Justification - What Is The Issue At Hand?

The Gospel of Grace and the Privilege of a Bible Teacher

The Bethlehem Bible Church for those of you who are visitors This morning. We have a great privilege I believe that God grants us every good gift and every perfect gift comes from him not only salvation, but also he gives us family and he also gives us teachers and We're just privileged this morning to have one of his teachers here.

I think if I summarize dr White's ministry I could look at a lot of verses but as I read 2nd Corinthians 10 verses 3 and following I think of dr. White's ministry that God has granted him for though we walk in the flesh We do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

What kind of fortresses we are destroying? Speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. If all goes on to talk about that a little bit more but that's one of the things that I appreciate about dr. White and how God has granted him a tenacity and a Determination to have the gospel of grace remain the gospel of grace.

And as Romans chapter 11 talks about it you add one part of grace Works to 99 billion parts of grace. What do you get? And so God has saved us as it says in Jonah chapter 2 salvation of the is of the Lord and I just appreciate dr White in his ministry for standing firm for the gospel.

That's good news. Good news is Jesus paid it all and we bring nothing to the table. And so I appreciate that with dr White and it's been a privilege To hang out with in the last couple days. And so I know dr. White the theologian and I know now dr. White the weightlifter.

I know dr. White the connoisseur and I know dr. White In a lot of different areas and I just appreciate Him and I'm thankful as we prayed this morning in the back room that the Lord would grant us the gift of having a Bible teacher come and teach us and so dr. White.

Opening Prayer and Lighthearted Introduction

Thank you. Let's have an opening prayer before he comes father. Thank you for this opportunity today for us to learn more about you. We're thankful for the revelation that you've given us in Scripture and father help us by your spirit to learn more about you to learn more about your son's sacrifice.

To learn more how you save sinners like us and father we want to know not just more about you. We want to know you and father. We just ask that you'd be pleased to do that this morning through your servant.

Dr.

White bless us now for Christ's glory in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you very much Mike. I appreciate the fact you didn't Tell everybody about how you know, you beat me up so badly on the on the shoulder exercises.

I appreciated that. I'm not gonna say anything more than that because it's better to keep things quiet than to brag about Those places where you actually excelled so we'll move on from there I am. I don't know if I should mention this but those of you who have been fearful of saying anything in front of Mike about Yoda you can now tell Mike about Yoda because he knows all about Yoda now and We had a little enjoyable time last evening.

It is good to be with you here and wherever I am in, Massachusetts. I've driven all over the central part of it. And so I've sort of lost sort of track of exactly where I am. I know of I was in Worcester once before I Remember some folks took me to Worcester once before it doesn't.

I don't think I came the same direction. So I don't really recognize any landmarks. But does the Sun ever shine here like for the whole day? I I'm really not used to this in in Phoenix from you know, like middle of April until the monsoons start in July.

It's just bright sunshine without any clouds in the skies. So I woke up this morning. I said, yeah, it's that haze stuff again. I'm not really sure what that's what that's all about. But it is a little bit different here and tomorrow Lord willing I go back to the humidity and the heat.

So I'm sort of glad to have skipped all of July though I'll have to admit I've never been gone this long before so Looking forward to getting home. I'm sort of wondering now Do your pets forget you after a few weeks today as my dog gonna bite me?

I'm not really sure. She's a big German Shepherd. I'm not sure if I should just walk into the backyard or not if she's gonna remember me or not. I don't know, but it is good to be with you. As I mentioned yesterday There those of you who were here for the men's breakfast.

It's been about eight years or so since I was in this this part of the country and I did this morning want to mention any of you who have read any of my books. I know you have a number of them out there right now the newer books the same-sex controversy, I guess is Is going real well in this part of the country, unfortunately.

Having visited Northampton on Friday. I know why that it's going very well in this part of the country and the Books the God who justifies and things like that. So if you've benefited from any of those works I wanted this morning, especially to Acknowledge my indebtedness to some visitors here that I'd like to you if you've come up to me and said, you know I really enjoyed letters to a Mormon elder.

