Why do I confess my sins if I’m justified?(Justification Series Conclusion)

Why then is it necessary to continue confessing our sins if we are justified and God has forgiven all our sins–past, present, and future?  The reason we must continue confessing our sins to be forgiven is the same reason it was necessary for us to initially confess our sins to be forgiven. The Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him (Col 2:6).”

The Scriptures teach it is necessary for us to confess our sins and believe in Christ to receive him. If we do not obey God by confessing our sins, repenting and believing in Christ, we will not be forgiven and justified by God. But our confession and belief in Christ is not the cause of our forgiveness. God does not forgive us because we confess our sin and believe in him. God forgives us because Jesus died for us.

Our confession is not a meritorious good work that earns God’s forgiveness, but an instrument, a beggar’s hand, that reaches out to receive the gift of forgiveness. And just as our initial confession of repentance and faith in Christ was necessary, but not the cause of, our initial experience of God’s forgiveness, so our ongoing confession of repentance and faith in Christ is necessary, but not the cause of, our ongoing experience of God’s forgiveness.

The bible teaches our salvation and forgiveness has a past, present, and future tense. We have been forgiven through Jesus’ blood and righteousness when we first believed in the past. We are being forgiven through Jesus’ blood and righteousness when we continue believing in the present. And we will be forgiven through Jesus’ blood and righteousness when we will believe at the future judgment day.

The Apostle John describes how we are being forgiven through Jesus’ blood and righteousness when we continue believing in the present: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin… If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7, 9).”

The blood of Jesus not only cleansed us from all sin in the past when we confessed our sins, but the blood of Jesus Christ continues to cleanse us from all sin in the present as we continue confessing our sins. If we acknowledge and openly profess our sin to God, ourselves, and others–unlike those who say they have fellowship with God but deny their sin and walk in darkness (1 John 1:6, 8)-–we give evidence we are walking in light (1 John 1:5), and God promises to keep cleansing from all sin.

John makes clear that all justified believers continue to sin (1 John 1:6,8). Then, he shares the good news that God continues cleansing justified sinners from all their sins by the blood of Jesus as they continue walking in the light, having fellowship with him, and confessing their sins. But God does not keep cleansing them from their sin because they keep walking in the light and confessing their sin. Instead, they keep walking in the light and confessing their sin because God keeps cleansing them from their sin.

To help strengthen our faith and experience of God’s forgiving love, the Apostle John tells us the reason why God forgives us and cleanses us from all our sins when we confess our sins. He says it is because God is faithful and just: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).”

How does God display his faithfulness and justice by forgiving us and cleansing us when we confess our sins? Our confession does not cause God to be faithful and just. God is faithful and just in himself. But our confession is the necessary condition on which God actually displays his faithfulness and justice to us. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that God not only makes a covenant promise to forgive us, but he is faithful to keep his promise. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful (Heb 10:23).”

The Apostle Paul often refers to God’s faithfulness to keep his covenant promise to forgive his people (1 Cor 10:13, 1 Thess 5:23-24). He writes, “(God) will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 1:8-9).”

And how does God display his justice and righteousness by forgiving and cleansing us of all our sins when we confess them? The Scriptures tell us it is because God made a covenant promise to forgive and cleanse the sins of his people through the blood of his Son. The Apostle John writes, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2).”

Our forgiveness and cleansing is not by virtue of our righteousness from walking in the light or our confession of sins, but only by virtue of the blood and perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ who alone satisfied the just wrath of God against us for our sins.

Because God has declared us to be righteous in his sight, based on the perfect righteousness of Christ, when we continue sinning and continue confessing our sin, God continues to display his justice by continuing to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If God did not continue forgiving us as we continue confessing our sins, he would be breaking his covenant promises to forgive us and he would be unjust. But the good news is that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).”

Salvation is a package, including atonement, received by faith and repentance, resulting in good works which, of course, include more faith and repentance. This “package” exists, not only at the beginning of the Christian life, but throughout to the end. So we begin the Christian life by appropriating the free promise of God by faith and repentance. And we continue the Christian life the same way: by appropriating the free promise of God through faith and repentance.

How Does Justification Apply to My Life? (Justification Series 6 of 6)

There are many practical applications of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. We want to highlight a few of them below.

First, this doctrine should give us a great sense of joy and confidence in God’s astonishing love for us in Christ. We see the Apostle Paul’s response to God’s justifying love when he writes,

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be[i] against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:31-39).

