Extreme Importance / Applications

Justification's Centrality to Christian Doctrine and Salvation

0:00 I want to begin to wrap up our study now by underscoring the extreme importance of this doctrine of justification by faith. Why we need to defend it in these days, and most importantly, why we need to preach it to our people and seek to have them grounded in it. Why all of this debate is not merely an interesting academic game for people who like to debate theology. First of all, right views of this doctrine are extremely important because it is central to the whole system of Christian doctrine and Christian salvation.

0:33 Luther said,

0:53 This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God. And without it, the church of God cannot exist for one hour. In short, if this article concerning Christ, the doctrine that we are justified and saved through him alone, and consider all apart from him damned, is not professed, all resistance and restraint are at an end, then there is, in fact, neither measure nor limit to any heresy.

1:23 Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know God and is an idolater. For when this article has been taken away, nothing remains but error, hypocrisy, godlessness, and idolatry, although it may seem to be the height of truth, worship of God, holiness, and so forth. John Calvin. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, he devotes more space to justification than almost to any other doctrine.

1:49 He called it the main hinge on which religion turns. He said, Now, were these men just exaggerating to make a point?

2:08 I would say no. And history has proved them to be right. But more than that, all one has to do is to think about the connections of biblical truth to see how that if one is off here, he will be off almost everywhere else, in his understanding of truth. As one has rightly observed, the doctrines of election, of effectual calling, regeneration, and repentance, of adoption, of prayer, of the church, the ministry, and the sacraments, have all to be interpreted and understood in the light of justification by faith.

2:44 Let's think about that for a moment. The Bible teaches that men are elected in eternity in order that in due time they might be called and justified. That God renews their hearts and effectually, that God renews their hearts and effectually, that God draws them to Christ in order that they might be justified, if we understand properly the renewal of their hearts there. Their adoption as God's children is a consequence of their justification.

3:09 Prayer is to be offered in the consciousness of our justification. Good works are to spring from the confidence of our justification. Our good works are only accepted on the basis of our justification, and the good works of the unjustified man are an abomination before God. The church is to be a fellowship of those who are believers, those who are justified by faith.

3:31 The ministry of His Word has as its main function the proclamation of justification by faith to sinners and the edification and instruction of those who have been justified by faith. The sacraments of the Lord's Supper and Baptism only properly function as means of grace insofar as they encourage and nurture the growth of justifying faith in Christ. On and on we could go. If we are not right in our understanding of justification, we will not be right on so many other crucial elements of biblical truth and practice.

4:01 In fact, we will be off on the most foundational issue of all, namely the answer to the question, what is a Christian? What makes a man a Christian? If we are off on the subject of justification, even our very definition of what a Christian is will be wrong. I'm sure you've heard the illustration before of beginning with the wrong button when buttoning up your shirt.

4:23 When you set out to button up your shirt, if you get the first button, you're going to get the first button. In the wrong hole, every button will end up in the wrong hole. Well, that's the way it is with the doctrine of justification by faith alone. If we are wrong here, we will be wrong almost everywhere else.

Justification's Connection to the Glory of God

4:37 And then consider secondly, right views of this doctrine are extremely important because it is so intimately connected to the glory of God. Nowhere is God's glory more thoroughly revealed than in the doctrine of justification. To be off on this doctrine, to set forth, or to have improper views of this doctrine is to avoid the truth. To obscure that glory and to rob God of the glory that is His due.

5:02 Any other scheme of justification than that which we have seen robs God of the glory of His grace by making acceptance with God depend at least in some part upon human effort. While the biblical doctrine magnifies God's grace by making acceptance with God a matter of free undeserved gift solely on the basis of the work of Christ alone. Justification in any other scheme robs God of the glory of His grace. It robs God of the glory of His justice by lowering the standard of His holy law to something less than the requirement of perfect obedience.

