An Act of God's Free Grace

Introduction: The Paramount Question of Justification

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 25, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Romans.

0:22 And I want to read two relatively brief passages in your hearing. Reference will be made to at least one of them in the opening up of the word. In chapter 3 and verse 21 through 26, Paul, having demonstrated that every segment of humanity lies under the judgment of God, when brought under the scrutiny of the law of God, then says by way of glorious contrast in verse 21, But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been made.

1:04 And manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ, whom God set forth a propitiation through faith in His blood to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime in the forbearance of God.

1:49 For the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season, that He, that is God, might Himself be just, and the justifier of him that has faith. In Jesus, chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that does not work, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

2:30 Let us again pray and ask God by His Spirit. To come and help us in the ministry of the Word.

2:41 Our Father, in the language of the hymn we have just sung, we have together pleaded for the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we ask that that ministry will be known and felt by preacher and by listener alike. We thank you for your word of promise that your grace is sufficient for us. Your strength is made perfect in the midst of human weakness.

3:11 So, Lord, I would hold up to you the weakness of my vocal apparatus, not understanding why you have permitted this, but embracing from the heart that your ways are right and just and holy and good, and that your grace is sufficient for us. We cast ourselves upon you now in a corporate act of faith and expectation, and trust you. And for that promised grace, in Jesus' name, amen.

3:48 Now, of all the questions that we could raise concerning the profound issues of life, and there are many, none, I say none, is of greater importance than the question, how can sinful man be just or made right with God? Of all the questions, you or I could ask concerning the most profound issues of life, none is of greater importance than this question, how can sinful man be made right with God? The right answer to that question is given to us in the Holy Scriptures,

4:33 but only in the Holy Scriptures. And in spite of the fact that the right answer is given to us in the Scriptures, spelled out clearly and repeatedly in the Scriptures, man's ability to ignore, to twist, or to deny the Bible's answer to this question knows no limits. And the history of the religions of the world, and alas, even the history of Christianity, demonstrates the truth of what I've just asserted. Man's ability to ignore, to twist, or to deny the Bible's answer to this question knows no limits.

5:12 Man's ability to ignore, to twist, or to deny the Bible's answer to this question knows no limits. Man's ability to ignore, to twist, or to deny the Bible's answer to this question knows no limits. And since it is a matter of life and death, even eternal life, or eternal death that we know and receive as true, the Bible's answer to this question, for this reason we come this morning to our seventh study addressing the biblical doctrine of justification, addressing the biblical doctrine of justification, addressing the biblical doctrine of justification, by faith alone, in Christ alone, because that is the Bible's answer to that profound and all-important question.

Review of Previous Studies: Context and Meaning of Justification

5:55 Bear with me as I give just a brief overview of what we've considered in the first six messages. We began by considering the importance of the biblical doctrine of justification, its importance with reference to the glory of God, and its importance with reference to the good and the well-being of our own souls. And then we considered, secondly, what I call the necessary context or the supportive truths of Scripture with respect to the doctrine of justification. There are truths revealed in the Scripture which condition, which support,

6:37 and which shape the very contours of the biblical doctrine, of justification. If we ignore those truths, if we jettison those truths, and try to understand the biblical doctrine of justification, we'll be in a mental and spiritual no-man's land. And then we focused upon four such categories of biblical truth which form the context or the supportive structure of the biblical doctrine of justification. The first is who God is in Himself as infinite and unchangeably holy, just, and true.

7:21 Secondly, what God is in relationship to us as our Creator, our Lawgiver, and our Judge. If God is not Creator, He is not Lawgiver, He is not Judge, then the biblical doctrine of justification is nonsense. It's a tempest in a teapot. But if God is not Creator, He is not Lawgiver, He is not Judge, but if indeed God is your Creator and mine, your Lawgiver and mine, your Judge and my Judge, then the doctrine of justification is the only thing that becomes good news to our ears once we understand this third supportive truth, and that is who and what we are in relationship to God.

8:07 As we are related to God as His creatures, subject to His Law, and answerable to Him in the final day, what are we? Well, according to the Scriptures, we are all part of a fallen, condemned, guilty race that deserves the wrath and judgment of Almighty God. Those who, if they were to stand in the court of God and be dealt with in terms of strict justice, would hear every one of us, the words, depart from me, you cursed one, into everlasting fire, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And then the fourth supportive truth of the biblical doctrine of justification is what I have called

8:52 the ultimate purpose of God in redemptive grace. God's ultimate purpose in sending His Son into the world, in ever conceiving of a plan of salvation in the very womb and taproots of eternity. What is His ultimate intention? It is not, not only to settle our accounts in the court of heaven, but it is ultimately to restore us to the very moral image of His Son, whom He did foreknow.

