The Wonder of Justification

I had the privilege of getting away on vacation for two weeks with my family, I am thankful for those of you who prayed for us; it’s always a time of refreshment, but by the time our second week is over I’m ready to race back home and be among my people. One of the reasons I enjoy vacation is because it gives me time to spend reading. While away, I finished the second volume of Spurgeon’s autobiography, and if you’ve been around long enough you know that what I’m reading will find its way into what I’m preaching, and so you’ve had to take my constant Spurgeon illustrations and quotes. And this morning, we’ll start with another one.

We’ve been in a series on assurance of our salvation, and I’ve tried to illustrate how great a need this is by providing historical illustrations of people who at some point in their walk with God struggled with their assurance. We spoke of Martin Luther, who battled the dark night of the soul and combatted his despair by meditating on gospel truths that eventually became “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” We talked about David Brainerd, missionary to the Indians, and his constant battle with fear.

Charles Spurgeon at various times in his Christian life was so overwhelmed with his sin that he sometimes feared he was not a partaker of the grace he so powerfully preached. After his conversion as a teen he was surprised at the power sin still had within him. He compares his struggle with sin to Israel’s bondage in Egypt. When I was enslaved, I wasn’t afraid of my sin. When I was free, and I saw my sin chasing after me, I was terrified.

Even toward the end of his life, as he suffering nearly unbearable physical disease he, at times, would be visited by the dark clouds of despair. Thousands had come to join his church and listen to his preaching, millions around the globe had read his sermons in print, he had founded a college to train pastors and an orphanage for children, he was loved by everyone who knew him, his wife adored him, his sons admired him, and still at times, he wondered if his faith were real.

I actually think that his suffering -- both his spiritual struggle and his physical ailments -- made him the powerful preacher he was. As a sufferer, he learned to find his comfort in Christ, and came to see Christ as his great and tender Lord, and preached from that experience.

A text that is a comfort for believers who struggle -- whether it be physical sufferings or internal anguish -- is Romans 5:1-11. Here we find another bedrock foundation on which we can build our assurance.

By way of reminder, I have to say again that there are two sides to the assurance questions: the subjective experience of assurance and the objective reality of assurance. When we talk about assurance, most often we’re talking about the subjective experience of it. The feeling of being loved by God, the feeling of certainty, the sense that your salvation is real and genuine.

But that doesn’t happen until foundations of truth are established. There are a million reasons why people lack assurance, and certainly the majority of them stem from a lack of understanding of the nature and salvation.

Let’s read the text.

Now, back to that first statement: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith.” I know you’re here because you want to learn what the Bible says, so I want to make sure you get the context.

Leading up to this text, Romans 1-4 has a lot. In chapter 1, Paul makes the case that God’s wrath burns against all unrighteousness. Then, as if he’s imagining religious people reading this and saying, “Yeah, all those unrighteous people deserve God’s wrath,” he turns the page and calls out the religious people and says they’re guilty of the same things. Unrighteous people are guilty, and self-righteous people are guilty. Well, who’s not guilty? No one. Everyone is guilty. Romans 3:9-10 “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God.”

So Romans 1-3 condemns the whole world. It condemns the people who are blatant in their sin, and the people who are cover their sin in religiosity and moral performance.

Now, you may be thinking, “I struggle with assurance. And you’re sitting here explaining the wrath of God against sinners. I get that! How is that supposed to help?”

There’s a paradox here, and I hope you’ll see it. If you struggle with assurance, always doubting, always wondering, always unsure if you’re truly saved, it may mean you need to come to a deeper understanding of your sin.

A deeper understanding of sin leads to assurance? Yes. Follow me.

If we don’t understand just how hopelessly evil we are by nature, and how deep and pervasive our sin is, and our desperate and damning our condition is, we will begin to think we can fix it, cure it, or eradicate it. If we see sin as dirt on our hands, we will feel confident that we can wash it off with enough discipline and hard work. And we’ll fail. But if we see the stain on our hearts, and sense our inability to fix it, we’ll give up and look to Jesus.

