Covenant Theology

The Doctrine of Salvation: Justification (Part 1)

Sermon Number Thirteen

April 18, 2010

by

Jim Bordwine

Introduction

As we are studying the doctrine of salvation within the framework of Covenant Theology, we presently are concerned with the ordo salutis, the order of salvation. You will recall that I explained that this phrase refers to the sequence and interrelation of those elements that make up our salvation. Ordo salutis is concerned with the logical explanation of what happens to a sinner when he is acted upon by the Holy Spirit, is brought to new life, and thereafter yields himself in loving service to God.

I also mentioned that, generally speaking, Covenant theologians see five parts to the order of salvation: effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification. These are the “parts” or “steps” of our salvation from beginning to end.

Concerning effectual calling, I noted that it is that act of God whereby, through the Holy Spirit, He awakens and draws the sinner, who previously is spiritually dead, into saving union with Christ. When we speak of God’s effectual call, therefore, we mean His supernatural activity in the heart of a sinner that enlivens that sinner’s dormant heart and enables him and causes him to respond to the gospel unto his salvation.

Additionally, I stated that the call is initiated by God the Father; He begins the work of applying the atonement provided by His Son to those that He has determined to save and give to the Son (this is indicated in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives Me shall come to me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”). Finally, we saw that the effectual call of God results in the sinner being brought to life, spiritually speaking, whereupon he embraces Christ as He is freely offered in the gospel.

The precise term for this result is “regeneration.” Regeneration, the spiritual awakening of the sinner by the Holy Spirit, is the immediate consequence of God’s call to salvation.

This brings us to the second part of the ordo salutis, which is justification by faith. Although I will explain the doctrine of justification by faith more precisely later in this sermon, at this point, due to the importance of this matter, I want to offer an overview of this teaching by referring to the Larger Catechism, Question 70:

What is justification?

Answer: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which He pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts 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.

There are three elements to notice in this definition of justification: first, justification involves a declaration of God concerning the sinner; second, the ground of this declaration is outside the sinner; third, it is implied that the sinner thereafter is in a state of favor, instead of a state of condemnation, as was previously true. Primarily, then, the doctrine of justification by faith has to do with the sinner’s standing before God.

In justification, God declares the sinner pardoned, or absolved of guilt, and righteous, not by counting anything in the sinner as worthy of merit, nor by infusing into the sinner a righteousness, but solely upon the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. This ground of justification is “outside” the sinner, so to speak, and is, by God’s grace, credited to the sinner. Justification leaves the sinner in a different and blessed relation with God.

In this sermon, I will treat this subject under three points: one, The Legal Nature of Justification; two, The Ground of Justification; and three, The State of Justification.

1. The Legal Nature of Justification

As I observed when quoting Question 70 of the Larger Catechism, justification involves a declaration by God concerning the sinner; this declaration does not involve a substantial change in the sinner himself, but in his relation to God. Moreover, this declaration is two-fold. God declares the sinner pardoned or free from guilt, and He declares the sinner righteous. This declaration of God is referred to as a “judicial” or “legal” pronouncement because it is concerned with the sinner’s state within the context of God’s holy standards.

Prior to God’s effectual call and regeneration, the sinner stands condemned before God. The sinner, in his fallen condition, is subject to the judgment of God that is promised to all law-breakers.

The Bible has much to say about man’s depravity; we, however, are concerned not so much with the how our sinful natures manifest themselves as we are with how we appear in the eyes of a holy God. Prior to his salvation, what relation has the sinner to God? In this regard, the Scriptures speak of sinners as standing condemned before their Creator; that is, the Bible teaches that fallen man bears a measure of guilt and that guilt separates him from God and makes him liable to God’s wrath.

In Rom. 5, where the apostle Paul is describing Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden and its subsequent effect upon the human race, he says that through one transgression, that is, the transgression of our father Adam, “there resulted condemnation to all men...” (v. 18) The word translated “condemnation” is a legal term that refers to the result of a judgment. The next verse says: “For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” (v. 19)

For now, I am interested in the first phrase of this verse, “...through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners...” The word translated “made” conveys the idea of being reckoned as something, as being counted as belonging to a particular category.

When Adam disobeyed God and broke covenant with his Creator, God rendered a judgment against Adam and, since Adam was our head or representative, against all of Adam’s descendants. Therefore, we are reckoned as transgressors, we are counted in the category of sinners by virtue of our father’s disobedience, even though we were not personally involved in the incident. Adam’s guilt was imputed to us and the proof of this is to be observed in our sinful natures.

