Understanding Justification: A Gift of Righteousness

I find it helpful to follow the story of how there came to be so much confusion over justification early in the history of the church the Bible was translated into Latin and in this translation the Greek word for justification which means to declare righteous was translated by a Latin word that means to make righteous now there's a big difference. [00:00:03]

God makes a person righteous through a process of change in which we become more like Jesus and you can see the problem if justification means us becoming righteous none of us would be justified the best Christian you know is a long way from being like Jesus. [00:00:31]

But justification is not about how God makes us righteous justification is the wonderful gift in which God declares us righteous and God declares us righteous by forgiving our sins by dropping all charges against those who are in Christ because he's charged all of our sins to Jesus and he's credited all of Jesus righteousness to us. [00:01:17]

A bad translation misled them and they worked on the assumption that justification means being made righteous and that of course LED them to believe that a Christian's progress in the pursuit of Holiness played a role in his or her justification so from early in the history of the church justification was understood to include sanctification. [00:01:46]

Luther experienced a great battle with his inclinations towards sin he knew that his heart even at its best was not what it should be and although he hated his own sins he knew that his repentance wasn't all that it could be either he was a long way from being made righteous and behind this sense of sin was Luther's overwhelming sense of the greatness and the glory of God. [00:02:42]

Luther came to see that the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is not righteousness that God requires of us but righteousness that God gives to us and that we receive it by faith and this is his testimony he said I began to understand that the justice of God meant that Justice by which the just man lives through God's gift namely by faith. [00:04:20]

When I realize this I felt myself absolutely born again the gates of paradise had been flung open and I had entered there and then the whole of scripture took on another look to me see what Luther grasped was that the peace of God does not rest on the gradual and Progressive curing of sin in US but on the free gift of Christ's righteousness to us. [00:05:01]

Justification rests not on the continuing work of the spirit in you but on the completed work of Christ for you and there's all the difference in the world the work of the spirit in you is gradual and Progressive and it's never done in this life your faith even now is not what you want it to be your repentance is not what it ought to be. [00:05:35]

But the work of Jesus Christ for you well that's complete on the cross he said it is finished the perfect life has been lived the atoning sacrifice has been offered and accepted and in Christ God counts this perfect complete righteousness of the Savior as yours now before he understood this Luther had been working on the premise that you had to be free from sin in order to be at peace with God. [00:06:12]

And what he found was that there is peace with God through faith in Jesus even though we are still doing battle with sin that is really good news you know the Apostle Paul uses a very striking phrase in Romans chapter 4 and verse 5. he says this that God justifies the ungodly that is an astonishing statement. [00:06:46]

You would think he would say God justifies The Godly but he doesn't say that he says God justifies the ungodly thank God for that God justifies us in Christ even though we are still far from being all that he calls us to be. [00:07:10]