9:23 He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. God is committed in the scheme of redemptive grace to nothing less than restoring that image that was defaced and marred and twisted in Adam, and restoring it in such a way that we will all bear the family likeness of His own beloved Son. And in that context, God is able to give Himself fully to us in covenant love and communion and fellowship. So the book of the Revelation closes with such descriptions as these.

10:04 They shall see His face. They shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. God Himself shall be their God, and they shall be His people. So, though we are concentrating on this doctrine which deals with how things are rectified in the courtroom of heaven, the rectifying of our record in the courtroom is not an end in itself and must never be viewed detached from that greater, more glorious, all-encompassing, ultimate purpose of God in redemptive grace.

10:44 Then last Lord's Day, we considered what is crucial to any study of this doctrine, namely, what is the meaning of the verb to justify. When the Scripture says, as we read this morning, that God Himself might be just and the justifier of Him that believes in Jesus, what does the word to justify mean? Well, as in our common usage, so in the Scripture. To justify is to declare someone righteous in the court of the law to which that person is accountable.

11:21 To justify is not to make the person righteous. It is to declare him already righteous. And that's why in Deuteronomy 25.1, God says that the judges, when they hear a case, they are not to justify the wicked.

11:38 They are not to condemn. They are not to condemn the righteous. A person comes into court and is declared either righteous or guilty. Justify is not to make righteous, but it is to declare.

11:54 It is a declarative, a forensic, a judicial declaration. It's the opposite of condemning. In condemning someone, you don't make them guilty, you judge them to be guilty and you declare them as a victim. As such, likewise to justify does not mean to make just, but to declare just.

Introducing the Westminster Standards as an Organizational Framework

12:18 So much for review. We begin today to take up the fourth major division of our study. We looked at the importance. We looked at the context.

12:29 We considered together, as we have even briefly this morning, the design of God in redemptive grace. Now we come to the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification. What is the nature of that astounding blessing of God's grace whereby we are made right with God? What is the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification?

12:57 And as we do today and in coming weeks, I plan to open up many texts of scripture, but I'm going to use the larger catechism of the Westminster Assembly as my organizing framework in collating the scriptures, in putting them in their various categories. I unashamedly acknowledge I will be using as my organizational framework the larger catechism of the Westminster Standards. And in the way of introduction, since we have new folk among us to whom the terms Westminster Standards, catechism, confession are relatively new, I want to take a few minutes by way of introduction to what will be the very start of the standard framework of our study

13:42 for some weeks to come. I want to address two questions. What are the so-called Westminster Standards? And secondly, what are the primary benefits of such confessions of faith, especially when they are reduced to catechisms?

13:58 I want to persuade your judgment that this is indeed the best way I can approach this subject in the way of popular preaching. If I were approaching it in the way of theology, theological lectures in the seminary, I might take a different course. I might. I'm not sure.

14:15 But in this setting, I believe in pursuing your highest edification, I can do no better than to open up many, many texts under the framework and organizational structure of the larger catechism. So, question one, what are the so-called Westminster Standards? Well, when you hear that term, it refers to the Westminster Confession of Faith, the larger and shorter catechisms, and the Directory for Public Worship. These documents were drawn up at Westminster Abbey, the seat of the English Parliament, at a time of tremendous upheaval in Scotland and England, both politically and religiously.

15:00 And there's an excellent summary in the introductory essay of a book by Robert Shaw entitled The Reformed Faith, subtitle, An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith. And I would ask you to listen to this very brief summary of what the Westminster Assembly was and what it accomplished. The whole number of the Assembly amounted to 142 pastors and theologians, 142, and 32 laymen. But of this number, seldom more than from 60 to 80 gave regular attendance.

15:37 The Assembly was convened for the first time in the year 1880, and the Assembly was convened for the first time in the year 1880, and the Assembly was convened for the first time in the year 1880, and the Assembly was convened for the first time in the year 1880, on Saturday, July 1, 1643. Saturday, July 1, 1643. And continued to hold regular meetings until February 22, 1649. Almost six years.