5:35 While the biblical doctrine upholds God's law and makes it honorable as it shows God maintaining the strictest possible justice and yet showing mercy to sinners. It magnifies the wisdom of God who found a way for the exercise of the most amazing and the greatest act of mercy and love and grace without even the least compromise of strictness. And so we see in the doctrine of justification by faith the fullest display of the holiness, justice, and wrath of God together with the fullest display of the grace, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and grace of God. And it is only in the biblical doctrine of justification that all of these glorious attributes of God are given their full weight and revelation. By any other scheme of salvation the glory and character of God is cheapened and obscured if not blasphemed. Thirdly, right views of this doctrine are essential to the salvation and happiness of men.

Justification's Importance for the Salvation of the Unconverted

6:54 First of all, it is extremely important to the salvation of those who have yet to die. The doctrine of justification addresses what is surely the most important question that any sinner could ever ask. It answers the most fundamental of religious questions. How may a man be right with God?

7:12 This is the question of all questions. No sinner is ever saved without being brought to seriously consider and to ask that question. How can I be right with God? And the wonder and glory of this doctrine of justification can never truly be answered.

7:28 It can never truly be answered. It can never truly be answered. It can never truly be appreciated until there is some recognition that there are tremendous problems that stand in the way of the sinner being right with God. This God who is perfect in holiness and of pure eyes than to behold evil.

7:43 This God who in His absolute and inflexible justice will by no means clear the guilty. This God whose wrath burns against sinners. This God who is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 711 How can I, a vile sinner, who in thought, word, and deed has broken God's law of times without number, how can I ever be right with God?

8:04 How could I ever stand on that great day of judgment before the searching gaze of this holy God and receive anything else but eternal punishment and hell? Well, whenever the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to begin to ask those questions in his own conscience, it is this doctrine of justification by faith that gives the only biblical answer to that question. One might say that a Christian is a person who is a sinner. He is a person who has been brought to the place that nothing in this world is more important to him than the question, how can I be right with God?

8:38 And he is one who has heard and believed and wholeheartedly embraced the biblical answer to that question and has yielded up himself to the gospel way of salvation. And what is that way? It is the way set forth in the biblical doctrine of justification by faith. Furthermore, when God calls sinners to Himself in effectual calling, what is the means that He uses?

9:03 By what means and through what means does the Holy Spirit work to bring sinners into union with Christ? Well, the means or the instrument God uses in effectual calling is the gospel. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14, refers to their effectual calling and conversion. He says, We are bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, the love of the Lord, because God has chosen you to salvation.

9:29 There he refers to the love of the Lord. There he refers to the love of the Lord. There he refers to their election by God in eternity past. God has chosen you from the beginning to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

9:40 There he speaks of their conversion in time and space. But then notice what he says. By which or where unto, as the old King James says, He called you. You were effectually called to the experience and possession of this salvation.

9:55 By what means? He called you by our gospel. It was by our gospel. It was the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul that was the means through which God worked to effectually call them to salvation.

10:07 And what is that gospel? Well, remember what we saw in Romans 1, 16 and 17. It is that gospel that involves the proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ, yes, but it involves the proclamation of justification by faith alone in Him as He is freely offered to sinners. Paul said, For I am not ashamed, for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes, for in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

10:40 And dear men, if we would see sinners effectually wrought upon by the Spirit and effectually called into saving union with the Lord Jesus Christ, we must understand and loudly proclaim the biblical gospel of justification by faith. But if the gospel we preach is distorted, if it's distorted, if it's not clear on this issue, that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone plus nothing, if we are not preaching the good news that to Him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, His faith is accounted unto righteousness, Romans 4, 5, if we are not preaching to lost sinners the good news that we are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, if we are not preaching that message, we should not be surprised. If we never see any sinners being saved. For it is the gospel, this gospel, that is the power of God unto salvation. The doctrine of justification is extremely important to the salvation and happiness of men.