I really enjoyed it the the Forgotten Trinity, whatever it might be. I Never looked to be an author. I It never crossed my mind. I didn't know how anybody really did that kind of stuff and Back in the late 80s back in the late 80s doesn't that sound like it back in the good old days when I was young and had a full head of hair and Actually, I did have a full head of hair back then I had the opportunity of beginning to write and the reason I did was because of some visitors we have here today George and Eileen, but no are sitting right over here and The books that exist today.

I'm not gonna take the time to go through the story of how we went from crown publications to Bethany house and everything else, but the books that exist today do so because I had the opportunity of writing for crown and So if any of those books have benefited you and a number of you have approached me and talked about various and sundry books.

Whether it's the book on grieving or the Trinity or or Mormonism or whatever I got the opportunity of writing them, but I wouldn't have had that opportunity were it not for George and Eileen. So if you'd like to say thanks to the folks who really started it all The debates too.

I the only reason that so the debates started was because the books as well. So if any of the 41 Moderated public debates we've done so far 41 Have been of benefit to you then you can thank the folks that really started it all off This morning.

The Basic Issues in Justification

I have been asked to talk about the basic issues in the subject of justification then the sermon This morning in the service to sort of apply those in a in an expositional way and As we do so I would like to invite you to maybe jot down just a couple of notes.

Maybe you're not regularly a note-taker. But I am going to cover a number of different things. It's not three points in a poem and we can all remember the three points though I would hate to ask almost any of us to write down the three points of the last three sermons.

We heard that would be sort of frightening for most of us because we forget those things so quickly. But I actually have more than three things to talk about. So you might want to just jot a few of them down and really what I want to do this morning is sort of equip you in the sense of Give you a sort of bird's-eye view of where the controversy is.

There are a lot of different controversies on a lot of different fronts. Unfortunately in regards to the doctrine of justification if you for example primarily read historical works if you are a Historically minded person and you think about the Reformation you think about Martin Luther and you think about the the tremendous Struggle that was his his recognition of the holiness of God his recognition of his own sin.

His recognition of the necessity for the punishment of sin and the fact that all the sacraments that he went to all of the confessions that he went to all of the Trust that he could try to create in his heart of the forgiveness that was offered to him through those means how it did not Answer to the conviction of sin in his art.

If you're familiar with his struggle in the prison that he felt he was in then you might wonder a little bit at some of the Controversies that exist today over the doctrine of justification because you're primarily tuned to the historical Aspect of it and that's very easy to do.

I mean even if you go through things like the Westminster Confession of Faith the 1689 London Confession of Faith. Much of the language in which those confessions were written Reflects that historical background.

Reflects the Great Reformation struggle and the fact that that struggle has not ceased. That particular argument though you may hear much by Watching television reading some of the the Christian newspapers and magazines you may hear much of how for example back just a few years the Lutherans and the liberal Lutherans and the Catholics got together and an accord has been signed that speaks of Justification by faith.

By grace through faith and so on and so forth. You may hear those things and and it may sound like there has been some some change and some movement. But in reality when you go to the dogmatic writings the Roman Catholic Church You will see that there has been no movement at all in regards to the nature of justification.

Everything that Trent said everything that was said by Florence or or Constance or any other infallible counsel has been reaffirmed over and over again and For example the document signed with the Lutherans does not have dogmatic or binding authority and you have Really the very same battle going on.

At least from the positions that the Roman Catholic Church takes as you had at the time of the Reformation now of course. Sadly most of those who call themselves Protestants today don't know what those issues were.

They don't know what the struggle of Luther was they don't know what the issues regarding justification really were. But those positions have not changed. Because of that there has unfortunately developed a number of other issues.

Within quote-unquote Protestantism, which I don't know how exactly to define that. It obviously is a very broad word today. But many things have developed that Really, I don't think would have developed if we remain focused upon the central issues of the gospel, but sadly there is A real willingness in the part of many to be distracted to attempt to find new ways of Formulating old truths which frequently end up just compromising those old truths and so many issues.

Today face the minister of the gospel as he seeks to Teach and preach concerning what the gospel is and especially how it is that men may have peace with God. Now those issues. I think I like to summarize them.

