Today John Fonville asks, Where in the church is the gospel? This third message in our series tells us that the gospel is present in a church that teaches you that. We don't work for or earn our salvation. If a church teaches that being justified before God is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone, then that's where you find the gospel in the church. Here's John Fonville with a message called Is the Doctrine of Justification Central in the Church?
Where in the church is the gospel? And our starting place for that is the letter of Titus, which is what we're studying. By gospel. I'm referring throughout this whole series to the stricter, proper sense of that term, gospel. Particularly the way Paul gives it to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 to 4.
For I deliver to you as of first importance what is paramount. What I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And so, our launching point for the question: where in the church is the gospel, is Paul's letter to Titus and Paul's concern for the gospel.
Is the driving force in this little brief three-chapter letter? And the reason for Paul's concern is because he understands this, and this is very, very important to understand this. The gospel not only creates the church, that is what you have typically, some of you have grown up with, of thinking or associated with the idea of getting, quote, saved. The gospel not only creates the church, but the gospel also brings order to the church. The gospel matures the church, grows the church.
Transforms the church because the gospel is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
So Paul says in Titus 1:1. His apostleship was for the sake of the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth, which is the gospel, which accords with godliness.
So it's not enough just to give people the gospel so that they, quote, get saved, and then let them move on in their life trying really hard to keep a bunch of rules. Paul says that the purpose of the gospel in the church is to bring people in to have a new creation occur in their hearts. And then, after that creation has come into being to establish them forever. On and on and on, into the knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of the gospel that brought them to life to begin with. And so the gospel, through the ongoing preaching of the gospel in the church, Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Sanctifies and transforms people. This is what Paul teaches in this little letter in Titus. He tells you this in Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. He says this is what produces godly membership in the church. And then, as we'll see when we get to Titus chapter 3, he says in Titus chapter 3, verses 4 through 7.
The Holy Spirit takes the gospel. And brings into the present age the ethics of the kingdom that is coming.
Okay. The society that you have always wanted to live in. Where there are no angry drivers with road rage. is coming It's fun. And that society, Paul says, is now being created presently in the church by the Holy Spirit.
And it will slowly, eventually, be consummated so that all the society that we live in is marked by godliness rather than ungodliness.
So it's clear from the letter of Titus that the gospel is to be central in the teaching and life of the church.
So that brings us to the question. Where in the church is the gospel? When you're looking for a church to be a part of, what are the criteria that you look for when you're searching for a church that keeps Christ and His gospel at the center? Listen, not only of its confession, which we'll come back to, its theoretical gospel, but in its life and practice, in its operative gospel. And so here's the first question we looked at that we said to ask.
Does the church set forth the gospel as the promise of the grace of God? Does the church Teach the entire and uncorrupted doctrine of the law and gospel clearly and distinguished in the church. Second, does the church's message center on Christ's work and in particular what his death accomplished? We saw a couple of examples over the past couple weeks that churches seem to be preaching Christ and his priestly work, but they're not really preaching it. God loves you, it's not the gospel.
J.I. Packer says the New Testament gives us two yardsticks for measuring God's love. The first is the cross. The second is the gift of sonship. Where that is not clearly taught in the church, God loves you means nothing.
So Second, we haven't found the gospel in the church where Jesus is set forth as therapist. The subject of a therapeutic gospel is man and the help that man gives him. Peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction, health, wealth, prosperity, purpose, your best life now, a wonderful plan for your life, plans to prosper you and give you success. That is not the gospel. If these things are being emphasized in a church and the gospel is not being preached, third, we saw, we haven't found the gospel where Jesus is continually set forth exclusively or almost exclusively as the model to emulate.
WWJD is not the gospel. Imitation of Christ has its place in the church, but not under the category of the gospel. It's under the category of the third use of the law, which is to be given only to Christians to direct their hearts of gratitude and obedience for the grace they have received.
So the question is: So, when have you found the gospel in the church? Because we really haven't gotten to that yet.
So, that's what we're going to look at this morning. When have you really found the gospel in the church? And here it is. The gospel is particularly found in the church when the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, is central. Justification, when rightly understood, is a synonym for the gospel.
