1) DEFINE BIBLICAL WORDS, AMONG THEM: JUSTIFICATION, SANCTIFICATION, GLORIFICATION
2) WHY DO WE NEED JUSTIFICATION GRANTED TO US?
3) IS THERE A PLAN B TO EARN YOUR WAY TO HEAVEN?
4) ADDRESSING JUSTIFICATION IN CHRIST JESUS
5) TWO KINDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE CHRISTIAN
6) MY OWN SALVATION EXPERIENCE
7) THE ARMOR OF GOD – BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Someone hears the Gospel message and is given the invitation to accept Christ as LORD and Savior. They accept and pray the sinner’s prayer and believes according to ROMANS 10:
ROMANS 10:8-11
8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus [Gr: “confess Jesus as LORD”] and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
So with joy, they shout – as I did on June 20th, 1980, “I’m saved!” – I shouted that in my bedroom and I shouted so loud that it scared the berjeebers out of the mail man who was walking past my bedroom window at that exact moment!
What does it mean to be saved? What is it we’re saved from? What’s your answer?
One particular pastor declared:
“I have been saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved.”
Was he confused about the timing of his salvation? No, he recognized that salvation is an all-encompassing term that covers a lot of ground! We are saved from so much and undergo so many parts of salvation throughout our lives, all thanks to Jesus Christ our Redeemer, to the glory of GOD our Father!
All of the works of salvation includes the following: Redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, regeneration, atonement, imputation, penal substitution, sanctification, election and glorification. We’re going to spend 30 minutes on each of these! No – just three of the major ones in brief (justification, sanctification and glorification) then we’ll focus on justification. (Check out TTUF studies on Biblical Words).
1a) JUSTIFICATION: every Christian that’s born of God’s Spirit by turning from a life of sin, believing the Gospel and receiving Christ; JOHN 1:12-13) is granted. The repentant sinner is saved FROM THE PENALTY OF SIN – death, judgment and hell. There is no condemnation by GOD the Holy Judge, Who would send us into perdition for our sins – we are delivered from judgment, we are saved from the lake of fire!
In GOD’s Holy Court of Law, we are declared “not guilty” by His grace. And we have the pure, flawless, holy righteousness of Christ placed upon us!
1b) SANCTIFICATION: The believer of Jesus Christ goes onto the second aspect of salvation: the disciple is saved FROM THE POWER OF SIN – living victoriously in Christ Jesus and gradually overcoming (in days or decades) the power of the sinful nature. The Holy Spirit indwells a newly created heart that GOD fashions for us upon believing the Gospel (EZEK 36:26). The Holy Spirit then begins His work in us and with us as we yield to Him to conform us into Christ’s likeness.
1c) GLORIFICATION: In ROMANS 8, Paul touches on the third and final aspect of salvation in vs. 23. The saint will be saved FROM THE PRESENCE OF SIN – one day being delivered from this corrupt world and our own corrupt body (“the flesh” that loves to sin) we will receive from the LORD an incorruptible body that has no such sin nature that we currently war against!
~ We have been saved from the penalty of sin: justification. <This is an instant act.
~ We are being saved from the power of sin: sanctification. < This is a life-long process.
~ We will be saved from the presence of sin: glorification. <This also is an instant act.
2) WHY DO WE NEED JUSTIFICATION GRANTED TO US?
Why isn’t our own righteousness good enough for GOD so that He can rightly declare us justified? You and I who understand the central truths of the Bible know why, but for anyone here today or those watching by video, this might be a question that you have – so we will address it.
The Bible says that we all – the entire human race, without exception… “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (ROM 3:23).
“Sin” in the Greek is hamartia. It’s an archer’s term and it means to miss the mark. We all tried to hit the bulls eye of GOD’s required perfection, but not only did we miss the bulls eye, we also fell short of even hitting the target!
Putting it another way – let’s say a person has lived a very moral life; they’re the most moral person you’ve ever known. Even the most moral, upright, kind and decent person has to appear before a Holy GOD as Judge. They offer up the best they have and what will GOD see?
ISAIAH 64:6
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
3) IS THERE A PLAN B TO EARN YOUR WAY TO HEAVEN?
You see, if someone wants to get to heaven on their own merit, apart from Christ, their level of holiness and righteousness must match that of Christ’s! They have to obey the Law of GOD, fully, without wavering, being in perfect compliance to every law in action, in word and in thought, without slipping up just once in the course of an entire lifetime! Just one slip up in the last moment of life, in action, word or thought – and it’s all over!
Can I see a show of hands – how many want to go with Plan B? Yes, I think we agree that Plan “B” is BOGUS!
