Word of Salvation – Vol. 23 No. 44 – July 1977
An Introduction To The Biblical Teaching Of Justification By Faith
Sermon by Rev. D.J. Van Garderen on Gal.2:16
Scripture Readings: Galatians 2:11-21
Job 25 (May also be read as part of introductory section of this sermon)
Psalter Hymnal: 222:1,5,6,7; 201:1,3; 424:1,2,3,4; 280:1,3
(If morning service, include Hymn 430 as hymn of confession)
Dear Congregation,
In the book of Job, we find a number of passages that try mighty hard to grapple with the meaning and significance of our life here on earth.
Again and again, mankind is described: the wickedness, the injustice, unfairness, inequality, etc.
How can we attempt to explain ourselves? What can humanity, and each of us as members of the human race, achieve? Can we do that which is right; Can we do the right against the poverty of this world, the racial bigotry in South Africa and even here in Australia? Can we overcome the injustice of those who have a fist full of dollar bills and can bribe their way out of or into anything they like.
Questions, questions…. Bildad the Shuhite, one of the friends of Job, also tackled this question and tried to get in into its perspective when he said:
“Dominion and fear are with God;
he makes peace in the high heaven.
Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does His light not arise?
How then can man be righteous before God?
How can he who is born of a woman be clean?
Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clean in his sight;
How much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man who is a worm?” (Job 25:2-6).
Yes indeed, man being what he is, man, as Paul puts it to the Ephesians, being by nature a child of wrath, how can man be RIGHTEOUS…… before God?
How can man be righteous before God?
Fasting, whipping, celibacy, nights spent in frozen rooms in prayer, 100 Lord’s Prayers, assurances from the bishops, the cardinals, the Pope himself?
Think of ourselves even…… living the pious life, “I give to the church, don’t swear, am faithful to my wife, live by the rules, do what I must…..NOW God will justify my life and say: ‘Well done good and faithful servant, receive what has been laid up for you in heaven.’”
And yet, yet if you ask yourself, and ask others the question “are you a child of God? Are you heaven-bound? – If you were to die tonight, would you KNOW that you would go straight into heaven?” – would you know? Ah, an embarrassing, and in some eyes, even an un-Reformed question! But it still nags and plagues us in the back of our minds, in our heart of hearts, doesn’t it?
I. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
“How can a man be righteous, be justified before God?” Let me assure you that there IS an answer to this question, an answer that can and has revolutionised many lives. Revolutionised indeed, and even more, it has been the cause of some of the most dramatic actions of men such as Paul, Augustine, Luther, Kuyper, and many other well-known men of faith and action.
These men of God discovered the Bible’s answer to this question and saw how it could plunge a knife into their doubting, self-righteous, even sin-stained hearts.
The knife which put to death the old nature and created the man who was new, alive and at peace. What was the secret? It was simply the teachings of the Bible which we know as “Justification by faith alone”. No more and no less.
Let us admit that we had been quite convinced that most of us knew jolly well what this doctrine implied and said, until recently in some conversations it became rather clear that many people, also among us, have but a very hazy idea of it.
What do YOU believe concerning your justification? What does it mean and what does it do to make your life new and full of joy?
Let us compare your ideas with what the Bible means with its use of this doctrine….!
1) First, consider the meaning of the word “justification”.
To “justify” is a word that can be used in a number of different ways. It is really a matter of taking a particular thing that you have done or said, and then declaring it to be a right and proper thing. For example,
In a court-case you might be a person who was caught going 80kph in a 60 kph speed zone.
What you do is, to try and justify your error by giving a satisfactory reason for having broken the speed limit. “I wasn’t thinking,” or, “I was on my way to an emergency which was a matter of life and death.”
What you are in fact doing, is declaring yourself to be in the right. Now in that court case, if you are going to avoid being fined, it must be the judge or magistrate, who must declare you “not guilty”.
If he does, he, as well as yourself, declare that the speeding was “justified”, was the right thing to do under the circumstances.
To be justified then, is to have your word or actions declared as being RIGHT, not deserving of punishment.
Justification……. is therefore to be understood as the act of declaring “not guilty” or being “acquitted” by the judge to whom you are presenting your case.
In the Biblical sense, the court-room scene, fits in very well with the meaning of justification.
Here, YOU, your life, all that you have said and done and failed to say and to do, is the charge that is brought up against you by the
accuser.
God is the judge, the incorruptible, righteous judge who will pass sentence. God will either say: “That person is right in all that he has said and done and been…… receive your reward.” or, God will say: “Guilty, found wanting….. receive your due punishment”.
