Justification before God is achieved solely through faith in Christ, not by works or human merit. This doctrine, central to the Reformation, means that believers are declared righteous, as if they had never sinned, because Christ's sinless life and atoning sacrifice are imputed to them. The need for justification arises from humanity's ungodly state, and its source is God's grace, with the blood of Jesus Christ satisfying divine justice. The instrument of this salvation is faith, which brings peace with God and acceptance in Christ.
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And verse sixteen read this last Sunday, and we'll see it again for next. Romans one sixteen, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Now this next verse is the one that began the Greek Reformation under Mark and Luther. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith.
And that was the battle cry of the church. Now there were some things, three main things, that the Martin Luther established. three truths from the New Testament that he established at the time of the Great, to deliver Great Reformation. The first thing was that these things had been buried under the ritual, formality, tradition, for centuries. And Martin Luther was raised up of God along with other men, and this one truth shook all that formality and ritual and tradition to it very healed.
And the first one was, a man is justified by faith alone. The just shall live by faith. The second remarkable truth that has emphasis in the New Testament is, every believer is a priest with direct access to God. apart from tradition. Well, that's a remarkable thing. Every believer is a priest and has direct access to God through Christ. We'll read that, that we have one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
It's not necessary for you to go through any other individual, The Lord Jesus Christ and him alone gives us access into the presence of God, and every believer can worship God in the Spirit and in truth. And as one of those verses were referred to, we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, having no confidence in the flesh. And to put any confidence in anyone other than Christ in your access to God is to put confidence in the flesh. No man, no cardinal, no poet, no Christ and Christ alone is the one mediator, the one to whom every Christian has access into the presence of God.
He needs no assistance. Jesus Christ alone is sufficient to give every Christian access into the presence of God. He says, I am the door by me if any man entered in. He shall go in and out and find passage. Here is a Christian going in and coming out and going in and coming out in his fellowship with God. He needs no other introduction. Christ is enough. And the third remarkable truth, the Bible, apart from tradition, is the sole source of faith and authority for the Christian.
Not tradition. Not the word of men. But the word of God alone. That's our sole authority. It's not the voice of the church. It's the voice of the living God. given to us in our Bible. I'm appealing now with the Church and the New Testament. So these are the three main points that were introduced, emphasized, and propagated from the Great Reformation on. And I'll go over them so you'll remember them. The first one is man is justified or saved by faith.
day by day. Then again, every believer is a priest with direct access to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And third, the word of God is our sole ground of authority in our approach to God, independence, or tradition, or the words of men. Now we're through this first one. Man is justified by faith. Let us think of the word and meaning of justification. What does justification mean?
Just as if I've never sinned. You're clear of all blame, having no connection with the crime. You're innocent. For instance, if a man were to come before a local judge, And he was charged with some crime, and there was supposed to be witnesses to this crime. And after the judge heard the case thoroughly, listened to all the evidence, and he could see clearly because of the conflict of the witnesses and the contradictions, this man is absolutely innocent.
He had no connection whatsoever with this crime. The judge should say, I exonerate you. You're justified. You're cleared of all involvement. You're cleared of all blame. He wouldn't say, well, after hearing the evidence, I'll pardon you. The man could retort, pardon me for what? I didn't do anything. Well, I warn you. What are you talking about? You don't warn me. I had nothing to do with that. There's only one verdict the judge could give.
This man is absolutely innocent. He's justified. We have no doubt whatsoever with this crime. The word justice, that's what it is. And how wonderful that you read this language. And I want you to listen to it in Romans four five. You ask the question, how can a guilty man be justified? It says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
And so the ungodly are justified. Why you say that seems strange. How can you justify? an ungodly man. Well, simply means this. When a man accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal being, he is a new creature. All things have passed away. All things have become new. He has looked upon in the sight of God as a new creature entirely. Isn't it wonderful to think that God can look upon a person who's day as a new creature entirely, having had a new beginning without sin before God?
That's how God sees every born-again Christian. He is seen as innocent, having never sinned. How is it? Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ never sinned. He did no sin. He was without sin. And when I have Christ, God sees Christ. He doesn't see that old, sinful, ungodly man, lest he will. He sees Christ, and Christ never sees. Christ never was guilty. That's the only way an ungodly person would be justified.
is because God sees them now in Jesus Christ. Nicodemus, remember what the Lord said to him, except the man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus was an old man. He had to be born spiritually. And when he was born spiritually, and those of us here, through our faith tonight, we were born spiritually when we received Christ. We had a new beginning. Old things. The old ungodly person. The old sinful, guilty person. Passed away.
