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Chapter Ten
“But How Can a Man be Righteous Before God?”

We have just examined the true nature of man and learned that man’s situation is hopeless: he stands condemned for the sin of Adam, the first federal head of mankind. Man’s situation is helpless--there is nothing he can do to save himself. Even the acts he considers to be “righteous” are filthy rags before the Lord God Almighty. We now come to one of the most important questions a human being can ever ask: How can a man be righteous before God?

This question is first recorded in the book of Job, and has been echoed by men and women of faith ever since. Two of the most influential men ever to ponder this dilemma were Augustine and Martin Luther. As previously mentioned, Augustine unquestioningly accepted the Scripture’s teaching on the total depravity of man, primarily because he had struggled with sin for so much of his own life. Augustine’s great prayer--“O God, command what you will, but give what you command” --indicated his understanding that sinful man is completely incapable of leading the life of unwavering obedience that would be pleasing to a perfect and holy God.

Like Augustine, Martin Luther knew that no amount of personal effort could ever result in the kind of personal purity God’s perfect law demands. Both these men were educated by their depravity--God used their personal sin to teach them the truth of sovereign grace. For years Luther wrestled with the confusion and despair that resulted from the teaching of the Roman state church, which asserted that man is made righteous by an infusion of God’s grace. Rome taught that man cooperated with God, laboring by his own best efforts and aided by the Holy Spirit, until he at last became righteous and acceptable before God. Luther’s attempts to rid himself of personal sin reached a level of intensity that a 20th century believer would consider outlandish. Yet no extreme of prayer or self-imposed suffering and deprivation ever cleansed Luther’s conscience from the burning sting of guilt for his sin. Luther wrote:


These words, “the just” and “righteousness,” were lightning and thunder in my conscience under the papacy, and merely hearing them mentioned terrified me. In this tower, in which there was a special place for the  monks, I once meditated on these words: The just lives by faith (Hab. 2:4), and, the righteousness of God (Romans 1:17). Then it suddenly came to my mind: If we are to live righteously because of righteousness by faith and this righteousness of God is intended to save everyone who believes, it follows that righteousness is by faith and life by righteousness. And my conscience and spirit were lifted up, and I was made certain that it is the righteousness of God which justifies and saves us. And immediately those words became sweet and delightful to me.


Luther was consumed by his quest for holiness and righteousness, but until God used the Scriptures to reveal to him that our only true righteousness is a gift from God, Luther was striving to perfect his personal holiness and self-righteousness!

Martin Luther’s story reminds me of the apostle Paul’s quest for holiness. As a young Pharisee, he took great pride in his spiritual “pedigree”: “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Paul outwardly appeared to be a blameless man. Yet ever before him were God’s perfect commandments, which he knew are “holy and just and good.” The law was like a schoolmaster for Paul, convicting him of the sinfulness of his human nature. “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith,” he observed. Inspired by God’s grace, Paul wrote with beautiful, moving eloquence of his realization that no amount of personal “righteousness” could make him holy before God.


What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death... So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.”


Many unsaved men and women object to the law of God as being too stringent, too “intolerant,” particularly in today’s self-centered and hedonistic culture. And so the complaint has always been, because man wishes to indulge in his sinful passions free from guilt or reproof of any kind. Paul scoffed at this licentious reasoning. “What shall we say, then?”he asked rhetorically. “Is the law sin? Certainly not!”The law of God taught Paul what sin really was. “Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”

God graciously provided His law in order that we might know what is perfectly good and that we might recognize evil. We often hear men and women asking, “What is God’s will for my life?” In a great many instances, these seemingly imponderable questions are directly answered by the law of God! Paul explained that, apart from God’s law, we have no idea what constitutes moral and immoral behavior, “For apart from law, sin is dead.” Apart from the law Paul believed that the circumstances of his birth and the particulars of his “religion” made him righteous. “Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.” It was the law which made Paul realize the depth of his depravity, and his entire sense of self-righteousness died. Through the realization of what God’s law required, “Sin [became] utterly sinful.” Paul finally understood that sin is “exceedingly sinful,” as the New King James Bible translates Romans 7:13.

God’s Word brought Paul face-to-face with the hopelessness of his situation. When he compared his own life with the perfection of God’s law, he realized that his own righteousness was, indeed, filthy rags. “I am unspiritual,” he confessed, “sold as a slave to sin.”

Oh, how I imagine Martin Luther agonizing over these same verses of Scripture! Like Paul, Luther was convicted of the exceeding sinfulness of sin by God’s law. He spent long hours in prayer, walked naked in freezing weather, actually beat himself bloody with a whip, all in a vain attempt to cleanse his conscience of the guilt for his sin. Luther was floundering in a sea of subjectivism, seeking to ascend an unscalable peak of spiritual “perfection.” But he could find no relief for his inner turmoil. For both Paul and Luther there had to come this stark realization: “It is impossible for a man to be righteous before God on the basis of his own personal worth. Our sin is exceedingly sinful; it is grotesque in the sight of a pure and holy God. All our righteous deeds are filthy rags compared to the perfect law of God.” We may never hope to be “good enough” to earn God’s approval! “If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law,” Paul wrote to the Galatians. Scripture is adamant that it is impossible for a man to gain admission into heaven by the merits of his good life. “No one will be declared righteous [justified] in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

It is only at this point, when we realize that our own actions will not save us; when we see that the fig leaves of “good deeds” with which we seek to cover our sinful nakedness are flimsy and wholly inadequate; when we raise our eyes to heaven, asking, “What must I do to be saved?” ; it is only then that the voice from heaven responds, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”

Both Paul and Luther discovered that man cannot save himself by observing the law. Indeed, far from Pelagius’ teaching that man is spiritually healthy and able to live according to God’s law, the truth is that man is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, and completely incapable of giving himself artificial respiration. There is only One who can bring the dead back to life; only One who says to us--gently, and yet with the mighty power that freed Lazarus from the grave--“Come forth.”

In Martin Luther’s day, the Roman state church used the words that reflect the great doctrines of the Christian faith, words like “righteousness” and “justification”; sadly, the church had become so corrupted by the redefining of these old doctrinal words that they completely lost their biblical definitions. “Righteousness” had come to mean man cooperating with God to produce a form of godliness; “justification” had come to mean a process of being made righteous by an infusion of grace in the believer’s heart, whereby he was made acceptable in God’s sight. The great words of historical, biblical Christianity had been drained of their meaning, and these empty chalices had been refilled with liquid humanism. The frightful deception behind these substitutions lies in the fact that as each doctrinal chalice was handed down to succeeding generations, they continued to bear the name “Christian,” and were accepted as true Christianity. This ruinous verbal sleight of hand continued for hundreds of years, perpetuating this ignorance; common usage assumed dominance at the expense of the original meaning of God’s written revelation. This was the situation that Martin Luther faced in the sixteenth century--and that we face today.

As a result of this satanic subterfuge (and despite the unflagging efforts of the Reformers and great Bible teachers and men of faith like Charles Spurgeon, George Whitefield, Gordon Clark, and John Robbins), much of twentieth-century Christianity is now drunk on an experiential, heart-centered humanism. The Church has, in large measure, turned away from the great objective, legal truths of historical, biblical Christianity and has embraced “another gospel.” In far too many churches, the word that is preached from the pulpit bears precious little resemblance to the great truths that God sovereignly decreed for the apostles to write and for Martin Luther to revive.

The Rich Young Ruler: Picture of Man’s Self-righteousness

Contrast the brokenness of Paul and Luther with the self-righteous arrogance of the rich young ruler whom we meet in three of the four gospels. This young man sounds very much like a product of today’s “mainstream” churches. He came to Jesus, asking, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” Notice that the young man asked, “What good thing shall I do”! He believed he could earn eternal life. He was certain that there was something within himself that would make him acceptable to God. Unlike Luther and Paul, he had not reached the point of utter bankruptcy within his soul where he knew that he was “a maggot ... a worm,” standing before God in the filthy rags of his own self-righteousness. Jesus gently pointed the young man back toward the law. “If you want to enter into life,” He replied, “keep the commandments.”

