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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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Becoming a Forgiven Person |
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Romans
5:9 First
Sunday after Trinity June
14, 2009 One of the central teachings of the Bible is that Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost; that Christ came to save lost and condemned sinners from their sin. Last Sunday I started preaching about what it means to say that we are saved by grace through faith. Specifically, I started preaching about what it means to say we are “saved.” This is a continuation of the sermons I preached on the “onlys” of the Bible, for the “onlys” are running over with the teaching of salvation. I preached last week about the beginning of the process of salvation. Notice I called it a process. Salvation is not an event it is a process. It began in the past, is happening in the present, and continues in the future. We could say, we were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. Salvation begins with regeneration. Strictly speaking, salvation begins with the call of God, which is a work by which the Holy Spirit reveals our sin and leads us to the Saviour. But I have included this in regeneration, for the call of God that leads to faith is inseparable from regeneration because the effectual call always results in regeneration. By regeneration, or what the Bible calls being “born again,” we are taken from a condition of spiritual carelessness, to a condition of faith and faithfulness. We are moved from enmity with God to loving trust in God. The next step in the process of salvation is often called the remission of our sins. It is to be placed in a condition of being counted as righteous in the eyes of God. We call this part of the work of salvation, “justification.” No matter how much we talk about being saved, or having our sins washed away by the blood of Christ, we remain painfully aware that we are still sinners. Every day we sin. We sinned yesterday. We sinned today. How many of you sinned in mind if not in action, even on your way to church this morning? And so we are brought to the question, how does the death of Christ on the cross have any affect on our relationship with God? We talk about being justified by His blood, but what exactly does that mean? In short, what does it mean to be justified? This is no mere academic question for seminary students and theologians. This is at the very heart of our faith, for if we are not justified before God, we are still in our sins, and will suffer the righteous wrath of God for them, forever. Today I want to talk about our justification before God. What does it mean to be justified before God, and what makes us just in God’s eyes? First, justification is to be pardoned for our crimes against God. The best example I can give of a pardon is Barabbas. Barabbas was a false Christ. He attempted to be the kind of political/military messiah the Jews of his day longed for. He gathered a small group of insurrectionists about him, and set out to drive the mighty Roman army out of Israel. He believed that was his calling. He believed God would empower him to defeat the Romans as He had empowered Gideon to defeat the Midianites many generations before. He was wrong. The Romans crushed his tiny “army,” captured Barabbas, and were preparing to execute him by crucifixion. But it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and Pilate was in the habit of releasing a prisoner to the Jews on that day. So he gave them a choice; Barabbas or Jesus. As we all know, they chose Barabbas. Jesus was condemned, and Barabbas was pardoned. What I want us to see is the result of Barabbas’ pardon. Barabbas went free. As far as the Roman authorities were concerned, his legal status became that of a law abiding citizen who had never committed a crime. So it is with the person who is justified by God. He has received a pardon. He has been set free of the penalty for his sins. He will never be required to pay for them or to suffer the consequences of them, forever. His status before God is as one who has never committed a sin. Second, justification is to be regarded as just in the eyes of God. I return to Barabbas again; what was his status in the eyes of the Roman government? He was regarded as a just man. That is the meaning of our justification before God. It does not say we have not sinned. It does not erase the historical events that condemned us before God in the first place. Just as Barabbas led the insurrection and killed innocent people in his rebellion, so we have committed our sins before God and they have not been undone. We can’t take them back. There is no “Mulligan,” no chance to make that move over again, differently. But, like Barabbas, we are released from the penalty of our sins and regarded as innocent in the eyes of God. Third, justification is forgiveness. I know I used the word “pardoned” a few minutes ago. But forgiveness goes further than pardon. Barabbas was pardoned, but was he ever forgiven by the Romans? Forgiveness was not one of their specialties. Forgiveness carries the meaning of repairing the relationship. A judge may pardon me for a crime, then forget about me. But, when a friend forgives me for a wrong, he restores me to my previous level of friendship and fellowship. Likewise, when God forgives our sins, He also restores us to the relationship for which we were originally created. We are invited back into His home, and back into His heart. There is nothing of His that He withholds from us. Like the prodigal son, we are given the very best that God has. We are exalted to a position of high honour. Fourth, in justification, our sins are forgotten. When Barabbas was pardoned do you think the Romans forgot about him and his crime? I don’t think so. I think they remembered it to the day he died. I think they watched him with suspicion, just waiting for him to step out of line again so they could get him. But when God forgives, God forgets. Our sins are remembered no more, forever. As Bishop Ryle wrote of our sins in his book, Old Paths “However
many , and however great, they are cleansed away, pardoned, and wiped out.
They are blotted out of the book of God’s remembrance.
They are sunk into the depths of the sea.
They are cast behind God’s back.
They are searched for and not found.
They are remembered no more. Though
they may have been as scarlet, they are become white as snow; though they
may have been red like crimson, they are as wool.” (p.215). I love the words of Psalm 103, verse 12, which, speaking of our sins says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” The final thing we must say about justification, at least in this sermon, is that justification is a work of God, not a work of ourselves. It is something God does for us, not something we do for God. Look at Galatians 2:16. I want us to especially see the last phrase of that verse; “for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Look also at Romans 3:20; “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his [God’s] sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” We cannot make ourselves just in the eyes of God by doing good works or by keeping His commandments. Instead of showing that we are good and just, the Law of God shows us that we are sinners. “By the law is [or, comes] the knowledge of sin.” The person who looks at the Commandments of God, and looks at his own life, and thinks that by his keeping of God’s commandments he is good and righteous in the eyes of God cannot read, or cannot see his own sin, or both. If he could he would realise he is a “miserable offender,” a repeat offender, a serial criminal, whose only hope of escaping hell is that God will have mercy upon him. Romans 5:9 tells us how we are justified before God. We are justified by Christ’s blood. We are justified only because God came to earth and lived a sinless life and went to the cross in our places and suffered the penalty of our sins there for us as our representative. Our sins were imputed to Him, and He died for them. His righteousness is imputed to us, and we are pronounced righteous, or just, before God. We are justified by His blood. This is all summarized for us in a well beloved verse of Scripture, one I am sure many of you have memorized. It is 1 Corinthians 5:21; “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” As we might say in more modern English, God has made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That is the only way we could ever be regarded as just in the eyes of God. We have been given the greatest gift any person could ever desire. We sinners and “miserable offenders” are regarded as just by God. We have received a Divine pardon for our offences. We have been counted as just, or, good, in the eyes of God. Our sins have been fully forgiven and forgotten by God. All of this is due to the grace of God. It is His gift to us. Thanks be to God. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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