Romans 8:31-34
What Does 'To Justify' Mean in the Bible?
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds on the biblical meaning of 'to justify,' primarily referencing Romans 8:31-34 and other passages from Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Luke, Isaiah, and Romans. He argues that justification is a forensic declaration of righteousness, not an internal change, distinguishing it sharply from regeneration and sanctification. Martin emphasizes the critical importance of understanding this distinction for Christian stability and peace, urging both believers to live in its glory and unbelievers to seek this divine declaration before the final judgment.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 11 sections · 54 min
- The Certainty of Final Judgment and the Provision of Justification 0:03
- The Context of Justification: God, Humanity, and His Purpose 6:38
- The Substance of Justification: Defining 'To Justify' 10:48
- Why Precise Word Meaning Matters: The Spirit-Taught Words of Scripture 12:17
- The Forensic Meaning of 'To Justify': Declare, Not Make, Righteous 18:52
- Biblical Evidence: Where Other Meanings Are Impossible 21:09
- Biblical Evidence: 'To Justify' as the Opposite of 'To Condemn' 28:45
- Biblical Evidence: Equivalent Expressions and Formal Treatment 32:21
- Justification vs. Regeneration/Sanctification: A Crucial Distinction 35:30
- Application to Conscience: Excitement, Indifference, and Stability 41:25
- Final Exhortation: No License, But God-Honoring Life in Christ 49:25
Key Quotes
“That which Martin Luther called the article of the standing or the falling church.”
“Therefore, it is vital for us to grasp the meaning of the verb to justify.”
“It is thus a forensic term, denoting a judicial act of administering the law, in this case, by declaring a verdict of acquittal, and so excluding all possibility of condemnation.”
“The usage of common life as to this word is just as uniform as that of the Bible. If such be the established meaning of the word, it ought to settle all controversy as to the nature of justification.”
“If justification is confused with regeneration or sanctification, then the door is open for the perversion of the gospel at its center.”
“For me in Christ, the day of judgment with respect to the punishment of my sin and acceptance before God has come and gone.”
“If you are not wrapped up in Christ, if you have not fled to Christ and found in Christ the righteous pardon for all of your sins and a record that says you are credited with a perfect obedience that makes it legally binding upon God to usher you into heaven, without that, my friend, you're going to hear the words, depart from me into everlasting fire.”
“It has to do totally with Christ's work for me, not with the measure of His present work in me.”
Applications
The unconverted
- Give yourself no rest until you know that you are in Christ and in Christ justified, with no charge against you for your sin.
Parents & families
- Pray that God will bring you to a fresh, if not new, grasp upon this doctrine, allowing it to influence your Christian life.
All listeners
- Do not treat biblical words carelessly or have dim and indistinct views of doctrines like justification, sanctification, redemption, and reconciliation.
- Know the difference between redemption and reconciliation, and between justification and regeneration, and be able to explain them.
- Internalize the distinction between justification (God's judgment about us) and regeneration/sanctification (God's work in us) for stability in Christian experience.
- Understand the meaning of 'to justify' to properly deal with sin as a Christian, recognizing that for those in Christ, the day of judgment for sin's punishment has come and gone.
- Reflect on whether the reality of justification excites you, recognizing the profound implications of God's declaration of no condemnation.
- Do not be indifferent to your standing before the court of heaven and the judge, as you will certainly face judgment.
- Do not trifle with your never-dying soul; embrace God's gracious provision of justification in Jesus Christ.
- Do not be careless in your study of the Word, lest you rob yourself of the stability that comes from a well-informed mind regarding justification.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 111 paragraphs, roughly 54 minutes.
The Certainty of Final Judgment and the Provision of Justification
The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 18, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. You may wish to follow with me as I read several verses from Romans chapter 8. I will not be expounding these verses exclusively, but making reference to them toward the end of the message this morning. But in order to turn our minds in the direction of the theme of our study together, I read Romans 8, verses 31 through 34.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not?
But also with him freely give us all things. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns?
It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes it. Who, then, may the cross, spread forth on the earth as thet great incinerating holy water,
strong, and pure, is the glory of our God,of his throne. Let us again seek God's face in prayer. Our Father, we do confess that before this great mystery our minds and our hearts stagger that the Lord of glory should come, taking to himself a true human soul and body in Mary's womb, place himself under your holy law, and at the last moment we must take unto cartials of your holy law.
