Sola Fide #1

Let me just say to you that these are the most important things that you could ever hear. This is more important than your job, more important than your schooling, more important than your future career.

Nothing else matters compared to this. Faith. How do we get it and what role does it play in salvation? Turns out it's absolutely central and we'll see why and how on this edition of the Truth Pulpit. Pastor Don Green has more of our series, The Five Solas, with part one of the message titled Sola Fide by Faith Alone.

Hi, I'm Bill Wright. And Don, how will you be approaching this topic? Well, Bill, Sola Fide relates to the way in which we can be justified before Holy God, how it is that we are declared righteous. The Bible says that that is a gift that is received by faith alone in Christ alone. Well, what exactly does justification mean and what exactly is faith? Those are the questions on which our eternal destiny hinge. We're going to give clear biblical answers today on the Truth Pulpit. OK, Don.

And friend, let's join our teacher now as he continues in his ministry of teaching God's people God's word from the Truth Pulpit. What I want to do is look at Sola Fide from three different perspectives. First of all, we want to see the need for justification. Why is this important?

Why is this essential? Secondly, we're going to look at the nature of justification. What is justification and how does it work? And then thirdly, we want to look at the nature of faith, the nature of faith. And so we're going to see the need for justification. First of all, the nature of justification and then the nature of faith.

How is it that we get this justification? How is it that we get this right standing with God? How do we attain it if it is not something that we can work for?

If it is not something that we can do, if it is not something that we can earn, if it is not by works, then how do we receive it? Those are the issues that we want to face and you can't help as you consider such weighty issues to realize that we're talking about, you know, there's a sense in which you're really surrounded by holy ground, aren't you? These are matters of great consequence. We're talking about things that make the difference between an eternity in heaven and an eternity in hell.

We're talking about the things that make a difference between the... that distinguishes the way God will deal with sinners on that final day of judgment. Why do we need justification? First point, the need for justification.

Justification, which we said is the act of God where he pardons all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight. Why is that necessary? Why is that important? Why is it that every one of the seven billion people who live on earth should find this to be the most captivating, important subject that they could ever hear about? Why is that the case?

Why is that true? Justification is necessary because God is holy. God is righteous. God does not accept sin in his presence. God is a God who is angry against sinful men. And the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. And there is none righteous, not even one.

That's why it's necessary. You and I are sinful. We fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3 23. And that would be bad enough, but the urgency of justification, the urgency of the need of justification, is accelerated and brought to the place of primary importance in the mind of any thinking man because Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 says, it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.

And just as you would not possibly consider going into the White House to meet the president, clothed in dirty work clothes, not having taken a shower for days on end and just appearing before him vile and outwardly repulsive. So it is not possible for a sinner to appear before God in their own righteousness. It's to appear before the most holy one clothed in rags of sewage. The severity of that metaphor is to press upon us the importance of what we're considering. We don't think about this often enough from God's perspective, do we? That from God's perspective, from all of his holiness, it is not right, it is not fitting for a rebel to come before him and to expect anything from him. To expect eternal life, to expect reward. To the contrary, the justice of God, the holiness of God, calls out for the condemnation and eternal judgment of such a one.

And so that's why we need justification. And the idea of death, which is inevitable for all of us, every charismatic claim to the contrary notwithstanding, is that death will seal the certainty of punishment for non-Christians. Those who die without Christ will find that their doom is sealed.

There is no second chance. The purgatory of Catholic thought is a fiction. It is a fabrication. It is a lie that gives people the idea that ultimately it'll come out in the end, even if I suffer for thousands or millions of years, at least there's hope at the other end.

That's not true. The truth is that those who die in their sins will eventually face eternal punishment with the devil and all of his angels. Look at Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. Revelation 20 verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. No exceptions.

No exceptions. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. This is profoundly serious and we do people no favors if we try to diminish, to cover up, to qualify, to mitigate against the reality of eternal judgment, which the Bible teaches belongs to every sinner who will face God in judgment.

We don't do them any favors by hiding that truth from them just because it's uncomfortable, just because it makes them not like us or whatever the case may be. We have to, you and I have to have the clarity of perception to say this is reality. This is the way things really are.

