Pastor's Power Points

Justified by Faith

Justification is a profound biblical term. As all other truth, it is rooted in the character of God. God is Just, meaning He can be charged with no fault or defect. So when God justifies the believing sinner, it is an act based on His character and purpose. Justification for the believer is a judicial – authoritative and binding – decision and declaration to free that believing sinner form guilt and to make him just – appropriating the character of God. The profound depths of this act of God must not be missed. We cannot just see His justification as an arbitrary act, there had to be a basis – a justification for our justification – lest God act contrary to His own holy essence.

The basis of our justification is propitiation. Simply put, this word means that God has dealt with sin and has done so in such a way that demonstrates His righteousness and satisfies His holiness. The word propitiation is the Old Testament mercy seat. The golden lid of the Ark of the Covenant was positioned between two cherubim. Cherubim were placed at the gate of the garden in Genesis after Adam and Eve had been evicted – alienated because of their sinful choice. As the cherubim represent the judgment of God necessitated by His perfect holiness, sacrificial blood was sprinkled on that lid once a year representing a life that had been forfeited in place of the sinners whose lives had been forfeited on account of sin. Only on the basis of such sacrifice could God meet with His people. But those sacrifices were limited in that it was only animal life given up in sacrifice providing a temporary covering and having to be repeated annually.  It was a foreshadowing of the real sacrifice to come. Enter the incarnate Son of God. It was His Person that gave the necessary meaning to His sacrificed blood. The fact that He gave up His life was good and sufficient once for all. All justification in the Old Testament was based on the coming sacrifice of Christ.  All justification in the New Testament is based on the accomplished sacrifice of Christ. He is our “Mercy Seat.” When He became sin for us as the sacrificial lamb – perfect and without blemish – He absorbed the necessary wrath of God (life given up) upon that which violated His perfect and holy essence.  This is the necessary basis – the justification – for our justification.

Because there is a basis for our justification (propitiation), it does not automatically guarantee the appropriation of justification.  Christ’s propitiation was good once for all, meaning no sacrifice for sin will ever have to be made again and it is a sufficient basis for the sin of all mankind – if One died for all then all died – Jesus was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. But the scriptures do not ever say that all are justified.  God justifies only those who believe. Justification is by faith based on the propitiation of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:20, 26, 28; 4:3, 5; 5:1).  Romans 5:18 points out that judgment and condemnation came on all through the disobedience of one. In contrast, justification is available to all (as a free gift) through (based on) one Man’s righteous act – Christ’s’ propitiation.

Those who are justified by faith have peace with God. The profundity of such a position can be measured by the gravity of its antithesis. Consider what it means not to have peace with God. The notion of a finite creature remaining by choice at odds and alienated from the infinite, loving Creator/Redeemer is a reality that can only be dealt with by denial. The One who stretched out the universe with a word and who holds it all together by His Word – the same One that gave up His life for ours – is a consuming fire and must necessarily judge sin. Not believing is tantamount to rejected, thus unappropriated propitiation resulting in, not justification, but condemnation (John 3:18).

To have peace with God, on the other hand, is to be in right relation to Him. His perfect holiness accepts us in Christ the Just, meaning He recognizes the believing sinner as just, fulfilling all claims which are right and becoming the character and purpose of God.  Because we are just, before God we cannot be charged with fault or defect. This means that it cannot be stated of us and we cannot be indicted for any accusation of being unacceptable for perfect eternal communion with holy God. Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Those who are justified are in a special and particular position of God’s protection and blessing – we are the elect – God’s own special people.  Our lives are hidden with Christ in God; His holiness, character and purpose are ours. We are the justified and there is not anything that can happen to change that.