A few sentences earlier, Paul is rejoicing in how God’s radical justifying love for us in Christ is an eternal love deeply rooted in eternity past and extending into eternity future. Paul writes:

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The good news in which we find our joy and confidence is that God the Father set his justifying love on us as part of his eternal purpose established from the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4, Gal 3:8). And in the fullness of time, God the Son accomplished the Father’s will for us by being “…delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification (Rom 4:23-25).” God the Holy Spirit then applies God’s justifying grace to us. Paul writes:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7).

Second, we should respond to this doctrine by drawing near to God through faith in Jesus Christ. If your faith in Christ is merely a cold, intellectual assent regarding a set of propositions about Christ, then it is not saving faith and you have not yet received God’s declaration that he considers your sin to be on Christ and Christ’s righteousness to be yours. God’s call to you is the ancient message of the Apostles, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:31).” Turn now from your sin and self-reliance and cling to, rely on, and trust in a person–the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver you from all of sin’s consequences.

When you have true faith in Jesus Christ, God promises to save you and declare you forgiven and righteous in Christ. This spiritual blessing of justification occurs in God’s heavenly court at the very moment you truly believe. Since God is unchanging, he cannot and will not reverse this declaration of his forgiveness and acceptance of you in his Son. You will never be more justified than you are when you have saving faith. The good news is that because you are justified now, God promises you will be vindicated on the coming judgment day.

Because justification is a one-time declaration of our forgiveness and acceptance by God through Jesus blood and righteousness, Christians often fail to understand why they need to obey God and confess their sins. If God has forgiven us through the blood of Christ and accepted us in the perfect righteousness of Christ, why do we need to keep obeying God’s law and confess our sins?

Two very serious, historic errors have emerged in answer to this question. The first error, called works-righteousness, is the belief that justified Christians can lose God’s forgiveness and acceptance in Christ because of their disobedience and failure to keep confessing their sins. This is the belief that true followers of Christ can fade in and out of God’s justifying love for them based on their failure to obey God.

When the Christians at Galatia began to hear and believe this false teaching, Paul wrote to them: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal 3:1-3).”

The other serious error is called antinomianism. It’s the other extreme. This word comes from two Greek words, anti, meaning “against”; and nomos, meaning “law.” This is the belief that because of God’s justifying grace, followers of Christ do not really need to obey God’s law and keep confessing their sins. This teaching is sometimes known as “once saved, always saved,” giving false assurance of forgiveness to people no matter how much they sin.

After the Apostle Paul describes in Romans chapters 1-5 God’s amazing, justifying grace through the gift of Christ’s righteousness given only through faith, he assumes his readers might misunderstand him. So he writes in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom 6:1-2).”

The Apostle John makes clear that antinomians who merely profess to know Christ but continue to live a life of disobedience to him are liars: “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth (1 John 1:5-6).”

 Against the error of works-righteousness, the bible teaches justified Christians do not phase in and out of God’s justifying love based on their continual obedience and confession. And, against the error of antinomianism, the bible teaches justified Christians will continue to obey God and confess their sins.

So, why do Christians continue to obey God after they are justified?

One of the primary reasons is out of gratitude and love for God for his justifying grace. We obey God because he has forgiven us. We do not obey God so that he will forgive us. Tim Keller writes, “Religion says, ‘I obey therefore I am accepted by God.’ The Gospel says, ‘I am accepted by God through Christ, therefore I obey.’”

This raises the question, what about truly justified Christians who do not obey God and repent of their sins? In the Westminster Confession we read:

God does continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified and although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God's fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance.[1]

Justified Christians often fail to see the vital importance of continuing to repent of their sins and believe in the good news of God’s justifying love. Jack Miller writes, 

Here is our mistake. We rightly assume that the gospel message promises us justification and that this justification is once-and-for-all and a past fact. But from this correct premise we draw the mistaken conclusion that a past justification is virtually disconnected from our present life. In reality justification is a past fact with a stunning present relevance.

Francis Schaeffer referred to this problem that led him to a point of great spiritual crisis. He called it the “problem of reality.”[2] After being a church leader for many years, he said the problem came to him in two parts. First, he observed that among many of those who had fought hard to uphold orthodox theology in his generation, he saw lots of correct doctrine, but very little true spiritual reality.

