What Is Justification?
A Sunday Evening Talk at Oak Hill Chapel
W. Carl Ketcherside
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Tonight it is my privilege and responsibility to speak to you on the subject "What is Justification?" This is the fifth in a series of Sunday night talks at Oak Hill Chapel entitled "Great Words From the Greatest Word." There will be thirteen in all and they will be given by various brethren. Already men have discussed faith, repentance, baptism and grace. You are yet to hear about peace, mercy, hope, holiness, reconciliation, wisdom, joy and eternal life.
In the first presentation we learned that faith is the belief of testimony calling for commitment to the thing believed. From Teddie Renollet we learned that repentance is a change of mind preceded by remorse for guilt and succeeded by a reformation of life. From Jerry Ketcherside we learned that baptism is the immersion in water of a believing penitent as a participation in the drama of salvation--the death, burial and resurrection of our precious Lord.
One week ago tonight Ted Ratliff led us in a study of grace, the undeserved and unreserved kindness of our heavenly Father, and you will recall his testimony that everything good which had ever happened to him, or ever would happen to him in life, was attributable to grace.
The purpose of this series of explorations into the revelation for mankind is simply stated. We are endeavoring to know what the Holy Spirit meant by the words He selected to convey the mind of God. Words without meaning are like Confederate currency which is interesting to look at but valueless in the marketplace. Empty words are like empty vessels. They cannot quench thirst. Words to which we attribute a wrong meaning or to which we give a false value are dangerous. They are like counterfeit bills which bring disastrous results to those who try to pass them.
To be sure that we understand our purpose, let me remind you that we are not seeking the modern dictionary meaning of the terms we study. A dictionary does not always tells us the meaning of a word. It records the significance attached to it by popular usage in a given culture. Thus, if you compare a current issue of a dictionary with one of its predecessors of a century ago you will find a divergency in the meaning of many words.
We are not concerned with ascertaining the theological explanation of the words we discuss. Professional theologians, like professional attorneys, professional doctors, or professional pharmacists, have developed a specialized jargon which the uninitiated cannot understand. Nothing is more confusing to the average person than a book on theology filled with the pedantic and pompous gobbledygook which delights the professional clergyman. In ancient Grecian art the statues of Mercy, Justice and Grace were always clothed. But Truth was always naked, for truth is revealing and not concealing.
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What is justification? I am thrilled that it falls to my lot to share with you my concept of this interesting and beautiful term. I am glad also that my message follows immediately upon the discussion about grace. The two have a direct connection, for Paul writes that we "are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (Romans 3:24, 25). This is a significant sentence. It connects the gift of grace, the redemption in Christ, the expiation by his blood, and the reception by faith of the offer of grace with our justification. Thus, no explanation of the word can ever be adequate which ignores either of these constituents.
Justification is directly related to justice, although this word is never found in the new covenant scriptures. In the days of the apostles the pagan world held that for every offence against the gods, payment had to be made. Sometimes the guilty person had to pay by forfeiture of his own life. They believed that the goddess of justice, who was called Dike or Nemesis, relentlessly stalked a guilty person until retribution was made. A good example of this is found in Acts 28:2-4, which records the shipwreck in which Paul was cast upon the isle of Malta. Luke records what happened. "And the natives showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, when a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said one to another, 'No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Dike has not allowed him to live.'"
It will interest you to know that this is the root of the original word for justification, so it is obviously connected with the divine sense of justice. Justice sternly requires that for every sin there must be a proper payment or recompense made by the guilty sinner. That is why we talk about "meeting the demands of justice." Sin is an offence against the majesty of God. It is the dethronement of God in the human heart and the elevation of the ego to the chair of the sovereign. Sin is the supreme worship of self, the culmination of conceit. It is like slapping the Creator or spitting in His face.