And render perfect obedience to that law as our representative, and then voluntarily go to the cross and there bear in his own body upon and up to the tree all of the accursedness of our disobedience to that law, and that he would become a curse for us.
O Lord, we acknowledge our minds cannot wrap themselves around such amazing truth, and we pray that your Holy Spirit would so minister to us that we may at least grasp the edges of the glory of these wonderful provisions you have made for hell-deserving sinners in the person and work of your beloved Son. Help us then this morning, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.
If our Bibles declare anything with clarity and underscore it with the emphasis of repetition, it is the fact that each and every one of us is on his or her way to the day of final judgment. The proof of this assertion is clear. Captured in many texts of Scripture, Romans 14, 12, for example,
So then, each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Hebrews 9, 27, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes judgment. Both Scripture and any unseared conscience. Thunder in the deep chambers of every one of our souls, that God will indeed have his day in court with us.
A day in which we will necessarily, personally, consciously have direct dealings with Jesus Christ, the delegated judge of the universe. And according to 2 Corinthians 5, 10, We will be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, to give account of the deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. And this certain encounter with God on his throne in judgment, a judgment to be administered by Jesus Christ,
is the necessary manifestation of the fact that, like it or not, recognize it, you and I are related to God, not only as our creator and the one who sustains us in life, but we are related to him as our lawgiver and our judge. And for this reason, we cannot, we dare not, be indifferent to or ignorant of that provision of God's grace, which alone will enable us to live.
It will enable us to face God in the day of judgment with confidence and with joy. And what is that provision of his redemptive grace? It is the reality of what the Bible calls justification. That is, a way of attaining a right standing before God in the court of heaven.
A way conceived by God himself. A way procured in the sending of his only begotten son. A way that is offered to us in the gospel. And this way of right standing is what we call the biblical doctrine of justification.
The Context of Justification: God, Humanity, and His Purpose
That which Martin Luther called the article of the standing or the falling church. And we come this morning to message, number six, in our examination of this wonderful provision of God's redemptive grace. The revelation of a righteous way to have a right standing with almighty God that will stand the scrutiny and the sobriety of the final day of judgment. In our first message, I sought to underscore the importance of this doctrine, both with reference to the glory of God and to the good of men.
And then in the next four messages, we considered what I called the context of this doctrine. This truth of justification does not come to us in isolation from other very vital truths. And it is only in the recognition of those other truths that we will appreciate and understand the truth when we are in the midst of the truth. And when we are in the midst of the truth, when we are in the midst of the truth, or that the truth will be sustained and maintained in the life of the church and in the proclamation of the word of God.
And that which forms the context of the doctrine of justification, I have described as number one, who God is in himself. He is the infinite, eternal, and unchangeably holy God. The infinite, eternal, and unchangeably just God. The infinite, eternal, and unchangeably true God.
And because of who he is in himself as holy, just, and true, there is the necessity for this provision of redemptive grace. And then we considered what God is in relationship to us. He is our creator. He is our lawgiver.
And he is our judge. And then the third strand of the context, the context of the doctrine of justification is who and what we are in relationship to this God who is creator, lawgiver, and judge. And the summary statement of what we are I gave as this. We are without exception guilty sinners fully deserving of divine wrath expressed in our banishment to hell in body and soul and that forever.
And then fourthly, in our last study, we considered that there is in this context of the doctrine of justification what I call the ultimate purpose of God in the salvation of sinners. And that purpose is to restore his image in us after the pattern of the glorified Christ. So that God himself may enter in to unreservedness and unreserved communion with creatures who have been remade into the moral likeness of his own beloved son. God has foreordained that we be conformed
to the image of his son and though we must isolate the doctrine of justification and understand it in terms of a marvelous provision external to us, a provision that focuses upon what God declares about us, not what he does in us now or in the future. We must never think of this provision divorced from his ultimate purpose in the salvation of sinners which is that work which he will do in us to make us into the image of his own dear son. Now this morning we move on from the importance of the doctrine,
The Substance of Justification: Defining 'To Justify'
the context of the doctrine, to consider the substance of the doctrine of justification. And in coming weeks, God willing, as I attempt to open up the scriptures which comprise the nuts and bolts of this marvelous provision of redemptive grace, I'm going to use the larger catechism as the outline for our study. I want you to liken it to a seven-room house. We're going to take phrase by phrase the things that make up that definition in the larger catechism, seven major divisions or components
of that which constitutes the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification. However, today we're not going to enter the house or any one of the seven rooms. We're going to stand on the front porch and try to do one thing. And one thing only.
