Word of Salvation – February 2025
Justification
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on W.C.F. ch.11 & Isaiah 53:11b
Reading: Bob 25; Isaiah 53; Westminster Confession – ch.11
Singing: BoW.186 And can it be that I should gain
– BoW.418 I am trusting You, Lord Jesus
– Heaven came down and glory filled my soul
– BoW.067 O God to us show mercy [1,3]
Theme: Justification, based on the Suffering Servant‘s substitutionary work, gives us right standing with God.
Introd: There is an important question that’s asked a number of times in the book of Job.
An important question for Job because Job is struggling to know if God really cares about him.
Job’s friends have already said that God is obviously not pleased with him.
How else do you explain losing all your possessions and all your children in one day?
And then soon thereafter you lose your health as well.
So Job is obviously not right with God… there has to be some sin in his life somewhere.
Because God treats good people… blameless people better than that.
Job agrees that God treats blameless people with His favour.
But in chapter 9:2 he asks the penetrating question:
But how can a mortal be righteous before God?
By the time we get to ch.25 Job’s friend Bildad is struggling with the same question (25:4).
How… can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of a woman be pure?
That’s a question that every person should ask. It’s the ultimate question.
Who of us frail, sinful mortals is able to stand in the presence of a holy God.
That’s the all-important question you need to face up to before you die.
How can I survive appearing before my Maker and Judge?
The answer to that question lies in the Bible’s teaching about justification.
So justification is not a minor, unimportant subject.
The reformer Martin Luther called justification The doctrine of a standing or falling church.
Because if it is not true then no mortal can be righteous before God.
But if it is true then there is a wonderful solution for Job and for all of us.
A] THE BASIS – CHRIST’S SUBSTITUTIONARY WORK.
- Isaiah the prophet is also frightfully realistic about this same problem.
He would have no trouble agreeing with the words of Bildad the Shuhite.
Today Job’s words don’t go down well in our self-indulgent culture.
They are words that are certainly not politically correct to modern ears.
If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
how much less man, who is but a maggot – a son of man, who is only a worm.
Try telling that to your average pagan Aussie.
That’s heavy stuff! But, okay, Isaiah doesn’t put it quite as dramatically as that.
But in our text he does talk about iniquities that need to be dealt with.
And for the Hebrew people iniquities were not something to be treated lightly.
Iniquity meant: perversity… depravity… it especially meant being guilty.
Just a few chapters later (in 59:2) Isaiah makes a telling comment about those iniquities.
Your iniquities have separated you from your God.
IOW: iniquities are what makes it impossible to stand in the presence of God.
Someone with iniquities cannot be called righteous.
Because righteousness and iniquity are mutually exclusive, aren’t they?
If you are righteous then you are free from iniquity.
If there is iniquity in your life then you are not righteous.
Already back in vs.6 Isaiah stated that we have no righteousness to commend us to God.
We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (v.6).
- It’s that underlying problem of our iniquity for which Isaiah is here spelling out the solution.
And that solution lies in the hands of a person we call “The Suffering Servant”.
He was already introduced back in Isaiah 42.
But now in this chapter The Suffering Servant is presented in High Priestly imagery.
In verse 10 He is spoken of in terms of his life being a guilt offering.
And a number of times there is in this chapter the language of substitution.
This guilt offering is not for His own iniquities… it’s for ours.
Look at the various ways this idea of substitution is expressed.
Vs.4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…
Vs.5 He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities…
Vs.6 The Lord has laid on Him the iniquities of us all.
And it’s there in our text: He will bear their iniquities.
So those iniquities that are so real in our life… and that separate us from God…
The Suffering Servant is going to take those iniquities upon Himself.
Behind this idea lies a certain view of God’s justice.
Our iniquities put us into God’s debt… and that debt that is owed has to be paid.
So The Servant carries the just judgment of God on our sin. In this way He pays the debt.
And so God’s justice is satisfied.
But we often forget that this is only one way in which The Servant is our substitute.
The substitution works both ways: both negatively and positively.
He not only carries our sin… He also earns the righteousness that we need.
In fact, He is our righteousness.
Because He is the only one born of a woman who was pure.
- These teachings go against the grain for us human beings.
