Legal Bondage

Pastor Martin establishes that justification is an act of God, not a process - one is either wholly justified or wholly condemned, with no degrees and no growing into it. From Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Luke 18:14, and John 5:24 he demonstrates the once-for-all character of justification, then applies the distinction practically: the believer must take indwelling sin seriously like Paul in Romans 7 yet rest in 'no condemnation' like Paul in Romans 8. He closes with the debtor's prison illustration introducing pardon and acceptance.

Pastor Martin opens the negative side of the catechism's statement of the ground of justification: 'not for anything done by them.' He establishes from Romans 3-4, Ephesians 2, Philippians 3, and Titus 3 that no human performance - whether before, at, or after effectual calling - contributes any thread to the ground of justification. He then applies the truth to those holding a damning confidence in their own works and to true Christians battling the conflicting witnesses of conscience and the gospel.

Pastor Martin opens a second appendix to his series on justification, confronting how a believer honors both the once-for-all justifying act of God and the reality of indwelling and actual sin. After surveying the false solutions of antinomianism and sinless perfectionism, he expounds two of four principles: sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin, and sin in a justified person must never be allowed to bring him into legal bondage. He draws heavily on Romans 7-8, 1 John 1-2, Psalm 51, and Psalm 130 to show how believers are to be both honest with their sin and anchored in the finished work of Christ.