I must confess that I used to be bewildered by the Lord’s words here! As a pastor, all my training told me that when someone asks, “How can I have eternal life?” I must respond with the gospel! I should promptly reply, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” Why then, I used to wonder with some indignation, did Jesus tell the young man to “keep the commandments”? I knew that no one can be saved by keeping the law! The problem, of course, was with my own understanding, not with Jesus’ evangelism. I had not come to the proper understanding of the function of the law.

We read time and again in Scripture that Jesus knows the thoughts of men. He knew that this young man was not ready to hear the gospel because the young ruler still believed that there was some good thing that HE could do to inherit eternal life! He displayed none of the understanding of the total depravity of human nature that characterized great men of faith like Paul, Augustine, and Luther. And so Jesus pointed the rich ruler back to the law, which was written and designed to bring this proud young lord to his knees before Holy God. And yet he remained supremely confident of his own righteousness: “All these things I have kept from my youth.” Jesus did not raise His voice, nor did He grab the young man and shake him, two actions that you and I might contemplate when confronted with such obtrusiveness. Mark tells us that Jesus looked at the young man in love and pointed him directly at the Tenth Commandment: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Tragically, the young man turned his back on Jesus and walked away. The First Commandment that forbids putting anything before God had not convicted him of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Instead, his first allegiance was to his great possessions, rather than the treasure in heaven that Jesus offered. Truly, the young man was “dead in [his] trespasses and sins,” and unlike Paul and Luther, he had no inkling of where to turn for help. And so he “went away sorrowful.”

Martin Luther, on the other hand, turned to the axiom: the Word of God. And it was there, in Habakkuk 2:4, that he discovered the answer: “The just shall live by his faith;” or to be more faithful to the original Hebrew rendering of this verse, “The just by faith shall live.” Luther finally understood that we are declared righteous in God’s sight because of God’s grace, by means of our faith in Jesus Christ, and not because of our futile attempts at perfect obedience to the law. When God opened Luther’s mind to the truth of that one short verse, the great Protestant Reformation was born. Luther grasped the truth of Romans 1:17, that in the gospel “the righteousness of God”--not the righteousness of man--“is revealed.” This simple--yet deeply profound--truth was the catalyst for the establishment of the “Protest-ant” church.

Are You a Protestant... or a Catholic?

This brief true-false test will allow you to test the teaching at your current church. It is a sad truth that the Protestant church, which originally formed to refute and reject the heretical teachings of the Roman state church, seems to have accepted and absorbed a great deal of that very same teaching in recent years.

Would you like to see how faithful your church remains to the doctrines of historical, biblical Christianity? I must warn you that I took this test for the first time almost twenty years ago... and failed it miserably. I simply had no doctrinal discernment at all. Just to make my chagrin complete, I gave the test to my congregation and virtually everyone in the church revealed themselves to be good Catholics also! In fact, some of the very things that I had been teaching my congregation were the points that Martin Luther had labored so diligently to rebut during the years of his ministry!

I was shocked to see how profoundly mistaken much of my teaching had been. The church staff tried to use humor to lighten the blow, calling me “Father Lannom,” but I was devastated. Almost everything I had been taught at Bible college ran counter to the great doctrinal teaching of the Protestant Reformation, and I hadn’t even realized it! We weren’t exposed to the writings of men like Augustine, Luther, and John Calvin, primarily because that teaching would have shone the light of truth on the poisonous admixture of humanism and Roman Catholicism that is passed off as “doctrine” in so many modern seminaries. Such teaching has led a great many well-respected theologians and para-church leaders to conclude that the doctrinal differences between the Roman state church and the Protestant church are negligible. Nothing could be further from the truth, but this kind of thinking merely underscores the profound ignorance that grips American churches today. This quiz will reveal how much of a dilution of the truth has occurred at your church. Simply check the appropriate answers to the questions that follow. (Rather than write in the book, you might want to write your answers on a separate sheet of paper, so that you will be able to copy this quiz for your pastors at church!)

1. If a person is not “born again” in Christ, he/she can “never be justified, since in that new birth there is bestowed upon them, through the merit of His passion, the grace by which [believers] are made just.”
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

2. Justification is not only a remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

3. “The unique formal cause [of justification] is the justice of God, not the justice by which he is himself just, but the justice by which He makes us just, namely, the justice which we have as a gift from him and by which we are renewed in the spirit of our mind. Not only are we considered just, but we are truly said to be just, and we are just, each one of us receiving within himself his own justice, according as the measure of the Holy Spirit imparts to each one.”
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

4. Justification is not accomplished by a person’s good works, but by the infusion of sanctifying grace which is brought to fruition by faith and love.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

5. Justification is the process by which God makes men pleasing to Himself.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

6. When God justifies a person, the act in itself never changes that person’s character.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

7. A person is saved because of his/her faith in Jesus Christ.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

8. Perfect righteousness is the ground on which God accepts sinners.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

9. Sinners are justified by grace, in that the Holy Spirit, by grace, through faith, makes us just.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

10. Justification is the external, irrevocable act of God whereby He pronounces an ungodly man or woman, in the condition of his or her sinfulness, to possess the righteousness of God as a legal credit, and never as a quality.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

11. At the new birth, there is bestowed upon the believer, through the merit of Christ, the grace whereby the believer is made just.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

12. Justification takes place in the mind of God and never in the heart of the believer.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

13. Sinful man cannot save himself; he needs the grace of God to cleanse his heart so that he is made just before God.                                                                        
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

14. Justification and sanctification are the twin truths that God uses to enable a sinner to be righteous in God’s sight.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

15. By the merit and grace of Christ, justification is the process whereby the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ.
                                                                                                             True ____       False ____

 

Check your answers. Statements 6, 8, 10, and 12 are true. All the rest are false. How did you do? If you had thirteen or more correct answers, you’re a budding Reformer, ready to take your place with Luther and Calvin and the giants of the Christian faith! If you correctly answered between nine and twelve questions, you’re a Protestant, but keep on reading! You’ve still got to work the “kinks” out of your theology. If you answered seven or eight questions correctly, you’re a “Catholestant.” You’ve been taught a semi-Pelagian mix of Catholic and Protestant theology. However, if you are like I was and like most of the people at my church twenty years ago, and you answered six or less questions correctly, your theology is firmly grounded in the doctrines of the Roman state church. You are a victim of the poor teaching that so plagues the church in America today.

You may be surprised at just how much Roman theology has become a part of your thinking. Don’t feel too badly about it; some of the questions on the quiz were tough ones! The seventh question, in particular, would probably be answered “True” even by many of America’s most conservative theologians. Read on! You will see why some of your answers were incorrect. You will also find a chart at the end of this chapter which will specifically address the answers to this quiz.

A Word About the Roman Catholic Church

You may be thinking to yourself, “Hey, what’s the big deal? What is so terrible about the Roman Catholic Church, anyway?” Indeed, there is a growing sentiment among Protestant believers today to build bridges of rapprochement between Protestant denominations and the Roman state church. Perhaps the most visible movement in this direction has been generated by a group called Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). Many of the signatories of this group represent some of the most prominent and respected names in Christianity, such as Chuck Colson; J. I. Packer, the noted author and theologian; and Bill Bright, of Campus Crusade for Christ, to name only a few. ECT suggests that the doctrinal differences between Protestants and Catholics are relatively minor, and that the two groups should join together as “co-belligerents” to resist the cultural decline and moral depravity sweeping across America today. We have far too much in common, ECT suggests, to let a few doctrinal differences divide us when there are far more important battles to wage, such as limiting abortion, resisting the advance of the militant homosexuals, restoring school prayer, etc.

