Preached in Markham Baptist Church, January 9, 2005

GREAT WORDS OF THE FAITH - PART 2: "JUSTIFICATION"

The letter is clear enough, typed on crisp white paper, perfectly spelled and set. It is addressed to the U.S. Treasury Department and reads “Over 10 years ago, I worked at the National Bureau of Standards at Boulder, Colorado as a clerk typist. Over a period of time at that job, I took home with me pens, pencils, typing ribbons, a stapler, a beat-up dictionary, and a few other supplies. I wish to make restitution now. I only hope you will forgive me and accept this check as payment for the things I took.” ¹

The tone of the letter is familiar to the U.S. Treasury Department. They get these types of letters all the time and have collected hundreds of them since 1811. At that time they established what is called the Conscience Fund, created because an individual left the U.S. government some money that he had failed to report in his income tax.

Apparently he is not alone in his guilt. Since its inception the Conscience Fund has received on average $45,000 per year. And it has grown to almost 7 million dollars. In some instances the amount is small but in every instance the guilt is large. “One woman from Colorado sent in money for two eight-cent stamps that she had used twice; apparently they had not been cancelled.”²

One woman’s brother had taken a pair of scissors from the government. After he’d passed away the woman felt guilty so she sent in a cheque for $25 to clear her conscience. Over the years the Treasury has received a box of old tools, binoculars and a 31-piece silverware set originally belonging to the Navy.³

As one author asks, “Anxiety over a pair of scissors? Regret over a stamp used twice? A guilty conscience because of a few office supplies? If the struggle to have a clean conscience wasn’t so common, the letters to the Treasury would be funny. But the struggle is common.”⁴

People long for forgiveness and they suffer for the lack of it. Even people inside the faith who worship a forgiving God suffer from guilt and confess the same sins again and again and again but lack the assurance of forgiveness.

“A woman in her fifties once confessed to her pastor that she had been involved in something particularly wrong while she was in her late teens, more than thirty years before. She had been a Christian at the time and her sense of guilt was probably heightened by that fact. For all those years she lived with guilt and not found any freedom from it. She told her pastor that most nights before she went to bed she would confess those thirty-year-old sins, but could not be sure they had been forgiven. She was a regular attender at her local church, but had never taken any roles of responsibility because of her sense of unworthiness. She was asked to be a Sunday School teacher - she was capable, but her sense of guilt would not allow it. In her opinion, her sin prevented her being a good wife and mother to her three children. And now she was sick with a disease for which the doctors could promise her no cure. In her mind the reason was clear. The judgment of God was at last catching up with her.”⁵

If this describes you in any way, if you are a person dealing with guilt, then this sermon is for you. Today I pray that you will know the cleansing that comes from God through faith in Christ. I pray that if you have been carrying sins with you that haunt and harass you, that today is the day you will be able to lay them down and be released from the burden of guilt.

If you don’t have guilty conscience you need to listen to this too, because I hope that this sermon will help you fall more deeply in love with God and to heighten your worship of Him.

The good news of Jesus Christ is that you are forgiven! If you’ve been in a Bible-preaching church for any length of time, you have heard 1 John 1:9 quoted, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” You’ve heard the good news that through faith in Christ’s sacrifice we can be forgiven. And to be forgiven by God is a liberating and joyful experience! But there is something deeper that you need to be aware of and that is that not only are you forgiven but you are also justified through faith in Christ.

To be forgiven is a wonderful thing, we speak of it often because people in our society have an understanding of forgiveness. It is a term that is understandable. But you don’t often hear how we have been justified. And while forgiveness is good – to be justified is better. Now understand that what I am about to say does not exclude forgiveness, to be justified does include forgiveness but it goes deeper and this is what we need to understand this morning, we are not only forgiven, but you are also justified.

The word justified could be transliterated into our North American language with the phrase “Just as if I had never sinned.” That’s what the word justified means. It is a legal term and means that we have been formally acquitted from guilt by God as Judge.

We learned last week that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was an act of propitiation in which the wrath of God on sin was turned away and satisfied. That’s what we read in verse 25, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice.” God is a just God - He does not let sin go unpunished.

But thanks be to God that the punishment that was due us was upon Jesus Christ on the cross. (see Isaiah 53:5)

So now as a result of God being satisfied, you and I are now justified – is it just as if we had never sinned. This is what verse 24 says, “we have been justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.”

You see you have to realize that you are not only forgiven - you are justified. If it’s a choice between being forgiven and being justified I’ll take being justified any time. If a person is to be forgiven she must plead “guilty” and plea for mercy. If a person is to be justified she must plead “not guilty” and show that the opposition has no case against him at all. Of course both forgiveness and justification enter into our salvation. But it is the higher truth of justification that Paul is presenting to us here.

