Justification 5 Who Benefits From Justification

Overview

Who Benefits From Justification?

The gospel does not announce a possible reconciliation or a conditional forgiveness; it announces an accomplished fact. God has declared the entire world forgiven for the sake of Christ's finished work. This objective justification stands whether or not anyone believes it. Even if there were no believer left in the world, Christ would still have died for the sins of the world, and God's verdict of "not guilty" would still stand. Holding firmly to this foundation guards us from quietly turning faith itself into a work or a condition we must meet.

So what is faith? Faith is the simple trust that God loves us and forgives us for the sake of Jesus Christ. The psalmist confesses, "I trusted in your steadfast love" Psalm 13:5, and Paul writes that "to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness" Romans 4:5. To believe is to know and rest in the love God has for us in Christ 1 John 4:16.

Faith is not a good work we contribute. We are justified "by faith apart from works prescribed by the law" Romans 3:28, saved "not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:4-5. Grace is God not giving us what we deserve; mercy is God giving us what we do not deserve. Faith does not bring forgiveness into being—it receives the forgiveness already won at the cross. This is why a few common confusions need to be cleared up:

• Faith is not a condition we must meet to be forgiven; it is trust that we are forgiven.
• Our prayers for forgiveness do not cause God to forgive; they reflect that we trust His forgiveness.
• A strong faith does not save us. Faith—weak or strong—is only as good as its object. As long as it rests in Jesus, it saves. This is deeply pastoral news for every believer who has ever wakened to a day when faith felt fragile.

Faith itself is God's gift. The natural person cannot receive the things of the Spirit 1 Corinthians 2:14, and "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" 1 Corinthians 12:3. Paul places it plainly: "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works" Ephesians 2:8-10. Scripture is not against works—it places them rightly. Works do not earn righteousness; they are the fruit and expression of the faith God has given.

Who, then, benefits from justification? Those who, by the Spirit's gift, simply trust the verdict already pronounced over the world in Christ. Rest your weary conscience there. Your assurance is not the strength of your grip on Christ but the strength of His grip on you.

Transcript

Jesus, you have carried out the work of our salvation perfectly and 0s

completely. Send the Spirit to give a simple trust in you as our 5s

Savior. May you receive all the praise for our salvation. May it be 10s

to your eternal glory that we have now come to faith in you as our 17s

Savior in your name we pray. Amen. We studied last week the 22s

topic, whom does God justify? Whom does God justify? And we saw from 28s

Scripture that God desires the salvation of all and that God 35s

justifies he declares not guilty the entire world, the entire world. 41s

So when the gospel is proclaimed the gospel does not reveal a 48s

possible reconciliation between humanity and God. It does not reveal a 53s

conditional forgiveness of sins. The gospel reveals that forgiveness of 59s

sins has been accomplished. It is an accomplished fact. We took a look at 65s

what is called the doctrine of limited atonement and we saw the 71s

fallacy of that. Limited atonement was put forward by Calvin and 76s

Calvin maintained that when Jesus Christ died, Jesus Christ died only for 83s

those who would believe. And so we explored the ramifications of that type of 88s

belief and we ended with the affirmation once again of what's called 95s

objective justification. That indeed God has justified. He has declared 101s

the entire world forgiven. Well today I want to talk about the topic of 107s

who benefits from justification, who benefits from justification. And it's 112s

a little bit of a continuation of the sermon this morning. So if you 119s

were here this morning you're going to hear now the second part. You 125s

will hear a preacher if you've done your homework. Whenever a preacher gets 131s

up the congregation never hears as much as what was uncovered in the study. 134s

Or we'd be here a while. Okay. So this is a wonderful opportunity. 141s

The topic happens to fall precisely on the day we're talking about the 146s

solar of faith alone. So I get to kind of keep preaching a little 151s

bit in the class this morning. So we want to talk about who benefits 155s

from justification, who benefits from justification. First question, 160s

what is faith? What is faith? Let's start in Psalm 13. Good way of 166s

course to find the Psalms is just to open up to the middle of Scripture and 171s

you'll land there Psalm 13 verse 5. Psalm 13 verse 5. 176s

And here we read, but I trusted in your steadfast love my heart shall 197s

rejoice in your salvation. I trusted. Let's go to Romans the fourth chapter. 205s

