Justification | Steven Lawson

well this has been an incredible day has it not i feel like a tsunami of sound doctrine has just swept over my soul and i can't think of another conference in which i have ever preached that there has been so much theology and doctrine that has been given to us and this has really been an all-star lineup uh josh bice thank you for the invitation that you've given to all of the men who are preaching in this conference and it's really like an all-star game in some ways and to hear each of these men preach the word of god focusing in upon the doctrine of salvation has been refreshing to my heart and to my soul and this has been a full day and so you're still here and you're an example of the perseverance of the saints as you have come through the tribulation so um i have the wonderful wonderful assignment of preaching on justification and there's probably not a person in this entire worship center who has not sat under preaching on the doctrine of justification it is a doctrine with which i trust that we have great familiarity but i can only pray that god will give us ears to hear afresh the truth of his word and so i want you to take your bible and turn with me to the book of romans romans chapter 3. and i want to begin by reading the text be verses 21 to 26 and i'm not certain if we're going to be able to get all the way through all these verses romans 3 i want to begin reading in verse 21. the apostle paul as he is writing as you well know his magnum opus his greatest writing he wrote 13 epistles but this one towers over them all there are 21 epistles in the new testament this one is always listed first in every bible in this worship center today it was not the first epistle to be written it was the seventh epistle to be written yet it always occupies the lead place in the order of the books in the new testament because it rises like mount everest that towers over i think the rest of scripture as the most important book in the bible and we come now to this section that many regard as the high point of the entire book of romans if you were to understand any portion of the book of romans you must understand this so beginning in verse 21 paul writes but now apart from the law the righteousness of god has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of god through faith in christ jesus for all those who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and falls short of the glory of god being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in christ jesus whom god displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith this was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of god he passed over all the sins previously committed for the demonstration i say of his righteousness at the present time so that he god the father would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in jesus in these verses we see what i have already said what many regard as the most important passage not just in the book of romans but in the entire bible no less than martin lloyd jones himself the premier expositor of the 20th century believe that these verses are the most important verses in the entire bible that they tower over even john 3 16. and that when lloyd jones came to edit his now famous series on romans he did not begin his editing and publication with romans 1 verse 1. he did not know how long he had to live and he went straight to this very text and he began his commentary series of romans with romans 3 verses 21 to 26 because that was of greatest importance to lloyd jones to understand this is to understand the gospel martin luther the great german reformer said much the same as he called this paragraph that i just read he called it quote the chief point and central place of the entire epistle of romans and then he added and of the entire bible close quote because this text focuses on what luther believed was the heart of the gospel which is justification by faith alone luther called this truth of justification from this text quote the article by which the church stands or falls without this truth we have no church close quote everything in the bible is inspired inerrant infallible authoritative invincible eternal but some portions of scripture are far more important than other portions of scripture and not nonetheless then martin lloyd jones and martin luther believe that this text rises like mount everest over the terrain of scripture luther said quote when the article of justification has fallen everything has fallen you don't have to be a christian to believe in the doctrine of election you don't have to be a christian in order to believe a factual calling but you do have to be a believe in justification by faith in order to be in the kingdom of god it is that essential this is not a matter of peripheral importance but of primary importance luther went on to say this is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed this doctrine of justification by faith is the head and the cornerstone in other words every other doctrine must be brought into alignment with this doctrine luther went on to say justification alone begets nourishes builds preserves and defends the church of god without it the church of god cannot exist for one hour justification is the master it is the prince it is the lord it is the ruler the judge over all other doctrines whoever departs from this doctrine of justification does not know god without this doctrine the world is in utter death and darkness so we cannot be wrong about justification by faith and be right with god to be wrong about this doctrine is to be wrong with god and so what is this doctrine of justification by faith why is it so essential what this doctrine says is that though you and i are sinful beings who have fallen short of the glory of god that if we will put our faith in jesus christ god the father will declare us to be righteous before him on the basis of the righteousness of jesus christ it means to be given a favorable verdict