FreeTruth

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities."

How could God the Father have killed His own Son, let alone delight to do so? What compelling purpose would warrant this action of a seemingly utter betrayal? When Jesus was baptized, didn't the Father say, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17)? What compelled the Father to do this? And what compelled the Son to submit to this?

The purpose that the Father and the Son agreed to was the redemption of sinners in such a way that would magnify God's justice, righteousness and glory. This is powerfully expressed in Romans 3:23-26:

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

This passage explains why God the Father crushed His Son, and why He delighted to crush His Son, and why the Son agreed to be crushed. Hebrews 12:2 says, "for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."

The cross was something that the Father and the Son agreed to, for the purpose of displaying God's justice and displaying God's marvelous grace. This was done "so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

Romans 5:1 tells us how that we become "justified" before the Lord by faith in Christ and His work on Calvary in our place for salvation, "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The love between the Father and the Son is immeasurable. It is infinite. The Father delights in His Son, who is "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature" (Hebrews 1:3). The Father looks upon His Son and sees the radiance of His own glory, and He delights in Him.

God the Father is satisfied in the work of His Son, and the Son Himself is satisfied. The justice and wrath of God against sin and sinners was fully satisfied by the suffering of Jesus upon the cross of Calvary, and thus Isaiah tells us that the Lord would "see it and be satisfied."

by Sesky Paul

Labels: Atonement, Cross Centered Living, Death of Christ, Guest Post, Justification, Lent

For my post this week once again my focus will be on that aspect of divine truth that is of first importance--the gospel (1 Cor. 15:3-4), as I consider one of it's chief blessings. During this Valentine's Day weekend as our thoughts ponder the subject of love, generally on the horizontal plane, let us first and foremost look up and gaze upon that great love of God in granting salvation to utterly unworthy rebels such as you and I. One of the chief blessings of this great saving love as God applies it to our lives is that provision of clothing us "in an alien asbestos righteousness transparent to the glory of God that can take me (us) into the flame of that 6 trillion degree centigrade holiness and enjoy it instead of being consumed by it" (John Piper). I am afraid this will be one of my more long-winded posts, for which I apologize profusely in advance. I cannot help myself.

Are you familiar with the phrase, simul justus et peccator--Latin for: at the same time--simultaneously--righteous or just and a sinner? In this slogan from the 16th century Reformation is captured my dear readers of this blog the sweetness of the Gospel. At the very moment we by God's sovereign mercy are granted saving faith in the Savior and rest our confidence in Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, and His perfect righteousness is imputed or credited to us by an act of forensic declaration, we are in and of ourselves sinners still. And while God the Holy Spirit now resides in us and begins from that moment to form a real righteousness within us through the work of progressive sanctification, that righteousness in this life is always an imperfect righteousness.

We are saints on the one hand because of the perfect righteousness of Christ, and on the other hand, we still sin-------though to be sure sin no longer reigns over us and we no longer live in it as those who pursue holiness. We are simul justus et peccator. And as such, and only because of such we can come before God with a pacified conscience. Folks, there is never a moment in this life when our fellowship with God does not rest ultimately upon the free forgiveness of sins and justifying rigtheousness--all because of grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone. It is always Christ's virtue, not our own, that is the ground of our acceptance with the infinite/personal God.

At the heart of the Biblical gospel is the doctrine of justification. J. I. Packer in his introductory essay to the classic work "The Doctrine of Justification: An Outline of its History in the Church and of its Exposition from Scripture", by James Buchanan, expressed the following concerning the importance of the doctrine of justification:

...the doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. 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. Thus, the Bible teaches that God elected men in eternity in order that in due time they might be justified through faith in Christ. He renews their hearts under the Word, and draws them to Christ by effectual calling, in order that he might justify them upon their believing. Their adoption as God's sons is consequent on their justification; indeed, it is no more than the positive aspect of God's justifying sentence. Their practice of prayer, of daily repentance, and of good works--their whole life of faith--springs from the knowledge of God's justifying grace. The church is to be thought of as the congregation of the faithful, the fellowship of justified sinners, and the preaching of the Word and ministry of the sacraments are to be understood as means of grace only in the sense that they are means through which God works the birth and growth of justifying faith. A right view of these things is not possible without a right understanding of justification; so that when justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it, and then, as Luther said, the church itself falls. A society like the Church of Rome, which is committed by its official creed to pervert the doctrine of justification, has sentenced itself to a distorted understanding of salvation at every point. Nor can these distortions ever be corrected till the Roman doctrine of justification is put right. And something similar happens when Protestants let the thought of justification drop out of their minds: the true knowledge of salvation drops out with it, and cannot be restored till the truth of justification is back in its proper place. When Atlas falls, everything that rested on his shoulders comes crashing down too.

To help us think more clearly about this vital truth that is at the heart of the gospel I am including in this post a brief test for us. It consists of 10 pairs of statements concerning the Biblical teaching about justification. Read them through carefully and choose which statements reflect the teaching of Sacred Scripture. The answers are given below (but no peeking allowed).

1. (a) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by mercifully accounting him innocent or virtuous.
(b) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by actually making him into an innocent and virtuous person.

2. (a) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by placing Christ's goodness and virtue to his credit.
(b) God gives a sinner right standing with himself by putting Christ's goodness and virtue into his heart.

3. (a) God accepts the believer because of the righteousness found in Jesus Christ.
(b) God makes the believer acceptable by infusing Christ's righteousness into his life.

4. (a) If a person becomes "born again" (regenerate), he will achieve right standing with God on the basis of his new birth.
(b) If a person becomes "born again" he achieves right standing with God on the basis of Christ's work alone.

5. (a) We receive right standing with God by faith alone.
(b) We receive right standing with God by faith which has become active by love.

6. (a) We achieve right standing with God by having Christ live out his life of obedience in us.
(b) We receive right standing with God by accepting the fact that Christ obeyed the law perfectly for us.

7. (a) We achieve right standing with God by following Christ's example by the help of his enabling grace.
(b) We follow Christ's example because his death has given us right standing with God.

8. (a) God first pronounces that we are good in his sight, then gives us his Spirit to make us good.
(b) God sends his Spirit to make us good, and then he will pronounce that we are good.

9. (a) Christ's finished work outside of us and his intercession at God's right hand gives us favor in the sight of God.
(b) It is the indwelling Christ that gives us favor in God's sight.

10. (a) Only by faith in the doing and dying of Christ can we satisfy the claims of the Ten Commandments.
(b) By the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, we can satisfy the claims of the Ten Commandments.


Answers: 1 a; 2 a; 3 a; 4 b; 5 a; 6 b; 7 b; 8 a; 9 a; 10 a.

The answers given above reflect the Evangelical, and what we believe to be the Biblical teaching on this great and vital truth. The alternative statements reflect a summary of the understanding of Roman Catholicism on this doctrine. They are obviously not the same. Do we understand the difference? Does it matter? Why?

"For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Rom. 3:28).

"And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:6).

Labels: Gospel, Guest Post, Justification

About a week after the first Christmas night, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple. You can read about this in Luke 2:22-40.

This temple visit of the 8 day old Jesus is significant for a number of reasons. Among them is that by being brought to the temple and submitting to this ceremony of dedication, Jesus was beginning a life of active obedience to the Law of God (Luke 2:22-27. At eight days old Jesus was conforming to the Law of God blamelessly. That matters. But why?

It matters because this means that from His earliest days Jesus was putting into practice the perfect righteous obedience to God's Law that would later be imputed or reckoned or credited to our account upon our faith in Him.

In order to live in God's favor and presence, we need to have a perfect Law-keeping record (Leviticus 18:5; Galatians 3:12), which in ourselves, we don't. We are Law-breakers, not just by our failure to keep ceremonial laws but in our repeated wilful failures to keep the absolute moral laws of God. We choose to disobey God time and again. And God cannot condone, nor can He tolerate the presence of sin before His eyes.

