This particular sermon actually
could have been several parts, but I'm going to try to condense
it down. Romans chapter 4 is a chapter
that is meant to support the argument that we are justified
not for what we do, but for what Christ has done. And it proves
that argument by two examples, the lives of Abraham and the
lives of David. And in that, we see a very great
comfort to us who are sinners, and it's meant to be a comfort
to us. It's meant to completely convince
us and to prove to us that our only hope is what God has done
in Christ. So I've entitled the message
today, It Is God Who Justifies. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
you would help us today as we consider your word that the very
truth of heaven, the truth of your heart, would penetrate our
hearts and would align our thinking and align our joys and peace
and all that we are and do with the way you see things, your
promises and your word. And we pray this mercy, Lord,
for all here today and all who hear this sermon. We pray that
you would make yourself great in their eyes for Jesus' sake.
In his name we pray, amen. I entitled the message differently
when I preached it in rescue, and really this is the introduction
to this message. I want to read a verse of scripture
to you in the last verse of Romans chapter 4, which is really the
text I want to concentrate on most. He says there in Romans
4 verse 25, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification. I want to consider that with
you, but before I do, I want to tell you that this is the
most difficult scripture in all the Bible to understand. And
we might be surprised at that, but I will try to explain to
you why I believe this is the case by considering the fact
that this subject, how God justifies sinners by the righteousness
of Christ imputed to them, that this subject occupies the most
of scripture. If you look at the book of Romans
in the very first chapter, in chapter one, verse 16, Paul says
this, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein, in the gospel,
this is why it's the power of God, is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. What is the theme of this book, this book of Romans?
It is the righteousness of God. It is how God justifies sinners
by his righteousness. And hence, because that is the
entire subject of the book of Romans, it's also the subject
of Galatians, it's the subject of Hebrews, it's what's expounded
throughout Ephesians and Colossians and Philippians. Philemon, Timothy,
we could just go on and on, couldn't we? Even in the book of Revelation,
it opens up this way, unto him who loved us and washed us from
our sins in his own blood. This is the subject of the work
of the Lamb of God. This is the subject of Scripture,
the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world.
And because it is the subject throughout Scripture, because
God spends so much time revealing this truth of scripture, this
tells us that it's the most important thing and it's the hardest thing
to understand. It's impossible, in fact, for us to understand
it because we are naturally spiritually blind. We're entirely blind to
this. And you can see this throughout
scripture. One example in the beginning was when Adam had sinned
and God called to him and said, Adam, where are you? And he was
hiding. He was hiding. because he didn't
know this truth of God. And so he hid. He was guilty
and he didn't know how that God could accept him. And so he hid. So the impossibility of our own
justification to the wisest of believers appears to be the greatest
mystery. Our justification, how God justifies
us to the wisest of believers in Scripture, appears to be a
great mystery. And the most afflicted saints
in Scripture, how that they could answer God, how God could justify
them, them being people born to an unclean mother and father,
that truth has eluded the very wisest of men, the most afflicted
of saints, so that they cry out in this. And we're going to see
that here. For example, when Job's friend,
I emphasize that with kind of a tone of skepticism, that he
was really his friend. His name was Bildad. When Job's
friend came to Job, and Job's body and his mind were tortured
under the affliction from God's hand, and his children, their
lives had been taken, and everything he had was taken away, his servants
and his household. His servants were killed, his
house was destroyed, and he was left alone, and even his own
wife told Job to curse God and die. When Job was under this
affliction, this man, called his friend, came to him and told
Job that God doesn't pervert judgment. He doesn't compromise
his justice. He judges truly. And he also
told Job that his children were taken away because of their transgression. And he told Job that if he were
pure and upright, and if he were righteous, that God would prosper
him. Now that's not a comforting thing to know, is it, to Job,
who was being afflicted. In fact, it was the most uncomforting
thing he probably could have said. And Job responded this
way to everything that Bildad told him. In Job 9, verse 2,
he said, I know that it is so of a truth, but how should man
be just with God? Bildad, you're saying that if
my children died for their transgressions and if I were perfect, if I were
upright, then he would prosper me in my righteousness. But how
shall man be just with God? That was Job's cry. He was a
wise man. These men had come to Job to
argue and reason with him, and Job was much wiser than they.