in the courts of heaven it is the very opposite of being condemned to be justified by faith means there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus justification is related to the concept of god as judge of all the earth how can god who is perfectly holy receive sinful creatures into his presence the answer is justification by faith alone the key word in this text verses 21 to 26 is the word righteousness it is found four times it stands out in this in this cluster of verses you will find righteousness in verse 21 verse 22 verse 25 and verse 26 it is the same root word that is found in justified in verse 24 just in verse 26 and justifier in verse 26 that's a total of seven times in these few verses and the word righteousness conveys the idea of conformity to a standard to be justified is to be declared righteous by god whereby you now meet the standard that god requires for admission into his kingdom though it is not of our working it is entirely of god's grace in his son the lord jesus christ so what we are talking about here is matters of the gospel of jesus christ john calvin said it's the very hinge on which all religion turns this very doctrine so i want us to walk through this passage in the time that we have uh this evening and i want to give you several headings concerning the righteousness of god number one it is apart from works that's where paul begins in verse 21 paul begins his positive presentation of the gospel by setting forth that the righteousness of god comes to us apart from works he begins in verse 21 he says but now and that signals an abrupt change from everything that has preceded starting in chapter 1 verse 18 he said for the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness and it continues all the way through chapter 3 verse 20. it is the quintessential presentation of the radical corruption and total depravity of the entire human race and paul has has has put the entire human race under sin and under the wrath of god this very moment it is in the present tense for the wrath of god is revealed presently right now it is resting upon this entire world everyone outside of the lord jesus christ and so when he says in verse 21 but now there's almost a sigh of relief it's as if there is a array of gospel light that now shines into the darkness of the human race condemned by the law of god but now apart from the law the righteousness of god has been manifested when he says apart from the law he mends up he means apart from keeping the law apart from obeying the law apart from doing the law apart from striving to to comply with the law he starts with a negative denial and there's a certain jolting impact about beginning with a negative denial before he comes to the positive assertion so he's saying this is this is how someone is is not made right before god he says apart from the law verse 21 the righteousness of god has been manifested and when he says the righteousness of god he is talking about the righteousness that every one of us in this room desperately needs in order to be acquitted of our sins and to be presented faultless before the throne of god this righteousness of god is the righteousness that comes from god god is the source god is the giver god is the provider of this righteousness that every one of us in this room so desperately need in other words we cannot work it up from within it is an out of this world righteousness it is a righteousness that martin luther referred to as a as a foreign righteousness as an alien righteousness meaning it must come from another land it is a righteousness that that is derived from another world it is a righteousness that that only god can give it is a righteousness that that must come down from the throne of god above this righteousness is god's saving righteousness it is his justifying righteousness it is his imputed righteousness it is his saving activity to give to us what we desperately need which is to give to us the righteousness that he requires and the me the message of the gospel is what god requires god gives to us no amount of law keeping can cause god to impute his righteousness to sinners no amount of worshiping god sabbath keeping honoring parents preserving life working hard truth-telling heart contentment can cause god to reward the sinner with perfect righteousness salvation is not a reward for the righteous it is a gift for the guilty it must come from god and martin luther himself came to this very point where he finally realized after 15 years of almost killing himself trying to meet the standards that are in the law finally came to the realization that no matter how hard he tried to gain this acceptance with god he could not do it listen to luther's testimony when i was a monk i wearied myself greatly for almost 15 years with daily sacrifice torturing myself with fastings vigils prayers other very rigorous works i earnestly thought to acquire righteousness by my own works i tortured myself with prayer fasting freezing the frost alone might have killed me he would sleep outside in in the frost and in the cold to show god how earnest he was to try and how sincere he was to try to meet the standard of of god's law he said if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was i that even luther who virtually killed himself trying could not attain to the righteousness of god the term righteous righteousness it comes from a a a word that was a word of the marketplace a woman would go into the marketplace and she would want to buy a measure of grain and she would go to the to the businessman and she would say i want a measure of grain he would pull out the scales there would be two dishes on the scales and he would pour a measure uh of of grain into one dish and he would put the rock on the other dish and the rock was the standard and he would pour grain onto the other dish until they were said to be perfectly even and when they were perfectly even they were righteous and so the gospel says that we are weighed in the balances