We are Justified by Works!

Gary Belhomme

Professor Denis Fortin

We Are Justified by Works!

Sermon

Presented at the Dartmouth Seventh-day Adventist Church on April 17, 2021.

Illustration

Condemned Man Can't Accept His Freedom

Walter McMillian was convicted of killing 18-year-old Ronda Morrison at a dry cleaner in Monroeville, Alabama in 1986. Three witnesses testified against McMillian, while six witnesses, who were black, testified that he was at a church fish fry at the time of the crime. McMillian was found guilty and held on death row for six years—all the while claiming his innocence.

An attorney named Bryan Stevenson decided to take on the case to defend McMillian. Stevenson told a reporter:

It was a pretty clear situation where everyone just wanted to forget about this man, let him get executed so everybody could move on. [There was] a lot of passion, a lot of anger in the community about [Morrison's] death, and I think there was great resistance to someone coming in and fighting for the condemned person who had been accused and convicted.

But with Stevenson's representation, McMillian was exonerated in 1993. McMillian was eventually freed, but not without scars of being on death row. One of those scars was early-onset dementia. Stevenson comments, "Many of the doctors believed [the dementia] was trauma-induced; [it] was a function of his experience of being nearly killed—and he witnessed eight executions when he was on death row." So even after McMillian was free from death row, free from prison, and an exonerated man, in his mind he was still a prisoner. When Stevenson would visit him in the hospital, McMillian was still telling his lawyer, "You've got to get me off death row."1

Unlike Walter McMillian, we are guilty of murder. We all killed Christ. We nailed him to the cross as he bore weight of our sins. Yet, through of his death, we have been exonerated of all the charges against us. Sadly, like McMillian many of us live as though we are on death row, exclaiming, “You’ve got to get me off death row” even though we were exonrated by the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Introduction

After hearing the title of this sermon, you are probably saying to yourselves, “what sort of heresy is he about to preach; we are not justified by works, but by faith!” I ask that you bear with me for the next twenty-five to thirty minutes so that you can understand why I am submitting to you that we are indeed justified by works.

There are an array of views of justification in Christianity that have led to much confusion and consternation. This problem has also afflicted the Seventh-day Adventist church and has led to boisterous pre-Covid potluck debates between knowledgeable brethren. Sadly, these “discussions” usually bring more heat than light. Such debates usually center around the nature of Christ, theories about salvation, and other soteriological (salvation) topics. Thus there is an urgent need to understand not what the brethren believe concerning justification, but what the Bible teaches concerning this topic.

To give you a taste of some of the confusion, views in Adventism concerning justification that can be heard from pulpits in Seventh-day Adventist churches around the world church are: the “traditional protestant” view, hold onto to your seats, positions that are similar to that of Roman Catholic’s, new perspectives on Paul and justification, and alternative perspectives, to the conventional protestant understanding of justification.”2 Notice that I said perspectives, and not a perspective. In other words, there are many, many views in the church concerning justification. Which view is correct? They cannot all be correct. Do you get a sense of the confusion that we are facing in the church about a subject that before today you probably have not given much thought about because it is clear in your mind?

The Bible says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1–2, NKJV)3. Through a brief study of this passage in this three part series, first, we will endeavour to answer the questions “How and when are we justified?”. In the second message we will address the question “Why do we need to be justified?”. In the third and final we will address the question “What are the personal benefits of being justified?”. After this brief study, it is my prayer that by God’s grace you will have gained a clearer understanding of the often misunderstood topic of justification and experience peace or increased peace in your relationship with God.

How and When Are We Justified

How and when are we justified? The answer to these questions is not as clear cut as most people think. Our text of interest begins with the phrase, “Therefore, having been justified by faith” (Rom 5:1) The thought that Paul is presenting is a continuation from the previous chapter. In the interest of time we cannot peruse Romans 4, so we will skim though it and quickly to glean some pertinent points.

Romans 4 disscusses Abraham and David who rejoiced in the belief that their “lawless deeds [were] forgiven, And [their] sins [were] covered” by God (Rom 4:7). The forgiveness and covering of their sins came through faith in God’s faithfulness to do what he had promised–be faithful to his covenant with Abraham and make of him a great nation. Of note, the apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans 4:4 that the justification of Abraham (and David) did not come by works but through faith (I know this appears to contradict the title of my sermon, but stay with me).

Romans 4:3, says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” This phrase can be restated in this manner, “Abraham believed God”, and it was credited to his account as righteousness (Ro 4:3, NKJV). However, it’s important to note that it could not be his faith that was credited to him, thus faith would be a work, and he would have been justified by his act of believing God. So the question is what was credited to Abraham’s and David’s account that resulted in their forgiveness of sin? Or, what is it that annulled their debt to God? A dominant theme in Romans 4 is the promise, but what promise? Bible students will of course answer the promise that was made to Abraham recorded in Genesis 15:5, “Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” God’s declaration was a reminder of the promise that he had originally made to Abraham recorded in Gen 12:2-3, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” However, what was the end point of the promise; what was Abraham looking forward to in terms of the promise? He was looking forward to the arrival of the promised One who would fulfill the first pledge or covenant that was made to humanity, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Gen 3:15). Therefore, the credit that was adminsterered, paying off the debt of Abraham and David has something to do with the Messiah.

