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So the question for tonight is
how can we be set right before God? In the world today, there
are many different opinions about how we're set into a right relationship
with God. You ask the Muslims how you can
be set right with God, they say you follow the five pillars of
Islam. If you ask others, maybe a Jehovah's
Witness, it's through telling people about what they believe
or doing good works to get their way into paradise. Hindus and
Buddhists think you need to reach a spiritual state of enlightenment.
Roman Catholics think it's through the sacraments and through good
works that we enter the kingdom of heaven. But what does the
Bible teach about how we enter into God's presence? It's radically
different than what the world teaches. We see ourselves as
utterly condemned and hopeless before God because of Adam's
sin. Yet Christ comes and bends down to humanity in the incarnation
when he takes on flesh. And he rescues us through his
death on the cross. So it's only through the work
of Christ. So tonight we're gonna look at the doctrine of justification. And this was at the heart of
the Protestant Reformation. This is what the Protestants
fought over, especially Martin Luther. Martin Luther, who was
an Augustinian monk, He struggled and he was terrified because
he knew he wasn't righteous before God. He knew that he deserved
punishment. And he used to confess for hours
daily to the priest. And the priest even got sick
and tired of just hearing his confessions. Like, that's enough.
But he was so condemned by this guilt on his conscience. Joel
Beakey explains, Luther tried everything to find peace with
God. from sleeping on hard floors and fasting to climbing a staircase
in Rome while kneeling in prayer. Monasteries, disciplines, confessions,
masses, absolutions, good works, all proved fruitless. Peace with
God eluded the monk, yet the thought of the righteousness
of God pursued him. Luther hated the word righteousness,
which he believed indicted a divine mandate to condemn him. But light
dawned on him as God opened his heart to the truth of the gospel
as he studied Romans 117. The righteous shall live by faith. It radically transformed him.
He saw for the first time that the righteousness that Paul had
in mind was not a punitive justice that condemns sinners, but a
perfect righteousness which God freely grants to sinners on the
basis of Christ's merits, which sinners received by faith. Luther
saw the doctrine of justification by grace alone, solo gratia,
by faith alone, solo fide, because of Christ alone, solo Christus,
was the heart of the gospel. It became for him an open door
into paradise, a gate to heaven. This so transformed Luther that
he stood up against the Roman Catholic Church and he wanted
to bring reform to the church. And because of it, he was condemned
as a heretic. He was willing to die. And yet
he stood on it because he thought this is what the word of God
teaches. So what do we mean when we talk
about justification? What is it? Does anyone have,
want to throw any ideas out? What do we mean when we say justification? To be put right. Okay. Through repentance. just as if he hadn't sinned,
okay? Anyone else? Okay, yeah, so that's right. Justification, this is a definition
by Wayne Grudem. It says, justification is an
instantaneous legal act of God in which he, one, thinks of our
sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness as belonging to
us, and two, he declares us to be righteous in his sight. So
the Greek word that underlies this doctrine is the Greek verb,
dikayao, which means to justify or to declare righteous. The
adverb is dikayosune, which means righteousness or justice. The
noun dikayas, which means righteous or just. So whenever you see
the word just or righteous, you know, this is the word underlying
it. It's to render a favorable verdict,
to vindicate, like a judge declaring not guilty. It's a legal term, to be declared
righteous. So most significantly, we find this in Paul's writings,
and this is where we're gonna be looking tonight, is in the
book of Romans specifically. Oh, and when we find this word
in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word is tzadik, which means to
declare righteous or justify, and we'll look at a passage in
Isaiah 53, 11 tonight. So as Luther came to understand the
doctrine of justification through looking at Romans, tonight we're
gonna turn there and look at Romans as well. We'll be looking
at several different passages. So turn with me to Romans 1. Romans 1, verse 16 and 17. And this is really Paul writing
his thesis for the entire letter. This is what the letter's all
about. Someone wanna read this for us? Alpha. So what do you notice about this
verse? What is Paul saying? It's for everybody and it's all
about faith. For everyone? It's by faith? It's to everyone
who believes? Anyone else? Cut. Giving an explanation as to why
he's willing to go through all the things of persecution and Where do you see that in the
passage? Okay, not being ashamed. So it was sort of a motivation
for how he lived his life. Yeah, that could be. I didn't
think so much about that. Anyone else? It's about faith. Righteousness comes through faith. So Paul says he is not ashamed
of the gospel, but why? Did you see that word in verse
16, for? Verse 16, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel, why? This is his answer. For it is the power of
God for salvation. So the reason he's confident
is because he has something firm to place his trust on, some firm
foundation he can stand on. When you have something firm
to trust in, you can be secure that you're safe. Like if I'm
in a big storm, some of these storms that have been happening,
and I'm in a nice brick building, I can have confidence I'm gonna
stay dry, I'm gonna be safe, I don't have anything to worry
about. But if I'm out on the common in a little tent, and
there's thunder and lightning and a torrential downpour, I
cannot have too much confidence in that because that which I'm
placing my confidence in is very shaky and not very stable. Paul says he knows the greatness
of the gospel. That's why he's not ashamed.
