Declared Righteous!

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We come tonight to what is really my favorite New Testament teaching. It's been called some remarkable things. William Cunningham in his Historical Theology writes that "There is no subject which possesses more intrinsic importance than attaches to this one…" Thomas Watson, the English Puritan, writes that this is "the very hinge and pillar of Christianity." John Calvin said, "It is the main hinge of our faith." You come to our day. John Stott writes, "Nobody has understood Christianity who does not understand [this great doctrine]." Before his death, James Montgomery Boice wrote, "There is nothing in all life and history that is more important than these teachings." Perhaps the one man in church history who most clearly and forcefully articulated the importance of this one foundational truth was Martin Luther. Martin Luther wrote, "This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone." Notice how he puts the weight on this doctrine: "It alone begets [or gives birth to], [it alone] nourishes, [it alone] builds, preserves, and defends the church of God and without it the church of God cannot last for a single hour." What are all these men writing about? What is the one doctrine that is most important to the health of the church? And to you personally? It's the gospel. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what exactly is the gospel? Well Paul defined it as what we call justification. If you turn to the book of Romans, we begin our study this evening. Paul sets out in Romans Chapter 1 his great theme. In Verses 16 and 17, he comes to the theme of the gospel. He's just said that he's eager to preach it in Rome even though there are believers there; to them to be further grounded, and to the unbelievers to come to faith in Christ. Verse 16, he says, "[I'm going to do this]":

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: the one who is righteous by faith shall live.

Then Paul sets out to indict humanity beginning in Chapter 1:18; and that runs all the way through Chapter 3:21 when he comes back to the gospel. He is now going to define the gospel. Romans 3:21: "But apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets," (this is nothing new — it's in the Old Testament) "even the righteousness of God which comes to us through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe;" Verse 24: "being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Paul, what's the Gospel? It's the doctrine of justification. You find the same thing in Romans Chapter 8. You remember over just a few pages in Romans Chapter 8:29, He lays out God's purpose for each of those who know Him. "He foreknew" us. He "predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son." "Those whom He predestined, He called; and those whom He called, He justified; and those whom He justified, He glorified." Notice that Paul encapsulates all of the events that occur at the moment of salvation in the term justification. That's because for him it is the center; it is the core; it is the key issue.

We find the same thing in 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. Paul refers to himself as having received the ministry of reconciliation. Second Corinthians 5:18 – He's given us the ministry of reconciliation, and here it is — "that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses, He has committed to us the word of reconciliation." What exactly is this "word of reconciliation?" Well you come to it in Verse 21. It is the truth of justification. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." So for Paul, if you want to define the gospel in a single word, it is the word justification. That's why those many voices throughout the history of the church have spoken of this doctrine in such solemn tones. It's no wonder that Martin Luther called it "the article by which the church stands or falls." If that's true (and I believe it is), the church in our day is in serious danger of falling because most Christians can't even articulate what this great doctrine is.

Why did Martin Luther say it's "the article on which the church stands or falls?" Because there are only two kinds of righteousness. There is human righteousness based on human effort; and there is what Luther calls the passive righteousness that comes from Christ. There is the righteousness of God that is given as a gift to those who believe, and there is my own righteousness. There is no middle ground. You only embrace one or the other. So if you do not comprehend and understand, if the church doesn't grasp the greatness of this truth, then we begin to leave the righteousness of God that's given as a gift to the one who believes and embrace our own righteousness as our hope.

Now let me ask you a question. If justification is as important as all of those giants of the faith believe it is (and it is), then why is it that justification is never mentioned in thousands of confessing evangelical churches across American Christianity? Why is it that I attended evangelical churches all of my life, I attended a Christian college, and I didn't hear a clear message on the doctrine of justification until I was in seminary? Why is that? It's because it's not important anymore. And it's not important anymore because something else has slipped. James Buchanan, the author of what remains the classic work on justification, writes this, "The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is—neither great intellectual ability, nor much scholastic learning, —but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God." You see, the reason you don't hear much about this doctrine in the church is that we have so trivialized the nature of sin and the holy character of God that justification is no longer really important. In fact, in some places it's not even necessary.

John Murray writes, "If we are to appreciate that which is central in the gospel…our thinking must be revolutionized by the realism of the wrath of God, of the reality and gravity of our guilt, and of the divine condemnation. It is then and only then that our thinking and feeling will be rehabilitated to an understanding of God's grace in the justification of the ungodly." You see, we don't understand that we're ungodly. We don't understand our condition. But understanding this doctrine has huge implications for us as believers.

