Saint Paul's Message of Justification
The birth of Jesus was the most astounding thing that ever happened to this earth. Nothing like it had ever happened before. Nothing like it could ever happen again. The High and Holy One, who dwells in light unapproachable and majesty incomprehensible, became a member of the human family. The Creator of heaven, earth and the galaxies of limitless space, was born of a woman, grew up in a humble peasant home, traveled about as an itinerant preacher, died in ignominy and shame, rose from the grave and ascended to heaven. The twelve apostles were chosen eyewitnesses of these things.
Then the ascended Christ chose another man through whom the Holy Spirit would show the real meaning of those historical events which the twelve apostles witnessed. It is in Paul that the gospel, given to the Hebrews in types, shadows and promises, is fully revealed (Col. 1:26; Eph. 3:5; Rom. 16:25, 26; 1 Peter 1:10-12; Heb. 1:2). The full disclosure of the gospel was committed to Paul's trust (Col. 1:25-27; Eph. 3:18; Gal. 1:12; 1 Tim. 1:11; 2Tim. 2:8; Titus 1:3; 1 Cor. 3:10; 2 Cor. 12:15, 12; Rom. 16:25-26).
Paul's gospel theme was Christ and Him crucified for the justification of sinners (1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 1:4). Of course, the other apostles also bore witness to the salvation of sinners through Jesus, but Paul shows how the gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:16, 17). How could a just God justify sinners? How could God's holy law be vindicated and its integrity maintained if God remitted a rebel's punishment? How is the extension of mercy to law breakers consistent with the claims of divine justice? These are not just interesting questions. They must be answered if estranged man is to be reconciled to the character of God.
Justification
The key word in Paul is justification. In both the Old and New Testaments the words justify and justification have a very definite legal and judicial mean mg. They are words closely related to the idea of trial and judgment (Deut. 25:1; 1 Cor. 4:3, 4; Matt. 12:37). Justification may be defined as being declared just by court order. When God is said to justify a man, it means that He has brought the case to trial before His divine judgment seat and, after examining the case, has pronounced the accused as free of all fault and blame, as altogether righteous and pleasing in the sight of His holy law. In modern English, the word acceptance would also convey the meaning of justification.
If justification means being declared righteous before the bar of the most infinite justice, who then can be justified? Alas!
"How can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" "What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?" Job 25:4; 15:14-16.
In his great epistle to the Romans, the apostle sets out to answer the universal cry of the human heart, "How . . . can man be justified with God?" Job 25:4. If that question means, "What can I do that will cause God to accept me?" Paul's answer is emphatic: Absolutely nothing!
Before the apostle presents God's way of reaching man, he exposes the futility of man's way of reaching God. None is righteous, none understands, none seeks God, none does good (Rom. 3:10-12). No one has a life that will meet the standard of the law of God (Rom. 3:19). "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." Rom. 3:20.
Paul does not simply say that no one can become just in God's sight by his performance. He uses the future tense of the verb. He means that no mortal man will ever be considered just on the basis of his own life. No man can confront the judgment of God with an easy conscience if his standing rests upon the quality of his own life. The reason is very plainly stated: "For all have sinned, and continue to come short (In the Greek, the verb for “come” is in the present continuous tense) of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. Or as Solomon declares, "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." Eccl. 7:20.
The Saving Activity of the Trinity
Having abased all human pride and having exposed the futility of all human achievement, the apostle shows that man's justification proceeds wholly from God:
"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith is His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth is Jesus." Rom. 3:24-26.
These three brief verses contain the meat of Paul's gospel. They are wonderful in brevity and amazing in scope. The rest of the epistle of Romans may be regarded as an expansion of these three verses.
Notice how these verses cover justification from three aspects: by grace. by Christ, and by faith. Here we view the saving activity of the three Persons of the Godhead: God the Father justifies us by His grace, God the Son justifies us by giving His life, and God the Holy Spirit enables us to accept it by giving us faith.
By Grace Alone – the Source of Justification
"Being justified freely by His [the Father's) grace ..." Grace means mercy and favor shown to one who is lost and undeserving. In order to guard the absolute gratuitous nature of justification, Paul says that sinners are justified freely by God's grace. The word "freely" means "without a cause" (see John 15:25). No amount of believing, obeying, repenting or character building ever causes God to regard a man as just in His sight. Someone has appropriately said that justification by grace means the divine acceptance of unacceptable people.