15:58 The number of sessions held by the Westminster Assembly was 1,163 in the period of its duration, five years, six months, and 21 days. The general result of the Westminster Assembly's deliberations was the framing of the Confession of Faith, the Directory for Public Worship, a form of church government and discipline, and both the larger and the shorter catechisms. So when we speak of the Westminster Standards, we are talking of those documents that came out of that five and a half years of deliberation by some of the most eminent, knowledgeable, pastors and theologians

16:42 of that period in the history of the Scottish and English Church. The Scots, of course, having no sympathy for any connection between the state and the church, while the Puritans in England, a number of them would love to have seen that separation, while others were comfortable with it. But here they met with open Bibles, wrestling with what does the Bible teach on all of its leading documents, doctrines, starting with the doctrine of Scripture, moving all the way through to practical things such as the place of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer in the life of the believer. So much then for

Benefits of Confessions and Catechisms: Fence, Sieve, and Treasury Bill

17:25 what are the so-called Westminster Standards. Second question, what are the primary benefits of such Confessions of Faith, especially when reduced to catechisms? And I want you to think with me under three analogies. First of all, they function like a fence.

17:44 Now, a fence can have two functions. It can be both a boundary marker and a barrier. When you go by a piece of property and see a fence, you assume that that fence is found right on the margins where two properties meet. And generally that's so.

18:03 Why? Because the fence marks the boundaries of Mr. Jones' property as it is separate from Mr. Smith's.

18:11 And this is the tremendous benefit of a Confession of Faith, particularly when the larger concepts of the Confession are reduced and distilled into the very concentrated language of a catechism. It marks out the boundaries of a given truth of Holy Scripture. As one man has aptly said, all of the truths of Scripture in the end explode, in mystery. If we trace any truth far enough upward, Godward, we have to throw up our hands and say with the Apostle Paul, who has known the mind of the Lord?

18:55 Or being his counselor has taught him all the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. But you see, the Confessions and the Catechisms mark out the boundaries of a particular truth as those boundaries of the Confession of Faith have been understood by the Church of Christ over the centuries, wrestling with various errors and heresies that have sought to twist the truth until the people of God have spoken with precision with regard to the given truth. For example, who is the Redeemer of God's elect? The answer, the only Redeemer of God's elect is our Lord Jesus Christ,

19:38 who, being the eternal, son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be both God and man in two distinct natures, in one person forever. In that simple statement you have a marvelous fence that marks out the mystery of who Jesus Christ is as the Savior of God's people. And when you find anyone defining him in such a way that they shrink that fence or enlarge it, you can say, oh, wait a minute, you're changing the turf. He is truly God.

20:22 He is truly man. Yet he is one person, but in two distinct natures, and that forever. There's the fence that marks out the boundaries of the mystery. Well, in the same way, this statement of justification in the larger catechism has convinced and contained in it when one has some knowledge of church history, little phrases that with one stroke lay a straight line on the boundary of what justification is and what justification is not.

20:57 And so the benefit of this kind of study is that we have that blessing of the function of the fence, but the fence also not only acts as a boundary marker, but a barrier. A barrier to keep out unwanted animals, unwanted people, unwanted things. And so likewise, these definitions, precise definitions, help us that we can do what every believer is commanded to do, not just pastors and theologians. In Jude, in verse 3, the writer says he wanted to sit down and write a positive letter about the common salvation of the people of God, but certain things constrained him, he says,

21:41 to write that you earnestly contend, you vigorously fight for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There is a faith once for all delivered. It is not dynamic. It is not fluid.

21:58 It is not a wax nose to be bent toward any wind and pressure of current theological opinion. There is a faith. It's been once for all delivered. It's been wonderfully and beautifully defined and set out in our confessions and catechisms.

22:15 And so studying in this way helps us to see the fence not only as a boundary marker, but as a barrier against evil. But then secondly, I want you to think of the benefit of this kind of study in that these definitions found in a good catechism function like a grid or a sieve. They function like a grid or a sieve. And when you throw dirt on a sieve to get nice, soft, pure topsoil, you have that various size mesh, wire mesh, so that when you throw the shovel full of the mixed dirt,

22:58 that mesh will catch the stones and you can discard them for another use or get rid of them. You want only good, soft loam to make its way through the grid. Well, in the same way, catechisms can function like a mental and spiritual grid. And someone comes along with a shovel full that says, this is the biblical doctrine of justification, and they throw it at you.