And that is to grasp the biblical meaning of the verb to justify. When the scripture says, as it does, and we read one portion that does say this, it is God that justifies. How are we to understand that verb, God justifies? What does he do when he justifies?
Why Precise Word Meaning Matters: The Spirit-Taught Words of Scripture
And so, this morning, I have but one single focus of desire as a teacher and preacher of the word, and that is to impart to you a persuasion that the word to justify means something very precise in Holy Scripture. Now, why is this discipline necessary? Well, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 as I try to give you the answer. I'm going to answer the question, why take a whole sermon to explain the meaning of a verb to justify?
And my answer of the why is here in 1 Corinthians 2, 11 to 13. Paul has asserted in verse 6 that he and his fellow apostles are speaking true, God-given, heavenly wisdom. And it is those who have spiritual maturity and understanding that will grasp that wisdom. And in speaking that wisdom, he is speaking the things that God has revealed.
Now then, verse 11, we pick up the thread of thought. Who among men knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him? Now, when we move amongst a group of men, regardless of what people who say they are clairvoyant claim and all the rest, nobody knows your inner thoughts but you among men. Yes, God knows them.
He knows our thoughts from afar. But sitting here this morning, if you are thinking about how nice it would be to be relaxed and by your pool in your backyard, you're the only one who knows that among men. Who among men knows the things of another man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? And we all say, that's true.
I alone, amongst my fellow creatures, I alone know what my thoughts are. Even so, the things of God none knows, save the spirit of God. Only God knows the mind of God. And God the Holy Spirit, being one of the persons of the Trinity, He knows fully the mind of God.
Now, what's that have to do with the Corinthians, and the Apostle Paul who is going to tell us? But we received, and the we is not all Christians generically, though all have received the Holy Spirit, but it is Paul and his fellow apostles, we received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Here Paul is saying that there is special insight into the knowledge of the things freely given to us by God in the Gospel,
things that were hidden in generations past, but are now revealed by the Holy Spirit. Verse 10, he says, We have received the spirit that we might know these things, so that apostles and New Testament prophets were given unique insight into the mysteries of God. Now, what has Paul and his fellow apostles done with that? Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Spirit teaches,
combining spiritual things with spiritual words, a very difficult phrase. I believe the NIV captures the most likely sense when it says expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. In other words, expressing truths revealed by the Spirit with words that express the mind of the Spirit, so that the apostle is here laying claim that the very words by which revealed truth is conveyed, are words superintended by the Holy Spirit,
so that those words that we find in the Scriptures describing what our provisions are in Christ are words taught by the Holy Spirit, words chosen by the Spirit through the inspired pen writers. Therefore, we do not have the luxury of treating biblical words carelessly. We don't have the luxury of treating them flippantly or in a shallow way. And when God has sought to convey to us one of the cardinal blessings of redemptive grace, that which Luther called the article of the standing
or falling church, namely justification, we are not at liberty to slap onto that word any meaning we want, nor should we feel we have the luxury to have dim and indistinct views. Justification, sanctification, redemption, reconciliation, put them all in a bag. They're blessings I have in Jesus. Hallelujah, that's all I want to know.
Shame on you. Do you know the difference between redemption and reconciliation? Could you tell me the difference? Do you know the difference between justification and regeneration?
Could you explain it to someone? Do you know the difference between sanctification and justification? These are matters that should be of deep concern to us because it is by means of Spirit-directed words that the things that are freely given to us of God are expressed to us and conveyed to us in our Bibles. Therefore, it is vital for us to grasp the meaning of the verb to justify.
The Forensic Meaning of 'To Justify': Declare, Not Make, Righteous
And now we come to my effort to establish that meaning from the Scriptures. It basically means to declare or to pronounce one just, to be free from blame, to declare someone to be innocent before the law. This pronouncement is a declaration in a legal framework. Therefore, often you will find when you read about justification, it is a forensic or a legal blessing.