This is the way things are really going to be. And let that cause us to have a courage and a forthrightness as we speak with people about their eternal souls, that they might see what the issues truly are and that perhaps the Holy Spirit would use our interactions with them to awaken them to their need for Christ that they would flee to Him. What we see as we consider the utter depravity, the total depravity of mankind, the certainty of His judgment, the certainty of death, this is all very black and dark, isn't it?

This is black and dark themes to consider. And the bottom line is this, is that mankind is condemned. Man, every man, woman, and child is facing this kind of condemnation of which we just read from God's Holy Word. I didn't make up that passage.

I wouldn't make it up if it were up to me. And the question is what can be done for that sad and desperate situation? And so why do we need justification? It's because we are all lost and guilty sinners who are heading toward a judgment day with God.

And we need that day to go well for us because the alternative is to be lost eternally in a place of punishment with the devil and his angels. That's why we need justification. Well, what is the nature of justification then? Point number two, what's the nature of justification? Justification in the person and work of Jesus Christ is our only hope. You see, for as much as we emphasize the darkness of the condition of man, we do it simply because we need to say that because that's true. But by making that clear, it points us in the direction of a hope that is actually real, a hope that is actually true, a hope that actually answers the lost nature of our condition.

It points us to Christ. Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. Justification, my friends, is a judicial term. It is a legal term.

Sometimes it is called forensic justification, forensic corresponding to the idea of law courts, things pertaining to legal proceedings. Justification is a legal term. What it is expressing, the reality of justification is this, it is a new status for the sinner wherein God accepts us as righteous in his sight. He accepts us, he receives us as righteous in his sight.

Now, let's just stop for a moment and marvel at the wonder that that's even a possibility because we've been clear that Scripture condemns us all. And the truth of the matter is, is that our own conscience tells us, doesn't it, that we are not acceptable to God in our own merit. And so the question is, how could someone like you and me, a guilty helpless sinner, ever hope to receive such a favorable verdict from God?

How could we ever get that from our judge? How could we go guilty into the courtroom and walk out declared justified, declared righteous, with no fear of condemnation ever to face us ever again? How could that ever happen when we don't deserve that?

Indeed, we deserve exactly the opposite. Well, look at Romans chapter 3 with me. Romans chapter 3, let's look at verse 19 because that kind of gets us a running head start into it and summarizes for us the need for justification. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. No one will be saved by their works, not you, not me, not any one of the 10 billion or 15 billion people that have ever walked on the face of the earth. No one will stand before God justified by their own merit. We're all condemned, we're all lost.

No one, the whole world, all the world it says, and so we realize that scripture closes the mouth of man completely from boasting. Does that mean that there's no hope then? Does that mean that there is no way for man to be reconciled to God?

Ah, keep reading. Verse 21, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. There's something apart from the merit of obedience that gives us hope. And this has been witnessed by the law and the prophets for 1500 years.

God's prophets, the revelation of God in the New Testament was pointing to this great culmination of which Paul now speaks. In verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, that's almost a parenthetical statement in its context, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. What it's saying here is, is that there is a righteousness that is acceptable to God that is available to men, but it is not received by what you do.

It is not something that you earn. Rather, it is something that you receive by faith by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the wonder of this is the great magnanimity of God, the great kindness, the great generosity of God to do something like this for people like us who absolutely do not deserve it. God imputes the righteousness of Christ to everyone who truly believes. In other words, God credits us with the righteousness of his own son who perfectly obeyed the law during his life on earth. Scripture says that those who believe in Christ in the way that we're going to describe receive a credit of his righteousness applied to their account that satisfies God. In other words, God himself supplies the righteousness which he himself requires through his own son.

This is utterly contrary to the way that the human mind thinks because that righteousness of Christ is not something that we do. It is not something that we somehow merit. Scripture says it is a gift.

It is something undeserved. Now before we go any further, let's just draw out exactly what justification involves. Look at Romans chapter 4. There's a dual aspect to justification that we need to understand here. The first aspect of justification is this, is that in justification God accepts us as righteous.

He accepts us. He receives us as though we were righteous. And look at Romans chapter 4 verse 5. And notice again the repeated contrast in these verses that we're going to be looking at. The repeated contrast not by works but rather by faith through believing.

