The Blessings of Justification
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
We're coming tonight to Romans chapter 5, considering the blessings that accompany justification. Up until now, the Apostle Paul has been proving the unrighteousness of all mankind. Indeed, the first three chapters of this letter of Paul to the Romans authoritatively declare, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Paul sets before us our own sinful condition by nature, without God and without hope in this world, and we stand in need of grace. All men - he has been saying - without exception, are born in sin, shapen in iniquity.
By nature, in chapter 3 we read, "There is none good, no, not one. There is none that seeks after God." But rather, we were those by nature who were storing up wrath for ourselves. We suppressed the truth. We selfishly pursued our own desires and stubbornly sinned against God, our Maker, shamefully violating His law, breaking His commandments. And he tells us, in chapter 3, "We have all sinned and we have fallen short of the glory of God." So early on, Paul is setting before us the need for the gospel.
But in chapter 3, verse 21, there is a change, and that word from chapter 3:21 runs right through to the portion we have read tonight in chapter 5, verse 11, as it begins to talk about justification by grace through faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone—the great doctrine of justification by faith. And, in relief, the Apostle turns to a contemplation of the divine remedy for the ruined sinner's miserable estate. He says, “There's good news. There is good news for fallen man. God's remedy for sin has been revealed. And it is this: Romans 5:8, ‘Christ died for us.’” Christ died for us, for our sins, on our behalf, in our place. Christ died for sinners. And God justifies sinners.
Jerry Bridges said, “[It’s] [o]nly as we come to grips with the fact that we truly were objects of God's wrath do we begin to appreciate the good news of the gospel” - the goodness of God. And Paul relays the blessings here which accompany salvation: the effective results of justification by faith alone that come through Christ alone or on account of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. He tells us, at the end of chapter 4, verse 25, that "[Christ] was delivered over on account of our transgressions, and [Christ] was raised on account of our justification." Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." How amazing is God's work of justification.
To think that God would pronounce as just, as right, as blameless in His sight those who were formerly under His wrath, deserving His wrath. To think that God justifies sinners as a gift of His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. To think that God would set forth, put forth Christ, put Him on display, put Him on a cross as the propitiation for our sins, passing over our sins as we learn in chapter 3, verse 24, for the demonstration of righteousness, so that He would be just and the justifier. How is it that a just and a holy God, pure and blameless in every way, can pronounce as right and blameless in His sight those who have so wickedly sinned against Him? That He would be just in maintaining His holiness and yet the justifier of sinners. How can that be?
And we find here, in chapter 5, summarized in the first 11 verses, the blessings which accompany justification, the wonderful benefits of salvation that flow down to us - believing sinners - as a result or because of Christ's life and death on our behalf. And Paul mentions here, at the beginning of this chapter, the free access that we now enjoy as believers. We can come with confidence, as we were hearing this morning, as sons of God into the presence of God before the Father. We have this free access that we enjoy as the people of God. We have this standing in grace by which we have obtained our introduction, our entrance by faith into this grace in which we stand. We enjoy this full acceptance before God, being reconciled to Him now through the death of His Son. And we are assured of future glory.
We have a present hope and future glory. And more than that, in a very real way, as we will see next week, we have come to know and experience the love of God that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. But I want you to notice here, through these verses, as we begin to look into this, the progression of thought. In verse 1, he says, “because believers are justified by faith, we have certain things in our possession.” We have the certain possession of some things that come with justification. And he says, “because we have these things, we will enjoy other things.” We shall be saved for eternity—future glory and a hope in Christ. But it's as if we're already there.
So sure are these blessings. So sure are these promises of God. So sure are the blessings that accompany our salvation, our justification, that flow out of our justification, that it is - he says - as if we have them now, right now, in the present tense. We have now received them. They're so sure. And I want you to see this as we go through these verses together. What does he say? He says, verse 1, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God.”
