We live in a society with an imperfect criminal
justice system. It's one of the best that man
has created, in my opinion, but yet it's not
fair, let alone truly just. Jim Baker, for example,
as much as we may not have agreed with what he
did, and as it is true, he broke the law, and
needed to be punished, received 45 years in prison
because of his misdeeds. And yet within the last
month, a man who had killed his wife here in
the state of Minnesota was found guilty and sentenced
to 12 years. That is but one example of what
many of us have talked about with friends from
time to time, and that is the inequity in our
criminal justice system. Operation Rescue demonstrators
are held in jail. They are charged and tried
and many times sentenced. But on the other hand
it seems that demonstrators for political causes,
for example those at Honeywell, may be arrested
but often the charges are dismissed. Why is this?
That there is unfair treatment. Well, the system
is only as good as the people who operate it
and use it. Imperfect knowledge of circumstances,
bias which is inevitable with any human being,
mistakes, political agendas, all of these influence
our criminal justice system. Because of what
we observe in man's justice. We sometimes think
that God's justice must be similar. We reason
this way. Sin probably bothers God a lot because
he's holy. But God will in the end surely some
way find a means to excuse. The fact is that
nothing could be further from the truth. Because
God is perfect, God knows all, there is no bias,
He is impartial, He doesn't make any mistakes,
and therefore in the end, He will judge every
man according to the works of his life. and then
God will meet out perfect eternal justice. If
the record of your life is like that of mine
and all other persons in the world, that is marked
by sins and transgressions against God's holy
law, it means that you, like the rest of us,
are in deep trouble. You see, God does not ever
become angry. God doesn't become anything. God
eternally is. And today, God, as well as being
a loving God, is an angry God. The Bible says
that God is angry, is angry, now, at this moment,
is angry with sinners every day. That's hard
for us to grasp because so often our anger boils
up in a moment of frustration or disappointment
and It may or it may not be righteous anger Because
of our own experience and struggle with anger
we seem to think that somehow for God to be angry
is wrong But the fact is that God's anger is
a very normal expression of the justice which
is one of his attributes. God is a just God and
meets out perfect justice to all people, including
those who are saved. That's why you and I can
consider the good gift of God which we call justification
with such genuine elation. Because if we understand
what justification is really all about, we cannot
help but be filled with a joyful gratitude. We
cannot help but fall on our knees and say thank
God for justification. I'd like for us to think
about the basics of the term justification for
just a moment. Let's talk about a definition
for it first. What does it mean? Well, it is
a legal act of God. Let's begin there. Justification
is a legal act of God. It's not something that
we do, it's God's doing. It is a legal act of
God whereby He declares the sinner who trusts
Jesus Christ. Notice that qualification. The
sinner who trusts Jesus Christ. He declares that
one to be righteous in his eyes. God says from
this moment forward, this individual is righteous
as I see him. And whatever else has happened
or may happen, I see this one as righteous in
my sight." He passes mustard. He measures up
to perfect justice. There is no longer any transgression
on the record of this one. Now in saying that,
there are two aspects that you have to think
about. First of all, God has to deal with the
record. He has to pardon the record that records
your transgressions in mine. God has to go to
that record and expunge from it, remove from
it the record of our guilt because we are guilty
before God. He has to remove that. That's one
thing. God going to the record and taking away
the guilt that is recorded there. But that's
not what justification is all about. The other
side of it is just as wonderful because it means
that God gives to me righteousness along with
a share in all the blessings that He has promised
to those who are justified. So God not only removes
from me the sin that is so prominently recorded
in my life's history. He takes away the guilt
of that. But He also gives to me perfect righteousness,
even the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If you're
thinking with me, you'll say, well, how can God
do this? If God is just, as we say He is, then
how can He justify somebody who's truly guilty?