Second, as he dared to take a look at his own heart, he had to admit that although he had all the doctrines and ministry activities down quite well, he, too, seemed to be experiencing little or no true spiritual transformation. Schaeffer gives us a glimpse into the biblical solution by writing about the results of his search for greater spiritual reality.

I searched through what the Bible said concerning reality as a Christian. Gradually I saw that the problem was that with all the teaching I had received after I was a Christian, I had heard very little about what the Bible says about the meaning of the finished work of Christ for our present lives.[3]

Schaeffer learned that the biblical essence of true spirituality is linked to the ongoing appropriation of the justifying work of Christ to the Christian. He discovered “the present value of the blood of Christ” and the result was a spiritual awakening.

Because of any of these ignorances, the Christian may not “possess his possessions” in this present life. But when a man does learn the meaning of the work of Christ in the present life, a new door is open to him. And this new door then seems to be so wonderful that often it gives the Christian, as he begins to act upon the knowledge of faith, the sense of something that is as new as was his conversion.[4]

The problem is that many Christians do not have a biblical understanding of the proper relationship of their justification to their sanctification. Justification is an instantaneous, completed work of God. But sanctification comes after justification and it is an ongoing process of growth by which we become more like Christ by “being saved” from sin’s ongoing power over our lives (Rom 6, 1 Cor 1:18, Phil 2:12-13,1 Thes 5:23).

D. A. Carson writes about how the biblical authors present the gospel not only to unbelievers for their conversion but also to believers for their transformation, “The gospel is regularly presented not only as truth to be received and believed, but the very power of God to transform (see 1 Cor 2; 1 Thess 2: 4; Rom 1: 16-17).”[5]

Living the Christian life is not so much a matter of doing things for God to be accepted by him, but appreciating the good news of what God has already done for you in Jesus Christ. The only pathway that leads to an authentic experience of true spirituality, growth in grace and freedom is the pathway of faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Never forget Tim Keller’s helpful summary of the gospel, “Religion says, ‘I obey therefore I am accepted by God.’ The Gospel says, ‘I am accepted by God through Christ, therefore I obey.’”

Richard Lovelace describes the way followers of Christ often fail to understand and appropriate the transforming power of God’s past justification to their present lives.

Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so light an apprehension of God’s holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface of their lives they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure.[6]

Lovelace presents the biblical understanding of justification as the fuel and power for sanctification. But most Christians don't experience this because they reverse the order and are wrongly relying on their sanctification for their justification, always feeling like they are fading in and out of God’s love and acceptance based on their good works.

It was Martin Luther’s discovery of the riches of God’s justifying love in Christ, not only in his conversion but also throughout his life and ministry, that lit a fire through him that eventually gave birth to a spreading flame called the Reformation. When Luther finally came to understand that the righteousness God requires is not his righteousness but the gift of Christ’s righteousness, freely given to all who believe, he said,

“For me this was the gate of paradise.”

 Footnotes:

[1]  Westminster Confession of Faith, Of Justification XI, V.

[2] Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality, page i.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality, 84.

[5] Don Carson, What Is the Gospel? —Revisited, in For the Fame of God’s Name, 165.

[6] Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Renewal (Downers Grove: IVP, 1979), 101.

What are the Benefits of Justification? (Justification Series 5 of 6)

When we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, God does something amazing. Paul writes, “For our sake he made him (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).”

This is the good news that, for all who truly believe in Christ, God now considers all their sin to be Christ’s and all Christ’s righteousness to be theirs. Theologians refer to this mysterious dual consideration of God as double-imputation. Imputation is a legal, forensic word that means to consider or credit something toward a status or account. If we say that someone is imputing motives to us, we mean they are considering us as if we had those motives whether we do or not.

The Scriptures teach that all who are in Christ through faith have received the saving grace of double imputation–our sinful record is imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteous record is imputed to us. Imputation is very different from impartation which means to put something into an account.  In justification, God does not put anything into our nature but God declares something about our status, or standing, before him in the heavenly court as a just judge.

When Paul writes about God making Christ sin, he does not mean that God imparted our sin into Christ’s human nature. Jesus’s nature did not become sinful. But God considered and treated Jesus as if he was liable for our record as a sinner by pouring out on him the full wrath that we deserve.

Similarly, when Paul teaches that we become the righteousness of God in him, this does not mean that God imparts Jesus’ righteousness into our human nature. Our nature does not become righteous. But God considers and treats us as if we now have the record of Jesus’ perfect obedience.