Listen to Sinclair Ferguson. I love this. It's from this little book The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Introduction. He says, "Not only is it [that is justification] the article of the standing or falling church, but also of the standing or falling Christian. Probably more trouble is caused in the Christian life by an inadequate or mistaken view of this doctrine than any other." Do you believe that? More trouble comes to your Christian life and experience because you don't understand this doctrine than your failure to understand anything else. He goes on to say, "When the child of God loses his sense of peace with God, when he finds his concern for others dried up, or generally finds his sense of the sheer goodness and grace of God diminished, it is from this fountain that he has ceased to drink. Conversely, if we can gain a solid grounding here, we have the foundation for a life of peace and joy." I can tell you from my own experience that he's absolutely right. It was only when, by God's grace, Sheila and I stumbled into a church not like any of the churches in which we were raised, where the grace of God and justification was taught, that we received the solid foundation for the advance of our Christian lives.

Several months ago, we tried to plunge the depths of man's utter complete depravity; that you and I by nature are apart from God's grace. We are ruled by sin. We are polluted in every part of our being. We are unable to come to God. We are unable to do anything pleasing in His sight, and we deserve only His wrath. That is the terrible reality that forms the backdrop of justification. That is the darkness that makes the bright light of justification shine. Job 4:17 says, "Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?" The resounding answer is "No! Absolutely not." We cannot on our own be just before God. Therefore, God the righteous Judge is left with three options. He can either condemn us as we deserve. He can compromise His own justice, which is unthinkable. Or, He can find a way at the same time both to discharge His justice and to spare us. And of course, this third way is exactly the path that He chose. He found a way to be at the same time just, and the justifier of the ungodly.

Tonight I want us to review this great doctrine. First, let me just encourage any of you who weren't here when we went through the first 11 verses of Philippians Chapter 3 to get the CDs. It's impossible for me tonight in a single message to capture all that we talked about in six messages there. I'm going to bring it into a capsule for you. But I still encourage you to get the fuller version if you haven't done that.

Let's begin with what justification is. Looking specifically at the word itself, the word justify simply means "to declare righteous." It is extremely important that you understand that justification is a legal decision by God as Judge at a moment in time, and it is not a process. It is not something subjective; it is something objective. It is not something that happens inside of you; it is something that happens in the courtroom of heaven. The Council of Trent, a mid-16^th century Roman Catholic response to the Reformation, says that justification is in fact a process that happens inside of you. Listen, and I quote, "it is not the remission of sins merely [that is, justification] but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man." In Catholic theology, justification is a lifelong process that even for most lasts unto purgatory. Sadly, the true nature of justification is under attack today not only from the Roman Catholic Church but even from some posed evangelicals; those who teach what they call (maybe you've heard of it) "a new perspective on Paul." They set out to reinterpret Paul and to make justification something other than a legal decision.

But what is it that the Scripture says? That's always the key issue. In both the Old and the New Testaments, this word "to justify" refers to a legal declaration declaring someone righteous. How do we know that? Well first of all, the context in which it's used. The Greek and Hebrew words that are translated "to justify" are always used in the context of courts and legal decisions. And there are a number of references that if you're interested you can jot down. In addition to that, "justify" is always used as the opposite of the word "condemn." And "to condemn" does not mean "to make guilty"; it means "to declare guilty." So therefore, "justify," its opposite, must mean not "to make righteous," but "to declare righteous."

There are also numerous passages in which the term "justify" can only mean "to declare to be righteous." Let's turn to a couple of these. Turn to Proverbs 17:15. Here is where you find that it doesn't mean to make you righteous, but to declare you righteous. Proverbs 17:15 (here is our Hebrew word) – says, "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them are alike an abomination to the Lord." Now think about that for a moment. Would it be an abomination to the Lord for someone to make a wicked person righteous? Of course not. But what would be an abomination to the Lord is to declare a wicked person to be righteous in a courtroom setting; to have a travesty of justice because our God is a God of Justice. You see this same thing in Luke; the same principle of "justify." This is now in the New Testament a Greek word — the Greek word for "justify" – Luke 7:29: "When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, [what had just been said] they acknowledged God's justice." You'll notice in your New American Standard there's a footnote there. Literally it says, "they justified God." They justified God. Can you make God righteous? That's ridiculous! This word obviously means "to declare righteous"; "to declare the righteousness of God"; to say "God is righteous." That's what the word has to mean.