This is the reason. It is the power of God for salvation. It's powerful. It's mighty. It's
a firm foundation. It's not just any power. It's
the power belonging to God. So the God who spoke the universe
into motion, This is where we see the true power of God. It's
not when we look at the stars and billions of galaxies. It's
not when we look at the ocean and how mighty and majestic it
is. It's not when we look at all these incredible things in
creation. Paul says the power of God is seen when you see a
rebel sinner turn from his sin and turn to God. He says that's
where the power of God's found. When you see someone who is destined
for death turn to life, that's the power of God. And this is
where God's most magnificent power is put on display. He says,
in it, the gospel and in it, the righteousness of God is also
put on display. So you see God's character is
put on display through the gospel. But how is his character revealed? What does it say here? For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed. Verse 17. But how is it revealed? From faith, for faith. What does
that mean? Gotta believe it. Any other guesses? Yeah. So it's beginning from
faith, beginning in faith, for faith, ending in faith. Something
that's from faith, meaning from the faithfulness of Christ, ending
in our faith, from the faith of Christ for our faith. So this
is where the power of God's seen. This is where the righteousness
of God is seen. For Habakkuk says, the righteous shall live
by faith. When Luther read this and the Lord opened his eyes,
he saw that he had peace with God solely through his faith
and not his pious works. Paul says salvation is the power
of God, but we need to understand what salvation is from. If I
were to come in here tonight and say, I was saved today. It was incredible. Say, from
what? I said, well, I was driving down
the road. I was going 20 kilometers over
the speed limit, and there was a speed trap coming up. And my
friend in the passenger seat said, slow down. And so I slowed
down and I avoided And I was saved from a ticket. Okay, so
maybe that's a good thing. But if I were to tell you a similar
story and said, today I was driving down the road going 20 kilometers
over the speed limit, and I was not paying attention, and there
was a red light, and there was a truck about to come through
the intersection. And if I had gone through, I would have been
killed. My friend said, stop! And I slammed on the brakes,
and I was saved from death. That's a little bit better, isn't
it? So it matters what you're saved from, and often we hear
in Christianity, I was saved, but there's never any reference,
often never any reference from what? What are we saved from? But I think Paul answers it in
the very next verse, in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So what is it we're saved from? The wrath of God. What's God's wrath? What specifically do you, that
stands out in this verse? And suppress the truth. They
suppress the truth. If you see, look at the definition
of salvation. Our answer is found over there. The definition of salvation.
And what I like is when he says, salvation is a rescue from death
and damnation and a restoration to Christ. That's very good. That's very good. Notice in verse
18 he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven and
it's against all ungodliness. oppressing against something.
It's the ungodliness of men who by their unrighteousness are
suppressing the truth. It says that God's nature is
clearly seen through the creation. We can tell there's a God, yet
people are still suppressing the truth. In verse 23, he says,
they saw that God was the creator, yet they exchanged the glory
of the immortal God for images. resembling mortal man and birds
and animals and creeping things. Notice that this is a breaking
of one of the first commands. Is it the second command? Shall
not make any idols. They're now making idols. They're
trading the glory of God for something their own hands have
made. So God gave them up to sin. We
see in verse 24, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts.
to the dishonoring of their bodies. 26, for this reason, God gave
them up to dishonorable passions. 28, since they did not see fit
to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind. So
God gives them over to their sin. God's wrath is revealed
and that he lets them continue on the trajectory they wanna
be on. He lets them continue going from bad to worse. And
so this is the plight, this is the danger they're in. 29, They're
filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They're
gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful,
inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless,
heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous
decrees that those who practice such things deserve to die, they
not only do them, but give approval. to those who practice them. This
is the danger they're in. They're under the wrath of God.