And in verse 2, he says, "we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand." We have access to God. We have obtained a standing in grace. We have a standing in grace before God. He looks on us as those who are perfectly righteous in His sight. And we can come before Him with confidence, without fear. We have peace with God. We're no longer at enmity with God. We are reconciled to God. We have this. And we have this access.
And, so, he says, there's something that flows out of that. We can rejoice in the goodness of God, because he says there in chapter 5, verse 2, "we boast." We have; therefore, we boast. We stand in grace, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. We have this joy in hope of the glory of God, a hope that will be realized. We will never be disappointed. We will not be ashamed. We will not be confounded. This is a hope that will be realized. You can be assured of it. And we rejoice in the hope of glory.
He says, in verse 3, "we also boast in our afflictions." And, because we are assured of glory, we can boast and we can rejoice even in times of testing, even in our afflictions. Because, as he says in verse 11, our boast is not in ourselves. It's in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have peace with God. We have obtained an entrance by faith into grace. We have a standing in grace. We can rejoice in the hope of glory. We can rejoice even in afflictions. We can boast in afflictions, because our boast, our joy is in Christ.
And because we're trusting in Christ, he says, in verse 9, "we shall be." We have, we boast, and we shall be. "[H]aving now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." We are saved from God's wrath. There's no longer any condemnation hanging over us. We are saved from the wrath of God through Christ. And he says, "we shall be saved" - verse 10 - "by His life." By His perfect righteous obedience, by His perfect life, by His substitutionary death, we are saved.
And, so, he says we have something to look forward to. Verse 11, "we have now received." Because we have this acceptance, because we have this access and this standing before God by grace through faith in Christ, we can rejoice in Christ our Savior. We can rejoice in affliction. We can rejoice knowing that God is bringing us to our destination, to a glorious end. We have joy and the hope of glory. We shall be saved from the wrath of God. We're saved by His life. And it's as if these things are ours right now.
We have now the reconciliation. We have an assured hope as the sons and daughters of God. We have this assured hope of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. And, even though the road may be hard, even though He says there are afflictions that test you, that prove your character, He said even as you go through those trials, you have this assurance that God is actively at work in your life. His Spirit dwells in you. You know His love. You have experienced it in a real way and you can persevere. He will keep you to the end.
And, so, we have this assured hope as sons of God of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. Even though there are many trials, many temptations to endure, we have this confidence. We can rejoice that our God is working for our good, not our harm, not our destruction, but for our good, and even as we go through those afflictions and trials.
Where do we find proof that God loves us as we deal with the daily problems of life in a fallen world? When circumstances are extremely challenging. When we groan, as we heard this morning from Romans 8, and we hardly can put together the words to express the deep longings and burdens of our heart, when you struggle with your own sinful heart, when you feel lost, when you feel without strength and weak, when we were yet without strength, when we were still weak, overwhelmed, where do you find proof of God's love?
When God wants to show us His love, He directs us to the cross, to the cross of Christ. That God would demonstrate - verse 8 - His own love toward us “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You find hope. You find peace with God. You find grace. You find His love at the cross. Christ died for us. Christ died for you, believer. He took your place.
And so, this word of encouragement from the Apostle Paul, as you recall and count your blessings—you know, count your blessings, name them one by one—what you have in Christ, and because of your justification, you're accepted before God. You have this assurance and hope. You have this salvation, which is made real to you. When we were hopeless, powerless, impotent, unable to save ourselves, unworthy rebels, unlovely in the eyes of God, without strength, with nothing to commend us to God, no righteousness of our own. We were children of wrath. We were children of disobedience, walking according to the course of this world. We were at enmity with our Maker, and yet God set His love upon us. He loved us with an everlasting love. Christ died for us, and God shows us His love at the cross. God has poured out His love upon us. His love has washed over our souls, and we are a people who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, accepted in the Son.
