Justification by Faith

 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 4:5)

     This is the first of eight sermons that Wesley believed were the core and center of what he called "evangelical doctrine." These eight sermons contain the non-negotiable aspects of doctrine, in Wesley's mind. So much so the Wesley said that "the Christian Church stands or falls upon it."

     In this first sermon of the series, Wesley talks about justification by faith. He breaks it down into these four segments:

1. What is the ground of the doctrine of justification?

2. What is the definition of justification?

3. Who are they that are justified?

4. What are the terms of justification? (What must we do to be justified?)

If you would like to check out the original text of this sermon click here.

The ground of Justification

     This is an excellent question to begin with because here the question addressed is, why do we need to be justified? Wesley rightly starts in the garden of Eden to address this question. He makes the observation that humanity was created in the image of God. This means that, in the garden, we were merciful as God is merciful, holy as He is holy, morally perfect as He is perfect! We were created for perfect loving relationship with each other and our Creator!

     This understanding of humanity blows a huge hole in the excuse that many use that "I'm only human!" So often this is meant to excuse sin, as if being human inherently means being a sinner. Jesus was fully human and did not sin. In the same way, Adam, before the fall, was sinless and fully human. To be human, fundamentally, is to be an image bearer of God, not to be a broken sinner. When we do something to break loving relationship with God, who's image we bear, or other fellow image bearers, we are actually being less human than what we were created for. For an excellent treatment on this, I highly recommend Allan Bevere's blog post on this topic (click here). 

     As we are all painfully aware, however, we as a race did not stay in this state. Instead, Adam was tempted to "become as God." I have heard it said that being image bearers of God means being like Him in character but not His essence! In our own lives and on the world stage we can see the devastation this has caused. Individuals and groups of individuals trying to grasp at being like God in that we, so often, want to be the deciders of what is right and wrong, and not allow God to tell us. 

     Because Adam, as representative of us all, wanted control and power apart for the giver of life, he got what he was asking for. We live in Adam's world! A world created good by a good Creator, but a world that has rejected His good purposes. A world in which death and its many vile agents are constantly on the prowl. If we think about it, we know this to be true. Every religion, and even many non-religious worldviews, know that something is desperately wrong. We try to blame it on our upbringing, corrupt structures, political parties, and everything else outside of us. While these things certainly play a factor, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was absolutely correct when lamenting that:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

     Because of this, God sent His only Son to come down here and live the life we should have lived and die the death we should have died. This then is the ground of justification. That God, in Christ Jesus, allowed his heart and his very life to be destroyed to show us the ugliness of our sin, and to begin a new covenant with us. A covenant in which we can share in Christ's crucifixion by dying to our sinful self, the first Adam within us, so that we can then live in the unmerited grace of Christ, the second Adam. In this, Jesus becomes our new representative, standard, and way to reconciliation to our Father in Heaven. This offer is a free gift offered to us by Christ.

Questions

1. How does understanding sin as, not part of being human but, as making us less human change how we feel about the nature of humanity, God, and our relationship with Him?

2. Throughout Romans Paul talks about the first Adam and the second Adam (Jesus). Upon reflecting on this, Martin Luther notes that in baptism the Old Adam is drowned so that the New Adam can share in Jesus' Resurrection power. However, Luther notes "old Adam is a mighty good swimmer!" Even after we are Justified by faith in Christ, old Adam often pops up, why is that?

3. When looking at the devastation of our world, why is it so much easier to blame the evil without than own up to the evil within?

What is Justification?

     Here Wesley starts by explaining what justification is not. First, he explains that it is linked to but not the same as sanctification. Wesley explains it like this, justification is what God does for us and sanctification is what God does in us. Wesley wanted to keep these separate in an effort to highlight the fact that good works (the kind of works we expect in sanctification) are not a prerequisite to justification.

     Justification also does not mean we are free from accusation against 'the accuser' (the Devil). This is important to note because being justified does not free us from being tempted and taunted by the Devil. After all, Jesus was the only one to be justified by His works and He was tormented by the Devil. 

     The second thing justification is not us being excused from God's law. Rather the offence is still there and real, just as Jesus' crucifixion is still real. However, just as Jesus' resurrection is real, the forgiveness that we can find in Him is real. 

     Justifications also does not "imply, that God is deceived in those whom He justifies; that He thinks them to be what in fact they are not." Here Wesley was specifically addressing an abuse of the doctrine of 'Imputed Righteousness.' This is the doctrine that states that we, before our conversion, are not actually righteousness but, after conversion, Jesus' righteousness is imputed, or placed upon us. 

