Right with God by Faith

Right with God by Faith

First after Trinity

Collect of the Day: O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in thee; Mercifully accept our prayers; and because, through the weakness of our mortal nature, we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

New Testament: Romans 5:1-11 (KJ21)

1 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

2 by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4 and patience, experience; and experience, hope;

5 and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us.

6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely will one die for a righteous man, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

11 And not only that, but we shall also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

You’ve really blown it this time. You’ve sinned against God. You’ve hurt your family and friends. You’ve humiliated yourself. You feel God’s displeasure. You’re estranged from your family and friends.

How what are you going to do? Is there anything you can do to fix it? How can you make it right? That’s the problem Paul addresses with the word “justify.”

1. We’ve all blown it.

1.1. We might object: We know some people have really blown it. They get caught in a public scandal about sex or money. Denny Hastert was the Speaker of the House of Representatives and seemed to be a decent man. But then he attracted government attention because of his withdrawals of money from his accounts. It turned out that he was paying blackmail to a person he had molested when he was a high school wrestling coach. And it came to light that there were several such cases.

We might think, “Well, there are lots of cases like that, but that is not my situation. I haven’t done anything like that.” That may be true, but just because the facts in your case are different does not mean you are not in essentially the same position as Denny Hastert.

1.2. Paul uses several phrases to describe the situation of us all. We were “yet without strength” (5:6) - we were morally weak and helpless to fix ourselves. We were “ungodly” (5:6) - the opposite of God in his goodness. We were “yet sinners” (5:8) - not righteous but violators of God’s law in character and conduct. We were “enemies of God” (5:10) - we had made war on God and offended him. We were under “the wrath of God” (5:9) - found guilty, condemned, consigned to judgement.  

Paul describes all of us in chapter 3: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks after God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”...For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10-12, 22-23).

There are no exceptions - every human, every one of us, has blown it. We might be relatively better than others, but there is not one of us who is righteous in God’s sight.

2. We all can be justified.

2.1. The solution to our having “blown it” is to be justified. Some ways we use the verb “justify” might mislead us about what Paul means. For instance, we can use it to mean “explain”  or “give a reason.” You go out and buy a couple of hundred dollars of fishing equipment, and your wife sees the charge on the credit card statement. She might ask, “Would you like to justify that?” She means, “Can you give a satisfactory reason for spending our money in that way? Do you have an explanation?”

2.2. But Paul is using the word in a different way. Last week one of the police officers in Baltimore charged in the death of Freddie Gray, the man who, after being arrested, died on the back of a police van was “justified” by a judge. The judge exonerated him, or found him not guilty of the crimes with which he had been charged. The police officer was charged with breaking laws. But the judge, upon hearing the evidence, determined that the officer had not broken the laws he was charged with breaking. So far as the law was concerned, the judge said the officer had not broken it but complied. Judged by the law the officer was “not guilty” but “just” or “right.”

That’s what it means to be justified. God, as Judge, declares you not guilty but righteous in his sight. We all must die, and after death we will face judgment. On the last day, God will declare you righteous or unrighteous, guilty or not guilty, right before the law or wrong. What justification means is that you know know the verdict that will be rendered on the Last Day. Rather than having to wait till the Last Day to see how things will turn out, you can know now what God will declare about you at the Final Judgment. In fact you can know that God will declare that you are not guilty of breaking his law but are righteous in his sight.

2.3. We have to ask, “How can that be? We all have blown it - every one of us is morally weak, ungodly, a sinner, an enemy of God, under his wrath. How then can we be declared righteous by God? Wouldn’t that be wrong? How can God be a just God, a righteous God, and then declare those who are sinners to be just or righteous?”

This brings us to the heart of the gospel, of the good news about what God has done for us in Christ.

2.3.a. Christ died for us:

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely will one die for a righteous man, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Christ accepted responsibility for our sins and died for them, so that our sins may be forgiven and God may declare us not guilty. We declared right before God by Christ’s blood.

2.2.b. Christ also lived for us. Later in chapter 5 Paul writes:

For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offense of one, judgment to condemnation came upon all men, even so by the righteousness of One, the free gift unto justification of life came upon all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous (5:17-19).

Christ as a man was our representative. He lived a righteous life and the righteousness of his life is transferred to us, or credited  as ours. Not only are we forgiven of our sins by the death of Christ, but we are considered righteous by the righteous life of Christ.

2.4. How does this justification happen? Paul says we are “justified by faith.” What is faith? Faith is not an easier work we do. It is not that God says, “Well obeying the law is hard, yes, impossible, so let me give you something else to do. Have faith, and I’ll let that count for your doing good works.”

Faith is three things. It is understanding the truth about of Christ has done for our salvation. It is believing as true what you understand. And it is entrusting ourselves to Jesus and saying, “Here I am; I cannot save myself; I entrust myself to you to save me.” Any attempt on your part to make it right will only make it worse. Only Christ can put it right. The greatness of your sin is no impediment to your justification if you put your faith in Christ.

You are in the water drowning. I throw you a life ring. You understand, “This device was made to keep drowning people afloat. I believe that this life ring is capable of saving my life. Then you take hold of it - you entrust your life to it. Not you but the life ring saves you. That is justification by faith in Christ. He lived and died to save you; believe in his saving work; put yourself in his hands and entrust your salvation wholly to him.

3. We all can have peace with God.

Since we are justified by faith we can therefore have peace with God through Jesus Christ. If God forgives you and counts you righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, you can be at peace with him. Peace has 2 elements:

3.1. There is an objective state of peace with God. You and I rebelled and sinned against God. We created a state of enmity or war with him. God directed his righteous wrath against us. A state of war existed between us and God. But Christ lived a righteous life for us and died a sacrificial death for us. We believed and entrusted ourselves to Christ. God forgave our sins and counted us righteous for Christ’s sake.

God issued a declaration of peace. This is not a temporary truce which suspends war but may not last. Beginning in 1950 war broke out on the Korean Peninsula. Three years later an armistice was agreed to. But now, 63 years later a state of war still exists. No permanent peace has ever been agreed to. When God justifies us, that justification is permanent, and God establishes a permanent peace between us.

3.2. This objective state of peace creates the possibility of personal peace - of peace within our hearts, a sense of well-being that comes from knowing that God has nothing against us, has declared the end of hostilities and a state of peace.

This subjective experience of peace can take awhile to experience. If there has been war between two countries that has gone on for many years but eventually peace is established and names or signed, it may be that the leaders and people of those two countries will take awhile to make the psychological adjustment, to realize, “We are not at war any longer. We do not have to live in fear any more. Peace has come and war is over. And, even when the two nations begin to enjoy the state of peace, they can fall back into feelings of hostility and fear.

We have to “talk to ourselves” and say, “I am right with God by faith in Jesus Christ. God forgives me, declares me righteous, accepts me. He has declared peace. I can live in peace because God has nothing against me.” It takes a “faith adjustment” to live on the basis of this reality. And every time this peace is disturbed by our sins, or by the devil’s attacks on us, we must have this same conversation with ourselves all over again: “I am justified by faith. I have peace with God.”

My hope is built on nothing less

than Jesus blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

but wholly lean on Jesus name.