Yet, in recent years, the question, what is the gospel, has been the topic of much discussion, even within evangelicalism. Particularly concerning the idea that the gospel is essentially synonymous with the doctrine of justification, some Bible scholars and teachers and pastors. Caution people against equating the gospel, even in its proper strict sense, with justification alone. I just finished reading a book this week that did that. To be sure, there are more benefits that the Holy Spirit applies to us than justification.
He gives us sanctification. He gives us adoption. He gives us glorification. There are many benefits that the Holy Spirit applies. From the Gospel.
Nonetheless, listen very carefully. Paul's statement in Romans chapter four, verse five, which is this, God justifies the ungodly. That is a shocking statement. That statement, God justifies the ungodly, lies at the heart of the gospel. And so it is a grave mistake to downplay or deny the central importance of justification, listen, in both the church's confessional statement and in the church's and believers' daily operative life.
I'm going to explain that whole thing this morning, I hope, to do that. Paul understood that the justification of the ungodly lies at the heart of the good news. It is at the center of the gospel. I want you to look over at the book of Galatians in chapter 1 and look at verses 6 through 9.
So turn there. Galatians chapter 1 and look at verses 6 through 9. Paul says this to the Galatian churches. He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly. Just underline that so quickly.
That is our proclivity to quickly turn from this doctrine. I am so, I am astonished. That you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, Paul says, there's really not another gospel. It just seems like it to you.
But there are some who trouble you, and they want. to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel, Contrary to the one you received, let him be. Accursed.
In chapter 3, Paul tells you what this curse is. Everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. is cursed.
So that's the curse he's talking about in chapter 1. What was this another gospel? Because look carefully, Paul talks about this. You are turning to another gospel. That word, another, is very important.
We know from the letter of Galatians throughout the rest of the context of this book, and we should know that in this church, and if you don't remember, I'm going to remind you today. But we know from the letter of Galatians that this another gospel. Involve Judaizers teaching Galatian believers to accept circumcision and submit to the Mosaic covenant. Keeping the law so that they could become genuine people of God. In other words, justified.
Paul's opponents were adding to the gospel. They were adding to Christ. Listen carefully. Paul's opponents knew who Jesus was and confessed who Jesus was. They just simply added to what Jesus did.
They insisted that a person cannot be in a right relationship with God, justified, without being circumcised and keeping the Old Testament law. And so Paul writes this letter, and he vigorously argues that anyone who teaches. That adding Adding works to Christ's works as the basis of our relationship with God, that's not the gospel. Anybody who adds anything to the finished work of Christ as the basis for justification, that is another gospel. That is not the gospel.
Any gospel that bases justification on anything other than Christ's perfect work is no gospel. That's what Paul's saying here. Rather, what is it? He tells you what it is. It is damning, eternal bad news.
He pronounces an anathema that invokes the curse of God's law from Galatians chapter 3 twice. Paul, writes Michael Horton, considered the doctrine of justification to be so central that he regarded it as explicit denial as anathema. That is an act of heresy. That the Galatian church is on the verge of committing. For Paul, a denial of justification was tantamount to a denial of grace, even to a denial of Christ.
Why? Because in Galatians chapter 2, verse 21, Paul says, for if righteousness were through the law, What you do to keep the law, if that's how you become right with God, Christ. Died for no purpose. You are denying the substitutionary atonement of Christ. And so, Paul, concerning the gospel in Galatians 2, verse 16, look what he says.
Look at chapter 2, verse 16. He's talking to Peter, who has hypocritically compromised the gospel. In Antioch, and he's confronting the Apostle Peter. Listen, Paul says here in Galatians, he's confronting Peter publicly and openly in front of the whole church. How'd you like to be Peter in that conversation?
Okay. We know, Peter, that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
So we also have believed in Christ Jesus. That's you and me, Peter. We have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified. That's very clear.
Now, as a revelation of the righteousness of God, the law condemns us. But the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness that comes. from God as a gift, and it justifies us. The gospel is the good news. Listen, that God justifies sinners, the ungodly.
How? Look at Romans chapter 3, verses 24 through 25. Turn there. Paul tells you how God can do this. How can God be just and yet justify the ungodly without being unjust?
Here's how he can do it. The gospel is the good news that God justifies the ungodly, Romans 3:24 and 25. By his grace. As a gift. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation, the exhaustion of God's wrath by his blood to be received through faith.
