JUSTIFICATION

Some years ago, I knew of a young man who had just turned eighteen. His mother was Pakistani and his father was from India. They married in the United States and their child was born in this country. When the young man turned eighteen he had to make a choice of citizenship. Would he choose his mother's, his father's country or the country of his birth. Since both oriental countries had an active draft policy at that time, and since he had never spent more than a few weeks overseas, he quickly decided that he would officially become an American.

In another situation, I heard of a young Italian who came over to America simply because staying at home in his impoverished province would probably had led to death from crime or even starvation. For several years, he shared a hot bunk with other immigrants to save enough money to get established on his own. Two generations later, the family is doing very well and their work ethic and goal of making something out of any opportunity is indeed infectious!

World wide, it is estimated that at least a third of the population, if given a choice, would choose to come and live their lives in this pleasant and prosperous land. I have often wondered if our welfare system shouldn't consider placing some of our long term dependents in places overseas where it would be much cheaper to support them and then take in trade, those who want a real opportunity to work? Oh, that would be cruel indeed wouldn't it. After all, most Americans are born here and only a limited select few become citizens in any given year. This birthright attitude is widespread, not only nationally but also spiritually.

And this idea of a spiritual birthright is just what I want to focus on as we consider God's real process of being born again. If you ask the majority of second, third and later generations of Christians about how they come into Christ's Church, very many will imagine that being born into the congregation is all that is really essential. That was a problem faced by Jonathan Edwards and the evangelical pastors at the time of the Great Awakening. In New England especially, the third and fourth generations of the Puritan children did not have the spiritual seriousness of their ancestors. It took the Great Awakening, led in part by Jonathan Edwards to convince all of those born once into the Church to realize the significance and importance of the second birth.

In our time, very many marvel at the concept of the second birth and give it short attention, counting instead on their own perceived birthright and comfortable place in their secular churches. I well remember one congregation that I chanced into, who decidedly did not want to hear any nonsense about any second birth! Now, the second birth, like an ordinary birth has a distinct process and there are certain steps which usually flow in a reasonable order.

We have seen in our study of this process so far, that God the Father has instituted our election, calling, justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification according to and within His providential will. While we are most aware of those steps and processes that occur in this life, we are admonished to understand that our salvation begins and ends outside of the time and space limitations of the created order. Therefore, we are more certain to experience and comprehend our calling, our justification, our adoption and sanctification in this life. Today, we focus on the experience and understanding of the act of Justification.

In our time, the experience of Justification appears to be more real than the understanding of this vital process. If you ask any enthusiastic believer who has suddenly realized the forgiveness of their sins and their deliverance from wickedness you can sense the magnitude of the event. In some obscure historical materials related to the Scottish Reformation, I once ran across the conversion account of one William Forsyth who upon realizing the full impact of justification by grace, joyously did cartwheels in the hillside pasture where he was watching a flock of sheep. Since it was a Covenantor congregation where the experience had happened, he almost immediately had to go into hiding because it was the killing time in Scotland! I hope you all realize that it takes an awful lot of excitement for anyone with Scot's blood to turn cartwheels even in the privacy of the heathered hills! We in that Reformed perspective are more likely to study the facts and make certain our understanding of such doctrines.

In our day, where the educational system has failed miserably in preparing most people to understand anything, the excitement of salvation experience is much more likely than the quiet studied approach by which we seek to delve into the things of God and understand the even as we honestly appreciate the awesome grace of our Lord who has made this experience possible. For our study this morning, let us briefly consider four teachings from the catechism which will help us understand what the Lord of heaven is working out in us day by day.

First and foremost, our catechism would have us understand that "Justification is an act of God's free grace". GI Williamson and John Murray tell us that "Justification is that which we do not and cannot effect for ourselves. It is 'not any religious exercise in which we engage however noble and good that religious exercise may be'". I am reminded of a "spiritual walk" program that is popular in Methodist circles for the last few years. In that religious exercise, people are invited to spend a whole weekend under the disciplined care of spiritual guides who promise to challenge and encourage them into a religious relationship with our God in Christ. Of course, some people do find a lot of help in this experience, but far to many of the participants only seem to become holy. With the experience behind them they continue to live their lives according to their own pleasure without any desire to make the practices of the weekend part of their daily plan.

