So good to be back with you. I was out last week, sick. The Sunday before that, I was preaching in Minnesota. The sickness was just beginning. I got up in the pulpit and looked down and could barely—my eyes were sappy—I could barely read the scriptures or my notes, and I thought, “Oh boy, this is going to be good.” But I think I am on the mend, and it’s great to be back.
And I have to say, it is awfully good to see Louise Dickinson here with us. Louise, is this your first Sunday back, or did I miss you last week? OK, well, I didn’t get to give you applause for being back. I think this is just great. It’s really great to see you again. So glad that there’s that much progress.
All right, Romans chapter 5 is where we will begin this morning. We will take time, as we have done somewhat in this series, to reflect on several other related passages to see what is going on here. And we’re continuing our studies on the Bible’s teaching of salvation, looking at the big picture of it all. This morning: salvation now and not yet. Again, we are continuing that theme, the now and the not yet of salvation. Specifically today, we take up the theme within that, the theme of justification.
Justification. To begin, let’s look at Romans chapter 5, and I’ll read verses 1 through 11.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character. Character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, what a glorious theme we have ahead of us this morning. We ask that you would put aside from our minds all distractions. Give us understanding, give us appreciation, love, help us to exalt in the greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How we thank you for him and we pray that by your spirit, you would help us to see him in his glory today and in all of his wonderful benefits to us. We pray in his name, amen.
Well, to review, remember, we are looking at salvation in the big picture of the Bible. We are tracing out the story of the Bible, and I’ve tried to demonstrate that the Bible’s story as it is, from beginning to end, is that it is a story. It’s not just a collection of stories or collections of genres of writings of different kinds. It is, from beginning to end, a story. And more specifically, it is a story that focuses on Jesus. And more specifically than that, it is a story that is gospel-shaped, focusing on the Lord Jesus.
And so we’ve tried to trace that out. We saw the creation of man, we saw a rebellion against God, God’s promise to redeem, to send a champion who would fix that problem. And then we saw that in the large picture of things, what God has purposed to do and what he’s promised to do is that in the end, this will all be fixed. The whole problem will be resolved through the redemptive work of Christ. And so the Bible’s outlook, we saw, was two ages. There’s this present evil age, and there’s the age to come. This age is marked with evil, sin, suffering, fallenness, and all that accompanies it. And the age to come, in which redemption will be complete, and God will have accomplished for his creation all that he’s purposed for it. The blessings of creation that he purposed for it will finally be achieved.
So there’s this age and the age to come. The age to come is the day of salvation in which God will complete his saving work. And then we saw that in the centerpiece of history was the Lord Jesus who came in his incarnation. This was the fulfillment of the “coming of God” theme in the Old Testament: God coming to the rescue. And we saw that he died in the place of sinners, the champion whom God had promised. And having taken our sin, having borne our wrath, having exhausted the curse fully, dying in our place, he rose from the dead and entered into that age to come.
And so the apostolic message about Jesus’ resurrection was not simply that this one who was dead is now alive, but that this one who was dead is now alive and has entered into the age to come. It is the glorified Christ who is the center then of their message. He has come, he has accomplished the work of salvation, and God has honored him, raising him from the dead and exalting him to his own right hand, where from there he carries out his purpose of redemption. Then we saw that it is not Jesus alone who rose from the dead, or Jesus by himself that has entered into the age to come, but the New Testament teaching of our union with Christ teaches us that just as he has been raised into the age to come, so we with him have entered into the age to come.
And we have what is popularly called the “now and the not yet.” There’s the “not yet” of our salvation when it will be achieved in full. Jesus has already gone there ahead of us, but he has taken us with him in principle and in part and in degree. And so there is in this age, a foretaste of that age to come. That age to come in Christ, for those in union with Christ, that age to come has been drawn back into this age. And the glory of our salvation is precisely that, that joined to Christ we have already begun to taste the powers of the age to come. And so now, the particular tension of the Christian life is just that. We live in two ages. We live in this present evil age, and we feel all the effects of it. And yet we live in the age to come. We have entered there with Christ and we feel that as well.
And that is the tension of the Christian life. We feel that we’ve entered into glory with Christ and we feel that we’re left here in this present evil age. There is the now and the not yet. We have been brought there but not fully. The fullness of it all awaits the consummation.
Well, that’s the large picture of the Bible story and of the Bible story of salvation. And then we’ve started to see that that big story is carried in the Bible through a number of different specific themes. Same story, but different themes carry that story. So, for example, we saw that the kingdom of God was one of those themes; that God creates, establishes his kingdom, there’s rebellion against God, and God seeks from then on to reestablish his saving rule, his rule over the earth with his willing subjects. And progressively through the history of redemption, that is what God has been doing until finally in the end, the kingdom of God comes in full in the second coming of Jesus Christ. But yet we find that in salvation, now joined to Christ, we have already entered the kingdom of God.