23:25 What are you going to do with it? If you have understood what is expressed in this marvelous definition of justification in the larger catechism, and you have grasped the biblical texts and the information to relatedness of those texts from which that definition comes, you have a divinely implanted grid in your soul that will catch the rocks of error, will catch the rocks of heresy and say, no, that's not what my Bible teaches. And in our day, dear people, believe it or not, there are very astute theologians, very astute,

24:10 learned men, brilliant men, competent men, who are telling us that our understanding of justification as it was rebirthed in the Reformation has been entirely wrong. That until these chaps came along 30, 40 years ago to begin to redefine, we really have been messed up as to the biblical doctrine of justification.

24:40 And you will sooner or later feel that shovel full against your soul.

24:47 You need to have a divinely constructed grid so that you are able to sift out truth from error. Listen again to what Shaw says concerning that group of men who met to wrestle with these issues. There's another characteristic of the Westminster Confession, and he would say catechisms as well, to which less attention has been generally directed, but which is not less remarkable. Framed as it won by men of distinguished learning and ability who were thoroughly conversant with the history of the church from the earliest times

25:29 until the period in which they lived, that is the 17th century, it contains the calm and settled judgment of these profound theologians on all, all previous heresies and subjects of controversy which had in any age or country agitated the Church of Christ. This it does without expressly naming even one of these heresies or entering into mere controversy. Each error is condemned not by a direct statement and refutation of it, but by a clear, definite, and strong statement of the opposite truth.

26:13 There was in this mode of exhibiting the truth singular wisdom combined with equally singular modesty. Everything of an irritating nature is suppressed, and the pure and simple truth alone displayed, while there's not only no ostentatious parade of superior learning, but even a concealment of learning the most accurate and profound. A hasty or superficial reason of the confession of faith and the catechisms will scarcely perceive that. In some of its apparently simple propositions, he is perusing an acute and conclusive reputation of the various heresies and controversies that have corrupted

26:58 and disturbed the Church. And then he goes on to say, but if you study Church history, a book of Church history in one hand, your confession of faith in the catechism in the other, you'll say, oh, this is the heresy in the second sense. Oh, they were dealing with the Monophysites here. Oh, they were dealing with the Sibelians here.

27:17 Oh, they were dealing with the Arians here. And you will be able to see all the way through those precise statements, though not naming the heresy, understanding it gave the contrary truth that provides another strand in the grid. And dear people, I beg of you, don't be satisfied without a grid implanted in your soul by careful study in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and being saturated in the word of the living God. So, they function not only like a fence, but they function like a sieve or a grid.

28:01 And then, thirdly, they function like a legally printed U.S. Treasury bill. I have been told, I haven't validated this, that the people responsible to know whether the bills that pass into the banks and into the hands of tellers are the real thing, the people that are responsible to identify counterfeit don't spend a lot of time studying counterfeit.

28:24 They study to the point of weariness the real, bona fide, properly minted U.S. notes. They study them day and night in every light, in every circumstance.

28:37 They feel them. They look at them. They seek to master the real because that's the best equipment to detect the counterfeit. And if you and I would be prepared to defect the counterfeit, to detect the counterfeit, master the real.

28:57 Some have asked me who are aware of some of the current controversies on the doctrine of justification. Are you going to spend time dealing with the so-called new perspective and covenantal nomism and I could dazzle you with a lot of...

29:10 I said no. No. Because the best preservation of you, the people of God, is to have your mind soaked with the truth. Feel and handle and know the texture of the real.

29:24 And then your fingertips will be sensitive to know when you're in the presence of the false. Well, that's my little background to why I'm taking this course. I hope it has persuaded you that it is in your best interest. I am persuaded it is.

The Substance of Justification: An Act of God's Free Grace

29:40 Now we come this morning in the time that remains to take up just the first strand of our study of the substance of this doctrine using the Westminster Larger Catechism as the structural framework of our study. Question 70 in the Larger Catechism. What is justification? The answer?

30:04 Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which He parts and hardens all of their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His sight, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them and received by faith alone. And in that marvelous statement we have at my present understanding and preparation seven categories

30:49 of biblical truth relative to this matter of what is justification. And remember, dear people, and I don't want to weary you with long sentences, though I'm tempted to do it, we're not just studying the doctrine of justification. We're answering this profound existential question, how can I know that in the final day I will stand in God's court acquitted? That I will not be condemned?