Justification's Importance for the Stability and Fruitfulness of Believers

11:46 First, to those who have not yet been converted. But secondly, this doctrine is also extremely important to the continued salvation, happiness, fruitfulness, and spiritual stability of those who have already been converted.

12:00 Though every true Christian, is trusting in Christ alone for salvation and is justified by faith, yet even God's people can have fuzzy views of this doctrine. And insofar as they do not have a firm grip on it, their souls will suffer because of it. Likewise, the firmer their hold upon this doctrine and its implications for us as God's people, the more their souls will prosper. We must lay hold of this fact that we are fully and completely and irrevocably justified by faith alone in Christ on the basis of His purpose, His perfect work, the moment we believe upon Him.

12:35 And we must keep coming back to this truth over and over again. Though the child of God has been born of the Spirit and has a new heart that causes him to desire and endeavor to live a godly life, though he is one who has been brought to repentance for his sins and who continues repenting of sin and striving after holiness, nevertheless our sanctification is far from perfect in this life. We still struggle with remaining corruption. We know what it is to groan being burdened, under the sense of this daily warfare with sin.

13:05 And unlike the unconverted who try to stifle their consciences, generally God's people listen to what the Word of God says about our sin. We feel the guilt of our sin, the remaining inward pollution of our heart. Though we strive after perfect obedience, we know the shame of falling so short of what we long to be and what we know we ought to be. We know what it is to cry with Paul in Romans 7, O wretched man that I am.

13:31 But where is our righteousness? Where is our resting place? How can we know peace and assurance of acceptance with God in the midst of this ongoing warfare with remaining corruption? Well, it's found in the reality that we are justified by the righteousness of Christ that is put to our account and received by faith alone.

13:51 Peace and joy comes to the heart of the Christian in the midst of his troubles in the same way Paul knew it in the midst of his. For while in one breath crying, O wretched man, that I am, Romans 7, 24, in almost the very next breath, he declares with confidence in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Jesus, both a sinner and yet righteous, justified at one and the same time. And he goes on in that chapter to add, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

14:27 It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? In Romans 5, 1, he says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we know that we have peace with God, and the more we realize it, the more we will know the peace of God.

14:46 And he goes on, By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in the hope of glory, and not only so, but we glory in tribulation. Peace, access, joy, confident, hope with respect to the future, the ability even to glory in our tribulations. All of these are the result of having been justified by faith and knowing that we are justified by faith alone in Christ. Furthermore, it is this confidence that we are pardoned and accepted by God, that God in his great mercy and love for me as a hell-deserving sinner counts me righteous in Christ and accepts me as such that also drives the wheels of salvation, and that I may be saved in the kingdom of heaven. After the doctrinal section of the epistle to the Romans in which Paul has set forth the doctrine of justification by faith alone and its corollaries and implications, notice how he begins the practical section of this epistle in chapter 12, verse 1. He's ready to give ethical instruction now, to exhort the people of God to godly living and to the performance of their duties in service to God. But how does he begin this practical section?

Justification as the Motivation for Holy Living and Service

16:02 Verse 1 of chapter 12, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the terrors of God. No, it's not what he says. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It is the mercies of God, as seen so wonderfully in this doctrine of justification that Paul appeals to as the driving motive to move them to the sacrificial service of God.

16:33 You see, this is the... This is the opposite of man's way, of man's religion.

16:38 Men think that the only motive to holiness of life and service to God is the need to gain personal merit or to live properly or the fear of judgment or the fear of not holding out in covenant faithfulness. In fact, this is one of the arguments that men have often used against the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This is one of the very arguments that the Roman Catholics used against Martin Luther. It has always been said...

17:05 It has always been used. If you teach this doctrine of justification by Christ alone, through faith alone, a justification has nothing to do with works, nothing to do with the attaining of personal merit, nothing to do with exerting a personal effort or not in any way based on evangelical obedience and covenant faithfulness, a justification which the sinner is fully and completely pardoned and accepted by God forever at the very moment he receives and rests his soul upon Christ. Why? Well, you preach that kind of doctrine and you take away all motivation to holy living.