And Job says, how shall man be just with God? So this is the
most difficult scripture to understand, you see. God spends so much time
in it, and also because we can't understand it until God gives
us that sight, that spiritual understanding of what is true. And how does He do that? Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 3 says, by faith we understand. And how does faith
come to us? Faith comes, he says in Romans
10, 16, and 17, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God. God has to speak, he has to give
us this understanding. And so Job went on later, in
chapter nine of Job, he says to his friend Bildad, and God
instructs us by his answer. He says, if I justify myself,
If I justify myself, if I present arguments to clear myself or
to defend myself, to make my plea, to make my defense before
God, if I do that, my own mouth would condemn me. If I say I'm
perfect, it would prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, Job said,
yet would I not know my soul, I would despise my life. So here's
a man, Job, very wise, very afflicted, and he cries out, how can God
do this? How can God justify a man? How can I? I'm perverse. I can't claim to be just. That
would be claiming to be perfect. I can't do that. My own mouth
would prove me to be a liar. And so later on in the book,
even Bildad observed this. How then can man be justified
with God? Or how can he be cleaned that
is born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How
much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a
worm. So I say all that in introduction to show you that this truth is
the most difficult truth in all the scripture to understand.
And as I mentioned at rescue, as another counter example, how
much time does God spend in scripture explaining the answer to how
someone could be baptized for the dead? That's a mystery, isn't
it? But he doesn't spend much time
answering that question. Why? Well, because that question
is both answered in this one, and it's also not significant
to try to answer those mysterious things by themselves that we
find intriguing because we can't figure it out. You often hear
preachers preach about this thing or the other. But unless we preach
Christ and Him crucified, which is the answer to this question,
then we're wasting our time because we're not dealing with the most
important things, the thing we need most, and the thing that
God has revealed as a mystery we could not understand unless
He, by His grace, made it known to us. So therefore we see that
the wisest and most afflicted of God's saints have asked this
question, and therefore it is the most difficult thing to understand.
This answer to this question is a mystery that God hid from
eternity, and yet he stated it in plain view for us throughout
the Old Testament. That's amazing, isn't it? It
was hidden, even though God made it clear. And how did he make
it clear? Well, in Habakkuk 2.4, he says,
the just shall live by faith. That's in contrast to everything
else that we would naturally assume in scripture. You see,
we have a natural tendency to think this. This is the way we
think about ourselves and God. If God requires it of me, I must
have to do it. I must be accountable and responsible
to do it. And since I must be accountable
and responsible to do what God requires, then I must be able
to do what God requires, and so we set about doing it. And
then we fall into this trap of failing to do what we know we
ought to do and finding a need to defend ourselves or finding
a need to say, well, I did my best. I almost did it. And therefore, we say, and the
only reason I fell short is because, after all, I'm just a man or
a girl, and I can't do everything perfectly. God understands that.
So he'll accept my best effort. or he'll see that I was sincere.
God will look at my heart, he'll know that my heart is, I really
want to do right, and he'll accept me based on those things. But
that's self-justification, and it can't work. God's requirements
were meant to show us we cannot fulfill them. and they wish to
show us that we are fallen and sinful, and therefore we have
this great need, and we come to this perplexity, then how
can a man be just with God? And it stands there, and is there
for us to contemplate and to seek the answer to in Scripture,
and so God has revealed it here to us in Romans chapter four.