And, so, He says, “therefore, because Christ was delivered on account of our transgressions—not His own transgressions, but our transgressions—my sin, your sin, was imputed to Him on account of our transgressions.” Our transgressions were counted to be His transgressions. He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might know His righteousness, put to our account, imputed to us. He was delivered over on account of our transgressions and was raised on account of our justification.
We know the resurrection of Jesus Christ was so necessary for our justification. The resurrection is God's receipt, His guarantee that He is satisfied with the finished work of Christ on our behalf. He was raised on account of our justification. And there we find acceptance: "Therefore, having been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And He says, "Much more then,... we shall be saved from wrath through Him," - saved by His life and death.
We are partakers of the benefits of God's justifying grace by faith. And even though life is hard, and the way is difficult, and many are the afflictions of the righteous, we can rejoice in knowing that God will see us through to the very end. He will lose none of His people. We've tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. That final word of the fourth chapter is a word of justifying grace: He was raised on account of our justification. Justification simply means ‘to declare or to pronounce as righteous.’
And, the Apostle has been illustrating, in chapter 4 from the life of Abraham, that sinners are justified by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." He was justified on account of his faith in the promises of God. And likewise, we are declared to be pronounced righteous in the sight of God, not because of our righteousness, but because of the righteousness of Christ that has been put to our account. And it's His gift of grace that is received by faith.
So, justification is a legal term. It's a term of the court. And, it says, God declares guilty sinners not guilty in His sight. It's a pronouncement: not guilty, accepted in the Beloved Son. And, justification is simply God declaring unrighteous people, like you and me, righteous—not on account of our own goodness, not on account of our own works, not on account of our keeping the law, not because of our merits, but on account of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's where we find our acceptance: that He, Christ, was delivered over on account of our transgressions—transgressions not His own. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So, our sins were imputed to Him. His righteousness was credited to us. That's what justification is. And because of that act of God's grace, we are pronounced free, not guilty, reconciled to God.
If you want a very concise and clear answer to what is justification, I love the Shorter Catechism, and it says, Answer 33: "Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ which has been imputed to us by faith alone." It says it's an act of God's free grace.
Romans 5, verse 17 and 18 tells us of this abundance of grace. "For if by the transgression of one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." We receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ. That's an act of God's free grace. It's through, as it says in verse 18, "the one act of righteousness." "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." It comes through the obedience and the righteousness of Christ, and that's what He tells us in verse 19. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of One” - Jesus Christ - “the many will be appointed righteous." We are appointed righteous. We are declared to be righteous in the sight of God, not because of our own righteousness but because of the act of God's free grace, the obedience of Christ, the demonstration of righteousness.
Paul says it is a ‘by grace’ righteousness. It's a ‘by grace’ righteousness. It comes as a gift to you. He says it is a ‘by faith’ righteousness. That is, it's without price or without cause, but it's freely given to those who believe. It's a ‘by faith’ righteousness. That must be clear. It's not a ‘by works’ righteousness. It's by grace. It is by faith, not by works of righteousness which we have done. We're not saved by our own good works but by the finished work of another. If you like, we're saved on credit, not by our merit.
And Paul sets before us, in Philippians, the all-surpassing value of knowing Christ as your Savior. In Philippians chapter 3, end of verse 8, he says this is the crux of the matter. This is the truth that we need to value and esteem and rejoice in. He says, "More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and [I] count them” - I reckon them - “to be rubbish so that I may gain Christ." And what? "And be found in Him” - in Him by faith, by grace - “not having a righteousness of my own [works]"—it's not a ‘by’ works righteousness—"not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith."
And what that says is, God has provided for sinners like you and me a perfect and a complete righteousness that covers all our sin, and it's found in Christ and in Christ alone, a righteousness which is of God. That is, it's of God's providing. It's independent of human merit. It's a provision that God has provided for needy man which you could never earn or work for. It is God who justifies sinners. It's God who declares believing sinners righteous in His sight only because of the righteousness of Christ that has been put to their account. It's God who provides what is needed for our salvation. And that's the greatest joy, the greatest blessing for the child of God: to be found in Him, to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, not depending upon my own good works, but depending upon the person and the work of Christ alone.