31:21 We're not just studying a doctrine, we're studying the answer to the most burning vital question you can ever ask. How can I be just and right with God? And in the answer of the Catechism, here are the first words to greet us. Justification is an act act of God's free grace. And further on, by God imputed to them. And those words direct us

31:52 immediately then to what I am calling, who is the author of our justification? And the answer is the living God himself, the living God alone. Justification is an act of God's free grace by God imputed to them. And if we take the proper noun God and strip it of its apostrophe S that makes it possessive, an act of God's free grace, what they are telling us is this justification is an act of God's free grace. And if we take the proper noun God and strip it of its apostrophe S

32:33 is an act of God. Yes, it flows out of his free grace, but is an act of God. Later on, by God imputed to them. And in the time that remains, I have just two heads that I want to flush out with you. The biblical evidence for God's exclusive role as the author of our justification

32:56 and the inescapable implications of God's exclusive identity as the author of our justification, or more simply, God alone justifies. Second heading, so what? Now, you like the short one? Well, I kind of do as well, but I like the long one too.

Biblical Evidence for God's Exclusive Role as Author of Justification

33:17 The biblical evidence for God's exclusive role as the author of our justification and then the inescapable implications of that fact. Number one, the biblical evidence for God's exclusive role as the author of our justification. Number two, the biblical evidence for God's exclusive role as the author of our justification. Justification is an act of God. As surely as creation is an act of God, in the

33:43 beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Scripture leads us to say, it is God himself and God alone who justifies hell deserving sinners. Now, let me ask you, if someone came up to you and said, you believe in God, you believe in God, you believe in God, you believe in God, you believe in God, you believe that God himself and God alone is the one who justifies sinners, give me two verses that make that plain as the nose on your face. Would you be able to do it? Just two verses. You say you're

34:17 justified by God? Yes. You're saying only God can justify? Yes. Prove it from your Bible. Could you

34:23 get in just two verses? Well, I hope after this morning you could. The first one is found in Romans chapter 8. We'll be coming back to Romans 8 again and again in days to come. We looked at two of

34:39 these verses several weeks ago. We looked at two of these verses several weeks ago. We looked at two of these verses several weeks ago in terms of God's ultimate purpose of salvation. I begin reading in verse 29. Whom he foreknew, that is God the Father, he foreordained to be conformed to the image of his

34:54 Son, that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. Whom he, that is God, foreordained, them he also called, whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also called. So glorified. So here is an explicit statement. Then he also justified. And the subject, the proper

35:18 noun, is God is the one who justifies them. But we want something even more explicit, so we read on. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his

35:33 own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Now look at the question of verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? We're in the courtroom now. And the apostle says, looking out into the entire moral universe, who is the person

35:56 that can come into God's courtroom and point to one of God's elect and lay upon that person a just charge of guilty? Who will lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is the person that can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? You say, well, if they knew me, they'd have much with which to charge me. In my words, in my deeds, if they knew my thoughts, my thoughts, my attitudes, my deeds

36:23 in secret as well as my deeds in public. But Paul is saying, God's elect whom he has called and whom he has justified, who shall lay anything to the charge of such? Now look at the answer. It is God that justifies.

36:41 There's your statement. It is God that justifies. Who is the creature? Archangel, seraphim, cherubim, devil, demons, fellow human beings, all creatures who owe their existence to the creative will and word and power of God. If the God who made them, if the God who stands over them, if the God who

37:10 upholds them, if the God who is the creator of them, if the God who is the creator of them, if the God who sustains them, if the God who sustains them, if this God has said concerning every one of his elect, no charge against them. All the charge is dismissed based upon what Jesus Christ has done in his substitutionary death. All that they ought to do in the way of rendering perfect obedience to the law is theirs in their representative head, who, as the God who sustains them, who sustains them, second Adam, obeyed in their room and in their stead. Where is the legitimate charge? All of

37:49 their sins pardoned, a righteousness credited to them, and the almighty God who stands as heaven lord over every creature in the universe. It is this God who justifies. Who is he that can justly condemn? God himself and God alone is the sole author.