17:39 People will say, let's go on sinning that grace may abound.

17:44 Well, if you don't preach the gospel, and this is important, if you do not preach the gospel in the overall context of your ministry... I'm not going to tell you every time you stand in the pulpit, every sermon is about this, but if you don't preach the gospel in the overall context of your ministry in such a way as to open yourself up at times to that charge, then you're not preaching the gospel.

18:09 That's the very thing Paul was charged with. The very thing Luther was charged with. It's the very thing George Whitefield was charged with. This is man's way of thinking.

18:20 If justification is by faith alone on the basis of the work of Christ alone, you remove all motivation to live a holy life and to serve God. We can just live in sin and it doesn't matter. This is man's way, but this is not God's way. There is no greater motivation to live to God's glory in the heart of the truly regenerate man than knowing that although I have deserved nothing but eternal hell, God has been merciful to me and His Son.

18:48 As one who is believing on Him, I am now justified now and forevermore. That, above all else, is what fills the heart with zeal and love and gratitude to God. This, above all else, is what drives the wills of sacrificial service and heartfelt, genuine devotion. I beseech you...

19:07 I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. And I would add that it's this passive receiving and resting upon Christ alone by which we also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who empowers us and enables us to live a holy life. We do not...

19:27 And it's not by works that we do. It is in the context of a saving, believing response to the gospel of justification by faith or to the gospel of justification by faith. Or to the gospel of justification by faith. Or to the gospel, which is and includes justification by faith alone.

19:41 The reason many Christians are so lacking in motivation, I think, is right here.

Warning Against Distorting the Gospel and Neglecting Justification

19:48 They are lacking in a clear understanding and a firm assurance of their justification by faith alone. And this, my dear brethren, is one reason why this doctrine not only needs to be preached to the lost, it needs to be constantly preached to God's people. And I confess that I fear, at least my own fear, looking back over the early days of my own ministry and looking at what I see in general, that sometimes this has been a danger in our Reformed Baptist churches. In our proper reaction against the perversions of easy believism and decisionism and the carnal Christian teaching and so on that are deceiving so many people in our day and sending them to hell with a lie in their hands.

20:30 A gospel that says nothing about repentance. A gospel that teaches that you can be born of the Spirit, born again, though you're still a rebel against the Lordship of Christ. And our reaction to that...

20:39 We must be careful that we do not swing like a pendulum to the other extreme and so focus upon these things that we neglect to preach this wonderful doctrine of justification by faith. Nowhere is it said in the Bible that sinners are justified by repentance or that we are justified by submitting to the Lordship of Christ.

21:01 Now, true faith will be inseparable from these as necessary attendance. Repentance and faith go hand in hand. And where there is saving faith, there will be submission. There will be submission to the Lordship of Christ.

21:12 One reason being that wherever there is faith, you have a soul that has been born of the Spirit, joined in union with Jesus Christ and given a new heart as well. So these things will always be necessary attendance of justifying faith. But it is faith alone that justifies. Any so-called repentance that is not joined to faith is nothing but useless remorse, like that of Judas who regretted his sins and went out in despair and hanged himself.

21:36 And any attempts to submit to and obey the Lordship, of Christ, where there is no resting of the soul by faith upon him alone for pardon and acceptance with God, is nothing but a pious sounding form of legalism.

21:52 And so, my dear brethren, it is extremely important that we have right views of this doctrine. May God help us in these days in which this wonderful doctrine is under attack to a greater degree perhaps than it has been for a long time to stand firm and to rather die than compromise. May God help us that if there is one thing our people are thoroughly grounded in when our ministry among them is through, that it is this glorious, soul-invigorating, God-glorifying doctrine of justification by faith.

22:32 Well, let's pray together and we will be through with our studies. Sweetly.