Justification, Part 5

Review: The Definition and Elements of Justification

0:04 Again, we would turn to the Gospel according to Luke for the reference point of our continued studies. Presently, an expansion of verse 14 in Luke 18, and I shall read the entire parable. At least one thing I hope, when we're done these studies, you will have practically memorized the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9.

0:34 And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at naught. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast.

1:07 Twice in the week I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me, the sinner. I say unto you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for every one that exalted. He that humbleth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

1:45 In our previous studies of this passage, we have worked through very carefully, phrase by phrase, through the entire parable, focusing upon the essential principles which are set before us by our Lord concerning these two specimen men and the prayers that they prayed. The Pharisee being, of course, representative of all those who seek to find acceptance before God as sinners on the basis of what they are in their characters or on the basis of what they have done in their religious performance. The publican, on the other hand, is the specimen man, the picture of that person

2:30 who, despairing of anything in himself by way of character or performance, as the ground of his acceptance, looks wholly, out of himself unto God for his provision. And our Lord says concerning these two that those who take the position of the Pharisee who hope to find acceptance by virtue of what they are and what they do will go down to their houses still under condemnation. Never will they attain unto the justified state. But all who stand with the publican, confessing there is nothing in them but sin, and their hope is wholly in another,

3:13 those who thus stand with him, also with him go down to their houses justified. And now for some weeks we've been seeking to expand on the meaning of that word when our Lord said in verse 14, I say unto you, this man went down to his house justified. Just how did he go down to his house? What was his precise condition before God?

3:40 When once he said, once he had taken his place as a guilty sinner, looking for mercy to God alone, as a justified man, what was the precise standing he had before God? And so we've been expounding the doctrine of justification as that exposition is almost forced upon us unless we would deal in a surface manner with this part of the parable. In order to guide us in our study, I have suggested that a good framework, is the framework of the definition of justification found within the larger catechism of the Westminster standards. This doctrine is so vast that one must seek to collate and organize

4:23 the biblical materials in some kind of a logical structure in order to teach the doctrine and the Westminster confession and catechisms is a great help to us at this point. So what we have done is we have shown from the scriptures that the word justify means basically to declare or to pronounce righteous. It is a legal term. It has nothing to do with what God does in me.

4:49 It has solely to do with what God declares about me. The publican went down to his house with the blessing of a declaration from God concerning his standing before the law of God. Having then given that basic definition of the word, what it means biblically, we have looked at several lines of biblical thought concerning justification as guided by the larger catechism. We have seen that God is the author.

5:20 Justification is an act of God's free grace. We have seen that free grace is the source. It is an act of God's free grace. Justification flows out of the gracious dealings of God with sinners in a way of divine sovereignty.

5:39 We have seen in the third place that the objects of justification are sinners. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. And this was the great problem, of course, of the Pharisee. And this has been the problem of every man who has been held in the grip of the carnal Pharisaic spirit of the natural man.

6:02 He cannot believe that justification will come to sinners as sinners. And so men are, continually trying to do something that will commend them to God. No, he justifies the ungodly. And then we looked at the essence of justification.

6:22 What does it involve? It involves, as the Westminster Larger Catechism says, a work, an act of God in pardon and in acceptance. I shall read that definition again at this point. We're almost done our review, and then we'll consider the materialism, and then we'll consider the material for tonight.

6:40 Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all their sins, and accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight. The essence of justification is an act of pardon, negative, and acceptance, positive. Such text as 2 Corinthians chapter 5 bring those two lines of thought together. Not only is there the non-imputation of sin, we are actually made the righteousness of God in him.