Sometimes when I take my kids to the park they want to climb up the slide from the bottom. And there have been times when they get going, they feel like they have enough tractions, and they start their way up only to lose their grip halfway through and come sliding down.

Some people are trying to find assurance like that. They feel like they’re pretty good, and have a good chance of impressing God. They’re proud of their performance, they have some traction, and so they start up the slide. And halfway through, they fail, they come falling down, and they despair.

As long as you think there’s something you can do to impress God, you’re always going to climb halfway up that slide and fall. And you’ll always struggle with assurance.

The key is to come to grips with the utter inability to climb the slide, your utter inability to impress God, your utter inability to make yourself loveable in his sight. And then, as you embrace your own sinfulness, your own failures, your own inability to impress God, you embrace Jesus.

The Bible teaches that true assurance grows in the soils of abject hopelessness. Why? Because that hopelessness drives away from self-salvation and toward Jesus Christ.

That’s what Romans 1-3 does. It’s like Paul says, you unrighteous people, you’re guilty and deserving of God’s wrath. You self-righteous religious people, you’re guilty and deserving of God’s wrath. In fact, everyone is deserving of God’s wrath. The universe cries out for justice, and justice requires humanity to pay for their crimes against God, and humanity cannot do anything to undo their crimes. They can’t climb back into God’s favor.

Now at the end of Romans 3 the tone changes, and the essential message is that in light of this universal guilt, there is hope in Jesus Christ, because although no one has righteousness and every deserves wrath, God has provided his son Jesus Christ to provide salvation. And the promise is summarized 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.”

That is to say, when people stop trying to self-save, stop trying to climb the slide, when people stop trying to work to impress God, when they say, “I’m a failure, I’m a sinner, I’m deserving of punishment, and I am casting myself in faith to the feet of Jesus,” God counts them righteous.

The theological word that we see here in Romans is justification. In Greek it’s dikaioo, and it’s translated righteous or just. And the way Paul uses it it refers to a legal declaration that someone is righteous.

All humanity stands before the supreme tribunal of God. God is Judge, and he condemns all humanity as guilty. The people who have abandoned his law are guilty. The people who have tried to keep it in their own strength are guilty. They have no hope. But God promises, to give a gift of righteousness, to justify, those who trust in Jesus Christ.

Justification. To be justified means God pounds his gather and says, “Innocent” -- not on the basis of your own righteousness but because God credited Jesus’ righteousness to your account. It is a legal declaration. It’s not a process, it’s an event that has eternal ramifications. It alters your status before God. You move from guilty to innocent by sheer grace.

Now all of that background prepares us for the first verse of 5: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith…” Therefore, in light of the universal human problem of sin, in light of the realities of God’s free gift of righteousness to all who believe, here’s the benefits of justification.

Your understanding of the doctrine of justification is steel rebar in the construct of your assurance. J.C. Ryle, listing several “probable causes why an assured hope is so seldom attained” has as his first reason: “a defective view of the doctrine of justification.”

Justification, the reality that God legally, finally, and completely declares one to be eternally and unalterably righteous, gets confused or intertwined with sanctification, which is the reality that God progressively, over time, makes us more righteous.

Do you see the difference? Let this illustration help. The long-time criminal is freed from the prison as the judge declares he is innocent. That is his legal status. That is justification. The criminal leaves, but still has habits of dishonesty and deception he learned in prison, though he is gradually becoming more accustomed to free life. That is sanctification.

If the criminal, after he is legally innocent, goes home and runs a stop sign. His status as innocent has not. He may have a week of doing foolish things. His status does not change.

Here’s justification. God says you are forever righteous. You are right with me. Nothing you can do can change that.

Now Ryle says that our biggest problem is that we think our justification is dependent on our sanctification. We think our legal standing with God is dependent on our performance. But what Romans 1-4 makes clear is that justification is not and cannot be based on our performance. It is based solely on Christ’s work for us. Jesus justifies us once and for all time. And after that we begin the long, often slow process of sanctification -- growth in Christlikeness.