Isn't that just like our criminal justice system
at times? Finding the guilty to be innocent by
some quirk in the law. Well, the answer is no,
it's not the same. Because, you see, God has
a basis for doing this. God does not merely wink
at sin. God doesn't overlook it or just put it
under the carpet where he can't see it. But God
has dealt with our sin. That's why He can declare
us righteous. He has dealt with it in the death
of His Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 5 .9 says, Having
now been justified by His blood. You see, being
good may keep you out of prison. But only the
blood of Jesus Christ will keep you out of hell.
God deals with our sin by the death of His Son
Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf. There
He poured out His justice. There He poured out
His wrath. There He punished our sin in the person
of our substitute. the Lord Jesus Christ. And
now because God has dealt with our sin justly,
He can turn to us and say, you are now forgiven,
and I give to you the righteousness of my Son.
In the Bible, particularly in Romans chapter
4, there is a truth that is termed imputation.
Imputation. The idea is familiar to an accountant,
one who is used to transferring funds from one
account to another. What the Bible teaches about
imputation is that God put to the account of
Jesus Christ my sin. He imputed it to Christ.
He ascribed my sin to Christ. And when I trusted
in Christ, He imputed Christ's righteousness
to me. He put all the righteousness of Jesus
Christ in my account. It says in 2 Corinthians
5, 21, God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be
sin on your behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in him. Our sin was ascribed
to Christ so that then his righteousness could
be ascribed to us. Writing in the Moody Handbook
of Theology, Paul ends, says, Through justification
God maintains his integrity and his standard,
yet is able to enter into fellowship with sinners
because they have the very righteousness of Christ
imputed to them. The meaning of justification
is that God declares the believing sinner to
be righteous in his sight. He has a basis for
doing that, a legal basis. The death of his son
Jesus on our behalf. Because Jesus died our sins
are forgiven and we are counted as righteous
in the eyes of God. We who have believed. And
that's the important thing I want to stress now.
It is only for those who have believed on Christ
that this is true. Our text in Romans chapter
5 says, having been justified by faith. It is
faith alone which brings this justification.
It is apart from human efforts or human merit.
We contribute nothing toward it. It is all by
faith. Harry Ironside was for many years the
pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago. Years
before that and shortly after his conversion,
he was an officer with the Salvation Army and
during that period of his life lived in California.
He recounts occasions such as one on the street
of a California city where he and his fellow
Salvation Army soldiers were conducting an open
-air meeting. Someone on this particular occasion
came and said, look here, there are hundreds
of religions in this country and followers of
each sect thinks theirs is the only right one.
How can poor, plain men like us find out what
is really the truth? Ironside responded, hundreds
of religions you say? That's strange, I've only
heard of two. The man responded, Surely you must
know there are more religions than just two.
Harry Ironside said, well not at all sir. I find
many shades of difference in the opinions of
those comprising the two great schools, but after
all is said there's only two of them. The one
covers all who expect salvation by doing, the
other all who have been saved by something that's
been done. You see, the whole question is very
simple. Can you save yourself or must you be
saved by another? If you can be your own savior,
you do not need our message. If you cannot save
yourself, then you must listen to it. You see,
he put his finger on a very important point.
You strip away all the denominational labels
and the names of sects and groups. And you come
down to about two religions in the world. The
one where you do and you try and you work and
the other where you simply receive as a gift
what God provides. Those two cannot be mixed.
They nullify each other. They stand in distinction.
The religions of the world. are but two. And
all of us gathered here this morning follow one
or the other. Either we think that somehow we're
going to justify ourselves before God or we recognize
that we are sinners in need of a Savior and we
receive the gift of righteousness that God desires
to give us. And we simply receive it by faith.
Justification is God's saving act, which is directed
toward the person who trusts in Jesus Christ
as the only sufficient sacrifice for him and
for his sin. It is through justification that
God permanently cares for the legal issue of
man's sin. the sin by forgiving its transgressions
and replacing the sin with the perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ. When God sees me, He sees me
in Christ. And He accepts me just as He finds
His Son perfectly acceptable. Roy McLean. used
to tell of a beggar who stopped a lawyer on the
street one day in a large southern city. And
he asked the lawyer for a little bit of money
to help him on his way. The attorney taking a
hard look at the man's unshaven face said, don't
I know you from somewhere? The beggar said, well,
you should. I recognize you. You're one of my
former classmates. Remember the second floor
of Old Main Hall? And the attorney with a look
of recognition said, why Sam, of course, I know
you. Without further question, he pulled out
his checkbook and he wrote a check for $100 to
this man. He said here take this and get a new
start. I don't care what happened in the past.