The Grounds of Justification: Christ's Perfect Obedience and Full Satisfaction

7:18 And now, in the fifth place, we are studying what we are calling the grounds of our justification. Upon what grounds does God pardon and accept sinners? And we've seen that the grounds, negatively, nothing in, wrought, nothing in, wrought, nothing in, wrought, nothing in them or done by them, the error of the Pharisee, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. And this is precisely where we closed our study last week with the general statement that if the ground is not in us, anything wrought in us, even by God himself,

8:01 or anything done by us, that ground is found wholly in another, and that other is the Lord, Jesus Christ. And we emphasized that note, and I trust something of it still rings in our hearts. You can always judge whether or not a man's view of justification is biblical by asking the question, what place does Christ have in his scheme of justifying grace? As you consider the Pharisee, it's obvious there was no room for Christ.

8:36 He had filled up the room with himself. I thank you, I'm not his other man. And if there's any little space in the room that's not filled, Lord, I'll throw in my tithing and my fasting. I fill it up with my own virtue.

8:50 Whereas the publican stands saying, Lord, the room is empty, and I can't put a thing in it. Be thou merciful to me, a sinner. And he looks wholly out of himself unto another, and that other is Christ. Now then, in what sense is Christ the ground?

9:10 Of our righteousness. And this is the new material that I propose to cover with you tonight. The Catechism says, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. The perfect obedience and the full satisfaction of Christ.

9:35 Those two terms are not put in there haphazardly. They are the fruit of a careful, study of the Scriptures, and a very painful or painstaking effort to guard this truth from anything less than its full-blooded, biblical statement. Because of this concept that the obedience of Christ in life and the satisfaction of Christ to divine justice in death is taught in Scripture, certain theologians in the past have taken this scriptural concept, which we'll see in a moment, and have likened it to the active and the passive obedience of Christ. Now, have any of you ever heard those terms?

10:19 The active and passive obedience of Christ. Good. So at least I'm scratching where some of you itch anyway. Now, what people mean by those terms is simply this.

10:28 That the ground of our righteousness is Christ's obedience during His life. This is considered His active obedience. His volitional choice of doing the will of God. So that His perfect life becomes part of that righteousness which is put to our account.

10:49 His passive obedience is the description given of His work distinctly as sin-bearer upon the cross. So that when He was giving Himself up to death, in that sense they say He was the recipient of divine wrath. There was a passive obedience. Now, I have no quarrel with the concept that is conveyed by those terms, but I do have great quarrel with the inaccuracy of the terminology.

11:20 For it cannot help but bring people to think that Christ was active in His life, but He was passive in His death. Whereas the Scripture teaches Christ's active obedience reached its pinnacle point when He poured out His soul unto death. Now, that's activity. The Scripture says, He, by the eternal Spirit, offered Himself up unto God.

11:51 That's activity of the highest sort. And so, rather than speak of passive and active obedience, it is much more accurate to think of the obedience of Christ's life and the obedience unto death, forming the ground of our righteousness and the basis of our acceptance. For you see, on the one hand, the law of God comes to mankind saying, This do, and thou shalt live. If man is to have a perfect righteousness, he must do the will of God.

12:30 On the other hand, that same law says, This fail to do, and thou shalt die. So that, if there's been any failure, if there is to be righteousness, there must be satisfaction made to the law of God. And you cannot separate God's rights as a lawgiver in these two areas. There is the demand of perfect obedience, or we might say, preceptive obedience, obedience to the precepts, and also there must be the punitive demands of the law when the law has been broken.

13:07 Now what did the Lord Jesus do for His people? That we might go down to our houses justified tonight. That God might look at the full demands of His law and say to sinners such as you and me, You are justified. What did Christ do to make that possible?

13:30 Well, He perfectly obeyed the law in all the details of His own life and experience and then He undertook to meet all the demands of a broken law on behalf of His people. And both were necessary if we were to have a ground of righteousness. Hence the Catechism rightly says, Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which He pardons their sins and accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His sight only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. Now you say,

Scriptural Proof for Christ's Obedience in Life

14:14 Where are those concepts found in Scripture? Well, let's turn to the Word of God. First of all, let us turn to those passages which indicate Christ's obedience to the law in His life as being an essential part of His work as a mediator. Turn please, first of all, to the third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.

