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This is the classroom sheet for a Sunday School lesson that I taught a few weeks ago. We are doing a series on justification. This is the first lesson in that series.
Justification by Faith
The Power of the Gospel
Introduction: The most glorious and beautiful doctrine.
The reason: It can be the most freeing doctrine.
Justification says that when I came to Jesus Christ to be saved, God declared me, “not guilty” by crediting the righteousness of Jesus Christ to my account.
God counted His Son’s lifelong record of perfect obedience, as my lifelong record of perfect obedience. And this is credited to me by faith.
When I came to Christ by faith, not only was the death of Jesus Christ credited to my account, but the life of Jesus Christ was credited to my account as well.
The definition of justification:
In most translations when you read Romans you are going to find the words justification, justify, and justified.
dikaiwsiv dikaiosis dik-ah’-yo-sis :
1) the act of God declaring men free from guilt and acceptable to him
2) abjuring to be righteous, justification
Justification is a forensic term, opposed to condemnation. As regards its nature, it is the
judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ, and accounts, accepts, and treats them as righteous in the eye of the law, i.e., as conformed to all its demands. In addition to the pardon (q.v.) of sin, justification declares that all the claims of the law are satisfied in respect of those justified. It is the act of a judge and not of a sovereign. The law is not relaxed or set aside, but is declared to be fulfilled in the strictest sense; and so the person justified is declared to be entitled to all the advantages and rewards arising from perfect obedience to the law (
and Surety, Jesus Christ (
l. “Justification is not the forgiveness of man without righteousness.”
A. God requires that His law be kept flawlessly .
Gal 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them."
(Deut. 29:18-20)
James 2:10 10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
B. Forgiveness without punishment is injustice .
Pro 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.
1. Does God have a problem ?
Rom 4:5a And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly……..
II. “……but a declaration that he possesses a righteousness which perfectly and forever satisfies the law, namely, Christ’s righteousness.”
A. God reconciled this problem through the obedience of His Son.
Rom 5:19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Gal 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
1. The problem was reconciled through Christ’s active obedience.
Dr. Robert L. Reymond defines the active obedience of Christ as:
“Christ’s full obedience to all the prescriptions of the divine law…[making] available a perfect righteousness before the law that is imputed or reckoned to those who put their trust in him.
Rom 5:19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
2. The problem was reconciled through Christ’s passive obedience.
Dr. Robert L. Reymond defines the passive obedience of Christ as:
“[Christ's] willing obedience in bearing all the sanctions imposed by that law against his people because of their transgression…[being] the ground of God’s justification of sinners by which divine act they are pardoned…”
Rom 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
a. Passive obedience does not mean that Christ played no active role in His death.
Joh 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
Rebecca Stark: the term passive in passive obedience comes to us from the Latin obedentia passiva, in which passiva refers to Christ’s suffering.
Christ’s obedience was active, in that He kept all of the requirements of God’s law for His people.
Christ’s obedience was passive, in that He paid the penalty of a broken law for His people.
The Reason for this study:
I. Justification by faith heals the wounded conscience .
Heb 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
II. Justification by faith enables the Christian to serve God by severing legalism.
Rom 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
A. Grace frees the Christian to serve by severing condemnation .
Rom 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
2.For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4. in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
III. Justification by faith is vital to the Church’s survival .
John MacArthur:
The Reformation doctrine of justification by faith is, and has always been, the number one target of the enemy's attack. It provides the foundation of the bridge that reconciles God and man--without that key doctrine, Christianity falls. But the doctrine that the Reformers so painstakingly clarified, even spilled blood over, has become so muddled today that many Protestants barely recognize it. Sadly, there are some who react against a clear presentation of justification, calling it nothing more than useless hair-splitting.The superficial interests of the seeker church have caused doctrinal issues to be downplayed and deemphasized--what "unchurched" person wants to come hear about theology? Under the influence of pragmatism, the seeker-sensitive movement has traded God-honoring doctrinal clarity and biblical purity for entertainment and motivational speeches.
Martin Luther:
“This doctrine is the head and cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the
Rom 5:19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Gal 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
2Co 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Mat 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
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