It has nothing to do with what God does in a man or woman, but it has only to do with His declaration about that man or woman in the court of heaven. In His excellent article on justification, in the Baker's Dictionary of Theology, Dr. J. I. Packer writes,
the Biblical meaning of justify, and then he gives the Hebrew and then the Greek words, is to pronounce, accept, and treat as just. That is, on the one hand, not penally liable, and on the other hand, entitled to all the privileges due, to those who have kept the law. It is thus a forensic term, denoting a judicial act of administering the law, in this case, by declaring a verdict of acquittal, and so excluding all possibility of condemnation.
Justification thus settles the legal status of the person justified. It is to pronounce, accept, and treat as just, no valid claim of the law against the one who is justified. Now I want to trace out four lines of Biblical materials that demonstrate that this is its meaning in the Scriptures. Number one, the numerous places where any other meaning is impossible.
Biblical Evidence: Where Other Meanings Are Impossible
You can't put on the meaning to make someone righteous, to make someone just, but only to declare what they are. That's my first line of evidence, the numerous places where any other meaning is impossible. Turn with me please to Deuteronomy 25 and verse 1. Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 1.
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment. Alright, here's an argument. They can't settle it among themselves, so they come into a formal court setting. They come into judgment.
And the judges judge them. They weigh the evidence in their controversy. Then, of the judges, they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. Now, what does the word justify there mean?
Obviously, they shall declare the righteous one to be what he is. This man did not do what the other says. The evidence doesn't bear it up. Therefore, the judges will declare man A to be innocent of the charges.
They do not make him innocent. They declare what the evidence has persuaded them is already a fact. They will justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. Proverbs 17, 15.
Remember now, what we're trying to do is ascertain the meaning of the word to justify. And I'm looking with you at the Biblical evidence to support my assertion that it is a legal declaration. There's nothing to do with what is done in a man or a woman, a boy or girl. It has to do with what is declared to be fact about him or her.
Proverbs 17 and verse 15. He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. If it means to make righteous, this would be a virtue. He that justifies the wicked, he who can make a wicked man righteous, that's a good thing.
But no, what it's saying is he that justifies the wicked. Here's a man who is wicked. He has done wicked things. The evidence is all against him.
Yet here's someone through a bribe or through personal affection for the person declares him, pronounces him to be righteous. That's an abomination to God. And likewise, here's another man who is a righteous man. He has not been guilty of breaking the law, but he's brought into a situation where he's accused of that.
And the judge knows that the accusation is invalid, and yet he condemns him. Both are an abomination. They do not speak the truth about the legal, true legal status of these two individuals. The wicked is justified.
That is, a declaration is made concerning him that is contrary to fact and reality. And likewise, the innocent one, the righteous, is declared to be unrighteous and guilty when in reality he is not. Then turn to Luke chapter 7 and verse 29. We're just looking at passages in which any other meaning for justify other than to declare the one to be righteous.
Any other meaning is impossible. Luke chapter 7 and verse 29. And all the people when they heard and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. Now if justify means to make righteous, this text is ridiculous.
How can people make God righteous? No, they cannot make him righteous. All they can do with respect to God is by embracing the revealed will of God they can vindicate and declare that God is right and just in what he has required. And so when God through the prophet John the Baptist calls people to repentance, calls them to a baptism that validates that repentance, all of the people when they heard and the publicans justified God.
How? By being baptized with the baptism of John. By complying with God's just requirements they declare God to be just. That's all human beings can do.
They cannot make him just. They can only declare him to be just. And then Luke 16, 15. Now be patient.
People died for the difference between justification and sanctification and in their commitment to preach that distinction. So don't treat their blood lightly by being mentally careless. Follow the line of argument. Luke 16 and verse 15.
And he said unto them, You are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men. But God knows your heart, for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. He said unto them, You are they that justify yourselves. It cannot mean you make yourself righteous.
No. You declare yourself to be what you are not, but you declare it. You declare yourself to be righteous. You present yourselves as righteous in these texts and many others.
Justify cannot. It is impossible to put any other significance on the word other than to declare one to be righteous. Hence we may say with Charles Hodge, quote, The usage of common life as to this word is just as uniform as that of the Bible. If such be the established meaning of the word, it ought to settle all controversy as to the nature of justification.