I appreciate the sincere desire of these men for unity in what they believe to be the body of Christ. However, I must insist that while their motivation is good, their doctrine is wrong-headed and dangerous. I know this statement will offend some of you. Chuck Colson is loved and respected by millions, J. I. Packer is considered a trusted teacher, and Bill Bright has encouraged millions of students to live for the Lord. Furthermore, we all have friends who are members of the Roman Catholic Church. But the fact remains that the foundational doctrines of the Roman state church have not changed from the days when its leadership threatened Martin Luther with death for teaching biblical truth. The “Protest-ant” church formed to protest the scriptural errors that plagued Romish teaching in the 1500's; we should not return to the very same false teaching today.

Please do not misunderstand me: I am not advocating that the United States should become another Ireland, where Catholics and Protestants kill each other in the streets. Our country was founded on the concept that a man is free to worship according to the religion of his preference, free from persecution. I do not hate Catholics, and I certainly don’t want you, Dear Reader, to hate anyone. Jesus commanded us to love and pray for all men and women. But I do hate false doctrine! David wrote, “I hate and abhor lying, but I love Your law.”

We are to love God and the truth of His Word above all else. I have devoted two entire chapters of this book to the axiom, the very bedrock foundation of our Christian faith: the Bible is the Word of God. If we compromise the truth of God’s Word, we have compromised our faith, for we make God out to be a liar. If we do not trust the Word of God alone, but insist on incorporating the teaching of men--no matter how sincere those men may be--we have irrevocably added  the poison of human sin into the pure, living water of God’s Word. We know that “No one is good but One, that is, God.” Therefore it is impossible for man to add anything that is good to the Word of God! Scripture tells us to “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” We must avoid the poisonous admixture of man’s teaching, which seeks to alter or “improve” on the Scriptures!

Yet this is precisely what the Roman state church has done--and continues to do. Perhaps no one alive has studied more diligently or written with more brilliant clarity on the theological chasm that separates Roman Catholicism from historical, biblical Christianity than Dr. John Robbins. He has taken fire from a great many of those who should be thanking him for his courageous stand for the pure truth of God’s Word, yet he has not wavered from his gracious, scholarly insistence that we must stand on the Word of God alone.

In October of 1998, Dr. Robbins addressed the Trinity Foundation Conference of Christianity and Roman Catholicism. While the entire speech is well worth your careful attention, I will only reprint a small portion of it here. Dr. Robbins was concerned with a statement made by one of the founders of ECT, an assertion that Protestantism and Roman Catholicism share the same “basics” in common: “the Virgin Birth, the deity of Christ, His bodily resurrection, and the authority of his infallible Word.” Dr. Robbins was aghast at the lack of theological discernment evidenced by this assertion:


Take, for example, the single issue of Scripture: Colson calls the common doctrine “the authority of His infallible Word.” What is common about it? Romanism and historic Protestantism have different Bibles; Rome says there are 73 books and a few fragments; historic Protestantism says there are 66 books and no fragments. Second, Rome says that she wrote the books of Scripture, and not only did she write them, she approves and authenticates them. Historic Protestantism says that the books of Scripture are prior to the church; they called forth and created the church; and they judge and authenticate the church. Third, Romanism denies the sufficiency, inerrancy, historical reliability, scientific accuracy, and clarity of Scripture; historical Protestantism asserts all these. Romanism and historic Protestantism have nothing in common on the doctrine of Scripture. Those who assert that they do--such as Charles Colson--simply display their ignorance of what both Rome and the Scriptures teach.

Furthermore, if one were to look at the rest of the so‑called fundamental common doctrines, he would find similar divergences: The Bible says Christ was born of a virgin, but not a sinless, perpetual virgin who was bodily assumed into Heaven where she reigns as Queen of Heaven and functions as Mediatrix and Co‑Redemptrix. The historical mother of Jesus, a godly young Hebrew woman, and the Virgin Mary in Roman theology are different persons, just as the historical Jesus and the liberal Jesus are different persons...



As Christians, we must never be fooled by two people using the same words but ascribing different meanings to those words... [We must not think that] because genuine Protestants use some of the same words as Romanists, or because Romanists use some of the same words as the Bible, that they are all talking about the same thing.


These words summarize my deep concern about the teaching of the Roman state church. Anyone who studies the doctrinal statements that have been issued from Rome, ranging from the Council of Trent, to the Vatican I and Vatican II position papers, will instantly realize that the Roman state church is propagating “another Jesus” and “a different gospel,” just as Paul warned the Corinthians.

It is imperative that we do not let the great truths of our faith become diluted with great falsehood in the interests of “fighting the culture war.” There is an evil that is to be dreaded far more than the moral decline--and even the possible collapse--of a nation. The evil that is to be most feared is doctrinal heresy that can lead men and women away from the knowledge of the truth and into eternal damnation! Recall the epistles of the New Testament. At the time they were written, the Roman Empire was at the peak of its power. Rome was not a Christian nation, and the abuses of power and blatant immorality of the Roman citizens and her governors have been well-documented. I have referred to  the darkened spiritual condition of the Roman empire earlier in this book. The sexual immorality of the people has been immortalized by the phrase “Roman orgy.” Infanticide was a commonly accepted practice, as was slavery. Women were relegated to a status only slightly higher than slaves, and the brutality of the games in the Coliseum still shocks even the most calloused modern historian.

Yet the New Testament writers did not advocate that Christians join forces with the Judaizers and the Gnostics to form a “co-belligerency” against the sinful excesses of the culture. No, in epistle after epistlethe writers of Scripture warned Christians against false teaching. Despite the social evils that swirled around the biblical writers, the Holy Spirit inspired these men to focus on the purity of the gospel, not the cultural problems of the day!

Please do not misinterpret what I am saying; our society has been beset by a host of evils, and Christians need to shine the light of God’s truth on the culture to expose the evil that pervades the pagan, humanist philosophies that permeate government and academia today. However, please note that I said the light is God’s truth. We must first know God’s truth before we can impact the culture! If we Christians merely seek to counter the militant secularism of our day with “religion,” we are reduced to another group of loud voices, another “special interest group” demanding “equal time” and “a place at the table.” We must be able to share God’s truth, the pure, unadulterated truth of Scripture, the whole counsel of God, and not some watered-down mix of isolated Scriptures blended with man-centered, semi-Pelagian theology.

This was my whole purpose for writing this book. If we are going to pass on a legacy to our children, then it must be the legacy of Truth! If the leaders of the next generation are going to rescue our nation from its moral free fall, they will only be able to do so if they have constructed their arguments on the foundation of God’s truth. Should Christians be involved in the political arena? Absolutely! They should be the brightest, the most articulate and engaging voices on the political scene. How do they avoid becoming just another group of angry men and women, shouting at their opponents across the political table? They can do so only if they are in possession of the truth!

Paul admonished Timothy, “Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” What is it that allows us to teach, to gently instruct? It is our knowledge of the truth! The truth is the truth of Scripture.

Jude’s epistle was written to exhort believers “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Legacy seeks to echo this great challenge and privilege. We must contend for the faith with our children... with unbelievers who have been blinded to the truth by Satan... and with believers who have been led astray by wolves in sheep’s clothing. When the Roman state church--or any Protestant church--teaches that the Scriptures are not completely accurate, that salvation comes in any way other than through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross alone, that the words of an ecclesiastical council of any sort carry the same authority as the Bible, we must shout from the housetops that there is a wolf loose among the flock!

Dr. John Robbins has been savaged by critics who claim to walk in the steps of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I expect that I may draw some of the same fire by announcing my complete agreement with, and support for, Dr. Robbins’ courageous, principled, biblical stand. I am reminded of Paul’s words to the Galatians. In warning the Christians in Galatia about the legalistic heresies of the Judaizers, Paul anticipated a hostile reaction from some who had formerly called him “brother.” He asked, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” Dear Reader, I ask you the same question: If I can demonstrate to you that the Roman Catholic Church is preaching another gospel, a gospel which will not lead her followers to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, am I your enemy? I hope you will not adopt this unbiblical attitude. My heart’s desire, before the Lord, is to obey the biblical mandate to speak the truth in love. I have some very dear friends who are members of the Roman church. I know that these people, whom I truly love, will be reading this book. I have no desire to irritate or alienate them. I am trying to follow Paul’s command to gently instruct my readers, in the hope that God will lead them to a knowledge of the truth.