and on one side in the dish is the perfect holiness of god flawless sinless transcendent impeccable and on the other dish is poured your life in my life and we have all been weighed in the balances and there is no righteousness that we can provide to this side of the dish to bring us equal to god's standard of himself of his own holiness we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god as verse 23 says and the only way for these scales to be perfectly righteous on this dish is the flawless impeccable infallible holiness of god god is light and in him there is no darkness at all and on this side there has only been one who has ever lived a sinless and perfect life there has only been one who has met all the standards of of god's moral law there's only been one who has been fully obedient to god and through his one act of obedience he's made the many to be righteous and jesus christ who is god in human flesh he has been put in on this side of the scales and god's holiness is on the other side of the scales and they are perfectly righteous and when we put our faith in jesus christ god declares us to be righteous but it'll never happen by our good works it'll never happen by our morality it will never happen by our religiosity isaiah 64 verse 6 says all of our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of god the best that we bring to the table the best that we can offer god that word is used to the woman's mistral rags is loathsome in the eyes of holy god so paul begins unfolding the doctrine of justification by faith and is it not interesting that his whole presentation of the gospel begins with justification by faith as he comes out of the doctrine of total depravity and radical corruption he pivots even now and he makes a beeline to the doctrine of justification by faith so number one it does it it it is apart from works number two this righteousness of god that we so desperately need number two it was attested long ago it was attested long ago he goes on to say in verse 21 being witnessed by the law and the prophets and what paul is wanting the church in rome to be fully established in this fact that the doctrine of justification by faith is not a new doctrine it is not if you will uh a novelty that has come onto the scene in the first century that this doctrine is rooted and grounded in the law and the prophets and when he says the law and the prophets that is a a shorthand for the 39 books of the old testament the entire old testament and what this is telling us is that there is only one way to be made right before god whether you lived in old testament times or whether you live in new testament times there was not one way to be made right with god in the old testament and now a different way to be made right with god in the in the new testament that there is a perfect continuity from the old testament to the new testament in the doctrine of salvation that anytime anywhere anyone has ever been saved it has been by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone and in the old testament they simply looked ahead to the first coming of christ and we now look back to the first coming of christ we're not saved by looking for the second coming of christ we are saved by looking back at the first coming of christ anyone anytime anywhere who has ever been made right with god it has been by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone this doctrine was attested in the old testament genesis 15 verse 6 abraham believed in the lord and he god reckoned it to him as righteousness and then isaiah 53 verse 11 the righteous one my servant referring to the coming messiah the lord jesus christ will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities and what is so interesting to me in the book of romans is that as paul makes his case for justification by faith alone and he looks for people who have been justified he doesn't look to the example of matthew and his conversion he doesn't look to mark or to luke or to john to his conversion he doesn't even look to his own conversion he looks to abraham and he looks to david to make the case for how someone is made right before god and by the very examples that he uses he is showing us the perfect continuity from the old testament to the new testament which speaks to the singularity of the gospel it speaks to the exclusivity of the gospel that there is salvation and no other name for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved that there is one god and one mediator between god and man the man christ jesus who gave himself a ransom for all the testimony born at the proper time so it was attested long ago that this is not a a new truth that has just more recently come onto the scene in new testament times it is god himself who was the first gospel preacher in genesis 3 and verse 15 the proto-euangelion the first mention of the gospel it was god himself in the god in the garden who took the pulpit and who preached to adam and to eve and to the serpent and declared this message of salvation so number one is apart from works number two it was attested long ago number three it is acquired by faith and we've already alluded to this but as we come to verse 22 he begins even the righteousness of god you see that that repeats what he said in the previous verse in verse 21 as to underscore the emphasis that he's making here this is all about the righteousness of god this is all about god's gift of righteousness being given to sinners who have no righteousness of their own so he begins even the righteousness of god he says through faith in jesus christ so this this righteousness is credited to our account this righteousness is imputed to us this righteousness clothes us as a result of our faith in jesus christ our faith means our trust in christ in christ alone it means our reliance upon christ in christ alone it means the commitment of my life to jesus christ it involves repentance and turning away from sin it involves saving faith and embracing the