That's how God can do this.
So, the clarity and the purity of justification can easily and be quickly lost in the church. Galatians 1:6, Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quick. quickly turning. And so we have to continue to uphold the central role of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. continually in the church At the heart of the church, Because Paul did, and so we should.
And also, the Reformers did in the Reformation, was clearly recovered by them in the Reformation. Let me just give you a couple of examples from church history. The reformers insisted, and rightly so, that to get justification wrong. It is to miss the true gospel and the Christian life altogether. Listen, for example, to John Calvin and the Institutes when he begins his discussion when he talks about justification.
He says, as he begins it, he says, justification is the main hinge. on which religion turns. It's a big statement. He goes on to say this. He goes on to say.
So we devote the greater attention and care to it. If it is the main hinge upon which all religion turns of the Christian faith. He says we devote the greater attention and care to it. The greater attention and care to it. Four, unless you first of all grasp what your relationship to God is.
The nature of his judgment concerning you. You have neither a foundation on which to establish your salvation, in other words, you have no assurance to know whether or not you will ever, ever be saved. And then second, You have no foundation on which to build piety toward God. You have no foundation by which to live the Christian life and pursue holiness. He called justification the primary article of the Christian religion.
Listen to Martin Luther. Martin Luther says this doctrine, justification by faith, is the head and the cornerstone. This doctrine alone begets, that's creates, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the Church of God. And without this doctrine, the Church of God cannot exist for one hour. He says again if the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time.
And finally, Luther says: when the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen. Therefore, it is necessary constantly to inculcate it and impress it on people, just as Moses says of his law. For this doctrine cannot be inculcated and urged enough or too much. Indeed, even though we learn it well and hold to it, yet there is no one who apprehends it perfectly, or believes it with full affection and heart.
So very trickish is our flesh, fighting as it does against the obedience of the Spirit. Paul says, I am astonished that you are so quickly turning. from this gospel. Coming up to contemporary times in his classic work, Knowing God, which I would encourage you to read, J. I.
Packer refers to justification in the church, in the Christian life, as the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel. Listen to what he says about it. We all stand by nature under God's judgment. Whether we still like it or not. His law condemns us.
Guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, in our lucid moments afraid. We have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker.
So we need the forgiveness of sins and assurance of a restored relationship with God more than we need anything else. Listen to that again. We need the forgiveness of our sins and assurance of a restored relationship with God more than we need anything else in the world. And as justification is the primary blessing, so it is the fundamental blessing in the sense that everything else in our salvation assumes it and rests on it. If you get this doctrine wrong, everything that sits on it crumbles with it.
So, you may be wondering, okay, then it's so important: what is justification? Glad you asked. Here's the answer. Here's what justification is. Justification is an exclusively legal declaration by God as a judge.
A legal declaration by God as a judge. And that declaration is based on the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Imputation is a big word, which simply means this: it's an accounting term. Your bank account is empty. Jesus' bank account is full of perfect righteousness, which you need.
And what is this perfect righteousness that is reckoned to your empty bank account? It is the whole record of his whole life given to you as if you lived that life. And And it is also his sin-bearing death on the cross which satisfied all the penalties of the law that stood against you. And that comes to the believer through faith alone. That's justification.
When you are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone, listen carefully. There is no change that takes place in you as a sinner. You're still sinful. But to be sure. Once you're justified, your life will change because you're going to see that in Titus 3.
But the change that takes place involves the way God judges you. Justification is a legal term. It is a declaration by God the judge. It means that you're no longer condemned by the law and justice of God. Your status before the law of God is now one of righteousness, as if you had kept the law perfectly.
As if all the penalties that stood against you are no longer condemning you. Listen to this answer given in the Heidelberg Catechism, question 60. Question 60 says, How are you righteous before God? How are you justified? Listen, only by true faith in Jesus Christ, that is, that is, although, and this is talking about you as a Christian now.
Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God. and have never kept any of them. And that I am still inclined always to all evil. Yet, God, without any merit of my own, which I have none. Out of mere grace.
Imputes or reckons to me, to my account, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me, if I only accept this gift through faith. That's unreal. The biblical teaching of justification maintains that God justifies the ungodly when you are still in and of yourself sinful, justified, righteous. And because Christ's righteousness is counted to me through the Holy Spirit-given faith. Through this gospel-created faith, I am justified before God.