A new beginning. And this new man in Christ who stands before God justifies. To me that's one of the most marvelous truths I wish all Christians was yet a whole lot. First of all, there's a need for justification. A number of things, a need of justification, its source, its basis, and the instrument. The need of justification, in Romans four, five, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
The sinner is ungodly. No person of God. No part good. Just as Christ has no sin and no part wrong. So the sinner is ungodly. No part good. Impossible to do good. He's away from God. He's guilty. Condemned before them. So you have the few questions. ungodly sinners, the righteous, sinless son of God. There you have to be. And so the need of a person being saved, the need of a person being justified because we're guilty.
We're guilty. We're condemned before God. So I certainly need to be justified or cleared of all blame, all involvement in sin, And you want to further evidence, read Romans three. You want to see man's need for justification. But what is the source of all this? In Romans three, twenty-four, you read these remarkable words. Being justified freely by his grace. Here is the source of justification. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Then again...
You have Romans eight and thirty-three. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justified. Here is the judge of the universe. He looks at a born-again Christian, and he challenges at anyone to bring up charge against that born-again Christian. God does. God says, who shall lay any charge to one of my elect? Those who have been born again. How safe and secure the Christian is. Then again you have another one.
In Romans eight and thirty. Whom he called them he also justified. And whom he justified. Then he also glorified. God looked upon the born again Christian, not only justified, but the finished product glorified. Now if God has done this, who could change? And so we find man's need of being justified because he's ungodly. The source of this justification is is God's sovereign grace.
How wonderful that God in grace could devise a plan whereby he could maintain his righteousness, punish sin, yet pardon the sinner, and justify him forever, and take him to heaven a finished product just like his son. What amazing things. Furthermore, you have the basis of this remarkable justification. Romans five nine. Romans five nine, you have this. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we have been saved from last year.
You have the need of justification. Man's ungodly. The source of justification. or justification in God himself is great. And remember this, that all man's sin is against God. All of it. You all know the sad story of David. And what did David say in his penitential Psalm, Psalm fifty-one, against these? See, only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. David, you sinned against Tartibar. You sinned against Uriah, the husband you hadn't put to death.
Oh, yes. But that insignificant compared to my sin against God. I've outraged God. Against thee the only, have I sinned and done this evil in thyself. So God is the one that has been sinned against, and he's the one that has the right to forgive. The offended one justifies the offender. None of them are together. God is the offended one, and he is able to justify the offender. After justice is satisfied, the basis of that justification, of the basis of that satisfaction, on God's side, is the blood of Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, friend of us from all over. And the very blood of Christ enables God to come out and be just, and yet the justifier, the pin that believeth in Jesus. How remarkable these things are. Sin must be punished, for God can clear me of my death. Before God can pardon all my transgress, before I can be justified, as an ungodly sinner, before I can be cleared of all ways, justice must be satisfied, sin must be punished, and it was when Jesus Christ took my places.
died in my stead. He's the one that faced the righteous God with my ungodliness. He's the one that faced God with all my sin and guilt and temptation. He's the one that my sin is punished in Jesus' life. After dealing with sin and judgment, God can deal with the sinner in grace. That's the mark. after God has dealt with me and my sin in judgment as he did at the cross, now he can turn around and deal with me in grace.
God says in the beginning, I said of the soul that sineth it shall die, and that soul's sin was made on Jesus Christ, who his own shall bear our sin in his own body on the tree, And so my righteous requirement, my holy character that has been satisfied, I punish sin. I punish the substitute, and I now can turn around to the one who committed all those sins and say you're justified. I'm satisfied. And that's the only way you can be justified in the sight of God.
A just God. and the Savior. Read that over in Isaiah. Yes. Isaiah, verse forty-five, twenty-one. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior? There is none beside me. A just God and a Savior. Had he saved man without providing a sacrifice, he wouldn't be just.
He would be letting sin go unpunished. Had God not punished him, he couldn't be a Savior. The only way he could be a Savior was to punish sin and be just and do it. God was done. He said, the soul that's in a little doubt, Lord, I'm going to punish you. But he punished my substitute instead. And after dealing with Christ, because my sins were laid upon him, now says God that grandest and clear, I can come out in perfect righteousness and justify the guilt of sin.