And then turn to Romans Chapter 4. In Romans Chapter 4, Paul is talking about the very theme of justification, and here he makes it clear it has to mean "to declare righteous" and not "to make righteous." In Romans 4:5, he's been arguing the case of Abraham and he says (Verse 4), "but to the one who works, his wage is credited not as a favor, but is what is due." In other words, if you work, you get paid; you deserve that. "But to the one who does not work, [you're not working at all, you're not receiving a wage] but [you] believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness…" Notice here God justifies the ungodly. The word "to credit" here, sometimes translated as "impute," is a financial term that means to post to a ledger. So what Paul is saying is without any work, but by faith alone, an ungodly man has righteousness put to his account. Now obviously no one is being made righteous in this verse. In fact, he is being justified at the same time he is ungodly. You know, this troubles us in most settings. If we were talking about something in the culture where someone who was guilty had been declared innocent, it would trouble us deeply.

Several years ago, someone gave me a printout of the Stella Awards, named after the woman who won 2.9 million dollars for spilling a hot cup of McDonald's coffee on herself. There's a job. Supposedly now these Stella Awards are actual lawsuits where the one who filed the claim should have been lapped out of court but instead ended up winning an enormous amount of money. This was my favorite (now, I can't vouch for the validity of this — I received it — you know it's one of those internet things, but it's quite humorous). In October of '98, Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leaving a house that he had just burglarized by way of the garage. He accidently locked behind him the door that opened into the garage, and the owners of the garage apparently padlocked the outer garage door; and so here he was, locked in the garage. So for the remaining eight days of the family's vacation, he lived in the garage, surviving on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dried dog food that he found inside the garage. Once he was freed, good old Terrence sued the homeowner's insurance company, claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. And the jury awarded him $500,000. Oh, those crazy Pennsylvanians. You know, we laugh at frivolous lawsuits like that because they're so outrageous because they don't involve horrible crimes. But it's not funny when we see a defendant guilty of a terrible crime set free. We find it absolutely repulsive. We feel passionately that no one should escape the penalty of his or her crimes. And I don't want you to miss this this evening. That is exactly what the gospel teaches happened. God declares the guilty to be righteous and free from punishment. But wait a minute, we just read Proverbs 17, which says it's an abomination to God to justify the wicked. Yet Scripture says, as we just read in Romans 4:5, that God justifies the ungodly. How can that be? Well, Romans 3:26 says He found a way to do it, and be just and the justifier of the ungodly.

So what happens in justification? What are the actual elements? In justification, God does three things. You need to write these down. You need to burn them into your soul. This is what God did at the moment of your salvation. First of all, in justification, He credits our sin to Christ. Romans 4:7-8 describe that reality: our sin, not imputed to us, but imputed to a substitute. Isaiah 53, of course, hammers home that point, that He was wounded for our transgressions. God credits our sins to Christ.

The second thing that God does in justification – these are two financial transactions — He credits us with Christ's perfect righteousness. Romans 5:19 stresses the reality that for through "one man's obedience the many will be made [or constituted as] righteous." He credits us with Christ's perfect righteousness. Now what does it mean that the righteousness of Christ is credited to our account? Listen to Robert Reymond. He explains it this way: "in God's sight the ungodly man or woman, now "in Christ," has perfectly kept the moral law of God, which also means in turn that "in Christ" he has perfectly loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and he's loved his neighbor as himself." Think about that for a moment. God has put in your account, credited to you, perfect love for Him and perfect love for your neighbor; every moment of your life and every moment that you will yet live. And He treats you as that deserves.

As an illustration I like to use (you may have heard me use it before but I can think of no better one to illustrate this reality), several years ago, my bank statement had a deposit on it of $200 that Sheila and I both knew we had not made. So, being, you know a Christian, trying to be Christianly about it, I tried to get the bank to understand this mistake that the bank had made. Have you ever tried to convince a bank that they have made a mistake? Even one in your favor? I wrote several letters; had several telephone calls; and they kept saying, "Sir, that money is in your account. You obviously must have forgotten that you made that deposit." I hadn't forgotten. I didn't make a deposit. I had no record of a deposit. I had no recollection of a deposit. I hadn't gone to the bank. Sheila hadn't gone to the bank. It wasn't our money. It was somebody else's money. So I finally just accepted it. At the time it occurred to me, you know, this is a pretty neat deal. If I can get somebody else's deposit, maybe somebody else can get my bills! That is exactly what happens in justification. Christ pays all my bills. And I get all His deposits.