This is not the first time the bible teaches about God mysteriously imputing guilt from one person to another. When Adam first sinned, that sin was rightly considered by God to be our sin. The Scriptures teach that we all have a deep, mysterious connection with Adam as our representative, whose just condemnation became our just condemnation (Rom 5:12-21).” So, when Adam sinned, God rightly considered his guilt to be ours.

The good news of justification is that God now considers our guilt, imputed to us though the first Adam, to be Christ’s as the Last Adam. And God considers the perfect righteousness of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, to be ours.

As Paul reflects on the riches of all the benefits of this justification, he writes, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1).” As a result of our justification, God declares that our war with him is over. Peace is now declared. We have peace with God which marks the end of God’s hostility toward us and our hostility toward God because of sin.

This new gracious status of peace with God is followed by every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3), including forgiveness, righteousness, adoption, and eternal life. Let’s look first at the blessing of forgiveness.

The Blessing of Forgiveness

When Paul describes God’s imputation of our sin on Christ he writes “…he made him (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin…(1 Cor 5:21a).” This presents us with a vivid image of the curse for our sin being taken away from us and put on the sinless Christ to satisfy God’s just wrath in our place. Hebrews 9:28 tells us that Christ was sacrificed to “take away the sins of many people”  In Colossians 2:13 we read “He forgave us all our sins… In Isaiah 53:6 we read “…the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. In I Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”

Theologians often refer to this aspect of Christ’s saving work using two rather technical terms to describe forgiveness: expiation and propitiation. The prefix ex in expiation refers to something being removed or taken away. By contrast, the prefix pro in propitiation means “for” referring to something that happens to the object of the expiation. In biblical terms, expiation refers to the taking away of sin’s curse from us and propitiation refers to the placing of our sin’s curse onto Christ resulting in God’s just wrath against us being satisfied with the result of restoring our standing with him.

The good news of justification is that God declares us forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus Christ in our place. The curse for our sin has been taken away from us (expiation) and placed on Christ who paid the full penalty for our sin by willingly taking on himself the full fury of God’s wrath against us (propitiation). The Psalmist praises God for this benefit of God’s salvation: 

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:10-12).

The Blessing of Righteousness

Although it may sound strange at first, we need more than forgiveness. We also need righteousness. Before the fall of humanity into sin, Adam was not guilty before God so he did not need forgiveness. But he still needed a perfect record of obedience and righteousness before a perfectly righteous God. Before the fall, Adam was innocent but he had not earned a record of righteousness. After Adam sinned, he not only needed forgiveness, he also still needed righteousness.

This is why we need more than forgiveness from our past sins. Being forgiven is wonderful but it only gives us a morally neutral status before God with a standing similar to Adam before the fall. We need to move from a standing of mere forgiveness and moral neutrality before God to a standing of having positive righteousness before God based on the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. The good news of justification is that God not only considers us forgiven by counting our sin to Christ’s account, he also considers us righteous by counting Christ’s righteousness to our account.

God not only pardons all who are in Christ, He also considers them as having perfectly kept his law. It’s not our righteousness but Christ’s righteousness he graciously gives to us. So Paul can say that God made Christ to be “our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1: 30).” And Paul says that his goal is to be found in Christ, “not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3: 9).

Martin Luther describes this amazing gift of Christ’s righteousness by which we are justified as extra nos, meaning “outside of us” or “apart from us.” He also called it an “alien righteousness” because it is foreign to us, alien to us, meaning it comes from outside the sphere of our own good works.

Another Latin phrase Luther used to describe the amazing grace of God’s gift of righteousness is simul justus et peccator. Simul is the word from which we get the English word simultaneously. It means ‘at the same time.’ Justus is the Latin word for just or righteous. Et is the Latin word for and. Peccator means sinner. Luther was using this formula to teach that in our justification we are one and the same time righteous or just, and sinners. R. C. Sproul expounds the meaning of this phrase:

Now if he would say that we are at the same time and in the same relationship just and sinners that would be a contradiction in terms. But that’s not what he was saying. He was saying from one perspective, in one sense, we are just. In another sense, from a different perspective, we are sinners; and how he defines that is simple. In and of ourselves, under the analysis of God’s scrutiny, we still have sin; we’re still sinners. But, by imputation and by faith in Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is now transferred to our account, then we are considered just or righteous. This is the very heart of the gospel.