We saw the same with regard to eternal life. Eternal life is one of those themes associated with the consummation. At the end, there’ll be the resurrection and we enter into life—eternal life, the life of the age to come. And the greatness of Jesus’ salvation that he gives us today is that we have eternal life today. Same story, another specific slant to the story, different theme, but the same story. Only now it’s not kingdom, but eternal life is the theme carrying the story.
We saw the same with regard to creation and new creation. God creates the world, it’s fallen in rebellion, with human rebellion, the whole created order is caught up under the curse and judgment, but God has set out to bring about a new creation. In the end, we have a return to Eden and beyond. We see that in the book of Revelation with its references back to Genesis, that the new creation will finally be established and God’s purposes will be fulfilled. And in the meantime, those of us who are in Christ are a new creation and we feel that we’ve been changed all over and yet not fully, for the fullness of it awaits.
All of these different themes carry the same story with a different aspect of the story but drive this fact: that the story as a whole is gospel-shaped, centered on Jesus, and that in union with Christ we have entered into the age to come, and that is the glory of our salvation now, even though we await the fullness of it in the age to come.
Now what I want to do again today is back up and tell the same story, again, only with another theme, and that is the theme of justification. I should back up and make this observation as well: I think it’s interesting that various biblical writers draw attention especially to one of these themes. So for example, in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) the emphasis there in salvation continually is not on justification, it’s not on eternal life, not on new creation—it’s on the kingdom of God. Now you find eternal life in the Synoptic Gospels a few times. You find other themes a few times. But the broad emphasis of the Synoptic Gospels is the kingdom of God. That the kingdom of God that was promised and that will come in consummation has arrived in Jesus Christ.
We get to the Gospel of John, and you read a little bit about the kingdom of God; you see that two or three times in the Gospel of John. But what you find emphasized scores of times over in the Gospel of John is the theme of eternal life. Now it’s the same story, and it’s the same salvation, only in the Synoptic Gospels they’re driving this theme of the arrival of the kingdom. In the Gospel of John, he’s driving this theme of the arrival ahead of time of eternal life—that the life of the age to come is ours today in Christ.
Now we come to the theme of justification, and that is the emphasis of the Apostle Paul. Now in the Apostle Paul’s writings, you do find eternal life, you find new creation, you find the kingdom of God; you find those themes as well, but relatively they are minor. What we find emphasized in such a large way in the Apostle Paul is this theme of a declaration of righteousness, our justification in Christ.
Defining Justification
So we begin, first of all, then, with defining justification. We will get to this later in the series. But just quickly: justification, I think, as most all of you know, is a forensic term, a legal term. It has to do with declaring righteous. It does not say that God makes us righteous. That’s another theme. Justification is declaring righteous. It is the pronouncement of the judge. It’s the atmosphere of the law court where God is pictured as the judge, we are the accused, and the verdict is rendered, and the verdict is “not guilty.” Righteous. He’s kept the law. That’s justification. It’s the courtroom atmosphere. Very important to keep that in mind as we go along. We’ll develop that later in the series.
Now this doctrine of justification then has as its Old Testament background the doctrine of divine judgment. And I’m going to take a couple of minutes to track that out so that we can understand the nature of justification when we come to it in the New Testament. Justification has as its background in the Old Testament the doctrine of divine judgment. And that, of course, is a huge theme in the Old Testament, particularly in the prophets, but we find it in the Psalms as well—that God will come in the end and judge the wicked. All the world will stand in judgment before God.
This is a particularly pronounced emphasis in the Old Testament prophets associated with the Day of the Lord, associated with the end-time events, that at the end of history God will break in and all of humanity and all of history will be called into judgment. And you see many times in the prophets the emphasis that the temporal judgments of God on a given nation, whether it’s Babylon or Egypt or whatever, these temporal judgments are precursors. They are anticipating the end-time judgment that will come. All of these are just presented as, “Yeah, as bad as it is, they’re just signposts along the way to the final judgment that will come.”
I don’t know that I have time to look at many of these passages, but let’s look at at least one. Look at Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah chapter 2, beginning with verse 10. This is really very typical of the prophets in this vein. It’s a passage regarding the Day of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 2, verse 10:
Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and it shall be brought low, against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan; against all the lofty mountains, and against all the uplifted hills, against every high tower, and against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.