But there's a third thing God does in justification. As a result of the fact that He has credited our sins to Christ, and He's credited Christ's righteousness to me, God renders a legal decision that includes two basic points. He forgives my sins. Turn to Romans Chapter 4. The forgiveness of sins is a part of justification. We always talk about God forgiving sins. Understand that that is a part of what God does in justification. It's an important part. It's a huge part. Verse 6, He says, "David speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.'" There it is. Because my sins were credited to Christ, God looks at the ledger and He sees that there's absolutely nothing. And so He forgives all of those sins that I've committed. They're gone. They're buried in the sea of His forgetfulness. But there's something else God does. Not only does He render a legal decision of pardon for my past offenses, but that only solves half of my problem because I still am not positively righteous. I still don't deserve to be in the presence of God. And so God declares me forever righteous in His sight. By the way, this is why I really don't like (hate would not be too strong a word) that little ditty that says, "You know what justification means? It means just as if I'd never sinned." No it doesn't! That's only half. That's only the forgiveness of sins. There's another part that's equally as important because in justification not only does He make it just as if I'd never sinned, but He makes it just as if I'd lived a perfect life my whole life. He declares me forever righteous in His sight the moment I believe.

Roman Catholic theology teaches that my justification is based to some degree on what I do; on the good works that God's grace has enabled me to do; on baptism or some other thing on which I hang part of my hope. But turn to Philippians Chapter 3. You knew I'd get there before the night was done. Philippians 3:9 — notice what Paul writes. He says I want to "be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [anything I've done to keep] the Law…" [No ordinance, no circumcision, no law. I want to have a righteousness that has nothing to do with me, but a righteousness which is through faith in Christ; the righteousness which comes from God solely on the basis of faith]. Listen, it's crucial that you understand that justification is made possible by someone else's righteousness put in your account; not in any way by anything you have ever done or will ever do. And the difference between those two is a gulf that no man can pass. It's the difference between the truth of the gospel and damning error that will send your soul to eternal hell. If you believe for a moment that there is anything that you have done, even the slightest thing, even in cooperation with God's grace, that you have done that will get you into heaven, then you have embraced the lie of Satan. You have embraced your own righteousness, and not the gift of the righteousness of another; what the Reformers called "alien righteousness" — that is righteousness that is not innate to you, inherent in you.

I love the way 2 Corinthians 5:21 summarizes justification. You're familiar with it: "God made Christ who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." As my mentor has often said, "On the cross God treated Jesus as if He had lived your sinful life so that forever He could treat you as if you'd lived Jesus' perfect life." That's justification. Romans 3:24 adds that justification is completely of grace. And it is based solely on the work of Jesus Christ. It's through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, being justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; freely, Paul says, in Romans 3:24.

Now, let's put a definition together then of justification. What exactly is it? Well, the Westminster Confession of Faith has a lengthy one. Stay with me. Let me read this to you because this is really good stuff:

Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those who were justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to His Father's justice in their behalf. Yet, inasmuch as He was given by the Father for them; and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both, freely, not for anything in them; their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.

Or here's a shorter definition from the Shorter Catechism:

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 imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

There it is. There you see both of those elements; both forgiveness and a positive righteousness.

Louis Berkhof says it's "a judicial act of God, in which He declares, on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that all the claims of the law are satisfied with respect to the sinner." In other words, the Law says "Obey. And if you disobey there's punishment." Well Jesus took care of the punishment in His substitutionary death; and He took care of the obedience by living a perfect life; and in justification that life is credited to your account. As I've often said to you, Jesus could have come down for the weekend to die a substitutionary death. Why did He come for 33 years? He came in every aspect of life, in everything that you and I face, to live an absolutely spotless obedient life. Why? So that that obedience could be credited to you. And when God looks at you tonight, if you're in Christ, He sees you positionally as having lived a perfect life; a perfect life of love for Him and a perfect life of love for others.

