Justification By Faith Alone

The Doctrine of Justification

Romans 4:1-12

 

The title of this message is the title of a book written by Jonathan Edwards, a pastor key to the American Great Awakening. The early reformers such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others formed the Five Solas, or the mantra of a biblical saturated view that combated the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church of the day. The Five Solas are: 1. By Scripture Alone, 2. By Faith Alone, 3. By Grace Alone, 4. By Christ Alone, 5. To the Glory of God Alone. In this passage Paul is appealing to the Jewish community in Rome who looked to Abraham as the pinnacle of God’s hand upon Israel. We’ll clearly see in this passage the doctrine of Justification. 

 

  1. Justification is Not Reduced to Works (Romans 4:1-2) Some would say that James contradicts this in James chapter 2. In fact James affirms that salvation is by faith, but that a saving faith will produce working fruit, serving fruit. James 2:18 “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Works do not save you, faith does, yet works are the offspring of saving faith! The whole sacrificial system was a shadow of the ultimate sacrifice that was to come for them, Christ, who has come before us! Christianity is the only religion that is based on faith to bridge us to God and not works. That’s why it’s so hard for the American mentality, who earns their way, to grasp that we do absolutely nothing but surrender to Christ!
  2. Justification is By Real Faith (Romans 4:3-5) Verse 3 is quoting Gen. 15:6. We see that those in the OT were saved the same way we are now, by faith. They had faith in the coming Messiah, We have faith in the Messiah who came, died, was buried, and rose again. He is ruling all things for His glory!

Let’s define justification. Justification and righteousness or to be made right with God come from the same Greek root word. Justified or to make right is the verb and righteousness is the noun form of justification. Justification is the assertion of God’s righteousness by the insertion of Christ on this earth, His death, burial, and resurrection, and the insertion of Christ into the heart of a believer by faith. Just as if I had never sinned! God’s righteousness given to me as a gift of grace granted by faith. Let’s define faith. Faith is a word thrown around, a lot like love. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is the confidence that something will hold you up although you can’t see it. Let’s take a bridge for example. We drive over bridges every day. When I drive over one, I don’t stop, get out, examine it to see if it will hold up my vehicle, do you? When we place faith in Jesus Christ, we are acknowledging with our head, heart, hands, and feet that He is the only bridge to God!

III. Justification is God’s Relational Blessing (Romans 4:6-8) This passage is quoting Psalm 32 in which the man after God’s own heart, David states that it is a blessing to have your sins forgiven. David experienced this! Think about Paul for a minute, The Osama bin Laden of that day, don’t you think he was blessed? He was responsible for putting “The Way” to death! What about you and me? Aren’t we blessed to have our sins forgiven?

  1. Justification is Not By Rituals (Romans 4:9-12) These rituals, circumcision, and other ceremonies, they have no element of salvation, they’re just the symbol of what was coming, Christ! Baptism is a symbol, not a sacrament, the Lord’s Supper is a symbol, a reminder, not a sacrament. We part ways with the Roman Catholic Church concerning this. I guess when you get to drink large quantities of beer you feel you have to do extra stuff. Haaa! I tell my Catholic friends this all the time.

Justification, Just as if I had never sinned! To be right with God is not about the works you do for Him, you work after you’re saved! It’s not about rituals, it’s about placing faith in Christ and receiving the relational blessing of the forgiveness of sins. Have you done that? Have you placed faith in Christ?