Justification by Faith Alone
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NOT GUILTY Week 1
Finding True Freedom in the Gospel of Christ
A Study of the Doctrine of Justification By Faith Alone
Our Problem:
Our Problem:
GUILT! Permeate us and our society. It dominates us. Humanity attempts to assuage it. By:
1. Avoiding it (denial)
2. Averting it (blame)
3. Anesthetized it (kill the pain, sedate it, numb it, deaden it)
Richard Lovelace has written that many Christians “below the surface of their lives are guilt-ridden and insecure…[and] draw the assurance of their acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”
& The Bible consistently and repeated impresses that fact that God will judge and punish all sin.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.
God says, “I will not acquit the wicked”.
Nahum 1:3 says “the Lord will by no means clear the guilty” (leave the guilty unpunished).
Romans 1:18 says “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”
The Bible sates that we are at war with God
Romans 5:10 says “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.”
& Romans 8:7 says “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.”
& Psalm 7:11 says God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
& Psalm 5:5 says The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.
& James 2:10 tells us that even minor violations of the law are as condemning and guilty as though we had broken all the commandments.
& Psalm 58:3 says “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.”
& Romans 8:7-8 says we have no innate ability to love God, to obey God or to please God by any means.
& Ephesians 2:1 calls us spiritual dead, reveling in our sin.
& Verse 3 says we are objects of God’s wrath.
& Verse 12 says we are totally without hope.
One author says, “God, on the other hand is perfect, infinitely holy, absolutely flawless and thoroughly righteous. His justice must be satisfied by the punishment of every violation of His law. And the due penalty for our iniquity is infinitely severe: eternal damnation. Nothing we can offer God could possibly atone for our sin, because the price of sin is too high.”
God’s Demands
God’s Demands
o God delights only in perfect obedience. He demands sinlessness and perfect righteousness
Our Sorry Estate
Our Sorry Estate
o We are sinners not because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.
o God hates sin and therefore all who sin are enemies of God
o God will punish every sin. He responds to sin with immutable and eternal hatred.
o God’s justice is certain, inflexible and always prevails. All sin without exception must be punished
Throughout human history there have been two lines of belief regarding how one could receive the acceptance and approval of God:
1. Saved by Human merit (character or conduct)
2. Saved by faith in a substitionary sacrifice
These lines are seen in:
1. Cain and Abel
2. Sacrificial system (remember all Israelites were not saved. It was only those who placed faith in God to save them not in themselves)
3. Pharisees vs Jesus (Pastor will be doing a series of messages on this during the summer)
4. Judaizer vs Gospel of Free Grace (We are studying this in the Galatians Sunday School)
5. Romans Catholic Church vs Martin Luther (see R.C. Sproul’s notes)
6. I dare say our modern church today.
If we forget our history we are bound to repeat it.
Satan’s Plan
Satan’s Plan
It has always been Satan’s plan to obscure to God and the Person and Work of Jesus
Five Steps into Denial
Five Steps into Denial
1. Distraction
2. Doubt
3. Distortion
4. Distrust
5. Denial
Our Problem:
Our Problem:
Moral Corruption, Guilt, Condemnation and Alienation from God
Our Desperate Need:
Our Desperate Need:
New Nature, Forgiveness, Acceptance and Reconciliation
God’s Solution:
God’s Solution:
God’s Solution: Justification is by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.
1. Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners
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 by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
2. In justification, God not only pardons all of a person’s sins, but also accepts that person as righteous in His sight
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 3:22–28)
3. Justification is not based on the character or conductof the justified person but is strictly “according to His mercy” and based on Christ’s righteousness and “redemption through His blood”
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.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
CHARACTER AND CONDUCT
4. In justification, the merit of Christ’s righteousness and obedience is “imputed” or credited to the account of the person who is justified, who receives this imputed righteousness as a free gift of God
For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and 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.
just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
2 Corinthians 5:21)
ILLUSTRATION OF THE BANK ACCOUNT
EPHESIANS 1 – SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS
ILLUSTRATION OF THE CRUISE
5. Christ fully and completely satisfied the Justice of God on behalf of those who are justified
Romans 5:8–10, 19
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Hebrews 10:10; Matthew 28:20; Daniel 9:24–26; Isaiah 53:4–6; 10–12; Hebrews 7:22; Romans 8:32;
knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
SATAN: TEMPT AND ACCUSE (ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN)
6. The only condition of justification is faith in Christ alone (Romans 3:24–25). Faith in Christ is itself a gift of God to the believer
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
7. Redemption and forgiveness are matters of God’s free grace, it is an unmerited gift of God’s love
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
On the Authority of Scripture and the Person and Work of Jesus Christ…
1. You are declared NOT GUILTY
2. You are ACCEPTED in His sight
3. You are GRACED
4. You are FORGIVEN
5. You are RECONCILED
6. You have PEACE
7. You are ADOPTED
8. You have been lavished with ALL WISDOM and INSIGHT
9. You have obtained an INHERITANCE
10. You will be CHANGED and SANCTIFIED
11. You will be GLORIFIED
12. You are SET FREE
…if you trust fully and entirely on the Person and Work of Christ alone
On the other hand…if you do not trust fully and entirely on the Person and Work of Christ alone
On the Authority of Scripture …
1. You are MORALLY CORRUPT
2. You are under GUILTY
3. You are under a CURSE
4. You are under CONDEMNATION
5. You are ALIENATED and SEPARATED from God
6. You are without HOPE
Accept Christ: Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the Cross I cling!
Our Response: Bringing It Home (ACKNOWLEDGEMENT)
Our Response: Bringing It Home (ACKNOWLEDGEMENT)
1. Justification is a legal declaration by God (NOT GUILTY!)
2. God declares us to be just in His sight
a. We have no penalty to pay for any of our sins (past, present or future)
b. We are not merely neutral in His sight, but actually righteous in His sight
3. God declares us righteous because He credits Christ’s righteousness to us
4. Justification is ours solely because of the Grace of God, not because of any merit in us
5. God justifies us through faith in Christ
6. We must:
a. Renounce any trust in our “good works” as meriting anything with God
b. Rely entirely on the Person and Work of Christ