It is important to note that it was not God’s judgment that made man worthy of God’s condemnation, it was man’s sin. God’s declaration of judgment against the human race was indicative of our relation to Him; after the fall, man was incapable of measuring up to the holy standards of His Maker. So, according to Paul, all men are in a state of condemnation prior to salvation.

In another passage, Gal. 3, Paul is writing about the Abrahamic covenant in which God promised to bless Abraham and, through the seed of the patriarch, to bring blessings to all the nations of the earth. As his explanation progresses, Paul explains that those who share in the Abrahamic covenant must exercise faith, like Abraham, in the promises of God; they cannot count on themselves for redemption, but must count on God’s word that He would bring it to pass.

In this context, the apostle reminds his readers that those who think that salvation comes by the keeping of law are gravely mistaken; no man is capable of keeping God’s Law perfectly because of our inherent sinful disposition. Therefore, since salvation cannot be earned, the only hope for sinners is God’s promise to give salvation to all who believe.

At this point, Paul adds that far from being our deliverer, the Law of God is our accuser: “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.’” (v. 10) The Law of God utters a curse against us, as it were, because, as sinners, we do not have the ability to render unto God the perfection that is mandated in that Law; not only this, but the Law stands ready to remind us of our depravity as it identifies as sin so much of what we think, say, and do.

Fallen man, then, is under the curse, or condemnation, of God’s holy standard. But then Paul writes: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us...” (v. 13) Clearly, then, this passage teaches that, prior to salvation, the sinner stands condemned before his Creator, worthy only of God’s wrath; it is the work of Jesus Christ that makes possible the lifting of this curse.

One final text will conclude this brief study of the sinner’s condemnation. In Col. 2, Paul presents the finished work of the God-Man in opposition to a false and dangerous teaching that made salvation, at least partly, a matter of man’s own achievements. As the apostle speaks of Christ, he describes the work of atonement and explains to his readers just what Christ did for them: “And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He [God] made you alive together with Him [Christ], having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (vv. 13, 14)

Notice that Paul mentions “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us...” This is, again, a reference to the perfect standard of God by which all men, because they are sinners, are condemned. This “certificate of debt” pointed to our guilt, it identified us as transgressors by nature and practice. Paul says to the Colossians that this sentence of condemnation remained in force until it was taken out of the way by Christ’s work on the cross. That is, prior to their call unto salvation, the Colossians, like all men, existed in a state of reproach; they had been judged by God and declared guilty.

What do we learn from these passages? We learn that fallen man, when measured against God’s standard, is found wanting; he lacks that righteousness that the Law of God embodies. And not only does he lack the righteousness embodied in God’s Law, which is itself a reflection of God’s character, but the sinner also bears a measure of guilt which he inherited from his father Adam and which has been compounded by his own acts of lawlessness.

The sentence of condemnation that we find in Scripture is a judicial or legal pronouncement. As I stated before, the declaration of God regarding the sinner’s status is not what makes the sinner wicked; God’s declaration is His lawful determination of how the sinner is related to Him.

Now, then, it must be asked, If God’s pronouncement of the sinner’s condemnation is correct, how can such a sentence ever be lifted? The answer to this question is found in something that I have been emphasizing, viz., that fallen man’s condemnation is a matter of a legal or judicial declaration by God; the same is true of his justification.

The lifting of the verdict of condemnation, which is one of the things that happens when the sinner is justified, occurs when God pronounces that the sinner, formally indicted by the holy Law of God and, therefore, subject only to the wrath of God, is now free from that state and exists in a different relation to God.

This new standing is one of acceptance before God, the Judge of all the earth. It remains, therefore, for us to study a few passages in which the nature of God’s declaration of justification is shown to be a legal or judicial pronouncement, just like the declaration of our condemnation.

I will begin by returning to Rom. 5:18, 19: “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.” As I stated previously, Paul is describing Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden and its subsequent effect upon the human race; he also is describing the work of Christ, the second Adam, and how that work of atonement restores what was lost in Adam.

Adam’s transgression resulted in all of his descendants being found in a state of condemnation. We were “constituted” or “counted as” sinners by Adam’s disobedience because he was our covenant representative. By contrast, the second Adam’s obedience resulted in a change of status for those belonging to Him. In Christ, the condemned sons of Adam become the justified sons of God. And so, in the second phrase of Rom. 5:19, we read: “...even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.”

Again, the word translated “made” refers to a declaration, to a categorizing. Because Christ is our covenant representative in salvation, we have attributed to us whatever He earns. God’s original declaration of condemnation is replaced by a new declaration of justification.