The next question I have to, should answer here at the outset
is what does it mean? What is it to be justified? What
does justification mean? And there's lots of explanations
given for this, but this is the way, in my understanding, I would
explain it. Justification means this. It
is God, underscore, it is God providing and working out and
considering and contemplating his work as his own righteousness,
and then giving that freely without any condition met by man, without
man fulfilling any requirement, in fact in spite of all man's
failure, and then God finding his own gift that he bestows
on a man, as that man's own righteousness and therefore God declares that
man to be righteous or just. That's justification. God looks
upon his own work given to a man freely and declares the man to
be righteous. That's justification. And so
the most important point here is that it is God who justifies. I was talking to Pastor Clay
Curtis after the message in rescue and was asking him some questions
and he conveyed an experience he had once where these men were
all sitting around arguing about this thing or that thing about
justification. And there was himself, and he
didn't say anything, and there's an older guy there who didn't
say anything, and after these guys have been thrashing each
other back and forth about differences of opinion they had about it,
finally the older man spoke up and he says, in all that you've
said, you failed to say one thing about who it is that justifies. So this is the big point, and
we're prone to miss it, that it is God who justifies. And
that's what Romans chapter 4 is about, and that's why in verse
25 he summarizes this. So let's look at this verse here
with that background. It is God who justifies. Look
at verse 24. but for us also to whom it shall be imputed,
meaning the righteousness that's imputed, to whom it shall be
imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead. So what character, who is it
that is being spoken of that we believe on here? If we believe
on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who is him?
It's gotta be God the Father. God the Father raised up Jesus
our Lord from the dead. And so we know that Jesus was
dead and God raised him to life. So he went, God looked upon the
Lord Jesus Christ in his death and raised him again to life.
And so that's the setting here. That's what God, that's the claim.
And this is the object, this is what we believe. We who are
justified believe this, that God raised up Christ from the
dead. And then in verse 25, he explains
it this way. He says, who, and again, he's
talking about Jesus. Now, who, Jesus, was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Who was delivered? The Lord Jesus.
Who delivered him? God the Father did. And that's
amazing. God the Father both delivered
him and raised him again. Delivered him. What did he deliver
him to? Well, he delivered him to the
curse. He delivered him to death. And
who dies? Who are those that are cursed?
Well, it says in Galatians chapter three, cursed is everyone who
continueeth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them. Those who do not do all that God has
written, all that God has commanded, are cursed of God. And who dies? The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Ezekiel 18, verse four. So only sinners die. The wages of sin is death. If
there were no sin, there would be no death. That was what God
told Adam and Eve in the garden in Genesis chapter 2. In the
day you eat thereof, the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, which God forbid them to eat, in that day you shall surely
die. So death is the consequence.
It's the payback of God for sin. And only sinners die. And so
the Lord God, God the Father, delivered up Christ because of,
well, we have to conclude because of sin, right? And that's what
he says here. He was delivered to death and
to the curse for our offenses, for our offenses, for our sins
against God. Who did we offend? Because that's
what an offense means. You've offended somebody. Who
did we offend? We offended God the Father. We
broke His law. Sin, according to 1 John 3, I
think verse 4 or 5, he says, sin is transgression of the law. And whose law is it? It's God's
law. So that sin is against God and
God only. That's what David said in Psalm
51, against thee and thee only have I sinned, and done that
which is evil in thy sight, because he broke God's law. And God's
law is the sovereign creator who holds us accountable to himself,
and this is the standard to which he holds us accountable. And
breaking God's law, we both transgress against God, and we come under
the consequence of that, which is death, the curse of God's
law. And what is that death? We think of it, does it mean
that I would just die someday and that's it? That's the end
of it? No. Because the death from which
Christ delivered us was not merely a physical death, but it was
an eternal death. In 2 Corinthians 1, verse 10,
he says, who delivered us from so great a death. and doth deliver,
and we believe he shall yet deliver us. And in Roman 590, he says,
being justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through him. So if Christ's death delivered
us from wrath, and his death delivered us from so great a
death, in fact, he delivered us from eternal damnation, therefore
the death that God brings and pays sinners back for for their
sin is eternal death. The wages of sin is death, a
death that never ends, because God's justice is never satisfied. Until God's justice is satisfied,
the consequence of sin must be brought. And it must be continually
brought until the one on whom it's brought makes satisfaction
for their sins. But since no sinner can ever
do that by his own sufferings, There's an eternal death. It's
an eternal punishment because God is holy and righteous and
infinitely so, so our suffering for our sins never pays God back. But he says here in Romans 4.25
that Christ was delivered for our offenses. So our sins somehow
became the responsibility of the Lord Jesus Christ. and because
they were then made his before God, then he had to die. Therefore,
God delivered him for our offenses. And this can only be explained
by substitution, can't it? We can't understand this any
other way. That the Lord Jesus Christ was made responsible,
was made guilty by God for our sins, our offenses against God.