And, so, Romans chapter 5 really sets before us the effective results of justification by faith. Justification is the greatest blessing that you could know, but yet it brings with it all these other accompanying blessings, and the first eleven verses of Romans 5 are a summary of all the blessings which accompany justification: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. To think, once enemies, God was angry with us. We stood guilty and condemned. His wrath was over our head. We were accumulating wrath and storing up wrath for ourselves, but now, being found in Him, being found in Christ, God is satisfied, and He's raised Christ from the dead. That's the receipt that God is satisfied with the work of Christ on our behalf. And, by faith, His righteousness has been credited to our account, and we stand approved by God.
We have peace with God. We're no longer enemies, but we're at peace. We have an entrance, by faith, into a gracious standing before God. As believers, we enjoy royal favor. God is on our side. Our King is for us. God approves and receives us in His grace, and we've been brought near. We who were far off have been brought near, and we have this freedom to approach the King of glory, and right now, we have a standing before the King. We can come into His presence without fear because we're clothed. We have on the garments of salvation, the robes of Christ's righteousness placed on us, and when God looks upon us, He sees us in Christ, being found in Christ, and so we have a wonderful, gracious standing before God.
And we rejoice, He says, in the hope of glory. We have God's presence with us now, and we have the promise of life with Him in the world to come. His blessings are eternal. He will receive us to Himself. Of this, we can be assured. It's as if we're already there. We have it now. We're already in possession of this hope. We have it. We have it now, and it's presently guaranteed in Christ. We have a sure and certain hope. We will never be ashamed or disappointed. It will come to be, even as God has said.
Yes, here, we find trials, present difficulties; here, all is dark, but there comes joy, joy in the morning. And, our trials here, Paul says, only make us long, persevere for glory. Our trials here only make us long for the joys of heaven. Here, we groan, and the buffetings of life stir up within us this longing for glory, to be with Christ, which is far better. He who loves us beyond measure will certainly see us home. We have confidence on the basis of our justification, the experience of His love that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We have confidence in our Lord that He will see us through.
So, as we conclude tonight, we have to remind ourselves. If God has met our greatest need in Christ, will He not see us through this life, through those afflictions, through those trials, help us to persevere, prove our character, test the genuineness of our character, give us hope even in that trial, that we don't need to be ashamed? He will never disappoint us. If God has already met our greatest need in life by forgiving our sin, reconciling us to Himself, releasing us from sin's penalty and the condemnation that was upon us, will He not richly supply all our needs for life in Christ? Of course He will. He loves us.
And, if we're ever tempted to doubt it, think again of the cross, because there God puts His love on display. When God wants to show us His love, He leads us by the Spirit to Calvary. You want to know and you want to be reminded how much God loves you, saint, tonight? Consider Him. Consider the cross. Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
And, as one author said, the marvel of the gospel is that God has placed your sins upon Christ, and the chastisement, the punishment that leads to our peace—Isaiah 53:5 says, "The punishment that leads to our peace fell upon Him." He took our wrath, every sin. And, this author said, “Every sin fell on Him, fell on Christ.” Think about that - every sin, all our sins, our daily sins. He says every lustful thought, glance, and deed, every angry, gossiping, slanderous word, every dishonest, unkind, and hypocritical action was placed on Jesus Christ. On the cross, God declared Jesus legally guilty of every sin ever committed by everyone who would ever believe, and, then, He poured out the full cup of His wrath on Jesus, who drank it for us right down to the dregs, every last drop. He drank the dregs of God's wrath for us, so much so that there's not a single drop left in the cup of God's wrath toward you and me, to those who are in Christ Jesus, because Jesus paid it all. He paid it all.
