Its Importance

Driving home: John Calvin in the Institute's Rights of Justification said, This is the main hinge on which religion turns.

Donnelly contrasts the serious subject of justification with 'chirpy little subjects' like 'four simple steps to more fulfilling relationships' or 'how to lose weight the Bible's way' to highlight the weightiness of his topic.

You have not come to hear some chirpy little subject which might be taken at many conferences. I haven't been asked to speak on four simple steps to more fulfilling relationships. Or even how to lose weight. You wait the Bible's way.

1:48 - 2:10 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If people don't think they need it, it is absolutely no appeal to them.

Donnelly recounts receiving an attractive brochure for a skiing holiday but having no interest because he doesn't ski and doesn't need it, illustrating that people are uninterested in offers, however good, if they don't perceive a need.

We need to learn about justification because justification is something every one of us desperately needs. Justification is something every one of us, desperately needs. A few weeks ago I received in the post a brochure for a skiing holiday in Switzerland. It was a most attractive publication. The holiday

18:46 - 19:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If people don't think they need it, it is absolutely no appeal to them.

The analogy of offering a wonderful doctor to a perfectly healthy person who hears with indifference is used to show why people are unreceptive to the gospel if they don't feel sick with sin.

They're not interested. Our Lord put it this way. They are well. Have no need of a physician for those who are sick.

20:20 - 20:33 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The most vital reason to study justification is that every individual desperately needs it, a need often unrecognized in a modern culture that has largely erased the underlying…

Justification is described as 'nestling in that truth as a hammock' within a 'nexus of truth' (God's holiness, human depravity, sin, wrath, hell) to explain why it makes sense in a biblical worldview but not in a man-centered one.

The reality of God's wrath. The existence of hell. There's a whole nexus of truth. And justification nestles in that truth as a hammock.

22:55 - 23:11 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The most vital reason to study justification is that every individual desperately needs it, a need often unrecognized in a modern culture that has largely erased the underlying…

The metaphor of 'no hooks in contemporary culture on which justification may hang' illustrates the difficulty of connecting the doctrine to modern society's felt needs.

I've discovered to my sorrow that people have been making fun of the way I pronounce the word hooks. But I'll use it again. There are no hooks in contemporary culture on which justification may hang. It doesn't seem relevant to people.

24:47 - 25:06 Read in full sermon

The point: It is imperative that every one of us, whether we're converted or not, feel keenly our desperate need of God's righteousness to cover us.

Donnelly contrasts the typical evangelical preaching of a 'lost son coming home to a loving father' with the biblical reality of a 'guilty criminal standing before a judge' to highlight a shift in how sin and salvation are presented.

evangelical preaching of our day is not a guilty criminal standing before a judge. It's a lost son coming home to a loving father. Living in a context where the atmosphere is so toxic, so hostile to the underlying presuppositions of justification that it's difficult to win a hearing for it. And we can't imagine that we ourselves are unaffected. We're living

25:40 - 26:19 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second, deeper reason for unrighteousness is that our human nature itself is sinful, inherited from Adam, meaning we are fundamentally anti-God by nature, and even if past…

The story of Tommy Boat's advice on avoiding temper at golf (realizing bad shots are normal, good shots are flukes) is used as an analogy for understanding our sinful nature: sin is our 'true shot,' not an exception.

Some years ago I was greatly struck by the title of a chapter from a book I was reading. The chapter was entitled How to avoid losing your temper at golf. This I have to say struck a chord with me right away and I thought this is something I need to know. Some of you the writer of the chapter was a man called Tommy Boat who apparently was quite well known for losing his temper at golf.

38:43 - 39:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third implication is that even at our best, our efforts at obedience are imperfect, tainted by impure motives and a sinful nature, leading to more guilt rather than…

The story of a skilled cook trying to prepare a meal in a disgustingly filthy kitchen with rotten food illustrates that even our best efforts are tainted and unacceptable to God because they come from an unclean source.

But thirdly, we need justification because at our best we still fall short. At our best, at our best we still fall short. I want you to imagine a very good well trained cook. A woman who has passed through all the colleges and obtained all the diplomas and had all the experience you want and she is coming towards a strange kitchen. And she has been

46:03 - 46:38 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Lord, on the holiest things we leave the print of unclean hands.

Donnelly quotes one of his elders, 'Lord, on the holiest things we leave the print of unclean hands,' to vividly convey how even our most righteous acts are tainted by sin and pride.

Our love for God is never wholehearted. Our love for other people is never unselfish. One of my elders, a man gone now to glory, used to use a phrase in his praying. He said, Lord, on the holiest things we leave the print of unclean hands. The print

49:05 - 49:32 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Lord, on the holiest things we leave the print of unclean hands.

The analogy of a man owing millions who promises to repay all, when he can only dig deeper, illustrates that our attempts to 'make up for' past sins only increase our guilt.

we're encouraging fear judgment we say in our stupidity I'll make up for it we can't make up for it we can only make it worse like the man in the parable who owed millions of pounds and he said, have patience with me and I will repay you all oh yeah and the only thing we can do is to keep digging deeper and deeper it's a grim

51:19 - 51:58 Read in full sermon