You will remember that throughout this book I have directed the majority of my criticism at Protestant churches and pastors. I have stated time and again that the Protestant church has drifted away from the historical moorings that kept her doctrine firmly anchored to the truth of Scripture. I have no desire to bash Catholics as a group any more than I wish to attack Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, or anyone else. However, I do desire to shine the brilliant light of God’s truth on all those who claim to be ministers of righteousness, but are preaching another gospel and a different Jesus. While I still have one ounce of strength left in my body, I will resist these enemies of the gospel who seek to subvert God’s great keys to salvation, sanity, and civilization.

There are those who say that we must maintain the biblical mandate to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” While unity in the body is, indeed, what we should strive for, it is critically important to remember that unity is not based on some vague feelings of brotherly love or a “co-belligerency” against political liberals; our unity can only be doctrinal unity! Paul told the Ephesians that we must strive for “unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.” We must base our unity on the knowledge of the truth! It is a matter of fact that truth divides. Our Savior reminded His disciples, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter‑in‑law against her mother‑in‑law’; and ‘a man's enemies will be those of his own household.’”

When Jesus Christ walked the earth, He was very easy to locate in a crowd: there was always a group of Jewish religious leaders standing nearby with stones in their hands! Jesus Christ contended fearlessly for the purity of the truth of God’s Word. We, as His followers, can do no less. I hope that I have not become your enemy by seeking to follow His example.

Biblical Justification

The quiz you took highlights the fact that justification is a one-time, instantaneous act that takes place outside of the believer. Justification is God’s objective, legal declaration that the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to the believer. This takes place outside of the believer and in the mind of God. The believer can do nothing to contribute to, or cooperate with, the work of God in his or her justification. This is why we studied the biblical doctrine of man before we entered this exciting area of soteriology (“so tier ee ahl ah gee”), which is the study of the doctrine of salvation. Without an understanding of man’s utter inability to stand righteous before Holy God, we will never understand His gracious, sovereign plan of salvation.

Is Man “Well,” “Sick,” Or “Dead”?

When you reflect on the three different theories of man that we examined in the previous chapter--the Pelagian, semi-Pelagian, and biblical teachings of the true nature of man--you could draw the broad generalization that man, as described by the Pelagian system of thought, is spiritually well: he is able to please God whenever he feels like it and can earn his way into heaven based on his own good works. In contrast to the doctrine of Pelagius, the semi-Pelagian view teaches that man is spiritually sick. Man’s sin makes it very difficultfor him to please God, but if he will just reach out and take hold of God’s waiting, outstretched hand, God will infuse man with the grace he needs to become enough like Jesus Christ to be deemed worthy of eternal life in heaven. According to the Pelagian view, salvation is the work of man alone. The semi-Pelagian view asserts that man cooperates with God’s grace to work out his salvation. This is the doctrine of the Roman state church (expressed here in only slightly oversimplified form), and it is also the teaching of far too many so-called Protestant churches in America today.

The biblical view is that man is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. He has no desire nor ability to please God in any way. The soul of unsaved man is like Lazarus in the grave: dead, putrefying, stinking--beyond resuscitation. It is only when the voice of Christ calls the sinner forth that he will rise from the cold, dank tomb of ignorance and unbelief and walk toward God. James Buchanan, in his preeminent book on the doctrine of justification, wrote, “These illustrious defenders of the faith [men like Augustine and Luther], by establishing, first, the real incarnation and the supreme divinity of the Son of God, and secondly, the total depravity of man, and the freeness and efficacy of divine grace, contributed largely to strengthen the foundations of a sound doctrine of Justification by grace through faith.” In other words, by helping to develop the correct understanding of the biblical doctrines of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the total depravity of man, and the freeness of sovereign grace, Augustine and Luther made it possible for Christians to truly understand and rejoice in the great Reformation teaching of justification by faith alone.

Salvation is the Sovereign Work of God’s Grace.

Man does not--indeed, cannot--contribute to his salvation. If man is only spiritually sick, as the semi-Pelagianists (read: the Roman state church and the majority of Protestant churches) suggest, the logical consequence is that grace is annulled. Since man is sick and not dead, there is something he can contribute to his situation: his own initiative and his own self-righteousness. This anti-doctrinal and anti-biblical philosophy does violence to the doctrine of sovereign grace, because, as Paul so cogently asserts in Romans 11:6, “If it [salvation] is of works [no matter how minor a contribution those works might make], it is no longer grace.” Therefore, grace defies addition because it is all-sufficient and all-sovereign. Grace refuses to be a helper or co-worker, because grace either saves sovereignly, freely, completely, and eternally--by grace alone--without cause in you and without cost to you, or it does not save at all! Hence, the mathematics of sovereign grace is “Grace plus nothing equals salvation,” or “Grace plus anything equals minus-salvation.” The only doctrine that presents man as a candidate for sovereign grace is the biblical doctrine of total depravity. So how can a man be righteous before God? It can only be accomplished by God’s sovereign grace. As Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The Three Great Imputations of Christianity

Let us now begin to examine the specific ingredients of the doctrine of justification. The word that is most often translated from the Greek New Testament into the word “justified” or “justify” in our English Bibles is the Greek word dikaioo (“deek eye ah oh”) which means to pronounce or declare legally righteous. When we read in Romans 3:24, 28, 5:1, 5:9, 8:30, and elsewhere that we have been “justified,” it means that we have been declared legally righteous in God’s sight. Rather than seeing the filthy, vile sinner that man is described to be throughout Scripture, God views us, indeed, declares us possessors of the perfect, sinless, righteousness of Jesus Christ, the “lamb without blemish and without spot.” How can this be? We just read verse after verse in the previous chapter that indicate it is impossible for man to please God by his attempts at obedience! So how can God possibly see any man or woman as possessing the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ? The answer lies in the concept of imputation that we discussed in the last chapter.

You have learned about the first great imputation of Christianity; the imputation, or legal crediting, of Adam’s one sin to all humanity: “In Adam all die.” This first imputation is, in effect, the “bad news” for all humanity. However, there are two more imputations that the Bible tells us have taken place, and these have wonderful implications for every Christian believer! These imputations are the “good news,” and they are very important news as well. Truly, all of Christian theology swings on the hinges of these three great legal imputations.

The second great legal transaction that occurred according to the sovereign will of God, the divine Lawgiver, was the legal crediting--the imputation--of our sins to Jesus Christ. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The perfect Lamb bore the sin of every man, woman, and child who has ever and will ever trust in Him for salvation: “For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” I want to stress again that imputation is a legal crediting that takes place in the mind of God. It is not a change in character that takes place in the believer. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the rest of humanity did not personally participate in that sin. But we were treated by God as if we had! The very same kind of accounting took place during the second imputation: When Jesus Christ became sin for us, as 2 Corinthians 5:21 attests, that does not mean that Jesus became sinful in His character. It does mean that, even though He had lived a life of perfect, spotless obedience to the law of God, Jesus was treated by God as if He, personally, had committed all the sins that every believer has ever and will ever commit. The change was not in the character of Christ, but in His relationship to God before the law. Just as humanity’s relationship to God before the law was affected by Adam’s sin, so did Christ, sinless and innocent, become regarded by God’s justice system as being completely sinful and guilty. He was legally guilty, not morally guilty.

The God-Man completely satisfied both the preceptive and penal requirements of God’s law. Jesus fully satisfied all of God’s precepts contained in the Mosaic law. Never was the law more exalted and honored than by the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. He Himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Indeed, the law was displayed in all its holiness and righteousness by our Savior as He fulfilled every precept of God’s law. This perfect obedience allowed Jesus Christ to go to the cross as the perfect sacrifice, “a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

The Messiah then fulfilled the penal requirements of the law. All the punishments for sin and disobedience were visited upon the Lamb of God. Jesus fully propitiated (“pro pish ee ate  ed”), or satisfied the wrath that God held against the sins of all believers. God exhausted His vengeance against sin on the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s sword of wrath was drunk with the blood of Christ. The angel of the Lord told Joseph that Jesus would “save His people from their sins.” He did this by fulfilling all the demands of the law: the

demands for righteousness and the demands for justice.

