Christ s Righteousness in Us Romans 1:16-17; 3:21-30; LD 23 By Rev. Keith Davis

Transcription

1 Christ s Righteousness in Us Romans 1:16-17; 3:21-30; LD 23 By Rev. Keith Davis Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ask any experienced teacher or educator and he or she will tell you that some of the most frequently asked questions in the classroom are these: Why do we have to know this? Why do we have to bother with this? What benefit will this be to me in my life? For me, it was always Why do I have to know algebra and why do I have to bother with chemistry. I wanted to be convinced that these studies would have some practical benefit (some practical application) in my life. I never got the answer I wanted to hear (which was, you ll never use this, so you don t have to learn it ); but I know I received the answer I needed to hear: that knowledge is its own reward. Well tonight, a question of a similar nature is placed before us in Q. 59. There s a difference, however, and it s this. The catechism is not simply asking us about the value of knowing something; it s asking about the value of believing something (as always, the catechism emphasizes both head knowledge and heart knowledge knowing and believing). Question 59 asks What s the benefit, what s the use, what good is it for us to believe all that is taught to us in the articles of the Apostle s Creed? In other words, what s the benefit of believing in a Triune God in the Father and our Creation, in the Son and our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit and our sanctification? The answer is quite simple. He who not only understands but believes and embraces and appropriates for himself the teachings contained in the twelve articles of our Christian faith, he can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is in Christ. The believer can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is all that he (a sinner) needs for time and eternity. That believer can know for a fact that his faith, his hope, his anchor is cast in 1

2 the right place, and that his anchor has found rock solid bottom and that it is held fast in the person and in the finished work of his Savior, Jesus Christ. That is the answer the catechism gives as well. The benefit of believing all that we confess in the Apostle s Creed, which is a summary of everything God promises us in the Gospel, is that In Christ I (may know, I can rest assured, I can be fully confident that I) am right with God and heir to life everlasting! This is the Lord s Day which teaches us about the glorious truth of justification of how it is that grievous sinners like you and me can still claim to be righteous before a holy and righteous God. For tonight s sermon I am going to take a slightly different approach than usual. One of the methods of explaining the doctrine of justification is by drawing a comparison to a legal proceeding to what goes on within a courtroom. That s because in a very real sense the doctrine of justification is just that: it s a legal declaration of how we stand before God in regards to His holiness, and in regards to the righteous requirements of His law. So I d like to use this approach tonight as we consider what God has to say to us tonight in His Word. 1) The Judge: The first thing we need to know as we enter the courtroom is that God the Father is the presiding Judge. Psalm 50:6 proclaims that God Himself is Judge. In the verses previous to that the Psalmist declares: From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before Him; and around him a tempest rages. He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people. All throughout the Scriptures God reveals Himself to us as a holy and just and righteous God. Therefore, God cannot tolerate the presence of sin and unrighteousness. Man s sin and guilt stand as the great barrier, the great chasm of division between God and man. And as God s people (Israel) found out time and again, this God is a consuming fire! At many times in Israel s wilderness wanderings and at many tmes in her long history, God sent 2

3 pestilence, and plagues, and vipers and famine and enemy nations against Israel all because of her sin; all because of her unrighteousness. As Psalm 15 declares, no one who is at all unrighteous or unclean may come into God s holy presence. It s for this very reason that Isaiah trembled in fear that he felt a deep terror in his soul when the Lord revealed to him the majestic vision of God sitting on His throne in all his glory. Isaiah was undone by what he had seen, because he sensed something of the perfect glory and holiness and righteousness of God, and he realized his own unworthiness and unrighteousness. So we know that our holy God is Judge. 2) The Accused: The next issue we have to consider is, Who s on trial? Who is the accused? To a degree we ve already answered that. We are the accused. And when I say we the we I m talking about is not humanity in general. No. The we refers to sinners like you and me those who believe and confess that what the Bible says is true. God s people are the ones in view here in Lord s Day 23. We have to picture ourselves standing before the tribunal of our holy God, our judge. In that sense, we are like David who after Samuel confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba declares to David: You are the man! And so we are the accused. 3) The Witnesses and their Charges: And in this courtroom, like any courtroom, we meet the witnesses and we hear the accusations that are brought against us. The witnesses and their accusations are brought to light in the body of Answer 60. It says: my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God s commandments. So our own conscience is the first witness that stands against us quite a convincing witness as that when you think about it. Boys and girls, this is sort of like the guilt we feel when we do something that we know we should not have done. 3

