Justification by Faith: The Foundation of Salvation

It was new to us when it first shone into our dark and troubled and sinful hearts. It will be equally new to our children and our children's children, when they come to know that they have their own sins to be forgiven and their own souls to be saved. It is this old truth of justification by faith that is the seed of the new creation. It is a spring of new life. It is new peace. It is new hope. [00:01:11]

If our salvation, if our standing before God, was in any way contingent upon works, then that would open the door, even ever so slightly, to room for boasting in ourselves. And if we know anything about the doctrine of God, we know that there is absolutely no room for boasting. That the glory of God is the all-encompassing reality, and it leaves no room for boasting in the flesh. [00:04:21]

And the second word goes along with that, it's the word assensus. It speaks of mental assent. So, we have data and facts and propositions, and we have the cognitive awareness and mental assent of those propositions. We're in the realm of the intellectual with faith. In one sense, we see this in the example of Abraham itself. We were told that Abraham believed God, it was counted to him as righteous. [00:08:15]

He gives Abraham a promise. Abraham did not make a leap of faith. He put his faith in an object, and that object was God Himself and God's promise. Just around the corner here is First Presbyterian Church. Back in the 1920s, one of my heroes, J. Gresham Machen, preached in that church. I spent all morning just walking around the block, trying to retrace Machen's steps. [00:09:26]

There are propositions to the gospel. There is a holy God. We are sinful, we need a substitute. God in His mercy and in His grace has sent us one. He was born of a virgin. He really lived, and He lived a sinless and perfect life. And He was led to a cross, and He really died on that cross. And He was put in a tomb, a real tomb with a real stone. [00:13:01]

But there's a third element to this that the Reformers helped us understand. It's the word fiducia or the word "trust." Now, we see this in this text too. We see it introduced in verse 5, "And to the one who does not work but believes," and there's the object, "in him," and here's also part of the object, "who justifies," so that's the person and the work. [00:14:56]

And there are many who are seemingly unaware that there is something wrong between them and God. Because I believe if they did, if they were aware that there was something wrong between them and God, they would be busting down the doors of our churches to ask for help. So, we're getting here now to the necessity of faith when we understand not just Abraham's illustrative purposes, but David's. [00:17:41]

Some people, I think, sense that things are askew. So, what do they do? They pour themselves into religion. You really only have two choices – it's either works or faith – and no matter what the religion is, whether it's Roman Catholicism, whether it's Islam, or whether it's cultural mainline Protestant Christianity or whether it's a cult, what's holding all of those together? [00:19:50]

Then Machen says this, "To have faith in Christ means to cease trying to win God's favor by one's own character." You know, that white knuckling it to get to heaven, the striving. No, that's not faith. Faith is fiducia, trust, rest, to put an end to striving. The man who believes in Christ simply accepts. There's that word again, "simply," means only. [00:22:42]

Because we started off, we were there in Romans 1, we all know it, there's one neon lights fact, "the wrath of God." And we get to the Romans 5 and brighter neon lights, "peace with God." But here it is, chapters 3 and 4, we move from wrath to peace through the righteousness of God, paid with a very heavy price, the cost of His only Son, His beloved Son. [00:27:00]

This is faith. This is not just simply knowing these things, this is resting in these things, this is coming to grips with this fact of our sinfulness before a holy God. And in Christ, our unrighteousness is put on Him. You know, we hear this, we even sing the hymn that our hands are empty, "We come to the cross empty-handed." And I understand the sentiment of that and the thought of that. [00:32:10]

You know, in every generation of the church there have been challenges to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. And the faithful, biblical proclamation of the gospel meets every challenge every time. There was a challenge before we got out of the pages of the New Testament. They were adding to Christ, as if Christ were not sufficient. They were adding to Christ, as if His work on the cross was not enough. [00:34:57]