JUSTIFICATION (Part 2)
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Good Teachers: (1) Constantly re-evaluate what they are doing; (2) Set large goals; (3) Ask – “Does everything I do contribute to learning?”; (4) Prepare well; (5) Check for understanding; (6) Like teaching; (7) Get results from their teaching; (8) Have perseverance. Don’t give up.
TEACHING GOAL: Show what justification means, why it is essential as a foundational belief for Christians.
TEXT FOR THE DAY:
“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile Sinners’ know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
“But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.
“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Gal. 2:15-21)
JUSTIFICATION (Part 2)
1. Forgiveness and the Search for Righteousness
2. Salvation – Metaphors, Word Pictures
3. The Importance of the Doctrine of Justification
4. The Doctrine of Justification in Galatians
5. The Definition of Justification
6. Illustrations of Justification
7. Objections to / Questions to Answer about Justification
8. Biblical Source and Grounds of Justification
9. Instrument or Means of Justification
10. Relationship of Justification to Sanctification
JUSTIFICATION (Part 2)
PAUL’S THESIS: My apostleship, like the twelve, is by divine appointment; the Gospel I preach was received by divine revelation. (Galatians 1:11-12)
I. FORGIVENESS & THE SEARCH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Man is sinful, God is holy, aggrieved and needs satisfaction for the injury done to Him. The law which God must satisfy is the law of His own being (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, Pg. 124) Mankind realizes this need for righteousness. He has established religions to generate the righteousness he hopes will give satisfaction that is due as a result of his sin. Mankind realizes deep in his heart that he has not attained the righteousness demanded. The only solution would be if God would provide the righteousness he needs.
II. SALVATION – METAPHORS AND WORD PICTURES
Metaphors and Word Pictures that explain salvation. Write “salvation” in the middle of the chart in red and circle it. Then write the metaphors around the circle. Underline “justification.”
Propitiation, Redemption, Reconciliation, Justification, Regeneration. Re-Creation, Deliverance, Rescue, Adoption, Forgiveness, Cleansing
“Salvation is the comprehensive word, but it has many facets that are illustrated by different pictures.” (John Stott, Cross of Christ. Page185)
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION
“This is the truth of the Gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.” (Martin Luther)
IV. THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION IN GALATIANS
Justify and righteous are from the same root word: dikaioo. In fact instead of saying ‘justify’ we could say ‘rightify’; instead of ‘justification’ ‘righteousification’, instead of ‘justified’ ‘rightified.’
Gal. 2:16 is one of the most explicit statements on justification in the Bible. It contains: A general statement, “not man is justified by observing the law.” A personal statement – “We too have put our faith in Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ.” A universal statement – “by observing the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)
V. THE DEFINITION OF JUSTIFICATION
Remember that a “term” is “compressed truth.” So just like a doctor would need to unpack the term “keratonomy” (surgical incision into the cornea) so we need to unpack “justification”.
Justification: a legal, courtroom term, just the opposite of condemnation.
1. God’s act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God. (Wikipedia)
2. [Justification] . . . refers to God’s act of unmerited favor by which he puts the sinner right with Himself, not only pardoning or acquitting him, but accepting him and treating him as righteous.” (John Stott, 60)
3. To be justified means to be declared righteous before God, that is to enjoy a status or standing of being in a righteous relationship with God, of being accepted by Him. (Ronald Y.K. Fung, 113)
4. Justification is a judicial act of God pardoning and forgiving our sins, accepting us as righteous, and instating us as his sons. (J.I. Packer, ibid) [British-born Canadian Christian theologian in the low church Anglican and Reformed traditions. Presently Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, BC]
5. A person is justified, when he is approved of God as free from the guilt of sin and its deserved punishment, and as having that righteousness belonging to him that entitles to the reward of life. (Jonathan Edwards)
6. [Justification is]… acceptance, whereby God receives us into his favor and regards us as righteous; and we say that it consists in the remission of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. (Calvin, as quoted by J.I. Packer, ibid)
7. The great Swiss Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Kung writes, [Justification] …must be defined as declaring just by court order.
QUESTION / FLIP CHART: How might we improve on this definition of justification? (Write comments around the definition with a different colored pen.)
God’s judicial act of unmerited favor wherein he declares the sinner right with Himself, not only acquitting him but also accepting him as his child and imputing to him His righteousness.
VI. ILLUSTRATIONS OF JUSTIFICATION
SKIT: Have two people pretend they are single. Have them do a pantomime, march down the aisle. The preacher will ask them if they accept each other. After the say “I do” then pronounce them man and wife.
QUESTION: What has changed as a result of the marriage ceremony?
Nothing has been changed inside the person but a new status has been declared … married, hands off.