Now what do you need to really defend when it comes to justification? These are the core issues. These are the essential things. If you don't remember anything else tonight, remember this: justification is a judicial decision — not a process. It is an act of God at a moment in time to declare someone righteous before His court.

Secondly, it is by faith alone and not by any human activity or merit. J.C. Ryle writes, "True faith has nothing whatever of merit about it…it can't be called, 'a work.'" He says, "It's laying hold of a Savior's hand, it's leaning on a husband's arm, it's receiving a physician's medicine. It brings with it nothing to Christ but a sinful man's soul. [Talking about faith now] It gives nothing, it contributes nothing, it pays nothing, it performs nothing. It only receives, takes, accepts, grasps, and embraces the glorious gift of justification which Christ bestows." That's it.

And thirdly, if you're going to fight for biblical justification you have to remember that it is based on an imputed righteousness; that is, a righteousness credited to your account; an alien righteousness — not by any inherent righteousness in you, or as Roman Catholic theology likes to teach, an "infused righteousness." You know a lot of times we caricature Catholic theology. You'll hear Protestants say, "They just believe they are saved by works." Well, in its essence yes, they do, but if you talk to an informed Catholic, they're not going to say that. They're going to say, "Oh no, I've received the grace from God with which to perform these holy acts, and it's based on God's gracious allowing me to perform those holy acts and the acts themselves that I find myself justified before God. [An infused righteousness] I'm actually made righteous, and on the basis of being made righteous, God declares me righteous." In other words, "I get a little piece of the pie. I deserve a little of the credit. I get some of my own righteousness; albeit caused by grace; albeit helped by grace; but in the end, it's something I did." True biblical theology teaches that our justification is based on an alien righteousness, given to us as a gift, put in our account, versus something God does in us. It's the difference between a surgeon who works inside of you and a judge who makes a declaration about you. True justification is simply a judge rendering a verdict.

Now, how is justification appropriated? How do you get justification? Well, in Romans 3:22 (you don't need to turn there), Paul defines the nature of the righteousness we've received this way — He says, "it's the righteousness of God through [or by means of] faith in Jesus Christ." That's how it's appropriated, just there. How do I get this gift of an alien righteousness? God's righteousness? Christ's righteousness? I get it through faith. In Philippians 3:8 he says, "I count everything I ever thought was in my asset column to be a loss. I've given it all up to know Christ. And I want to be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." You know, Paul couldn't have put it any clearer. It is by faith alone. By the way, the expression there in Verse 9 "through faith" is an absolutely crucial expression. It means faith alone is the means by which we receive justification. The Reformers called this Sola Fide; by faith alone. Again, the Council of Trent contradicts the Scripture. The Council of Trent writes, "If anyone says that by faith alone the sinner is justified, so as to mean that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification" (which is exactly what we believe), "let him be anathema." (Let him be damned).

Now what exactly is faith? Faith is simply an empty hand outstretched to receive the free gift of God's righteousness in Christ. It is a channel, or an instrument; not the cause or the grounds. Spurgeon, in his excellent little book All of Grace defines faith as "believing that Christ is what He has said to be, and that He will do what He has promised to do, and then to expect this of Him." John Calvin in his Institutes refers to faith as a kind of vessel with which we come empty, and with the mouth of our soul open to seek God's grace. Grace is simply the channel through which justification comes to us. It's not a work; it doesn't earn anything. And by the way, as important as faith is, don't ever think of faith as the grounds of your acceptance with God. In other words, God didn't look at you and say, "Oh I see there's no righteousness there. Oh, but he believes! I'll accept his faith for righteousness." That makes faith a work. God did not decide to accept your faith as if it were righteousness, as a substitute for righteousness. Instead, Scripture always speaks of faith being the means. We are saved by or through faith. Never does Scripture say that we are justified because of, or on account of, our faith. You cannot achieve a right standing with God because of the family into which you were born, because of your personal worth, because of your personal efforts, because of your good works, by any ceremony or external rite; not by attending a certain church, reading your Bible, or even praying. The only way someone can come into a right standing before God is to receive it by faith and faith alone.