We don’t like the idea that we can’t do it ourselves.
It is a major drama for most people that of ourselves we have no standing with God.
People pride themselves in being able to sort out their own problems.
People have protested against this idea of substitution in all kinds of ways.
– Okay, I’m not perfect but I’m not that bad that I need someone to die for me.
– How can one person who lived 2000 years ago be a substitute for all of humanity?
– And anyway, why can’t a loving God just ignore our iniquities without a substitute?
No! The core message of the Bible is just this: we need a substitute and we have a substitute.
And today we know that this substitute of Isaiah 53 is Jesus.
Paul sums up this substitution of Jesus well in 2Cor.5:21.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Here is the heart of the Bible’s good news: we have a substitute… someone has taken our place.
The whole of the OT already prepares us for that.
At the heart of the OT is the sacrificial system of animals offered for sin.
But they all pointed to… and climaxed in… The Suffering Servant portrayed in Isaiah 53.
He is the offering who takes our place and bears our iniquities.
He takes our place and earns for us the righteousness that we don’t have.
In this way He makes it possible for sinful people to stand in the presence of God.
B] THE PROCESS – A LEGAL TRANSACTION.
- It is against this background that the Bible talks about justification.
I have often been told that Christians shouldn’t talk about things like “justification”.
People say: It’s church language that the man on the street doesn’t understand.
I don’t believe that’s true at all.
We still say to someone who’s making excuses: Don’t try to justify yourself!
We talk about someone justifying their motives or actions.
We tell someone they had no justification for doing what they did.
We do understand that sort of language.
In all of those instances we are trying to establish that we are righteous.
Perhaps trying to prove that the fault didn’t really lie with us.
Or that our motives and our actions were pure and honourable.
But now in Biblical justification we have this iniquity problem but God provides a substitute.
So Isaiah now predicts that on the basis of that The Servant will justify many.
It is important that we are very clear about just what this ‘justify’ means.
Because so much else in the Christian life hinges on it.
For example: the Biblical language of forgiveness depends on our justification.
God cannot and does not forgive us apart from our justification
All the Bible’s talk about cleansing and renewal depend on justification.
We cannot be cleansed and renewed apart from our justification.
This language of justification is the language of Scripture.
I think of Rom.5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified thru faith, we have peace with God…
Here Scripture shows us that there is no peace with God without justification.
The language of justification is also the language of our Confessions.
W.C.F. ch.11 says: Those whom God effectually calls He also freely justifies.
And then it goes on to say that on the basis of that, God then pardons our sins.
- Today I could use a number of different images to help us understand what justification means.
We know what it means when we try to justify ourselves… but what does it mean that God justifies us?
One of the images the Bible uses is that of a business deal… a transaction.
And that transaction is what is behind the language of 2Cor.5:1.
God as it were says:
Let’s make a deal, I’ll have Jesus take your sins, you can take His righteousness.
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,
So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Maybe the attached diagram of that transaction will help.
My sin and unrighteousness are exchanged for Christ’s righteousness and holiness.
Later we’re going to sing a song that speaks of our salvation as a transaction.
The transaction in that song is this deal that God does with us in our justification.
You’ll also notice in that diagram a second way of talking about justification,
We can picture it in bookkeeping language… and my account with God is in the red.
So my sin – that puts me in the red – is debited from my account.
And Christ’s righteousness – that gives me standing with God – is credited to my account.
Sometimes we talk about it being imputed to us… it is as if it is put into our account.
A third way of looking at justification is in terms of a courtroom scene.
Justification is above all forensic or legal term.
It is the judge pronouncing us not guilty on the basis of someone else having paid the price.
- All of this is very attractive… who wouldn’t want a deal like this?
God takes my sin and puts it on Jesus… and He takes Jesus righteousness and gives it to me.
If God was to say to you: Deal or no deal…? Wouldn’t you want to yell out: “Deal…!”?
Isn’t that so attractive that every human being would want that to happen?
Of course they would! But the problem is that there is one little catch.
God has so ordained things that justification happens only through faith.
This is not automatically a “done deal” for every human being on planet earth.
This transaction only happens when we respond in faith to Jesus.
You need to believe that Jesus is The Servant who took your place.