14:36 Matthew chapter 3. You'll remember the setting beginning with verse 13. The Lord Jesus comes to be baptized of John. Now remember baptism is a sinner's ordinance.

15:01 And whatever distinction there may be between the baptism of John and Christian baptism and there certainly is a distinction Acts 19 makes this very clear among other passages. This they have in common. It's a sinner's ordinance. John came preaching a baptism of repentance.

15:22 And the demand that he made upon men was to deal with their sins in preparation for the coming Messiah. It's a sinner's ordinance. All of a sudden something shocking happens. The sinless one comes to submit to the sinner's ordinance.

15:39 But John would have hindered him saying, I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me? Lord, this is in Congress. It doesn't make sense. I'm standing here preaching a baptism of repentance as one sinner amongst my fellow sinners.

15:58 I'm calling them to submit to the ordinance that is a sinner's ordinance. But Lord, not you coming to me. I have need to be baptized of thee. I surely can take the place of a sinner and submit to the sinner's ordinance but not you, the Holy One.

16:14 Jesus answers his objection in these words. And notice their significance to our teaching tonight. But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. He says, John, this is necessary for me to fill up the standard of righteousness.

16:41 It is part of my obedience as the surety of my people. I am coming in identification of those whom I purpose to save. And in that path of securing their salvation, suffer it, John, to fulfill all righteousness. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him in low voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

17:18 Now put that in its context. I am well pleased with my Son. In what sense? Not in some abstract, detached way, but I am well pleased that he is taking every single step of obedience necessary to fulfill all righteousness.

17:37 I am well pleased with him. Turn to Matthew 5, and the same emphasis is found in this setting. Matthew 5 and verse 17, Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.

17:55 And one of the ways in which Christ fulfills all the law and the prophets is by completely complying with every demand of righteousness found in the law and in the prophets. And then a key text in Romans chapter 5, one that I think would bear the whole weight of this aspect of the doctrine if there were no other. In Romans chapter 5, this section of the book of Romans in which Paul is showing that there is a similarity of divine method as God dealt with the whole human race in Adam under judgment. So he deals with the new humanity

18:38 in Jesus Christ unto the blessings of salvation and of righteousness. And notice the particular terminology of verse 19 in the midst of that general setting. For as through one man disobedience the many were made or constituted sinners, even so through the obedience not death, but through the obedience of the one shall the many be made or constituted righteous. Here our righteousness, our justification is attributed to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

19:20 Now granted, it was an obedience even unto death, but it was not an obedience which began and ended with his death. It was an obedience which began from the words quoted in Hebrews. Lo, I have in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O my God. And from the first dawnings of that life, every single demand of the holy law of God was met to perfection in the Son of God in thought, in word, and in deed.

19:56 Does God's law touch the first risings of desire in the human heart? Yes. Murder is found in the risings of anger, covetousness in the risings of illicit desire, adultery in the rising of impurity. All of this is true and it was nonetheless true as our Lord subjected himself to that law and from the beginning of his life here is a man.

Scriptural Proof for Christ's Full Satisfaction in Death

20:24 Every single demand of that law was met in the full extent of its demand throughout the entirety of his life. So that the perfection of his obedience becomes the grounds of my acceptance before God. And then there is the other aspect that the catechism calls the full satisfaction of Christ by which righteousness is procured. Let me give you three key texts dealing with that.

20:54 Second Corinthians chapter five again a pivotal passage. Second Corinthians chapter five verse nineteen or if we could back up to verse eighteen. But all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Not reckoning unto them their trespasses and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

21:27 We are ambassadors therefore in behalf of Christ as though God were entreating you by us. We beseech you in the behalf of Christ be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf. There is peculiar reference to what he accomplished particularly upon the cross that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

21:53 What is necessary if we are to have the very righteousness of God as our possession? He must make full satisfaction for sin. He was made sin for us. So here is an explicit statement that one great part of the ground of our acceptance is that righteousness of God which is provided in the death of Jesus Christ.