The debt is paid, and you never have a reason to doubt the love of God for you. You are justified. Therefore, having been justified by faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast, we glory, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, because our boast is in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. May God help us to bask in His love and to count our blessings, the blessings that accompany justification.
Let's pray.
By nature, in chapter 3 we read, "There is none good, no, not one. There is none that seeks after God." But rather, we were those by nature who were storing up wrath for ourselves. We suppressed the truth. We selfishly pursued our own desires and stubbornly sinned against God, our Maker, shamefully violating His law, breaking His commandments. And he tells us, in chapter 3, "We have all sinned and we have fallen short of the glory of God." So early on, Paul is setting before us the need for the gospel.
But in chapter 3, verse 21, there is a change, and that word from chapter 3:21 runs right through to the portion we have read tonight in chapter 5, verse 11, as it begins to talk about justification by grace through faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone—the great doctrine of justification by faith. And, in relief, the Apostle turns to a contemplation of the divine remedy for the ruined sinner's miserable estate. He says, “There's good news. There is good news for fallen man. God's remedy for sin has been revealed. And it is this: Romans 5:8, ‘Christ died for us.’” Christ died for us, for our sins, on our behalf, in our place. Christ died for sinners. And God justifies sinners.
Jerry Bridges said, “[It’s] [o]nly as we come to grips with the fact that we truly were objects of God's wrath do we begin to appreciate the good news of the gospel” - the goodness of God. And Paul relays the blessings here which accompany salvation: the effective results of justification by faith alone that come through Christ alone or on account of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. He tells us, at the end of chapter 4, verse 25, that "[Christ] was delivered over on account of our transgressions, and [Christ] was raised on account of our justification." Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." How amazing is God's work of justification.
To think that God would pronounce as just, as right, as blameless in His sight those who were formerly under His wrath, deserving His wrath. To think that God justifies sinners as a gift of His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. To think that God would set forth, put forth Christ, put Him on display, put Him on a cross as the propitiation for our sins, passing over our sins as we learn in chapter 3, verse 24, for the demonstration of righteousness, so that He would be just and the justifier. How is it that a just and a holy God, pure and blameless in every way, can pronounce as right and blameless in His sight those who have so wickedly sinned against Him? That He would be just in maintaining His holiness and yet the justifier of sinners. How can that be?
And we find here, in chapter 5, summarized in the first 11 verses, the blessings which accompany justification, the wonderful benefits of salvation that flow down to us - believing sinners - as a result or because of Christ's life and death on our behalf. And Paul mentions here, at the beginning of this chapter, the free access that we now enjoy as believers. We can come with confidence, as we were hearing this morning, as sons of God into the presence of God before the Father. We have this free access that we enjoy as the people of God. We have this standing in grace by which we have obtained our introduction, our entrance by faith into this grace in which we stand. We enjoy this full acceptance before God, being reconciled to Him now through the death of His Son. And we are assured of future glory.
We have a present hope and future glory. And more than that, in a very real way, as we will see next week, we have come to know and experience the love of God that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. But I want you to notice here, through these verses, as we begin to look into this, the progression of thought. In verse 1, he says, “because believers are justified by faith, we have certain things in our possession.” We have the certain possession of some things that come with justification. And he says, “because we have these things, we will enjoy other things.” We shall be saved for eternity—future glory and a hope in Christ. But it's as if we're already there.
So sure are these blessings. So sure are these promises of God. So sure are the blessings that accompany our salvation, our justification, that flow out of our justification, that it is - he says - as if we have them now, right now, in the present tense. We have now received them. They're so sure. And I want you to see this as we go through these verses together. What does he say? He says, verse 1, "We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God.”
And in verse 2, he says, "we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand." We have access to God. We have obtained a standing in grace. We have a standing in grace before God. He looks on us as those who are perfectly righteous in His sight. And we can come before Him with confidence, without fear. We have peace with God. We're no longer at enmity with God. We are reconciled to God. We have this. And we have this access.
