections. We've looked before at the fact that once we are justified by God, we will never be under some imagined need for a second justification at the final day. the work of Christ for us in both his active and passive obedience, it was a perfect work. The original righteousness of Adam was lost in the garden when he sinned. The righteousness of the angels who would fall was lost when they rebelled. But the righteousness that is applied to us in justification when God grants saving faith will never be lost. Romans chapter eight, which is where I'll be next, verses 33 and 34, make it clear that our justification is complete. We've read these verses a couple of studies ago, but I'll review them again just for our encouragement. Romans chapter eight, verses 33 and 34, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is to condemn, Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. These verses use two forensic terms, two terms of the courtroom. Here the word in verse 33, justifies, and the word in verse 34, condemn. These are the two possible outcomes of a courtroom. At the end of a trial, the defendant will receive one of these two forensic words pronounced over him. Either word will have an impact on his entire existence. Paul here gives us reason to rejoice, to be encouraged to the greatest degree. We have already received the verdict of justified. And that verdict can never be changed. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. In the work of Christ, God has, with his strong right arm, secured for us the right to eternal life. It is the work of Christ, the active and passive obedience of Christ, culminating in the all-important work of the cross that has secured justification. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. those who God has saved are permanently justified. Don't let anyone tell you that, well, God did his part initially, and now it's up to you to make it through a second justification. So you better get cracking. What would be the quality and quantity of works that we would have to contribute to make up something lacking in Christ's work on our behalf? One passage. that gives encouragement on the permanence of our justified state is in Titus chapter three. In this section, Paul brings up the sin of our former lives, but then contrasts it against our current state of being born again and justified. I'll read from Titus chapter three, verses four to seven. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us. not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Paul says in verse five, that it is God's work that saves us. It is not our own works that we imagined might bring righteousness. It was all God's mercy. For our encouragement, I wanna focus on verse seven. Here Paul writes, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Now digging into the Greek grammar a little, when Paul writes, being justified by his grace, the word we see as justified is in something called the eris passive. What does that mean? Well, the eris tense means that this justification happened at a particular single point in the past. That particular single point was when we were saved. The passive voice means that we were acted upon by God. Wasn't us doing the work. God did the work. We were passive in our justification. Because God has, at the moment that he granted saving faith to us, he justified us. We are now heirs of eternal life. God, by justifying us, has given us the right as heirs to eternal life. There is no doubt about our final status at the great judgment. As we just read in Romans, it is God who justifies. So no one can bring a charge against us. The verdict of justified has already been announced by the judge. And that judge is God himself. The basis for that justification is the perfect work of Christ. So there's nothing left for us to offer. As we go forward in the Christian life, yeah, we do seek to do good works, but what are these good works? They're fruit and evidence of what we already are. They're not attempts to somehow fill in what's lacking in Christ's work of obedience. Christ's active obedience is perfect. The requirement to fulfill the law, to do the law's command of do this and live has been met by Christ. The debt we owed to do this and live has been paid by Christ's perfect act of obedience. The 20th century theologian, J. Gresham Machen, had this knowledge of his righteous standing before God because of Christ's act of obedience. In fact, his last words before he died were about Christ's act of obedience. His last known words before he died unexpectedly in 1937 were in a telegram to John Murray, And those words were, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ, no hope without it. We still need to cover the passive obedience of Christ, his suffering for us, his people. This is the other side of the debt we owe to God, the penalty for breaking the law of God. This passive obedience of Christ, of course, culminated in the great suffering, the cross. And we'll look at that in the next study. But to close tonight, I'll quote from one of Spurgeon's sermons. Here Spurgeon imagines the scene of the great day of judgment for the Christian and how our advocate Jesus will defend his people. And Spurgeon described it this way, as he goes on to speak before the infinite majesty, he pleads, my father, I obey the law on their behalf. I kept it in its very jots and tittles. I made it honorable. And now the righteousness, which I achieved, I have made over unto them for all that I am is theirs. My righteousness is their righteousness and they shall stand accepted in the beloved. The great judge of all admits the fact. And he receives into his bosom and into his glory poor souls who had sinned and pleaded guilty, but who now have imputed to them the righteousness of Jesus Christ and are justified by faith, which is in him, all their iniquities being blotted out. Amen. Thank you for coming tonight.