Readings for such a time as this(5): - from: So Great Salvation, by Charles C. Ryrie The Verdict: Not Guilty By Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13:39 NKJV That [God] would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:26 Justification is one of those important words in the Scriptures that is either seldom defined or poorly defined. It simply means to announce the verdict not guilty. The Concept of Justification Justification does not make a person not guilty; it announces the fact that the individual is not guilty before God. Or to put the concept of not guilty positively, justification announces that the person is righteous before God. Again, it does not make the person righteous, but announces the fact that he is righteous. As part of the Old Testament law for Israel, one of the provisions was this: If there is a dispute between men and they go to court,...the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked (Deuteronomy 25:1). The judges did not make the person righteous or wicked, nor could they. He was already righteous or wicked when he appeared before the judges. What they did was examine the case and pronounce the verdict. They did not change the persons character or actions; they announced a verdict that they believed to be true and verified. When King Solomon stood before his subjects at the dedication of his temple, part of his prayer was this: If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear in heaven and act and judge Your servants, condemning the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. (1 Kings 8:31-32) Again it is quite clear that the person is righteous or wicked before the verdict is rendered. The verdict does not make him so; it announces what is so. The courtroom, therefore, is the stage for the concept of justification. When the judge justifies the person standing before him, he announces that the person is not guilty of whatever the charge was. In the courtroom of God, He announces not only that the sinner who has believed in Jesus is not guilty, but that he is perfectly righteous before Him. Justification includes more than bare acquittal. The judge is not only saying that the one standing before him may go without penalty, but he also declares that as far as the law is concerned, the person is blameless and righteous. God As Judge Throughout the Bible God is pictured as a judge (Genesis 18:25; 2 Timothy 4:8; James 5:9). Now if God, the Judge, is without any injustice and completely righteous in all His decisions, how can such a Judge announce a sinner righteous? And sinners we all are. On what basis could He possibly render a verdict of not guilty in the cases of sinners? When a sinner stands before the bar of God, God only has three options with regard to his case. Either (1) He must condemn that sinner (and that would be perfectly just), (2) He must compromise His own holiness and find some sort of middle ground on which to accept him, or (3) He can change the sinner into a righteous person and then truly announce him as righteous. But such righteousness will have to be the kind that satisfies the standards of a holy God. It must be an actual righteousness, not a fictitious one. No sleight-of-hand tricks are allowed in that courtroom. What God does is to put into effect the third option. He changes sinners into righteous people. How does He do that? By making us the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), by making many righteous (Romans 5:19), by giving us the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17). Who receives this gift of righteousness? The one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26). Then what happens? God justifies him—announces him righteous in Christ. And at the same time God remains absolutely just (Romans 3:26). Many misconceive justification as making us righteous rather than declaring us righteous. In other words, they think that our inward state of holiness, if enough, will cause God to rule in our favor. Our good works that make us righteous to one degree or another will result in some degree of justification. According to this misconception, justification can grow as we grow more righteous, and justification can be diminished and even lost if we become less righteous. Even though we acknowledge that God enables us to do good works, in the final analysis justification depends on us. And when would we know whether or not we had done enough good works to merit sufficient justification to gain heaven? How dedicated must I be in order to be justified? And for how long during my Christian life? Justification does not make anyone righteous; either we are or are not. And if we are, then God announces it so, and that is justification. Notice Luke 7:29 (KJV): And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God. Obviously, the people did not make God righteous. They merely declared that He was, that He existed. How Can Sinners Be Righteous? If justification does not make us righteous, what does? Also, if we cannot make ourselves righteous enough to satisfy a holy God, what hope is there that anyone can ever be justified? Will God have to condemn all people? Can He lower His standards enough to let some into heaven? Or is there some way He can change the sinner into a truly righteous person so that He can truly announce it so? As mentioned earlier, it is the latter course of action that He takes. And how does God do that? By joining us to Jesus Christ when we believe. And because, then, we are in Christ, we have His perfect righteousness imputed to us; that is, placed on our account, so that we are in reality righteous in Gods sight. Impute is the key word. It means to place to the account of. Perhaps the best illustration of imputation is the story told in the book of Philemon. Onesimus, the slave who ran away from his master Philemon in Colosse, found Paul and received Christ in Rome. At that point, Paul asked Onesimus to return to his master, assuring Philemon in a letter he sent along with the former slave that if he [Onesimus] has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account (Philemon 18). Likely this indicates that Onesimus had stolen property or money from Philemon when he ran away. In other words, Paul assured Philemon that he would pay whatever was necessary so that Onesimus need not be charged for anything he may have owed. Similarly, God imputes or puts on the believers account the righteousness of Christ, so that in His sight we are completely righteous and He can announce it as so. The