The Gift of Salvation - 5. Justification

The Gift of Salvation - 5. Justification

So far in the Gift of salvation we have looked at:

i) Predestination - God chose us in eternity past; ii) The Effectual Call - through the gospel God invited us to believe; iii) Regeneration - His giving us spiritual life to enable us to take the next step;  iv) Conversion - our response of repentance and faith in Christ; and today we will be looking at iv) justification - what God does in response to our faith in order deal with our sin. 

Justification has two elements to it:

i) Firstly, it is God declaring us ‘not guilty’ (and hence will never face condemnation);

ii) Secondly, it is God attributing (imputing) to us the perfect righteousness of Jesus!

So, a justified person, before God, has never sinned but has actually lived a perfect life!

Like a man who goes into his bank knowing that he has a debt that he can never pay but finds that his debt has been deleted! But it doesn’t stop there; his account is in limitless credit! So, justification has these two elements – we have something taken from us: our sin, and something given to us: Jesus perfect righteous life.

Martin Luther and justification as a gift

We owe a huge debt to Martin Luther for making a stand and helping the church to embrace justification by faith alone.

After a thunderstorm in 1505 struck the fear of God into him, the young 21-year-old Martin Luther became a monk.

After years of terrorising fear of God’s wrath He came to an understanding of justification by faith and not by doing good works.

Revelation of God’s grace came whilst teaching on the Psalms and studying Romans during 1513-1514,

"At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I ... began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith… Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open."

A couple of great quotes

‘It is essential to the heart of the gospel to insist that God declares us to be just or righteous not on the basis of our actual condition of righteousness or holiness, but rather on the basis of Christ's perfect righteousness, which he thinks of as belonging to us. This was the heart of the difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism at the Reformation. Protestantism since the time of Martin Luther has insisted that justification does not change us internally and it is not a declaration based in any way on any goodness that we have in ourselves’ (Wayne Grudem)

‘Regeneration is an act of God in us; justification is a judgment of God with respect to us. The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge. The surgeon, when he removes an inward cancer, does something in us. That is not what a judge does-he gives a verdict regarding our judicial status. If we are innocent he declares accordingly.

The purity of the gospel is bound up with the recognition of this distinction. If justification is confused with regeneration or sanctification, then the door is opened for the perversion of the gospel at its centre. Justification is still the article of the standing or falling of the Church.’ (John Murray)

To memorise/meditate upon

Romans 3:28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

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The Gift of Salvation - 4. Conversion

The Gift of Salvation - 4. Conversion

In the previous blog, we saw that a Christian is one that has been ‘born again’ or ‘regenerate’ by the Holy Spirit.

‘Conversion’ is a term that means ‘turning’; it sums up what happens after one is regenerate. Like any new birth, the bible points to crucial attributes (or fruit) that will always accompany this transformation.

Repentance always accompanies conversion

Repentance is a change of mind and life. Regeneration will always be accompanied by a desire to follow and please Jesus.

Faith always accompanies conversion

Faith receives Jesus as Lord and Saviour; a complete trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection for our sin will always accompany true salvation.

Wayne Grudem sums it up,

‘Conversion Is a Single Action of Turning from Sin in Repentance and Turning to Christ in Faith.’

Baptism should always follow conversion

Baptism is a vital act of faith; it is the symbolic action that the New Testament commands us to undertake in order to show our acceptance of the gospel and desire to live a new life for Jesus. Baptism is not essential in order to be saved – one can be a Christian without baptism; never the less, it is always to our detriment when we don’t follow the clear teaching of scripture.

A couple of great quotes

‘Conversion is our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.’ (Grudem)

‘Trust involves the will as well as the mind. To have saving faith requires that we love the truth of the gospel and desire to live it out. We embrace with our hearts the sweetness and loveliness of Christ’ (R. C. Sproul)

To memorise/meditate upon

Acts 20:21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

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The Gift of Salvation - 3. Regeneration

3. Regeneration

Christianity is not principally a decision to believe that we make; it is a supernatural transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit. As Greg Haslem has written, ‘we believe in regeneration and not ‘decisionism’!

The conversion of C. S. Lewis sums up the supernatural work of regeneration,

‘I know very well when, but hardly how, the final step was taken. I was driving to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when I reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion (C. S. Lewis surprised by Joy)

Salvation is not just responding to the information of the gospel; rather, it is being acted upon by God to enable one to believe the gospel.

A couple of great quotes

Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us (Wayne Grudem)

In the new birth, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in a living union. Christ is life. Christ is the vine where life flows. We are the branches (John 15:1–17). What happens in the new birth is the supernatural creation of new spiritual life, and it is created through Union with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us into vital connection with Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. That is the objective reality of what happens in the new birth. (John Piper, Finally Alive)

To memorise and meditate upon

John 3:3 Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

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The Gift of Salvation - 2. Effectual Calling

2. Calling (Effective Calling)

I remember a lunchtime, back when I was a schoolteacher, I was on duty in the playground; I turned to see a couple of boys climbing over the fence in an attempt to escape. I shouted for them to come back, which was completely ignored as they ran away to freedom. God does not have this problem! When He calls us to be saved we always obey.

Paul makes this point in Romans 8,

Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

‘General calling’ verses ‘Effective calling’

The church is called to preach the gospel to all, but this does not mean that everyone will become a Christian; this is what is termed the ‘General Call’ or the ‘Outward Call’; this call, to all people, may be resisted.

But when this Outward Call is accompanied by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, it becomes, in the elect, an ‘Inner Call’, an ‘Effective call’ that cannot be resisted!

The conversion of Lydia is a great example of Effectual Calling

Act 16:13-14 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.  One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

A couple of great quotes

We may define effective calling as follows: Effective calling is an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith. (Wayne Grudem)

‘The effectual call of God is an inward call. It is the secret work of quickening or regeneration accomplished in the souls of the elect by the immediate supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit.’ (R. C. Sproul)

To memorise and meditate upon

Romans 8:30 ‘Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

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The Gift of Salvation - 1. Predestination/Election

1. Predestination/Election

As you sit reading this, think of all of the countless coincidences and decisions that have led you to be who you are and where you are. Even your conception at the beginning of life was unimaginably improbable – what were the chances of your parents meeting and that you would be the result! (That’s to say nothing of the improbability of their being this kind of universe with life in it!) Are you the result of happenstance?  If you are reading this as a Christian, why are you a Christian? There are basically two answers:

Firstly, people did it! 

“I’m a Christian because my family, those around me, my culture influenced me in that direction.” Or  “I’m a Christian because I examined the evidence or had an experience that convinced me that it was true...” Both of these are emphasise the place of people influencing or deciding; they presume that one has some sort of capacity or moral ‘goodness’ so as to be able to make a decision to believe and follow Jesus. It treats Christianity as any other choice, like: do you want an ice cream? 

This brings me to the second response to why you might be a Christian,

Secondly, God did it! 

Christianity is not a primarily an intellectual choice! It is God raising one from spiritual death. We are dead and repulsed by God ruling us and so it takes the gracious imposition of God the Holy Spirit on our hearts in order to be a Christian!

A couple of great quotes

‘Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his sovereign good pleasure.’ (Wayne Grudem)

‘Election may be defined as that eternal act of God whereby He, in His sovereign good pleasure, and on account of no foreseen merit in them, chooses a certain number of men to be the recipients of special grace and of eternal salvation.’ (Berkhoff, theology, Page 114)

To memorise and meditate upon

Romans 8:30 ‘Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’

Ephesians 1:4-5 ‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.’

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