lord jesus christ and it this righteousness of god comes to us through faith in christ alone this righteousness is that which we have already said which comes down from above and we need to understand this faith is no better than the object of faith a drowning man who lays hold of something that will not float he will drown it is not really faith that saves it is the object of our faith that saves jesus christ is our savior and then he says at the end of verse 22 for there is no distinction and when he says there is no distinction what he is saying is there's no other way for you to have this righteousness there is no there's no other line for you to get in there there's no other way for you to have it it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter what you are it doesn't matter where you are it doesn't matter if you're a jew or a gentile it doesn't matter if you lived in old testament times or new testament times it doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not circumcised nor if you're a greek or a barbarian or if you're wise or foolish if you're male or female slave or master young or old it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter what your past it doesn't matter where you've come from all that matters is faith in jesus christ and then he follows that up in verse 23. notice verse 23 begins with the word for which introduces an explanation an explanation of what an explanation of what he just said so for there is no distinction he now clarifies with this explanation this is what i mean and in verse 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god there is not a human being on planet earth who does not need this righteousness and it may only be received by faith in christ alone when he says for all that means every person of every race in every place have sinned it's a verb tense it's an heiress tense translated as a past tense meaning that that your your entire past you've blown it your your whole life i mean i mean you you came out of your mother's womb speaking lies and then he shifts the verb tense and says and falls short that's in the present tense and so what he is saying is every person on planet earth you have sinned your entire life up to this point and you now continue to sin every moment of of every day or certainly every day you fall short of the glory of god that's what's put on this side of the scales the glory of god you you and i have been measured by the glory of god we're we're not measured by or against the the average morality of the american citizen we're we're not measured by our self-estimation we're not measured by what our mother thought of us what's on this side of the scales is the glory of god the intrinsic glory of god is the sum and the substance of all of the holiness of god and all of the the perfect being of god and in all of the the the essence of god we're measured against god jesus said in matthew 5 48 you shall be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect that's the standard moses wrote in leviticus 11 44 and 45 you shall be holy as your heavenly father or as god is holy and peter quotes that in first peter 1 verse 15 just to remind us that wasn't just old testament truth that same standard remains on the scales we are measured against the glory of god and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god but if we will by faith look away from ourselves and look to christ and by faith embrace christ and and trust christ with a living faith then god will transfer the righteousness that jesus christ secured to us that will be put on this side of the scales and the scales will be perfectly righteous though we have never lived perfect one moment of our entire life though we be sinful god now sees us as perfectly just or perfectly holy and righteous before him now paul continues to build this out and we come now to verse 24. and what i want you to see is that this this this righteousness that is acquired by faith in verse 24 i want you to see that it is appropriated by grace it is appropriated by grace and he begins verse 24 with these two words being justified the first time in the book of romans that the word justified is used in a positive way concerning our salvation it was used earlier of god himself whose whose words are justified and it is used of those who try to be self-righteous and justify themselves but this is the first time that justified is used in the book of romans in a salvific way in a positive way and what i want you to know about this word is you know we could parse this present tense passive voice it's a participle nominative case all we need to know at this point it's in the passive voice we don't justify ourselves we can't pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps to heaven that someone else must act upon us someone else must bring the gavel down someone else must justify us and of course we know who that one is it is god the father and he says being justified as a gift by his grace as a gift means it's it's not earned as wages it's not merited like a salary but it is freely bestowed as a gift to those who do nothing to earn it who do nothing to merit it who have done nothing to deserve it god simply chooses to bestow it on all those who lay hold of christ by faith and then to doubly underscore this he adds by his grace which is almost redundant meaning as a gift the word gift here means grace and then by his grace just to to to to pile up the idea of grace upon grace justification is entirely an act of god's grace it is god and god alone who justifies it is 100 god it is 0 man god is the judge and he alone has the gavel and he alone can bring it down and declare one to be righteous now the bible uses three different metaphors to communicate this divine act in justification there is what we call the double exchange all of my sins laid upon christ at the cross all of his righteousness laid upon me the great transfer the worst about me given to christ the best about christ given to me and you