They're in their sin. It's as if you have an army marching
atop a hill, and they know there's this sheer drop-off coming, yet
they continue marching. They're just marching off the
end. They know that those who do such things deserve to die,
and yet they're still going that direction. They're not stopping.
They know death is coming, and they're heading straight for
it. God lets them continue in their
self-destructive rebellion. So in chapter 2, Paul now turns
to the religious. He just looked at the whole world,
and he says, the world's condemned. Now he turns in chapter 2 to
the religious, to the Jews. Therefore you have no excuse,
O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another,
you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the
very same things. We know that the judgment of
God rightly falls on those who practice such things. So notice here, he now says to
the religious, he says, they're judging those who do other things,
who are doing all those evil things, but they themselves are
engaging in those practices. And he says specifically, you
condemn yourself. What is condemnation? What does it mean to be condemned? To be judged, to be found guilty.
Exactly. Cast out of the presence of God.
It's the opposite verdict of to be justified. To be justified
is declared righteous. To be condemned is to be declared
guilty and deserving the punishment, often the death penalty. So Paul says this is the danger
the world's in. They're guilty and they're under
the wrath of God. This is the plight that the Jews
or the religious people are in. They're condemned because they
break the law of God as well. Now in chapter three, verse 10,
Paul comes to the pinnacle of man's condemnation. He comes
to this mountainous danger that all humanity is in. Three, verse
10. None is righteous, no, Not one. That means in all the world,
every single person you see, there's not a single person who
stands out as righteous. Not one, not a single one. They're under the judgment of
God. Can someone read 11 through 18
for us? No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together
they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one.
Their throats is open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of
curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift. in their
paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not
known. There is no fear of God before they are. So the mighty God who created
everything now sees this creation, but every single person in creation
has broken his commands and rebelled against him. As John MacArthur
says, they're in danger of being thrown into the rubbish heap
of the universe, hell. Jesus called it Gehenna, which
is an unending fire heap that continually burned that people
just took their rubbish to. This is what they're in danger
of. The whole of humanity is part of this army marching off
the cliff into the abyss, and they're still going, and they're
going, and they're going. Now in verse 19, we see that
God gave us his law to show us our sin and close our mouths
of justifying ourself before him. John, would you read 19 to 20
for us? Now we know that whatever the
law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that
every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable
to God. For by working the law, no human
being will be justified in his sight, since through the law
comes knowledge obscene. So the law, what's the function
of the law? What does Paul say here? It's to expose that sinfulness.
It's to expose it where one of those people is marching straight
towards condemnation. Anything else? Yeah. Brings awareness of our
need of a Savior. It says we'll be held accountable
to God so that the whole world may be held accountable. For
by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his
sight. So it shows that they have a
just condemnation, the eternal death penalty in hell. This is
why doing good things can't save you, because it doesn't affect
the fact that you've done so much crime and wickedness against
God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified.
To be justified is to be declared righteous. By works of the law,
no one will be declared righteous. But if they stand on their own
righteousness, they're in a world of trouble. For they broke his
commandments. They dishonored him. They deserve
the condemnation. Now, how can they be saved? How
can they be saved? How can we be saved? This is
where It's like a beautiful song breaking through, like hearing
the birds chirping in the morning after the night. And this is
where you get a glimmer of hope for the first time in Paul's
letter. 3 verse 21. We want to start over here and
we can read all the way through 26. Do you want to start until
we get through the end of 26 going back this way? Sorry, 21
all the way through 26. But now the righteousness of
God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law
and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there
is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ. God put
forward this propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness
because if His After all this condemnation of
the first three chapters, where is the hope now? Where's the
hope? Jesus Christ. How is the righteousness
of God revealed? Through Jesus Christ. A rescuer
has now come, the one man, Jesus Christ. Where were we? All sin
and fall short of the glory of God. People were in danger when
they broke God's commands. and they did not glorify him
as they ought, rather they worshiped idols, but now they're justified
by his grace as a gift through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus. Notice how Paul says in verse one, he says, the law and
the prophets bear witness to it. Now, what's he talking about
when he says the law and the prophets bear witness to it?