22:17 And then of course that familiar text in verse 13 in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Being made a curse for us.

22:32 For it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And then back to the Old Testament Isaiah 53. That graphic description of the evangelical prophet Isaiah in which one would almost think God gave him a vision of the cross of Christ and sat him down in front of it as a witness to write what he had seen. And then he backed off and gave to that prophet an interpretation of the significance of those sufferings.

23:09 And in this setting beginning with verse 10 we read yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief and shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many and he shall bear their iniquities. You see the justification is inseparably bound up with the bearing of their iniquities.

23:49 It is sufficient to show that when the catechism states that justification is this act of pardon and acceptance grounded upon the perfect obedience and the full satisfaction of Christ it is stating in beautiful in summary form the teaching of the word of the living God. As we shall explain in our next lecture how the perfect righteousness of Christ the righteousness of his life the righteousness of his satisfaction becomes ours we will deal with that later but all we want you to see at this point

The Father's Pleasure in Christ's Righteousness

24:33 is that this is the ground of our righteousness and of our acceptance. Let me quote from Professor Murray in the section on Redemption and Accomplished and Applied in our study when we think of such an act of grace on God's part we have to answer our question how can God justify the ungodly? The righteousness of Christ is the righteousness of his perfect obedience a righteousness undefiled and undefilable a righteousness which not only warrants the justification of the ungodly

25:17 but also the perfect obedience of his Son. When the Father saw the perfect obedience of his Son what was he led to explain? This is my Son in whom I am well pleased His perfect obedience may I say it reverently forced the confession of his Father? a true truthfulness that confession ah dear one thing if somehow I get so related to Christ

26:01 that that perfect obedience is seen as put to my account Almighty God is constrained to say of a poor hell-deserving sinner with him I am well pleased that's what Professor Murray is driving at here that righteousness. When Jesus cried, it is finished. Made full satisfaction to all the demands of God's law. God didn't speak immediately to say, I'm pleased. He waited three

26:37 days to make sure he was really dead in the eyes of the world. He knew he had given up his life unto death. But what was the resurrection? That was God saying by sign and by act what he said verbally at Jordan. This is

26:51 my son in whom I'm well pleased. That's why the scripture says, he was raised up for our what? Our justification. He was declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.

27:04 So that the father speaking of the son says, yes, he's fully met all the demands of a broken law. Therefore, the father is, again I say it reverently, constrained to vindicate his son. And if I can get in such relationship to that full satisfaction, the father is constrained to say of me, all the demands of the law met. My justice can exact.

27:32 Professor Murray, I believe had these biblical concepts in mind when he said, God cannot but accept into his favor those who are invested with the righteousness of his own son. While his wrath is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, his good pleasure is also revealed from heaven upon the righteousness of his well beloved and only begotten those justified may well exult in the words of the prophet, quoting from Isaiah 45 24 and 25. Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.

28:14 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bride groomed, decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61 10. No weapon that is

28:33 formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord. Isaiah 54 17. And the protestation of the apostle Paul becomes more meaningful.

28:53 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Oh dear ones, I ask you tonight has God the Holy Ghost by the word made real to your heart that the ground of justification is all in Christ and is to be found in the perfect obedience and the full satisfaction of Christ. That's the heart of the biblical message. And to go down

29:25 to one's house justified is to go down with all of my sins pardoned my person accepted and counted righteous because of that perfect righteousness wrought in his perfect life and in that awful death upon the cross. Hence the true people of God cannot glory enough in the Lord Jesus and in the perfection of his life and in the mystery of that death which he died on their behalf. It's a good test again as to whether or not a man has biblical religion. When you ask the question what place is there in it? Not only for Christ

