Justification is by Faith

“but now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known…

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace

through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” Rom 3:21, 23-24

God the Father sits in His courtroom behind the bench.  The bench is so elevated you cannot even see Him.  His credentials hang on the bench in front of you.  Nervously you begin reading: Perfect in Holiness (Lev 11:44; Ps 145:17; Mt 5:48; Rev 4:8, 15:4; 1 Pet 1:15-16; Isa 6:3), Righteous Judge (2 Tim 4:8; Ps 11:7, Jn 17:25, Isa 45:21; Jer 23:6), Just Judge (Ge 18:25; Isa 30:8; Job 34:12; Ps 103:6; 146:7), the Truth (Ex 34:6; Nu 23:19,\; Rev 16:7), Omniscient (Ps 147:5, 139:1-4; Heb 4:13, 11:36; 1 Jn 3:20), Omnipotent (Ps 115:3; 135:6; Lk 1:37; Jer 32:17), Omnipresent (Ps 139:7-8; Heb 13:5; Mt 28:20; Deut 31:6), Good (1 Chr 16:34; Nah 1:7; Ps 25:7, 34:8, 100:5, 145:9), Impartial ( 2 Chr 19:7; Dt 10:17; Acts 10:34-35; Rom 2:6, 2:11)  and on and on it goes.  Your eyes begin to blur and you cannot even begin to take it all in.

It slowly begins to dawn on you that you are seated in the presence of ABOSOLUTE PERFECTION.  There is a distinct sinking feeling from deep inside you.  Your own soul which seemed almost white to you before now is fading to a deep gray and then to utter blackness as you realize the incredible holiness in front of you.  Suddenly you remember your utter wretchedness; the deeds of your childhood come flooding in on you and then your adult life as well—and these were deeds for which you “knew better.”  The certainty of your sentence begins to weigh on you.  There is no way—no hope—that you could even begin to compare to His holiness.  You are, without-a-doubt, a law-breaker.  And you are very aware that it is His law you have broken. 

The Attorney’s door opens and in walks Jesus, alone (Rom 8:33-34; Isa 50:8-9).  Wait a minute, this cannot be right…isn’t Satan supposed to be the prosecutor?  Jesus walks over to your table and sits with you.  You rise to your feet as the bailiff announces the case, your case, he utters your name and then chimes in, a little too happy for your liking, “ vs. the Law of Almighty God.  Most Highly Exalted Father God, Creator of all that is, Sovereign Ruler over all, Omnipotent Potentate¸ and Righteous Judge presiding.” As Father God enters, your heart sinks as does your posture, in fact, you feel very week in the knees.  As you collapse into your seat and the trial starts, Jesus looks at you with a smile and then approaches the bench.  “Father this one is written in the book of life for this one has believed in me.” (Ex 32:32; Dt 29:20, Da 12:1; Mal 3:16; Lk 10:20: Rev 3:5, 20:12, 15)  The book is opened and your name is found.  You’ll never forget the Father’s next words as He makes pronouncement on the case—you have been justified by belief in Jesus Christ who has given you His own righteousness…You have been pronounced Righteous.  Praise the Lord!

In order to understand justification, we must first understand what is meant by the word “righteousness.”  “The NT [New Testament] uses righteousness in the sense of conformity to the demands and obligations of the will of God, the so-called ‘righteousness of the law.’”¹  “Righteousness is conceived as judged by the standard of God’s holy law, which is derived from His holy character…”²  So righteousness is the absolute conformity to God’s law and character (His holiness); it is to be faultless or guiltless.³

Interestingly, the Greek root word “dik” conveys “the essential idea of righteousness, or rightness.”⁴  Several Greek words use this same root. The Greek word for “righteousness” is “dikaiosyne” which means “the quality of rightness or justice”⁵  The Greek verb “dikaioo” means “to justify.”⁶  The Greek noun “dikaiosis” means “the act of making right, or justification.”⁷ So we seek the ideas of justification and righteousness are tied closely together.  The verb “dikaioo” is commonly used when speaking of justifying and it means “to acquit,” “to vindicate” or “to pronounce righteous.”⁸  In Romans, Paul evokes a scene from a courtroom in which God sits as judge on the judgment seat of God and makes the case for justification by faith. 

21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-- 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.  – Rom 3:21-26

The tenants of the case are as follows: (Please look up these Scriptures.)

1. God is just.  (He always does what is right.)  – Rom 3:26
2. The law makes us conscious of our sin.  – Rom 3:20
3. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (no one conforms absolutely to God’s law and character—no one is faultless or guiltless).  – Rom 3:23
4. No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.  – Rom 3:20
5. God is righteous.  – Rom 3:21
6. Man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.  – Rom 3:28
7. God is the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.  – Rom 3:26
8. God gives His righteousness to those who through faith in Jesus Christ trust in His atoning sacrifice as payment for their sins.  – Rom 3:22; 4:5; Phil 3:9

So justification is the process by which—through God’s redemption, freely by His grace—righteousness is imputed (or credited) to those who believe in Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement for their sins.  – Rom 3:22,24-25; 4:21-25; 2 Cor 5:21

“Justification is the judicial aspect of the conversion experience in which the believer is viewed from God’s perspective.  God the Father, because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, imputes, or credits the righteousness of Christ to the believer. Paul says this “credited righteousness” is not really our own, but is Christ’s (Php 3:9).  God the Father sees believers wrapped in the perfect righteousness of Christ.  This is what allows God to accept mortals in his heaven—since no one can ever be good enough to merit heaven.  The term justification is best understood in the analogy of a courtroom.  Jesus Christ is our advocate, or attorney, who is able to present us before the Father as being credited with his righteousness.”⁹

Footnotes

¹ Milne, B. A. "Rigtheousness." The New Bible Dictionary. Second ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962. 1031. Print.