38:12 of our justification. The same thing was asserted in the passage read in your hearing before we moved into the message in Romans chapter 3. In this chapter, among many things, the apostle Paul is saying that in the sending of Jesus Christ a propitiation, that is, a sacrifice to turn away the wrath of God. God is making it evident when he now offers righteousness, he now offers the blessing of justification, that he is not acting unjustly. He has not suddenly

38:51 ceased to be the just God who punishes sin. No, he is the just God who punished sin in the person of his son. And when his son hung upon the cross and our sins were credited to him, and the wrath of God in all of its billows came crashing down upon the soul and body of the Lord Jesus Christ, his sacrifice was turning away the wrath of God by swallowing it up in his own death. Now then, in the light of that, God fully displays to all who will behold it that he himself is both just.

39:32 He did not suspend his justice in securing our salvation. He fully vented and satisfied his justice. So God is the one who justifies. He is the one who justifies. He is the one who justifies.

39:43 God himself is now declared to be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. So the same apostle who says it is God who justifies, here he gives this very name to him. He is the justifier and a name that he gives to no other. Or we may look at a text such as 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30, asserting that God, himself and God alone, is the author of our justification. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse

40:22 30. But of him, the antecedent to him is God, that no flesh should glory before God. But of him, that is, by this God's will, by this God's activity. But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who was made.

40:43 Made unto us from God, made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness. He was made unto us righteousness by whose activity? By the activity of God the Father, who brought us into union with his Son. And in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, we are clothed in his righteousness. We are

41:09 justified. We are declared in the court of God. We are made unto us from God. And in union with heaven, to be fully pardoned, fully accepted on the basis of what Christ has done, into which benefits we are brought by the activity of God the Father himself. And so when you turn to other

41:30 places in the New Testament, you should be perfectly at home and perfectly comfortable with such language as we find, for example, in Galatians 3 and verse 8, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. Preached beforehand the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. God would justify the Gentiles. And so everywhere we turn, we find it is God that justifies. Now mark it down. Mark it down. If you

The Folly of Self-Justification

42:08 are ever to be declared right with God. It is God himself and God alone who must make the declaration. If you are ever to be declared right with God, it is God himself and God alone as the supreme judge in his court who must declare you to be right with him. Don't attempt to justify yourself and declare yourself to be righteous.

42:45 Don't rest upon what others may say, in declaring you righteous. There is only one being who has the right, the prerogative to declare you just in his court, and that's God whose court it is. Now he's not going to come and declare it verbally to you into your ear with vocables such as I am communicating to you now, but by his word and by his spirit, it is God himself and God alone who makes the declaration. Now, there are some recorded in Scripture who have attempted to justify themselves,

43:27 but they are never put in a good light. Look at Luke 10 and verse 29. Luke 10 and verse 29. In the very presence of the one who had come from heaven by way of Mary's womb, because there was no way for sinners to justify themselves in God's court, this man is standing before Jesus asking, question about eternal life. Luke chapter 10, starting in verse 25. And Jesus is interacting

43:56 with him. And then we read in verse 29, but he, that is this man, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus. He wants to redefine the standard of God's law which required us to love neighbor as self. He's conscious that that commandment exposes him as to be something less than perfectly just. But he wants to declare himself just. So he says, now, Lord,

44:26 who is my neighbor? Hoping the Lord will shrink the definition of neighbor as he shrank it. He shrank the God-intended definition of neighbor that he might look at the requirement, love your neighbors yourself and say, oh, I do that. I'm just. Therefore, I will declare myself righteous.

44:45 The Lord begins to expose him by the parable of the good Samaritan and showing him you are not just. You seek to justify yourself. But when the true intention of God's law comes with all of his blazing light, that fabric of self-righteousness withers before the pure searching light of God's word. Doesn't wither, fabric disintegrates and is blown away. Further on in this very gospel,

45:14 chapter 16, in verse 15, we find a similar attempt. Verse 14 in Luke 16, 14, and the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they scoffed at him. They said unto them, you are they, he said to 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. They were able so to adjust their lives that men looked at them and said,

45:49 these are holy men. These are just men. These are men who must have good standing in the court of God. And he says, what is praised among men is a stench in the nostrils of God. God knows your heart. God knows your heart is full of

46:05 covetousness, full of thievery, full of divided loyalties. As you read the context, don't try to justify yourself by shrinking the standard of God's law, by looking to the opinion of men who can only assess you. In terms of your outward deeds and demeanor. And then in chapter 18, you have the classic example of a man who seeks to justify himself. Luke 18 in verse 9, and he spoke this parable

46:37 unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. In other words, they declared themselves to be just in God's court. They declared themselves to be right with God. But the object of their trust was not outside of themselves in the virtue and righteousness of another offered to them as a gift to be received by faith. Oh, no, they trusted in themselves that they were righteous