And because of that, because he was truly guilty, he truly
bore our sins before God, then God required it of him and he
delivered him up. He delivered him up to the consequences,
the punishment, the penalty, the payback God required, the
compensation His justice would require. The vengeance of God
fell upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. You know what chastisement is.
It's that beating you get. when you've done wrong. The beating
I deserved as a sinner came upon the one who took my sins. And
this was a just beating. This was the justice of God bringing
this. God the Father delivered him
up for our sins, for our offenses. We offended God the Father. We
broke his law. We were guilty. He condemned
us. The sentence came against us.
And death was the condemnation. Death was the sentence. And yet,
the one we offended, he devised, he took the initiative, and he
provided what would remove the offense that we created in him.
And by removing that offense, he reconciled us to himself.
He took care of it. He made himself responsible for
our offenses. And how did he fulfill that responsibility?
He laid the responsibility on his son. He laid our sins on
him, and he required from him the payment that we owed to God. And God paid it through his son,
and he paid himself. It was his justice that demanded
it, and so he had to pay his own justice. And this is what's
spoken of here, who was delivered for our offenses, you see. Now, when did God do this? we
know he did it at the cross. It says in Galatians 3.13 that
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us. We know he was delivered at the
cross. In Acts 2 and verse 23, the apostle Peter preaching on
that day to the men who actually really laid their hands on and
crucified Christ, he says this to them, Him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, being delivered, that's the same word we had in Romans
4.25, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain. Who delivered Christ? God the Father. Why did he deliver
him? For our offenses, our sins were
laid on him. When did he deliver him? At the
cross. But wait, in Acts 2.23 he says
he was delivered by the determinate counsel, the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God. God's counsel determined it.
God held counsel within himself as God and he determined it. It was therefore necessary. And
he therefore knew what would be done. That's called the foreknowledge
of God. He knew what would happen because
he determined it. His counsel said, this has to
happen. And his foreknowledge knew that
would happen. And therefore, he was delivered.
But when did all that take place? When was this counsel held in
God? When was this determination made?
When did God come to this knowledge? before the foundation of the
earth, before the world's foundations were laid. Well, now we have
to step back and think about this for a minute, don't we?
This is exactly what God has said in Revelation 13.8, that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And so we understand from these
scriptures, by God's own revelation, that God delivered up his son
in his own determinate will and counsel even before he had created
anything, before the world had even been created, before there
was any angel, before there was any man, before there was any
elephants or ants. God, before there was any sky
and sea and physical creation, before there were any worlds
made, before the universe was called into existence, God had
determined something. He determined to deliver up his
son for our offenses. That boggles my mind, doesn't
it? Well, why would you even create a world? Sometimes you
hear people say, why would God create man to send him to hell?
You ever heard that? He knew he was going to sin.
Why did God create him then? And then they'll try to explain
it away. Well, God looked down through time to see who would
believe on him. And those who believed on him were the ones
he chose to salvation. Well, that doesn't solve the
problem at all, does it? He created a bunch of people
who wouldn't believe on him. You still get back to the same
perplexity. How could God create people if
he's truly good and holy, if he's just gonna send them to
hell? This is much more difficult to answer right here. Why did
God determine to deliver up his son for our offenses before there
was anyone there? And that draws us another question.
Who influenced God to think this way? Why would God even think
like this? Well, why do you do anything?
Why do you, for example, why do you go to work? I have to
earn money. Why do you need to earn money?
Well, because I have to eat. Why do you have to eat? Because
I have to live. Why do you have to live? Something's
driving you to this, isn't it? You see, there's something that
makes things necessary. What is it that makes anything
necessary? What's the one thing that makes
anything necessary? It pleases God. That's it. In Hebrews 2.10 it says, For
it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons to glory, it became him, meaning it seemed
good, it was appropriate, it was proper for God to be pleased
to do this. It seemed good to him to bring
many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. That's exactly what he's saying
here. He determined before to deliver up his son for our offenses.