On Judgment Day, no one, and I mean NO ONE will be able to endure the scrutiny of the Holy Eyes of GOD, aflame with pure righteousness and say, “Let me in through those pearly gates, I deserve it!” Everyone who is outside of Christ and His salvation will stand in utter silence because of their obvious guilt of sin before a thrice Holy GOD!
If in your conversation with unbelievers, they are convinced that they are good people and that GOD will accept them as they are, just walk them through the Ten Commandments! If they’re honest they won’t get very far at all before getting snagged!
Ray Comfort, evangelist and founder of Living Waters ministry understands the purpose of the Law is to show people their sin (1 TIM 1:9). This is a necessary step, because Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He would have called the righteous – if only He could have found any!
But before any cure has any value to you, you first have to understand, you’ve got the sickness, and that you NEED the cure! Apostle Paul explains both the sickness and the cure in ROMANS 3:
ROMANS 3:19-28
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate (declare, prove, provide evidence of) His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
4) ADDRESSING JUSTIFICATION IN CHRIST JESUS
ISAIAH 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Now, notice the word referring to a garment – is that in the singular or plural form?
And what about the word robe – singular or plural?
Why am I pointing this out? Because there is only ONE righteousness that GOD will accept, the RIGHTEOUSNESS of His Son Jesus Christ that the LORD provided while at the same time, being offered as the only acceptable sacrifice for our sin (propitiation).
Understand: The Cross doesn’t overlook sin; it doesn’t sweep it under the carpet; it transfers sin from the sinner to the Savior. GOD’s justice must be met, and His grace is affordable to all who will receive it!
We are justified when we believe by faith that Christ died FOR our sin on the Cross.
We grow in sanctification as His disciples that follow Christ by picking up our cross and die TO our sin.
MATTHEW 22:11-13
11 "But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 "So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. 13 "Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
He wasn’t wearing a garment that the King could accept. No righteousness there! In the Bible, garments often represent one’s life and conduct.
PROVERBS 6:27 asks,
Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
And garments is plural in regard to salvation – because salvation as we have already seen has many, many aspects to it or we can say layers.
In ancient days, lighter, cooler garments were worn close to the skin; heavier and warmer robes were worn over them. So you seldom saw a person’s garments which were hidden underneath, but you could see their robe.
What does this tell us? That the work of salvation – in justification and sanctification are internal works of the Spirit of GOD that change us to become more like Christ. This has an effect on how we speak and live – our righteous conduct, seen by everyone – it’s that robe of righteousness that is outward and visible.
Both salvation and righteousness are granted by Christ as gifts, just as we read in ISAIAH 61 – the bridegroom Jesus Christ brings these gifts to His church, His bride to wear. So when we have Christ’s righteousness placed upon us, we are welcome at the wedding feast, the Father embraces us, He doesn’t evict us!
5) TWO KINDS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE CHRISTIAN
As disciples of Christ we have two forms of righteousness. Our positional righteousness and our practical righteousness.
Our positional righteousness – that’s when we are declared justified in GOD’s sight. That’s permanent and perfect, unchanging and unwavering.
Then there is our practical righteousness – this is the righteousness that we practice. As a result of salvation and the indwelling Spirit that empowers us to live godly lives, we grow in this righteousness. This happens during sanctification (which is a fancy word that simply means becoming more like Jesus in His holiness, truth, mercy, grace, love and peace, etc.).
Now here is the mind-blowing thing:
When we believe the Gospel, receive salvation through Christ, GOD declares us upfront as entirely justified – as you probably heard many times before: When we are justified in Christ it’s “just as if I’d” never sinned! I think it was original with John MacArthur who said,
“When we accept Christ as LORD and Savior, GOD sees us as though we lived the perfect life of Christ, and Christ lived our life of sin”!
Or like that awesome song says,
This is where those who get on a works trip get messed up. They think that Christ granted justification, now it’s up to us to stay justified. Listen – if you ever thought that, please stop, because the very thought in borderline blasphemy!
Charles Spurgeon talked about our own works of righteousness, trying to attach that to the justification we have in Christ. He said, “What? Shall I sew on filthy rags to the royal robe?”
TITUS 3:5-7
5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
6) MY OWN SALVATION EXPERIENCE
I had been raised in a Roman Catholic household and was taught that salvation came by the Cross of Christ but also maintained by keeping the Sacraments (Infant baptism, first holy communion, first holy confession, praying the rosary, the Eucharist in the Mass, etc.).
But that religion didn’t give me assurance of salvation. In fact Roman Catholic dogma states that no one can be sure that they are saved. If you declare as fact that you are saved, they call that the “sin of presumption”.
Yet what does the Word tell us?
1 JOHN 5:13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Back in 1979-80 at not quite 18 yrs old, I started to seriously read the Bible and noticed some sharp differences from what the church taught. In the summer of 1980, after high school graduation, I continued to really dig into the Bible having already gone through the four Gospels and the book of ACTS. By that time I was into ROMANS and came to Chapter 4, that was when the Holy Spirit turned on the light for me!
