Justification by Faith Alone: An introduction (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Pastor Steve Cooley, welcome. Thank you for having me.

Yeah. How many shows do you think you�ve done, No Compromise Radio? About five, I think. 500.

Oh, okay. Well, you know, a few. So I tried to record a few shows at home, and I had this little microphone that went kind of around my face, almost like a preaching microphone kind of thing.

And then I didn�t have anything going through my headphones, and it just seemed weird to me. Because it just sounded like you were talking to yourself, or it seemed like it.

I posted some old reviews about No Compromise Radio, and basically they said, �Too much laughing.

Seems like they�re in a room talking by themselves ,� or it was more singular for me. And I�m like, �I am.

I mean, who�s ever in here except just you and me ?� Well, I mean, should we invite a studio audience?

I know. I try to do those little, you know, I�ll FaceTime in the NoCo group. By the way, some people asked to get in a

NoCo group, but twice lately, somebody from overseas has wanted to get into the group, and I clicked on, like, what other groups they�re in or who their friends are.

No evangelical associations, no other groups. I�m like, �I don�t think so.� Yeah. Bad move.

I know. What about laugh tracks or something like that? Well, I just give my own laugh track.

Yeah, but I mean, wouldn�t that be great if you said something, and then you go hit the laugh button or, you know, the groan button.

Oh, that was bad. Do you think it�s fair to say, before we get into the doctrine of justification, do you think it�s fair to say that most people take themselves too seriously, like in the

Twitter world? Yes, and I think it�s, yes. Well, you know how

I feel about Twitter. I think anonymity basically wrecks Twitter, takes 99 % of the value away from it, so.

Well, that�s why sometimes I just post me with a, you know, the kids will take a picture of me doing something funny or whatever, a funny bicycle helmet for kids, and I�ll just post it on there because I�m trying to.

Here�s my message. The gospel�s serious. Jesus�s work is serious, but I�ll be dead and gone, and I�m just a doofus.

That�s how that works. Well, that�s got a lot of credibility, hasn�t it? Alright, so last week we started a little

Tuesday series on justification, and it was a simple reminder of the importance of justification and how it should be regularly taught.

We looked a little bit at Romans chapter 4, Abraham.

John the Baptist believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Steve�s really laughing.

But actually, John the Baptist did believe God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Yes, he did. Yeah, that�s right. And we talked about a definition, a working definition, and even if we said just as if I�ve never sinned,

God looks at me that way, God will look at me just as if I never ever will sin anymore, and just as if I�ve perfectly obeyed because of Christ paying the penalty for my lawbreaking and then giving me the reward of His perfect obedience confirmed by the resurrection, or something like that.

You�d go for that? That�s a lot of just as if I, but yes, yes. Uh -huh. But I guess if people say just as if I�ve never sinned, at least it gets them someplace.

Yeah, it gets you. To Wesleyanism. Steve, I grew up thinking as a

Lutheran, and I don�t know what their doctrine was, it was not a conservative Lutheran church, but if I didn�t confess all my sins before I went to bed, if I died at night,

I might be going to hell. Well, that�s kind of reminiscent of Luther. I know. Before he got saved.

Before he understood justification. Right? Because if you think it�s something to do with your moral transformation, or something in your own life, and even confession of sin, then you don�t get it.

It says, �I�m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith.�

It�s all about faith, in other words. �As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.�

And for Luther, when he was thinking about that righteousness of God, I�ve got to be righteous to get into heaven.

I must do always righteous things to get into heaven. And he was right about both of those. But he didn�t understand that this righteousness of God is also righteousness from God as a gracious free gift.

Lights on. And we were talking before we went on the air about how, you know, you first get saved and one of the first things

I did was get rid of all my record albums and everything else because not understanding justification, we confuse sanctification with justification.

We want to get our sanctification process, you know, engaged. We want to hit the road running as it were.

And so, we confuse the two. We mix them together and it takes a while to straighten all that out.

That�s right. And while we talked about crediting and imputing and accounting some of the language of the courtroom last time, in this particular show,

Steve, let�s touch a little bit on Romans 5 and that is the benefits of justification and how

Paul lists those things. And we don�t have to do exegesis, but we can just generally talk about that.

Since we have been justified by faith, Paul says, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

And then he talks about sufferings and we rejoice in sufferings, knowing our suffering produces endurance, etc.

Talk a little bit about, we talked about what justification was. Talk about some of these benefits, just whatever pops into your mind.