I've always used the same Argumentation that the Apostle Paul does. I always figure using apostolic argumentation is probably a safe way to go. When Paul cites the words of Genesis chapter 15 Verse 6 in his presentation of justification in Romans chapter 4 Romans 4 3 for what does the scripture say.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. I like to use Genesis 15 6 is somewhat of an outline and I like to focus on each of the words that Paul uses because. Fundamentally if you're going to change the biblical doctrine of the gospel.

And if you're going to preach some new doctrine of justification. The only way you can do it is to alter the historic Biblical meaning of one of the words in this text now some people, you know. Go for the whole thing and alter the meaning of all the words but as long as you alter one of them you open up the means for inserting some new kind of teaching and.

So when we look at Genesis 15 6, what are the key terms that come to mind? Well Abraham believed God the nature of faith the nature of faith. That is a key issue right now in many evangelical circles is the nature of faith and It was credited to him that term credited in the New American Standard version is Translated imputed in other translations and it is the very term from which we derive the word imputation.

What does God do in? Justification. How is it that we? Become righteous. Is this something that God does within us? Does God change us so that we are are? Intrinsically pleasing to God and that's why we go to heaven or.

Does God say something about us declare something about us as the divine judge? Based upon what Christ has done in our place so that righteousness is imputed to us. That becoming the firm foundation of our relationship with God.

That's a vital issue and Yet for the vast majority of people on both sides of for example, the Protestant Catholic divide. No one would really be able to explain what the differences really are. I mean the difference between infused righteousness and imputed righteousness for most folks.

Sounds like something the theologians should just go off in a in a quiet place and argue about amongst themselves. What does that have to do with me and living my Christian life and yet it has everything to do with that.

We'll mention that in just a moment. And then of course the very term credited to him as righteousness. What is righteousness, what does it mean? Does it mean that I myself? am Given a certain status to where I've had my sins washed away and therefore I'm pleasing before God and so God will bring me into his presence because I'm pleasing to him or is it an alien righteousness and a righteousness that comes from outside of myself and Where could such a righteousness come from?

These are the key terms and all of the the great disputes that have taken place over the history of the church. Have focused upon the various meanings of these words and how they all fit together even the role of God Fundamental to this subject has been debated it does God merely make justification as an act Available if you do X Y Z or is it God who?

Justifies is this a divine action. Is this something God does and does freely or Even if it is called a divine action. Is it something he can only do when he is allowed or enabled to do so by something that the creature himself does.

These are all vitally important issues and The world today may say well How vitally important can it be if only a small number of people give much thought to these things? Well, let me just briefly give you a reason why it's vitally important for you.

No matter what your position is in life no matter what you do in life, then we'll go back over each one of those terms and just Sort of outline what some of the debates and some of the issues are. Number of years ago.

I had the opportunity of becoming a chaplain in a hospital. And it was a very difficult work. It was not something that was natural for me to do it is I don't know that it's natural for most folks to just be able to walk into a a hospital room and engage in conversation and and do that kind of thing and it's certainly not natural for me and in the process of counseling people I Learned very quickly that one's theology if you're going to be consistent is going to determine the range of answers that you can give to some of the big tough questions and When it comes to living the Christian life and when it comes to dealing with with tragedies in one's life.

Or when it comes to dealing with constant pressures in one's life the question that comes across the mind over and over again is What is the foundation of my relationship to God when you got up this morning?

Why is it that as a believer when you got up this morning You did not immediately fall into a panicked fear. That the wrath of God was going to come upon you. Why? Do you feel that you can approach God in prayer?

I? Mean he is a holy God and When we think of the word think think of what happened to Aaron's sons When they offered strange fire upon the altar when they approached the Holy God. But they did so in a way that was displeasing to him fire came forth from his presence and destroyed them and Remember Uzzah when he reaches out to touch the ark thinking he was doing what was good.

Instead God strikes him down for his irreverence. This is a holy God that we're dealing with. Why do we think that we can approach him? In prayer, what is the basis of our relationship? And why does it stay the same day after day?

