The Just and The Justifier

This week will be the last of mine to talk about justification. If you are not convinced that the just shall live by faith, and only through faith can one be justified, I cannot help you. If you have followed me in my previous letters, including this one you should see a clear picture of how God has design a method to save and redeem us. This is the last piece of the puzzle of which I shall arrange in such an order that it may enlighten you in no other way than I intended to - impressively


We have seen the ungodly justified, now we come a step further to enquire, how can a just God justify guilty men? We shall find our answer in the words of Paul in Romans 3:21-25.


"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past...."


If you had earlier lived a life without sin, and that your thoughts are as noble as that of God, you will still go to hell. I know this is a bad way to put it, for if you studied the book of Romans (Romans 5:14-17), it is plainly stated that we fell by the first Adam and this not of ourselves. It was Adam who sinned first and that we the descendants of him are all cursed as a result. For this you might think it is unfair. And the truth is really so, but only in this unfairness could I possibly explain how can a just God justify guilty men.


For it is such that we fell by the first Adam, it became possible for us to be recovered by a second representative. We are saved by Him who has undertaken to be the covenant Head of His people in order to be their second Adam. You see that before we had actually sinned, we had already fallen by our first father's sin. Therefore it became possible at the point of law for us to rise by a second Head and Representative. The fall of Adam left a loophole of escape, another Adam can undo the ruin made by the first. And that second Adam, is He who we call Christ.


It was because the Son of God, supremely glorious in His matchless person, undertook the vindication of the Law by bearing the sentence due to us. He did so that God is able to pass by our sin. The Law of God was more vindicated by the death of Christ than it would have been had all sinners been sent to hell. For the Son of God to suffer for sin was a more glorious establishment of the government of God than for the whole race to suffer.


Behold the wonder, Jesus has borne the death penalty on our behalf! There he hang on the cross, this is the greatest sight you'll ever see.


The more I look at the sufferings of the Son of God, the more I am sure that they must meet my case. Why did He suffer if it not take the penalty away from us? If, then, He took away by His death, it is surely taken. Those who believe in Him need not fear it. It must be that, since atonement is made, God is able to forgive without disrupting the basis of His throne. Conscience gets full answer to her tremendous question.


God will spare the sinner because He did not spare His Son. God can pass by your transgressions because He laid them upon Him. If God Himself bows before His own Law, what more can be done? There is more in the atonement by the way of merit than there is in all human sin by way of demerit.


What is it to believe in Him? It is not merely to say, "He is God and the Savior", but to trust Him wholly and entirely and take Him for all your salvation from this time forth and forever as your Lord. If you will have Jesus, He has you already. If you believe in Him, I tell you that you cannot go to hell, for then Christ's death would be in vain. A sacrifice cannot be made and then withheld from the one which it was given. If believing soul could be condemned, then why a sacrifice? If Jesus died in my stead, why should I die also?


Every believer can claim that the sacrifice was actually made for him. By faith he has laid his hands on it and made it his own, and therefore he may rest assured that he can never perish. The Lord would not receive this offering on our behalf and then condemn us to die. The Lord cannot read our pardon written in the blood of His own Son and then smite us. That would be impossible.


So now let us join hands and stand together at the foot of the cross and trust our soul once and for all to Him who shed His blood for the guilty. We will be saved by one and the same Saviour. If you perish trusting Him, I must perish too. What can I do to further prove my own confidence in the Gospel which I set before you?