Religious seminars, plans and methods there are aplenty, but God works in His own mysterious way to save those called to salvation. I would think that the mark of a true church would be one where almost everyone's experience of salvation is different. Wherever a cookie cutter method seems to have developed, there you have a religious experience being passed on instead of the honest and ordinary coming to Christ of many individuals. Jonathan Edwards was very careful in his studies during the Great Awakening to determine the varieties of religious experience leading to salvation. The great tragedy is that experience is so much easier to notice then the appreciation of real understanding!

Second, we must learn to understand that as part of our justification, God pardons all of our sins. In a day and time where the majority of people are taught that there are very few moral wrongs, it is indeed miraculous that anyone is still saved. And yet it still happens. In the public sector I can talk until I am blue in the face about morality, immorality, ethics and systems of truth. The present amoral generation cannot fathom the fine points of being in violation of God's revealed will without real spiritual accume! The moment that someone learns about the fact of sin and their need for forgiveness, then justification becomes a real possibility. As we experience this part of conversion, we confess our wickedness, our sinful nature and specific sins which our Spirit inspired conscience compels us to consider in light of God's revealed law. Our experience is of forgiveness and hardly do we consider His gracious act of pardoning which makes forgiveness possible. Is it only when we really understand the cost involved in that pardon that we appreciate the injunction against further sin?

To that real cost for pardon we turn our attention in the third point which we must grasp in this great doctrine of Justification. Here the catechism teaches us that God accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. GI Williamson teaches us that "Justification is not a term meaning to make a person holy. It is rather a legal declaration."

In more ancient times, strong men gathered around them a body of followers who wore their coat of arms, tartan or colors. Often, their followers would include honest warriors captured in battle, who one being spared execution would faithfully serve their benefactor. While these men became servants, they were not common slaves because they were indeed armed and dangerous! I know that some people do not like the comparison that I am about to make. But, we have been captured in the midst of worldly battles by One who is gracious, kind and righteous. Since by attitude, breeding and genetics we were once rebels against His righteous rule, our conquering Lord had every right to destroy us as unrighteous rebels. Instead, He forgave us and invited us to become His people from then on until the end of time! Now that we have put on the heavenly spiritual clothes we are treated as if we were indeed His own Son.

The righteousness that is Jesus Christ's is counted as ours. Yes, even as many evangelicals understand it, we have been washed in the blood, we have been given clean clothes. But it is the fact that the blood and the clothes are not ours but His, that allows us into the Father's holy presence. Several times I have been into hospitals, where I have had to wash, then put on a clean gown and wrap my face, hair and shoes in sterile materials before being allowed to visit someone. How much greater are the standards for entering into the presence of our God in heaven? There in that holy and awesome place we must put on Christ to even be allowed inside! While our Pauline text today speaks of our ministry in making Christ known even as we know Him, still the process of knowing Him involves the fact that "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

As we earnestly seek to put on Christ, we come to our fourth and final point for the day, we must learn to understand that justification is received by faith alone. This is the great rally cry of the Reformation: "Salvation is by faith alone", just as Martin Luther wrote in the margin of his Bible. Paul tells us in Romans 5: 1-2a that

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."

Now, here is the blessing of understanding. If you have come to understand a little more of the process by which God is saving you, you are more likely to depend upon Him than the mere emotional experiences which do indeed gladden the heart but fail to prepare you for real service. Yes, the joy of experience helps us to appreciate what the new person in Christ truly needs, but a more certain knowledge will allow us to describe the joys better. A proper biblical understanding of what God intends to do will make it possible to test the various spirits which may cause religious feelings and sensations. By this means of correct doctrine, we may better instruct those who are truly called and discourage those who would be satisfied with a more worldly religion.