And, so, he says, there's something that flows out of that. We can rejoice in the goodness of God, because he says there in chapter 5, verse 2, "we boast." We have; therefore, we boast. We stand in grace, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. We have this joy in hope of the glory of God, a hope that will be realized. We will never be disappointed. We will not be ashamed. We will not be confounded. This is a hope that will be realized. You can be assured of it. And we rejoice in the hope of glory.
He says, in verse 3, "we also boast in our afflictions." And, because we are assured of glory, we can boast and we can rejoice even in times of testing, even in our afflictions. Because, as he says in verse 11, our boast is not in ourselves. It's in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have peace with God. We have obtained an entrance by faith into grace. We have a standing in grace. We can rejoice in the hope of glory. We can rejoice even in afflictions. We can boast in afflictions, because our boast, our joy is in Christ.
And because we're trusting in Christ, he says, in verse 9, "we shall be." We have, we boast, and we shall be. "[H]aving now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." We are saved from God's wrath. There's no longer any condemnation hanging over us. We are saved from the wrath of God through Christ. And he says, "we shall be saved" - verse 10 - "by His life." By His perfect righteous obedience, by His perfect life, by His substitutionary death, we are saved.
And, so, he says we have something to look forward to. Verse 11, "we have now received." Because we have this acceptance, because we have this access and this standing before God by grace through faith in Christ, we can rejoice in Christ our Savior. We can rejoice in affliction. We can rejoice knowing that God is bringing us to our destination, to a glorious end. We have joy and the hope of glory. We shall be saved from the wrath of God. We're saved by His life. And it's as if these things are ours right now.
We have now the reconciliation. We have an assured hope as the sons and daughters of God. We have this assured hope of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. And, even though the road may be hard, even though He says there are afflictions that test you, that prove your character, He said even as you go through those trials, you have this assurance that God is actively at work in your life. His Spirit dwells in you. You know His love. You have experienced it in a real way and you can persevere. He will keep you to the end.
And, so, we have this assured hope as sons of God of a glorious entrance into the presence of God. Even though there are many trials, many temptations to endure, we have this confidence. We can rejoice that our God is working for our good, not our harm, not our destruction, but for our good, and even as we go through those afflictions and trials.
Where do we find proof that God loves us as we deal with the daily problems of life in a fallen world? When circumstances are extremely challenging. When we groan, as we heard this morning from Romans 8, and we hardly can put together the words to express the deep longings and burdens of our heart, when you struggle with your own sinful heart, when you feel lost, when you feel without strength and weak, when we were yet without strength, when we were still weak, overwhelmed, where do you find proof of God's love?
When God wants to show us His love, He directs us to the cross, to the cross of Christ. That God would demonstrate - verse 8 - His own love toward us “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." You find hope. You find peace with God. You find grace. You find His love at the cross. Christ died for us. Christ died for you, believer. He took your place.
And so, this word of encouragement from the Apostle Paul, as you recall and count your blessings—you know, count your blessings, name them one by one—what you have in Christ, and because of your justification, you're accepted before God. You have this assurance and hope. You have this salvation, which is made real to you. When we were hopeless, powerless, impotent, unable to save ourselves, unworthy rebels, unlovely in the eyes of God, without strength, with nothing to commend us to God, no righteousness of our own. We were children of wrath. We were children of disobedience, walking according to the course of this world. We were at enmity with our Maker, and yet God set His love upon us. He loved us with an everlasting love. Christ died for us, and God shows us His love at the cross. God has poured out His love upon us. His love has washed over our souls, and we are a people who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus, accepted in the Son.
And, so, He says, “therefore, because Christ was delivered on account of our transgressions—not His own transgressions, but our transgressions—my sin, your sin, was imputed to Him on account of our transgressions.” Our transgressions were counted to be His transgressions. He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might know His righteousness, put to our account, imputed to us. He was delivered over on account of our transgressions and was raised on account of our justification.
