Now the most important question in human history is this, how can a sinful man or woman be made right before a holy and righteous God? And the answer to that question is... that that sinner must be justified. They must be justified.
Now, we need to understand what this means because it's the answer to the most important question that anyone could ever ask. What does it mean to be justified? Now, I want you to imagine a scene with me.
You are dragged into a court before a holy and righteous judge. And you and I, we're sinful. It says that there is no one righteous, not even one. Now, the desperate cry of the sinner is that they want to be made right with this judge.
And here's what justification doesn't mean. That judge doesn't just look at that sinner and say, you're forgiven. or you're innocent.
Often I've heard people say that justification can be boiled down to just if I had never sinned or just if I'd never sinned. But it's so much more than that because the righteous judge doesn't just look at the sinner and say, forgiven. He doesn't also just say, innocent.
To be justified takes it beyond that because I want you to think with me. If all we had in the gospel was the removal of our sin, sins, could anyone ever stand confidently before a holy God? Now, often I hear when people say, I'll ask them, what's the gospel?
And they say, well, Jesus forgives me of my sin. But I want you to think, if all you had in the gospel was the removal of your sins, could you stand before a holy God? The answer is a million times no, because the scripture says, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. So justification isn't just the removal of your sin. It's as if that judge looks upon that sinner and then declares that sinner righteous.
It's often referred to as double imputation in the gospel. It's the removal of our sin and then the considering and counting of God's righteousness to our account. That's what it means, but how do we receive that? What is the means by which that justification can be ours? Well, thankfully, the Bible is not.
not unclear. It says in Romans chapter 3 verse 24 that we are justified as a gift by his grace. So it's given to us as a gift by God's grace.
Romans 5.1 says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The sinner is made right with a holy God through faith. Now at this point, I want to pause. because there are a number of faiths and beliefs and religions that agree with what I've said up to this point. To give you an example, I was in an Uber just months back and I'm with a guy who is a Mormon.
And I asked him what does he believe and how he would differentiate what he believes from what I believe. And he said, well, imagine that my daughter wants to buy an iPad. What you believe is potentially that you, as a father, would just go buy the iPad for her. her.
But what I have her do is I have her work and work and work and work for an entire year. And all she can save up at the end of that year is $34. And then I would go and pay the rest.
And that's the difference between the Mormon faith, he told me, and the Protestant faith. He said, because it's not free for her, she has to work as hard as she can, and then God would pay the rest of that difference between $34 and $599. But the Christian isn't just justified by faith. There's an important word that I've left out at this point.
The Christian is justified by faith alone, which means that when it comes to our legal standing before God, I don't have $34 to offer him. I'm not just spiritually impoverished. I'm spiritually bankrupt with a debt I could never pay. And in Romans 4, verse 4, it says, to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as a reward.
He's saying that you don't have anything to offer God. You don't have an ounce or a penny or a cent. And you're not just justified by faith. You're justified by faith alone.
And that's why the hymn says, I am nothing. I'm poor. and naked, and sinners are then made right, declared righteous through faith alone.
And because of that, Romans 8, 1 says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The opposite of justification is getting what we deserve, and that's condemnation. But for those who have placed their faith fully on the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there is now no condemnation.
for you or I if we've placed our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.