Now this brings up the question that I'm often asked. I've commented several times tonight on Roman Catholic theology. A lot of times people will ask me who have relatives or friends who are part of the Roman Catholic Church, "Can a person be a Roman Catholic and be a Christian?" And the answer is "Yes, they can." But here is the important caveat. If a Roman Catholic understands what the church teaches about their theology of salvation and embraces it as true, then, no, they can never be a genuine Christian until they come to repudiate that and to embrace confidence in Christ and Him alone for salvation. You say, why do you say that? Paul couldn't make it clearer in Galatians Chapter 1. There is only the true gospel that he was preaching, the one that's laid out in Romans on which a man is justified by faith alone; and he says everything else is another gospel. And therefore, it is absolutely damning. If anyone embraces something other than what I've taught you, Paul says, "Let him be damned." So there's only one gospel. And this is it. And anything else is another gospel and is a damning error. It's appropriated by faith alone.

The last thing I want us to look at briefly tonight is how justification applies. Scripture tells us directly how this doctrine applies to our lives; the difference that it should make. Turn to Romans Chapter 5. When I was candidating here, I had recently preached a message on Romans 5 at Grace Community Church (actually two messages) and I preached them for you. Let me just remind you of this great text. It's here Paul lays out the benefits that are ours because of justification. Notice he begins Chapter 5, "Therefore"; He's laid out the truth of justification in Chapter 3:21 all the way down through the end of Chapter 4. He says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith…" He says now that you understand that, now that you've come to genuinely understand and appreciate the truth I've taught, and this is a reality in your life — "having been justified by faith" — there are some incredible benefits that accrue to us.

The first one is we have peace with God. Look at Verse 1: "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." You know this. God is at war with every unbeliever, but for us the war is over. It's so hard sometimes for us to grasp this truth because we know we still sin. And so to sort of reconcile the reality that as our Judge God has declared us to be forever righteous when we know in our hearts that we aren't — and we find ourselves everyday seeking His forgiveness, not as our Judge but as our Father —it's hard to reconcile all of that. And so a lot of Christians walk around with this huge sense of guilt for past confessed sins. It reminds me of the cartoon that I saw (a Herman cartoon) where the judge says, "The jury's found you not guilty but I'm going to give you two years just to be on the safe side." That's how a lot of Christians think of God. Listen, you have peace with God. The war is over. He has declared you to be forever righteous. You're not going to change His mind. Every sin you have ever committed or will ever commit was credited to Christ on the cross. There are no surprises. God knows your life. And even knowing you and knowing your life, and knowing mine and knowing my life, He took all the sin that I would ever commit and He poured it out on Christ on the cross and He judged Christ as if He had lived my sinful life. And then He took the righteousness of Christ and He put it in my account, and therefore, we have peace with God. The war is over.

There's a second great benefit. Not only do we have peace with God, but Verse 2 says we stand in grace: "Through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand…" Grace is the new spiritual atmosphere in which we live. Grace is the very air we breathe. God constantly overwhelms us with kindness we don't deserve. Because He's declared us forever righteous in Christ, we stand; we live; we breathe in God's grace. It's like a great ocean. Imagine for a moment one of those tiny tropical fish somewhere in the Pacific saying, "I just don't know if there's enough water for me." Listen, you stand in God's grace. And it's enough.

Thirdly, we hope in God's glory. Look at the second half of Verse 2: "we exult [we glory] in hope of the glory of God." We rejoice or we glory in the absolute certainty that we will see God; we'll see Him in His glory; and we'll share that glory with Him. We will once again reflect the glory of God as we were intended to. In sin we come short of the glory of God, but there's coming a day in which the glory that God made man in will be restored. We hope in seeing God's glory and in sharing that glory forever because we've been justified.

Fourthly, we rejoice in our tribulations; having been justified we rejoice in our tribulations. Look at Verses 3 and 4: "And not only this, but we also exult [we glory] in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope." Do you know what Paul is saying? We rejoice in life's hardships, all the hard things that come at us in life, because we know that our God is in control; that we're at peace with Him; that He's now our Father; and He's using all those things to build our endurance, to prove our faith, and to strengthen our confidence in the future. That's what hope means. Hope isn't like some of you were today, "I hope my team pulls it out when they're a bunch of points behind." It's not the English word for hope. It's the Greek word for hope, which is an absolute certainty of the future and an anticipation of it. We hope — we have a certain anticipation; an eagerness for what God is going to do. And therefore, we rejoice in our tribulations in this life.