Another passage, also in Romans, is found at the beginning of chapter eight: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (vv. 1, 2) Paul spends the first part of the epistle to the Romans establishing the condemnation of all men, Jew and Gentile. He then begins his explanation of just how those who are condemned can be justified before a holy God; we just examined part of that argument from chapter five. The immediate context of the above verses is Paul’s testimony regarding his personal struggle with the remnants of sin in his flesh in spite of his redeemed condition.

With this lengthy background, the apostle proclaims that those who have been called by God into union with Christ no longer stand condemned in the sight of God. The declaration of guilt and liability to God’s wrath are removed once the sinner is united by faith with the Savior. The sentence of condemnation, so clearly portrayed in the passages we examined earlier, is lifted when the sinner is called and regenerated by God. What we must understand is that a judicial declaration of condemnation can only be set aside by another judicial declaration of acceptance.

This is what Paul means when he writes: “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” The curse of the Law is removed when the sinner is brought to faith in Christ. This is a glorious thought, a marvelous doctrine; in Christ Jesus, we who were once condemned, alienated from our Creator, giving every evidence of our depravity and bound for eternal darkness are pronounced righteous!

Earlier, I mentioned that the legal declaration made of the sinner upon his justification is two-fold: God declares the sinner pardoned and He declares the sinner righteous. We’ve seen that Scripture teaches plainly that justification involves the removal of our original sentence of death; thereby we know that God does pronounce us free from guilt when we are saved. Before concluding this first point, I must show Biblical evidence of the second part of this two-fold declaration, viz., that our salvation also involves God’s judgment that we are righteous in His sight.

To complete this study of the legal nature of justification, therefore, I want to refer briefly to a couple of passages that show the connection between God’s pronouncement of the sinner as righteous and the work of Christ (this matter will be fully developed under the second point). The righteousness that the sinner receives or, to be more precise, the righteousness that the sinner has credited to him, belongs to our Savior, Jesus Christ; and it is His righteousness to which God has respect when He declares a sinner acceptable.

In 2 Cor. 5:21, we read: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” In our union with Christ, we have credited to us His perfect obedience, His flawless righteousness; and, in turn, our sin, our guilt by which we have come under God’s condemnation, is credited to Christ. He bears our sin as His own and God attributes His righteousness to us as our own.

The lifting of the sentence of condemnation, which is brought about by Christ’s payment of His life, leaves us free from guilt, but we still lack that righteousness that we must have if we are to dwell comfortably with God. Consequently, not only is Christ’s payment for sin credited to our account, but also His perfection is credited to our account. Thereafter, God declares us guilt-free and righteous.

Another passage that emphasizes this aspect of our justification is found in 1 Cor. 6. In this chapter, Paul exhorts the Corinthians to behave in a more godly manner toward one another. Their behavior, in some areas, resembled that of the pagans. Therefore, the apostle writes: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.” (vv. 9-11)

Take note of what Paul says about these Corinthians: some were one thing, but now they are another; some once were numbered among the most vile of offenders, but now they were numbered among the redeemed of God. Their conversion brought about a change in status; they were condemned due to their sin, but now they were “washed, sanctified and justified” in Christ Jesus. Through His inspired writer, God announces that the condemnation of the Corinthians had been removed and in its place was a divine declaration of righteousness due to their relation with the Savior.

There is still much to cover in this study of the doctrine of justification. As mentioned, the second point of this sermon will develop more fully the Ground of Justification and the third point will expand on some of the material just cited as we consider the blessings associated with the State of Justification.

Application

In the application, I must call your attention to the fact that our appreciation for our salvation depends directly upon our comprehension of what God has done for us. The Scripture’s witness against us as sinners is indisputable; it is devastating and leaves us helpless and hopeless apart from the grace of our loving God. Consider our plight, consider that we stood condemned before a holy God. Consider that His perfect character revealed our corruption at every turn. Remember the force of those several passages that we examined in which fallen man’s condemnation is so clearly portrayed.

Understand that God’s perfect standard reveals every last speck of our sin, every last bit of that depravity that infests our souls. And yet, that same God whose holiness we offended, whose character we despised, has declared us justified; He has undertaken to deliver us from a state of damnation into a state of acceptance. Given that these things are true, and we know they are true because they are found in God’s Word, there are two points that I would offer for your meditation.

