Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Romans 4:25
God declares you as being justified after you, by your faith, have called on the name of the Lord for salvation, Rom.10:13 “ For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Rom.4:25 says Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” Thus our justification before God is not complete without the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is necessary for us to be eternally, permanently justified before a holy God, and why? Because the resurrection shows Jesus Christ overcame sin and the grave. If a man does not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that man does not believe the gospel and he is still lost.
The message of the gospel is threefold.
I Cor.15:1-4
1. Christ died for our sins. Here Paul uses Christos in reference to our Lord as Christos or Christ, as one title of our Lord, relates to his deity. When you believe in Jesus Christ you do not simply believe in a good man, or a martyr who suffered for the good of mankind. He was anointed by God to be our deliverer, or as the Old Testament calls him, the Messiah. He died according to the scriptures. This means our Lord died as Ps.22 and Isa.53 prophesied he would die; that is, a cruel lonely disgraceful death.
2. He was buried, which is proof of his death for you do not bury living men.
3. He rose again the third day according to the scriptures as prophesied, Matt.12:39-40; Lk.24:6.
Since our Lord was raised from the dead, we who are in him are forever accepted in the family of God. We may not be exceptional at times, but we are always accepted. There will be times when you will not be accepted by society or friends or even family, but you are always acceptable to God.
By believing in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross for our sins we are also no longer an offense to God. From salvation onward God always sees us in his Son as he sees his Son in us. We are free from guilt and shame and are innocent of any and all charges or transgressions that can be brought against us by our accuser, Satan.
Our standing with God only exists because of Jesus Christ. We have no righteousness of our own. Mankind has what we call relative righteousness where, man of his own estimation, lifts himself above the rightness or standards of others. However, Isaiah the prophet said all of man’s righteousness is as filthy rags to God, Isa.64:6. Regardless of how good a person may clean up morally, or religiously, as unsaved beings we are still sinners apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ.
The unsaved person has no right standing with God. All he has is his morality, and religion and good deeds and no amount of morality or religion or good deeds will pay for sin.
In our 21st century as well as most of the 20th century mankind has sought to eliminate the existence of God in society.
And to go even further mankind seeks to eliminate human morality where everyone seeks to do that which is right in his own eyes where men call evil good and good evil. Isa.5:20 “ Woe unto them who call evil, good, and good, evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
From Judges 21:25 it is said of Israel that they had their own standard of right and wrong, “... every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
We live in that very generation today. We live in a generation today that says being pure and honest and humble is a sign of weakness not strength. This has to change or God will change things for us to keep us from self-destructing as a nation.
Justification is not a feeling.
The term just or justify is in no way associated with an emotional feeling. A convert to Christ is not said to feel justified, but to be declared justified. When the believer uses
I John 1:9 to confess his or her sins there is no scripture saying you will feel forgiven. As a matter of fact confession of sin is for the purpose of restoring your broken fellowship with God, not for making you feel good. There may be some sadness following confession, but that is not because you have not been forgiven, it may be because you are disappointed that you let God down. What you have to do is follow Paul’s prescription in Phil.3:13-14 which is to put it behind you and press on to spiritual maturity. Satan wants you to sit, sour and soak in self-pity when you sin, or confess your sin because he doesn’t want you do get back into the word and work of the Lord. He wants us to resent God for holding us to a high level of accountability because he is the original creature that fell into sin.
Justification is in no way associated with any works which a person may perform to appease God. There is nothing you or any one may do to attain favor with God. Simply stated, once you accept Christ as Savior God imputes or declares you as righteous. No running an aisle, or emotional pleading, or deal making with God; no amount of good deeds or promises to never sin again plays a part in God declaring you justified before himself. It becomes your eternal position before God and this justification that is of you being innocent of all transgressions against God cannot be revoked by you due to some act on your part, nor will it be revoked by God due to any change of mind he may have. God is immutable, and so is your justification. God changes not once he declares a thing.
He is not a fair weather friend who forsakes you when the chips are down, or when you have messed up. Some believers are so afraid of messing up that they live a phony cover up life. They are so afraid God will reject them because they are used to people rejecting them when they mess up. This leads many believers to live in denial of their upside down Christian lives. They live one way on Sunday, but the rest of the week they fail miserably. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, nor does he expect you to perform for him. He loves you unconditionally. God is not impressed with anything we have to bring to him. Rom.5:1 tells us that since we are justified [ Aor.Pass. Part.] by faith in the Lord, that we have peace with God. Have is a verb [ Pr.A.I.]. The present tense means this peace is constant at all times. Since we know when we commit sin we are not at peace with God, then this peace in Rom.5:1 refers to the legal settled peace of God with regard to our standing and relationship with God.
Paul prayed in Phil.4:7 that the saints in Philippi would allow the peace of God to guard their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Justification affords the believer a legal peace with God where we no longer have to strive to find acceptance with Him.
We come empty handed when we come to the cross or we do not come at all. I know this offends some folks, but really this takes the burden off of us to impress God.
Have you been justified before God? If not, will you receive his Son today for your salvation?