The Blessing of Adoption

The good news that God, as Judge, promises to forgive and declare righteous all who are in Christ–is wonderful. But the good news is also that God, as Father, promises to accept and love all who are in Christ as he accepts and loves his one and only Son

When the Apostle Paul explains the reason why Jesus came at a turning point in history to redeem us from under the curse of the law, he tells us it is so that we might receive adoption. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal 4:4-5).”

Justification is linked to adoption in the bible as the legal platform necessary for God as a righteous Judge to be our loving heavenly Father. In Scripture, justification is a legal idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as Judge. But adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as Father.

We are more than pardoned criminals in the heavenly court before a just Judge. The good news is that the righteous judge is now our loving heavenly Father who adopts us as his own and gives us all the rights and privileges of his beloved children. Westminster Larger Catechism Q 74 describes the biblical blessings of adoption:

Adoption is an act of the free grace of God, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his children, have his name put upon them, the Spirit of his Son given to them, are under his fatherly care and dispensations, admitted to all the liberties and privileges of the sons of God, made heirs of all the promises, and fellow-heirs with Christ in glory.

The Apostle Paul depicts this personal, familial dimension of adoption by writing, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom 8:14-16). Packer refers to Paul’s doctrine of adoption as the highest blessing of the gospel--higher than justification.

Adoption is higher because of the richer relationship with God that it involves . . . justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting.[1]

Whether it is appropriate to refer to adoption as a “higher blessing” than justification or any other gospel blessing is debatable. Regardless, adoption is clearly a rich gospel blessing, graciously given by God to all who are in Christ. The poet and hymnwriter William Cowper summarizes the transforming power and beauty of Paul’s doctrine of adoption with a line from one of his Olney hymns.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled,

And hear His pard’ning voice,

Transforms a slave into a child,

And duty into choice.[2]

The Blessing of Eternal Life

When believers in Jesus Christ are justified and adopted as children of God, they receive the rights of adopted children. John writes, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).” The Apostle Paul describes all who are adopted as children of God as being heirs of God and co-heirs of the Father’s inheritance with Christ. “…if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…(Rom 8:17a).”

As our loving heavenly Father’s justified and adopted children, he promises us the riches of his eternal inheritance as his sons and daughters. We are promised all the blessings of salvation in this life in preparation for our reception of the fullness of our inheritance in the life to come. The Apostle Peter describes the blessing of this inheritance:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Footnotes:

[1] J. I. Packer, Knowing God. P 187

[2] William Cowper, Olney Hymns III:384

What is My Role in Justification? (Justification Series 4 of 6)

God’s gospel reveals His gift of righteousness to his people on the basis of his saving work in Jesus Christ. But this righteousness is not something we can earn. It is a gift from God received only by faith in Christ, a faith that rests in Christ alone. This doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ occupies a central place in Paul’s understanding of the good news of the gospel. Paul writes,

We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Gal 2:16).

The Scriptures teach that we must have faith in Jesus Christ to be saved. When a man called out to Paul and Silas,  “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” … they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:30-31).”

What does it mean to have faith in the Lord Jesus?

The Protestant Reformers recognized three essential components in a biblical view of saving faith. The first component is understanding (Latin notitia). To believe in Jesus Christ we must first understand something about him. The notitia of saving faith is given to people through learning the word of God (Rom 10:14-17). 

But merely understanding facts about Jesus is not enough for saving faith. We must also affirm our belief in the truth of those facts. Many people know what the Bible says about the life and ministry of Jesus but do not believe it is true. True saving faith also requires belief (Latin assensus). The assensus of faith is the belief that what the bible teaches about Jesus Christ is true.

But merely understanding and believing what the bible teaches about Jesus Christ is also not true saving faith. Even the demons understand and believe what the bible teaches about Jesus. When demons came into Jesus presence, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? (Matt 8:29).”

True saving faith in Jesus Christ also involves trust in him (Latin fiducia). The historic Christian confessions describe the fiducia of our saving faith in Jesus Christ as receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness[1] as our only hope for salvation.

Saving faith is not a cold intellectualism that merely gives assent to believing in a set of propositions about Jesus. Instead, it is a warm and vibrant clinging to, relying on, and trusting in a person–the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver you from all of sin’s consequences.