Why isn't it that it's one day. It's one way and the next day. It's something else. Why does why don't we fear God's wrath one day and rejoice in his presence another? Well, there are some people unfortunately who experienced just that but hopefully we do not.

What is the foundation? Well, I would suggest to you that first and foremost the the confidence that is required of a mature Christian to understand why it is you can approach God and why God's Attitude toward you is always one of favor is to understand.

This doctrine of justification is to understand the nature of the peace That exists between yourself and God. Romans 5 one says therefore having been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The peace only comes because of having been justified by faith as a past action and. So the peace that you had this morning. The peace that we have now the peace that we will enjoy when we go into worship when we we sing hymns to him.

We can know that he will accept our worship not because our worship is perfect and Not because every single person sitting here before me today is perfectly prepared to worship now, I'm not gonna ask for any hands.

But I'd be willing to bet. Because I happen to know something about human experience. That some of you were a little distracted when you came in this morning. I Imagine that for some of you things didn't go overly well this morning, especially if you have kids.

I Imagine that maybe some of you pulled in the parking lot and maybe there was a little tension between mom and dad between the parents and the kids. Maybe there have been some some words Uttered this morning that you'd like to take back now.

We don't always come into worship perfectly prepared in fact, sometimes we Spend way too much energy on Saturday enjoying ourselves and come Sunday morning we come dragging in and and we're not really prepared at all and.

So if the acceptability of our worship depends upon our preparation. Well, we would have reason to fear this morning. Would we not at least some of us would. But we don't fear. Why? Because the standing that we have before God is not based upon what we have done and That is really the dividing line between Supernatural Christianity and the religions of men because all the religions of men will give some level of Lip service to God's grace.

The religions of men will will say that you know God had to make a way of coming to him possible and so on and so forth. They all want to in essence say oh, it's it's alright, you know, God should be glorified and praised and worshipped but fundamentally the religions of men will always rob from God his freedom and Grant that freedom to the creature man so that God is always reduced To having whatever power it is.

He has channeled in Such a way that men control that power. Therefore the relationship that results from such a Man-controlled way of salvation is always conditional. It's always conditioned upon what we do.

It's conditioned upon our religious activities. Supernatural Christianity biblical Christianity has a completely free God. He is not only sovereign over all things, but he is free in his actions. His grace is all-powerful.

He saves perfectly in Christ and therefore the basis of our relationship with God is Not what we do. The basis of our relationship with God as the doctrine of justification teaches is the finished work of Jesus Christ his burying our sins in his body upon the tree and his perfect righteousness imputed to me.

So you see there is a very very practical application. In fact, I I don't know honestly how to do any type of Christian counseling. Without starting here. How can you encourage people to live in a Christian fashion?

If they don't understand the very basis of their relationship with God in the first place, in fact, I would say that much of the proliferation of Isms and and Counseling methodologies that are unbiblical go back to the fact.

That there is this Opposition to truly studying theology and scripture in much of evangelicalism today and an anti intellectualism and anti Theology, you know the people who hold up the big thick theology book and say I don't want this give me Jesus.

Which doesn't make any sense at all. So it's a very practical issue. It may be very theological in orientation, but it is very very practical in its outworking. So what are the great controversies? Well, let's look at them.

God as the One Who Justifies the Ungodly

Abraham believed God. Let's start with God. Biblically God is the one who justifies look down for example at Verse 5 but believes in him. Who justifies the ungodly. Who does the justifying. God is the one who justify is doing the justifying.

What is the object of that verb the ungodly. God is the one who justifies the ungodly? That's a divine action. Much of the errors that exist today exist because the fact that we think the justification is not something God does but something we obtain as if Justification is sort of out there floating around and we do certain things so as to reach out and grab it and make it ours.

That's not the case at all in fact as we see the language used by the Apostle Paul look over at Romans chapter 8 and Listen to these words that come after the great golden chain of redemption verses 29 and 30 Romans 8 31 what then shall we say to these things if God is for us who is against us?

He did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all how will he not also with him freely? Give us all things now look at the context and the language of verse 33 who will bring a charge against God's elect.

That's the law court. That is bringing an accusation in a court of law against someone who will bring a charge against God's elect. God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns Christ Jesus is he who died?