Now, stop and think about this. What made it necessary for God?
It pleased Him. It seemed good to Him. Jesus
said, used those same words in Matthew chapter 11 when there
were those who heard Him and didn't believe on Him. In verse
25, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes, even
so, Father, For so it seemed good in thy sight. It seemed
good to God, therefore it became necessary. But what does this
say about the reason, the motivations? We were not there to influence
God, were we? We weren't created. Were we there
to give God counsel? No. Did you advise God when he
created the world? No. Did you suggest something
to God? How he should create the world
knowing that men were going to be sinners, that he would deliver
up his son for the offenses of his people? Would you even have
conceived that? Could any created creature have
conceived doing that as a way for God to be just and justify
the ungodly? No. So the point that we're being
driven to here is that God determined to do this before time, before
there were any influences outside of God. No one can claim that
anybody influenced God to do this. And what does this force
us to conclude? It forces us to conclude that
this is God's work alone. It is God who justifies. And
it also forces us to conclude this. that if it is God's work
alone, if He conceived it by Himself, if it pleased Him, uninfluenced
by anything outside of Himself, and if He determined to provide
His Son, and if He determined in His Son to work out God's
righteousness, because that's what Christ's sufferings and
death amount to, they're called the righteousness of God, if
God determined to do this, to provide it and to work it out.
And then he alone, in contemplation of this and in examination of
this, would declare, this is my righteousness, worked out
by God, determined before by God to be accomplished in the
death of his son. What does that say? Not only
is this all God's work, but this is purely God. This is purely
holy. When we're looking at this, this
act of God, this determination to give his son for the offenses
of those who offended him, we're looking at the grace and the
love and the mercy and the justice and righteousness of God. This
is the character, the attributes of God. This is the way God thinks.
This is who God is. This is purely God. This is purely
holy. And we should stand. in open
mouth awe at this, because we can't understand it, can we?
How can you explain this? You can only say, this is God's
doing. This came from Him. And when we see this now, we
see the object of our faith. We believe on Him who raised
up Jesus, our Lord, from the dead. He delivered Him up. His
own justice required it, and His own grace required meeting
that just requirement in the death of His Son. How can this
be? How could God be so gracious? How could He love sinners so
much to give up His Son? How could He be so just as to
require the death of His own Son to reconcile those who had
offended Him? God is God, you see. We cannot
know Him apart from knowing Him in this way. Jesus said, this
is eternal life, and this is what eternal life is, to know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. John 17, verse 3. And so what we see here is that
in the death, in the work, in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we see the will, And we see the pleasure, we see the
mind and heart, we see what pleases God, we see the very nature of
God the Father. And so Jesus said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. And it shows us that what God
said to the woman at the well in John chapter four, that God
is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit
and truth, and the Father seeks such to worship him, that it
was he himself who revealed himself in his son and provided reconciliation
in order that we would be enabled by his grace to see and know
him and therefore worship him and enjoy eternal life. You see. It's in the worship of God because
of what Christ has done and in the person of Christ that we
see not only the heart of God and the work of God, we see the
greatness, the infinite greatness of God and his justice that he
would require nothing less than the death of his own son, bearing
our sins, the grace of God that would require everything of himself
to reconcile us who would have offended him and do so in the
death of his own son. Now, what part did we have in
this? What part did we have in delivering up Christ? What part
did we have in making, we had no part in determining it. We
had no knowledge of it. Job said, how can man be just
with God? The wisest of men on earth make
this claim. Solomon said, even a child is
known by his doings. The wisest of men know that man
can't be just, but God is known by his doings. Jesus said, out
of the heart of man proceeds evil thoughts, fornications,
adulteries. All these things come from within,
out of the heart of man. And Jeremiah said, the heart
of man is deceitful above all things. Who can know it? Can
the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
No. No more than can you, who are accustomed to sinning, do
what's right. So this describes us. And what
describes God then? He delivered up his son for our
offenses. Hold that in your heart. Look
upon it and consider this is the way in which God justifies
sinners. Why? Why would God do this? Because
he's a God of all grace and righteousness and justice and mercy. Remember
what he told Moses? Moses said, show me your glory.