What is the law? It's the word of God. What do
you think more specifically when he says law? Maybe the 10 commandments. The built-in conscience. But
when he says law and prophets, what does that sort of make you
think of? The Old Testament scriptures, the law. What's the law? It's
the first five books of the Bible. So where do we see this in the
law that it's pointing forward to a deliverer? All points to Christ. What happens
right after the fall? God gives what? What happens right after the
fall? Aubrey? One will crush the serpent's
head. This is where the righteousness
of God is manifest in the law. There's coming a one who will
bruise the head of the serpent. What else? Abraham. The call
of Abraham, through you, all the families of the earth will
be blessed. In you, all the families of the
earth will be blessed. Moses, what happens with Moses? The Passover happens, pointing
forward to this future redemptive deliverance of God. What's the
10 commandments? Moses brings a covenant, and
the covenant is, you have these stipulations, the 10 commandments
to live by. You have the sacrificial system.
Let's look at Deuteronomy 27, 15. And this is where it's kind
of a strange passage, but it talks about the curses that come
through breaking the law. Deuteronomy 27, verse 15. You can follow along with me.
I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm just going to read little
bits of it. 27, 15. Cursed be the man who make a
carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord. 16.
Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or mother. 17. Cursed
be anyone who moves his neighbor's landmark. 18. Cursed be anyone
who misleads a blind man on the road. 19. Cursed be anyone who
perverts justice due to the sojourner. 20. Cursed be anyone who lies
with his father's wife because he has uncovered his father's
nakedness. 21. Curse be anyone who lies with any kind of animal. 22, curse be anyone who lies
with a sister, whether the daughter of his father. 23, curse be anyone
who lies with his mother-in-law. 24, curse be anyone who strike
down his neighbor in secret. 25, curse be anyone who take
a bribe to shed innocent blood. And 26, curse be anyone who does
not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And the people
shall say, amen. So curses, curses for breaking
the law of God. Some of them are strange, but
it's significant because the curse is coming because the people
have broken the law of God. God knew when he inspired these
words to be written through Moses, that he was writing his own death
penalty. He knew that Israel would not live up to his holy
standard and they would break the commandments. He knew that
his covenant would be broken over and over again. He knew
that Israel would have to be sent into exile because of their
persistent disobedience and idolatry. Ultimately, he knew that he himself
had to come and live as the faithful one who fulfilled the covenant
to Israel. He knew that if his people were
to be given the covenant blessings, then a perfect substitute had
to come to fulfill the righteousness of the law and bear the condemnation
of the law. So Jeremiah foretells of a future
king, Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23, five. This is after
Israel has broken covenant and God's sending them into exile
in Babylon. And yet amidst the judgment that
God's sending on them, he gives this glimpse, this glimmer of
hope. Jeremiah 23. Five and six. Behold, the days are coming,
declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous
branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall
execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah
will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the
name by which he shall be called. The Lord is our righteousness.
So notice something, who is this future deliverer? Christ, but what were the Jews
thinking at this time? He says a righteous branch, he shall
reign as king. So they're thinking there's a
future king who's coming. So another man who's gonna be
king. But the significant thing is that this man is called the
Lord is our righteousness. How can a man be called the Lord
is our righteousness? He can't unless he's the God
man, unless he's the divine son of David. But they didn't know
this at this time. This would be the one whom they
would call Christ, which Christ, all that means is the anointed
one, the one anointed as King who is coming. He would be their
righteousness. Now remember the covenant curses,
which Deuteronomy 27, 26 says, Paul picks this up in Galatians
3, verse 10. He comments on this very verse, this curse from Deuteronomy. I just find it interesting that
the prophecy talks about Israel separately from Judah. At the time of Jeremiah, Israel
was long exiled. Yeah. Judah was partly already
exiled, weren't they? Yeah. So this must have been
an amazing prophecy to the people. Yeah, there'd be someone who'd
come back to deliver the northern and the southern kingdoms. I
mean, that should also give you a clue that it's not just an
ordinary man. Yeah. Yeah. Something radical
is going to take place in this future deliverer. Galatians 3.10. Commenting on Deuteronomy 27,
for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for
it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things
written in the book of the law and do them. Sound familiar?