In other words, Romans 4 verse 5. But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. It is not by what you do rather but who you believe in, who it is that you trust in. And what the scriptures say here is that when we believe in Christ like that, God credits to us the righteousness of Christ. And this righteousness is something that is received by believing in Christ, someone outside of us rather than trusting in the things that we do. The point being for now is that there is an aspect of being declared righteous, accepted by God as righteous in the act of justification.

He accepts us. The other aspect of it is that God pardons our sins. He will not condemn us.

Look at verse 6. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Not because of what you've done.

Not because of anything that you might do in the future. God credits righteousness apart from works. Verse 7, blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered.

Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. And so, beloved, what I want you to see is that if you are a justified believer in Christ, what Scripture says about you is that God looks upon you and sees you as righteous. He considers you righteous. He accepts you as having conformed perfectly to every standard of his law and his character that he ever could require.

He accepts you. And that is permanent, it is complete, it is perfect at the moment that you believe. The righteousness of Christ is counted to you in a way that is irreversible, irrevocable.

It will not be taken away. It is perfect because Christ himself is perfect. His righteousness is perfect, impeccable, never to be diminished. And it's on the basis of the righteousness of Christ that God accepts you.

He looks on you and receives you in the name of his Son. And so there's that positive dimension to justification, righteousness credited to your account of a perfect, infinite order. And along with that, those of you that have carried sin and guilt and regret in your life for a long period of time, what I want you to see is that the gift of justification is a gift in which God declares, I'm not going to hold that against you. I do not take that into account in my dealings with you. That is exactly what it says there in Romans 4, 7, and 8.

Look at it again with me. Paul, quoting from the Old Testament, from Psalm 32, says, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. You know, all of my past blasphemies before I was a Christian, all of the past sins and the ways that I curse God and curse the name of Christ, I'm justified God is not going to hold that against me. When I stand before him, that's not going to come up. If you are in Christ, God has forgiven your sin. He will not hold it against you.

He will not bring it up. Instead, he looks on you and sees the perfect righteousness of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. On what basis does God do that?

How can God do that and still be just? How can God forgive sin and accept us as righteous when we're guilty? Well, beloved, as we work through these issues, the glory of Christ just, as it were, arises out of the ashes of sin, of our sin, and as we consider this and consider the possibility of forgiveness, we start to see Christ elevated more and more, that whoever Christ is, he must be someone supernaturally wonderful, supernaturally great, supernaturally worthy of our affection, because if he has dealt with us, if he has acted on our behalf in such a way that condemnation is no longer our lot, but rather acceptance with God and a certainty of heaven, then whoever did that for us must be infinitely wonderful in our eyes.

And that's exactly what we find. On what basis does God accept us as righteous and pardon all of our sins? Beloved, Jesus Christ stood as our representative, stood as our substitute, acted in our place with his righteous life and with his shed blood. First of all, Scripture teaches us that his blood shed on the cross satisfied, extinguished, propitiated the wrath of God on behalf of sinners.

Let's look at Isaiah 53, which viewed this prophetically. Isaiah 53, where it says, Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he, speaking of Christ, of course, was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. At the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God against every sinner who would ever believe in Christ. His blood, his sacrifice, his anguish was sufficient to pay the penalty of our sins. And God is satisfied with the blood of his own Son as the necessary payment that your sin requires. Today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green has presented part one of a message titled Sola Fide by Faith Alone. He looked at both the need for justification and the nature of it. Next time, he'll turn to the nature of faith as he continues our series, The Five Solas.

Join us then. Right now, here's Don with some exciting ministry news. Well, my friend, today I have an opportunity to offer you something for free that goes beyond what we've done on our radio broadcast. It's a 10-message CD album titled The Bible and Roman Catholicism. It's a series I recently completed at Truth Community Church.

Taking scripture and evaluating what Catholics teach and believe about the pope, about Mary, about the mass, and about the whole nature of salvation. It's a resource that you really need to have in your hands, either for yourself or for your friends and loved ones, to know how to interact with them. And it's available for free at the place that Bill's going to point you to right now. Just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com and click on Radio Offers to learn more. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.