when we believe in his son jesus christ it's the great exchange now there's three different metaphors the bible uses one is legal one is financial and one is clothing with the legal imagery we stand in the courtroom of heaven the supreme court of heaven and earth we stand before the judgment bar god is behind the judgment bar the books are opened and every sin that you and i have ever committed in the history of our life past present future is all recorded in this book god has been keeping impeccable records sins of omission sins of commission sins of doing what we should not have done sins of failing to do what we should have done since of mind sins of heart sins of mouth sins of hands sins of every part of our body it's all in the books and the charge is brought against us we stand condemned and the curse of the law is death eternal death the second death and standing next to us is our advocate our savior the lord jesus christ and because of my faith in jesus christ god the father takes his righteousness and declares it to be mine though i have never lived one moment perfectly righteous nevertheless i am forensically legally declared in the court of heaven that there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus and you and i have mountains and mountains and mountains of sin the books of life would be multiple volume for each and every one of us and god declares us to be as righteous as though we have never committed one of those sins that's the legal metaphor then there is the financial metaphor or the banking metaphor that is used in chapter 4 with david we stand before god who opens the books and he sees that we have all sinned and that the wages of sin is death he sees into our account that we have no spiritual capital whatsoever that we are spiritually bankrupt we have nothing to pay off our debt to god and we are spiraling down further and further and further into debt every moment of every day with an insurmountable obligation in debt to god under the law that we could never pay off in a thousand million trillion eternities and standing next to us is the lord jesus christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of righteousness and we believe in jesus christ and in a moment god transfers all of the perfect righteousness of jesus christ he transfers it to our account it's like his riches and our deposits live and it's just all deposited into our account and in a moment we go from rags to riches and we now have the riches of his righteousness deposited in our account it hasn't just brought us back up to zero that's all forgiveness of sin this goes way beyond forgiveness of sin this goes way beyond just wiping out the debt this now adds the the treasures of of heaven to our account and we now are accepted before god we were spiritual paupers we had nothing to offer god we had no way to pay off the debt and yet christ stepped in and with his righteousness has made us now joint heirs with him then there's the third metaphor that the bible uses for justification it is the metaphor of clothing of the merchant who sells clothing and again we stand before god and we are clothed with the rags of our own self-righteousness they are filthy they are loathsome they are foul they reek to the heights of heaven they're spiritual lepers and we stand before god in all of our filth and depravity and standing next to us is the lord jesus christ and we put our faith and our trust in christ and christ takes his perfect righteousness and he clothes us from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet every inch and every ounce of us loathsome on the inside clothed on the outside and as god looks upon us not only has does he wash away all of our sin and our spiritual leprosy come let us reason together says the lord though your sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be white as wool not only does he wipe it all away and wash it all away if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but that still leaves us naked all that does is remove the filthy rags all that does is just wash us clean but this just brings us back to point zero and zeros don't go to heaven god takes the clothing the royal garments of the righteousness of christ and he clothes us from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet and as we are now presented before god all he can see is the perfect righteousness of christ our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west you can measure the north pole from the south pole you can't measure the east from the west it's immeasurable he's taken all of our sins and placed them behind his back he remembers them no more he's taken all of our sins and buried them in the sea of of his forgetfulness never to be seen again in the depths of the sea and he has clothed us with the perfect righteousness of christ so that now when god looks upon us he sees the righteousness of christ and we are received and we are welcomed and we are accepted in his sight legal financial clothing all three of those communicate the same truth but from a different angle and what about this act of justification by god i want to give you some words here this is like a footnote but it's very important i want to give you 10 words to help us understand this righteousness of god that has been declared now to be our possession number one it's divine it's a divine declaration god and god alone can declare the sinner to be righteous in romans 8 and verse 33 who will bring a charge against god's elect god is the one who justifies who is the one who condemns it it doesn't matter what anyone else says it doesn't matter what the devil says it doesn't matter what you may say about yourself you're not the judge it's not your courtroom there's only one supreme court of heaven and earth and there's only one behind that judgment bar and it is god and his gavel has come down and that's all that matters god is the one who is justified second the word forensic this imputing of the righteousness of god is a