Nobody's perfect, right? We've all heard that phrase. Because only God is perfect.
Well, we face a dilemma, don't we? God demands perfection and we simply are not able to deliver on that. There's a verse in Psalm one thirty that brings this out, and I paraphrase If the Lord were to keep track of our sins or iniquities, who could stand before Him and survive judgment? The obvious answer is no one. Today John will walk us through a threefold answer to this salvation dilemma and you may have some familiarity with it already.
and that is by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. Let's press play now in this message called Who Can Stand Before God. As we come upon the anniversary of the Reformation, I thought it would be helpful for us to just take a pause. And remind ourselves of what one of the central core issues was of the Reformation, which was namely justification. Justification, Calvin says in the Institutes.
It is the main hinge. upon which religion turns. Luther emphasizing this importance, saying that if we do not get this right, then all in Christendom is lost.
So justification was the issue. And I thought it would be helpful for us to go back this morning and look at this central idea of the Reformation, not only of the Reformation, but of the gospel itself. Because it is so easily forgotten. And it is so easily taken granted. Oh, I get that.
Let's move on. All right. But how often in our daily life do we default to self-justification? In a million different ways, do we try somehow to endear ourselves before God because of what we do? And so I thought it would be helpful for us to go back and just take a fresh look at that key central truth of the gospel in the Christian faith.
So the psalmist in Psalm 130, verse 3. He says, if you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? If the Lord should mark iniquities, who could stand before him and survive judgment? And so the answer to the psalmist's rhetorical question is obvious: nobody. But let me just remind you that the reality is that God does mark iniquity.
Romans chapter 1, verse 18, Paul says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. He marks iniquity. He takes careful notice of it. Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48 as he's preaching the Sermon on the Mount He reminds us that God, his Father, demands that we be perfectly righteous. Listen to what Jesus says.
He says, you are to be perfect. There's no curve on the grade. God doesn't grade there on the curve. You are to be perfect as. Your heavenly Father is perfect.
That's perfect righteousness. That's perfection. But the well-known fact is, the easiest doctrine of all in the Bible is original sin. Right? It's verifiable.
The well-known fact is, nobody's perfect. Paul confirms this in Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 12, as he quotes the psalmist. For we have already charged both Jews and Greeks, Gentiles. They're all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, there is none righteous, not even one.
There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. He says, All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is no one who does good, there's not even one.
And so, because every person stands guilty under the just judgment of God, every person will be called before God to give an account. Listen to what Paul says in Acts 17, verse 31. God has determined a day. on which he will judge the world in righteousness. There is a judgment day coming.
There is a day that God is fixed. That he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this man, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. There is a day, Paul says, that God the Father is fixed, that he has appointed his Son, whom he has risen from the dead, who has given all judgment to the Son, and you will be called before that Son to give an account for your life. It's not a fairy tale.
That is a day that God is appointed and fixed, and nobody will escape it. Nobody.
So here's our dilemma. God is holy and we are not. God is righteous and we are not. The reality is that God does mark every iniquity we have ever committed. And we stand guilty, all of us, under the just judgment of God.
Paul says the judgment is certain. Every person will be called before God to give an account. Since God requires perfect righteousness, perfect holiness, and because we are not perfectly righteous and holy, how then can we stand before Him in the day of judgment when He's marked our iniquity? How can we stand? The answer that the reformers gave to this fundamental dilemma in question was threefold.
And this was the answer.
Sola gratia, grace alone.
Sola feed a faith alone.
Solus Christus, Christ alone. That's how we stand.
So, I just want us to look at this threefold answer for a moment and remind you of the heart of the gospel. The reformers insisted rightly that salvation is by grace alone. Grace is the only source of our salvation. Listen to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2, verse 8. He says, For by grace you have been saved.
Salvation, beginning, middle, and end, belongs to God alone. There's nothing that you, as a sinner, can add to the perfect work of Christ. Paul says that no one is saved by their works, no one is saved by cooperating with God. The only source of salvation, Paul says, is by grace, for by grace you have been saved. He says the same thing in Romans chapter 3, verse 24 concerning our justification.