First, we should be the most grateful, the most thankful, and the most humble creatures in all of God’s universe. No other creature of God knows the forgiving and justifying grace of the Creator. No other creature of God knows the movement of the Holy Spirit that brings life from death. No other creature of God knows the joy of pardon or the gladness of eternal life or the thrill of being set free from sin. No other creature of God knows what it is like to have despair exchanged for hope, fear exchanged for courage, or aimlessness exchanged for purpose. Our salvation is so ordered that God receives all the glory for the magnificent accomplishment known as our redemption.

Once in a while, we should examine our hearts to see just how well we are expressing our gratefulness, our thanksgiving and our humility. Occasionally, we should examine our minds to ensure that we have not been influenced by the false teaching that what we have in Christ is our doing. We need to be ever vigilant because the modern Church has embraced views of salvation that would rob God of His glory, views that would make the sinner responsible, at least in some measure, for his righteous standing before God.

As I mentioned last week, one of the most influential movements in which it is being taught that the sinner does assist in maintaining his righteous standing before God is to be found right in our own Reformed backyard. I’m referring to Federal Vision theology. This system declares that there is more to your perseverance in the faith than God’s declaration alone. It is taught that you have an indispensable part to play—not in merely living out the implications of your justification, which we would not object to—but a part to play in maintaining that standing of justification before God.

I say again, therefore, this subject is of much more than historical importance. We have not reached the point in history where the essential gospel is going unchallendged—no, not even in our own Reformed community. I’ll get into this issue more when we come to the ground of our justification, but for now, understand that what we are currently studying is absolutely vital and relevant for your walk before God and for the wellbeing of the Church of Jesus Christ at this point in history.

It is my conviction that no sinner who listens intently to the Scriptures can long believe that he is to be credited with his salvation. No sinner who knows the Word of God can remain confident of his ability to render unto God what God requires. On the contrary, every man, every woman, every child that hears the teaching of Scripture will be struck with a sense of relief when they realize the state from which they have been delivered. And this sense of relief is manifested through our undying gratefulness to the God of heaven, our unceasing thanksgiving to the Lord of our salvation and our sure humility before the Judge of all the earth. Yes, we should be the most grateful, the most thankful and the most humble creatures in all of God’s universe.

Second, we should be the most dedicated, the most faithful and the most sincere servants of God in all His universe. No other creature of God knows what it is like to learn that God gave His only begotten Son for his sake. There is no other creature of God who has received so much while being so undeserving. There is no other creature of God who, while lifting a rebellious fist toward heaven has heard the soothing words of the gospel, words that brought peace, safety and contentment. There is no other creature of God who can point to such obvious expressions of the Creator’s love and good intentions.

Only fallen man, only we who were dead in our trespasses and sins and who have tasted of God’s salvation know these things; only we who have been shown the light of the gospel as we stumbled around in the darkness of sin know just how wonderfully our God has loved us and just how rich has been His mercy toward us.

What kind of people ought we to be in light of these things? Ought we to be selfish people or people interested only in our own comfort and our own achievements? Or should we be servants of the Most High God? Should we not be followers of the One who was given for us so that the sentence of condemnation hanging over our miserable heads could be lifted? Should we not be disciples of God’s Son, the Son who gave us the supreme example of self-sacrifice and servanthood?

What can people like us be, people who have been delivered from eternal death, except slaves to the God who justifies the ungodly? Take a look at your life, your priorities, your familywhat do you see? What does your life say about how you are responding to the gift of justification? Consider what you have received and you will agree, I’m sure, that we should be the most dedicated, the most faithful and the most sincere servants of God in all His universe.

We should not let ourselves forget what we were or how we appeared in the eyes of God before our justification. The key to being properly thankful to God for what He has done and the key to establishing and maintaining the heart of a servant before the Lord are one and the same. The key is learning and thereafter pondering what our heavenly Father has done for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. The Christian who routinely refreshes his mind and heart with the knowledge of God’s rescue of him from a sentence of condemnation is the Christian whose whole life is an honor to God.

Prayer

Sacrament of Baptism

Hymn for communion

Conclusion

Displayed before us are bread and wine, symbols of the body and blood of our Savior. These symbols were appointed by Christ Himself as a means of instruction, encouragement and hope. This sacrament is a demonstration of God’s love for us that brought about the life, death and resurrection of His Son for our sakes. As you receive these elements, think about what God has done for you; consider the loud accusation of God’s Law, a voice that could not be silenced by any man or any effort; then consider the One who delivered us from the curse of the Law and silenced forever that condemning voice by becoming a curse for us.

Matthew 26:26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”