It's what we just read in Deuteronomy. Now it is evident that no one
is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall
live by faith. but the law is not a faith. Rather,
the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from
the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written,
cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree so that in Christ Jesus,
the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that
we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So Paul
lays it out clearly that no one is declared righteous by the
law because the law So when Paul says the law and
the prophets bear witness to this, this is what the law is
bearing witness to. You're cursed under the law.
Yet there's one coming who will bear the curse for you and who
will extend the blessing of Abraham to you. Also from the first five
books of the Bible from the law. Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law by becoming a curse for us. Now, when did the prophets
foretell of this? One significant passage is Isaiah
53. Look at verse four through 11. Isaiah foretells of a suffering
servant 700 years before the time of Christ. Isaiah 53, verse
four. And we'll read 4 through 7. Can we pick up where we stopped
with John? Go 4 through 7 until we get through
the end of 7. For this peace, and with these
wounds, we are healed. He was oppressed. Wait, are we
at seven? Six. Sorry. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Are we going to seven? Yeah, seven. He was oppressed,
and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth,
like a lamb who is led to be slaughtered by her sheep. He is put into grief when his
soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring, and
he shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper
in his hands. So here we see in this prophecy
that there's a man who is coming, or there's one who is coming
who would bear the weight of the condemnation. What does it
say? He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
Verse six, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
So he stands in the place of judgment for the entire human
race, bearing the brunt of the wrath of God. The fury of the
just wrath of God was coming down upon mankind, yet Jesus
stood in humanity's place as their substitute. Now look at
verse 11 with me. This is significant for the topic
of justification. It says, out of the anguish of
his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall
the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities. When Isaiah says, the righteous
one make many to be righteous, he uses the Hebrew word tzadik
to declare righteous. When the Greeks translated this
into Greek, they use the word dikayao, which is the same word
Paul picks up in his writings when he says, justify. This is
what God does in justification. He bears the wrath in our behalf,
and he declares us righteous through the work of Christ. We
see it in Romans 3, 23 to 24. All have sinned and are justified,
declared righteous by his grace. Paul says it again in Galatians
2, 16. We know that a person is not
justified, declared righteous by works of the law. but through
faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ
Jesus in order to be justified, declared righteous by faith in
Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the
law, no one will be declared righteous. So the suffering servant
of Isaiah gives his life to bear the iniquities of his people.
He makes many to be accounted righteous. Paul says we're declared
righteous by faith in Christ Jesus. He's the one who makes
us right by dying in our place. What exactly is involved in this
process of justification to be declared righteous? Paul says the world is condemned,
so obviously it's not anything in and of ourselves. So what's involved in this process
of justification? What does it take to bring us
from condemnation to righteousness? Awareness of sin, repentance. Grace of God. They have the righteousness placed
upon them. Exactly. Declared righteous. That's right. So there are two things that
happen in justification. So you have this massive debt
of sin that deserves the condemnation, the wrath of God. And so your
sins must be taken away. And then a second thing needs
to happen. You must be given the righteousness
of Christ. So in justification, two things
take place. God thinks of our sins as being
forgiven and belonging to Christ. It's what we call imputation. Our sins are imputed to Christ
on the cross. And the second thing, God thinks
of Christ's righteousness as belonging to us. It's imputed
to us. This is demonstrated in Romans
4. Romans 4, verse 7 to 8, we first see that God thinks of
our sins as being forgiven. And we see this doctrine through
the word counted. That's very significant. That's
where we get this doctrine of imputation. Romans four, verse
seven. This is where our sins are considered
as not belonging to us. This is what David says. Blessed
are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man against whom
the Lord will not count his sin. So your sin's not counted to
you anymore. It's counted to another. And
as we've seen in the prophets, that was through Christ bearing
the iniquity of us all. So this would be like, as we
said, finding yourself in massive debt. Imagine finding yourself
in 300 billion Rand debt. Pretty significant. And some
generous benefactor comes along and he sees your family and he
has mercy on them. So he covers your debt. He pays
your debt. Now what's happened? You've gone
from 300 billion in debt to Zero. Okay, so that's good. Your record
was wiped out, but now you still have something that's lacking.