Here I want to draw your attention to a small detail in Isaiah 53:11
How are people said to be justified by The Servant in that verse…?
It says that the righteous Servant does that by His knowledge.
We can take that two ways…. and both are true.
OTOH it seems especially to be speaking about the knowledge of the Servant… of Jesus.
On the cross, Jesus knew exactly for whom He would die as a sin offering.
He knew beforehand who were His elect… and who would believe in Him.
And because of that knowledge Jesus had of us… we are justified before God.
OTOH an NIV footnote shows it is possible to read that is not Jesus’ knowledge of us.
Rather that is our knowledge of Him by which we will be justified.
We must personally and experientially know Jesus as our substitute.
And because we know Him by faith we are justified before God.
The Westminster Confession makes clear that faith is not just intellectually agreeing with this.
I mean, even the devil intellectually accepts that these things are true.
So it’s more than just saying: Yes. I accept that this is so…!
Faith is a “resting” on Jesus Christ and on His righteousness alone.
And the W.C.F. says that twice just to make sure we get the point.
We are justified by faith… as we trust in the finished work of Jesus our Substitute.
C] THE EFFECT – GOD NOW SEES US AS RIGHTEOUS.
- I want to conclude by showing you some of the blessing that flow from our justification.
And I believe that the better you understand that transaction… the better it will be for you.
Let me show you three way in which understanding justification brings blessing to us.
First of all we need to be clear that justification does not in itself change us.
We are not suddenly perfect when we are justified.
Sure… once we are justified God also begins to change us more and more to be like Jesus.
But in Justification God uses the ‘as if’ principle.
God treated Jesus as if… as if He was carrying my sin on the cross.
God now treats me as if… as if I am as righteous as His own Son.
So even though I am and remain a sinner God regards me as right with Him. A saint!
The issue here is not just that my sin is forgiven… it is much more than that.
Remember: God has credited the positive holiness and righteousness of His Son to my account.
That was not somehow infused into me.
It wasn’t poured into me, to change me and so make worthy in God’s sight.
That’s what our Roman Catholic friends believe.
No I am still a sinner… and yet… regarded as holy in His sight.
And that is comforting in those moments when I still see sin in my life and so doubt my standing.
Because God says: Yes, but your standing with me only depends on the righteousness of my Son.
- So the first result is that we can always have a clear conscience before God.
All I need to do is confess my sin and get on with life knowing it has already been dealt with.
Secondly, this gives me wonderful assurance of my salvation.
I now never, ever have to question for even one minute my standing with God.
I now know the answer to Job’s question.
Jesus, my substitute could stand before God as righteous.
And He stood there that way for me.
Not only that but He made total satisfaction for all my sin-debt.
He totally satisfied the Father’s justice… for ME.
This is a grace that gives me absolute certainty of faith and assurance.
Let me put it this way:
I know that God is fair and just,
And because He is a just God He demanded full payment from my substitute.
But now I also know that because God is fair and just He will not require payment twice.
It has already been paid for and it would be unfair of God to demand payment a second time.
God made Jesus pay for my sin on Calvary.
If God still made me pay for it as well on judgment day then we would have unfair God.
Then He would be an unjust God.
But because He is just I know that no further payment will ever be required.
- Thirdly we have yet further assurance for the future because of our justification.
This transaction is not something that can be undone.
The books cannot be altered a second time. No one can fiddle the books.
The declaration: Not guilty! Stands true forever.
That doesn’t mean that we won’t let the Lord down at times. We will.
There will be times when we grieve our heavenly Father.
We may at times even move right away from Him.
So much so that we even lose any sense of being loved and cared for by Him.
That’s why there needs to be confession and repentance in the Christian life.
But we always do that on the basis of that finished transaction.
When we now confess and repent
that is not because we’ve got to win God’s favour all over again.
That was already established when we were justified by faith.
No! Confession and repentance are for our benefit.
It is to restore to us again the joy of our salvation.
Justification by Faith.
That is a wonderfully glorious teaching.
Martin Luther called it the article of a standing or falling church.
Fail to understand this teaching and you leave yourself open to all kinds of doubts.
Understand it well… and it will fill you with hope and assurance throughout your life.
Amen