He says, being justified as a gift. By his grace. Grace is the fountain. Grace is the source of our salvation. Grace is the first and last moving cause of our salvation.
Grace. Second, the reformers insisted that salvation is through faith alone. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, for by grace. You have been saved, listen, through faith. Salvation is through the instrument of faith.
Works both before salvation and after conversion. are never instrumental in salvation. This is very important if you understand because there are. Not only Roman Catholic theologians and preachers today, but there are evangelical leading Evangelical voices. In the church today, who teach us that.
Our works in sanctification are instrumental in determining how we will stand before God on the Judgment Day. You need to understand that works are never instrumental in salvation. It is through faith. It is not through works. Paul says this very clearly in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9.
He says, For by grace, You have been saved. Through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. None is a result of works.
They're not instrumental.
So that no one may boast, nobody can take credit for it. Works after conversion, works you do in your daily life of sanctification, listen, are only evidential. They're not instrumental.
Paul says this in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus. Four good works. The theology is in all the prepositions for good works.
God prepared these good works beforehand.
So that we would walk in them. They're not even your works. They're his that you're walking in. The theology is in the prepositions, for by grace.
Source. You have been saved through faith, instrument, means. Four good works, result, evidence that God has prepared for you to work in before Him. You see that? Paul says this so clearly about faith alone in Romans 3:28, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
In chapter 4, verse 5, he emphasizes faith alone by contrasting works with faith. He says, To the one who does not work. Do you know what that means in the Greek? To the one who does not work. That's what it means.
Yeah. That's pretty clear, isn't it? To the one who does not work. but believes in him. Do you see that contrast Paul makes to the one who does not work but believes in him?
So, whatever belief faith is, Paul says it's not a work. Because he says to the one who does not work but believes. It's impossible for faith to be a work because he just contrasted it to the one who does not work but believes. To the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited, imputed, counted as righteousness. Faith is not a work that you can conjure up.
Many people think that, you know, in my youth, I'm just going to have fun, I'm going to sow my wild oats, just have a good time. When I get older, I'll come back to church and get serious with God. Right? Doesn't work like that. It does not work like that because faith.
Is not something that you have the ability nor desire to just conjure up and say, okay, now I'm going to be a Christian, now I'm going to believe. Because faith is not a work. It is a gift. Faith is a gift created in us by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, Romans 10:17. Faith comes from From Hearing.
That's why you come to church and sit and listen. It puts you on the receiving end of things, and it keeps you from once in your life having to do something and just sit and be addressed and listen to something. Faith comes from hearing. And hearing by the word of Christ, which is a phrase summing up the gospel. Faith is a gift.
Given to me by the Holy Spirit, that He creates in me that unites me through faith, unites me, the means that unites me to Christ for all my salvation. My works, even in a life of sanctification after conversion, do not unite me to Christ. Faith does, which is a gift from the Holy Spirit. And this is what the reformers insisted on. It is by grace through faith.
And then they said: salvation, thirdly, is based on Christ alone. Grace is the only source of our salvation. Faith is the only instrument, means of our salvation. And Christ, solas Christas, He is the only ground of our salvation. God's law contains both precepts and penalties.
Precepts are to be obeyed perfectly. Penalties are enacted for the least failure to give perfect obedience to the precepts. And so we have already seen that we have failed miserably to obey God's law perfectly. We have disobeyed God's precepts every day of our life. Because of this, we stand condemned before God as judge.
We are fully accountable to the law's precepts. and its penalties for failure to give perfect obedience to those precepts. But here's the good news. That by grace, through faith alone, without any merit of our own, God the Father. Imputes, reckons, counts to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ.
And when that occurs, it is as if we have never had nor committed any sin and as if we had ourselves accomplished all the obedience that Christ has fulfilled for us. Christ is the ground of our standing before God. His perfect righteousness is set in opposition to our imperfect righteousness. What is this righteousness? God's law requires righteousness.