2) The means of justification.
Now the question becomes, HOW does one go about getting the Divine, incorruptible judge to declare us “not guilty”? Man has tried a myriad different ways to go about earning it. Some of them were already mentioned in the earlier part of the sermon. The frustrating part of it is that no matter how perfect or pious, or self-sacrificing or religious we are, the Bible puts a spanner in the works.
There is always AT LEAST one area where we missed out, and then, to know that the Bible says that he who is guilty of transgressing one commandment is guilty of breaking all. To know also that God demands a standard similar to his own…. perfect righteousness, holiness and knowledge of the truth.
Frustrating, because it is so damning! It was the knowledge of this that drove a Martin Luther to utter despair.
Every way, every avenue that man treads, and all men spend their entire lives treading it, is in fact a dead-end alley,
No man is justified in the sight of God by his own works or even by his own faith as a work.
Is there no way? No, not among the ways we as men can figure out or try to walk ourselves…… our nature blinds and hobbles us absolutely effectively. Man is his own prison, prisoner, and prison guard.
But there is ONE way, and that is the way of God, prepared by God, walked by the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
In this way….. we allow the life and the death of Jesus to be the way walked in our stead, as our substitute.
Now the court-room scene adds another character, a lawyer, an advocate, who is Jesus Christ Himself.
Hear that advocate take up the case for us: “God, what about me living and giving MY life in their stead? What about imputing (reckoning or charging to their account) MY righteousness, holiness and knowledge of Yourself, to them? What about allowing my death and punishment to be imputed to them?”
And glory be, that is exactly what God does. Once for all finally and fully, without any merit or conditions that we can meet, God says, “In Christ, because of what He did in His life and death, I declare that you are just and therefore holy and acceptable in my sight. IN Jesus Christ, receive your reward. Case acquitted!”
Justification is that act of God declaring us just, justified, solely on the basis of what Christ did.
A formal definition of justification thus emerges:
“THAT GRACIOUS ACT OF GOD WHEREBY, ON THE BASIS SOLELY OF CHRIST’S ACCOMPLISHED MEDIATORIAL WORK, HE DECLARES THE SINNER JUST, AND THE LATTER ACCEPTS THIS BENEFIT WITH A BELIEVING HEART”.
(Wm. Hendriksen)
II. APPLICATION OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH
Now there are a number of footnotes regarding this definition of justification by faith that ought to be kept in mind.
1. First of all, it may be noted that it is not our FAITH that justifies us, but rather that faith is the acceptance of the accomplished fact of our justification.
Therefore…. it is not a matter of saying: “My faith justifies me,’ but rather “By faith I have accepted my justification in Christ”. That is important for us to realise….. faith accepts, it doesn’t work and in seeing that it begins to make sense that faith as small as a grain of mustard seed moves mountains. Being justified does not depend on faith, but is only what faith accepts. The realisation of this fact can lighten many a burdened heart.
2. In the second place, justification by faith through Jesus Christ JUSTIFIES US COMPLETELY.
We are completely forgiven, totally heaven-bound if you like, from the moment we consciously accept by faith that we are justified. Realising this means that we come to understand that Christ, having paid for ALL of our lives, has set us completely free from death, doubt and uncertainty.
It was this fact that set Luther, Paul and countless others free from the dread of death and suffering.
3. In the third place, seeing justification in Christ for what it truly is, humiliates us and brings into focus our own weakness, our utter dependence on God. There is no need to trust in ourselves, no need to make our salvation stand or fall by what we do or did…… for Christ’s atonement does it ALL. Not only no NEED….. but it becomes clear that our own justification relies utterly on God’s Son. We cannot and need not, for Christ’s life and death saves us completely. Here we go contrary to human nature, we hit smack-bang against our dislike for charity. That is the humiliating part of it and the reason why so many have stumbled over this doctrine of Scripture. But as you consider it, consider that there is NO other way except this humiliating way.
Humility is surely the essence of faith isn’t it?
CONCLUSION
Congregation, we have just looked into the Scriptural teaching on justification by faith. We have refrained to a large extent from quoting a lot of passages of Scripture. That could and should be done if we are to consider the question deeper. But will you, in the coming week do this?
“How can a man be righteous before God?” God Himself provides the only way and the sole answer….. justification on the basis solely of Christ’s mediatorial work. Consider it……. and rejoice in it in the life you live.
Amen.