47:06 and they set all others at naught. That is, they despise, they look down upon others. And then the Lord's going to give us an example of one such person. Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood,

47:22 and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you I'm not as the rest of men. Imagine coming into God's courtroom and saying, now, God, before you say anything, let me say something. I want to tell you what a great guy I am. First of all, I thank you that I'm not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. This man starts bragging about what he is in himself

47:50 and what he is in himself. He expresses in terms of what he was not, and then what he did not do, and then in terms of what he did. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all I get. This man is proclaiming

48:06 his own understanding of his righteousness. He is justifying himself, and he's daring to attempt to do it in the place of God's special presence in the very temple of God. And the Lord Jesus said, that he did not go down to his house justified like the publican. It's not my purpose to expound the parable. I'm simply making the point. When we are persuaded that it is God himself and God

48:36 alone who is the author of the justifying act, we will not look for justification of ourselves or in ourselves, or we will not look to be justified by the opinions others have of us. We will be persuaded that I am dealing with God in God's court, and God's sentence alone is what matters to me. Well, having established, I trust, from the scriptures to the persuasion of your conscience that God himself and God alone is the author of justification.

Implication 1: God's Declaration is Irreversible

49:17 Now, as we close, I want you to consider with me two inescapable implications of God's justifying act. I want you to consider with me two inescapable implications of God's exclusive role as the author of our justification. Heading number two, so what? What's the big deal if God himself and God alone is the author? Justification is an act of God, by God imputed

49:44 to them. What are the inescapable implications? Implication number one, if God declares us righteous in his justifying act, there is none who can cancel or alter his declaration. If God declares us righteous in his justifying act, there is none who can cancel or alter his declaration. Since all sin is against

50:13 God, all judgment for our sin is God's prerogative. And when God sits on his bench in his court and makes a decision, he makes a decision. And when God makes a decision, he makes a decision. There is no appeal to a higher court. There is no lower court to overturn the opinion of the higher

50:35 court. No overturning, no appeal. When God speaks, his word is final. Listen to one servant of God who has written so helpfully on this subject. He writes,

50:54 There is no appeal to a higher court to overturn the opinion of the higher court. He writes, In the territorial limits of another, it's beyond his jurisdiction. In the moral government of the universe, God's authority is sole, supreme, and exclusive. He alone is the lawgiver. He alone is

51:38 the judge. No one has jurisdiction but himself. None can really or effectually justify or condemn but he. And once he has spoken, go back to Romans 8. Look at the bold,

51:54 challenge that we can hurl into the face of any intelligent creature, be it man, angel, archangel, devil, demon. Romans chapter 8, the apostle throws out the question in verse 33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Then the next question, Who is he that condemns? So the affirmation, God justifies,

52:25 is surrounded on the one hand with the question, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemns? God himself has taken the initiative, and as verse 33b shows, that initiative is issued in the sending of his only begotten Son, in whose death, resurrection, ascension, and session, and intercession, the just basis of our justification, is secured in our Savior. And so, if God declares us righteous in his justifying act, there is none that can cancel or alter his declaration. What a wonderful thing to be able, on biblical grounds, to know that the

53:10 living God, the infinite, holy, unchangeably just and true, all-knowing, all-seeing God, when he makes us right with himself, he himself can find no fault. with his declaration. It's a marvelous thing to know that God, God himself and God alone, is the author of the justifying declaration, and therefore, my sins are pardoned, never to be remembered against me. I have been given an irreversible, irrevocable title to eternal life, earned not by me, but by the obedience of my

53:55 representative head. and my Savior, the Lord Jesus. That's the first inescapable implication of God's exclusive role as the author of our justification. It is the basis of solid, unshakable confidence of our acceptance with God in the court of heaven, in life. And dear people, if God lets us be conscious in the hour of our death, and to be able to know that in a few

54:25 moments, a few hours, we will be able to be conscious in the hour of our death. And to be able to know that in a few moments, a few hours, we will be able to be conscious in the hour of our death. And to be able to know that in a few moments, a few hours, we will be able to be conscious in the hour of our death. And to be able to know that in a few days, we will look into the face of him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, with whom there's no game-playing, with whom there's no equivocating, with whom there is no blame-shifting, and to know that I will meet that God in peace. There is therefore now, here and now, no

54:53 condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Declaration is gone forth, as we shall see in subsequent studies, and these categories are not airtight. We're going to constantly be oozing out of one category into another, and I do so without embarrassment, because it's the only way the truth can be handled responsibly.

