Justification, Part 1

The point: Gird up the loins of your minds and think hard and long upon what it means to be a justified person.

The analogy of a draftsman needing to know angles and precise measurements is used to illustrate that a preacher needs a working knowledge of original languages and the precise meaning of biblical words to rightly handle Scripture.

And if God has revealed, as he has in this passage, that this man went down to his house justified, he went down with this great, great question resolved, he was accepted before God, then we must gird up the loins of our minds and think hard and long upon what it means to be a justified person. For the Apostle Paul says we speak spiritual things in words which the Holy Ghost teaches. This is why we send our young men who have aspirations to the ministry off to seminary, that they might have some working knowledge of the original languages. Can you imagine a draftsman who doesn't know angles an...

13:05 - 13:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Preachers are to open up the words of Scripture, the mind of God conveyed in the very words, not preach on the basis of cleverness or alliteration.

A succinct definition from Dr. Packer in Baker's Dictionary of Theology is quoted to provide a clear, helpful summary of the biblical meaning of 'justify' as pronouncing, accepting, and treating as just.

In his excellent article on this very subject of justification, Dr. Packer, in Baker's Dictionary of Theology, gives this succinct definition that's very helpful. The biblical meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek words for justify is to pronounce, to accept, and to treat as just. Now that has two elements.

15:21 - 15:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second line of evidence shows that 'justification' is consistently set in opposition to 'condemnation' in Scripture (e.g., Romans 8:33-34, Isaiah 50:8-9), confirming its…

The analogy of contrasting 'big' with 'bright' or 'hot' with 'small' is used to illustrate that God, when setting terms in opposition (like justification and condemnation), uses words from the same category, reinforcing the legal nature of justification.

God would not be guilty of doing this. Suppose I told someone the opposite of big is bright. You look at me and you scratch your head and say what in the world is he doing? You're mixing things that are not in the same category.

25:37 - 25:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third and fourth lines of evidence explore equivalent terms like 'reckoned for righteousness' and 'non-imputation of sin' (Romans 4), and the formal setting of the doctrine in…

The example of someone 'imputing motives' to another is used to clarify that 'imputation' is a legal declaration or judgment about someone, not an internal change within them, thus supporting the forensic nature of justification.

Now imputation is a legal term. It's not something you do in someone. It's something you declare about them. Perhaps at times you've done something and someone has misunderstood and you've said, well, they're imputing motives to me that are not true. What have they done? They have not put something in you. They've not created anything. They've made a declaration. They've made a judgment about you. And so there are these passages where the equivalent terms to justify are legal terms. They speak not of what God does in me, but a declaration He makes concerning me. The well-known passage in John ...

30:34 - 31:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not mix what God has separated (justification and sanctification) in your understanding, as your peace and safety depend on this distinction.

Professor Murray's illustration of the difference between a surgeon and a judge is used to distinguish between regeneration (God's work in us, like a surgeon dealing with cancer) and justification (God's declaration concerning us, like a judge dealing with guilt).

So in summary, we may say that the meaning of the word justify and the main point of these terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which regeneration involves and that which justification involves. Regeneration has to do with God's work in us. Justification has to do with the declaration of God concerning us. And as Professor Murray so simply illustrates, it's the difference between the activity of a surgeon and a judge. Now when a man appears in a court in Newark tomorrow morning, and he stands before the judge, he may stand there as the man who has a huge skin cancer, obvious to e...

34:08 - 35:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Our evangelism must start with the theme of God's wrath, the court of heaven, His law, and men's guilt.

The metaphor of a man in a drunken stupor sitting on a time bomb is used to vividly portray the danger and ignorance of those who are under God's condemnation but unaware of it, emphasizing the urgency of taking God's judgment seriously.

Like a man sitting in a drunken stupor upon a time bomb about to blow him into a thousand pieces, mumbling some silly ditty in his drunkenness. So you sit in this place tonight, perched and poised as it were upon the time bomb of God's own sovereign decree concerning your life and its termination. And with just a heartbeat from standing in that court of heaven and hearing the awful sentence, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. There was a real court of heaven to which both the Pharisee and the publican were answerable. And there's a real court of heaven with you. And you'll never...

40:21 - 41:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Alter men's thinking to the Word, not the Word to their thinking, especially when confronting modern categories that deny God's judgment.

The example of attempts to portray Jesus as a 'gutsy revolutionary' or 'anarchist' is used to critique modern attempts to alter the gospel to fit contemporary thought categories, asserting that Christ's kingdom is not of this world and He conquered with spiritual weapons.

Try to bring Jesus down and make Him a gutsy revolutionary with hair on His chest and dirt under His fingernails is to prostitute the gospel. He was not a revolutionary. They tried to make Him one. They said, come, we'll make you king.

42:55 - 43:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Rest your case wholly in the hands of Christ, bringing nothing of your own to Him, but clinging simply to His cross.

A line from the hymn 'Rock of Ages' is quoted to illustrate the complete reliance on Christ's blood and righteousness for acceptance, contrasting with any self-effort.

Because he was united to Christ, the very righteousness of Christ became his and he is declared accepted in the Beloved. He looked wholly out of himself. He dared to rest his case wholly in the hands of another and that other was glad to declare that he had taken his case in hand and resolved it. Oh, my friend, if you are determined to leave something of that case of your sinful state in your hands, you'll have to bear the consequences of trying to adjust it to meet God's standards in that awful day. Far safer is he who says, Lord, nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Jesu...

45:36 - 46:36 Read in full sermon