New Testament Matthew Mark Luke John, Acts and then Romans. 213s

Romans chapter 4 verse 5. This comes from our text from this morning. 220s

Romans chapter 4 verse 5. But to one who without works trusts in 227s

him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 239s

But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such 246s

faith is reckoned as righteousness. Who's the ungodly? We're the ungodly. 253s

Right? We sin against him and thought word indeed. What we've done, what we've 260s

left undone, it's the condition that we are born into. But to one who without 263s

works, here's the word trusts him who justifies the ungodly. 271s

Let's go to first John chapter 4. Good way to find first John is just go to 278s

Revelation and then turn left and you'll find it quickly. First John chapter 4 verse 16. 283s

First John chapter 4 verse 16. So we have known and believed the love that God 297s

has for us. God is love and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in 308s

them. So what is faith? Faith is simple trust that God loves us and forgives us for 316s

the sake of Jesus Christ. Faith is the simple proclamation. It is the simple 324s

declaration of trust that indeed we trust that through Christ our sins are 330s

the love of Jesus. Well if that's what faith is, what is faith not? Faith is not a 338s

good work. We are not saved by the righteous things that we do. Remember as we've 348s

been studying, that was Luther's system, that he was taught. Luther was taught that 356s

indeed you earn your way. So it's you get grace and then that grace mixes with the 362s

works and that makes the works meritorious before God Almighty. So it was a system 370s

of being declared not guilty by faith through grace plus what works. Salvation by 377s

grace through faith plus works. When the Reformation comes along and Luther 389s

hears calling the church back to scripture, focusing on the solas. Remember grace 396s

alone, faith alone, word alone, calling them as saying there's no plus here in the 403s

righteous things that we do. Let's go to Titus chapter 3 please. Keep turning 419s

back toward Matthew. You're going to cross over Philemon. You land in Titus chapter 424s

3, verse 4. Titus chapter 3, verse 4. But when the goodness and loving kindness of 433s

God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Notice the direction here. He saved us, not 452s

because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy. 462s

Remember grace is not getting what we deserve and mercy is getting what we don't deserve. 471s

So by his grace God doesn't give us what we deserve and by his mercy he gives us what 479s

we don't deserve. According to his mercy through the water of rebirth and renewal by the 486s

Holy Spirit. What's that? That's baptism, right? The water of rebirth and renewal by the 493s

Holy Spirit. So if someone asks you, are you born again? The answer is yes. When did it 500s

happen? My baptism, right? My baptism. That's when we experience the rebirth of God, 508s

Almighty. According to his mercy through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy 517s

Spirit. So it's not a good work. We're not saved by the righteous things that we do. 526s

Let's go to Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 3. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 532s

Acts and Romans, Romans chapter 3 verse 28. So faith is the simple trust that God loves 539s

us and forgives our sins through Jesus Christ. What faith is not faith isn't a work. 555s

Romans chapter 3 verse 28. For we hold that a person is justified, declared not guilty, 561s

by faith, apart from works prescribed by the law. We hold that a person is justified by faith, 570s

apart from works prescribed by the law. Romans chapter 4, speaking up in verse 5 again. 578s

But to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift, but as something do. But to one who 594s

without works, trust him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 602s

It's important to note here that God is not against works and sometimes the Reformation can be 612s

looked at as the Reformation is against works. You know, it's the placement of works. 619s

We are not justified by that which we do, but having been justified, brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 627s

that faith will express itself in what? In works. But the works are not a vehicle whereby we earn our way 636s

into the good graces of God. So the Scripture is certainly not against works. It's how we understand the works. 645s

Are the works the expression of the faith that God gives us? Indeed. Are works the vehicle whereby we earn our righteousness before God? 654s

Absolutely. Absolutely not. Romans 4 again, but to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift, but as something do. 668s

But to one who without works, trust him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 677s

Okay. Pop quiz. You ready? To her false. And this is an internal pop quiz. Okay. So, grace of bounds here. 690s

Grace, grace of bounds. Just kind of think what the answer is as you go, as you go through that. But you're going to very quickly see what the answer key is as we go through. 704s