It's the future that counts And with that he
had to hurry on to his appointment Tears welled
up in the eyes of the beggar as He looked at
the check and he walked to a bank nearby, but
he stopped at the door He looked in the window
and he saw through the glass well -dressed tellers
a spotlessly clean interior to the bank, and
here he was dressed in filthy rags. And he said
to himself, they won't take this from me. They'll
swear that I forged it. And he stuffed it in
his pocket and he turned away. Amazingly, the
next day the two men met again on the city street.
The attorney said, why Sam, what did you do with
my check? You're still dirty. Did you gamble
it away? Did you drink it up? No, said the beggar
as he pulled it out of his pocket and showed
it to him. And he told him why he hadn't cashed
it. And the attorney said to him, listen, my
friend, what makes that check good is not your
clothes or your appearance. but it's my signature
on the check. Sometimes we look at our lives
and we say, how can God accept me? I profess
faith in Jesus Christ and yet I blow it. And
all of us would have to confess that this last
week our record would include several incidents
undoubtedly that we can point to where we know
we've blown it. Isn't it wonderful that our acceptance
by God does not depend upon the condition of
our lives, but the position of it, the position
of it, that we're in Christ. God has already
forgiven us all of our sins, past, present, and
future. They have been dealt with fully by the
blood of Jesus at the cross. And now He accepts
us without reservation. No conditions. He has
signed the check, as it were, because of Jesus.
And when He looks at us, He sees not the condition
that we may be in today, but He sees the position
of our faith as being in Christ. The benefits
of justification are many. Let me point just
to two or three of them. Because of this truth
of justification, I can know that God accepts
me right now in Christ and that he will never
cast me away. In Romans, our text, look at this,
verse 1, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained
our introduction. By faith into this grace in
which we stand The whole context of the verse
says that right now every day Continuously you
and I stand in the place of grace Not judgment
And he says we have been given our introduction
that means our access to God We have an entrance
to God himself God accepts us right today in
Christ and He will never cast us away because
we stand in grace. The story is told of a family
who many years ago lived on the plains and one
day in the midst of a drought. A dry thunderstorm
came with lightning and thunder, no rain. The
lightning struck the tall prairie grass, and
a fire was kindled. And before a few minutes
had expired, that small blaze had become a roaring
prairie fire that was moving right toward them.
The family was trapped by fire. nearly every
side. They couldn't move fast enough to get out
of its way. And so wisely, the Father lit another
fire and allowed it to burn on. And then the
family gathered as many things as they could,
and they stood in the area that had already been
burned out by that fire that the Father had started.
And they watched as the flames came toward them,
roaring, popping. blistering heat until the flames
came to that patch of ground that had already
been burned and immediately they died down there
and went around and on their way. The family
was spared because you see they stood on ground
that had already been dealt with by fire. You
and I stand upon ground like that folks. It's
the ground of grace that we stand on. And already
God's justice has fallen here. Already the white
lava of His fury against sin has fallen in this
place. It's the place where the cross has stood.
And Jesus has absorbed all of that fury on our
behalf. And now we stand in grace. And God accepts
us in Christ. and will never cast us away. What
a wonderful benefit that is. If you're struggling
with your salvation today and whether you are
saved or whether you're not saved, let me tell
you that once you have trusted in Jesus Christ
and you stand in grace, you are accepted by God.
Just as your works could not save you, your works
cannot unsave you. It is grace and grace alone.