MARRIAGE
ILLUSTRATION: When I was married, for example, Patricia and I stood before the minister (my father) and recited our vows. Near the end of the ceremony, my father declared, “By the authority vested in me by the state of California, I now pronounce you man and wife.” Instantly we were legally husband and wife. Whereas seconds before we had been an engaged couple, now we were married. Nothing inside us actually changed when those words were spoken. But our status changed before God, the law, and our family and friends. The implications of that simple declaration have been lifelong and life-changing (for which I am grateful). But when my father spoke those words, it was a legal declaration only. (John MacArthur, taken from the web)
COURT ROOM
The defendant sits before the judge and jury. He is described as “the accused.” When the jury comes forth they declare him either “guilty” or “not guilty.” He immediately changes status from being “accused” to “condemned” or “innocent”.
CONFLICT
Justification changes the way we view another person. It is a matter of perception.
ILLUSTRATION: A boy in a high school in New York punched another student in the face and knocked him out. The principal was furious and was going to deal harshly with the student. The student told the principal to look in the boy’s pocket. The principal discovered that the student who was knocked out had his hand on a gun in his pocket.
ILLUSTRATION: What if your child is home late from school? You are upset because he needed to be home on time for a specific family engagement. You told him ahead of time to come straight home. Finally he walks in 45 minutes late. You are upset. But he explains that there was a fire at the school. He could not get back into the school to get his belongings and thus he was late. The information changed your perception. He is “cleared”, considered “innocent” justified. Thus God sees us differently after we are declared justified.
Justification is not a change of the facts about us but a change of view about us in spite of the facts.
Justification does not change the record. It changes our view of the record. Justification does not change our state but it changes God’s view of our state.
READING: “In its theological sense, justification is a forensic, or purely legal, term. It describes what God declares about the believer, not what He does to change the believer. In fact, justification effects no actual change whatsoever in the sinner’s nature or character. Justifica-tion is a divine judicial edict. It changes our status only, but it carries ramifications that guarantee other changes will follow. Forensic decrees like this are fairly common in everyday life“. (John MacArthur from the web)
VII. OBJECTIONS / QUESTIONS ABOUT JUSTIFICATION
QUESTION: How do we answer the following questions?
1. Do you insist that when God justifies sinners he “pronounces” but does not “make” them righteous?
Justification is forensic concept, a declaration that we are “not guilty” and therefore righteous.
2. Is justification just a legal declaration, not a moral transformation?
Yes, it is a legal declaration.
3. Are you saying that righteousness is “imputed” to us, but neither “infused” nor even “imparted” to us?
“imputed” = reckoned, counted, attributed
“infused” = fill, impregnate, pour into
“impart” = transmit, share, give
Double imputation: Our sin is imputed to Christ. This leaves us in a state of innocence. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (II Cor. 5:21, NIV)
“For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (II Cor. 5:21, KJV)
“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – – righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (I Cor. 1:30)
ILLUSTRATION: Draw three circles. One circle is black which represents us. Two circles are for Christ. Our sins are attributed to Christ. His righteousness is attributed to us.
4. Do you claim that you put on Christ’s righteousness like a cloak which conceals your continuing sinfulness?
Christ, the Solid Rock
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found;
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Justification is only one aspect of salvation. There are other aspects that focus on changed lives, e.g. redemption, regeneration, re-creation, reconciliation.
5. How can it be that every justified person can be at one and the same time a righteous person and a sinner? (Simul Justus et peccator / “Righteous and at the same time a sinner”, “Simultaneously saint and sinner”.)
Peccator is the Latin word for sinner.
So a justified person could be called “a righteous sinner” or an “honored failure.”
6. If so, is not justification a legal fiction, even a giant hoax, a phony transaction external to yourself, which leaves you inwardly unrenewed? Are you claiming to be changed when in fact you are not changed? Is not your doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone’ a thinly disguised free license to go on sinning?” (John Stott, Cross of Christ, Pg. 185)
SO WHAT????
1. Sinful mankind, throughout recorded history, has been searching for a righteousness that would make him acceptable to God.
2. Salvation is a comprehensive word that is clearly explained in the Bible by the use of multiple metaphors and word pictures.
3. Justification and righteousness both have the same Greek root which is dikaioo. One could exchange ‘justify” with “rightify.”
4. Justification is: God’s judicial act of unmerited favor wherein he declares the sinner right with Himself, not only acquitting him but also accepting him as his child and imputing to him His righteousness.
5. Justification effects no actual change in our nature or character. It is God’s declaration of our new status.
6. Justification includes a double imputation – The imputation of our sins to Christ and the imputation of His righteousness to us.