Fifthly, we are confident of God's love. Notice Verses 5 through 8. That "hope," that certain confidence and eagerness for what God's going to do in the future "does not disappoint." Why? "[B]ecause the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Paul says the reason that we know our hope cannot and will not ever make us ashamed is because of the love of God. It's talking here about God's love for us. That's because he goes on to talk for the next three verses about God's love. Paul is making the point that in the past, the knowledge of God's love for us flooded our hearts. The moment of salvation the Holy Spirit helped us see God's love for us. And that continues even to this day. Now why is it important for the Spirit to assure us of God's love for us? Because nothing will give us greater assurance of the certainty of our salvation than understanding the nature of God's love. He goes on to describe God's love in Verses 6 through 8. It's an unconditioned love. God didn't love you and me because we were lovable, because we were wonderful people. He goes here to say: when we were helpless, when we were ungodly, when we were unrighteous, when we were sinners. Listen, if you understand that God chose to love you when there was nothing lovable about you, then you'll understand that that love can never change. Even though you're still not lovable, and neither am I.

Believer, try to get your mind around this profound reality. God the Almighty, Infinite Being who inhabits eternity has chosen for nothing in you to set His love upon you. If you want proof, Paul says, just look at what He did in Verse 8 there when He gave His own Son to die in your place when you were totally unable to do anything to please Him, to move toward Him; when you didn't fear Him; and when you constantly demeaned His glory. God loved you and set about to draw you to Himself to make it possible to save you. Now this is Paul's point. We can be secure in God's love because we were never the cause of it. The only cause was in God Himself. And that love is ours because we have been justified. Paul also says in Verses 9 and 10 that because we've been justified, we'll be saved from God's wrath. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, if God has justified us now, then surely, we'll be saved from the coming wrath of God through Him. "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more [now], having been reconciled [being His children], we're going to be saved" from the coming wrath. If when we were enemies God justified us, then that means now that we're His children He's certainly going to deliver us from His coming wrath against those who don't believe in Him; who don't embrace Him.

And finally, because we've been justified, Paul says we glory in God's Person. Verse 11: "And not only this, but we also [glory or] exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." You know what justification makes you want to do? It makes you want to know your God. It makes you want to understand Him. It makes you want to praise Him. It makes you want to glory in Him when you really understand that for nothing in you or me, God set out on this great eternal plan to bring His Son into the world; to have Him live a perfectly righteous life, never speaking a sinful word; never thinking an ungodly thought; never doing anything outside of the parameters of God's law for thirty-three years; growing up in a family of at least seven and never once doing a single thing to mar His righteousness. And then He dies on the cross as our great substitute and God, in an amazing transaction that we call justification, credits all of our sin to Christ on the cross and credits all of Christ's perfect life to us. And then on the basis of that, God renders a legal decision from the bench of His justice and He says, "That sinner is pardoned and that sinner is declared righteous. And he'll never face His sin again." Romans 8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus." You know what that means? You will never stand before God to be judged for your sin because every single one of them was judged on Christ. And there's no double jeopardy in God's courtroom. No wonder the Reformers were willing to die to defend this great doctrine, to defend the gospel. May God make us willing to do so as well. Let's pray together.

Father, our hearts are absolutely overwhelmed when we think about what You have done. Lord, we love You. We adore You. We praise You for the gospel. For the plan that You worked out in eternity past in the eternal counsels of the Triune God. To find a way to be both just and the justifier of us who are ungodly. It boggles our mind, Father; it overwhelms our capacity to understand. But we thank You for what we can understand. We thank You for the simple truth of the gospel as we've seen it laid out in Your Word tonight. We thank You that You made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Father, help us to think on this. Help us to love this doctrine. Help us to tell others. Help us to understand that this is the gospel. Lord, help us never to get over it. And help us if You should so choose to be willing to sacrifice our very lives for this truth. Lord, in a day when the church has forgotten, don't let us forget. And Lord, if there's somebody here tonight who still bears their own sinfulness; who still is at war with You; who sits here guilty before You and facing a certain judgment of guilty — Lord, I pray that tonight would be the night if they've heard the gospel simply presented, that they would cry out in faith, repenting of their sins and embracing the perfect life and the sacrificial death of Christ as their only hope of eternity. Lord, if there's somebody here tonight who is clinging to some shred of their own self-righteousness, some action they've taken, some deed they've done – Lord, I pray that you would strip that away. Help them to see that they've got to choose between their own righteousness and the gift of righteousness that comes to the one who believes in Jesus Christ. I pray it in His great Name and for His glory, Amen.