4 Even though our mom and dad, our brothers and sisters, and even our friends don t know what we have done, the fact is, our conscience accuses us. We feel guilty in our hearts; we feel shame in our soul. We know we ve done something wrong, and we can t deny it. We can t live with it. That s our conscience at work. So, even though we may appear to be a righteous and upstanding individual, even though our lives have the appearance of being quite angelic and holy, the truth is our conscience testifies against us everyday. Our conscience reminds us of who we really are, deep down inside, and it s not pretty. For example, our conscience accuses us of having transgressed the law of God. We have broken every one of God s commandments in some way or another in thought, in word, or in deed and some commandments we have broken in all three ways. There s not one person here or any where in Christ s church that can stand before God the righteous Judge and claim to have kept any one of God s commandments perfectly. So our conscience bears witness against us; it declares that we are sinners. A second accuser in this case is our own sinful human nature, our own spiritual depravity; this is what the Apostle Paul describes in his Epistles as the flesh. Each of us who is born into this world is born into the flesh; even though we confess that we are children of God, we are born with a sinful and fallen human nature. We cannot escape who we are in Adam. The result of this is that sin clings to us; we are still inclined toward all evil. Even the very best that we do in this world still falls short of the righteousness and holiness which God demands of us. We are corrupted and polluted by sin, and a corrupt source is incapable of producing that which is pure. Besides those two witnesses, there is the devil himself who brings accusation against us. It is Satan (that great accuser of God s people) who would argue before God that our language, and our thoughts, and our conduct is much more becoming of a disciple and follower of his. 4

5 Satan would argue before God that by reason of God s holiness and His righteous standard that no one is righteous, and therefore he would claim us all to himself; and he would have us serve him as our master instead of Christ. And so those are the witnesses and the charges they bring against us. 4) The Verdict: But now, fourthly, what is the verdict? There s really two parts to this verdict, isn t there? There s the verdict we expect; and then there s the verdict that s pronounced. The verdict we expect is rather obvious. God the Judge has heard our case. He has listened to the witnesses; he has seen all the evidence. It is damning evidence to be sure. There is no doubt as to our sin and guilt. We deserve to bear the full weight of God s wrath and punishment and condemnation against all of our unrighteousness. And at this point, we fully expect the Judge to lift his gavel and bring it down with thunderous finality, declaring before all heaven and earth that we are GUILTY AS CHARGED! And we expect to be led away in chains, our head hung low, knowing we will suffer an eternity in hell. But oddly enough, that s not the verdict that is pronounced. Why not? It s because there s someone else in that courtroom. And it s at this point where that someone else stands up and asks the Judge for permission to approach the bench. And there this person speaks to the Judge on our behalf? Who is this person? His name is Jesus Christ, and He is called our Surety before the judgment seat of God. Another word for surety is security or a guarantor. A surety is the name given to someone who steps forward and pays the debt of another. Let s say you owe a debt of $10,000 to a Mr. Al Capone. Now, Mr. Capone doesn t accept I.O.U. s; Mr. Capone doesn t grant any extensions or recognize any grace periods; and Mr. Capone doesn t accept monthly installments. 5

6 When it comes time to pay the debt, Mr. Capone wants his money -- no excuses. So when his men knock on your door to collect the debt, you better have every penny of it, or else. Now let s also assume for a moment that you have a wealthy friend, and that this wealthy friend was there the moment that Mr. Capone s men came knocking. This friend sees that you owe this enormous debt, and he recognizes right away that you can t possibly pay it; and so in his graciousness, he takes out his wallet, he pulls out the cash, and he pays your debt. In that case, your wealthy friend is your surety; he has taken that debt as if it were his very own, so that you could be free from debt. (Obviously that story was just an illustration; and we would never equate God with some thug or gangster). But hopefully this will help you see and understand what that friend in the courtroom, what Jesus Christ our Surety, has done for us. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has, of His own accord, stepped forward and has intervened for us at the judgment seat of God. Christ has agreed to pay our debt. Christ has agreed to take upon himself our sin, our guilt, and the punishment and condemnation that was due to us, and in exchange, our debt is cancelled, all our sins are forgiven, and we are declared to be innocent in the sight of God. That is verified in the next words of answer 60. Let s read this from the beginning so we can get the full effect: Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. In other words, in spite of the way we see ourselves, in spite of the fact that everyday our conscience accuses us of having broken all of God s commandments in thought, word, and deed; in spite of the fact that we are filled with the pollution and corruption of sin, and that we cannot 6

7 escape our sinful human nature; in spite of the fact that Satan himself would bring accusation against us before God, nevertheless God does not see us as we see ourselves! Oh yes, God knows about our sins; God is fully aware of all our unrighteousness and unholiness; nothing escapes His attention. However, God chooses to sees us and treats us as we in Christ. In other words, God covers over our sin and shame and nakedness with the righteousness of Christ. In this way, God covers us over in Christ s work as with a blanket. That is why Jesus Christ, who is our Surety, had to come to earth and live a perfect life of holiness. So that by keeping God s law perfectly, the righteous requirements of God s law might be met in us. Besides that, Christ also had to suffer in the flesh. He had to pay in His own body and soul the debt of our sin and guilt. So throughout his whole life on earth, but especially in the end -- in his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and in his anguish on the cross of Calvary, Jesus suffered. Jesus had to suffer hell on the cross for us, and go all the way to death and the grave so that God s wrath could be satisfied. In this way, both the active obedience and the passive obedience of Christ was necessary for our debt to be paid, for us to satnd before God fully justified. This was the only possible way that we sinners could stand before God and be considered holy and righteous in His sight! This is exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he said in II Corinthians 5:17-19 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them God made him who had no sin to be sin [a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is what the Apostle John was talking about when he wrote these words: But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). And later in chapter 4 John writes: This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might 7

