Jesus and Justification

Romans chapter 4 and this morning's sermon will come from verses 23 through 25. But for the sake of a little context, we're going to read verses 16 through the end of the chapter. So if you're using the New King James Pew Bibles provided for you, you'll find that on page 1002. Hear now God's perfect word.

Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of faith of Abraham. who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who, contrary to hope, in hope believed. so that he might become the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be.

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised, He was also able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to Him for righteousness. Now it was not written for His sake alone that it was imputed to Him, but also for us. shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who also delivered up who was also delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.

Prayer for Illumination

That sends this portion of the reading of God's Word the grass withers the flower fades but the Word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, you have given us your word. It is a sharp, two-edged sword, piercing to the vision of joint and marrow, even soul and spirit.

Sermon

And Lord, we pray that your word might do its work as we hear it in faith. Lord, we pray that you might teach us, rebuke us, correct us and train us in righteousness that we might be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Lord, we pray that you would please soften our hearts that we might be able to hear your word preached. Lord, we pray that you might take away the offenses of our hearts and the accusation of Satan. Lord, we pray for your Holy Spirit to build us up in our faith. We desperately need your spirit to do this work.

God, please guard the lips of my mouth, the meditations of my heart. Father, please, I pray that your spirit would lead me in the preaching of your word to rightly divide it, that your people might be built up in grace, looking to their only savior, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray all these things In the name of our High Priest and King Jesus, Amen. I don't have a fancy introduction for you today, because this is a gospel message.

Paul has been moving in Romans chapter 4 using Abraham as an example, as a prototype. Remember at the very beginning of chapter 4 he said, What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? That word our father was actually our forefather. What example did he set for us?

An example of being believing. Believing in a God who is powerful. Believing in a God who made promises. Believing in a God who can even raise the dead. And it was that faith that God saw and accounted to him for righteousness. Who? Jews or non-Jews? Both. We're all equal opportunity sinners and God saves sinners. So that's what this is talking about here. When we get to Romans chapter 4, verses 23 through 25, our text this morning is the question of, was this only talking about Abraham? And spoiler alert, no. Us. Our. If we believe. So I'm just going to leave you this morning. I'm going to ask you now, and I'm going to leave you with a nagging question that I hope you have to wrestle with in your soul when you come to a place of assurance. Do you walk in the footsteps of faith as Abraham walked? Do you believe that God is that powerful? Do you believe that God is able to save? Do you believe God is even able to raise the dead? So first, Let's be reminded of what Abraham believed. Verses 13 through 22. This is a quick point. I don't want to linger too long here. This is last week's message. But it's really important. Because 23 hinges on what came before it.

What did Abraham believe? He believed God. He believed God's promises. And he believed that God was able to do it. That God was able to speak about things that aren't as if they are. And that God would accomplish his promises. We've read as a congregation, Sunday after Sunday, the life of Abraham. It starts in Genesis chapter 12 and it goes through 15 and into chapter 17. He continues to make these promises to Abraham. He's going to make him a great nation. He's going to bless him and he's going to bless all the nations through him. He's going to make his descendants more than all the dust in the air.

Now if you've gone down the gravel road or the dirt road anytime, you know how much dust follows a car. He says, go ahead, count the specks of dust. Your descendants are going to be more than that. And then in the pitch black of the desert night, he takes him out into the night sky. He says, look up at the stars, stare up at the Milky Way, count the stars if you can. Go ahead, I'll hold my breath. Your descendants are gonna be more than the number of stars in the sky. And then he says, hey, this land you're walking in, I'm gonna give this land to your descendants.

And the question still lingers in Abraham's mind, Abram's mind at this point is, how are you gonna do this God? I got this servant, he's from Damascus, maybe he'll be the inheritor and God says, no he won't, you'll have your own child. And so Sarah and Abram, they're trying to figure this out and they think, well maybe we'll take things into our own hands and we'll accomplish these promises by our own works. And so they'd make the foolish mistake of giving Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, to Abram.