If sin isn't paid for upon us, now I'm free to justify the guilty and remain just in doing a just God and the Savior. Seeing this is so, look what happens to the one who reject this transduction. That same happens in Isaiah forty-five. He says, after a just God and a Savior, there is none beside him. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else.
There is absolutely no other way to be saved, except this way that God has used. Next verse. I have sworn by myself, The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, but unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue in death. God said, if you won't accept my plan of redemption, a legal transaction, how a guilty person can be made righteous.
because I took the sinner's sins and laid them upon my sinless son. I punished that sinner's sins when I punished my son. And because my son paid the fine, paid the penalty, my righteousness is satisfied, I can turn around and change the sin. God says if you do that, you're going to acknowledge in the day of judgment that it was a righteous transaction and you're going to compose it unto me every means of life and every tongue and check the glory of God the Father.
How wonderful is this wonderful transaction? Then again, instrument of justice. Romans five one. over Romans one of these fifties were therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ over these four points the need of justification because we're ungodly then the source of that justification the grace of God the basis of that justification God could only manifest his grace when justice is satisfied in the blood of Christ.
And then the instrument by which this wonderful salvation is mine by faith. Therefore being justified by faith. In other words, we have peace withdrawn to our Lord Jesus Christ. How could you have peace? unless you knew you were cleared of all hell. You couldn't have been. That's a wonderful thing. I know I'm cleared of all and bones in Adam's awful sin and my own sin after I was born until I was saved.
Now I have peace about the whole world. I'm justified before God. I have peace, therefore, being justified by faith. I have peace right now in this world. After this moment, I have peace. This whole thing has been settled before the Lord to his satisfaction. Christ also at once suffered for sin. Be the just, for medium just, that I might be brought to God. Isn't that simple? Verse three to three eighteen. Christ also at once suffered for the sin.
He'll never suffer again. He once suffered for sin. He the just one, for me the unjust one, that the unjust one might be brought to God. Isn't that simple? That's what the Bible teaches. And it's true that also in Acts, verse thirteen, thirty-eight and thirty-nine... Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.
The law can't justify a man. The law can only aggravate his condition and call for punishment. The law demands death. So we can't be justified by the law. It only amplifies our belief. The Lord Jesus satisfied the law. He kept it in his life, and he bore its curse in Jesus. Another remarkable verse, over in Isaiah fifty-three, eleven. He shall see of the purgain of his soul, and be satisfied.
The Lord Jesus will look upon the travail of his soul all that it is. And he's going to be satisfied. Now listen to these words. For by his knowledge, the knowledge of Christ, shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall dare their next. The Lord Jesus will look upon the travail of his soul all that it is. Because of his knowledge, He justified, he cleared of all things, many for he wore their commissaries. How wonderful is this marvelous transaction of justification?
Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sin. In every distress, Christ was proclaimed holy, sinless. for the mouth of man and demon, even the demons that we know thee, the holy one of God. Pilate had to say, I am innocent of the blood of his justice. Christ was proclaimed innocent, holy, right, the son of God, by demons, and by men. He was the holy one, the righteous.
All we, Greer, all we are, was imputed to the Lord Jesus when he was on the cross, but all he was and is, and forever he was imputed to us when we suffered this. Can you take that in? All that I was, Thought, filthy, undone, and ungodly was imputed to Jesus Christ, for when he was on the path, when I received him, all he walked and is, sinless, was imputed to me. I became a new creature, Christ in me, the hope of Lord.
We are accepted in Christ. Remember, Mark says, we are clean every whip. God's Word is talking about us. Excepted in Christ, we clean every whip, we're perfect in Him. These are Bible verses. As He is, so are we in this world. Now, this is what God is doing. And don't forget this, that every member of His body is exactly what Christ himself is before God. sinless. That's where we're born again first.
If I'm born again, I'm remembered of his body, and I've seen before God just as Jesus Christ was she. Sinless, holy, righteous, undivided. I didn't just do that. In Christ, cleared of all flame and baldness, what I was before I found the sea. This is the only way the guilty can be justified. Justice is all that we wear and is has been blotted out before God.