The New Testament teaches that the object of true saving faith is the living, reigning Savior, who died for our sins and was raised from the dead for our justification. So, the object of our faith, strictly speaking, is not in what we believe about the atoning death of Jesus but in the Jesus who made the atonement. We are not justified by believing in the bible’s teaching on justification, but by believing in the person of Jesus who justifies. Packer writes, “It is not biblical thus to isolate the work from the Worker.”[2]

Theologians refer to saving faith in Christ as the instrumental cause of justification. We must have faith, but faith itself is not the righteousness that justifies us. Our faith is the instrument, the means, through which we receive the benefits of justifying grace from God when we trust in Jesus. We must be careful not to see our faith as a sort of work that somehow merits our justification.

And true saving faith is not faith in our faith but faith in Christ. If we are saved strictly because of our faith, then our justification would be based on our faith and not on Christ. The Apostle Paul is adamant that justification is not based on any human action or effort–including our faith (Rom 4:1-2). Paul even states that our faith is a gift of God: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph 2:8-9).” 

Although we are justified by saving faith in Christ alone, totally apart from our good works, the bible teaches that true saving faith is not alone, but always shows itself in our good works. John Gerstner writes, “Although the person is justified by faith alone, this faith is never alone but is always accompanied by all the other saving graces.”[3] Gerstner was referring to the authors of the Westminster Confession when they wrote:

Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love.[4]

The Apostle James addresses the error of those who think they have justifying faith but have no evident saving graces of good works.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead…You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone (James 2:14-17, 24).

At first glance, it appears when James writes, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone (James 2:24), that he is contradicting Paul. But he is not. The word for justify in the New Testament can refer to God’s one-time declaration of “legal justification” as defined earlier. But it can also refer to a “demonstrative justification,” a display of evidence that vindicates or gives proof of someone’s legal justification already received.

Earlier, James uses the Greek verb justify in a demonstrative sense when he writes, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? (James 2:21).” The point James is making is not to contradict the clear biblical teaching that Abraham was justified by faith taught by Moses in Genesis 15:6 and Paul in Romans 4:1-5. James’ point is that, much later in Abraham’s life, his good works of offering up Isaac, recorded in Genesis 22, vindicated and proved his earlier justification by faith alone recorded in Genesis 15.

The Protestant Reformers and historic confessions often distinguish between the biblical concepts of justification by faith in Christ alone and the vindication of the reality of that justification by the demonstration of good works that will inevitably follow it. Our good works vindicate our claim to have true faith, but they don’t justify us. If we say we have true faith, then we will have evidence of that by our good works. This is why Luther, Calvin, and most Protestant Reformers, distinguish justification before God (coram Deo) from justification before men (coram Hominibus).

Because we are now declared justified by faith in Christ, we will never be more justified than we are today. So, what will happen to justified believers on the final judgment day when the bible says all people will stand before God as their judge? The Westminster Larger Catechism Question 90 answers that we shall be “…openly acknowledged and acquitted.” Only those justified by faith in Christ alone will be acknowledged and acquitted as clothed with the perfect robe of Christ’s righteousness.

This is why the Apostle Paul refers to the good news of our justification as “having been justified.” And he refers to our condemnation also in the past tense saying “there is now no condemnation.” There is no such thing as “initial justification” now that is different from a “final justification” to come on the judgment day. The good news is that because we are justified now, God promises we shall be vindicated then.

In the meantime, justification is by a living faith, not a dead faith, a faith that is vindicated by our good works, rather than our mere profession. But faith does not justify because of its connection with works. It justifies because its nature is to trust in the grace of God in Christ. This trust motivates us to please God and therefore to do good works. Since God has saved us from sin, this is our only appropriate response.

The Heidelberg Catechism Question 61 answers the question, “Why do you say you are ‘righteous by faith alone’?: “Not that I am acceptable to God, on account of the worthiness of my faith; but because only the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, is my righteousness before God; and that I cannot receive and apply the same to myself any other way than by faith only.”

Footnotes:

[1] Westminster Confession XI, II

[2] J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, pp 64-66.

[3] John Gerstner, A Guide to the Westminster Confession, p. 63

[4] Westminster Confession XI, II

Why Does God Declare Me Righteous? (Justification Series 3 of 6)

The Scriptures teach that if we have to stand before God and be judged on the basis of our good works, we will all be justly condemned. The Psalmist writes, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (Ps 130:3).” Paul makes clear this is because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).”