And they try by works to accomplish the promises of God. That don't go well. And God says, no, he's not the inheritor of the promises. I'm going to do this. God's going to do the miracle. Abram and Sarah believe. And God credits it to them for righteousness. And they do have a child. They do have Isaac. a hundred-year-old man and over ninety-year-old lady have a baby. Even though Abraham and Sarah believed, even though, as the text told us, Abraham's body was as good as dead being almost a hundred years old. And Sarah's womb being dead.

And in Hebrews chapter 11 we looked at last week, When God told Abraham to go offer up Isaac, you know, your son, the one and only son, the son of the promise, that son, offer him up. And Hebrews 11 told us that as he walked up that mountain, he believed that even if he had to go through with killing his own son, God would raise up Isaac from the dead. That's the firmness of faith that Abraham believed in who God was, and in God's power, and in God's goodness to him.

So my question is, do you believe that God can accomplish His promises He's made to you? Do you hope, against hope, that even if somehow you were to die, yet you would still live? Do you believe? Do you believe that God can do even the impossible? That He could raise the dead? Is your God so large that He could do what the rest of the world says unreasonable, impossible?

Never seen it happen, never will happen. I've never seen a dead person get up out of the grave after three days. It doesn't happen. It won't happen. The Bible's wrong. That's what the world tells you. You're believing a fairy tale. Look at all the evidence around you. That's what the unbelieving world tells you every single day. And it's not just the higher theological critics and commentaries, but just go ahead and look up deconversion or deconstruction videos on TikTok or YouTube or Instagram or whatever cesspool of social media we want to go to. And they'll try to convince you that all of this is a lie. Do you hope against hope? But what's your hope in? A fairy tale? or historical reality. Abraham believed that the Savior would be born from his own family line.

So when Paul says here, now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him or that it was accounted to him, but also for us. Notice what it says about the us. Who are the us? If it's not just written for Abraham's sake, that faith is accounted for righteousness, but is also for us, who are the us? It shall be imputed to us who believe. To those who are believing.

In Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. And then Paul is going to give us the Holy Spirit. Inspires Paul to write down two amazing gospel truths. Really, as Charles Hodge says, a summary of the gospel. These two great truths of the gospel. Do you believe them? First, that Jesus died as a sacrifice for our sins, for your sins. Do you believe that Jesus died as a sacrifice for your sins? Who was delivered up because of our offenses. See, this is exactly why Paul had to go through Romans 1, 2, and 3. Paul's whole thesis, Romans chapter 1 verse 16.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. First to the Jew, and also to the Gentile. To all those who believe, that's who the good news is for. And then he goes off in a weird way, and he goes, and everyone is a sinner.

All the Gentiles out there, God's given them over to their lusts and their passions. Oh, and you Jewish people, Romans chapter 2, oh, you Jewish people who want to judge others, thinking you're righteous, and you'll look down your nose at others, do you not do the same things? Your own law condemns you. So we come to Romans chapter 3, and he's told us, "...but all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." It's a blanket statement across all humanity, no matter who you were, Jew or Gentile. But did you remember what Romans chapter 3 told us?

We know that whatever the law says, verse 19, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. And all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

If you don't think that you stink, you won't take a shower. That's a hard thing to say to especially, you know, like teenage boys. Paul's telling all of us, we stink and we need cleansed. We got a problem and it needs solved and we can't solve it ourselves. The law will never show us because the law is telling us we're guilty. And so what does the law do?

It pointed us to Christ. Even a righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. Verse 24 of chapter 3, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. See, when Paul says in Romans chapter 4 verse 25, who is delivered up because of our offenses, you have to ask yourself, do you actually believe that you're an offender?

An offender against God's perfect law. Because if you're not convinced that you're a sinner, you have no need for Jesus. You have no need to be saved because you could save yourself. But Paul says that's not the type of faith Abraham had. No, Jesus was delivered because of our offenses. Jesus took our sins. Jesus paid the ransom price. We were the ones shackled to sin and to death. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You were redeemed Your life was redeemed by something far more precious than silver or gold, but by the very blood of Jesus Christ. You were bought back. This is what was prophesied in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 53. We love to read Isaiah chapter 53 at times like Christmas. But it was Jesus who was led like a lamb to slaughter.