We are bound to take the words of Scripture in their true established sense. And therefore, when the Bible says, God justifies the believer, we are not at liberty to say that He merely pardons or that He sanctifies him. It means and can only mean He pronounces him just. There's the first line of evidence that to justify, means to make a pronouncement, a declaration concerning someone's status before the law, he is just.
Biblical Evidence: 'To Justify' as the Opposite of 'To Condemn'
Now secondly, I want you to look with me at several passages where to justify is the opposite of to condemn. Now when you condemn someone, you don't make them guilty. You make a pronouncement based upon the fact they are guilty and you condemn them. And therefore, the antonym for justify in Scripture in many places is to condemn.
Now antonyms put in opposite things of the same category. I would not say as an antonym, the antonym to big is bright and the antonym to hot is small. No. The antonyms in the same category, big and small, hot and cold, short and tall.
So when the Bible brings together these things, setting them as opposites, the opposite of condemning, which does not make a person a sinner, does not make a person guilty, it only declares him to be guilty. There may be a punishment following the formal condemnation, but to condemn is to declare, to declare one guilty, the opposite of justification, which is to declare someone just. Now look with me again at several passages. We already looked at one of them, the Proverbs 17, 15.
Let's go back and bring it into service a second time. Proverbs 17 and verse 15. He that justifies the wicked and he that condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. The opposite of justify is condemn.
The opposite of condemn is to justify. And then turn over to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 50. Here we have in this setting a very clear example of this.
Verses 8 and 9. Isaiah 50, 8 and 9. He is near that justifies me, who will contend with me. Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me. Who is he that shall condemn me?
They shall all wax old as a garment. The moths shall eat them up. Here you see the contrast. He is near that justifies me.
Who is he that shall condemn me? And it may well be the apostle Paul had this passage in mind in the portion read from Romans chapter 8. If God justifies, who is he that condemns? And then Romans 5 and verse 18.
You have the same contrast in the use of the words. Romans 5 and verse 18. So then, as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to come to condemnation, even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. Condemnation, justification of life, they are set as opposites.
Biblical Evidence: Equivalent Expressions and Formal Treatment
Well then, thirdly, we know that the verb to justify and the provision of justifying grace in Jesus Christ has to do with a declaration about us, not something done in us, not something effected in our moral character, though that is never divorced from God's working when he justifies a sinner, but justification has to do with the legal declaration. We have seen passages where any other meaning is impossible, passages where justify is the opposite of condemn. Thirdly, passages where equivalent forms of expression are used.
Equivalent forms of expression are used. Romans chapter 4, verses 4 to 6. Now to him that works the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David pronounced his blessing upon the man unto whom God reckons righteousness apart from works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sin is covered. And here justification is explained in terms of the non-imputation of sin. That man is blessed unto whom God reckons righteousness apart from works, the man to whom God, verse 8, will not reckon sin. The man who is not charged with sin and therefore pronounced as guilty
and deserving of condemnation. And there are several other passages in the New Testament where equivalent forms of expression are used that lock us in to this ironclad concept of to justify, to justify means not to make righteous, but to declare righteous, to make the declaration that one stands righteous before the law. And then, fourthly, the setting in which the doctrine is formally treated. When the doctrine of justification is formally treated in great detail, such as in the book of Romans, and again,
in Paul's letter to the Galatians, it is very, very clear that to justify means to deal with the issue of our culpability before the law. You remember Paul summarizes the first three chapters from 1.18 through 3.19 by saying the whole world stands guilty before God with its mouth shut.
Justification vs. Regeneration/Sanctification: A Crucial Distinction
But now, apart from the law, a righteousness has been provided and revealed, a righteousness that brings us from the court of heaven that condemns us, a declaration of no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And so, in summary, let me say that the meaning of the word to justify has to do with a judgment given, declared, or pronounced. And here I quote the very helpful words of Professor Murray. The main point of such terms is to distinguish between the kind of action
which justification involves and the kind of action involved in regeneration. Regeneration is an act of God in us. Justification is a judgment of God with respect to us. The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge.
The surgeon, when he removes a cancer, does something in us. This is not what the judge does. He gives a verdict regarding our judicial status. If we are innocent, he declares us accordingly.