This is why all works-based religions are exercises in futility. No matter how hard we try to get it right, we don't. Even if I got it right perfectly from this day onward, it would not remedy my bad record in the past. When it comes to saving myself through works it is a classic case of "I can't get there from here."

Enter the Incarnate Son of God. He comes to earth and starts living life on this fallen planet; only He lives it differently than everyone else. He gets it right--right down to ceremonies performed on Him and to Him when He's 8 days old. And by doing so throughout His life He attained a perfect record of righteousness.

This righteousness would later be offered to all who would believe in Him as Savior and Lord. God promises that the righteousness of Christ becomes ours by faith, so that we might live before Him forever (Romans 4:5; Romans 5:17-21).

Thank God for our Lord's 8 day old visit to the temple. If we see things rightly, we know that even then He was saving us by His obedient perfect life, an obedience one day to be counted as ours.

Amen.

Labels: Gospel, Justification, The Work of Christ

In this final post on the theme of justification by faith alone I would like to do a little historical and confessional reconnaissance, and leave you with a selection of statements to reflect on, affect your heart, preach the gospel to yourself, and shout for joy over concerning the importance, meaning and significance of this glorious provision from God for our salvation:

“And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (The Holy Spirit through Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ)

“We, therefore, who have been called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our wisdom or understanding or piety, nor by the works we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by the faith by which almighty God has justified all men from the beginning, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Clement of Rome)

“God has decreed that a person who believes in Christ can be saved without works. By faith alone he receives the forgiveness of sins” (Ambrosiaster)

“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. . . .Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know God and is an idolater.... If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time. . . . When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen.... Of this article nothing may be yielded or conceded” (Martin Luther).

“The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord and ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines; it preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God. Without this article the world is utter death and darkness. No error is so mean, so clumsy, and so outworn as not to be supremely pleasing to human reason and to seduce us if we are without the knowledge and the contemplation of this article” (Martin Luther).

"…if this article stands, the Church stands; if it falls, the Church falls" (Martin Luther).

Justification is “the main hinge on which religion turns” (John Calvin).

“Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life” (Thomas Watson).

“Justification by faith is like an Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace” (J.I. Packer).

“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live……. It is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest” (B.B. Warfield).

“Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness, by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God”.

“Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love”. (Westminster Confession of Faith)

Q. How are you right with God?

A. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.

Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart. (Heidelberg Catechism)

“The glory of the gospel is that God has declared Christians to be rightly related to Him in spite of their sin. But our greatest temptation and mistake is to try to smuggle character into His work of grace. How easily we fall into the trap of assuming that we only remain justified so long as there are grounds in our character for justification. But Paul’s’ teaching is that nothing we do ever contributes to our justification” (Sinclair Ferguson)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (The Holy Spirit through Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Labels: Doctrine, Guest Post, Justification

When we think about the doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from obedience or works of law as the meritorious ground of our acceptance before God, it would be unbalanced and unfaithful to the full-orbed historic Biblical teaching if we neglected to stress the necessity of obedience or works as a neccesary evidence of the possession of saving faith. When we talk about works we tend to confuse necessary works (i.e. works that are the fruit or evidence of true faith in the Savior) with meritorious works (i.e. works that serve as the basis, or ground of acceptance before God). To be sure, there are meritorious works that serve as the basis or ground of our acceptance before God; the only thing is that they are never, never, never our works--rather they are Christ’s, in our place, on our behalf. But, just because our works are never meritorious so as to earn our salvation, it does not Biblically follow that obedience and a changed life are optional. The reality is we cannot genuinely claim to truly believe in Jesus Christ as He is offered to us in the gospel, and at the same time not seek to follow Him as Lord.

