Are you living the truth of justification? Do you live like someone who has been justified by God? It is what sets us apart from all other false religions. God has done all the work necessary for our salvation. However, there are two traps we fall into with justification. Either we don’t fully grasp it and continue to work for our salvation, or we take it for granted and believe it’s an excuse to continue in our sin. It’s important to understand our great need and what God has done to meet that need.
God’s Word tells the story of God’s rule and reign throughout history and His redemptive plan to save His people from their sin through Jesus Christ. We just celebrated the life, death and resurrection of Jesus two weeks ago on Easter. For years I didn’t understand why Jesus had to die. I didn’t understand that God sought to justify me through the work of Jesus. I didn’t even realize my need to be justified.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
Justification is God crediting the righteousness of Christ to the believer, which cancels God’s judgement on the believer. I had sinned against a Holy God, just like all of you. I deserved death for my sins. That sin separated me from God and made it impossible for me to approach God on my own. However, since I put my faith in Jesus Christ, when God the Father looks at me, He remembers my sin no more (Isaiah 43:25). Instead He sees the righteousness of Christ.
Understanding Our Need
I remember one Sunday as a child in Children’s Church, I got to go to the treasure chest, which was filled with toys and candy. However, I chose a small plastic statue of praying hands because I thought they looked like Jesus’ hands. I was too embarrassed to show my friends because I thought they would pick on me for not choosing candy. It’s memories like this one that make me believe that God was always planting seeds in my life for a future relationship with Him.
At a very young age I said a prayer for Jesus to come into my heart. However, at the time I didn’t understand my need for salvation. All I understood was that I didn’t want to go to hell. I didn’t understand the Gospel as I know it today. I didn’t believe that I had been created by a Holy God to live according to His design and purpose. Finally, I didn’t understand that I had sinned against Him, rejected Him and sought to live my life independent of Him. The biggest thing I didn’t realize was that this made me His enemy, indebted to Him, and unable to bridge the gap that separated us.
But thanks be to God that He did not leave me there. I am so thankful that He opened my eyes to these things through the Holy Spirit and made me realize my great need for a Savior. Thankfully, He did not bring me to a lukewarm church like the Church of Laodicea (Revelation 3:14-22). I was hungry and wanted the truth, not the lies that I had lived by for the last 30 years. Thank God He brought me to a church that understood that faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
God Does All The Work
Through the Holy Spirit, God calls us to salvation. We respond by turning from our sin to faith in Jesus Christ. Then God regenerates us to a new life. God does all the work of our salvation, and we get all the reward. This truth should cause us to be in awe of God, to surrender to His will in our lives, and to worship Him with all that we have.
Let’s consider for a moment how much God has done for your salvation and how little you have done? He called you to Himself and predestined you for adoption (Ephesians 1:5). Through the blood of Jesus Christ you have redemption and forgiveness of your sins (Ephesians 1:7). In Him you obtained an inheritance (Ephesians 1:11). He made it possible for you to believe the truth found in His Word, which means without Him you believe lies (Ephesians 1:13). Through the Holy Spirit, He has sealed your inheritance, which means you can’t lose it (Ephesians 1:14).
Why did He do all this? So that you could continue to live in your sin? By no means. The second part of the verses listed above says it was according to the purpose of His will, according to the riches of His grace, and to the praise of His glory. God did all the work for your salvation so that you would stop living for yourself and start living for Him. He saved you because of His grace and mercy. And finally He saved you to bring glory to Him. He did all the work, so He deserves all the praise.
The Lies
There are two lies I think we fall into when it comes to justification. The first is that we still seek to work for our salvation. Christians say to me all the time, “I’m just trying to be a good Christian.” And it usually comes after they do something the world says is loving and God says is sin. Because God has justified you, you should be seeking to grow in your knowledge of Him, surrendering to His will, and asking Him for wisdom. If you are seeking to do anything for God apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, you are not serving God. You are serving yourself.
There are a lot of religions that seek to look like Christianity, but clearly encourage works and adhering to traditions. It’s important to be able to identify when your church is seeking to establish their own righteousness through works instead of submitting to God’s righteousness in Christ. We must reject the lie that human effort can earn us salvation or favor with God. Instead, we must submit to our need for salvation through Jesus Christ.
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:3-4
But then there’s the flipside to this, and what I will talk about more next month. Yes, we are justified by faith, but that is not an excuse to continue to sin. This is the life I lived for 30 years. I called myself a Christian, but I lived for myself and not for Christ. I said a prayer that I thought would protect me from hell, but I didn’t realize my great need for a Savior. This is very prevalent in the world today. Those who ascribe to this way of thinking want to convince Christians that we take God’s commands too seriously. They refuse to admit that their lack of desire to surrender to God’s will, might very well mean that Jesus is not their Lord and Savior.
Anchored To The Truth
It is important that we anchor ourselves to the truth found in God’s Word, including the truth about justification. Our faith is not a magical prayer that we pray. Our faith is in God the Son, who stepped into His creation, lived the perfect life according to God’s law, died a substitutionary death to pay the penalty for our sin, and rose from the grave defeating sin and death. All of this was so that we may be justified in the sight of God our Father, and that we would not have to receive the penalty for our sin.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10
Study God’s Word so that you can rightly understand the truth about justification. Be sure to download Lesson 7: Justification of Anchored to Truth on my Resources Page. I welcome your questions and comments. Send me an email through my Contact Page.