Here’s how you know you’re thinking justification is based on your sanctification: do you think, during bad days or bad weeks, that God loves you less? That your salvation is less secure?

Justification is a once for all declaration with objective, unalterable, unchangeable results. It is not based on whether you’re having a good day or a bad day. You cannot become less justified. You cannot become more justified. Justification is as immovable as Evrest.

What does it accomplish? That’s what Romans 5 teaches.

You have peace with God.

“Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The moment you believe, (see those words “by faith”?) you are declared legally righteous before God. And the first blessed result of your justification is this: the war is over.

You say, “What war?” Regardless of whether you’ve felt it or not, everyone who is not a Christian is at war with God. Romans 8 says they’re hostile to God. James 4:4 says that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.”

But the moment a repentant sinner holds up the white flag and comes to Jesus, God declares an eternal, never-ending age of peace. This is something worked for, it’s something given. You may feel turmoil, but remember, what we’re speaking about here are objective realities. When you have faith, any thought that you’re not at peace with God is from the enemy, not from the Father. The objective truth is that you’re at peace with God.

Knowing you are eternally at peace with God gives you real, experiential peace in your life. ‘

You stand in grace.

“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,”

A second unalterable result of our justification is that we have “obtained access” into grace, and that we stand in it, which is to say, we live in it. These words convey the idea of permanence. Look at the tense: “we have” peace with God. “we have” obtained access. These are objective, right now realities. Firm and immovable. You stand in grace.

Grace is undeserved favor from God. The moment we believed, we were justified, and that justification resulted in peace with God, and it also resulted in a new standing in the grace of God. Christian, you live each day with a God who is disposed favorably toward you, who leans in to bless you, who wants to lavish undeserved blessings upon you.

Being brought into this grace of God means that you are like an invalid and God mercifully carries you along, you are like a blind person and God holds your hand, you are sick and wounded and he is a tender and careful nurse, you are a poor beggar and he is a generous friend.

In other words, “grace” is not some commodity we get from God. Grace means we get all of God’s goodness extended toward us freely. We get God himself, with us, for us, loving us, caring for us.

This means he does not tire of you, never gets fed up with you, never has “had it up to here” with you, he’s not surprised at your frailty, he’s not shocked at your weakness, he’s not impatient with how slow it takes you to learn what he’s teaching you.

Grace means he’s a sympathetic God. Grace means he understands. Grace means he’s patient. Or, as Spurgeon has said, “He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold He always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lays ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea, lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him.”

You are justified, Christian. The war is over. Peace reigns, and God’s gracious smile is upon you. You will fall into sin, but your sin is not more powerful than God’s grace. You will fail, and you will have bad days and bad weeks. But you stand in grace, not condemnation.

God has declared you eternally righteous because he has given you the righteousness his Son Jesus Christ as a gift. He will not revoke it. For God to take away grace from those who have been justified by faith would be to alter his whole character and un-God God. It would un-Christ Christ. It would un-Jesus Jesus. It is utterly impossible that God would remove grace from the people who by simple faith have looked to Christ.

You can rejoice in hope.

“And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”

You salvation is so sure, you can begin rejoicing now. Look, verse 1: we have been justified. Also verse 1: “we have” peace with God. Verse 2: “we have obtained access into grace.” We have, we have, we have. And when we have so much, what do we do: “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Hope isn’t a wish here, like hoping you get a bike for Christmas. Hope is a confident expectation that God will fulfill his promises. If you are justified, you have just been given permission to start rejoicing now.

We rejoice in hope. Our hope is a certainty, that’s why we can rejoice now.

If I said to my kids, “when I come home, I’m bringing ice cream.” They will have a response right then and there. Even though they don’t have any ice-cream, they will rejoice. Because they hear my word and they believe it, and their hope gives them joy.