He took our sins upon himself willingly. Jesus dying on the cross was a demonstration of the Father's love for those who believe. Romans chapter eight, Paul will later go on and say, Romans chapter 8, 32, he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us, how shall he not with him also give us all things? Jesus is a demonstration. of the Father's love for His people. What more could He give? He gave His own Son to be a ransom, to pay the price for our sins. But it wasn't just a demonstration of the Father's love. But it was a demonstration of Jesus' own love himself. Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 28, that no one was taking his life from him, but he was willingly giving it up. Jesus willingly went to the cross.

He purposely kept his mouth shut as they were making accusations against him. As they were mocking him. As they were flogging him. As they were spitting on His face, He had His people in mind the entire time, knowing that He had to endure the cross, the shame of the cross, because of our offenses.

Do you believe that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses? Do you find yourself in the hour right now? Is this your own confession? Jesus was delivered up because of my offenses. Jesus shed his blood for your sins. And if you are like Abraham who believed, you're part of the hour in verses 24 and 25.

Now there's gonna be some of you Maybe you're younger Christians or maybe you're older Christians. But there's sometimes this nagging doubt. There's this accuser that will come out of the blue sometimes. And you may have this wild thought, this intrusive idea that comes into your mind that will say to you, you're not good enough for the Father to love you. How do you know that Jesus died for you? You might even have a random thought that the accuser brings to you.

It's not really that good. There's no way God could be that good. But what Paul is about to say in a few chapters is that God demonstrated his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for you when you weren't good enough. And do you have hope against hope that He is that good? Because Satan would love nothing more than for you to start doubting God's goodness or ability to save a sinner. So when the accuser comes and he says, you're not good enough to be a child of God, look at your life.

Look at the sins that you're still dealing with. At that fork in the road, you have an option. Either go down the way of doubt and depression, and disbelief, or if you're in Christ, you can be honest. So you're right. I've never been good enough to be saved. But that's exactly why Jesus died for me. And I believe that he did die for me. The blood price of the covenant of works has been paid. See the offenses here in Romans chapter 4, 25, who is delivered up because of our offenses?

This is the old story. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden. There is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the tree of the life. They're allowed to eat any of the fruit of the garden. Even of the tree of life. We said that one tree right there, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it for the day you eat of it.

If we were to translate the Hebrew more literally, dying, you will die. That's what it's talking about, that the wages of sin is death. That the offenses of going against God's clear mandates, we die. Christ knew that every one of us were offenders and laid down his life for those offenders. If Jesus, though, laid down his life, is that enough? No, it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough that Jesus just died on the cross. We'd still be in our sins.

Notice what Paul continues here. Look at the last phrase of Romans chapter 4, 25. Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Jesus was raised to life again for or because it was necessary for our justification. So the question is why would it be necessary for Jesus to raise again from the dead?

There's a few answers to that. First is that this is a proof that His death was actually accepted by the Father. If Jesus said, I'm going to lay down my life as a ransom for many. Nobody takes my life from me, but I freely offer it up. And he told them that the son of man was going to die, and on the third day he would raise again.

And yet he didn't raise again. He was just laying dead in a tomb. What would we call that type of guy? A fool or a liar. He didn't know what he was talking about. Obviously God didn't actually accept his sacrifice and we can't trust him as a prophet because he didn't know what was going to happen.

It was amazing. A few months ago, the Tuesday night Bible study, we've been going through the book of Matthew. I think we've been going through the book, I don't know, John Rosley, about 17 eternities it took us to get through Matthew. It took us a long time to get through Matthew. And it was this amazing thing that we saw time and time and time and time and time again.

Jesus would tell his disciples, this is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. And as the cross gets closer and closer, he keeps telling his disciples, I'm going to die. One of you is going to betray me. I'm going to raise again from the dead." And it happened.

And Jesus being raised again from the dead was the proof that the Father accepted His sacrifice and that Jesus knew what He was talking about. But secondly, why was it necessary that Jesus rose from the dead? To make good and to make permanent the righteousness he had secured for us. Now where am I getting that from here in the text? And was raised because of our justification. That word has come up a few times already.