Some of the benefits of justification? Yeah, yeah. Explain how those benefits can occur or why they�re important to us.

Or just answer a question that I didn�t even ask. It doesn�t really matter.

I mean, when I think about justification, the ramifications of it, I mean, just the idea of having peace with God, peace that I did not deserve, that I could not accomplish on my own, it carries me.

I mean, the idea that I am right with God and that we talked a little bit about that last time, but the fact that that cannot change, it sustains me, right?

And I mean, even in the midst of this pandemic, I was talking earlier about a friend of mine, this is off the air, but a friend of mine whose wife is in the hospital.

And I just think, how can he post such positive things? I already know the answer to this.

It�s because he knows his wife is justified. She�s not in danger of losing her salvation.

She�s got the righteousness of Christ. If she dies, she goes to heaven. Does he want that? No. But he has peace ultimately because he trusts

God because God has made these promises and God always keeps his promise.

And so, justification, understanding it rightly, understanding where we stand with him, with God, because we are in Christ Jesus, if he�s pleased with the

Son, and he is, then he�s pleased with me, not because of who I am, but because I�m in Jesus and because of who

Jesus is and what Jesus did. Perfect. That�s what I was looking for. We have peace with God and why that�s such a tender and sweet, and to say the word, lovely doctrine, we have peace with God.

The text there, it�s present tense. We have it right now, right? And even if we sin or we don�t sin, because it�s all based on the work of another.

As you were describing peace with God and some of the benefits even with your friend, Steve, I was thinking about what people do throughout their lives who have either not been taught this and don�t believe it or reject it, the machinations they go through to make sure that God�s okay with them.

We have to go to Mass every day. We have to try to assuage the conscience and give a bunch of money to something.

We have to cut ourselves. We have to go upstairs on our knees because we need to make sure we�ve done enough to have peace with God.

It could literally kill you. How many times have you heard or have you read something where somebody says, �God, if you�ll just get me out of this or if you�ll give me this,

I will do X.� They�re trying to cut a deal with God to gain

God�s favor. And what justification says is, if you�re in Christ Jesus, if you by faith are in him, you have peace with God.

You have his favor, right? All things work together for your good. Whether you can see it or not is not the issue.

Steve, that just made me think of the idea of Lord and Savior, God the

Father, who then says, �You know what? You have all these things in my son. That�s the only way.�

And we go, �No, we�ll do it a different way.� Yes. Right? So, if you and I never met and I invite you over to my house and you wanted to get on my good side�I know this illustration falls short, but you wanted to get on my good side�and you were mean to my son and rude to my son, or acted like he never existed, but you�re trying to win my favor�when you had been told ahead of time, �The way you get into Mike�s favor is honor his son, and he�ll be your friend.�

And you�re like, �No, I�ll do it my way.� That�s every other religion. I don�t care that Jesus died. I don�t care that he suffered.

His whole life was suffering, not just Gethsemane, not just on the cross. Think about what he went through. And then all of a sudden you go, �No,

I�ll do it a different way.� Well, I mean, like, there are religions that say, �Well, you know, what Jesus did is all true and good and right.�

And he kind of gets you to a point where, okay, now you can work your way into acceptability with God because Jesus paid for your sins.

He got you back up to a place of moral neutrality. You�re on your own, son. Steve, this is so deadly because you and I, we came out of unrighteous lifestyles, right?

So, righteous... Speak for yourself, pal. ...root word is right, and we did the wrong thing.

Ungodly, root words, godly, you do the opposite, right? And we came out of that.

And so, when I got saved, I could instantly see things that were different. And there were things that I stopped right away.

I mean, there are still things I struggle with to this day, but there was a dramatic change. What kind of hope would we have if it was a man -centered, moralistic transformation of life first or in cooperation with God?

If you�re a homeschool kid who�s a virgin, never stole anything from the store, you honor your mom and your dad, and you�re like, �Okay, now

I�m doing the right things externally. Everything�s good.� What about them? How could we point to the work of Christ in their life if it didn�t get changed around so much?

Well, having had a child who wasn�t quite like that, but also didn�t have this vast warehouse full of sin to confess and everything else, it really is just a matter of inward attitude.

�Well, why did they do this? And why did they do that? Was it to please the Lord ?� Well, anything not done in faith is sin.

So, ultimately, she couldn�t please the Lord anyway.

And so, every person, regardless of what their outside actions are, there�s a moral uncleanness that they inherit from Adam, the first Adam.

And then there�s a moral uncleanness that they earn on their own because they�re not loving God with all their hearts, whole mind, and strength, and they�re not loving their neighbor as themselves.