55:16 But you see, it's a marvelous thing to know that in God's justifying act, I am right now as justified as I will be when I've been in heaven. In a million years, when I haven't sinned for a million years, I'll be no more justified than I am standing in this pulpit this morning. Bless God. Bless God. That's my state. That's my position. That's yours, if Almighty God declares you to be righteous.

Implication 2: God's Declaration Rests on a Constitutive Act

55:51 But then the second implication is this. If God declares us righteous, it must be because he's done something to constitute us righteous. How can he declare us to be what we ain't? He's the God of truth. He's the God who condemned the judge who declares the guilty righteous and innocent, and condemns the innocent and exonerates the guilty.

56:22 If God is going to declare you and me righteous, the declarative act of God rests upon a constitutional... The declarative act of God. He must indeed in some way make me righteous before the court in order in the court to say I am righteous.

56:45 You see the reasoning? Or am I just excited because I've been thinking about it? You see, the declarative has to rest upon the constitutive. God must constitute a relationship that makes it right and just.

57:05 For him to declare me right and to declare me just. And that's the wonder of the whole biblical doctrine of our union with Christ. For when God brings a quickened sinner to repentance and faith, and by faith he embraces the Savior, and in that marvelous work of God, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ from the divine perspective. We are united to him from the human perspective by faith.

57:35 We are now called in Christ, if any man be in Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of him. Are you in Christ Jesus? The whole concept of union with Christ.

57:50 And when I am brought into union with Christ, I have experienced God's constitutive act in Christ. God now sees me as righteous as his own son. In union with Christ. The virtue of all of his suffering is credited to me.

58:10 The virtue of his perfect life is credited to me. And so because God has constituted me righteous in Christ, he can now declare me to be what he's constituted me to be. You see that? That's the wonder of God's gracious work in justifying grace.

58:33 Now, what are the grounds? The grounds on which he can constitute us, that will come in subsequent studies. That's why the language is so beautiful and precise, not for anything wrought in us or done by us, but solely for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. And just as God constituted us, in Adam and his constitutive act lay at the foundation of our fall in Adam.

59:13 We were constituted one in Adam. So when Adam fell, we fell in him. And God can declare us to be what we have been constituted to be. So in Christ, the marvelous parallel of Romans 5.12 to the end of the chapter,

59:29 it's because we are constituted, Romans 5.19, as to the disobedience of God. The disobedience of the one, we were constituted sinners. So through the obedience of the one, we are constituted righteous.

59:43 And God in his marvelous grace does the work, the constitutive work, that there might be the true declarative work. And all of this comes down to us sitting here today and says, if you are not in Christ, then God's declaration of you is guilty. Condemned. Condemned for what you are as a sinner in Adam.

60:10 Condemned for all of your individual sins. And you have no hope to justify yourself. But Christ comes to you in the gospel and says, in me and in my work, my perfect life, and in my agonizing death, there is a righteousness that can be yours if you will have me. And when in the embrace of faith we possess him, and we receive him, we are constituted in Christ.

60:39 And constituted in Christ, God declares us righteous in the righteousness of another. What a wonderful gospel to preach to sinners. What a wonderful gospel by which to feed our souls as the people of God. And remind ourselves that once having been constituted in Christ, we will never be severed from him.

61:06 And even at the moments of our deepest shameful declensions, God does not change the declaration of the court of heaven. He does not change what he has constituted me to be as united to his son. Oh, I hope some of you will get jealous and go run into Christ and know the blessedness of being in him. And in him having a righteousness which God himself confers righteously.

Conclusion and Prayer

61:42 Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you for hearing our cry. Thank you for loosing my vocal cords that I might preach. We give you praise that once again you know how to bring us to the edge of ourselves and drive us out of ourselves and to feel how much we need you.

62:07 And we thank you for that discipline. But I thank you for helping me that I might not be impeded and your people distracted by a growling voice. You have been good to us. Thank you for the truth upon which we have fed our souls.

62:22 And oh God, we pray that this will not be lost, but that there would be some who this day see the glory and the wonder of what it is that you hold out for us in the gospel and may run to your son and those who are your people may come to a more settled and joyful realization of who and what they are in him. Seal then your word to the prophet of our souls we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.