Now you are astute people and you listened carefully to the sermon last week and you heard me say that it is not because of God’s mercy that we are forgiven but because of God’s justice. As Charles Price has said, we are justified not "mercified". We ask for forgiveness on the basis of God’s justice that has been met in Christ.

And you may ask at this point, how does this happen, because I have read in Scripture that God is merciful Deuteronomy chapter 4:31 “For the Lord your God is a merciful God.” So are we forgiven through God’s mercy or God’s justice?

There are two things that make the cross necessary. The first thing is God’s justice, as I stressed last week. The second thing is mercy. God is both just and merciful. But when you stop to think about it, justice and mercy are incompatible with one another. You cannot be just and merciful at the same time. Justice by definition is giving people what they deserve. Mercy by definition is not giving people what they deserve. So how can you give what people deserve and not give people what they deserve at the same time? They are irreconcilable, aren’t they?

There is one way to reconcile them and that is by introducing a third party into the scenario. In God’s mercy God sent His one and only Son to receive the justice that we were to receive.

Let’s pretend that Pastor Ron got a speeding ticket and as a result had to go to court. The policeman caught him roaring up 16^th Avenue and when Pastor Ron gets before the judge he pleads guilty. Now the judge can say one of two things. He can say, “Because you are guilty and you were caught by the radar I will fine you 500 dollars.” That’s one option. The other option is for the judge to ask Pastor Ron, “Have you been here before?”

“No sir, this is my first offense”

“You must have had a lot on your mind.”

“Yes sir, I was rushing to a deacons meeting and you know what my associate, Pastor Tom is like when I’m late!”

And the judge says, “O yes, I know that Pastor Tom fellow. He’s been in my courtroom frequently. All right then, I will deal with you mercifully and I will let you off, but don’t let me see you in my courtroom again. Understand?”

“Yes, sir - I understand”.

The judge can deal with Pastor Ron according to justice, the law of the land or according to mercy. But he cannot do both. He cannot say to Ron, “I will let you off AND fine you a fine of $500.” Which is it?

So supposing the judge is just, he must follow the law of the land. So he fines Ron $500. But Ron can’t afford it. Thankfully however a good friend of his comes and makes a cheque out to the court and pays the fine. So the records say, “Ron Hurlburt: Crime = speeding. Verdict=guilty. Punishment = fine, 500 dollars.” And then stamped across it are the words “PAID IN FULL.”

Ron goes out of that court knowing that justice has been met AND knowing that he has received mercy. Why? Because someone else has met the demand of justice. Someone else has met God’s demand of justice for you and for me.

Any illustration is in danger of trivializing the cross and not telling the whole story, but that principle is what took place on the cross. God declares there is no one who is righteous, the wages of sin is death. The verdict of a just God is that I live with the consequences of my sin. But Jesus Christ as the sinless man steps in and satisfies the just demands of a holy God. So in the record book it says, “Tom Cullen, crime = sinner, never righteous, falling short of the glory of God. Punishment = death. And then stamped across it are the words “PAID IN FULL.”

So we read in verse 26 of our text that on the cross God demonstrates His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies.

Listen - the Lord Jesus has fully discharged all our obligations so that there is no legal ground for charges to be pressed against us anymore. Moreover, He has given us a perfect standing before God so that we are fully acceptable in His sight. We are justified, just as if I’d never sinned. The guilty record is purged.

You ask, how do I receive it? Look at verse 24 – it says there that we are justified freely by His grace. The NRSV says we are “justified by his grace as a gift.” It means the same. Justification is a free gift offered to each one of us. There is nothing to pay. It is through grace. Watchman Nee points out that grace means that God does something for me. Law means I do something for God.

Have the requirements of the law changed? No, but the good news is that we are not the ones to meet those requirements. Praise God - He is the Lawgiver on the throne and the Lawkeeper in my heart! He who gave the law keeps the law. He is the one who makes the demands and He is the one who meets them!

We all need to come to the point where we say, “Lord I am unable to do anything for you, but I trust you to do everything in me.”

Go back to the courtroom illustration. A courtroom officer puts his hand on Pastor Ron’s shoulder just as he is about to leave and says, “Excuse me sir you can’t leave till you pay the fine. I haven’t seen you take out a chequebook or a pen since you have been here. You were fined and you have to pay the fine.”

And Pastor Ron says, “You better check your records.”

So they check the records and it says Ron Hurlburt, Crime = speeding, Fine= 500 then it says "PAID IN FULL".

The officer says to him, “How did that happen?” And Ron says, “Well I have a good friend, who paid my debt who satisfied the judgment of this court.”

So the officer says, “Then I have no reason to detain you."

Through the cross God is satisfied. Through the cross people are justified. There is nothing for you to pay. Nothing for you to do for it BUT receive it.