It is most important to notice also that Paul is not just talking about becoming justified at the commencement of the Christian life. He uses the present continuous tense of the verb, "Being justified”. This includes the state of remaining justified as much as the act of becoming justified. This means that we can never get past justification by grace. We can never remain in God's favor except by pure mercy. Grace finds us sinners, and we remain justified just as long as we remain sinners in our own eyes. If at any time we could stand acceptable before God because of faith, obedience or moral excellence, it would no longer be justification by grace.
By Christ Alone – the Way of Justification
We must also understand the way grace operates to make sinful man acceptable in the sight of God. The way of our justification is said to be "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [through His act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus, N.E.B.]." Rom. 3:24. We are also said to be justified "by His blood." Rom. 5:9.
The doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus constitute the sole ground of our acceptance with God. He became the Substitute and Surety for poor, lost sinners. On their behalf He gave to the law an obedience that measured with its infinite claims. On their behalf, by His own dying agonies, He paid to the law the debt due to their transgressions.
Christ's active and passive obedience (His life and death) was altogether sufficient to secure the justification of every sinner. Says the apostle. "As One has died for all, then all have died." 2 Cor. 5:14, Moffatt. As far as justice is concerned, it can look at Christ and regard every man as dead, as having fully satisfied the claims of the law. This is so because Christ is the Substitute for every man. In view of this, the Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, makes this astounding statement: "…He was delivered to death for our misdeeds, and raised to life because we were now justified." Rom. 4:25, N.E.B., margin. Justification is not something to be secured. It has been secured. The resurrection of Christ is the proof that God has already accepted humanity in the person of His Son.
One asks, "Do you mean to say that God has already worked out my justification through the death of His Son?" To which we reply, "That is the gospel !! It is the good news of what God has done. The empty tomb is the proof that in Christ God has already forgiven our sins and received us back into His royal favor." Listen—
He has taken us into His favor in the Person of His beloved Son. Eph. 1:7, Knox translation.
People are so prone to think that if they repent, believe or surrender, then God will accomplish their justification. And they think this is the gospel. No! No Christ rose from the dead to prove that God has already accomplished our justification (Rom. 4:25). This mighty reconciliation took place in Christ while we were still ungodly (Rom. 5:6), while we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:8) and when we were God's enemies (Rom. 5:10).
This raises the question, "Did God accomplish our justification by doing something that was completely outside of us?" Paul's answer is an emphatic Yes! And he proceeds to prove it by contrasting Adam and Christ (Rom. 5:1519). His point is this: When Adam disobeyed, condemnation and sin passed upon the whole human race. This was so because he was our father. When he fell, everyone fell. Condemnation came upon us not because of what we did, but because of what Adam did (v.18). "For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners" (v.19). Thus we became sinners not by something that happened in us, but by something that happened completely outside of us. God saved the race by giving us another Father, even Jesus Christ (Isa. 9:6). Just as all were condemned by what Adam did, all were justified by what Christ did. "By the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. 5:18. "For as through the disobedience of the one man the whole race was rendered sinful, so, too, through the obedience of the One the whole race will be rendered righteous." Rom. 5:19, Twentieth Century N.T.
So it is forever certain that the only ground of acceptance with God is what Christ has already done for us. Christ and Christ alone was found pleasing in God's sight. There is one reason for our acceptance with God—Christ has been accepted. His obedience of two thousand years ago is the only ground of our acceptance with God today.
By Faith Alone – the Condition of Receiving Justification
As far as God is concerned, He has restored the sinful world to His favor as surely as He has restored His own Son to heaven. At the cross the objective justification of every sinner took place. God redeemed the race in Christ (Heb. 9:12).
In the light of the gospel, man cannot ask such questions as, 'Will God accept me?" God has answered that question by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. But God confronts the sinner with the question, Will you accept your acceptance? Faith is our saying "Yes" to God. It is accepting the fact that we have been accepted in Christ. It is our becoming conscious of something already in existence. By it the blessing of justification is received and enjoyed. This is the subjective aspect of justification.
Thus the apostle declares, "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Rom. 3:28. We are not justified because of or on account of faith. That would be contrary to justification by grace alone and by Christ alone. There is no merit in the faith. It is merely the hand that accepts the blessing. Neither can the justified soul take any credit for faith. Apart from grace the sinner has no free will, no desire to seek God, no way of seeing the truth. Here is where the third Person of the Godhead acts in the matter of justification.