You don't have anything positive to your account. You just have
the negative taken away and brings you back to zero. That's the
first part of imputation. Your sin is taken away. Your
sin is given to another, to Christ. And when Jesus died on the cross,
he cried out. it is finished, which is a declaration
that could mean to be paid in full, that it's done, the debt
is wiped out, it's paid. So this tremendous debt was paid
as Christ suffered on the cross. But secondly, God thinks of Christ's
righteousness as belonging to you. Look at Romans 4, verse
3. Just jump up a couple verses,
and we'll see this. For what does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So Abraham's belief gives him
the righteousness of God. And it says in verse five, and
to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies
the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. So now when
you believe in Jesus, when you trust in Jesus, now you have
all the righteousness of Christ being placed into your account.
It's considered to him who trusts in who? What is God called here
in verse five? Him who justifies the ungodly. It's interesting. God's the one
who justifies the ungodly. God's the one who declares righteous
the ungodly. And that's the one we place our
faith in. Now, here in the story of Abraham,
it says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as
righteousness. When did that happen in Abraham's life? Do
you remember the story? It was before he was going to
sacrifice Isaac. Yeah, so shall your offspring. Yeah, he's, his wife is barren.
He can't have any children. And he says to the Lord, I'm
just going to give you my servant here, Eliezer. And, uh, was it
Eliezer? My servant Eliezer, he's going
to be the offspring in Genesis 15. And God says, no, that's
not the way it's going to be. You're not gonna accomplish this
through your means. And he takes him outside, shows
him the stars, says, if you can count and number the stars, so
shall your offspring be. And he believed God and it was
counted to him as righteousness. So what does Abraham do? He trusts
in the promises of God. And he's the sort of the example
of how we're to be as Christians. He believed in the provision
of God. that through him all the families of the earth would
be blessed, even though his wife was barren, and he was getting
older and older and older. And it wasn't until he was, what,
90, 100, that the Lord actually fulfilled that promise. So it's
incredible. Yet what does Romans 4 verse
20 say? No unbelief made him waver concerning
the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave
glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what
he had promised. This is why it was counted to
him as righteousness. And here's where it applies to
us. But the words it was counted to him were not 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. So Abraham gives us an example.
He believes in the promises of God. And now we too are to believe
in the promises of God. But what are the promises of
God that we're to believe in? What does it say? What do we believe in? Yeah, we believe that Jesus was
raised from the dead. What's that? He's the soon coming King. Yeah, so this promise is a thousand
times greater than the promise of Abraham. Through your offspring,
all the families of the earth would be blessed. So he trusted
the Lord for that promise. And actually, This is where that
promise actually is beginning to come true. Through Christ,
through this one, the offspring of Abraham, he was delivered
up for our trespasses and raised for our justification so that
the blessing of God could extend to all the families of the earth.
So now Abraham shows us how we're declared righteous before God.
We trust in the promises of God. So it's now like after having
that 300 billion Rand debt, erased from us. Now that same benefactor
gives us a hundred trillion Rand and he makes us a part of his
family. And now we're heirs of his family. That's incredible
because now you have the riches of that person in your account.
And that's what happens when you believe you're given the
riches of Christ. It's counted to you. It's imputed
to you. And that's how we're set right
before God. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, is probably the clearest
place we see this really stated. And here Paul is discussing his
ministry of reconciliation. He says, we're ambassadors for
Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on
behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And now he explains in
verse 21, 521, 2 Corinthians, He explains what this ministry
of reconciliation is. What is the reconciliation he's
preaching? For our sake he, God, made him,
Christ, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, in Christ,
we might become the righteousness of God. So what's taking place
there? An exchange. It's a great exchange. What's being exchanged? Our sin for Christ's righteousness. He's taking our filth and he's
giving us his riches. It's an incredible, incredible
teaching. In the redemption, God thinks
of our sin as belonging to Christ on the cross. And he thinks of
Jesus' righteousness as belonging to us. And that's how you stand
right before God. That's why your works mean nothing. Wow. You told a thousand people
about Jesus. My son came and he died on the
cross and he extended righteousness to the entire creation. He makes
wicked sinners now part of his family. He makes them adopted.