logical, not chronological, procedure is this: First, God devised a plan for providing the necessary righteousness in Jesus Christ. It was apart from law (Romans 3:21). In the Greek text, the word law appears without the article, indicating it was apart from not only the Mosaic Law that could not provide that righteousness (Acts 13:39) but also from all legal complications. That righteousness was manifested at the incarnation of Christ, having previously been predicted by the law and prophets of the Old Testament (1 Peter 1:10-11). Second, righteousness comes through faith in the now-revealed Jesus (Romans 3:22). Third, the price Christ had to pay in order that we might be righteous through faith was His own death (Romans 3:24-25). The cost to Him was surely the greatest. Fourth, to us the benefit comes as a gift (verse 24), i.e., freely. The same word is translated without a cause in John 15:25; that is, without any cause in us. The gift of righteousness comes freely by His grace. Without any cause in us rules out any requirement on our part except to have faith in His blood (that is, His atoning death). No requirement to commit to His mastery or even to be willing to do so can be found anywhere in this passage. When anyone believes in Jesus, he receives Christs righteousness, and God can then announce that fact, which is justification. Even the way our Lord is designated in this passage does not inject any concept of Lord-Master. God justifies the one who has faith in Jesus, and since the name Jesus means God saves, then anyone who believes that Jesus (who is God) saves is justified. The Gift of Righteousness A companion passage, Romans 5:12-21, hammers home that this righteousness is a gift of grace. A gift is not a reward. Grace is not works. How difficult it is to comprehend grace, but the gift of righteousness comes by His grace to the one who does nothing other than believe in Jesus. If a person would try to justify himself by his own works of righteousness, then his reward is not imputed according to the standard of grace but according to the standard of debt, as what is due (Romans 4:4). He is due a reward if works can justify, and God becomes obligated to him. Justification, under those circumstances, is no longer a gift of grace. But, Paul continues, when one does not work but believes in God who justifies the ungodly, then his faith is imputed or reckoned for righteousness (Romans 4:5). Which will it be? Shall we work for righteousness and expect God to pay us with it? Or shall we not work at all for it and know that God will give the gift of righteousness to the one who believes in Jesus? Gods grace is unique among religions. One writer says: It is not found in any of the worlds cults or religions, nor in much of what poses for Christianity. From the Pharisees stress on deeds to the mystics focus on meditation, all religions emphasize human achievement. They are all bilateral agreements: God does part, we do part.... But the God of Christianity is a God of unilateral action.... God acted on His own, making a unilateral declaration of grace. If God can remain just and announce a sinner righteous who believes in Jesus, how can anyone add anything else? If I can be justified by the judge of the universe through faith in Jesus, is any other requirement necessary? No. None. Did Paul leave out something? Was his message defective here because he did not inject the issue of lordship/mastery/ commitment? No. Perish the thought. Justification Shown To be sure, justification is proved by personal purity. It does not come because of any reformation or commitment to change; but, once justified, we show this by changes in our lives. He who has died is freed [literally, justified] from sin (Romans 6:7). We stand acquitted from sin so that it no longer has dominion over us. Justification before the bar of God is demonstrated by changes in our lives here on earth before the bar of men. The Viewpoint of James This was the perspective of the apostle James when he wrote that we are justified by works (James 2:24). Unproductive faith is a spurious faith; therefore, what we are in Christ will be seen in what we are before men. Men cannot peer into the courtroom of heaven to observe the Judge rendering a verdict of not guilty in respect to the sinner who believes. But men are spectators in the courtroom of life here on earth. When they see changed lives, they can know that there has been a heavenly verdict; that is, justification. When they do not see changes, then they may question and doubt. Justification by faith is necessary in the court of heaven. Justification by works is the only thing people can observe in the court on earth. James gives an example of nonworking faith in the case of someone who sees a fellow believer in need of food and does not help meet that need (2:15-16). Faith that is not moved to relieve the hungry mans need is nonworking faith. He offers two examples of saving, living, working faith in the lives of Abraham and Rahab. Abrahams faith and works of obedience are seen working together in his life. James 2:23 quotes Genesis 15:6, which clearly says that Abrahams faith was reckoned or imputed to him as righteousness without any added conditions. But that justifying faith was proved some thirty or more years later when Abraham showed the ultimate obedience in offering his son Isaac (Genesis 22, which James also cites in verse 21). By this act he proved beyond any doubt the reality of his Genesis 15 faith, which was at that point in his life reckoned to him as righteousness. Similarly Rahab (James 2:25) evidenced her justification by her actions in helping the Israelite spies who canvassed Jericho (Joshua 2:1-21). Saving faith is a working faith, and those works justify believers in the courtroom on earth. Justified in the sight of men. How? By faith that operates together with good works. Such saving faith is made complete, perfected, and carried to its end, since it finds fulfillment in good works (James 2:22). Justified in the sight of the holy God? Yes. How? Through faith in His blood. That gives me (not rewards me with) the gift of righteousness. That means God can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And it comes freely, without any cause in me, by His grace. - via WORDsearch10 #readingsforsuchatimeasthis #christjesus #vineofchristministries #theword #studyscripture #god #biblestudy #bible #jesus #faith
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 22:38:27 +0000
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