There's a root idea here of justification and righteousness that's been pervasive all throughout Romans 1, 2, and 3. If you were at Chalk and Talk, I even showed that to you, gave you a piece of paper with all the different colors, and it happens time and time and time and time and time again. How is anyone righteous? How is anyone declared righteous, judged legally righteous? That word justification is this idea of legally declared righteous.

Jesus rose again from the dead to make it permanently secure that those who believe in him are righteous. Jesus' raising again from the dead shows that he indeed did triumph over death. And in Jesus, you too will raise again from the dead. Jesus is alive in heaven now.

Right? Jesus didn't just raise from the dead and stick around on earth. He did for a while. In his human body, same properties, different qualities, and yet he would, when the disciples said, oh no, we're seeing a ghost, he said, ghosts don't eat breakfast. Come down, let's eat some fish. But Jesus didn't stay here on earth, did he? How does the end of Luke or the beginning of Acts start? Jesus ascended up into heaven with that same body that they knew Him. And then the angels declared in the same way He went up, so He will also return.

Jesus stands at the right hand of God the Father Almighty now as your High Priest. ministering in a tabernacle not made with human hands. But Jesus, our King, our true prophet, our priest, our righteousness, stands before the Father. And every time the Father hears your prayers, it is through the person of Jesus. And every time the Father looks upon you, He sees you in Jesus. This is an amazing thing. Why was Jesus raised for our justification? Because Jesus stands before the Father.

And every time the Father thinks or sees you, He sees you in the one who's standing right in front of Him. So you're not just by yourself. When your prayers go to heaven, it is Jesus who presents them perfectly to the Father. And so he doesn't sit there, your God doesn't sit there and go, oh, that wicked sinner, I can't believe they're sitting there praying to me again. He hears your prayers and he sees his son. I love that one. I sent my son for that one. That one is righteous. and their righteousness is standing right here. Jesus was raised for our justification. We have a right standing with God.

We don't come to the heavenly courtroom scratching our heads wondering, am I righteous enough to be here? Are my robes clean enough to be here? When we enter into the presence, the courtroom or the throne room of God the Father Almighty, we don't come in our own robes. We come in the robes, the righteous robes, the clean robes of Jesus Christ. We don't come in our own righteousness and our own filth, but we come washed in the blood of the Lamb. We don't come with a charge of guilty sinner above our heads. We come with the name of Jesus written upon our foreheads. We come declared righteous, justified, because our risen Savior lives. So my question to you this morning is, do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus was put to death because of your offenses? And do you believe in the historical fact that God raised his son from the dead, witnessed to by hundreds.

By the way, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, the same guy who wrote this letter is the same one who writes 1 Corinthians, and he said, if you don't think I'm telling the truth, there are hundreds of people in Palestine Just go to Jerusalem anytime, hop on the boat, get there, go to the temple, and find any Christian worshiping there, and they'll talk to you about seeing Jesus in the flesh. They're still alive today. Some of them have died. But there's a slew of them still alive.

Closing Prayer

Do you believe that Jesus was raised again from the dead? And that the righteousness you desperately need can only be found in Jesus. This is the summary of the Christian gospel. That Jesus Christ was put to death for our offenses and was raised from the dead for our justification. Do you believe it? If so, It is accounted to you for righteousness the same way it was accounted to Abraham. Do you believe? Do you believe? Let's pray.

Father, the question has been asked, but only Your Holy Spirit can make us alive to make us born again that we can believe. Lord, I don't know who's in the room here today who does not believe. Father, please, breathe life into their souls that they might, with their first gasp of new life, believe. Lord, and for those who this morning are struggling with nagging doubt, Lord, please fix our eyes upon the Lamb who was slain and now sits upon the throne and is worthy of praise. Father, please we believe help us in our disbelief at times. Ward off the accuser.

Lord, we pray for those who have been walking in this faith in the same footsteps of Abraham for decades, possibly near a century. Lord, we pray that you might preserve their faith. that they might run their race well with endurance, never taking their eyes off Jesus, who is our prize. Lord, please strengthen us, help us, make us alive that we might believe. We pray all these things in the name of our Savior, our Lord, and our risen High Priest, Jesus Christ. Amen.