What is it? We have established that God's laws contain precepts that are to be obeyed. Penalties that are to be satisfied for the least failure to obey the precepts perfectly. And the good news is that God the Father sent Christ to fulfill all righteousness for us. As our substitute, Jesus fully obeyed God's precepts in his life on our behalf.
And as our substitute, he fully satisfied the full force of the law's penalties that were against us. Let me just give you some examples from this. What is this righteousness? It is Christ's. Perfect obedience for us.
God the Father sent Christ to live for us. You are saved by Christ living for you. This is his active obedience. Jesus lived for us the kind of life that we should live, but we can't live, and we have never lived. Jesus came to do for us what we, because of our sinful nature, cannot and never have done.
As our representative, Christ assumed our obligation to fulfill the precepts of God's law in our place. Let me give you an example from the life of John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3. In Matthew chapter 3, verse 15, Jesus came to John. John was preaching the consummate demand, the ultimate command of God's law to sinners at the Jordan River: repent. Jesus walks down into the waters of the Jordan River with John.
As everybody's representative that day, and for us as well. And he says, John. permit this to be done. Because we must fulfill all All righteousness. The law's ultimate command is to repent.
Ezekiel 14, Ezekiel 18. Doesn't get any clearer. The command to repent is actually a law of God that must be fulfilled. Has anybody ever perfectly repented of their sin? Jesus in Matthew chapter 5 verses 17 through 18 says not an ioda not a dot the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet the marking dot He says, not even this will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
This includes the command to repent.
So, when John the Baptist was calling on everyone to repent and confess their sins, he was commanding them to fulfill the law of God. It was a command which they were not able to fulfill. And it was into this context that Jesus comes to John. Christ Came to John not for himself because he knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Christ came to John for us. Christ admitted to John's baptism of repentance in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled for us and in our place. Matthew 3:15. Permit this, John, for we must fulfill all righteousness. In order that every last righteous requirement of God's law, which includes a command to repent, might be fulfilled for us, Jesus submits to John's baptism.
Jesus is identifying with us in our sin. though he knew no sin. Jesus is identifying with us and with our stand in John's baptism, and he offers to God. for us a perfect repentance. To the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus made the shocking claim about his life.
He says, I always do what pleases the Father. That's your salvation. Jesus' obedience went beyond just his actions. It encompassed his thoughts and his motives. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 5 through 9.
The author is quoting Psalm 40, verses 6 through 8, attributing this to Jesus. And he puts these words in Jesus' mouth: I delight to do your will, O God. Your law is within my heart. Jesus not only desired to do his father's will, he delighted in it. He delighted in doing the Father's will.
His obedience was not forced compliance like our children when we tell them, go clean up your room, and they say something like this: Fine, I'll clean up my room, but I'm not cleaning up my room in my heart. And so they go up and they clean up their room with a horrible stinking attitude. Right. That wasn't Jesus. I delight to do your will.
My food is to do the will of him who sent me. I always do the things that are pleasing to my Father. Jesus' obedience. Flowed from a genuine love for his Father. John 14, verse 31.
So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly. As the Father commanded me. Did you hear that? Jesus came as the true and obedient human servant on our behalf. It is Christ's perfect obedience to God's moral will for us.
that constitutes our righteousness before God. His whole life given to me as a gift. Presents me before God. as a perfect law keeper. Secondly, God the Father not only sent Christ to live for us, but God the Father sent Christ to die for us, his passive obedience.
By his death on the cross, Christ fully satisfied the penalty of God's law that stood against us. His entire life was one of obedient suffering. Jesus, at the very moment of his miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb, when he was a zygote. When he had human DNA added to him. He began to suffer.
In that state of humiliation. And his suffering, Paul says in Philippians 2, verse 8, came to a culmination at the cross. As Paul says, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient.
Now, remember, I delight to do your will, O my God. I delight to do this. He delighted in obeying to the point of death. He delighted in obeying to the point of death. Does that just sound a little odd?