Sin destroys the relationship with God because the nature of the divine requires that He be clothed in absolute justice and impartiality. God cannot condone sin. He cannot wink at it. He cannot casually brush it aside and ignore it. Careless parents can be indulgent with the mistakes of their offspring because they have been guilty of the same wrongs. To condemn their children would be like assessing punishment against themselves. But one who is holy in the absolute must hate sin. Any feeling of lesser intensity would cloud His holiness and render it less than absolute.
This reveals what I have been pleased to refer to as "the human predicament." Nothing is more clearly taught than the fact that we are all guilty before God. Paul states it succinctly. "For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23, 24). There is no way for me to avoid this indictment. The fact of sin, the corruption and defilement of sin, the guilt of sin, and the penalty for sin, must be faced. I cannot laugh them off. I cannot run from them. I can only cry out in the dark night of introspection, like Paul, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).
I can never undo a single act I have ever committed. There is no way by which I can recall a deed. I cannot take it back. I cannot wash it out with my tears although I soak my pillow in their salty brine. I cannot remove it by my own blood, for even though I take my
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I must be very honest with you. Like a caged criminal I tried to find some way of escape, some way to squeeze out through the bars. Once I thought that by trading obedience for God's forgiveness I would then live so pure and good that I would earn heaven by the sheer exertion of effort. I studied the word as a plan, a blueprint, a revealed scheme of redemption, a method or design, showing all the right things to do as a key to glory. And I tried to do all the right things. I carried out what I thought was the prescribed routine of "religious exercises" and performed all of the required "spiritual acrobatics" and, of course, I was a lot better than I was before. But spiritual gymnastics are like physical ones. They make you breathe deeper, feel better and develop muscles. But you are still going to die!
I think that all the time I was trying so hard to win "divine approbation" and collect enough badges to became a heavenly Eagle Scout, I knew down inside that I wasn't going to make it by this route. I wasn't as good as I wanted to be. I wasn't as good as others thought I was. And I knew I never could become what God wanted me to be by reading the wonderful love letters of the new covenant scriptures as a written code of laws to which I must either conform or be damned. I became a good lawyer in the process, but I was a very poor lover. In spite of all my attempts to amass "brownie-points" I was tired of the treadmill, sick of my sins, and frightened by the future.
That turned out to be great! Sometimes we have to be brought to condemnation to be brought to Christ. When you are flat on your back you have to look up! When your back is against the wall there is only one way you can go--forward! Many a man dates his success from the day he realized he was bankrupt. So I discovered a great secret! I had been killing myself trying to live! I was slaving away like a fool trying to obtain what I already had. I was like a man, worrying and fretting about how to pay off the mortgage, and not knowing that he had fallen heir to a fabulous fortune.
The secret was justification by faith in Christ Jesus, not as a reward, but as a gift, and a free gift at that! In your copy of the new covenant scriptures the word righteousness comes from the very same original as justification. The word for just is so rendered 33 times, but it is translated by righteous 41 times. Righteousness with God is not necessarily doing right things, or performing proper acts, although it would be incredible to think of one who was righteous deliberately and maliciously doing anything that was wrong. But righteousness is a right relationship with God, which manifests itself in a right relationship with man and all creation. Righteousness is justification, and that is why merely treating others well and relieving their needs may make one a philanthropist, but it cannot make him righteous.
But what is justification? Obviously, since it is connected with justice it is a judicial term. Let me get to the very heart of it. To justify one is to acquit or absolve him from guilt, to declare him guiltless. We must be very careful here. It does not mean that one is guiltless, for no one is guiltless before God. Justification never means to make one worthy, for no sinner can ever be made worthy. It always signifies to judge as worthy, to declare worthy, or to treat as worthy. I am no more worthy tonight than I have ever been, but the marvelous grace of God has declared me worthy. I am justified in His sight and according to His mercy. I have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, and justified by that grace which raised him from the dead. As Paul puts it, "He was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25).