Now, the Messiah had not yet come during the time of David, so how could they be justified? Rather, the better question to ask is, when were they justified? Let’s turn to Rom 3:24:

[Being] justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:24–26).

The key statement that we need to pay attention to is “in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” (Rom 3:25). In other words, something that occurred before the death of the Messiah was credited to Abraham and David. We will touch verse 26 a little later and discover something more astonishing about justification.

Revelation 13:8 says, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Did you get that friends? Jesus was considered slain from the foundation of the world, before Abrahm and David were born. Now turn to Zech 6:12: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the Lord; Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zech 6:12–13). The key phrase is the “counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zech 6:12–13). What does this refer to? I submit to you that this refers to Jesus the Lamb of God slain by all our sins heaped upon him “from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8). Francis Nichol advances, “This phrase describes the agreement between the Father and the Son for the salvation of man.”4 Listen carefully to how Ellen White beautifully links Revelation 13:8 and Zecheriah 6:13.

Before the Father He pleaded in the sinner’s behalf, while the host of heaven awaited the result with an intensity of interest that words cannot express. Long continued was that mysterious communing—“the counsel of peace” (Zechariah 6:13) for the fallen sons of men. The plan of salvation had been laid before the creation of the earth; for Christ is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8); yet it was a struggle, even with the King of the universe, to yield up His Son to die for the guilty race.5

Friends, Adam was justified, Abraham was justified, Mosese was justified, David was justified, before the death of Jesus on the cross, because the Father credited Christ’s righteous life and death to their account when they believed in his audacious promise that would declare them righteous regardless of them living a victorious life or falling flat on their faces. It was the uninterrupted declaration of righteousness that stirred to repent and confess his sin of rape and  murder. Yes friends, I said uninterrupted! God’s gracious declaration was not revoked when David murdered Uriah. God’s declaration of righteousness is not revoked when you sin. God’s declaration is not based upon your good works or your obedience.

There is more! According to Romans 3:26, the faithfulness of Jesus displayed by his sinless life (and his death and resurrection), validated the risk that the Father took in crediting the death of Jesus to the account of sinners before the currency of Christ’s blood was available. Before the cross there was a risk that Christ could fall and invalidate God’s forbearance of passing over the sins who lived before the monumental event of the cross. This is perhaps what Ellen was partially referring to when she astonishingly stated, “Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled.”6 Yes friends, heaven was endangered so that God could declare us who believe righteous.

So, how and when are we justified? We are justified when we have faith in Christ’s labor of love, Christ’s work of love that constantly rejected the insinuations of Satan which were prompting him to live according to his will, and not his Father’s will. Christ’s daily life was characterized by “not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). We are justified, declared righteous when we by faith choose to believe that Christ’s labour of love, or as Richard Davidson puts it Christ’s imputed “external righteousness” is sufficient to nullify our sins. We are justified by faith when we believe that the merits of Christ’s work which culminated in the shedding of his blood is sufficient to nullify the sentence of guilty that was recorded beside our names and declare us innocent. We are justified by faith when we accept Christ’s labor of love on the cross which was provisionally made available  through God’s divine master plan that was in effect before the foundation of the world.

Did I cause you to question what you believe about justification? My intent was not to confuse you, but to challenge you. Don’t worry, you are on point if you believe that we are justified by faith alone. However, the question is faith in what? I submit to you that we are justified by faith in the works of Christ, climaxing in his work of love on calvary. Yes, friends, we are justified by works, not our works, but Christ’s works. As a result of being justified by Christ’s works we have peace with God. There is nothing that we can do, and nothing that we need to do but rest in the merits of Christ’s blood that is a stamp of exenoration from all charges against us in the records of heaven. It is because of the council of peace that took place in heaven between the Father and Jesus Christ long before any human being walked this planet that have peace with God.

Closing Illustration

Jeffery Ebert shares a compelling story from his childhood:

When I was 5 years old, before factory-installed seat belts and automobile air bags, my family was driving home at night on a two-lane country road. I was sitting on my mother's lap when another car, driven by a drunk driver, swerved into our lane and hit us head-on. I don't have any memory of the collision. I do recall the fear and confusion I felt as I saw myself literally covered with blood from head to toe.

Then I learned that the blood wasn't mine at all, but my mother's. In that split second when the two headlights glared into her eyes, she instinctively pulled me closer to her chest and curled her body around mine. It was her body that slammed against the dashboard, her head that shattered the windshield. She took the impact of the collision so that I wouldn't have to. It took extensive surgery for my mother to recover from her injuries.

In a similar, but infinitely more significant way, Jesus Christ took the impact for our sin, and his blood now permanently covers our lives. [Unlike Ebert’s mother, Jesus couldn’t recover from the deep wounds on his back and the wounds created by the rusty nails that piereced his hands and his feet. No, when Jesus took the impact for our sin, he died with a broken heart].7