So, they need that moral washing, as it were, anyway. Great point.

Even the Lord Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, unless your righteousness exceeds that or surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you�re not going to enter the kingdom.

And therefore, while they did all the externals right, they could tithe properly and they could attend sacrifice services properly, but it wasn�t an inside issue.

It wasn�t a love for the triune God and a desire to honor Him. And I guess my bigger point is this great doctrine of justification by faith alone lets you, by faith, receive

Christ�s obedience that wasn�t just external, but it really was from the heart.

Can you imagine the Lord Jesus when He honored His Father? Always with an eye to His Father�s glory.

Always with an eye to details. Never with what other people will think of me. I want to honor the

Father from my heart. That�s amazing to think about that you could ever do that, that anyone could ever do that.

Now, when you say the Father, you mean God the Father? Or do you mean, because I think, you know, just imagine knowing that Joseph is not, you know, your biological father and yet you�re still going to honor

Him because that�s what the Word of God says. That�s what your word says, right? I mean, you�re like, I know

I wrote it and now I�m going to live it out, right? Petey That is so wonderful to think about.

You know, we all too often think of only Jesus�s death on the cross, and of course, why wouldn�t we want to talk about that?

But there is a reason why He lived His life and then at 30 goes into public ministry and as we�ve been taught,

He doesn�t just come down on Friday and die and then go back up on Sunday. Yeah, can you imagine

He�s got the stepfather who�s less than perfect? A righteous man, the Bible talks about, in terms of He did the right thing and even how

He honored Mary when Mary was pregnant and He�s like, what do I do with her? I didn�t want to shame her, but you know

Joseph had to sin. And so then, you know, I hate it like with the Passion of the

Christ movie where Jesus is like making tables with His dad or something like that. So, I don�t want to go that far, but His father asked

Him to do something and Jesus with a willing, loving, submissive heart would say, �Oh, sure, right now.�

Pete Now, do you hate it because He never made tables with His dad? Did they have tables 2 ,000 years ago?

He reclined at table, but I think they were making chairs with four legs or something like that.

Remember, Mel Gibson had Him go, �Oh, Dad.� He�s like, �Why would you have a chair with four legs and all that stuff ?�

And He�s like, �Well, it�ll come in handy in the future or something stupid like that.� Seriously, I think that was in the movie.

Pete Well, you know, one of your nephews is going to open up a furniture store,

Jordan�s Furniture. It was originally started by the

River Jordan with the two brothers. Yeah, but the good news is you just see, all right, what does

God require of me? Yes, to love Him and to love neighbor, but it�s this inside thing as well, and that makes me realize how

I never did it, and even more grave is the law, even more a mirror to my own soul to show me

I need to have somebody else�s obedience because there�s no way I could stand before this judge.

Peter Well, here�s one. You control your tongue. You do well. I mean, I�m just paraphrasing here, but imagine really not ever getting to the point where controlling your tongue is even an issue, right, where you�re never like thinking, �Oh,

I really want to say whatever right now, but I�m not going to because I�m going to control my tongue ,� right?

He�s like, �From the heart. Oh, that�s just not an issue for me. I�m not going to get sinfully angry.

I just don�t do that.� What? What do you mean you don�t do that? Mike Abendroth, Steve Cooley, No Compromise Radio.

Benefits of justification. We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus. How about this next one in verse 2?

We have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. What about the access to God�s presence through prayer, through fellowship, and how that access in the

Old Testament has been barred, right? You�ve got gates, and here the women can go in this courtyard.

The Gentiles can go in this courtyard. Jews can only go this far if they�re male, and if you�re a

Levite, you can go this far. You�ve got the holy of holies and the curtain and everything�s just barred up, showing that the access of God has to go through holy means alone, and now it says we have access.

Tom Doyle, Jr., Ph .D. We just get to go right into the throne room, and it really is amazing.

I was praying just the other day, and I thought, you know, I know that obviously, because miracles don�t happen every day, otherwise it wouldn�t be miracles.

God entering the space -time continuum, doing only what God can do. But I thought,

I can ask you for a miracle. I can pray for whatever, you know, as long as it�s not sinful.

I can ask for things that are just unimaginable. Why? Because I know that God can do whatever he chooses to do.

He�s able to do whatever. And he said, �Come to me.� You know, �Come right to me.

Ask for what you will.� And I�m like, okay, well, I�m going to ask, right? And I�m going to trust and I�m going to submit to whatever your will is.