Again, Michael Horton says, God justifies the wicked. By the way, do you know who the two ungodly wicked examples are in Romans chapter four that Paul gives you to go back to the Old Testament to read to see how God justifies really wicked, ungodly, evil people? Abraham and David.
So however you read those Old Testament accounts, don't read them as your hero. Because they're not. There are ungodly men who are justified by God. God justifies the wicked, the ungodly, not those who have done their best. yet have fallen short Those who might be at least judged acceptable because of their sincerity.
But those who, at the very moment of being pronounced righteous, are in themselves unrighteous. And to the one who does not work, Paul says in Romans 4:5.
Now, listen carefully here. to the one who does not work. But believes in him.
So whatever Belief is, faith is, it is not a work. Because he's contrasting work with faith. to the one who does not Work. But believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. I want you to notice carefully and listen carefully because I want to explain something to you to help you.
Because it's what help you with your assurance. God does not justify you and me, who are ungodly, because of our faith in Jesus. He justifies, listen, the Bible speaks of salvation, it's by grace. through faith, never because of faith. Jesus, not faith, justifies.
God, the Bible says, justifies the ungodly, that is you and me, on the basis of the righteousness of Christ, his active obedience, the record of his perfect fulfillment of the law for us, his substitutionary atonement, his sin-bearing death on the cross for us. God justifies us apart from our inherent righteousness, which Paul in Philippians 3, verse 8, calls our inherent righteousness, the things we do to try to get right with God. Paul calls it rubbish. And the Greek word is scubalon. The word scuba line meant useless, Undesirable material that is subject to disposal, refuse, and garbage.
It meant excrement, manure, garbage, and kitchen scraps. To convey the crudity of the Greek from Paul, it's all crap. That's your mind's righteousness, inherent righteousness. Paul is using a very strong word in his culture to communicate to you what your righteousness is before God, apart from Christ. Yet, so often pastors in churches make the mistake of teaching a kind of salvation by works.
Listen to how Tim Keller explains it, and it's very helpful. He says, in some churches, it is implicitly or explicitly taught that you are saved through your surrender to Christ. Plus, right beliefs and behavior. This is a fairly typical mistake in evangelical churches. People are challenged to, quote, give your life to Jesus, or quote, ask Him into your life.
Keller says, This sounds very biblical, but it still can reject the grace first principle fairly easily. People think that we are saved by a strong belief and trust in and love for God, along with a life committed to Him. Therefore, they feel they must begin generating a high degree of spiritual sorrow and hunger and love in order to get Christ's presence. Then they must somehow maintain this if they're going to stay. Saved.
So, functionally, that is, in an actual reality. A church is teaching the idea that we are saved because of the level of our faith. But the gospel says that we are saved through our faith, not because of our faith. The first approach really makes our performance the Savior, and the second makes Christ's performance the Savior. It is not the level but the object of our faith.
It saves us. The reason for the mistake that Tim Keller is explaining. Is because too often pastors in churches operate on an assumed gospel, which ultimately paves the way to denying the gospel, at least in practice in the church. Which is why we're asking the question: where in the church is the gospel? For instance, listen to Graham Goldsworthy.
He observes that many pastors have a theoretical gospel. What is that? A theoretical gospel is when you go to a website or you come to a church and you look on the bulletin, you go, okay, your statement of faith. And here's your statement of faith. The gospel is defined in confessional statements.
That's your theoretical gospel. We got it on paper. Oh, yeah, we believe Jesus says salvation by grace. Theoretical gospel. But what happens is pastors in churches, he says, most of the time operate on an operative gospel, which is this.
That is the actual teaching which takes place on a weekly basis in the church. He says theoretically, we will get into a theological mode and produce, as far as possible, a biblically based notion focusing on the person and work of Christ. But in pastoral practice, it's easy to be pragmatic. And our operative gospel will be the thing that preoccupies us as the focus of our preaching and teaching. And so, because pastors and churches too often function according to their operative gospel, pastors and churches often fail to see the gospel's many implications and functions for.
the life and the life of a Christian on a daily basis. They end up, perhaps unwittingly, some intentionally. But to give the charity of grace, some perhaps unwittingly, they end up teaching justification by works, though on paper they confess justification by grace alone. This is what we're asking the question: where in the church is the gospel? Let me give you a couple of examples of what I'm talking about so you can spot it.