In the book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied that I mentioned in my previous post, Professor Murray has this to say regarding objections that justification by faith alone teaches or implies that we can theoretically live any way we want and still claim to be right with God, with heaven as our destiny:

It is an old and time-worn objection that this doctrine ministers to license and looseness. Only those who know not the power of the gospel will plead such misconception. Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Justification is not all that is embraced in the gospel of redeeming grace. Christ is a complete Savior and it is not justification alone that the believing sinner possesses in him. And faith is not the only response in the heart of him who has entrusted himself to Christ for salvation. Faith alone justifies but a justified person with faith alone would be a monstrosity which never exists in the kingdom of grace. Faith works itself out through love (c.f. Gal. 5:6). And faith without works is dead (c.f. James 2:17-20). It is living faith that justifies and living faith unites to Christ both in the virtue of his death and in the power of his resurrection. No one has entrusted himself to Christ for deliverance from the guilt of sin who has not also entrusted himself to him for deliverance from the power of sin. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

It is not the mere profession of faith that saves, but rather the possession of genuine faith--a faith that works--and this faith itself is the gift of God, the out-flowing of new spiritual life given by the sovereign and gracious work of God in the new birth. Yes, faith alone justifies, but as Professor Murray so powerfully states--“a justified person with faith alone would be a monstrosity which never exists in the kingdom of grace.”

Labels: Doctrine, Justification

Tim has graciously invited me to contribute to his blog on a weekly basis, and I thought that what I would like to generally do with my contributions is allow you to "look over my shoulder" so to speak and view along me some of what is affecting my mind and heart in my reading. And so I would like to share with you particular excerpts that have impacted me, and hopefully will serve to impact you as well.

This past weekend I attended the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology at Tenth Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia. I have participated in this conference every year, save one, since 1978. It would be difficult to find adequate words to express the formative influence and effect that this conference, along with the ministry of Tenth Presbyterian Church, has had on my theological convictions and spiritual growth in the Faith over the years. The conference theme this year was "Right With God: The Doctrine of Justification", and having been taught well at the conference concerning the meaning of this vital area of Biblical truth, and having been reminded again of it's crucial foundational importance regarding our relationship to God, and having it press upon my heart afresh, it seemed good to me to share with you some helpful comments on this glorious reality that flows to us from the work of Christ.

In the classic book Redemption Accomplished and Applied, by professor John Murray, the following observations are made concerning the free forgiveness of our sins through the justifying work of the Savior, received by faith alone. Hear them well--

...justification by faith and faith alone exemplifies the freeness and richness of the gospel of grace. If we were to be justified by works, in any degree or to any extent, then there would be no gospel at all. For what works of righteousness can a condemned , guilty, and depraved sinner offer to God? That we are justified by faith advertises the grand article of the gospel of grace that we are not justified by works of law. Faith stands in antithesis to works; there can be no amalgam of these two (cf. Gal. 5:4). That we are justified by faith is what engenders hope in a convicted sinner's heart. He knows he has nothing to offer. And this truth assures him that he needs nothing to offer, yea, it assures him that it is an abomination to God to presume to offer. We are justified by faith and therefore simply by entrustment of ourselves, in all our dismal hopelessness, to the Savior whose righteousness is undefiled and undefilable. Justification by faith alone lies at the heart of the gospel and it is the article that makes the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing. Justification is that by which grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; it is for the believer alone and it is for the believer by faith alone. It is the righteousness of God from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17; c.f. 3:22)

In subsequent weeks I would like to follow-up with some additional thoughts on this great doctrinal truth. But for now, as we prepare our hearts for corporate worship tomorrow, I would like encourage us all to reflect on the staggering reality of what Christ has done for His people in justification--our sin imputed to him, and His righteousness imputed to us--all of it--and with the result that we are now forgiven before the holy God! There is not a single moment in this life when our fellowship with God is not dependent utterly upon this free forgiveness of sins grounded in the work of justification. Only upon this basis may we come before God with a truly pacified conscience. So, as we worship tomorrow may this affect us to the core, and may we find ourselves looking away from ourselves, and gazing upon Christ. May we cry out in praise with Zinzendorf--"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress.... this shall be all my plea--Jesus has lived, has died for me!"

Labels: Doctrine, Justification