30:08 in a general sense but for the Christ of perfect obedience to the law. For the Christ who bore the weight of the Father's judgment against sin in his death. If some of you are weary with some of us that we go back again and again to these things, well you'll have to forgive us. We're just in the company of the Apostle Paul who said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if some

30:35 of you think our preaching's a little imbalanced, why don't we just broaden out and deal with that and deal with that? Why do all the lines come back to Christ? Back to the obedience of his life? To his obedience unto death? It's because

30:50 we've got good company and we feel we're in good company for that one who said, I determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him as crucified. People start talking in big swelling terms about the kingdom of God and this kind of mandate and that kind of mandate until you have to look far and wide and turn over rugs and look under bushes to find the cross and to find the satisfaction of his obedience unto death and to find these central thieves. Whatever semblance of Christianity it may have, it's a pseudo-Christianity.

31:28 If Christ and his cross are not planted at the center and found at every point in the circumference, something's wrong. Because God's put the cross there. At the center and at every point in the circumference and every stopping point in between. All of it radiates from him and from his perfect obedience and his death. Well

The Method of Justification: Imputation

31:56 then, having looked at the ground of our justification, we have time to cover one other point tonight. What is the method of our justification? How is it that a man like that publican who says, I am nothing but a sinner, how is it that he goes down to his house justified? What is the method by which he becomes possessed of a perfect righteousness? What is the

32:23 method by which God declares him perfect before the law? Well, the method is what the catechism calls imputation. Listen. Justice is this act of God's free grace in which there is pardon and acceptance not for anything wrought in them, done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them. That's

32:53 point number six in the definition. The method of justification. God's the author, free grace the source, pardon sinners the objects, pardon and acceptance as an act, essence, the ground of it, the perfect obedience of Christ, the full satisfaction of Christ. What's the method? How do we come into

33:17 the possession of this? It is by God imputed unto them. John Bunyan said concerning this concept of the method of justification by imputation, he says if the understanding be muddled here, it is impossible that such should be sound in the faith. That's the tinker.

33:40 Speaking. If the mind be muddled here, it is impossible that they should be sound in the faith. Now this word imputed is the biblical word translated counted, reckoned, and impute. And it's the same word in the original when you come across it translated in those various ways in context such as Romans chapter 4. Let's turn and look

34:08 at several biblical passages indicating that the method of justification is imputation. Romans 4, verses 22 and 24. We'll read verse 23 as well. Speaking of Abraham, who is an example of those who are justified by faith, for that's what Paul is proving in Romans chapter 4. He says of

34:38 Abraham, wherefore also it was, here's the word, reckoned, imputed unto him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake that it was reckoned, imputed unto him, but for our sake also to whom it shall be imputed, reckoned, who believe on him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. The second Corinthians 5, 19 passage, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, same word in the original, not imputing unto them their trespasses. Now what does that word mean? It means to

35:16 credit something to someone. To put something to someone's account. Now I know something that gets all of us very upset. When you do something and your motive is absolutely above board and somebody completely misconstrues it and word gets back to you and you say, well that was unkind. They're imputing motives

35:34 to me that aren't true. Well what did they do? Did they put motives in your heart?

35:40 No, they have no power to do that. But what were they doing? They were crediting motives to you. They were putting down to your credit a certain motive, good or bad. They had no power

35:51 to actually put the motive within you. You can't do that with another person. You may try to move them with certain motives. You may try to give certain information to implant motives, but you cannot simply by saying something put a motive in someone, but you can impute a motive to them. You can reckon

36:09 a motive as being theirs. You can account it as theirs. And the same way in which we use it in our common parlance, is the concept of the Bible. The method by which God gives us the righteousness of Christ is by imputation.

36:28 He reckons the righteousness of Christ as being ours. Let me quote from Plummer, an excellent treatise on the doctrine of justification, who says, the end of his life, that is Christ's life, here on earth, was that he might, might be the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. His righteousness is not imparted in justification, but imputed to us. It does not cure our corruption, but it covers our nakedness.