Sometimes pastors in churches turn faith into faithfulness. And they make faith the act, listen, instead of faith, which is holy and justification receiving, they make faith into an act and work. It's the act of working. Or perhaps you've heard the term lordship salvation in the church. Lordship salvation advocates.
Almost always confuse faith and obedience. Not always, but a lot of times the leading ones do in their books. You can read it because I'm going to read from one of those books right now. They confuse faith and obedience, and they give you statements like this. Disobedience is unbelief.
True faith is humble, submissive obedience. Faith encompasses obedience. Direct quotes from a leading lordship advocate.
Now listen very carefully. Active love, obedience, good works is the fruit. Of justifying faith. It is not the act of justifying faith. Faith produces obedience.
But to suggest to Christians that faith is obedience is to confuse justification. With sanctification. And you know what the unintended result is? Of confusing faith and obedience. of confusing justification and sanctification?
You are now teaching justification by works. Such a formula of justifying faith is wholly, listen, wholly inconsistent with the biblical teaching of justification. It is wholly inconsistent with the Reformation position that was re-introduced to the church in the Reformation. And guess what it is? It is wholly consistent with the Roman Catholic teaching of justification.
Because in justification, faith, the Bible teaches. is merely the instrument. It is the free gift that the Holy Spirit gives to us that enables us to receive and rest in Christ alone who is saving us. Listen to what Dr. Rosenblatt says.
He says, quote, Faith is a giving up on our supposed virtues as if they were going to count in the face of a holy God and his holy law.
So, when we emphasize faith alone, we're saying this. Faith has this only object. Christ. Faith and justification is receiving and resting in Christ alone, and no other basis. It is a gracious gift of the Holy Spirit who enables an ungodly sinner like you and me to wholly trust in Christ living, dying, burying, rising, and ascending for us.
And it is trusting in that and that alone, and nothing added to that. And so, faith is a self-emptying grace. Question 61 of the Heidelberg Catechism: Why do you say that you are righteous only by faith? Here's the answer. Not that I am acceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith.
That's not why I'm right with God. I am right with God. Only because of the satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, which is my righteousness before God, and I receive this righteousness and make it my own. Through faith. And so, in justification, faith is receiving and embracing.
It doesn't do anything except receive, it's wholly passive. Faith in justification is not me giving a gift to God. Faith and justification is God giving me his gift, Jesus. to me in which I just wholly sit back and receive. Justification does result in loving God and loving the neighbor.
We see this in Titus 3:7, where Paul says that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And the whole context of what we're going to see in Titus 3:7 is that justification. Leads to a godly life of loving my neighbors in this world. But Paul clearly says that we're justified on the basis not of our own merits, but by grace alone. Jesus alone.
And so, this is the gospel must always remain paramount in the church's not only confession, the theoretical gospel, but also in the church's practice on a daily basis is operative gospel. There must be consistency. This spirit-wrought gift of faith. You know what it does? It turns us from an obsessive focus with ourselves to another self.
who is holy outside of ourselves, called Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is this Jesus that justifies us?
Well, listen to the Apostles' Creed. Jesus is God the Father's only unique Son and our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. When we confess that as a church at the Lord's Supper, what we mean by that when he descended into hell is that his whole life of suffering.
Which began at conception in Mary's womb and culminated on the cross, that was the hell he descended into. He descended into that hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there, he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
That Jesus, summarized for us in the Apostles' Creed, is the sole object of our faith, and that is the Jesus who justifies us. He is who we are trusting in, rather than some foolish imagined virtue that we can work up to get him to be pleased with us.
So, if you ask the question, where in the church is the gospel? If you find yourself in a church, listen, this comes from Rosenblott. He says this: if you find yourself in a church that continually makes you the focus, And it is always continually driving you inward rather than outside of yourself to Christ and His finished work for you, then you are not sitting in a church under the preaching and teaching of the gospel. He says the gospel is found in the church where justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, is proclaimed and taught. The gospel is found in the church when the words of absolution are pronounced over your life again and again and again.