God’s Love Does Not Diminish His Justice

There are many in the pulpit and in the pews who believe that God’s magnificent plan of salvation is an eternal declaration of God’s love. This is true, but there is something that is equally exalted with the love of God in the life and death of Jesus Christ: God’s justice. The propitious nature of Christ’s work on the cross addresses both man’s problem ... and God’s solution to that problem. Man’s problem is that God’s perfectly pure and righteous nature hates sin with a holy hatred. We must never become so focused on the love of God that we forget or ignore the justice of God. God does not excuse or ignore man’s sin. “‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” God is not an all-powerful Santa Claus, waiting in heaven to shower toys on good children. He is the God of justice, the divine Lawgiver, and those who follow in the path of sin will one day discover that “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” All sin is infinite in demerit and demands infinite payment. God’s holy Being requires infinite satisfaction. “All the wicked He will destroy.”

Yes, Dear Reader, man has a terrible problem: his sin guarantees the punishment and vengeance of God! As we saw in the last chapter, man’s situation is hopeless because he is incapable of obeying God’s law. No amount of repentance by the sinner will satisfy (propitiate) God’s holy hatred for sin. No amount of contrition or moral renovation in man’s heart answers God’s demand for justice because contrition makes no payment, no sacrifice for sin. And so God, who sovereignly created an insurmountable problem for man, graciously provided the solution: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Jesus Christ was the second federal representative of the human race, referred to in Scripture as “the last Adam [who] became a life-giving spirit.” While Jesus Christ hung on that cruel cross two thousand years ago God legally transferred the entire sin debt of every believer to Him, and Jesus Christ paid that debt in full. It is interesting to note that His last word, as recorded in the original Greek writings of the Gospel of John, was “Tetelestai!” Our English Bibles translate this word as “It is finished,” but “tetelestai” (“teh tell ess tie”) is actually another word that connotes a legal transaction: Paid in full. The debt is paid in full. Jesus’ last words were not a cry of relief that His suffering was at an end. Nor were they merely a triumphant acknowledgment that He had fulfilled every prophecy about Himself, lived a perfect, sinless life, kept all 613 elements of the Mosaic law, and accomplished everything that the Father had sent Him to do. Although all these things were certainly true, Jesus’ ringing cry, “Tetelestai!” meant that your sin debt, and mine, and every believers’ would be permanently erased from God’s heavenly ledger. Jesus Christ had satisfied the demands of God’s judicial system and endured the full and complete punishment for all believers’ sins. He bore all our sins on Calvary’s cross, and the IOU, which demands that punishment must be rendered for the sins of every believer, has been stamped for all eternity: Paid in full.

The third legal crediting takes place on God’s ledger for every man, woman, and child who trusts in the finished work of Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation. This third imputation is the crediting of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believer. “We... become the righteousness of God in Him.” Once again this imputation is a change in our relationship to God before the Law, not a change in our character. The instant a man places his trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, his sinful human nature does not suddenly become spotless, sinless, and pure. Rather, he is regarded by God’s eternal judicial system to be legally righteous. We examined the remarkable verses from Romans 5:12-21 in detail in chapter nine. Those Scriptures clearly reveal the parallel between Adam and Christ: just as sin was imputed to all men on account of the one sin of Adam, in the very same way righteousness is credited to all who believe in Jesus Christ. “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.” The believer is declared eternally righteous in God’s sight. He is justified! He can never again come under the condemnation of God’s law. The legal imputation of Adam’s sin to his account is eternally canceled. The punishment for all the believer’s personal sins--past, present, and future--has been borne and paid in full by His Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Therefore,” Paul wrote, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Paul--and all believers--are set free from “this body of death,” and it has been accomplished for us--not by us. It had been accomplished by the perfect, finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross alone.

Notice the points in common that these three great imputations share:
            C         All three imputations are brought about by God’s sovereignty. Man contributes nothing to these three objective, legal actions. They are the result of monergism, i.e., the work of our Sovereign Lord alone. “The judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation... The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all... To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” It is God who sovereignly and legally condemned, and God who sovereignly and legally justifies. Man does nothing to earn or to deserve either action.
            C         They are all accomplished in the mind of God.
            C         All three involve a federal representative: Adam in the first instance; Christ in the second two.
            C         They are all a change in legal status, not in personal character. They involve a change in legal standing before God’s law.

These are the three imputations on which all Christianity hangs or falls. Since this third imputation, which is the cause of our being declared legally righteous, is so vitally important to our eternal security, let us expand on the idea of justification just a bit more by looking at the proofs that justification is a legal, objective act, not a moral one.

The Meaning of Biblical Justification

The word dikaioo, which we saw means to pronounce or declare righteous, is used sixty times in the Greek New Testament. It always means “declared” righteous; it never means “made” righteous. There are three proofs that establish the legal nature of justification. I keep stressing the legality of the declaration, because there is widespread confusion on this point. The Roman state church has always taught that justification is a subjective work, the cooperation of God’s grace and the believer’s efforts, with the final outcome being that the believer is made righteous. As we have already seen, the genesis of the entire Reformation was God opening Martin Luther’s eyes to the truth that man is declared legally righteous. Roman theology has never conceded this point. Tragically however, over the last 150 years, more and more so-called Protestant churches have abandoned their historical roots and adopted the theology of Rome! These wayward churches have adopted another gospel, a man-centered gospel which focuses on a heart-centered renewal and ignores the objective, legal truths of Scripture. I hope that you, Dear Reader, will be part of the faithful remnant which proclaims the true gospel to all who will listen. Let me help you by providing three proofs that firmly establish that justification is an external, legal act--not an internal, heart-centered, moral one.

The Antonym of Justification

The first proof is made by looking at the antonym--or opposite--of justification. The antonym of justification is condemnation. Justification and condemnation are juxtaposed in the following verses of Scripture. Throughout these verses, you will see the common thread that at no time does the moral character of the person in question change! Their legal standing is established; their moral nature is unaffected.

For example, when Moses was relaying God’s commands to the people of Israel, he gave them this instruction: “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they [the judges] justify the righteous and condemn the wicked.” Notice that the judgment does not change the character of those being judged but does affect their legal status. The judgment does not make the person righteous or wicked; rather, it is a legal declaration of their standing in the community. They are pronounced to be either righteous or guilty. The judge justifies the righteous and condemns the wicked; he establishes the legal standing of these men. The judge does not infuse anything into the man’s being that makes him righteous or wicked. The character of the man is not affected; his legal standing is.

In 2 Chronicles 6:23, we read a portion of Solomon’s prayer to the Lord dedicating the great temple in Jerusalem: “Hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.” Once again you see that the judgment causes absolutely no change in the man’s character. He has gone his way. Solomon is asking the Judge to make a pronouncement of the man’s legal standing. We see this again in Matthew 12:37, when Jesus said “For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” Justification and condemnation are placed side by side in these three passages, and they are discussed solely as legal ideas. It is legal language that is being used, not moral language. Nowhere do we see any mention, nor even a hint, of an infusion of righteousness or wickedness, and at no time is there a change within the person’s heart. The pronouncement of innocence or guilt does not affect the man internally at all. It is an assertion of his standing before the law, not an internal alteration of his character.

Some Analogies That Will Help You Understand the Legal Nature of Justification

Although no human analogy can accurately reflect the perfection of God’s justice, let us use the O. J. Simpson trial as an example. It is my personal opinion that O. J. Simpson is a murderer. I believe that the day the media circus that some called his “trial” began, O. J. Simpson walked into that courtroom a murderer. However, my opinion doesn’t matter! We all know the jury found O. J. Simpson “Not Guilty.” He walked out of the courtroom as a man pronounced righteous in the sight of the law. His inner being remained unchanged; he was still, in my opinion, every bit as much a murderer when he left the courtroom for the last time as he was the day he first entered it. However, his standing before the law had changed: He was no longer under accusation for the crime. There would be no legal condemnation for him.