He gives them the spirit. He destines them for glory. He
makes them fellow heirs with Christ. And wow, you told all
these people about Christ. That's great. That brings glory
and honor to me. But that's not going to get you into heaven.
That just shows people that you've been changed by the grace of
God. Something was explained to us years ago, that it's as
if God gives you that check. Millions, billions, trillions.
And he says, That he is who he says he is. That's how we please God. That's
what faith means. And that is how you bank that
check. That's how they explained it. It's a good illustration. Because the check can be there,
but if you don't take it and put it in your bank account,
it means nothing. Yeah, if you don't trust in the
provision of God, it's not going to be applied to you. And that's
significant. That's very significant. Paul
says in Romans 4, 5, and to the one who does not work but believes
in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. So how, we just talked about
this, but how is this work received? How is the righteousness of Christ
received? By faith, sola fide, one of the battle cries of the
Reformation, faith alone. The one who believes in Him who
justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted as righteousness. And that's how we become acceptable
to God the Father. Exactly. He looks to us and He
doesn't see me and my son. He sees Jesus Christ. You're
hid in the righteousness of Christ. It's not your own righteousness. Anyone else have any thoughts?
So faith. It's interesting in the world
today, a lot of people feel proud of themselves for having faith.
Like, I have my faith. And most of the time that doesn't
mean anything at all. They just have faith in faith.
It doesn't have any real object to it. It's just sort of a nebulous
faith. But what is our faith in? Our
faith is in a faithful object. Our faith is in the God who justifies. Everyone in the world has faith,
even the person who's depressed and says, I've lost faith and
everything. They still have faith. They wake up every morning expecting
the ground below them to hold them up. They expect the sun
to rise, the sun to set. They expect their eyes to function
and be able to see. They expect the laws of nature
to still work. And even an atheist like Richard
Dawkins who sort of boasts about the fact that he doesn't have
faith, meaning sort of just a intellectual thing where he says, yeah, I
believe, I believe, I believe, I believe. But it doesn't have any object.
He says, oh, no, he has confidence. I have confidence in the scientific
method. What's that based on? That's
based on the laws of nature. It's based on the laws of logic.
But where do laws come from? They come from a law giver. Everyone has faith in something. Yeah, confidence is confide. R.C. Sproul explains it. It's
with faith. So I don't have faith, I have
confidence. Okay, so you have faith. It's just Latin for faith. But this is how we're set right
with God. Yet what is our faith founded in? It's founded in the
faithful work of a Savior who died in your place. As Christ
hung on the cross, He held the universe and He sustained the
universe in His hands. He held the beating of the heart
of His enemies who were crucifying Him in His hands. He sustained
those who whipped Him. He sustained those who nailed
Him to the cross. He sustained those nails so they
could hold him to the cross, and he willingly suffered the
wrath of God on our behalf. So we had a willing sacrifice,
one who's powerful, who's holding the universe in motion, yet he's
bearing the wrath of God on himself. And what do people slander him
and say? Can't he who's healed the sick
bring himself down off the cross? Yeah, he could wipe the universe
out with one word. With one word, he could call
a legion of angels down, and yet he's there willingly sacrificing
himself. He says, no one takes my life
from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. That's where our
confidence is in. And this is why Paul says, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes. Because this is where God extends
his righteousness. So just quickly, throughout Romans,
we see the doctrine of justification emphasized. Paul teaches justification
to be declared righteous in the sight of God, not on the basis
of works, but by faith, in 3.22-26, and in 4 that we looked at. After Paul greets the Roman believers,
he lays out his thesis, the gospel is the power of God, and through
it, the righteous shall live by faith. So God's answer to
our sin, shame, and depravity is justification, a declaration
of righteousness that comes about through the righteous, redemptive
life of Christ. The Jews and Romans at this time,
they lived in an honor, shame-based culture where the Jews thought,
or the Greeks thought themselves superior because they were wise.