He said, I will. I will show mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
And that mercy of God that flows from his heart alone, that's
grounded in the work of his son and his own death and sufferings,
that's God. We look at that, we see the glory
of God. As God commanded the light to shine in the darkness,
he has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the only
place we can see and know God. And only by this illumination
from God's word does he make himself known. We may wonder,
well, what part do I need to contribute here? Or maybe I've
contributed way too much already, and I excluded myself. But notice
what he says here. He was delivered for our offenses.
Just stop there. My offenses. Can I claim anything
else? Do I need to claim anything more
than that? God has done something. What did I contribute? Offenses.
I offended God. What did He do? He reconciled
me to Himself in the death of His Son. Look at Romans chapter
4 and verse 1. He's building up to this. He's
given us a living illustration of this in Abraham. What shall
we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the
flesh, hath found? Now the flesh here is what Abraham
could do. It's something he could do to
help God, if that were possible, complete something, to fulfill
a requirement, to make it happen. What did Abraham find out? Was
there something that he did with regards to his own abilities
in order that he might be justified? That's the question. Verse 2,
For if Abraham were justified by works, Let's propose that
for a moment. Let's say that Abraham was justified
by his works. What would the conclusion be?
He says, if he were justified by works, he has, I'll paraphrase
it, he has something to boast in. He hath whereof to glory. If Abraham were justified by
something of his own, then he has a reason to boast. But then
he adds this, but not before God. You see, he proposes, okay,
you want to believe that you're justified by what you do, let's
consider the consequences of that proposition. If Abraham
were justified by works, what would it mean? It means he has
something to boast in. But scripture repeatedly holds
this to be one of the most inviolable truths, that man will not boast
before God. And so he says, that cannot be.
That would be absurd to conclude that, that Abraham were justified
by works, because it would require that he could boast before God,
and therefore it cannot be so. And he goes on, verse 3. for
what saith the scripture. Now he's going to add to his
argument. Obviously he couldn't be justified by works because
that would enable him to boast before God. Let's go to something
even more fundamental than that. What does the scripture say?
Oh, it says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
for righteousness. And in case we think that faith
is somehow a work, he goes on, he says, now, to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him
that worketh not. Two people, two kinds of people
are brought to bear here. Who are they? One is a worker. The other one is a not worker.
One works in order to get something. The other one doesn't work and
yet gets something. So he takes two kinds of people,
a worker and a non-worker, and he takes two kinds of accounting
by God. The first one is an accounting
that gives to a man what he earns. The other one is an accounting
that gives to man what he does not earn. So he says, what saith
the scripture? Abraham believed God. It was
counted to him for righteousness. Now, verse 4, to him that worketh,
that's the first kind of man, a worker, is the reward, what
God accounts to him, what God gives to him because of his work,
what he earns. It's not of grace, but of debt. Because the only
thing we, as sinners, can earn from God is we owe God now. You wanted to earn? OK. You get
it by earning then, and what is your earning going to bring
you? God's gonna pay you back. It's a debt. Verse five, but
to him that worketh not, this is the other kind of man. There's
only two kinds. We're all in the first category
until God gives us grace and life from the dead. To him that
worketh not, but believeth on him, notice the object of our
faith is described here. Who is the one he believes? The
one who justifies the ungodly. Do you inch your way into this?
Do you somehow improve? Do you get better? Do you finally
experience something? Do you grow in sincerity until
suddenly you reach a plateau and you can say, now God can
look at my sincerity or my intentions? Or I've reached a point where
God can now bless me? No, of course not. This man doesn't
do anything. He's ungodly. In fact, he believes
on him because that's his only hope, that God justifies the
ungodly. And the basis for that is verse
25. He delivered up his son for our
offenses. So when God delivered up his
son for our offenses, it wasn't an unwilling work on Christ's
part. Look at Philippians chapter two. I want you to know this. The
Lord Jesus Christ loved me, Paul said, and gave himself for me. Remember, Galatians 2.20, the
son of God who loved me, this was the motive of his heart.