The same is true of us and of the legal transaction that takes place at the very instant we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Our sinful nature remains just as wicked and evil as it was before. Our character is unchanged; however, our legal standing changes dramatically. And, unlike O. J. Simpson, who was merely pronounced “Not Guilty” of the crime of murder, we are not only adjudicated to be “Not Guilty” of any and all sins we have ever committed and will ever commit, we are regarded by God as possessing the perfect righteousness of His Son!

Let me show you where the O. J. Simpson analogy breaks down: in his case, justice was not satisfied. The killer of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman--whoever that killer may be--remains unpunished. This is not true in our case! Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our crime. When we are pronounced righteous in God’s sight, justice has been fully satisfied. Wickedness was punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Another analogy, while still imperfect, may help to clarify the matter still further. Imagine that you are an incorrigible tax cheat. You have falsified your tax returns throughout your adult lifetime. You have blown all the money that the law demands you pay to the Internal Revenue Service on gambling and wild parties. Finally, one day, the bell tolls for you. The IRS has built an airtight case against you, documenting your numerous tax frauds dating back more than twenty years. The amount you owe is staggering. When you add up back taxes, interest charges, and penalties, the figure comes to one million dollars. You are told that if you don’t repay the one million dollars immediately, you will be transported to a maximum security prison to serve a life sentence with absolutely no hope of parole. You stand before the judge bankrupt. You couldn’t pay a ten dollar fine, much less one million dollars! Two grim-faced bailiffs are approaching you with handcuffs and leg irons. You know your life as a free person is about to end forever.

Suddenly, a deep, commanding voice rings out from the back of the courtroom: “Wait!” The Lord Jesus Christ comes walking down the aisle. Slack-jawed, the two bailiffs back away from you. The Lord moves past them without so much as a glance in their direction and addresses the judge. “I will pay the penalty,” the Lord says firmly, and hands the judge a stack of bills.

Eyes wide with astonishment, the judge counts the money. “Yes, it’s all here,” he admits. He turns to you. “You’re free to go.”

“Not just yet,” the Lord interrupts. “Give him a receipt.”

The judge nods and pulls out the paper that summarizes the judgment against you. He inks a large stamp, and the thump of the stamp being brought down on the paper reverberates through the stillness of the courtroom. The judge shows the paper to Jesus. The Lord nods once in satisfaction, then turns and strides out of the courtroom without another word. Curious, you look at the paper the judge showed to the Lord. You are familiar with its contents: a long list of all the crimes you have committed and the money you owe. But now, in bright red ink, a single word is stamped across the page: Tetelestai.

The debt is paid in full. You are free to go. Nothing happened to change your character in that instant. But your standing before the law has changed dramatically! You stood condemned one minute; you are free to go the next, “righteous” in the eyes of the law, even though, morally, you are still a tax cheat and a ne’er do well. There has been a legal declaration of “righteousness,” not a moral transformation.

Again, this analogy is imperfect. You might turn right around and cheat on next year’s tax return, and the one million dollar fine that the Lord paid would not cover this latest transgression. This is not the case in God’s courtroom. “For I am persuaded,” Paul wrote, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Christ Jesus our Lord satisfied the claims that God’s law holds against all believers’ sins--past, present, and future.

You may wonder why I keep stressing the point that justification is an objective, legal act that takes place outside of us, in the mind of God, and has no effect on our character. The answer is that all other religions in the world outside of Christianity (and I must include the Roman Catholic religion in this group) incorporates the believer’s self-righteousness into their theology. It is only in the Christian faith that the imputed righteousness of Christ alone is the sole basis of salvation. I include the Roman state church in this group that is “outside Christianity” because the Roman church preaches so stridently against the historical, biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. Canon 11 of the Council of Trent reads:


If anyone shall say that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of grace and charity, which is poured fourth in their hearts by the Holy Spirit and remains in them, or even that the grace by which we are justified is only the favor of God: let him be anathema.


Rome’s antipathy towards Luther’s teaching on justification remains unchanged from that day to this. She refers to the doctrine of justification by faith alone as a “legal fiction.” According to Rome, the believer is justified because of a change that takes place within the believer. Anyone who claims that the believer is legally, objectively declared righteous by God should, according to Rome, be excommunicated from the church.

How Did the Biblical Writers Use the Word?

The second proof of the historical, biblical teaching of justification is the way we see the word used throughout the Scriptures. The first verse I’d like to share with you is Luke 7:29, where we read, “When all the people heard [Jesus], even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.” See here how the word justified is used. The tax collectors were declaring God to be righteous. There is nothing that a tax collector--or any other man, for that matter--can say that will change the character of the Sovereign Lord. The words of men make absolutely no impact upon the character of God. In other words, no one can “make” God righteous. These men were merely acknowledging what God already is! They were proclaiming His righteousness, i.e., declaring Him to be righteous.

In the book of Genesis we read God’s breathtaking promise to Abraham: “Then [God] brought [Abraham] outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” This was a legal declaration by God. God pronounced that Abraham was legally righteous in God’s sight. God was not proclaiming that He had changed Abraham’s moral character so he would never sin again. Indeed, shortly thereafter Abraham lied to King Abimelech, saying that his own wife Sarah was only his sister. Abraham was not made righteous in his heart; but he was declared legally righteous in the sight of God, i.e., in the mind of God.

Proverbs 17:15 is interesting and instructive: “He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.” Here we see reference to a corrupt ruler or magistrate who justifies the wicked, or declares the wicked to be righteous. Clearly the heart of the wicked man remains completely unchanged. However, his legal standing has changed. Although he is wicked, the ruler has declared him righteous before the law. In the same way, the corrupt ruler has condemned the just, declaring an innocent man to be guilty. That man is still just in his heart; however he stands condemned before the law.  It is legal terminology that is being expressed here, not a statement of moral condition.

Romans 4:5 provides another stark example of the use of legal terminology: “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” See how the believer has not earned his righteousness through good works. Nor is his character righteous; he is ungodly and will struggle against his sinful nature until the day he dies. However, his faith in Christ’s righteousness is--just as was Abraham’s--accounted, or credited (imputed) to his personal account, as righteousness. In no way is the believer’s moral stature being defined as righteous, for we have already seen that “There is no one who does not sin.” However, in his standing before God’s court of law, the believer is accounted as having never sinned. He stands before the Judge and Lawgiver with the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer’s righteousness is a faith-righteousness, as is described in Philippians 3:9--“Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”

The Legal, Judicial, and Forensic Context in Which the Word Appears.

The third proof of the objective nature of justification is the context in which the word is used. There is a courtroom--God’s courtroom. There is a Judge: the Lord, the Judge of all the earth. The Lord is also the Plaintiff, the offended party, who has been wronged by the breaking of His law. There is a law, and the strict penal requirements of the law must be met. There is One who carries out the sentence. Let us examine Romans 3:19-20.


Now we know that whatever the law says, 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.


There are far too few pastors who teach that the great realities of Christianity are legal in nature. The whole world will stand before a pure and holy Judge. Each one of us has offended that Judge, because we have all broken His law. We stand before Him clothed in filthy rags. The very sight of our sin is loathsome and despicable to Him. We are guilty, and the very nature of His holy Being demands satisfaction. The Lord God Almighty is not like a whimsical old grandfather who looks on my transgressions and says, “Aw shucks, I guess I’ll let that slide. Jack’s really a good old boy. I’ll let him off easy.” God’s justice is pure and perfect and demands punishment for sin! The establishment of the law, and also the means of being justified--declared righteous--are all legal in nature.

Look at the words in Genesis 18:25. Abraham said to the Lord, “Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” The Lord is not haphazard in His justice. He will not lump the righteous together with the wicked. The wicked will be carefully separated from those who have been declared legally righteous, and then sinful, unbelieving men and women will meet their eternal fate. For “We know that God's judgment against those who do such [evil] things is based on truth.” God’s judgment is objective, not subjective. The world will be judged against the perfect plumb line of God’s law.