And what are those words of absolution? There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And you need to hear that over and over and over again. The pastor standing in Christ's place as his ambassador, sent by God himself to the church to proclaim the gospel, the message of good news, says to the church. Take heart, my son.
Your sins are forgiven. And where you don't hear that over and over again, there's no hope for you. Why are your sins forgiven? Why are you justified? Because the gospel announces that God justifies the ungodly through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God the Father put forward as a propitiation to exhaust God's wrath that stood against you by his blood to be received through faith.
We are forgiven, listen, because Jesus Christ, sinless in himself, becomes, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, this Jesus, sinless in himself, becomes the greatest sinner who ever lived, while we become the righteousness of God in him if we'll trust in him. And you are to hear this message over and over and over again. And so, the conclusion, Rod Rosenblatt says: if you're not in a church where you are absolved, Where the forgiveness of sins is publicly announced to you. That Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension avails for you. Find a church that preaches and teaches this regularly and explicitly.
That's good advice. If you're not in a church where you are taught that Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father for you, now and forever, living to make intercession for you as your perfect advocate and high priest before the Father, covering your sin forever and ever, I would say, find a church where you hear this and plant yourself there and sit under it forever. And so, if you ask the question, where in the church is the gospel? The answer is where a church faithfully not only confesses in its theoretical gospel, but actually preaches and teaches in its operative gospel explicitly, continually, and clearly, week after week after week, the good news of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. There you have found the gospel.
You see, the gospel announces to us that Jesus has perfectly obeyed God's law in our place. He has suffered the law's penalties in our place. By becoming man, the incarnation, Jesus assumed my obligation and your obligation to obey the law of God perfectly.
So he became in the incarnation God's perfection. Perfect servant on my behalf and on your behalf. Jesus assumed our responsibility, not for, listen, for not obeying the law. He assumed our responsibility. Fully on the cross, receiving in himself the full punishment that you and I deserved.
He completely satisfied the justice of God. On our behalf as a substitute on the cross. Listen to Isaiah 53, verse 5. He was pierced for our, you hear that? For our transgressions.
He was crushed. For our iniquities. That's not past tense, that's the iniquities you committed before you came to church this morning. Therefore, having been justified, Romans 5:1, we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That punishment on the cross that brought us peace.
That punishment was upon him. And by his wounds, we are all healed. As the perfect covenant servant, Jesus lived for us the perfect life that we should have lived but have never lived. As the perfect covenant servant answering back to God on our behalf as a perfect man, Jesus bore the justice and brunt of God's justice that we should have borne, but we could not. He received the full punishment that we should have received.
As a result of his perfect obedience, Philippians 2:9, God the Father, because of his perfect obedience, has highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name. All authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth. And he has ascended to the right hand of the Father, where the Bible says he lives forever as our advocate in the presence of his Father in heaven. 1 John chapter 2, verses 1 through 2: If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins.
And so, therefore, everyone who trusts in this Jesus and this Jesus alone can say, God's justice toward me is forever satisfied. Justification is the opposite of condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1. Justification is the opposite of accusation.
Listen to Romans 8, 33 through 34. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is now indeed interceding for us. Who's going to accuse you? Your conscience The devil Demons Who is going to accuse you? Who is going to condemn you? There's none because you're justified.
Never again do we have to fear the retributive justice of God that hangs over us. Justification is the opposite of being condemned in the judgment of God. 1 John 4, verses 18 to 19: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. That's not your love, that's God's perfect love for you through Jesus. His love casts out all fear of judgment.
For fear has to do with punishment, judgment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. But we love God because he first loved us. You see, we know, we know that we continually sin, and sometimes we're painfully aware of our sin to the point where it almost overwhelms us.
So we have to confess our sins. Daddies, you need to confess your sin to your children and pray in front of them and let them watch you confess your sin and ask for absolution before the Father. It's a powerful lesson there for your children. This is why we have to keep in mind that Christ has satisfied the justice of God on our behalf. And it is by grace through faith in Christ alone that I am not condemned.
I am beyond accusation, and I have no fear of judgment. And I can welcome Christ's return and his holy presence coming boldly before him because Jesus is my advocate, defending me the whole way home. Are you trusting in this Jesus? who justifies the ungodly. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville.
Hymn We Proclaim is a ministry of John Fawnville of Fairmount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