it's a legal declaration in the courtroom of heaven and that is exactly what what that verse that i just read tells us who will bring a charge against god's elect the courtroom scene god is the one who justifies who is the one who condemns third the word immediate this takes place in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and this takes place instantly this takes place immediately uh you can come to church condemned sit in a pew hear the gospel believe in jesus christ and be instantly immediately justified before the service is even over fourth is the word complete it is a full complete justification everyone is fully justified under the law of god no one here today is more justified than anyone else we're all at different places in sanctification and some are more practically progressively sanctified than than others here today but for justification we all the the ground at the foot of the cross is level we all stand equally justified before god there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus number five is the word present meaning it happens presently in this lifetime there's some bad teaching out there that says on the last day after god examines the books there will be a determination to see if you're justified or not that is heretical the moment you believe in jesus christ that split second it is as if there is a lightning bolt out of heaven that comes striking down and you are instantly suddenly in the twinkling of an eye you are immediately justified you're not waiting to be justified on the last day if you're not justified now you'll never be justified on the last day it's now or never that's why it says in romans 8 verse 1 therefore now being justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ or romans five verse one number six the word reversal justification is a total reversal of your status and your standing before god before justification you you were condemned the rope was around your neck the sentence had already been issued you were in a death march to your grave you were under the curse of the law you were under the wrath of god you were an enemy of god you were alienated from god and the moment you believed it was a total reversal of your standing and your status before god and you went from being condemned to no condom nation extraordinary seventh undeserved it is all by grace none of us deserve to be justified we're all lawbreakers we have all shattered the law of god we have all been weighed in the balances but god gives justification he declares justification to those who are the least deserving even paul who was the chief of sinners it magnifies the the grace and the glory and the greatness of god to reach to the bottom of the barrel and to declare righteous those who are the furthest away from him eight the word free it's all apart from works we've already discussed this there's nothing you can do except believe upon his son jesus christ ninth it's vicarious it is based upon the righteousness of another oh you are saved by works just not your works by the works of another who lived in your place who died in your place who lived a sinless and perfect life who who died of sin bearing wrath absorbing substitutionary death upon the cross his finished works are what is given to you and then tenth is the word and i love this word irrevocable irrevocable never to be reversed never to be rescinded never to be taken off the books and put back into our former status once justified always justified there there will never be a reversal of justification by faith and so paul he chooses to to build his case for the one true saving gospel of jesus christ on the anchor point on the linchpin of justification by faith i believe in all of these other doctrines i'm an eight point calvinist okay i mean five are not enough for me okay i i'm i'm all in i'm all in but there are calvinists in hell and there are minions in heaven but there's no one in heaven who's not been justified by faith and everyone in hell is there because of condemnation and wrath that has justly fallen upon them well the last thing i want you to see and i need i need to wrap this up is in the middle of verse 24 and i just need to cover this very quickly number five this righteousness that is given to us number five it is achieved by christ it is achieved by christ that this righteousness that is imputed to you this righteousness that is deposited into your account this righteousness with which god clothes you is not an abstract righteousness it is a righteousness that was actually achieved and accomplished and secured in real time in real redemptive history when jesus christ humbled himself and came into this world and lived among us a sinless and perfect life galatians 4 verse 4 says that he was born of a woman under the law under the the demands of the very law he himself issued and by living under the law he kept the law perfectly at every point the law that you have broken i have broken times so many we couldn't even begin to count how many times we have broken the law of god and only just one sin would condemn us to hell forever just one sin adam sinned just one time and the whole human race was condemned that's how holy god is and that's how much he loves sin and cannot coexist with sin habakkuk 1 verse 13 your eyes are too pure then to behold iniquity so where did this righteousness come from it is the righteousness that jesus christ achieved on our behalf in his sinless life and his substitutionary death upon the cross and that is what paul will spell out and i have just time to to to read this and make a few passing comments but in the middle of verse 24 through the redemption which is in christ jesus let me pick it up yeah through the redemption which is in christ jesus understand this it's all in christ jesus there's not a drop of righteousness outside of christ for you to have there's not a drop of redemption for you to have outside of christ it's all in christ and if you have christ by faith you have his righteousness