We know the resurrection of Jesus Christ was so necessary for our justification. The resurrection is God's receipt, His guarantee that He is satisfied with the finished work of Christ on our behalf. He was raised on account of our justification. And there we find acceptance: "Therefore, having been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And He says, "Much more then,... we shall be saved from wrath through Him," - saved by His life and death.
We are partakers of the benefits of God's justifying grace by faith. And even though life is hard, and the way is difficult, and many are the afflictions of the righteous, we can rejoice in knowing that God will see us through to the very end. He will lose none of His people. We've tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. That final word of the fourth chapter is a word of justifying grace: He was raised on account of our justification. Justification simply means ‘to declare or to pronounce as righteous.’
And, the Apostle has been illustrating, in chapter 4 from the life of Abraham, that sinners are justified by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." He was justified on account of his faith in the promises of God. And likewise, we are declared to be pronounced righteous in the sight of God, not because of our righteousness, but because of the righteousness of Christ that has been put to our account. And it's His gift of grace that is received by faith.
So, justification is a legal term. It's a term of the court. And, it says, God declares guilty sinners not guilty in His sight. It's a pronouncement: not guilty, accepted in the Beloved Son. And, justification is simply God declaring unrighteous people, like you and me, righteous—not on account of our own goodness, not on account of our own works, not on account of our keeping the law, not because of our merits, but on account of the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's where we find our acceptance: that He, Christ, was delivered over on account of our transgressions—transgressions not His own. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So, our sins were imputed to Him. His righteousness was credited to us. That's what justification is. And because of that act of God's grace, we are pronounced free, not guilty, reconciled to God.
If you want a very concise and clear answer to what is justification, I love the Shorter Catechism, and it says, Answer 33: "Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ which has been imputed to us by faith alone." It says it's an act of God's free grace.
Romans 5, verse 17 and 18 tells us of this abundance of grace. "For if by the transgression of one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." We receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ. That's an act of God's free grace. It's through, as it says in verse 18, "the one act of righteousness." "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men." It comes through the obedience and the righteousness of Christ, and that's what He tells us in verse 19. "For as through the one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of One” - Jesus Christ - “the many will be appointed righteous." We are appointed righteous. We are declared to be righteous in the sight of God, not because of our own righteousness but because of the act of God's free grace, the obedience of Christ, the demonstration of righteousness.
Paul says it is a ‘by grace’ righteousness. It's a ‘by grace’ righteousness. It comes as a gift to you. He says it is a ‘by faith’ righteousness. That is, it's without price or without cause, but it's freely given to those who believe. It's a ‘by faith’ righteousness. That must be clear. It's not a ‘by works’ righteousness. It's by grace. It is by faith, not by works of righteousness which we have done. We're not saved by our own good works but by the finished work of another. If you like, we're saved on credit, not by our merit.
And Paul sets before us, in Philippians, the all-surpassing value of knowing Christ as your Savior. In Philippians chapter 3, end of verse 8, he says this is the crux of the matter. This is the truth that we need to value and esteem and rejoice in. He says, "More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and [I] count them” - I reckon them - “to be rubbish so that I may gain Christ." And what? "And be found in Him” - in Him by faith, by grace - “not having a righteousness of my own [works]"—it's not a ‘by’ works righteousness—"not having a righteousness of my own which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God upon faith."
And what that says is, God has provided for sinners like you and me a perfect and a complete righteousness that covers all our sin, and it's found in Christ and in Christ alone, a righteousness which is of God. That is, it's of God's providing. It's independent of human merit. It's a provision that God has provided for needy man which you could never earn or work for. It is God who justifies sinners. It's God who declares believing sinners righteous in His sight only because of the righteousness of Christ that has been put to their account. It's God who provides what is needed for our salvation. And that's the greatest joy, the greatest blessing for the child of God: to be found in Him, to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, not depending upon my own good works, but depending upon the person and the work of Christ alone.