Once again in the book of Romans we hear the language of the legal setting: “Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” Charges are brought against the accused in a courtroom. There is a Judge who will either declare the accused to be righteous or condemnhim. And there is an Advocate, a defense attorney, who intercedes for the defendant. Because of the finished work of that Intercessor we may approach the bench with freedom and confidence, knowing that the legal demands of justice have been satisfied, and that we have been declared legally righteous by the Judge. If we have placed our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, we have nothing to fear from the law. No charge will be brought against us.

What Justification Is and What It Isn’t

Some years ago I prepared a chart as a teaching tool to help believers understand exactly what justification is, according to the teaching of historical, biblical Christianity. Because definition demands distinction, and the law of contradiction teaches that in order for a word to mean something, it must also not mean something, I felt that it would be beneficial to lay the biblical definitions side-by-side with the contrasts of what justification is not. The chart will also provide the answers to the quiz you took earlier in this chapter.

 

JUSTIFICATION IS:

1. About God’s righteousness (Romans 1:16-17).

2. A legal act (Romans 4:5). This is why the correct answer to question #10 on the quiz is “True.”

 

 

3. An action which takes place outside of me. This is why the correct answer to Question #12 on the quiz is “True.” Justification takes place in the mind of God, not in the heart of the believer.

 

4. By means of faith alone (Romans 9:30; Galatians 3:24; Philippians 3:9; Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith looks away from self and looks at God. Faith is like a telescope, which is designed to look at a distant object. The issue is the object, not the instrument through which we view that object! What saves me is the object of my faith. The question, therefore, becomes, “Is the object of my faith worthy of my faith?”

 

 

 

 

5. The work of God alone, i.e., monergism (Romans 11:6).

6. Objective and non-experiential. Justification is all about the righteousness of God and His legal crediting of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to my account. There is no righteousness in me that earns justification (Romans 3:23-26). This is why the correct answer to Question #8 on the quiz is “True.” We are accepted by God on the ground of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us by means of faith alone.

7. It is a verdict pronounced on the believer. It is an imputation (Romans 5:1).

JUSTIFICATION IS NOT:

1. About man’s righteousness (Romans 9:32, 10:3).

2. A moral act. You will read more about this as you work through this chart, but this is why the correct answer to Question #6 on the quiz is “True.” As you have already learned, justification is a change in the believer’s legal standing, not in his moral stature.

3. An action which takes place inside of me. Therefore, the correct answer to Questions #9, #11,  and #13 on the quiz are “False.” We are declared righteous, we are not made righteous. Also see statement #2 above. Also see statement #7 below.

4. Because of faith. It is important to understand that if justification occurred because of your faith, then God’s declaration of righteousness would depend on the quality of your faith--the sincerity of your faith, the depth of your faith, the faithfulness of your faith, etc. In this case, the object of your faith would become your faith itself! Our faith is not a substitute for the righteousness that God demands. Did you answer Question #7 on the quiz “True,” only to be surprised that the correct answer is “False”? This is why. We are not saved because of our faith or on account of our faith,  but by means of our faith. Our faith is not a virtue, for faith itself is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 1:29; 2 Peter 1:1). We will examine the components of saving faith in much greater detail in chapter 12.

5. The work of God and man, i.e., synergism.

 

6. Subjective and experiential. Justification is not about me. Romans 3:26 asserts that we are justified to demonstrate the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of man. This is why Question #3 on the quiz is false (also see statement #1 above). God, not man, is glorified by the act of justification. There is nothing within the believer that would earn the designation of “righteous,” other than that God has legally declared him to be so!

7. A virtue produced in the believer. It is not an impartation or infusion of righteousness.

 

JUSTIFICATION IS:

8. Immediate (Romans 4:5).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Perfect and complete (Colossians 2:10; Heb- rews 10:14).

10. Achieved through Christ’s vicarious life and death (Romans 3:27-28).

 

11. Related to Christ’s perfect sacrifice and perfect obedience to the law (Romans 5:9, 17-19; Galatians 3:13).

12. A change in status (Isaiah 61:10; Romans 4:5).

 

 

 

13. About God treating Christian believers as if they were 100% righteous, i.e., as if they possess the perfect righteousness of Christ. (Philemon 17-18 records Paul saying, “Treat Onesimus as if he were me.” The same is true for the Christian: God regards him as if he possessed the righteousness of Christ!)

14. The instantaneous and eternal ground for
your acceptance before God (Romans 3:24-26).

JUSTIFICATION IS NOT:

8. Progressive or gradual. It does not occur by degrees. This is why the correct answers to Questions #4, #5, #14, and #15 on the quiz are “False.” Justification is not a “process.” We must not confuse justification with sanctification, the lifelong process in which the believer is conformed by the work of the Holy Spirt into the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). Of course, we will never achieve anything approaching Christ’s sinless perfection while we live on this earth. Our sanctification is not the ground of our salvation. It is, rather, the result of it. The Roman church teaches that we are justified as a result of our sanctification, which is antithetical to the teaching of Scripture. Also see statement #14 below.

9. Imperfect or incomplete.

 

10. Achieved through my personal holiness. I am not presenting my own righteousness to God; I am represented by Christ’s perfect righteousness.

11. Related to my personal sacrifice or personal obedience to the law (Galatians 3:10-12).

12. A change in character. Justification is not moral renewal or reform. It is not a life-change or a heart change. This is why the correct answer to Question #2 on the quiz is “False.” A change in my character does not satisfy God’s wrath. If moral renovation was what God desired, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21, 5:2)!

13. About God treating believers with favor because they have been made (or have become) righteous. We are declared legally righteous, we are not made morally righteous.

 

 

14. The “starting line” of your salvation, in which God infuses you with His grace (i.e., “born again”) to enable you, by faith which works through love, to be made righteous. Again, this shows why the correct answer to Question #4 on the quiz is “False.”

 

 quiz quix

JUSTIFICATION IS:

15. Related to God as Judge and Lawgiver. Christ’s death was a judicial act of propitiation. God’s wrath against sin has been eternally satisfied (Genesis 18:25; Romans 2:2, 3:19, 26).

 

16. The result of “Christ my righteousness,” i.e., imputed righteousness. Just as Adam’s sin has been credited to mankind’s account, Christ’s righteousness has been credited to each believers’ account (Romans 4:5-8, 5:12-19; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

 

17. The first in the eternal, legal order of salvation, then “born again” (regeneration) follows (Romans 5:18).

18. The work of God for me. (Romans 8:33-34).

 

 

 

19. A doctrine of soteriology (the study of salvation).

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUSTIFICATION IS NOT:

15. Related to God as a heavenly governor or executive. God is not issuing an “executive act” or pardon. Christ paid the penalty in full (Romans 3:26).

 

16. The result of “Christ in my heart,” i.e., regeneration (born again). Christ in my heart is not my righteousness! Regeneration is the result of my acceptance, not the grounds for it. Look back at Question #1 from the quiz. The wording from the question is taken directly from the Council of Trent. The Council’s position is that regeneration causes the infusion of grace by which the believer is made just.

17. The action that follows regeneration. Again, see Question #1 on the quiz and the comments to statement #16 above.

18. The work of the Holy Spirit in me. The work of the Holy Spirit in me has not yet been completed. The work of the Holy Spirit is not a perfected work, it is a progressive work. While we inhabit these earthly bodies, we do not achieve even momentary perfection!

19. A branch of metaphysics, ethics or politics. The theory of ultimate reality (metaphysics) according to Eastern religions is that the believer becomes a god. The believer becomes one with the deity. If justification were an ethical act, the believer would be saved as a result of his or her character or morals. If justification were a political act, salvation would come through the state, as in Marxist theory.