The purity of the gospel is bound up with the recognition of this distinction. If justification is confused with regeneration or sanctification, his ongoing work in us, then the door is open for the perversion of the gospel at its center. Hear the old professor who now looks upon the face of his savior. If justification is confused with regeneration or sanctification, then the door is open for the perversion of the gospel at its center.
Justification is still the article of the standing or the falling church. End quote. These are vital issues that we not only have an intellectual grasp upon that distinction, but that we have internalized it. So whenever we are in the presence of sin, and you and I will be in the presence of sin until we breathe our last, or until the Lord returns, if we have not made that distinction here, and we do not live by it here, we are going to be, of all people, the most unstable and miserable
in our Christian experience. This distinction is absolutely crucial to the Christian life. Not only upon its entrance, it's crucial in our initial turning to God through Jesus Christ to understand what are we receiving in the most feeble but real initial actings of faith in Christ. The Bible says, having therefore been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
What is it we receive when we believe? It's vital to understand that on the threshold as we come in to the Christian life. But it's crucial to live with that distinction through all our days. This day you've already sinned.
I've sinned. You will sin some more. I will sin. What do I do as a Christian with sin?
Sin is always ugly to God. Sin is always a breach of God's law. Sin is always that which God hates. Sin is always that which brings upon me responsibility.
What do I do with it? If I do not understand the meaning of the word to justify, I will not be stable in my Christian life. For justification answers the question, how do I regard that sin which I've committed? How am I to allow it to work its way into my thinking and into my emotions and into my responses to God and my relationship to God?
And I must come to grips with the reality that to be justified means that for me in Christ, the day of judgment with respect to the punishment of my sin and acceptance before God has come and gone. There is therefore now. Right? Right now.
No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And as I will attempt to show some messages hence, how am I then to deal with my sin? To take it seriously and not to say, oh, I'm justified. The declaration of the court of heaven is come.
The day of judgment is coming fast. I don't need to worry about sin. No, no. The Bible doesn't warrant that.
God doesn't warrant that. It does have clear directives on how I'm to regard my sin as a believer. But I will not be able to embrace and implement those directives if I have not come to grips with the fact that to be justified is to have received a declaration from the court of heaven with respect to the hell deservingness and wrath deservingness of my sin on the one hand and my standing before the law of God on the other. It's irreversible.
Application to Conscience: Excitement, Indifference, and Stability
It is irrevocable. It is a declaration from the court of heaven itself and is critical if I am to live a stable, God-honoring, fruitful, Christian life. Now, having established, I trust, from the Scriptures that the undisputed meaning of the word to justify is to declare just or righteous, let me make several applications. First of all, let me press some questions upon your conscience.
Does the reality of this meaning, of this word, excite you? Does it bring you to the place where you say, oh God, that seems too good to be true, that a declaration has come from your court with respect to my sins, not only past, present, but future, that I will come into no condemnation for those sins, and furthermore, that I have a standing before your law in Christ that is based upon his perfect obedience to the law, so that I am seen not simply as Adam
in his state of innocence when placed in the garden, but I am seen in the last Adam, the second man, the Lord from heaven, as though, Adam fully and perfectly had kept the law over whatever time would have been his period of trial in the garden. I am viewed in the perfect life of Jesus Christ, the one who has come and represented me and all of his people, that I can look up into the face of the judge of heaven and earth, into the purity and the righteousness and holiness of the court of heaven, and know that there is no case against me
and only a case for me in Jesus Christ. Does that get you excited? If it doesn't, then maybe you've never cared a lick about what the court of heaven is towards you, and what the judge is, and who he is in his purity and his holiness and his righteousness. You may be prepared to live in different ways, to those things now, but let me ask you a very serious, simple question.
If you were told tomorrow on good evidence that you had a terminal illness, in three months you'd be gone, and that terminal illness began to keep you bedridden, and you had hours to think about where you'd be two months, one month, twenty days, ten days, do you think you could be as indifferent about the court of heaven and the judge who sits upon his bench and your relationship to his law? Think about it. Think about it.
For whether by a terminal illness or by a sudden stroke of almighty God or just plain wearing out after ninety years, you're going to be in that court, and you're going to face that judge, and you're going to be dealt with in terms of his inflexible, changeless law that touches every thought, every motive, every deed, every desire. Can you be indifferent to whether or not issues with the court and with the judge are really settled? I plead with you. I beg of you.