ROMANS 4:1-5
1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted [imputed] to him for righteousness." 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
TTUF Study on the doctrine of IMPUTATION
Our own works will fail to justify us. How was Abraham justified? The same way as us: just by believing GOD – not “believe in GOD” – the demons believe in One GOD, and tremble! But that belief doesn’t save anyone! Abraham “believed GOD”, believed what GOD said by faith. And because of that, GOD accounted him righteous.
Apostle Paul goes on to say that wages are earned because you work for them, but righteousness, and overall, salvation is a gift given freely. It’s not an earned wage. Have you ever had a birthday party and someone hands you a gift, then holds out their hand and says, “That’ll be fifty bucks, please!” No! They pay for your gift so you can have it free! That gift is an expression of love to you. That’s the heart of GOD!
ROMANS 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 4:5
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
“…justifies the ungodly”?? How can GOD justify (declare “not guilty” the ungodly? I could see how GOD justifies the godly, He approves of them, accepts them – but “justifies the ungodly”??
Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, “I puzzled, and puzzled, till my puzzler was sore”! And then it hit me! Yes – THAT’s what the Cross is all about! JESUS didn’t just die for the sins of the world in some abstract sense. He took on the suffering, the pain, the guilt and punishment of MY sins! I did the crimes, He got nailed for them!
I remember I physically gasped when I understood this and I protested! “No, LORD! This isn’t right! It’s not fair! Those are MY sins! I should be punished for them, not You! Why would you suffer the punishment for MY sins??”
He spoke to my heart then, five words: “Because I love you Jim”. Well, that did it for me. My hard heart shattered, the water works flowed down, my hands raised up and I prayed like I never knew how to before, saying “GOD, take me, I’m yours!”
That was the day when Almighty GOD humbled Himself to visit a little house in Syracuse, NY, having His eye on a nobody-special like me, and declared me justified in Christ!
7) THE ARMOR OF GOD – BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
There are times when we aren’t walking with the LORD as close as we should. Sheep tend to stray and get into trouble. We can still live in our old sin nature – it’s not gone. As Christians we have two natures – a divine nature (2 PETER 1:4) and the old nature or “old man” (EPH 4:22).
And when we spend time in sin, having given in to temptation by Satan and sin nature, the devil has the opportunity to beat us into the dirt, condemning us, lying to us, shaming us to the point where we don’t feel saved at all, we don’t attend church, we stop reading the Bible, our prayer life suffers – and we wonder if GOD could ever take us back.
Consider the prodigal son (LUKE 15:11-32) – the father didn’t wait for his wayward child to come crawling back to him where he made his son grovel and beg. He didn’t just stand there on the porch, arms crossed, rolling his eyes. He ran up the road, fell on his boy’s neck and kissed him. He had the family ring brought and put on his finger, a robe and sandals for him to wear, and made a great feast to celebrate!
That’s the heart of your Father when He sees you, head hanging low but returning to Him! And while your practical righteousness might be in need of mending with some Holy Spirit needlework, your positional righteousness is untarnished!
Consider the armor of GOD that we have – this breastplate of righteousness. This isn’t your armor, it’s not the armor of some mighty warrior angel – this is GOD’s armor loaned to you – how perfect is that breastplate of righteousness? Do you think Satan could make a dent in this righteousness?
Satan tested the righteousness of Christ in the wilderness (MATT 4; LUKE 4). He tried three times to get JESUS to fall, but our LORD passed those tests with flying colors! That’s the quality of righteousness that He has given to you!
So if you’ve strayed, if you doubt that GOD will forgive you – if you know that you had a true, life changing experience with Christ in your past, but have fumbled and stumbled and fallen since then – GOD’s declaration of His righteousness – His justification of you stands solid – just come back Home, and together you and He can work on bringing your life back in order and your robe of righteousness mended flawlessly.
“I’m forgiven, because You were forsaken. I’m accepted, You were condemned… amazing grace, how can it be – that You my King should die for me?”And eons upon eons into eternity as we dwell in the hallowed halls of heaven, we won’t be any more justified then, as we were when we first accepted Christ. Think about that! Once given, there is NOTHING you can do to improve the quality of that justification – because theoretically if you could try, you’d ruin it!
This is where those who get on a works trip get messed up. They think that Christ granted justification, now it’s up to us to stay justified. Listen – if you ever thought that, please stop, because the very thought in borderline blasphemy!
Charles Spurgeon talked about our own works of righteousness, trying to attach that to the justification we have in Christ. He said, “What? Shall I sew on filthy rags to the royal robe?”