37:03 It is not infused into us, but it is reckoned to us. It is not inherent in us, but it is set down to our account. We do not imbibe it, but we are invested with it. We are not imbued, but endued with it.

37:22 It does not give us a fitness for heaven, but a title to heaven. This righteousness imputed is not Christ's work in us, but his work and suffering for us, which give us an indefeasible title to the privileges of the sons of God. To enter the kingdom of God without a right and a title would make us stand before him as presumptuous intruders, called by Christ thieves and robbers who had climbed up some other way. To enter it with a title less perfect than the law requires would be exalting the mercy of God at the expense of the justice of God, and relaxing all the bonds of God's moral

38:06 government. To enter heaven with a title based upon our own merits would be a public and uncontradicted denial of our guilt and ruin. But here is Jehovah's way, the grace, the grace of God and the gift of grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. The righteousness of the one comes in the place of the unrighteousness of the many. And so by

38:34 one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. What is placing our righteousness in the obedience of Christ, but asserting that we are accounted righteous only because his obedience is accepted for us as if it were our own. It is reckoned to us, it is imputed to us, it is put to our account.

The Basis of Imputation: Union with Christ

39:02 Now let's think of it for a moment. If God's a God of truth, can he just juggle the ledgers of heaven? On what basis can he put to my account the perfect righteousness of Christ's life and death? If God is the God who declares things to be what they are in reality, can he declare the righteousness of Christ as being put to my account? Just by juggling

39:31 the record books? Just by playing mental games with himself? No. The scripture says all of God's declarations are according to what? Truth.

39:42 So if God is to declare me as being possessed of the righteousness of Christ, he's able to do so because wonder of wonders, he constitutes a relationship in which that righteousness becomes mine. And he can declare it to be mine because he's made it mine. And how does he do that? By joining me through his Son.

40:12 And union with Jesus Christ is the framework within which the imputation of righteousness occurs. Look at that beautiful text, 1 Corinthians 1.30. Look at it.

40:27 It says it all eloquently. And simply, where perhaps I'm saying it confusingly,

40:37 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. But of him that is of God the Father, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness? You see it? Jesus Christ is the great covenant head of his people.

41:00 Works out a perfect obedience in life. And the obedience finds its pinnacle expression when in death he gives himself up actively for our sins and swallows up all the demands of the broken law in reference to his own people. There is a perfect righteousness and the method by which it is mine is God reckoning it mine. But how can it be reckoned mine when it's not mine? Ah, it's

41:28 reckoned mine when that same God in the mighty working of his power takes me out of Adam and unites me to his own dear son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And of God I am then in Christ Jesus, who is made unto me righteousness. That's why Romans 5, 12 to 21 is stuck right in the middle of this dissertation on justification. Maybe some of you have wondered for years, say, why in the world does Paul deal with this in one all dive?

42:00 It's because this is the method of justification. Justification! Union with Christ! And he goes on to state it beautifully in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are aware in Christ. Philippians 3, 9

42:17 Paul says that I may be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. So, dear ones, the method of justification is imputation. God putting something to our account as being ours. How? By putting

42:36 us into that relationship with his own dear Son. To use the words of Professor Mary Murray, it is constitutive that it might be declarative. God constitutes the relationship that he declares the virtue and the reality of the blessings of that relationship.

42:58 Hence, every true child of God, in some little measure, has a grasp upon that mystery we sang about earlier tonight, the mystery of the great exchange, oh, mystery of love divine. Thy portion mine, ours thine. There is a beautiful hymn quoted in Hodges Theology of all places,

43:23 dealing with this very truth, and I want to read it to you, just two stanzas of it. Join earth and heaven to bless the Lord our righteousness. The mystery of redemption, this. This the Savior's strain, his design. Man's offense

43:39 was counted his. Ours, his righteousness divine. In him, union with Christ. In him, complete we shine. His

43:49 death, his life, is mine. Fully am I justified, free from sin and more than free, guiltless since for me he died. Righteous since he lived for me. That's it.