² Buswell, JR., James Oliver. "Rigtheousness." The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Pub. House, 1967. 723. Print.

³ Leitch, A. H. "Righteousness." The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Vol. 5. Grand Rapids: Regency Reference Library, 1976. 104. Print.

⁴ Buswell, 723.

⁵ Buswell, 723.

⁶ Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. "Romans, Letter to the." Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998. 735. Print.

⁷ Buswell, 723.

⁸ Richards, Larry. "Justify/Justification." Expository Dictionary of Bible Words. Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1985. 373. Print.

⁹ Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. "Biblical Words for Salvation." Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. 1733. Print.

References

All Scriptures not otherwise specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

God is Omnipotent

“Our God is in heaven: he does whatever pleases him”

Psalm 115:3, 135:6

“For nothing is impossible with God."

Luke 1:37

God is omnipotent; all powerful, almighty, source of all power.  In A. W. Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer points out that God is infinite and therefore His power is limitless.  He further points out that God is the self-sufficient Creator and therefore is the source of all power.¹  Since the source must be at least equal to the power emanating from it, God is equal to all the power there is.

God is Sovereign.  That is to say He does whatever pleases Him.  He cannot be Sovereign without having all power and He cannot have all power unless He is Sovereign.  Tozer writes further that “God possesses what no other creature can: an incomprehensible plenitude of power, a potency that is absolute.”²

Here we must pause for a moment and consider just what it means to be omnipotent.  God is not just the source of power but He controls all power.  For Him there is nothing harder or requiring more effort than anything else.  He can do one thing as easily as anything else.  He sustains the universe which He created and set in motion.  Tozer (in Knowledge of the Holy) and C. S. Lewis (in Mere Christianity) both point out that science’s job is to observe the faithfulness of how God routes His power through creation.  To understand that God created gravity, aerodynamics, the law of lift, the laws physics, these are to understand how God has designed His power to work in creation.  To understand the periodic table of the elements is simply to understand some of the attributes God designed into what He created.  Science observes the faithfulness of God’s power in creation and then calls it the law of gravity, the law of lift, the law of centrifugal force, etc.  These things are all God’s power displayed faithfully in the world. 

Tozer states, “God has delegated power to His creatures, but being self-sufficient, He cannot relinquish anything of His perfections and power being one of them, He has never surrendered the lease iota of his power.  He gives but does not give away.”³  God in His sovereignty has decided to allow us a limited amount of power which He has granted to us.  Note that He has determined the start of this power, the duration of this power, the end of this power and the amount of this power.  To give someone a piece of that which is infinite is not to diminish the infinite at all as it is by definition never ending and incomprehensible.  So the math works like this: infinite subtract 1 is still infinite.  Infinite subtract and comprehensible number is still infinite.  In the same fashion, God has delegated to us a measure of power, yet compared to His own, it is unintelligibly tiny. 

We tend to over-exaggerate our place and power in the universe.  Compared to the known universe we are less than the smallest sub-atomic particle is to us.  God, on the other hand, is bigger than the universe, actually created the universe, and continues to uphold it to this day.  We are the single grain of sand in oceans of desert.  Yet God has seen fit to acknowledge us and, even more astounding, to sacrifice Himself for us. He left behind, or more properly, set aside His perfect power (Phil 2) and allowed Himself to become human and submit to death on our behalf.  One grain of sand in the oceans of desert found worthy of utter sacrifice by the maker of the sand.  He has given what only He could give, Himself, to redeem us.  Now He makes available to us the same power which He exerted in Christ to raise Him from the dead (Eph 1:19-20, Rom 8:11). Now if that was not enough, He also promises to take the mistakes we make and turn them around for good as well (Rom 8:28).  Only an infinitely powerful God could cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him.

John Paul Jackson pointed out an essential difference between God and Satan.  God has limitless power.  Satan has limited power.  We are when placing God and Satan on opposite ends of the scale comparing the infinite with the finite.  This is to say, God is infinitely more powerful than Satan.  Yes, Satan has limited supernatural power and we should not trifle with him, but we must also understand who our Daddy is.  He is the one whom no one can defeat.  He is the victorious warrior.  He is the one who rules Sovereign over the universe, indeed over all that is.  His power is unfathomable.  His deeds are incredible.  Rest secure, my friend, Father is in control.  This reality will end in a moment when He peals back the sky like a scroll and sends His Son for us.  We know we have a God whose hand is not too short to reach us, to redeem us, to restore us.  There is no foe who can stand in His way.  There is no one and nothing more powerful than He.

"Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” - Jeremiah 32:17.  I would like to challenge you to read Job chapters 38-40 and Isaiah chapter 40 at this point.  Go ahead.  Yup set this right down and pick up your Bible.  The rest of this can wait.  Have you finished?  Okay.  Doesn’t that give you new perspective?  Then we can join the heavenly multitude shouting “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns” (Rev 19:6) and also with Job in 42:2 saying, "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.”

Footnotes

¹ Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. 65. Print.

² Tozer. 65.

³ Tozer. 66.

References

All Scriptures not specified are quoted from Life in the Spirit Study Bible (NIV). Stamps, Donald C., and John Wesley Adams. Life in the Spirit Study Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003. Print.

Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. Audio.

Tozer, A. W. The Knowledge of the Holy: the Attributes of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper & Row, 1961. Print.