Yes, rather who was raised. Who is the right hand of God who also intercedes for us? So here in the law court you have very clearly a person bringing accusation and. Then you have the judge making a declaration.

God is the one who justifies. The picture is very clearly that of the court where God as The judge brings down the gavel and says this person is not guilty. Well, how can that be since we know especially looking at the book of Romans the first two and a half chapters?

We're dedicated to the demonstration that man is guilty. How then can God be the one who justifies? Well, we know that he does so according to Romans 324 based upon the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans chapter 8 tells us it is Christ who intercedes. He is the one who who takes up when that charge is placed against us. He is the one who? Functions as our advocate before the father. So this is a triune action.

All of salvation is a is a triune activity. There is no gospel without a recognition of the role of the Trinity in This work. God the father is the one who makes the declaration. It's the son who intercedes before the father for us it's the spirit who who comes and seals this to our life and.

The picture is very clear. God is the one who can righteously. And in fact as a demonstration of his righteousness. Declare us not guilty. Not because of any fiction as is often said. But because of a divine transaction.

That divine transaction is explained for us in verses 5 6 7 of chapter 4. Where Paul Contrasts the one who works with the expectation of receiving something back. With the person who does not work, but as faith in God.

Verse 5 but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is credited as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Now we don't have time to unpack all this this morning, unfortunately.

That's why that big 400 page hardback book is sitting out there on the on the table because we unpack it rather fully there. But what is important here to see is that Paul? understands the crediting of righteousness by God apart from works verse 6 in the sense of forgiveness and God not taking man's sin into account in verses 7 8.

Now, how are we to understand this? Well when we look at everything that Paul teaches on this subject. We discover that they tremendous transaction has taken place in the gospel a tremendous transaction.

God the Father has taken the sins of his people and he has laid them upon Jesus Christ. This is clearly the teaching of the Bible in regards to the nature of the atonement. Christ substitutionarily takes the place of his people.

Their sin is laid upon Him. He bears in his body their sins upon the cross as Peter would express those words. The wrath that was due to their sin falls upon their substitute in their place and all of the wrath that was due to your sin and my sin is poured out in its fullness upon an infinite substitute upon the cross of Calvary.

Amazing thought to think of the wrath that was due my sin and when we think just of a just of the past week. The sins that we have committed and thought and indeed in word. The Wrath that was due those we know that they're do wrath.

The Christian heart no longer argues against the holiness of God. The Christian heart no longer pleads a self-righteousness. The Christian heart says yes God's wrath comes upon sin and yet that wrath fell in its fullness upon Christ in my place.

Now If that's all there was to it if it's just that my sins have been laid upon him. Then justification would simply bring us back to shall we say a moral neutral point, but think about the commands of God.

The commands of God are not just don't do this and don't do this. The commands of God are also do this. What's the greatest commandment? Love the Lord thy God with all your heart soul mind and strength and your second is like unto it love your neighbor as yourself.

And as we look back over our lives, we know that we have not fulfilled that and so we need a positive righteousness and That positive righteousness that is imputed to us is Credited to us is given to us.

Where does it come from? Well, it's called the righteousness of God. All right. But where does it come from? Well, if you ever pondered the fact that Jesus Christ lived upon this earth for we believe about 33 years and yet he was Unstained.

He loved the father perfectly. He loved his neighbor as himself he fulfilled all the commands of God and It is his righteousness his positive perfect righteousness. That is imputed to me so that when I stand before God I stand in that seamless robe of righteousness that Admits of no admixture.

Admits of no improvements on my part. It is perfect because it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. My sins born by Christ imputed to him his righteousness imputed to me. Hopefully you can see just in those words that the horror and it's normally not described that way but the horror of false teaching concerning this subject.

Some people think that the only reason you ever have discussions and arguments about things like justifications because religious people tend to be persnickety and and arrogant and argumentative and Bullheaded and just like to beat up other people and be proven right on issues of theology as if they have nothing better to do in life.