This is the way we know his character. He gave himself for me. And so
in Philippians 2 you see this. Philippians chapter 2 in verse
5, Paul says to the believers, he says, let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus. And he's going to show
us how far he stooped to show us that we should take the humblest
place. In fact, if you go back up in
chapter 2, he says, verse 3, let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. Think about the other person
better than yourself. That'll fix all your problems.
And it will show that you truly believe what Christ did. You're
following him as his disciple. So he describes what the Lord
Jesus Christ, what his mind was. This mind was in him. This is
his mind, his heart. This is his character, his nature.
If you could look in and see with your physical eyes, but
only spiritually, what is Christ like? We know he's like the Father,
but what is he like? This is what he's like. Listen,
verse six. Who being in the form of God,
All that God is, Christ is in the form of God. He's the exact,
the express image of his person. Remember Hebrews 1, 2? The brightness
of his glory, the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily,
in the form of God. He says, he didn't think it robbery
to be equal with God. It didn't enter his mind that
there was something wrong with being equal with God because
he is God. How could it be wrong? But he
who is God, knowing what he was as God, listen, verse seven,
but he made himself of no reputation. And not only did he make himself
of no reputation, but he took upon him the form of a servant. What does a servant do? He takes
care of people. He takes care of God's people.
Remember when he washed his disciples' feet? He took care of them, didn't
he? He cleansed them. Not only did
he cleanse them by his blood, but he washed their feet. He
took off his robes. And he took up a towel and he
washed their feet. That's his mind. That's who he
is. It was for our offenses. That's
what we brought. This should remove all barriers
in our mind. Except even our pride, it should
humble us to see this. We're sinners. How could we not
humble ourselves and submit ourselves to his righteousness? When he,
who is God, humbled himself and made himself a servant for us
to establish our righteousness. He goes on. He took upon him
the form of a servant, and he was made in the likeness of men.
What a stoop, God, who cannot look upon sin, to whom, whose
eyes the heavens are not clean. He says in verse eight, and being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself further, or he
says he humbled himself, but I added the word further, and
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
What was the obedience that Christ gave? He offered himself to God. He gave himself for me. His own
blood has cleansed us from our sins. He gave himself. What else could he give? He gave
himself. That's all that he had. Did God's
law require this? Did God's law say to us, you
have to give yourself for your brother in your life, give up
your life for his, take his place for the sins he did, and bear
his punishment? Did the law ever say that? I
don't understand the law to have said that ever. So what does
this mean? It means that the obedience that
Christ rendered and submitted to in his own heart, out of his
own love, out of his own will, I delight to do thy will, O God,
yea, thy law is within my heart, that obedience was giving himself
to God in sacrifice, complete sacrifice, for our offenses. And that obedience is looked
upon by God, and what does he say? Now that is righteousness. That's God's own righteousness. Now look back at Romans chapter
4 and verse 25, because he says this. He was delivered for our
offenses, and having fulfilled God's own righteousness in his
obedience unto death, what happened then? Who dies? The soul that sinneth. Does anyone
die who's not a sinner? No. What's the converse of that? What's the other side of that
coin? Well, if only sinners die, then who lives? Only the righteous. Only the righteous live. If the
soul that sinneth, it shall die, then the soul that doesn't sin
shall not die. And notice, that's exactly what
happened. He delivered him up, he was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. He didn't do this
for himself but he bore our offenses and in bearing our offenses he
was obedient to God and his obedience required his own sacrifice of
himself and that obedience was the righteousness of God and
God looked upon his obedience in righteousness and his blood
that made satisfaction to God's justice in fullness and God was
pleased and he said, raise him from the dead. He's not a sinner. The sins are gone. They were
buried. God remembers them no more. A
full remission has been made. By one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And so God raised him from the
dead because he saw his righteousness and the grave could not hold
him. But in His resurrection, just as in His death when He
bore our sins, in His resurrection, the life God gave to Him was
the life He gave to us. It was the same declaration of
justification on His righteousness that He makes for us, because
He says in the verse before this that it was not imputed to Abraham
for his sake alone, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed.