So, what is our only hope as guilty sinners standing before a holy, righteous God? It is Jesus’ blood and righteousness. This 19th century hymn captures it well:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.[1]

Justification is God’s astonishing declaration that all who are in Christ are righteous, based on two things: 1) the forgiveness of sin by Jesus’ blood and 2) the imputation of Jesus righteousness. For Jesus to accomplish our salvation, he had to meet the two-fold demand of God’s law by: 1) perfectly obeying the law’s demands of righteousness, so that he could then 2) perfectly pay the just penalty for our sin by coming under the full curse and condemnation of the law we deserve.

Jesus saved us by both his life and death. He lived the life of righteousness we should have lived so that he could die the sinner’s death we deserve to die as our substitute meeting all of God’s just demands for perfect righteousness.

The Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus came to be the last Adam: “It is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45).” The first Adam failed to obey God when facing temptation, resulting in our condemnation and corruption. But the good news is that the last Adam succeeded by obeying God when facing temptation, resulting in our acceptance and new life through him.

Jesus suffering obedience was a gracious display of his faithfulness to God’s covenant. All human beings, as descendants of Adam, are bound by the stipulations of the Creator’s covenant with Adam to obey God to live, and therefore we must perfectly obey God if we want to live. This is why James writes, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).”

All human beings are born “in Adam” and under God’s just curse of condemnation and corruption–not only human corruption but world corruption. Jesus came to regain for us what we lost “in Adam” by becoming the “last Adam” for us, perfectly obeying God in the face of all the temptations that caused the first Adam to fail. Because of the “last Adam’s” perfect righteousness for us, he alone could make the perfect sacrifice of his shed blood for us.

As a result of Jesus’ blood and righteousness, the good news is that all who are now “in Christ” through repentance and faith, receive back what we lost in Adam. But more accurately, what we receive back is actually more than what we lost. Calvin writes,

“[Adam] by his fall ruined himself and those that were his, because he drew them all, along with himself, into the same ruin: Christ came to restore our nature from ruin, and raise it up to a better condition than ever. (Italics mine)”

The Apostle Paul teaches that what Jesus did for all who are in him is far greater than what Adam did for all who were in him.

“But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ (Rom 5:15-17).”

Justification means more than being forgiven or having your sin’s taken away. It means to be declared totally accepted by God because Christ’s perfect righteousness has been counted to you in God’s heavenly court. The righteousness which the Bible says makes you acceptable to God is not your righteousness but Christ’s. The Bible says his righteousness was fully credited to your account at the very moment you believe.

Stott writes, “Whereas forgiveness through propitiation cancels our liability to punishment; justification is the positive counterpart (Stott 1986:182).” Justification bestows on believers in Christ a righteous standing before God. Paul writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known . . . which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. . . . ” (Rom 3:21-25).

In describing the riches of Christ’s saving obedience for us, theologians often refer to Jesus’ active and passive obedience. These terms are used to help us understand two distinct aspects of Christ’s obedience to God’s law for us.

Christ’s active obedience refers to Jesus’ fulfilling all of the positive demands of perfect righteousness required in God’s law. And Christ’s passive obedience refers to Jesus’ fulfilling all of the required penalties for breaking God’s law.

So, we return to our question, why would God declare us righteous? What is the ground of our forgiveness of sins and the gift of Christ’s righteousness? It is not on the basis of our obedience, but the obedience of Christ in our place. John Murray writes, “His obedience becomes the ground of remission of sin and of actual justification.”[2]

 Footnotes:

[1] My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, by Edward Mote, 1797-1874

[2] John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 22

What Does Justification Mean? (Justification Series 2 of 6)

The sixteenth-century Reformers agreed on the critical significance of the recovery of the New Testament doctrine of justification for the sake of the church. John Calvin refers to justification as “..the principle ground on which religion must be supported…”[1] Referring to our need for careful formulation of words when defining justification, Calvin writes that these things are not "frivolous word battles,” (but) a "serious matter" for we do not stand before a "human court" but the "heavenly tribunal.”[2]

To grow in our understanding of justification, we must first be reminded of the nature of mankind’s problem as having a guilty status before God. Ultimately our view of God’s grace is rooted in our understanding of sin and guilt. The Bible tells us God is perfect and holy. He hates sin and cannot tolerate its presence. 1 John 1:5 says “He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” This is why even one small sin makes us deserving of the full righteous wrath of God. For God to condone even one sin would defile His holiness like smearing a white satin wedding gown with black tar.