And I do know a few people like that. But that's not the reason why Paul wrote Galatians and That's not why Paul wrote Romans. Was to just prove he was right about something we are talking here. About the very gospel of Christ and when you think about it when someone says it's Christ plus anything.

Whether they intend to say it or not what they're saying is that Righteousness of Christ is not in and of itself enough. It's not full enough. It's not good enough. It will not avail without the addition of.

Well the addition of what? What could be added? to the perfect righteousness of Christ. It is a blasphemy against Christ to think that anything that I could do Could possibly be added to it in the first place now I know many who promote that perspective have never really thought of it in that way.

That does not change. The fact that what they're saying is that Christ is not enough in and of himself. Double imputation. Doesn't exactly sound like words that thrill the heart, but oh when you think about what it means they should.

They truly those words should thrill our hearts. Abraham believed God faith the empty hand of faith a Hand that brings nothing with it. We can see that in what we just said how how given the divine transaction given the Trinitarian? transaction.

Where the son voluntarily gives himself it's the father who lays our sins upon the son. It's the son who who comes in in flesh. And he's the one who goes to the cross and it's the spirit who makes these things alive in our hearts.

Since it's all done by God. Can you imagine what it's like when man comes along and God says I Do not accept Anything that is outside of Christ. I do not accept anything that is outside the perfection in Christ and yet man is continually coming to him and saying well I know you want faith, but I want to also add this this and this.

Just a couple weeks ago. I had the wonderful opportunity of celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary and You know got my wife some nice things and there's still something she wants though for 25. We've got kids in school right now, so we can't afford it, but once we get the kids out of school there's something that she would like for our 25th wedding anniversary and To be able to afford it.

I will need to come back here every other week for the next four or half years. I thought you might want to know that I'll I'll be back. No. No no every other week believe me. You may get tired of taking me to Gold's that's how I can say.

I'm really tempted to say something more, but I will move on. Now if let's say I managed to to get this item for my wife. Can you imagine on that that day less than five years from now I I give her this this present and She looks at and she goes.

Oh, it's just what I wanted but you know I Know that you had to just just give everything to get this. But can I give you 250 for it just just just to help $2 .50. Dear do you have any idea how much that cost oh?

Yes, I do, but could I give you 250 anyway it cheapens it doesn't it? It's an insult. I'd take it back. There's lots of things. I could do with that money. I tell you that you know Harley here we go. Lots of things I could do with that.

It cheapens it well when man Refusing God's way Refusing to come to God with with empty hands Comes along and starts trying to pull out a few crumpled dollar bills. It says here here. It's insulting to God.

It shows they really do not understand that even those dollar bills are stained with the Self-righteousness that is a stench in God's nostrils you see. It's by faith because faith brings no concept of merit and That is what is so difficult for man it wipes out our ego.

It wipes out our ego. Look at verse 16 of chapter 4 for this reason is by faith in or that may be in accordance with grace. So the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants. Faith Fits with grace because grace is completely free faith brings no idea of merit.

Therefore it does not claim to be able to control God and therefore God's grace which by nature has to be free to be. Grace, they fit together as hand and glove. But as soon as you try to put something in that hand as he sues you try to start pleading any of your own righteousness.

It no longer fits with grace. That's why Paul says Romans 11 6 and talking about God's gracious dealings there. Listen to what he says if it is by grace. It is no longer on the basis of works what? Otherwise grace is no longer grace.

There is something definitional to the word grace that absolutely and completely precludes. Any concept of adding anything to it? We have a tract that we pass out Up in Salt Lake City to the Mormons. It's actually not just for Mormons.

We could pass it out. I think we passed it out when the Pope came to Denver in 93. And I know a few Baptists that could use reading it too. It's called grace plus works is dead being meaningless. Grace plus works is dead being meaningless and the whole Emphasis is not that we don't do good works, you know, the classic passage that defines the order, right?

Ephesians 2 8 through not 9 10 if you're gonna memorize Ephesians 2 8 and 9. Go through 10 because 10 after telling us in 8 and 9 all about grace. Says for we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus what unto good works?

Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. That's the relationship the good works come as a result of the work of grace in our life. Not as an addition not as something that well grace starts it off.