And, so, Romans chapter 5 really sets before us the effective results of justification by faith. Justification is the greatest blessing that you could know, but yet it brings with it all these other accompanying blessings, and the first eleven verses of Romans 5 are a summary of all the blessings which accompany justification: peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. To think, once enemies, God was angry with us. We stood guilty and condemned. His wrath was over our head. We were accumulating wrath and storing up wrath for ourselves, but now, being found in Him, being found in Christ, God is satisfied, and He's raised Christ from the dead. That's the receipt that God is satisfied with the work of Christ on our behalf. And, by faith, His righteousness has been credited to our account, and we stand approved by God.
We have peace with God. We're no longer enemies, but we're at peace. We have an entrance, by faith, into a gracious standing before God. As believers, we enjoy royal favor. God is on our side. Our King is for us. God approves and receives us in His grace, and we've been brought near. We who were far off have been brought near, and we have this freedom to approach the King of glory, and right now, we have a standing before the King. We can come into His presence without fear because we're clothed. We have on the garments of salvation, the robes of Christ's righteousness placed on us, and when God looks upon us, He sees us in Christ, being found in Christ, and so we have a wonderful, gracious standing before God.
And we rejoice, He says, in the hope of glory. We have God's presence with us now, and we have the promise of life with Him in the world to come. His blessings are eternal. He will receive us to Himself. Of this, we can be assured. It's as if we're already there. We have it now. We're already in possession of this hope. We have it. We have it now, and it's presently guaranteed in Christ. We have a sure and certain hope. We will never be ashamed or disappointed. It will come to be, even as God has said.
Yes, here, we find trials, present difficulties; here, all is dark, but there comes joy, joy in the morning. And, our trials here, Paul says, only make us long, persevere for glory. Our trials here only make us long for the joys of heaven. Here, we groan, and the buffetings of life stir up within us this longing for glory, to be with Christ, which is far better. He who loves us beyond measure will certainly see us home. We have confidence on the basis of our justification, the experience of His love that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We have confidence in our Lord that He will see us through.
So, as we conclude tonight, we have to remind ourselves. If God has met our greatest need in Christ, will He not see us through this life, through those afflictions, through those trials, help us to persevere, prove our character, test the genuineness of our character, give us hope even in that trial, that we don't need to be ashamed? He will never disappoint us. If God has already met our greatest need in life by forgiving our sin, reconciling us to Himself, releasing us from sin's penalty and the condemnation that was upon us, will He not richly supply all our needs for life in Christ? Of course He will. He loves us.
And, if we're ever tempted to doubt it, think again of the cross, because there God puts His love on display. When God wants to show us His love, He leads us by the Spirit to Calvary. You want to know and you want to be reminded how much God loves you, saint, tonight? Consider Him. Consider the cross. Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.
And, as one author said, the marvel of the gospel is that God has placed your sins upon Christ, and the chastisement, the punishment that leads to our peace—Isaiah 53:5 says, "The punishment that leads to our peace fell upon Him." He took our wrath, every sin. And, this author said, “Every sin fell on Him, fell on Christ.” Think about that - every sin, all our sins, our daily sins. He says every lustful thought, glance, and deed, every angry, gossiping, slanderous word, every dishonest, unkind, and hypocritical action was placed on Jesus Christ. On the cross, God declared Jesus legally guilty of every sin ever committed by everyone who would ever believe, and, then, He poured out the full cup of His wrath on Jesus, who drank it for us right down to the dregs, every last drop. He drank the dregs of God's wrath for us, so much so that there's not a single drop left in the cup of God's wrath toward you and me, to those who are in Christ Jesus, because Jesus paid it all. He paid it all.
The debt is paid, and you never have a reason to doubt the love of God for you. You are justified. Therefore, having been justified by faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast, we glory, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, because our boast is in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. May God help us to bask in His love and to count our blessings, the blessings that accompany justification.
Let's pray.
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