Because of sin, the Bible says we are all guilty before God. To be guilty implies that we are "liable for punishment”. Sin is the breaking of God’s Holy Law.  And the penalty for breaking God’s law is death, not only physical but also spiritual. So “The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).

Whereas forgiveness through propitiation cancels our liability to punishment; justification is the positive counterpart (Stott 1986:182). Justification bestows on believers in Christ a righteous standing before God. Paul writes, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known . . . which comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. . . . ” (Rom 3:21-25).

The doctrine of justification occupies a central place in Paul’s understanding of the gospel. Paul writes, “Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Gal 2:16).

How are you righteous before God?

The historic Heidelberg Catechism Question 60 gives us one of the most biblical and thorough definitions of Justification by answering the question:

Question: How are you righteous before God?

Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine,  but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

The historic Westminster Larger Catechism gives us another thoroughly biblical, but more precise, definition of justification:

Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in his sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.” Westminster Larger Catechism Question 70

The Westminster Shorter Catechism also gives us a thoroughly biblical, but even more precise and succinct definition of justification:

Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 33

The much newer, New City Catechism, draws from these older definitions and gives us one that is even more precise:

Justification means our declared righteousness before God, made possible[3] by Christ’s death and resurrection for us.  New City Catechism Question 32

Declared, Not Made Righteous

One of the most common and important biblical concepts found in all these definitions of justification is that it is a legal declaration. This is why theologians often refer to justification as “forensic,” a synonym for legal. As with many of the spiritual blessings that come from being in union with Christ, the blessing of justification conveys a unique image. It’s the picture of a righteous judge making a legal declaration about a guilty person in a courtroom.

In Romans 4:5, Paul writes, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” Since justification is completely apart from works, it cannot mean to make a sinner righteous, only to count or declare a sinner to be righteous.

In Rom. 8:33-34 and other passages, the word justify is the opposite of condemn. And condemn means to declare a law-breaker guilty, not to make a law-breaker guilty. The law breaker is already made guilty before being declared guilty. This is why to justify a guilty sinner means only to declare a guilty sinner righteous, not to make a guilty sinner righteous.

Constituted Righteous: Not False Judgment

Some object to this understanding of justification because they think it presents God as making a false judgment by merely declaring something to be true that is not really true, i.e. God is declaring sinners righteous when he knows they really are not. This has been called a legal fiction.

The biblical doctrine of justification is not a false judgment or legal fiction because Jesus’ death really did fully satisfy the fullness of God’s just wrath against us. And because we are now in Christ, we really are fully clothed in the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. 

This is why John Murray argues that justification is not a mere declaration, but a declaration that “constitutes” a new legal status, what he called a “constitutive declaration.” Murray taught that “made righteous” in Rom. 5:19 means “constituted righteous.” But, even when we talk about God constituting us righteous, this still means God is constituting a new legal status for us as being righteous in Christ.

Justification and Sanctification

In the New Testament justification and sanctification are often closely related and it’s helpful to understand their similarities. But, it is also very important to understand their significant differences. In justification, the perfect righteousness of Christ is counted by God to be ours, covering all the remaining sin in our lives like a royal robe of perfect holiness.

But, in sanctification the remaining sinful corruption in our lives is in the process of being progressively purified as God’s Spirit enables us to keep growing in the likeness of Christ by putting off sin in repentance and putting on our new life in Christ by faith.

Differing views regarding the relationship of justification and sanctification are at the very heart of what separates Protestant Theology from Roman Catholic theology. The historic Protestant view is that the righteousness of Christ is legally imputed to us by God, whereas the historic Roman Catholic view is that the righteousness of Christ is infused within us by God.

This is why believers in Roman Catholic theology often rely on their active participation in their sanctification as the basis of their justification, “…drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”[4]

In contrast, Protestant theology calls on followers of Christ to rely on their justification for their sanctification, “…to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.”[5]

Footnotes:

[1] John Calvin, Book 3:11, The Institutes of The Christian Religion, Beveridge edition, 1863.

[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960), 3.12.1, pp. 754, 755.

[3] We understand “made possible” to be actual, not hypothetical.

[4] Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Renewal (Downers Grove: IVP, 1979), 101.

[5] Ibid.