They had all this wisdom. And the Jews thought they were
superior because they were the people of God and they observed
the law. Yet Paul says, there's no distinction. No one is righteous. All have sinned and fall short
of the true honor, which is the glory of God. And they're under
his just condemnation. We saw that in the first three
chapters. After this, Abraham shows us that imputed righteousness
comes by faith. David speaks of the blessing
of being forgiven, of our sins being not counted against us.
And Abraham gives us an example of how the righteous live. Namely,
they trust in the promises of God. He believes in the promises
that God make him the father of many nations. Now the practical
application of this in chapter five, we see we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Right standing before God means
that we face life differently. We even rejoice in our sufferings.
For our true honor comes through God. We now boast in our sufferings,
which the world sees as shameful. We now have reconciliation with
God through Christ. We now have the power to overcome
sin in chapter six through Jesus. We now have a right standing
before God that removes the condemnation of the law in chapter eight.
God now gives us a spirit so that we're freed from the curse
of sin. And so that we might be obedient to God by the spirit.
He now guarantees that we'll be children of God. And significantly
in 8, chapter 8, verse 29, this is kind of part of his conclusion. Chapter 8, verse 29, or verse
28 rather. Aubrey, can you read 28 for us
and John 29? John, you're there? I'm reading verse 29 of Romans
chapter 8. Do you want to read it? Kyle, you can read 28. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called
according to His purpose, And those whom He predestined,
He also called. And those whom He called, He
also justified. And those whom He justified,
He also glorified. So this is Paul's sort of a summary
point after talking about this glorious doctrine of gospel justification. We know that all things work
together for good for those who love God. Sorry, and we know
that for those who love God, all things work together for
good. Why? For those who are called according
to his purpose. So how do we know all things
work together for good? He gives us the basis in verse
29. For those whom he foreknew, he
also predestined. How do we know all things work
together in the present? Because before eternity and eternity
passed, God foreknew us, God predestined us. God meant our
good. in the beginning, before the
world was created, in order that He might conform us to the image
of His Son. 30. Those whom He predestined, He called. Presently,
He called us to salvation. And those whom He called, He
also justified. He declared us righteous. And
in our future, He means our good, too. And those whom He justified,
He also glorified. That means our assurance of being
in heaven someday with resurrected bodies with Christ is sure. God
meant our good in eternity past. He meant our good when He died
on the cross. He means our good in the future. Now we know all
things work together for good because He meant our good then,
now, and forever. Of course He means our good.
So this is where our hope is. This is where the glory of God
is. So verse 33. 35. 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 is raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake
we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep
to be slaughtered. Know in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. So it says,
who can condemn us? God is the one who decrees the
verdict. God is the one who justifies.
And that is where our hope lies. There's this amazing letter written
about 130 AD to 200 AD. It's called the Letter to Diognetus.
It's one of the earliest Christian apologists. And he wrote this
to a non-believer, and here's what he says. He lays out the
doctrine of justification very clearly, which is interesting
because people say justification didn't come about until the time
of the Reformation. But this is early church fathers,
and this is what he says. But when our unrighteousness
was fulfilled and it had been made perfectly clear that its
wages, punishment and death were to be expected, then the season
arrived during which God had decided to reveal at last his
goodness and power. Oh, the surpassing kindness and
love of God. He did not hate us or reject
us or bear a grudge against us. Instead, he was patient and forbearing. In His mercy, He took upon Himself
our sins. He gave Himself up in His own
Son as a ransom for us, the Holy One for the lawless, the guiltless
for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible
for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal, for what else
but His righteousness could have covered our sins? And whom was
it possible for us, the lawless and the ungodly, to be justified,
except in the Son of God alone? Oh, the sweet exchange. Oh, the
incomprehensible work of God. Oh, the unexpected blessing that
the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous man,
while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners. It's incredible. Letter to Diognetus,
written before 200 AD. So what does this mean for us
today? It means we have peace with God. We're reconciled to
a right relationship with God. We have the power to overcome
sin through His work on our behalf. There's no condemnation. Every
circumstance we face, we know God has our good in mind. Christ
is our only hope in life. And that's what Paul teaches
in the letters to the Romans.
The Trinity
Series Gcc 2019
| Sermon ID | 4121992195101 |
| Duration | 1:01:05 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Language | English |
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