Children's talk 2 - Justification

Well its been quite some time since I last posted, despite my suggestion that I’d be posting ‘4 new entries in the next few days’... good intentions eh? Well since then I’ve allowed my attention to be distracted and my ‘timetable’ for study, prayer and writing has faltered. Now I’m not autistic but it does seem that I don’t cope well with change!



I had intended to use my week off last week to get ‘plenty done’. As well as having the week off work I had an operation on the 17th so had little to do but recover. My idea was to use the week constructively and do lots of reading and writing... I failed to account for the side effects of the anaesthetic and 5 practically sleepless nights. You should then be thankful that I didn’t try and post anything; it’d have read something like “Hurdy gurdy pillows... thirsty throat jam, two on Tuesdays... I like those, but anyway where’s my slippers?” My Mum came to look after me, which was no great job, though it was hardly a break from helping to look after my nieces and nephew who are all under 5. She stopped short of putting reigns on me in public.


So anyway – here is a summarised version of the 2nd kid’s talk I did.


Justification


First off a reading from one of the children - Romans 5:1 - 2

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

Following a recap on last week’s repentance talk I explained briefly what is meant by justification, using examples that I’ve heard the Pastor use in the past. He has used the example before of clothing, us in our filthy rags seeking to see the King, the King won’t see us as we are. So Jesus covers us up in his spotless clean robe. That way the King will find us acceptable.


I then used an altered version of a story from a book I used to read as a boy. My parents had bought a short series of books about a little boy called Gus who gets in all sorts of situations which translate to the Christian experience. I couldn’t remember the story completely so I used poetic licence in filling in the gaps to make it fit. (Excuse the bullet pointing but it makes it easier than paragraph after paragraph of my attempted story telling).


Gus’ story


• Gus and his parents are going to a party. Dad dresses him in a bright, new clean shirt. While they’re waiting to leave Gus asks to go out to play – Dad warns him “Be careful, don’t do anything to get dirty!!!”


• Gus is careful, he sees the tree swing. Decides no I could fall and get dirty. He sees his friends playing football, but stays away even when they call him trying to persuade him to join in. He keeps trying to avoid anything that might get him dirty. This is because he knows his Dad will be really upset if he gets dirty.


• Then he sees some big fat juicy blackberries and thinks ‘No harm in having just one’. So he has one and it tastes so, so good... then he has another, then another. When he is finished gorging on these berries he looks down and sees a big dirty sticky blackberry stain on his chest!


• Gus feels panic, worry, he feels sick. He doesn’t want to go home to Dad now - Dad’ll see the stain and be so disappointed, even angry! Gus was told to very specifically to stay clean and he didn’t.


• Slowly he walks home, thinking up excuses – other people did it, they threw things at him, he slipped... he tries to think of reasons why it wasn’t his fault. If he can blame someone else then Dad won’t blame him and everything is ok. He even tries to cover it hoping Dad won’t see, holding his hand over the stain.


• Gus eventually gets home and thinks ‘Dad’ll know if I lie’.


• So he tells Dad what happened – tempted by one berry, then another and he forgot about his shirt and he got all mucky. “I’m so sorry Dad I didn’t do what you said!”


• Gus sits waiting for Dad to get angry, but instead Dad says “Thank you for being honest, thank you for telling me, you’re my son and I love you, so don’t worry! I forgive you.”


• Then Dad produces a brand new shirt – crisp and clean, fresh out of the wrapper. Gus puts it on and it is flawlessly clean, no stains, no marks, no dirt at all.


• They head off to the party –Gus went to Dad told the truth and said sorry (repented). Dad forgave Gus, Gus has new clean clothes from Dad, and the dirty old shirt covered in the filth of sin is discarded or covered (justified).


So there is justification. I did the 3rd talk on temptation but was a little dis-satisfied with it and it wasn’t sound enough to be repeated so I’ll miss that out and my next post will be the 4th – ‘The Golden Thread’.

Romans 5:1... one more time!