Even death on a cross. Colossians 2, verse 14, Paul says, by this act of obedience, he has, quote, canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. I used to have a small mortgage company. When I had that mortgage company prior to 2008, I had wonderful, quote, friends. As soon as 2008 hit, it was an Unmitigated disaster.
And all these wonderful mortgagees who had debts to pay to me each month. Became not friends but enemies. I'm like, what happened? They don't want to take my phone call. I can't even find them.
They have disappeared. Where did they all go? Yeah. They're kind of like Adam and Eve hiding in fear because the judge is going to come calling each month, right? And they had accumulated so much debt.
Against them. That the relationship we had was Savred. And no longer was I a joy to them. Yeah. My monthly invoices were A reminder you're a debtor.
And you need to pay up. Debtors Make Terrible lovers. Until you understand that Christ has taken all your debt and nailed it to the cross, you're going to think you're a debtor. There is no debt where grace abounds. Debt is the wrong correlation to grace.
Christ has satisfied our dead and He has justified us. Romans chapter 3, verses 24 through 25, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God the Father displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. Paul tells us two ways that Christ has paid our debts. When he died on the cross. First of all, he's our redemption.
Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. You know what the word redemption is? It means to buy back or secure the release of someone from slavery or from the captivity by the payment of a ransom. Christ, when he died on the cross, paid our ransom price and he freed us from our slavery and debt under the penalty of God's law. He paid the whole thing.
This goes back as God's justice was satisfied. This word redemption reaches back to the Old Testament Exodus. That's where it comes from. And it goes back to the blood of the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12 through 15, by which the Lord redeemed Israel from Israel's slavery in Egypt. And this great Exodus event points forward to the greater Exodus event, namely the redemption that Christ secured for us, for His people, by forgiving their sins through His death on the cross.
He has canceled our debt by nailing it to the cross. He has redeemed us. He has paid us. Paid the ransom price and satisfied God's justice. Ephesians 1, verses 7 through 8: In him we have redemption through his blood.
Through his death on the cross, the forgiveness. Of our trespasses, the cancellation of my debt. According to the riches of his grace which he has lavished. Oh no us. Second, Paul says that Christ paid our debt because he was our propitiation.
Romans chapter 3, verse 25, this word propitiation, again, it reaches back to the Old Testament Day of Atonement. And it refers us back to the sprinkled blood of the slain goat on the mercy seat that foreshadowed Christ's propitiating blood, his full exhaustion, his complete and total satisfaction of God's wrath and judgment against us for our sin, our debt. And so, listen, this is amazing. Paul says, the one. Who established the law setting forth its precepts and its penalties is the one who fulfills the precepts, ransoms us from the penalty, exhausts the penalty, and bears it in our place for us.
And so, by Christ's redemption, by his propitiation, Paul says in Romans 3:26 that God has shown himself to be just. The penalty demanded by the law is not just removed by Christ, it is paid in full. Through Christ's redemption, Paul says that God has also shown Himself to be not only just, but the justifier. The one who provides the means of justification, the one who now declares his people in right standing, the one who makes his people stand. in the day of judgment.
And how does he do this? By his obedient life, Jesus fully satisfied the precepts of God's law for us. He lived the kind of life for us that we should live but can't. By his obedient death, he has fully satisfied the penalty we deserve for the life that we do live but we shouldn't live. And now the good news is that we can stand before God in judgment with confidence because Christ has fully obeyed the law's precepts in his life, and he has fully satisfied the law's penalty in his death through a perfect obedience sacrifice.
And now, 2 Corinthians 5:21, we. Can become the righteousness of God in him. This is amazing. The judge's end-time verdict has already been rendered in the present. God justifies the ungodly.
Before you've even begun to obey, the verdict has already been rendered. You have already passed through the great last judgment when Christ suffered the eternal last judgment for your sins on the cross.
So, as we finish, just remind ourselves of this. Let me ask you this question. Because I know this question can bother a lot of people. Bother their conscience, keep them up at night. When you stand before God's bar of judgment, What are you expecting?