 

 

 

 

JUSTIFICATION IS:

20. Accomplished by God freely (Romans 3:24). In the Greek New Testament, the word that our English Bibles translate as “freely” in Romans 3:24 is the Greek word dorean (“door eh on”). Dorean means literally, “without cost to you, without cause in you, for no reason, for no advantage, for nothing.” Dorean is used seven other times in the New Testament, and it makes an interesting study. See Matthew 10:8; John 15:25; 2 Corinthians 11:7; Galatians 2:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; Revelation 21:6, 22: 17.

21. God’s eternal choice (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 1:9).

 

22. About eternal peace and satisfaction. Romans 5:1 refers to an objective peace. It is not a subjective peace, wherein we have done something to make peace with God or possess God’s peace in our hearts. Romans 5:1 means that God has made peace with us, and He has initiated and accomplished that peace entirely on His own.

23. An eternal declaration (Romans 8:33). God is constantly declaring all believers to be righteous, and He will continue to do so for eternity.

 

24. An irreversible, irrevocable standing in grace (Romans 11:29).

 

25. A once-for-all, eternal act (Romans 5:1; Hebrews 10:14).

 

26. The declaration of a real imputation of God’s righteousness. We have been credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

JUSTIFICATION IS NOT:

20. Accomplished because God is under any obligation or necessity to justify the believer. If there were anything about us that caused or merited our justification, then God would be responding to something within us. God would then be obligated to justify us because of some quality within us. But God is sovereign. He neither wants nor needs a cause for His actions (Ephesians 1:11-12).

 

21. God responding to man’s sovereign choice (Psalm 14:1-2 and Romans 8:7 clearly show that the unbeliever has neither the desire nor the ability to seek after God).

22. A temporal probation, which is rescinded as soon as I sin. We’re not on probation; we have eternal peace with God, thanks to the propitiating work of Christ on the cross.

 

 

23. God “helping” us to become righteous until we finally reach the point where He declares that we have achieved personal righteousness.

24. A state of grace from which one may fall. Justification is not a state of grace which can be improved upon, damaged, or lost.

25. Two separate acts. Justification is not an infusion of righteousness, followed by a period of time in which the believer is made righteous by working in cooperation with the infused grace.

26. The infusion of a real moral quality of righteousness. The Council of Trent teaches that justification is “the voluntary reception of the grace and gifts whereby an unjust man becomes just and from being an enemy becomes a friend.”

 

The chart cites Romans 5:1 three times. Let us revisit this great verse to help cement two important truths in our minds. Paul wrote, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is interesting to observe in the Greek New Testament that the verb form of dikaioo, which our English Bibles translate having been justified, is used in the aorist (“air ist”) tense and passive voice. The aorist tense indicates an action that took place and was completed at a fixed point in time in the past. It occurred and now it is done; it is finished. The passive voice is used to show that this was an action done to us, or for us. We are the recipients of the action, not the initiators of it. This one verb, when examined in the original writings, underscores the truth of what we have discussed throughout this chapter. The declaration of legal righteousness is done. It took place the instant the believer placed his or her trust in Christ’s sacrificial death for our sins. It is not an ongoing process. It is completed. Tetelestai. It is finished. The debt is paid. Furthermore, the believer is completely passive in the matter of this declaration. He has done nothing to earn it or to contribute to it. It has been done for him and given to him. One Greek verb, and the teaching of the Roman state church is completely discredited!

Tragically, in almost every case the definition of what justification is not reflects the teaching of the Roman state church. This means that approximately 60 million Americans will be exposed to another gospel in the year 2000 alone! It is vitally important that you and I have a thorough understanding of the biblical meaning of justification, so that we can explain it to those who have been poorly taught. There is no data revealing how many churches that have the name of a traditionally Protestant denomination hanging over the door, but have drifted away from the historic tenets of the Christian faith and adopted some form of the semi-Pelagian philosophy of Rome. The cold reality is that tens of millions of men and women across our country are being taught an anti-biblical, anti-Christian philosophy which is a counterfeit, a sham, a heretical debasement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The rot begins in the Bible colleges and seminaries and is spreading throughout the Church in America. The only way to stem the tide is for us, as believers, to educate ourselves and to reeducate our church leadership in the historic doctrines of our faith. There can be no more important doctrine than the doctrine of justification by faith alone--Sola Fide, the rallying cry of the Reformation.

Dear Reader, I hope you now fully understand why the Reformers insisted that we are saved “by Christ alone” (Solo Christo). We have peace with God thanks to Christ’s finished work on the cross. Just as we once stood condemned because of the actions of one man, we are also justified solely because of the righteousness of Christ. Chapter eleven will explain another one of the five great fingerprints of the Reformation: Sola Gratia, “By Grace Alone.” We will learn how the doctrine of God’s sovereignty that we examined so carefully in two previous chapters expresses itself in the plan of salvation. When you have come to a true, biblical understanding of Grace alone, you will join the apostle Paul in crying out to heaven, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

I would like to close this chapter with the best statement on justification by faith alone that I have ever read. It is taken from the Heidelberg Catechism, written in 1563:


How art thou righteous before God?

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ; that is, although my conscience accuse me, that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have never kept any of them, and am still prone always to all evil; yet God without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never committed nor had any sin, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.

Romans 12:19.

Hebrews 10:31.

Psalm 145:20.

John 1:29.

1 Corinthians 15:45.

John 19:30.

See Psalms 25:18, 103:3, 12; Isaiah 38:17, 43:25, 44:22; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:19; Romans 4:8; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14, 2:13; Hebrews 10:11-18; 1 John 1:8, 2:2.

2 Corinthians 5:21.

Romans 5:19.

Romans 8:1‑2 (NIV).

Romans 5:16; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 4:5.

Deuteronomy 25:1.

Romans 8:38‑39.

Quoted in Robert A. Sungenis, Not By Faith Alone (Santa Barbara, CA, Queenship Publishing Co., 1997) p. 690 (emphases added).

Genesis 15:5‑6.

Genesis 20:2.

Matthew 7:11; Romans 7:15-25; Galatians 5:16-17.

1 Kings 8:46.

Genesis 18:25.

Revelation 20:11-15.

If you have any doubt, see James 2:10-11.

Romans 2:2 (NIV).

Romans 8:33‑34.

See Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16.

See Romans 8:1.

A. A. Hodge asked the crucial question: “What is the order of grace in the application of Redemption?” His answer: “The two principles which fundamentally characterize Protestant Soteriology are--1st. The clear distinction between the change of relation signalized by justification, and the change of character signalized by regeneration and sanctification. 2d. That the change of relation, the remission of penalty, and the restoration to favor involved in justification , necessarily precedes, and renders possible, the real moral change expressed by regeneration and sanctification.” (A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology [1860], p. 517.) Also see Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1900, 1979), pp. 167-171. The chapter “Justification from Eternity” explains the proper order of salvation.

Quoted in Present Truth, “The Council of Trent,” p. 29. (Emphasis added.)

The estimate is taken from George Barna, The Frog In The Kettle (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990) p.132. The Barna Research Group estimated that 59, 889, 000 adults will attend at least one Catholic mass in the year 2000.

Romans 5:1

2 Corinthians 9:15.

Job 9:2.

Isaiah 64:6.

Quoted in Erwin Lutzer, The Doctrines That Divide (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1998), p. 154.

What Luther Says, A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, compiled by Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 1226, (emphases added).

Philippians 3:5‑6.

Romans 7:12.

Galatians 3:24.

Romans 7:7‑10, 12‑14 (NIV).

Isaiah 64:6.

Galatians 3:21.

Romans 3:20 (NIV).

Acts 16:31.

Matthew 17:5.

Ephesians 2:1.

John 11:43.

The account of the rich young ruler is found in Matthew 19:16-30; Mark 10:18-29; and Luke 18:18-29. The verses quoted here are all from Matthew’ account.

Job 25:6.

Acts 16:31.

Ephesians 2:1.

Quoted in Present Truth, “According to Roman Catholic Doctrine, What is Justification?” (Fallbrook, CA: Present Truth, 1975), p. 30.