8 live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. So while God knows how broken and miserable we are, in His grace and mercy, He looks upon us as completely righteous, not guilty of the sins we have committed! And we understand that God does this for Jesus sake. For the sake of Christ our advocate, our Surety, God, the Judge of heaven and earth, He declares us to be innocent! That s how awesome this gospel is, brothers and sisters! This is what makes grace so amazing, so unbelievable; so incomprehensible. We cannot even wrap our minds around it because this aspect of our salvation is so hard to grasp. As one theologian wrote, this benefit the complete forgiveness of sin -- is so immense that the natural human intellect cannot grasp and believe it. Certainly we ourselves can attest how hard and difficult it is to practice true and complete forgiveness and having said that we hardly practice forgiveness perfectly. And certainly we know how unnatural it is in the court of man s justice. The accused are not (ordinarily) set free when the court has found them guilty on all charges. They must pay for their crimes. But in the court of God s justice, all those who are found to be in Christ who ve been washed in His blood, covered by His righteousness they are counted as righteous and innocent as if we were Jesus Christ Himself. So that is the verdict. 5) How this Grace Becomes our Own There is one final aspect of this Lord s Day to consider, and it is this. How does this wondrous, amazing grace become ours? How is it that we come to possess the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ? The answer is given in the opening statement and in the last statement of Q & A. 60: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ; and All I need to do is accept this gift of God with a believing heart. And if you look at the very last phrase of A. 62 we find it stated there also: And I can receive this righteousness and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone. 8

9 Next week we get to talk about the alone part, but here we have to ask ourselves what is this faith. The catechism has already answered that question back in LD 7. True faith is essentially accepting as truth everything God says in His Word. And as this faith relates to this Lord s Day, to our study of justification, we can say this: true faith is accepting as truth everything God says about us. True faith is accepting and believing that God in Christ has forgiven all my sins and has counted e righteous in His sight. That s what true faith is. It s embracing as true whatever God reveals about Himself and whatever God declares about us. It means believing what God has declared about us way back in our baptism when we were too small to even understand it. Nevertheless, God told us, You are my child. He told us that as sure as water washes the dirt from the body so surely has Christ s blood washed away all your sins and all your soul s impurities! And even now, in spite of all that we know to be true about ourselves, in spite all the evil and wickedness and treachery that we know we are capable of (and that we know we are guilty of), in spite all that stand to accuse us, we believe what God has declared about us: that we are righteous in God s sight, declared innocent for the sake of the finished work of Jesus Christ. The words of Romans 8: should be ringing in our ears: Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us therefore no one is able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yet I stand here tonight and tell you that this true faith does indeed come under scrutiny and ridicule and attack. I know that the conscience can be a very convincing accuser. There are times when my conscience would have me focus on all my faults, on all my sins, on all my indiscretions and failings, on all my evil thoughts and desires; as a result I not only entertain thoughts of resigning from the ministry, but I even have doubts about my own salvation. 9

10 But that is when I have to remind myself that while my sin is very great, while my human nature is inclined toward all evil, that God s grace is still greater than all my sins. And that is why God s Word instructs us keep our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfector of our salvation. Because when we take our eyes off Jesus, and when we start to focus on our own unworthiness, and our own depravity, that is when we are given over to a spirit of despair and hopelessness, and that is when we start to struggle with feelings and episodes of depression and anxiety. We can avoid that by trusting in Christ, by having true faith in what God says about us. I know it s hard. Humanly speaking, our sin is always before us, yet we are to walk by faith, not by sight, and believe that in Christ God credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. Beloved, this is what God says about you, about me. How do you respond to this? Do you scoff at God s words? Do you protests and say, I know myself better than that; I can hardly live with myself, so how can God say I m perfect? Or do you accept it; do you believe it? To scoff at what God says, to doubt it, to call it into question is unbelief; but to accept what God says, as unbelievable as it is, is true faith! And that is how God calls us to live Romans 1:17 (which is taken from Hab. 2:4): the just shall live by faith! All those who believe that God s Son suffered and died to save us from our sins, shall survive the judgment and condemnation of God and be shall live with Him forevermore. That s why we say that we need faith to be saved. This faith is not of ourselves, but it too is a gift of God. By it the sinner reaches out, and with this faith (as an instrument) he clings to Christ and all His benefits; with his true faith, he claims for himself all that Christ has done. That s how we are made right before God; this is what justification consists of; this is the benefit of confessing and believing all that God s Word declares to us about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Amen. 10