I had some interesting feedback from the blogs I posted about Romans 5:1, generally positive... which was annoying as I prefer criticism on such things as they make me re-scrutinise what I've written. I did have a comment passed about my post on 'Peace with God'. In it I talked about God's hate of sin. It seems that when I commented that God could not sin as we knew it (actual quote was: "He cannot hate as we understand the word, for to hate is to sin") it was taken to mean that God doesn't hate. Well He does, which is why I then added the example of Hoeksema's 'Holy NO'.

In hindsight maybe I should have described His hate as one that we cannot know, as our understanding is of hate is sinful. The Almighty has a divine, Holy, wrathful hate that is utterly just and pure... not something we can fully, truly appreciate.

I hope that clears up any confusion on that matter. I endeavour to make my posts clear and theologically sound, but am aware that I will frequently muddle my thoughts and consequently perhaps not do my biblical opinion justice.

But on with Romans 5:1 once again. I was greatly reassured that having written the posts without commentary support and having (in all honesty) just written them off the cuff, that on listening to a Peter Jeffery sermon (listen to the one titled 'Peace') on the verse and reading the chapter on the verse in 'Righteous by Faith Alone' (Herman Hoeksema) I had covered in brief many of their points. Just not quite as eloquently!

However, as is often the case, in hindsight I realised that perhaps I'd missed a massive amount out! In writing the posts I knew that there was so much more in each that could've been added. But then you'd have been reading a 45 page blog... not a habit I'll try and fall into.

But as I read Mr Hoeksema's chapter last night something was highlighted that Peter Jeffery had touched on and perhaps I hadn't.

We are either condemned in our sin or justified. Or we are either guilty or not guilty. There is no sliding scale of righteousness for that impending court case. We cannot be semi-righteous, or semi-condemned. We are of one condition or the other. In the case of the Christian of course what cause for praise and celebration there is in our new found legal position before the Lord!

But it gets better. Once declared 'not guilty', once we have been justified, no other charge can be brought to us. Consequently the position cannot be reversed; we cannot return to the dock and be found guilty. This is because when the gavel fell in judgement of our souls (or will) the great Judge doesn't just pronounce us 'not guilty'. He brings down the hammer and to our relief the words 'not guilty' are issued forth, but this is followed without hesitation by the gavel pointed at us and we are affirmed as 'righteous'! (James R Hamilton can take credit for this illustration).

For that court date our legal intercessor the Lord Jesus Christ has laid out his finest of clothes for us to wear. Gleaming and perfectly tailored they cover our filthy rags and as we stand in the dock the divine judge sees us as guiltless, adopted heirs and children. We cannot be found guilty... cannot! A perfect legal representation and promises by the Lord Jesus ensure it!


I know I may seem to be labouring the point Christian, but isn't justification a wonderful word? I want to have it tattooed on my forehead sometimes! 'Justified'. Tattoo aside surely our witness, language, demeanour, countenance and soul should shout to all who know us - 'bought and paid for'. And if anyone wants to check that the purchase is valid - the receipts can be found in the bible!


One of which, funnily enough can be found in Romans 5:1... regardless of the version!

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (NIV)"

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (KJV)

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (ESV)

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (NASB)

Romans 5: 1 (for the last time... until next time).

Romans 5: 1 “... peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”


For a third time we can visit this verse and consider something more. We are justified by faith we know. We are also consequently at peace (or have peace) with God where once there was enmity. This process is by grace – our salvation, every part of it, is an act of grace. We have also established that this grace can only be imparted to us because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s propitiatory death and his glorious resurrection. The sacrifice made in atonement has allowed us to reach this state of being considered worthy in His sight, again, only as we are clothed in His righteousness.

Now while it may seem to be revisiting a point already made, these things are made possible through not only the Lord Jesus Christ but, note Paul’s words, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our personal saviour and our corporate high priest. Verse one is such a complete statement, in just 15 words Paul manages to convey and underscore so many essential aspects of our salvation. The sentence would be correct without adding ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ’. Paul has already in Romans 3 completely established our depravity and in chapter 4 he has incisively stated our justification can only be through faith, using Abraham as an example. He also underlines that out righteousness before God is imputed to us, never earned.

So again, the mention that this is achieved ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ’ is unnecessary to our understanding of the process of justification. So why add it?