On what basis does God treat one as unworthy as myself as worthy? On what ground am I judged righteous? The an-
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My faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is counted to me for justification. It is reckoned unto me for righteousness. This is what the Spirit said through Paul. The word "reckon" in the original is preserved in our transliterated term "logistic," which has to do with arithmetical calculation. It was a term used in Greek banks, counting-houses, and monetary exchange associations. When one rendered satisfaction for a debt it was entered on the ledger and the account was closed. But I cannot render satisfaction for sin. The song is right which says, "Nothing in my hand I bring." It is also right when it adds, "Simply to the cross I cling."
Once I was lost. I was helpless and hopeless. I was blind. But the grace of God saw my pitiable plight, the mercy of God took note of my frightful failure and the love of God became embodied as the Son came to share my state. I can never erase from my mind one sentence of holy writ. It burns itself into my consciousness in moments of meditation like a scintillating and searing bolt of lightning. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). I will never forget that. I have read it more than a hundred times, emphasizing every word in turn. "Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3) but in order to do that he was made sin in all of its loathsome nature.
What happened is that Jesus atoned for my sin. His death reconciled me to God. The recording angel dipped the quill into his blood and wrote in red letters "Paid in full!" The sin question was settled for me at Calvary. The fountain was opened at Golgotha. All I need to do now is to identify with Jesus, absolutely, undeniably and uncompromisingly. This identification is made by faith, by a trust that is so deep and unqualified that I am crucified unto the world and the world is crucified unto me, so now I no longer live, it is Christ who lives in me.
Knowing Jesus as my life makes everything else I have called life, and everything in which I ever trusted, both insignificant and worthless. Everything in which I took pride is gone. Educational attainment, hope of worldly recognition, striving for power, love of money, clamor for attention, victory over my enemies, the cheers of the crowd--all of this has revealed itself to be garbage, a putrid mass of that which perished with the using. "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus as my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith" (Phil. 3:7-9).
"A righteousness of my own." God forbid! "The righteousness from God." Praise His name! What a contrast! It is the difference between life and death. It is the difference between blessing and betrayal. It is the difference between a destiny of desire and one of depression and despondency.
This brings us to the place where we
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The enabling response by which justification becomes our personal possession is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, "For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Romans 3:28). Again, he writes, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). I think it is unfortunate that believers in our Lord Jesus have allowed themselves to become embroiled in the theological donnybrook over whether we are justified by faith only, for if we were to look at faith as Paul looked at it, we are justified by faith alone. The faith of which he writes is a trust in Jesus Christ which embraces and includes everything involved in the life of sanctification and holiness. To Paul, good works were not an addition to faith, but an expression of it. We are not justified by faith and something else, but by a faith so universal and all-inclusive there is nothing else.
Someone is almost certain to raise the question of how we can harmonize the statement of James, "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone," with what Paul wrote. It was what he deemed a contradiction at this point which caused the brilliant, sarcastic French rationalist, Voltaire, to have such a field day in criticism of the scriptures. I am not brilliant, but I confess that instead of contradiction, I see confirmation.
Paul is talking about the basis on which a sinner, alienated from God, is justified from his sin. James is talking about the manner in which we exhibit or demonstrate the relationship we sustain in Christ. This is clear from both the question and the example with which he begins this section. "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works?" The example is the need for providing necessities for bodily subsistence to an ill-clad and hungry brother or sister.
He challenges those who separate faith from its practical manifestation to show their faith apart from their works. This is impossible. The only way another can judge my faith, which is internal, is by my external and overt deeds. Abraham demonstrated his trust in God by acting in harmony with God's requirements. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac." The fact of placing Isaac upon the altar was a positive evidence of display of faith. So James concludes, "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works."
The faith which justifies us, and maintains our glorious relationship with God, is not inactive, but active. It is not inert but inspired. It is not dead, but vital. Paul affirms the fact of justification by faith; while James describes the quality of that faith which maintains the relationship with God. An inactive faith is like an automobile without an engine. You can sit in it all day long but you are not going anywhere. A faith without works is like a watch without works. It may look attractive but it will not do that for which it was created.
It was not James, but Paul, who wrote: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are
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