Okay. Here's the first statement. Our faith is not a condition that we have to meet in order to be forgiven. 714s

Our faith is not a condition that we have to meet in order to be forgiven. Now, as you percolate now now, let me say it one more time. 725s

Our faith is not a condition that we have to meet in order to be forgiven. And the answer is true. 739s

True. True. It is trust that we are forgiven through Jesus Christ. Trust that we are forgiven through Jesus Christ. 750s

You see, the biblical understanding of objective justification, you have to proclaim that because if you lose objective justification, then you start mixing law and gospel. 761s

And all of a sudden your faith then becomes a condition here for you being justified. Nope. We declare that even if every person in the world, even if there was no believer in the entire world, is the world still justified by God? 774s

Absolutely. Is the world still declared guilty by God? Absolutely. Did Jesus still die for the sins of the world? 793s

Absolutely. You see, you start with that foundation so that faith doesn't become the condition for our salvation. Okay, let's go to this one. 802s

Our prayers for forgiveness do not cause God to forgive us. Our prayers for forgiveness do not cause God to forgive us. 815s

Are you thinking inside now? You have your answer? Have your answer? Okay, it's true. Right? It's true. Our prayers for forgiveness do not cause to forgive us. 831s

They reflect our trust that we are forgiven. They show we do not take forgiveness lightly. Okay, here's this one. 842s

Faith does not bring about forgiveness. Faith does not bring about forgiveness. And that is true, right? 856s

True. Are you getting the key here? Okay. Okay. Faith does not bring about forgiveness. Faith trusts in Christ's forgiveness. 869s

Faith merely receives the forgiveness that has already been won. Faith doesn't effect it. Faith simply receives it. 880s

Because if faith effects it, then faith becomes the only, fill in the blank, blank you have to do. Only work you have to do. Right? 893s

See, if faith is at which affects the forgiveness of sins, then the only work that we do is we make our decision and we bring ourselves to faith. 904s

What is that losing the equation? It loses the objective justification that the whole world has been reconciled unto God. Regardless of our response. 916s

Okay. Now, if you heard the sermon this morning, you got a head start on this one. 929s

A strong faith does not save us. A strong faith does not save us. That's true, right? Any faith, weaker strong is only as good as its object. 934s

Faith, whether weaker strong, as long as it rests in Jesus, saves us. That's a gracious word, isn't it? 950s

Because there isn't one Christian on the planet today or has been or ever will be that does not have fluctuations of faith. 959s

That does not go through periods or even days in which one says, you know, today it feels like my faith is really strong in the Lord Jesus Christ and then you wake up the next day and you kind of go, what happened to yesterday? 969s

What happened to yesterday? You see, it's a terrifying thing then to say that the strength of your faith is that which saves you. 983s

No? Because then faith is reflecting on faith instead of the object of our faith, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. 992s

Okay, here's the last one. Faith does not justify us. Oh, this is too easy here. I said this up. Faith does not justify us. The object of faith, what we receive, justifies us. 1007s

We'll talk about giving you the answer here to the last, last one. That's true, right? We're justified through faith. By faith, we're not justified because of faith. 1022s

Because of faith implies that faith then is the work that we have to do to affect our salvation. Through and by is the receiving of that which has already been one. 1035s

So what is faith then? Faith is simple trust that God loves us and forgiveness, forgives us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is faith not? Faith is not a work that we come up with. 1048s

It is not that work that we do that saves us. Third point. The faith that we have is a gift of God. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and then Romans. 1067s

And 1 Corinthians and then 2 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. 1088s

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's spirit for their foolishness to them. And they're unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1112s

It is only by the operation of the spirit that we come to faith. Let's look, go back a little bit and go to verses 9 and 10 of the same chapter. 1126s

But as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. 1139s

These things God has revealed to us through the spirit for the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Let's go to the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3. 1148s

Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, let Jesus be cursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 1175s

Let's go to Ephesians the 2nd chapter, 1 Corinthians, then Galatians and then Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 to 9. 1189s

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not the result of works so that no one may boast. 1211s

And then notice how 10 comes. It's the proper relationship of works to faith. Verse 10, for we are what he has made us created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared for us. 1239s