Well firstly and fore mostly it is a comment surely of praise and glorification. Paul is reminding the Romans of the essential vehicle of salvation that is both the man and the Lord Jesus Christ. In all things we should include the wonder working power of Jesus and His blood. It is not enough to merely comment on the functions and legality of atonement, propitiation and justification. It is not enough to merely describe the peace in our souls gained where once there was hostility. The Lord Jesus Christ “delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification” stands astride all this in His Glory. He straddles the eternity between condemnation and salvation as a bridge for us to access eternal life. He is the peacemaker and doorway through whom we can be justified.

To omit His name is to defame His part in the process! (for without Him there would be no process!) To pay lip service to the name of Jesus is not enough! His name should not sneak quietly from the corner of our mouths or be added to a prayer as an almost forgotten addendum! We should in all things praise and magnify His name!

Paul was not merely reminding us of who our intercessor is. He is not even being repetitious or verbose in his wording. He is reinforcing and reminding the Romans and us of who achieved this wondrous work. Not some faceless god, not a legal action performed behind closed doors, but our loving, all sufficient Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. One whose name should leap fully from our mouths in praise and adoration at every possible turn. Paul was making an unambiguous statement in verse 1 of this fifth chapter, but in it he is also posing a question.

Are you adding His name to all that you do?

Is it lip service?

Are you giving Him the praise his gift of eternal life and joy should merit?

Do it today Christian, do it in everything you do!

Romans 5: 1

Well I sat and watched Zulu. Then I had a short bible study and prayer time on the beatitudes (Matthew 5: 1 - 12). Then I remembered my earlier mention of reopening my studies on Romans. So having read the whole chapter I scrutinsed the first verse a little closer, and felt prompted to scrawl this. I apologise for any disjointed theology or spelling/grammar I haven't properly proof read it. I shall do so when my head has stopped spinning - it took me twice as long to type it up as it did to write it!!! I hope you benefit from it somehow...

 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5: 1

‘Therefore’ – this ‘therefore’ can be considered in context rather like the ‘But now’ at the start of Romans 3: 21. ‘As a consequence of’ or ‘resulting from’ an action not of our own, but of Christ’s. Romans 3: 21 is fundamental in our redemption as it explains to us in no uncertain terms how the new covenant is established. ‘It was like this... but now it is like this...’ (Though the Jews would have required faith too, a lone reliance on adherence to the law was still justification by works).

Romans 3: 10 - 18 outlines how we are all under sin and condemned by our nature, ‘there is none righteous, no, not one’. We must first recognise, through the Holy Spirit’s prompting, our true state and the uselessness of our reliance on works. We cannot, Paul says, justify ourselves by any means. Christ alone can satisfy for our sins and none other but He. (Romans 3: 1 - 20)

So through, or by God’s righteousness imparted to us through Jesus Christ’s atonement, we can be saved, made acceptable in His sight. ‘But now’ Christ has become our great high priest and intercessor.

Romans 3 describes how ‘by works of the law’ (3: 20) no man can be justified. And ‘(but) now’ His righteousness has been manifested apart from the law we can be clothed as righteous through faith and faith alone in Christ’s propitiation. Christ being 'put' (ESV) or 'set' (KJV) forth by God for His purposes. Therefore by faith alone we are justified. This not being an action of our own, but once again, it is an action of Him and Him alone. While we possess faith it is only a faith given to us by grace. Just as we are graciously afforded our redemption, justified with undeserved merit.

This ‘peace’ then with God (5:1) is ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ’, He is once again all sufficient. Not only is He now our high priest and intercessor, not only is He made propitiation for our iniquities, not only as a spotless lamb put forth by God for us! He is also our faith and our conduit for receiving God’s grace and peace. What a complete saviour! What a masterful work!

Every part of our salvation is by Him, just as “all things were created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1: 16) so are we. In every part He has control and dominion, a truly sovereign Lord. Our conviction, rebirth, justification, sanctification, faith and ultimate glorification is His. We are unable to do any part of it ourselves – “for by works... no human being will be justified...” (Romans 3: 20 ESV), “by deeds... shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” (KJV).

‘Therefore’ we are left with so little required of us – simple obedience, prayer and praise. The work is complete! Rejoice and be glad Christian that your salvation depends solely on a gracious, loving, Sovereign Lord and not on your own sinful, fallible, disobedient self!