You must make it your own. Verse 28 – "we maintain that a person is justified by faith".

What is faith? Again, Watchman Nee points out that “faith is my acceptance of God’s fact.” It most often has its foundations in the past. We are not talking about a hope here. Hope has its foundations in the future. You are not justified by hope – but by faith, in the settled fact that Christ has died for you and through His death the just demands of the law are met and you are justified.

Scripture does not say that you may be justified, or you can be justified, or even you will be justified – that’s not faith. This is faith – to believe that you have already got it! Those who say “God can” or “God may” or “God must” or “God will” do not necessarily believe at all. Faith always says, God has done it and it is mine.⁶

My friends, God has justified you through the sacrifice of Christ. There’s nothing to wait for, nothing to do, but believe it!

There was a day 2000 years ago when the sky turned black and the Father turned His back on the Son as that pure, holy, righteous Son of God became sin. And all of my filth and all of your filth, all of your failure and all of my failure, all of my sin and your sin was heaped up on the Lord Jesus, and in exchange, all of His goodness and purity has been poured out on you as you became a forgiven, justified child of God.

And what does God do with my sin? Isaiah 38:17 - “You have put all my sins behind your back.” That is, God puts your sin in a place where even He cannot retrieve them!

Or again in Isaiah 43:25 - “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my sake and remembers your sins no more.” Isn’t that amazing? I can forgive, but I am not often able to forget. God, though, has this unique ability – He not only forgives, but He also forgets – He remembers no more! “God will never recall what he knows about you, never call you to account for it, never use it as ammunition against you, never condemn you for it. He will remember it no more and treat you as though your sin never took place.”⁷ God does not treat me as the failure or sinner I was. My past sins have been cleansed and treats me as though our sins never happened.

Last week I told you that because of Christ’s sacrifice, God is satisfied. I said because of Christ’s sacrifice you can answer Satan’s accusations.

But again, you are astute people and you say, “Hey, what about that verse in John 16:8 where Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit and says, 'When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt to sin'." Clearly the Holy Spirit’s work is to convict me of sin. My friends, please understand that there is a world of difference between the Holy Spirit and Satan. Satan reminds you of your sin to condemn you, to put you in the proverbial straightjacket of guilt, leaving us with no means to break free. The Holy Spirit on the other hand reminds you of your sin to convict you and make you aware of the possibility of forgiveness! The Holy Spirit exposes our sin not to condemn us but to liberate us through faith in Christ.

The problem, when it comes to guilt, is that some of us are much quicker to accept Satan’s opinion of you than God’s! We frequently assume guilt and condemn ourselves much more quickly than believe in forgiveness and accept the fact that we are justified.

To be sure, sin is real and we need to confess it but once we have confessed it is erased.

Now, my friends the word of God tells that we through faith in Christ we are justified. God looks at us and it is as if we have never sinned. And if you continue to live with a guilty conscience then, then you are the only one in the whole universe who accuses you. Satan has nothing on you. God has justified you – all is forgiven now, every sin is forgiven you now.

Now accept it as a reality for you and come to him with joy and adoration and service for His great gift in Christ.

Right now we are going to sing "Just As I Am".

It is our closing prayer. We have heard it often as an hymn of invitation. But I don’t want anyone to move physically while we sing this. It says “I come” but that doesn’t mean physically, it means that you come to God with your heart. And that’s what I want you to do this morning. I want you to come to God with your heart. And I want you to come Him and give to Him that guilt that some of you have been carrying for years. It’s time to realize that you are justified. And for others I want you to come to Him and give Him your joy and worship, praising Him for what He has done for you in Christ.

During the singing of the last verse there are some people who are going to come forward and they are four prayer stations. And if you want prayer this morning these people, after we sing the hymn, will be available to pray with you. Perhaps you want to know how to receive freedom from guilt and accept Christ for the very first time. These people will help you do that.

Perhaps you want to be assured of sins forgiven, these people will help you do that. Perhaps you want to share the joy you have in Christ, these people will help you do that.

After the hymn there will be nothing said, this is our final prayer. And I want us to go out of this place quietly. Some of you may want to sit and reflect, some may want to move to the prayer stations and ask for prayer.

But please respect it as a holy moment as we come to God just as we are, without anything to offer to God, and realizing that God sees us “just as if I have never sinned” through faith in Christ.

ENDNOTES:

1. Vadim Liberman in his article “Going Overboard” posted on The Conference Board website – www.conference-board.org.

2. Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah Press, 1989) page 82.

3. Vadim Liberman, op.cit.

4. Lucado, op.cit. page 82.

5. Charles W. Price, Christ For Real (Grand Rapids Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1995) page 70.

6. Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House, Publishers, 1957) page 69.

7. Charles Price, op.cit. , page 79