     While Wesley never rejects this doctrine, he rejects an abusive interpretation of it. The abuse goes like this, since God looks at me and sees Jesus' righteousness, it does not matter if I ever become actually righteous, so I can do whatever I want! What I believe Wesley would say, and I know I would say, is that Jesus' righteousness is imputed upon us (justification) even though we are not righteous so that we can grow in Christ's righteousness (sanctification). 

     In the final part of is segment Wesley talks about what justification is. Justification is, simply put, the forgiveness of sins. Wesley puts it like this "It is that act of God the Father, whereby, for the sake of the propitiation made by the blood of His Son, He "'shows his righteousness (or mercy)by the remission of the sins that are past.'" Here, because of Christ's willing sacrifice, sinners are able to be free from the guilt of sin and its power! 

Questions

1. What are some misconceptions that we have heard on what justification means?

2. In what way have we seen justification (what God does for us) and sanctification (what God does in us) as linked?

Who is Justified?

     Wesley's answer to this question, and the answer of scripture, is simple. Only sinners are justified! Why would someone who is already righteous (holy) need be made right with God? If justification breaks the guilt and power of sin why would someone who is not guilty or under the power of sin need it? 

     In this section Wesley aggressively attacks the notion that you have to be somewhat sanctified to receive justification form God. In other words, he attacks the notion that we have to be 'good enough' for God to forgive us. So the question is not "how can my good works balance out my bad works?" Instead the question is, "How on earth to I die to this evil inward disposition that causes me to do evil things so that the image of God within me can be made whole?"

What are the terms of Justification?

     The final question in the last segment leads us to the closing part of the sermon. What must we do to make things right with God? Wesley's answer, nothing! We must 'do' nothing instead we must have faith! This faith is one-hundred percent a work of God. This faith is both intellectual assent and trust. It is the supernatural insight that God gives us the knowledge that we are sinners in need of saving. God graciously enables us to realize that we cannot do it on our own. Finally, He enables to trust in Christ's sacrificial death to pay for our sins, and His resurrection to ensure that we can live new lives.

     Our role is simply to trust in and submit to His design. Wesley goes into the nature of good works as it relates to this design. He notes that "Whatever good someone does, from that hour when that person first believes in God through Christ, faith does not 'find,' but 'bring.' This is the fruit of faith. First the tree is good, and then the fruit is good also." In other words, God changes us from the inside out. We do not find faith, worth, dignity, value, or justification by being 'good people.' Instead, God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, changes our hearts, our desires so that we, by Gods grace, bring forth good works.

     Wesley closes with an interesting point and a plea. First, he asks the question why? Why is it God's design that it is not by our works that we are saved, but we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus alone? He rightly observes that it is to eliminate a chance for pride within us. After all, the temptation that the first Adam, and the rest of us, fell to is to 'be as God.' 

     Put differently, what got us in this mess was trying to grasp at God's authority, so the solution is giving up authority in our own lives. That giving up of authority to the Lord is us saying, "Lord, I do not have any righteousness of my own! Please save me, by your grace!" We are, therefore made right with God not by us coming up to God (with our good deeds) but by Him coming down to us (in Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection mediated to us by the Holy Spirit). John's brother, Charles put it better than I ever could by writing:

He left his Father's throne above
(so free, so infinite his grace!),
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam's helpless race.

     So Wesley closes this sermon with a plea. A plea to anyone who knows, in his or her heart that they are a vile wretched sinner, anyone who has tried to justify oneself, be a good person, and ended up exhausted and defeated. Wesley pleads with them that they would give up on their good works and, "go straight to him with all of our ungodliness!" Wesley remarks that if you feel fit for hell, you are on the right track! You are on the right track because you know you cannot save yourself!
     So, with all of your sins, and sinful dispositions, do not delay, run straight to His arms of mercy. Do not trot out your good works or attempts to justify yourself! Instead, trust that in Christ Jesus our debt is paid in full. That in Him we can find forgiveness and life and life abundantly!

Questions

1. Even when we accept the doctrine of justification by faith, we still, often, try to justify ourselves. Why?

2. Which is harder to believe, that we are all deserving of hell or that Jesus died so that we might not have to taste what we deserve? Why?

3. The kind of faith that justifies us believes in Christ and trusts in His merits to save us. Is it harder to believe (have intellectual assent) or trust? Why?