and you have the redemption that he accomplished on the cross to pay the price for the penalty of your sin and to secure your release from the slave market of sin and satan but it's all in christ jesus every other religion in the world has no righteousness from god every cult has no righteousness from god in christ every false gospel has no righteousness whatsoever to give to the sinner there there is only one mediator between god at the judgment bar and the center in his guilt and sin and that one mediator is jesus christ he is the only one who can act on our behalf and represent us before god and have the charges reversed on our behalf so he says the redemption which is in christ jesus whom god displayed publicly it was a spectacle before the whole world thousands and thousands were pouring into jerusalem and he was crucified on calvary right there next to the main artery going into town before the thousands who were coming for the religious holiday god put his son on that cross and displayed him publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith propitiation means that god the the wrath and the anger and the fury and the vengeance of god towards sinners has been fully satisfied in the substitutionary death of jesus christ that when christ died upon the cross he he placated the wrath of god there is now therefore no wrath of god to fall upon you christ took it all to himself the physical death that christ died was nothing compared to the torment of his soul upon the cross as he bore our sins and came under the heavy hand of the crushing judgment of god upon his own son christ suffered in our place this was to demonstrate his righteousness it was a public presentation of the righteousness that was being secured and accomplished for us and it's recorded not just in matthew but in mark and in luke and in john you can't miss it it's the golden thread the the red thread of redemption that runs all through the entire bible because in the forbearance of god he passed over the sins previously committed what that means is those who looked ahead to the coming of christ in the old testament when they put their faith when they put their faith in christ remember abraham jesus said look forward to his day was glad when he saw it that god passed over their sins in the old testament based upon their faith in the coming messiah the suffering servant of jehovah for the demonstration verse 26 i say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in christ to be just means that god punishes sin now just listen to this every sin in the history of the world will be punished in full not one half of one sin will go unpunished by holy god because he is just every sin will be punished either in hell in tormented damned sinners or it will be punished in christ upon the cross but no sin will be swept under the carpet god will not look the other way because of any sin either punished in hell or punished in christ but every sin will be punished god is just and the justifier and there is the good news of the gospel not only does god punish sin but god also pardons sin and those who put their faith and their trust in jesus christ alone have their sins forgiven in full pardoned in full our certificate of debt which listed every crime of cosmic treason that we have ever committed against god has been nailed to the cross and the just punishment for every one of those sins hebrews 2 2 says every sin shall receive a just punishment was nailed to the cross and when jesus died he canceled out your certificate of debt just tore it up and there are no more charges ever ever to be brought against you or me who have believed in jesus christ this is the mystery of the ages how god could be both just and punish every sin and be the justifier and it is found in the gospel and it is found in the doctrine of justification by faith alone sola fido so have you ever seen yourself standing before the judgment bar of god can you imagine what it would be like to have the books opened your childhood teenage years your college years your single years your married life the whole account your business life and there is the record and there it stands you have no hope in yourself to escape the judgment except god has sent his son into this world born of a woman under the law went to the cross lifted up to die in the place of sinners bore our sins in his body upon the tree first peter 2 verse 24. and there he secured the righteousness that you have to have and in that last day of judgment the scales will be brought out and the holiness of god the glory of god will be put on one side and if it's only your life on the other side depart from me you who work iniquity i never knew you but if you have believed in christ his righteousness is placed on that scale and it's in perfect conformity to the holiness of god and the smile of god will be upon you and you will be admitted into his presence forever and ever and ever this is the doctrine of justification by faith alone let us pray father in heaven eyes not seen nor ear heard never has it entered into the heart of man the profundity and the simplicity of the gospel of jesus christ the height the depth the breadth the length of this saving message and its power to save in its power to justify lord we need the righteousness that only you can give and lord i pray that everyone here today has put their faith in christ and have received this righteousness and for any who has who have yet not come to christ may they flee to christ this very moment before it is too late open their eyes that they may see the beauty of christ and his gift of righteousness in jesus name amen

Channel: G3 Ministries

Views: 38,812

Keywords: Steven Lawson, G3 Ministries, G3 Conference, One Passion, G3 Press, steven lawson sermons, dr steven lawson, dr. steven lawson, christ, jesus, the word of god, preaching, preachers, church, bible, holy bible

Id: qZ03y2fxA9M

Length: 69min 52sec (4192 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 19 2022