God credits us. He makes an accounting. Not of
debt, but of grace to the one who looks to Christ. Look at
Romans chapter 4 and verse 16. He says, therefore, it is of
faith that it might be by grace. Now that absolutely excludes
faith as meritorious, doesn't it? It has to be by faith in
order that it might be by grace. And if it's by grace, then it
excludes all work. Therefore, faith, the faith God
gives to us, is not a contribution in our justification. He says
this, that the promise might be sure to all the sea. The promise
The fulfillment of the promise doesn't depend on the one to
whom it's promised, but on the faithfulness and on the ability
of the one who promised. The promise to Abraham that God
made to him was a promise concerning Christ, that he would justify
the heathen through faith, from Galatians 3. It was a promise
of eternal life that would be given in result of justification. So God's promise to Abraham was
eternal life, given because of justification, and that justification
would be understood and seen and relied upon, it would be
received by them who believe Christ. And their faith would
be the evidence that God had justified them and given them
this eternal life. They would know it through faith.
By faith we understand. We don't make it happen by faith,
but we understand what God has done by faith. Just like the
illustration I've given you several times before. You look at the
clock on the wall. You think before you look, what
time is it? I don't know, maybe it's 11.30
or something. You look on the wall, the clock,
and there the clock says it's 11.45. You were adjusted in your
thinking. Now you come to understand the
way things really are. Did you affect the time by looking?
No. You just looked at it. Do you
get credit for believing what's true? God said it. No, you don't
get credit for that. That's actually God's gift. And
it's the result of life. And life is the result of righteousness,
which was established by Jesus Christ. So our believing God
is the evidence that we've been justified, the way we receive
it into our own experience and enjoy the peace in knowing it.
This is the way we know we have access to God through our mediator.
This is the way we have joy and hope because we expect every
blessing from God to be given to us because he delivered up
his son. Romans 8.32 he says, He who spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? If God has given
us His Son and didn't spare Him and justified us by His Son,
then because of His righteousness, because of His predetermined
counsel and love, He's going to give us everything with His
Son. And faith enables us to see this. So we live in life
in hope, expecting, as certainly as God gave His Son for me, He's
going to give me all things with Him. We even rejoice in our tribulations,
knowing that every tribulation in our life is only going to
bring us to a more confident persuasion of this in experience. We know this is true. God proves
his word to us in our experience because he repeatedly turns us
to see Christ. God delivered up his son for
us. That's the basis of all of our happiness. Look at Romans
4, verse 6. Even as David also described
the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, oh, the happiness or the blessedness
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, so
that our justification by Christ is the only way we can truly
be happy according to God's blessing of happiness and joy. And so
he says in Romans 5, all these blessings of our justification,
our ability to walk in life by faith looking to Christ, our
certain persuasion that God is going to bless us for Christ's
sake, are all centered and grounded and have the object of our faith
and hope and everything on what God has done for us in Christ.
The fact that he raised Christ from the dead is a statement
that he declared Christ to be righteous in all that he did.
He fulfilled all righteousness in his willing sacrifice of himself
for us, bearing our sins as his own, and he did it for our justification. Our offenses were there. That's
all we have. That's all we bring to the table.
God justifies the ungodly, and that's the object of our faith.
And he raises us from the dead because of Christ's righteousness.
This is holy. This is something God did all
by himself. This is the very nature of God.
It flows from his own heart, his mind, his will. It's his
work, his provision. And he's the one who accepts
it. He looks upon it and says, that, that. is well-pleasing
in my sight. Ephesians 5.2 says that the Lord
Jesus Christ gave himself for us a sacrifice and an offering
which was a sweet-smelling savor to God. Amazing grace, amazing. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that
all that you required from us you laid on yourself to provide. And because your son does all
the work that's in your heart, his will being your will, you
laid it on him to do it in order to glorify him, to exalt him,
to give him the throne of heaven and earth as our mediator and
in him show yourself to us. Declare it to us and cause us
to stand upon it and even worship God in seeing you in your work
and your purpose. This had to flow from you, Lord.
It has to be holy, has to be all your work entirely by your
grace. Help us to believe you, like Abraham did, to have the
same object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you who
determined and delivered and raised him from the dead for
our justification. And we thank you and praise you, Lord. Give
us His grace, today and ever. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.