Raised for Our Justification

Romans 4:22–25 HCSB

22 Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, 24 but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

What is this faith that justifies?

How can a person be justified before God?

This was Job’s question.

The question infers these:

It infers God.

It infers this Holy God. In fact, that God is Holy, holy, holy.

It infers our sin.

It infers that we need to be justified.

Let me ask the question another way:

How can you know your sins are forgiven?

How can you approach God in prayer?

How can you face death without any fear?

So, here’s our question again:

What is this faith that justifies?

And the apostle has these answers.

I. Faith that justifies is a faith that believes in God and glorifies God.

“It will be credited for us who believe in Him...”

The faith Paul speaks of believes in God.

Much is said about the Lord Jesus Christ and about the Holy Spirit, but ignores the Father. We must keep everything in order in the way in which they are found in the Scriptures. Everything starts with God and everything must end with God.

All that the Lord Jesus Christ did was designed by the Father to bring us to God,

John 14:6 HCSB

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

to reconcile us to God.

2 Corinthians 5:18 HCSB

18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5:

It is God who sent Him to do that work,

John 5:

John 5:30 HCSB

30 “I can do nothing on My own. I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

therefore it must all centre ultimately on God the Father.

God the Father is the starting point of true faith.

Faith does not start with me and my subjective circumstances and feelings. It starts with God Himself.

“Believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

II. Faith that justifies is a faith that believes in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

Faith is a belief in God, but not only a belief in God in general.

Jews believe in a god. Moslems believe in a god. Hindus believe in millions of gods. But Paul says something very particular and specific here concerning the resurrection.

Abraham believed in God in general, but there came a day when God said something particular and specific, something special, to Abraham and when he believed it was that faith that was credited to him for righteousness.

In exactly the same way, God has said something very particular and specific, something special, in raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

Faith is a belief in God the Father who raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

And this is a literal bodily resurrection.

Luke 24:39–43 HCSB

39 Look at My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself! Touch Me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” 40 Having said this, He showed them His hands and feet. 41 But while they still were amazed and unbelieving because of their joy, He asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, 43 and He took it and ate in their presence.

Luke 24:39-43

1 Corinthians 15:13–14 HCSB

13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith.

1 Corinthians 15:13

And Paul then concluded in — Your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”

Romans 10:9 HCSB

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:

There is no promise of salvation if God did not raise the Lord Jesus from the dead.

“Believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

III. Faith that justifies is a faith that believes that God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

— “who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

Notice that Paul didn’t say Jesus our Savior — But Jesus our Lord! In other words, when God the Father raised Him from the dead He was making a proclamation, and the proclamation was — “This is My only begotten Son.”

Faith that justifies is the faith that believes that God raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He’s already said this in .

Romans 1:3–4 HCSB

3 concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh 4 and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.

Romans 1:

It is the Resurrection that finally establishes the fact that Jesus is God, that He is the eternal Son of God. This is the final proof of the doctrine of the person of Christ — Jesus is Truly God and Truly man.

“Believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

IV. Faith that justifies is the faith that believes Christ was delivered for our offenses.

Verse 25 — “He was delivered up for our trespasses.”

He didn’t merely says that Jesus died, but that He was delivered up.

Delivered up is a judicial term that referred to the commitment of a criminal to his punishment. Jesus our Lord was delivered up to serve the sentence of death that our transgressions deserve.

Acts 2:22–23 HCSB

22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know. 23 Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him.

:

Who delivered up Jesus our Lord?

The answer: God the Father delivered up Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:32 HCSB

32 He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?

Romans 8:32

Why?

The answer: for our trespasses.

What is your view of Christ’s death? Why did He die?

What is the Biblical view of Christ’s death?

Notice the word — For. It means “on account of.” It’s a very strong word. It focuses in on the reason why Jesus was delivered up.

Why did the Son of God ever die? Why did He die on the cross? Couldn’t He have avoided it? The answer is found beginning in this word For that points at it with a big huge arrow — It was My Sin!

2 Corinthians 5:21 HCSB

21 He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

It’s like pointing an arrow to it — the reason is My Sin!

“Believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered up for our trespasses.”

V. Faith that justifies is the faith that believe that Jesus our Lord was raised for our justification.

— “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Romans 5:9 HCSB

9 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath.

Paul says we are justified by His death. Is he contradicting himself?

You cannot separate the death and the resurrection. They go together —

1 Corinthians 2:2 NASB95

2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

“I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus

Isn’t chapter 15 about the Resurrection? This is not Paul contradicting himself, but referring to one ultimately refers to the other. They go together.

The resurrection is the Divine Proclamation of the fact that God the Father is fully and completely satisfied with the work that His Son did on the cross.

Jesus Christ bore the full punishment for our sins and in doing so He fully and completely satisfied the Law’s demand for sin. The wages of sin is death.

This is the full meaning of “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

The Old Testament Day of Atonement looked to what happened on the cross.

Hebrews 4:14 HCSB

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession.

And so now Scripture tells us

Hebrews 7:25 HCSB

25 Therefore, He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

More than that — Having gone into the Holy of Holies and offered Himself as that sacrifice, He has received on our behalf, as our representative, all the great and rich gifts that God has for His people.

John 1:16 HCSB

16 Indeed, we have all received grace after grace from His fullness,

John 1:

And so, He has risen and taken His seat at the right hand of God the Father in Glory.

It’s in all this God the Father makes this great proclamation in raising Him from the dead. Another way of putting this is:

2 Corinthians 5:18 HCSB

18 Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5:18 — “Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ”

Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ

So, then let’s answer our question:

What is this faith that justifies?

By believing what God has said in that He has provided His Son as a substitutionary death and rose victorious as proof that His sacrifice was the only one accepted and that His righteousness was then imputed to those who believe what God said.

Just like Abraham...

As impossible was what God said about Abraham, it is just as impossible to save you.