As certainly as you cannot refute my statement, you're going to face the judge. You're going to die. And you know it. You know it.
You know you're not going to lick death. You may push it out of your mind and put it, but you know you're not going to lick death. It's appointed unto men once to die. You know that.
And in your heart of hearts, you know that's not the end of you. Unless God has given you over to an utterly seared conscience, you know that after death comes judgment. And oh, my friend, in the light of that, this thing ought to be a matter of deepest concern to you. How do I stand before the court of heaven?
Do I stand with the sentence already gone forth, guilty, worthy of eternal death, and it's only a matter of time before it's implemented? And the Scripture says when the judge speaks his final word, these shall go away. These shall go away. These shall go away into everlasting punishment.
These shall go away into everlasting punishment. If you are not wrapped up in Christ, if you have not fled to Christ and found in Christ the righteous pardon for all of your sins and a record that says you are credited with a perfect obedience that makes it legally binding upon God to usher you into heaven, without that, my friend, you're going to hear the words, depart from me into everlasting fire. Don't be indifferent to the issues that are addressed
in this little word to justify. For indifference to that is indifference to your never-dying soul. It's indifference to God's gracious provision in Jesus Christ, not only made for sinners but freely and sincerely offered to you this morning, pressed upon you with earnestness. Don't trifle with your never-dying soul.
And to you, God's people, don't be careless in your study of the Word and by that carelessness rob yourself of the stability, that comes by a well-informed mind that in turn shapes an earnest Christian life that understands the difference between justification and regeneration, justification and sanctification, and lives in the glory and the wonder and the stabilizing influence of understanding
what it is to be justified. That the court of heaven has made a declaration about me that is irrevocable, that is irreversible, and in my lowest moments, in my most defeated moments, that declaration remains intact because it has to do with what I have in Christ, not what Christ may have in me at any given moment, which fluctuates and changes. It has to do totally with Christ's work for me, not with the measure of His present work in me.
Final Exhortation: No License, But God-Honoring Life in Christ
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Oh, that will lead to license. No, my friend, no, no. For God never brings a man or woman to justifying faith.
This is the teaching of the book of James. But what that faith plants His feet in the way of a commitment to obedience to God, to a life of holiness, the teaching of 1 John, and there will be many and sustained evidence of God's work in us. But God's work in us is not the same as God's work for us in Jesus Christ. And we must grasp with renewed acts of faith the wonder and the glory of that changeless work effected for us if we're ever going to be able to say with the Apostle,
and here I come back full circle to those words of Romans chapter 8, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who's going to overrule the sentence of the court over which God rules and in which He is the supreme judge?
Who's going to nudge Him and say, I'm sorry, I don't agree with that pronouncement? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? It is Christ that died, raised, seated, and intercedes.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? My standing before God in the court of heaven rests down upon God's irrevocable statement of justification and Christ's unchangeable work effected and continually performed on behalf of His own. So, child of God, pray that in our unfolding of this doctrine, God will bring you to a fresh, if not a new, grasp upon it and that it will percolate down into the chambers of your heart and there will exert its influence in the way you live out
your Christian life. And my dear unconverted friend, I urge you, give yourself no rest until you know that you are in Christ and in Christ justified, declared in the court of heaven righteous, no charge against you for your sin, all the virtue of the obedience of Christ credited to you in Him. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank You that You have spoken in Your word and we pray that the Holy Spirit who has given us that word
would now by His own present ministry powerfully apply it to every heart. How we thank You for this amazing provision of redemptive grace that we who are hell-deserving guilty sinners can be declared righteous in the court of heaven. That we can be declared not only forgiven but accepted in the beloved, treated as though we had fully kept Your holy law. For in our living head and representative we have.
O Lord, the words come difficult to our lips. They seem so far beyond what we would ever have conceived of. But we know we do not magnify You by unbelief that shrinks back from praising You for all that we have, and are in our Lord Jesus. Seal then Your word to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
These verses introduce the sermon's theme and are revisited at the end to underscore the security of the justified believer in Christ.
This passage is expounded to establish the necessity of precise biblical word study, particularly for the term 'justify,' due to the Holy Spirit's superintendence of Scripture's words.
Texts Expounded
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