Personal Application: Are You In Christ?

44:05 That's justification. Put into union with Christ, so that in him the Father says of me, this is mine, in whom I'm pleased. Accepted in the beloved. And so you see then it brings it right back down to the most personal, individualistic emphasis, and I want to close our study tonight on that note.

44:33 Are you in Christ Jesus? I'm not asking you to understand all that's involved in being in him. And the ground of righteousness being his obedience and his death. Listen. I was

44:47 in him years enjoying that blessing before I began even to understand it. Thank God I don't need to understand it to experience it or to have it. But I do need to be in Christ to have it. Are you in Christ? I don't mean in

45:03 Christ in a loose general way because you've come into the sphere of the teaching of Christ with Christian parents. Into the sphere of the influence of Christ, truth in his word, because you've been brought up in the Christian church. I'm not asking you in Christ by some kind of a loose profession or some kind of an intimate association with his people and his church and his ways. But I'm asking you, are you in Christ by the mighty work of God the Father, placing you in Christ by his effectual calling? God is

45:40 faithful, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 1.9, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Has something happened to you that has no explanation but that Almighty God has stretched forth the arm of his power and brought you out of the realm of darkness and satanic bondage and the awful night of sin into the glorious light of the gospel and into vital union with his Son, Jesus Christ.

46:12 If any man be in Christ, he not only has a perfect righteousness, the Bible says he himself has become what? A new creation. Now justification is not the new creation. That's something God does in me. Justification

46:26 is a declarative act, something declared true about me. But God never justifies a man in Christ without making him a new creature by virtue of that union with Christ. Are you a new creature? Has God so overhauled you that when you look in the mirror sometimes you shake your head and say, who in the world is that guy looking at me? I tell

46:49 you there are times when it sweeps over me as it did this morning. I sat here on this platform hearing that thrilling report from Irving Millett. It felt like a, some kind of a I don't know what, sitting here crying my full head off. And I asked myself, what in the world has happened to me that I'd sit here crying a grown man with all my marbles to hear someone tell me what Christ has done in saving people.

47:19 I sit there and that makes me cry. I say what in the world has happened to me? And there are times the wonder of it sweeps over. And I have to say, Lord, thou knowest. There's a time when that would have

47:31 made me sneer. It would have made me uncomfortable. And now it strikes the springs of deepest joy and delight. I've been made a new creature in Christ. How about you? That's what

47:46 I'm talking about. I'm not saying every moment of every day, but are there times when the wonder of it sweeps over your soul and you say, oh God, I don't understand myself. Or can you explain yourself rationally? Can you explain yourself in terms of your religious tradition and religious training and all the rest? If you can, my friend,

48:08 you're on shaky ground. Because if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. We are his workmanship folks. And the ground then of this great declaration of justification is God's work of imputation.

48:25 And imputation always the portion of those who are brought into union with his own dear Son. God willing, next week we'll take up the final strand of thought. Number seven, the instrumental means of justification, the confession's words, the catechism's words, and received by faith alone. And we'll study together the nature and the fruits and necessary attendance of justifying faith. Sounds

48:59 like a good Puritan title, but I don't know how else to condense it. But God willing, that will be the focus of our study next week. May God grant that if you're not in Christ and have no biblical grounds to believe you are, that you'll flee to him tonight. He stands ready to receive the vilest of sinners. It was no good guy

49:20 that went down to his house justified. The good guy went down still under condemnation. It's the bad guy that went down justified. We know that scripturally we're all bad guys, yes.

49:32 But until we become such in our own eyes and take our stand as did the public in pleading nothing but his mercy in Christ, we'll go on seeking to attain a righteousness which we never will attain, and not submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God in Christ. Let us pray.