Secondly, I can rejoice in hope. Because of justification,
I can know not only that God accepts me, but
I can rejoice also in hope as I contemplate my
future destiny. Look at verse 2 again. He says,
we exult in hope of the glory of God. We can
have a triumphant confidence about us. There
is a joy that comes from deep within that exudes
every pore of our beings. and trying to find
some way to illustrate this idea of boasting
or exalting, I thought of a friend of mine who
is quite a sports person. He enjoys watching
and when the team does well and there is a good
play, he is so into it, he jumps out of his chair
and says, yes! Have you ever done that? Yes!
That's exactly the thought here. Paul says, when
I think of my future, when I think of what's
coming, I stand on my feet and I say, yes! I
exalt, I boast in hope of the glory of God because
of justification. There's no doubt about the
future. I know what it holds, and it's yes in
Jesus Christ. I will inherit all things in the
Son, including the coming Kingdom. And then in
the remaining verses of our text this morning,
in Romans 5, and we'll stop with that, we can
rejoice not only in the hope that's coming, but
we can also say yes in the midst of our tribulations
and trials, because they flow out of God's loving
purpose for us. The tribulations that Paul speaks
about here are those experiences that create
burden and pressures in our lives. Does that
sound familiar? Situations that cause us to suffer.
Tribulations. Warren Wiersbie points out that
in the Roman days there was a heavy rake that
was used in the harvest fields. It would be pulled
over the grain and this instrument would result
in the grain being separated from the the staff
of wheat for example. They would pull the cross
there and it would cause that wheat grain to
be separated out and fall to the ground. That
rake was called by them a tribulum and that's
where we get this word tribulation. There are
times when God puts a rake, as it were, in our
lives and He pulls us across circumstances that
are really very uncomfortable. Circumstances
that we would not in ourselves choose. But God
is saying here tribulation has a purpose and
its character. That's what God's after. The fruit
of the Holy Spirit in our lives. You and I can
say in the midst of pressure and sorrow and disappointment
and trials, yes to God. We can exalt in those
things because God has a purpose in them that
flows out of His loving heart for us. You and
I are a people in process. God is in the midst
of doing something wonderful in us and for us.
And all of these benefits flow out of the good
gift of justification. If we understand what
justification is, our hearts cannot help but
be filled with gratitude and joy. The Apostle
goes on in Romans to talk about the wonders of
this justification. He comes to Romans 12 and
he says, Therefore, because of these great mercies
of God, because of what God has done for you
in justification, Because of this gift, I urge
you, present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable
service. When we understand what justification
means, it brings us to service which is reasonable.
If God has done this for me, how can I do anything
less than give Him my everything? When he says,
present your bodies, he's saying your body and
everything it contains. That's pretty much all
of you, isn't it? To present is the word for
offering up a sacrifice. It means to place beside
something. He is saying here, I want you to place
on the altar everything that you are. because
of what God's done. Folks, that's our challenge
this morning. That's the point of application
that we need to write across our hearts because
of the good gift of justification and what that
means to give our all to Him. Hold nothing back.
Say, Lord, I put it all in the altar. He says
that's only reasonable you should do that. It's
your reasonable service. Let's bow together.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed as we
come to the end of this service, in which we
have thanked God for his good blessings in our
nation, we have seen the good blessings of God
in our salvation, I want to ask you a question.
How much of you is on the altar? Is it just your
little finger? What about your feet? What about
your tongue? What about your eyes? Your ears?
What about the potential of your life? What about
your plans for next week? What about the relationships?
that you now are struggling with. Will you say
to the God who has justified you, my everything,
Lord, goes on the altar because of what you've
done? I hope you can and I hope that you will.
I urge you that action because of the mercies
of God. O Father, you are a gracious God, and
in your grace you have provided for us what we
could never have in ourselves, a righteous standing
before you. Thank you so much. But Lord, may
we respond with a no -holds -barred sacrifice
of ourselves. May we willingly and joyfully put
everything on the altar and submit to your Lordship
in our lives and walk this week in the freedom
that comes with that kind of a reasonable service.
In Jesus' name, amen.