God says I've blotted out and if it's a virus, I can't get it. every head can blot it out. The sky is blue. There's not even a little flower, let alone a bigger. There's not even a flayton flower. The sky is perfectly blue. The sun is shining bright. God says, I blot it out. There's a thick flower by the time of grace. And of the cloud, my ship, will turn unto me. clearest of all things. So that's the remarkable question.
How can man be justified before God and he that is born of a woman be seen? So that that question is the oldest writer in the Bible. It's possible, Joseph. How can man be just before God? And how will he that is born of a woman be true? For good news, you were born in sin. Well, they've already gone over the draw on how this can be done. But him that worship not, but believe upon him that just defied the ungodly, his faith is counted for right.
God has paid the debtor. He punished my sin. When he punished his son, he took my place and suffered in my sin for that sin. I didn't pay it. He did. But I did the benefit of it. Because I didn't pay it. Also another thing. By grace, are you saved from faith? And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of law, not a work that any man should vote. It is easy to recognize. Now, leave not plain enough, and not one before the while ago in Acts thirty.
We were justified to Christ, and we could not be what justified by the law of war. The law of curses are great blessings. You know, You cannot justify yourself. He was a man in the Bible who cried that over in Luke, then. He being the lawyer, he being the justice, willing, he being willing to justify or anxious to justify himself, said, and who, my neighbors? The Lord told him the story of the good Samaritan. If you want to get to heaven on the face of your work, do what the good Samaritan did.
That silenced him. He was willing to justify himself. The people today and they try to justify themselves before God by their good works, their law-keeping, their ordinances, their giving of money, their praying, their penance, and their morals. They're trying to justify themselves before God who can do it. The more they attempt to justify themselves, the more their guilt rises in all that's guilt before God. No man can justify himself. No man buys money, his work.
Even by laying down his own life, he can't put his sins in him. God won't accept the sinful sacrifice. It's got to be a sin. you cannot justify yourself. No man can justify me. I don't care who. Also, there are those who will seek to justify themselves before men. They know they're trying to get away with us before God. But they're trying to justify themselves before men, like one that over me, sixteen and fifty. In other words, these are the kind of people who want other folks to believe that they are Christians, then they know they are not right with God.
And if you want to hold this, as we have heard this morning, this man's religion is changed. How wonderful to know that God... that he would have just saw demanding full payment, demanding thirty-six inches of the yard and sixteen ounces of the pound. God demanded the uttermost piling, and he came. He demanded it. His requirements were met when Jesus Christ took all my sins, all I want, and he suffered for those sins.
He poured them on the cross, and he thought he did. God says, now my laws have been met, my demands have been satisfied. I've upheld the requirements of my throne by punishing a sinless man. Now every sinful man to accept that sinless substitute, I will justify. And freedom of all things, I will see him in my son. in whom there it knows is. For Jesus Christ is the only one in the unique universe of God that God securely justified without sacrifice.
That only he can be justified because of his sacrifice. He did no sin without sacrifice. He was not involved in any sin. The only involvement Christ had was when he involved himself with you and me. And if he did it in death, the sacrifice, his power system, he became involved in man's sin. And if he bore our sins in his own body and the flesh, how wonderful he was wounded for our transgressors, he was true for our mix.
castor that our sin deserves is laid upon him to be frightened. I am he, I am justified, cleared of all claims, innocent before God. I am accepted in the beloved one. This is the proof of justification. No one that has shook the religious world to its foundation. Martin Luther and his contemporary, Thundered book, his wonderful truth, justification, by faith, not worth, not with truth, and by faith in the dead blood of Christ of Allah.
And you justify, if not, your ungodly. God wants you to justify, free you from all things. we might stand before him tonight, in Christ's feet, through nevertheless, precious, in him. Anyway, our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you commend for thy service. Let me be of thy blessing upon thy word, and how we thank thee for thy precious word. How wonderful it is! Blessed be for the day when it was that he was rocked by the Spirit.
We have thy word for these days. We couldn't speak to the authority. Would it not that thy word supports our argument? Without faith it's impossible that we thought. And that faith must be deposited in the person, the work of Christ. When it became our substitute, suffered for our children. Oh, that we are Christians that rejoice in our provision, as it is so nigh, so very nigh to God nearer these presumptives, for in the person of his Son, we are as near as he is, to receive our thanks for our Savior's precious name.