And you know, if we have that attitude, we can ask for anything. It�s not like, Lord, if you don�t give this to me,

I�m, you know. Speaking of which, asking, here in this book by James Buchanan, A Doctrine of Justification book,

Banner of Truth, I think this was written in the 1700s, maybe 1800s. How about this? �Had we been left, therefore, to the mere light of nature and without a supernatural revelation of the will of God for our salvation, we would have never answered the question, �How shall a man be just with God ?��

That�s right. I mean, what is the general revelation, everything that surrounds us, the creation, what does it tell us?

It tells us that there�s something greater than us, right? And ultimately, all that can do is lead us to despair.

Because once we understand that there�s something greater than us, that we�re fallen, because I think we inherently know that we have the law of God written in our hearts, if there was no special revelation, we�d never know about justification.

We�d have no idea and we�d wind up like killing animals and, you know, or, you know, all kinds of things trying to make ourselves right with this greater being out there.

Yeah, just imagine, all right, we don�t know how to be right with God, but we know because of the law written on our heart, our consciences, we see condemning general revelation, there�s a wise

God, powerful, He�s going to punish me. All right, what am I going to do about it? Where would

I turn? Smart people, Oxford, Harvard, science labs, physics places, universities.

Oh, no, I found the answer. There�s some, I think there�s a baby over there in a manger.

There�s the answer. Yeah, I mean, the worldly answers now are, you know, save the planet, act more wokely than the next person, you know.

I mean, there are a series of, the world has its own answers, its own moral imperatives as it were, but it has no ultimate answer for sin, no answer for this great being that we know as God.

We need special revelation. Steve, do you think there�s something built into the system that somehow we would know there needs to be a sacrifice for our sins?

We did something wrong and we�ve got to give up something. We have to give alms. We need to kill a life, and you go back to Cain and Abel and sacrifices and everything else, and you�re like, it�s kind of built in in the system and back in the

Garden of Eden. Do you think people would have said, you know what, we just have to kill something because we deserve to die, so we�ll kill something instead?

Well, I think, yeah. I think just in terms of, you were talking about conscience and all that,

I think we know that we somehow are condemned and we�re always trying to figure out how we get uncondemned, right?

We�re trying to make ourselves, what does it mean to even make ourselves better? I mean, an existentialist would just say, just be, right?

But I mean, there�s a sense in which we�re always trying to improve ourselves and it�s because we realize that we need improvement.

We�re lacking. We�re deficient. So, yeah. New Year�s resolutions are coming up.

Yeah. I�m going to become less deficient this year. And then it says, �We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.�

Steve, I do dumb things, and if I do something dumb, sinful towards Kim, our relationship isn�t right.

It�s off -kilter. There�s just something. People have something between them and the relationship needs to just be restored.

Can you imagine? I mean, we did imagine because we went through it. You don�t have a right relationship with the

God who made you and you�re answerable to. It�s off. When things are off between Kim and I or my kids,

I want to fix it. I want to do the right thing. And then, of course, the Bible will teach us we can�t fix that relationship with the

Lord. It has to be fixed for us. And maybe you do or maybe you don�t, but do you remember that moment where you just thought, �I don�t have a right relationship with God.�

I mean, it�s pretty crushing. At least it was for me.

And I�m just like, I�m going, it just blew my mind because everything that I believed and lived up to that life would have just led me to think that hard work and kind of self -transformation was the answer.

Well, I was in the car in Los Angeles driving around on the freeway, and I don�t remember where I was particularly, but I remember that I was listening to a sermon on KKLA, and it was probably a

Calvary Chapel guy, and he was doing an altar call. I think it was Raul Reese. And I was trying to go. He�s like, �Come up to the front.�

I didn�t have anywhere to go. I�m in a car. Reaching the dashboard. Uh -huh. So, I thought if I�d like get closer to the dashboard,

I want to go somewhere. I�m supposed to show that I believe, I�m willing. And that was an amazing time to think, you know what?

It didn�t matter all my religion as a Lutheran and Baptist and everything else. It just had to be faith alone.

And then I just changed it over to Jim Rome. I�m just kidding. A little sports talk.

Twice today, by the way, it�s a world record for Steve in the last 11 years of doing this show. He leaned way back to laugh.

Two guffaws in one particular show. Well, because, you know, we don�t have a laugh button or a cough button, so I didn�t want to, you know, laugh on air.

A little bit more on justification by faith. Next time, next Tuesday, read Romans 3, 4, and 5 to get a good little review.

Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God�s Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.