What are you expecting? You know, you've always heard it where people expect, well, you know, it's gonna be like a movie screen, and God's gonna flash everything on that movie screen, and I'm, you know, every word you've ever said, and you've heard all this. And you've grown up with this anxiety. Let me offer you three words of hope and confidence about what you should expect. If you're trusting Christ.
First, you can expect when you stand before Jesus. Is his commendation. Have you ever thought about the wonderful truth that Christ has fully satisfied the law's precepts for you? That he lived his perfect life in your place and on your behalf. And consequently, has it gripped you that when God looks at you, He sees you clothed in the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, so that it is now as if you never had.
nor committed any sin. And it is as you have yourself accomplished. All the obedience. That Christ has fulfilled for you in his life. Has that ever gripped you?
That is the gospel. Have you ever thought about the wonderful truth that Christ has fully satisfied the penalties of the law for you? That he died on the cross in your place and on your behalf, and because of Christ's satisfaction, all who are trusting Christ can now say. God's justice toward me is satisfied forever. You can now say with confidence that if I am in Christ by grace through faith alone.
I have over my life A stamp that says paid in full. A stamp that says marks me out satisfied. You never again have to fear the retributive justice of God, even in those painful moments when you are aware, acutely aware, of your grievous failure as a believer. Because you're united to Christ alone, this is the commendation you will receive because you have already now received it. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Jesus includes you. God the Father includes you in that commendation. And as Jerry Bridges says, the realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience, isn't it?
So, the first thing you can expect is commendation, second, vindication. The final judgment for a believer is not a test. It's not a scale where you're going to put your works of sanctification with Christ's righteousness and go up. The scale is tipped in the wrong way. You're out.
It's not a test. The final judgment for a believer is vindication. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 5, verse 9: Having now been justified, having now, right now, I'm satisfied, God is satisfied with me. Having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved. From the wrath of God through him.
We will be delivered from God's coming judgment not by our works, but by Christ's blood through faith alone. And so, in reality, God the judge's end-time verdict has already been rendered when we were justified by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. My verdict was rendered 2,000 years ago at a hill called Calvary. And when Christ cried out, it is finished. When he finished the work the Father had sent him to do, my salvation was finished.
It was complete. And so Jesus says these comforting words in John 5:24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. And he does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. What comfort that is.
We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ as those already glorified on the basis of Christ's perfect righteousness, his perfect satisfaction, his perfect holiness for us. And then third, what can you expect? You can expect Presentation. Presentation. The final judgment for believers is an award ceremony.
It's an award ceremony. You will receive Christ's presentation based on your service to Him. And you're thinking, uh-oh. That doesn't sound too good. Just hold on.
His reward Will be given not on the basis of the merit of our works. but on the basis of his grace. Because all our labors for Christ are the result of His grace working in us in the first place. It is God's will to reward our good works both in this life and the life which is to come, but He rewards them on the basis of grace alone. Calvin, as he quotes Augustine, He says this: He says, Christ's rewards are simply his crowning of his own gifts.
Calvin finishes with this as we wrap it up. He says, I do not say to the Lord, Despise not the work of my hands. But I do not command the work of my hands. For I fear lest when you look upon the works of my hands, you might find more sins than merits. This only I say, this I ask, this I desire, despise not the work of your hands.
See in me your work. Not my work. For if you see my work, you will condemn it. But if you see your work, you will crown it. For whatever good works are mine are from you.
And that's what you can expect: a crown of righteousness given by Christ, and God will reward it. Not because you deserve it. Because he's full of grace and mercy. Isn't that wonderful good news? Let's all pray.
Father, we thank you. For this unfathomable, unspeakable gift. What a glorious revelation the gospel is. It is absolutely astonishing that you would be.
so gracious and merciful to sinners like us. Oh Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, open up our hearts to see Christ who lived for us and Christ who died for us so that we can have the comfort. And the assurance that Our debts are all paid. We're not debtors to grace. We're not debtors at all.
Everything is satisfied. And help us all meet with the assurance: well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. This is my beloved Son, with whom I'm well pleased. May we all come and receive that commendation.
That vindication. And that reward, we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son. and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast.
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