Through the gospel, the Spirit enlightens the soul of the sinner, shows him the cross and draws him to Christ. As the sinner beholds the One who loved him and gave Himself for him, the Spirit persuades the sinner that the gospel is true. In a word, the Spirit gives faith. So Paul declares, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that [faith is] not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Eph. 2:8. "For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness." Gal. 5:5 (see Interlinear Greek).
On the other hand, to believe not is the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit. While the saint can take no credit for faith, the lost must take full responsibility for unbelief. No one is condemned for being born a sinner or for having a sinful nature. Men are condemned only because they believe not (John 3:36). Thus they refuse to be included in Christ's atonement, and by closing their ears against the gospel, they call God a liar (1 John 5:9, 10).
In the fourth chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul shows how faith is counted for righteousness (Rom. 4:5). God imputes (or reckons) Christ's righteousness to the believing sinner. In this way the sinner is declared to have right standing with God. That justification which was fully provided at the cross becomes the believer's personal possession through faith on his part and imputation on God's part. Faith is counted for Christ's infinite righteousness, not because there is merit in faith, but because faith unites the empty believer to the One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). The sinner brings to the union nothing but the disgrace of need; Christ brings to the union all the treasures of eternity. As the poor bride possesses the name of her wealthy bride groom and banks in his reputation, so the believer in Jesus is clothed in the name and virtue of Jesus Christ
Justification by faith alone is not a substitute for obedience, but it becomes a mighty stimulant for all true obedience. The soul that appropriates his acceptance in the Beloved is so overwhelmed by divine mercy and love, that his whole life is committed to serve Him who loved him and gave Himself for him. He serves, not in order that he might be accepted, but because he has been accepted. He offers his works, not as a sin offering, but as a thank offering in view of sins forgiven. Faith is the powerful progenitor of every good work because it brings the Holy Spirit. Faith in Christ's work for us, brings the Holy Spirit to dwell in us (Gal. 3:14; John 7:37, 38). He writes God's law in the heart (Heb. 10:16), and the believer obeys from inward prompting rather than from outward restraint.
Saved by Hope
Justification by faith brings radical changes in the believer's life (peace, joy, love, regeneration, sanctification, obedience, etc.). Yet in this life it remains that the believer is perfectly righteous only by faith, never by visible reality. It is his faith which is counted for righteousness, not his regeneration, sanctification, obedience or Christian character.
Righteousness by faith means that the believer's perfect righteousness is not on earth, but in heaven; not in himself, but in Jesus Christ. Man can never find perfection or fulfillment in himself within the historical process. This is only realized in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:9, 10). He is not on earth, but in heaven; and the believer possesses perfection and fulfillment only by faith.
True, he is given the Holy Spirit as the guarantee or down payment of his inheritance in Christ (Eph. 1:13, 14), but this is only the "first fruits of the Spirit," the down payment and pledge given until the day of final redemption (Rom. 8:2325; Eph. 4:30). The possession of the Spirit does not lead the believer to feel that he has arrived or to think he can find satisfaction in his own experience. Rather the Spirit stimulates him with earnest longing for the day of Christ, when he shall receive an infilling of the Spirit not possible in this life.
The doctrine of the second coming of Christ is a vital part of Paul's gospel message (2 Tim. 1:10; Phil. 1:6; 1 Cor. 1:7, 8). We might say that there are two great points in Pauline theology: justification and the parousia (the second coming of Jesus). The first calls for faith; the second calls for hope. The former we have now; the second is not yet. Possessing righteousness by faith, the believer waits, groans and presses toward the realization of righteousness by visible reality in the day of final salvation (Rom. 8:23; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:912).
Whenever the truth of justification by faith has been taught and received, the hope and expectancy of Christ's soon coming has possessed the church. The apostolic church was aflame with the hope of the parousia. On the other hand, the loss of the truth of justification has led to a corresponding loss of eschatological (last-day) hope. During the Middle Ages, men looked to the church on earth as the expression of human fulfillment. There was no hope in the coming of Jesus. With the Reformation and a revival of the truth of justification, men again began to ardently look for and hope for the coming of Christ. And finally, in these last days the time has fully come for the truth to be restored to its rightful place. The message of Christ's righteousness must sound from one end of this earth to the other and thereby make way for the coming of Christ.
"A voice cries:
'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'
"A voice says, 'Cry!' And I said, 'What shall I cry? 'All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.
"Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah, 'Behold your God!'
Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and His arm rules for Him;
behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him."
Isa. 40:3-10, R.S.V |