God has said, trust me, and you will be saved, and I will bring you home to glory. And what do we do if we hear his word and believe it? We rejoice -- today!

It is finished. Justification is final. We have peace with God. We live in his grace. And our hope is secure. In 1 Tim. 1:1 Christ Jesus is our hope. Your hope isn’t that you’ll remain faithful enough. Your hope is a person, and his name is Jesus.

Now, there may be some here who, even after hearing these things have a hard time rejoicing. Yes, there’s peace with God. Yes, I stand in grace. Yes, I have a hope. But man, life is so hard, but my life is so hard right now that I can’t imagine rejoicing.

And that’s mentioned here next: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.”

Some think suffering means God has abandoned you. It actually means the opposite, that he’s drawing you nearer. The suffering produces endurance and character and hope. It actually results in increased faith and increased assurance.

You receive God’s love.

Each benefit of justification piles on, here we now have this flood of love. Verse 5: “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

This refers to an overflow, an outpouring of love. This isn’t carefully measured cups of love, this is a flood. The love is evidenced by the fact that he comes to dwell within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is not a distant God, he is near, so near, in fact that he inhabits you.

This is extravagant love, that’s what Paul is trying to get us to see. We are at peace, we are in grace, we are enjoying hope, and we are fully and completely and unchangeably loved.

Can it be true? How can he love me when I’m such a sinner?

You’ve probably heard about, or read about, a couple that’s “in love.” They get married, and things are good for a little while, and then, as they really get to know one another, they fall “out” of love. It’s heart-wrenching.

And some of us are insecure, we feel that if we are truly known we cannot be truly loved. And so we hide in our relationships. And we even try to impress God. But he knows. You knows everything about you. He knows the filth. He knows the gross thoughts. He knows your past. He knows your lies, your selfish motivations. He knows it all. And yet he loves.

Look at verse 6: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” He loved you and sent his Son for you, while you were in sin. Isn’t this amazing? Before you took a step toward him, he was coming to you.

To highlight the extravagance of this love he makes a contrast in verse 7: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

He loved me at my worst. He loved me when I hated him. He came for me when I was not interested. He died for me when I would have happily killed him. I love the lyrics to the old hymn, “In Tenderness.”

He died for me while I was sinning, needy and poor and blind

He whispered to assure me: "I've found thee; thou art Mine"

I never heard a sweeter voice, it made my aching heart rejoice.

Oh, the love that sought me!

Oh, the blood that bought me!

Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God

Grace that brought me to the fold of God.

If he loved me when I was a rebel, he won’t stop loving when when I’m his child. If he loved me when I was at war against him, he won’t stop loving me now that we’re at peace. If he loved me when I was under wrath then he’ll continue loving me now that I stand in grace.

Friends, it is possible and true. The deluge of love has fallen from heaven upon us, and we are loved, and the premier demonstration of this love is Christ’s death on the cross!

You are reconciled to God.

“Since therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Do you how all that Paul has said is laying an unbreakable foundation for assurance? If we were reconciled to God while we were enemies, we will certainly be saved as his children. If his death was for us, then certainly he lives for us.

We are reconciled. This is a relational word. Now that there’s peace instead of war, now that we’re standing in his grace, now that we’re immersed in his love, all is well. We have a good relationship with God, and the goodness of our relationship with God isn’t dependent upon our performance. Our relationship is good because God brought us near, and will not leave us.

Let’s finish with this. These are objective realities. Any person with true faith has all of these blessings of justification. There are seasons, like Spurgeon, like Brainerd, like Luther, that these realities seem distant. But they are objectively true.

Use this text and these realities like a flashlight when you doubt. Recite the gospel to your self. God says I am justified when I have faith. I have faith. It may not be strong faith, but God doesn’t say how strong it needs to be. It just says faith. By faith I am justified. There’s no more war. I walk in grace. I have a secure hope. I am right with God.

You have peace with God.

You stand in grace.

You rejoice in hope.

You receive God’s love

You are reconciled to God.