TITUS 3:5-7
5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
6) MY OWN SALVATION EXPERIENCE
I had been raised in a Roman Catholic household and was taught that salvation came by the Cross of Christ but also maintained by keeping the Sacraments (Infant baptism, first holy communion, first holy confession, praying the rosary, the Eucharist in the Mass, etc.).
But that religion didn’t give me assurance of salvation. In fact Roman Catholic dogma states that no one can be sure that they are saved. If you declare as fact that you are saved, they call that the “sin of presumption”.
Yet what does the Word tell us?
1 JOHN 5:13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
Back in 1979-80 at not quite 18 yrs old, I started to seriously read the Bible and noticed some sharp differences from what the church taught. In the summer of 1980, after high school graduation, I continued to really dig into the Bible having already gone through the four Gospels and the book of ACTS. By that time I was into ROMANS and came to Chapter 4, that was when the Holy Spirit turned on the light for me!
ROMANS 4:1-5
1 What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted [imputed] to him for righteousness." 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
TTUF Study on the doctrine of IMPUTATION
Our own works will fail to justify us. How was Abraham justified? The same way as us: just by believing GOD – not “believe in GOD” – the demons believe in One GOD, and tremble! But that belief doesn’t save anyone! Abraham “believed GOD”, believed what GOD said by faith. And because of that, GOD accounted him righteous.
Apostle Paul goes on to say that wages are earned because you work for them, but righteousness, and overall, salvation is a gift given freely. It’s not an earned wage. Have you ever had a birthday party and someone hands you a gift, then holds out their hand and says, “That’ll be fifty bucks, please!” No! They pay for your gift so you can have it free! That gift is an expression of love to you. That’s the heart of GOD!
ROMANS 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 4:5
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,
“…justifies the ungodly”?? How can GOD justify (declare “not guilty” the ungodly? I could see how GOD justifies the godly, He approves of them, accepts them – but “justifies the ungodly”??
Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, “I puzzled, and puzzled, till my puzzler was sore”! And then it hit me! Yes – THAT’s what the Cross is all about! JESUS didn’t just die for the sins of the world in some abstract sense. He took on the suffering, the pain, the guilt and punishment of MY sins! I did the crimes, He got nailed for them!
I remember I physically gasped when I understood this and I protested! “No, LORD! This isn’t right! It’s not fair! Those are MY sins! I should be punished for them, not You! Why would you suffer the punishment for MY sins??”
He spoke to my heart then, five words: “Because I love you Jim”. Well, that did it for me. My hard heart shattered, the water works flowed down, my hands raised up and I prayed like I never knew how to before, saying “GOD, take me, I’m yours!”
That was the day when Almighty GOD humbled Himself to visit a little house in Syracuse, NY, having His eye on a nobody-special like me, and declared me justified in Christ!
7) THE ARMOR OF GOD – BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
There are times when we aren’t walking with the LORD as close as we should. Sheep tend to stray and get into trouble. We can still live in our old sin nature – it’s not gone. As Christians we have two natures – a divine nature (2 PETER 1:4) and the old nature or “old man” (EPH 4:22).
And when we spend time in sin, having given in to temptation by Satan and sin nature, the devil has the opportunity to beat us into the dirt, condemning us, lying to us, shaming us to the point where we don’t feel saved at all, we don’t attend church, we stop reading the Bible, our prayer life suffers – and we wonder if GOD could ever take us back.
Consider the prodigal son (LUKE 15:11-32) – the father didn’t wait for his wayward child to come crawling back to him where he made his son grovel and beg. He didn’t just stand there on the porch, arms crossed, rolling his eyes. He ran up the road, fell on his boy’s neck and kissed him. He had the family ring brought and put on his finger, a robe and sandals for him to wear, and made a great feast to celebrate!
That’s the heart of your Father when He sees you, head hanging low but returning to Him! And while your practical righteousness might be in need of mending with some Holy Spirit needlework, your positional righteousness is untarnished!
Consider the armor of GOD that we have – this breastplate of righteousness. This isn’t your armor, it’s not the armor of some mighty warrior angel – this is GOD’s armor loaned to you – how perfect is that breastplate of righteousness? Do you think Satan could make a dent in this righteousness?
Satan tested the righteousness of Christ in the wilderness (MATT 4; LUKE 4). He tried three times to get JESUS to fall, but our LORD passed those tests with flying colors! That’s the quality of righteousness that He has given to you!
So if you’ve strayed, if you doubt that GOD will forgive you – if you know that you had a true, life changing experience with Christ in your past, but have fumbled and stumbled and fallen since then – GOD’s declaration of His righteousness – His justification of you stands solid – just come back Home, and together you and He can work on bringing your life back in order and your robe of righteousness mended flawlessly.
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