Here he’s listing all of that that indicates the great strength of the nations. God is coming against it all, verse 17:
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols shall utterly pass away. The people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth. In that day, mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to enter the caverns of the rocks and the cliffs from before the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty when he rises to terrify the earth. Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?
Well, passages like this are familiar to those of you who have read the prophets—that there’s coming this great day, the Day of the Lord. This is no longer your day. This is no longer the day of the world, the day of the rebels. This is the Lord’s day and he will come and he will execute judgment against all that has opposed him.
We see it again in chapter 13. If you’d like to look there quickly, Isaiah chapter 13, verses 6 and following:
Their faces will be aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.
Well, you find many passages like this, that God could hardly be more clear, he could hardly be more graphic in the way he portrays the terrors of that final day of judgment. For those of you taking notes, if you’d like, you can jot down a couple of others: Jeremiah chapter 46 and verse 10; Amos chapter 5, verses 18 and following; Obadiah, really the whole book, but particularly verse 15; and Zephaniah 1, verses 14 and following. These are all familiar passages describing this terrible day of judgment that will come from the Lord God himself.
You might remember in Matthew chapter 11, verses 22 and following, where Jesus famously plays against this theme as well, where he speaks of the quaint little towns of Galilee. “Woe to you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Chorazin. It would be better for Tyre and Sidon in that day of judgment than for you. You have had great light, more than they, and yet you have rebelled against it. Your judgment will be a terrible one.” The Apostle Paul summarizes it for us crisply in Acts chapter 17, verse 31, where he speaks of God who has appointed a day to judge the world with justice. Likely the most horrible theme of scripture that we could ever consider.
Now the necessity of divine judgment, of course, lies in the character of God himself and in our relationship to him. God is a righteous God. One aspect of his righteousness is that he demands righteousness of his rational creatures. He’s created us in his image and one aspect of his righteousness is that he must demand righteousness of us who are in his image. The flip side of that is His righteousness also demands punishment for all that is unrighteous in us, his image bearers.
Now, none of this is to say that judgment must come immediately—that every time someone does something that is bad, God will come right now and zap him. That’s always been the frustration of the righteous: why do the evil prosper? None of this is to say that judgment must come immediately. But it is to say that all of the world will be held accountable in judgment before God. In fact, God can be very patient with regard to judgment. But in the end, justice will be served. And that, in short, is the doctrine of divine judgment: all the world held accountable before God. And of course, all of that comes to a crashing climax in Revelation chapter 20 when the dead are raised to stand before God in judgment at the Great White Throne.
Now again, backing up to the Old Testament, we should point out that in some of these passages speaking of divine judgment in the end, we find described for us a divided outcome. That is to say, not all—not everyone—will receive judgment punishment. But in fact, some will pass judgment and be vindicated. Now there are hints of that in the Old Testament, and let me let you look at a couple of passages. Keep your hand here, and Isaiah will be back there in a minute, but look at Psalm 37.
Psalm 37, it’s a familiar psalm to many of you. Psalm 37:
Fret not yourself because of evildoers, don’t be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend the faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in him. He will bring forth righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself, it tends only to evil. For the evildoers—here it is—evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him. But the Lord laughs at the wicked for he sees that his day is coming…
If you’d like to skip down to verse 27, you see more of it:
Turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever. For the Lord loves justice, for he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
Well, this is just one of those passages that shows that in that end time, judgment will come, but there will be this divided outcome. God’s people will be blessed and enjoy vindication from God, and the evil will be punished.
I mentioned Isaiah. We should look at one of these at least, Isaiah chapter 65. I told you we’d be jumping around a bit today. I want to see the background of this doctrine of justification. Isaiah chapter 65, notice quickly verses 12 through 15:
I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because when I called, you did not answer. When I spoke, you did not listen. But you did what was evil in my eyes, and chose what I did not delight in. Therefore, says the Lord God, behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame. Behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit. You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.
On then, we find that in the end, this judgment will come, but there will be this divided outcome when God’s people will be vindicated. Again, for those of you taking notes, if you would like—well, we’re here. Look at chapter 66, verses 4 and 5, just across the page:
I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered. When I spoke, they did not listen. But they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word. Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my namesake have said, “Let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy.” But it is they who shall be put to shame.
If you’d like other passages that deal with this: Zephaniah chapter 2, verses 1 to 3. We’ve seen earlier in the series Daniel chapter 12, verses 1 and following—the divided outcome of that final judgment. Two outcomes when God comes to judge. And those two outcomes are summarized in the big words: condemnation and justification. Condemnation and justification. Those who have done evil, condemned. God’s people justified, vindicated.
Now back to Romans. Before we get to Romans 5 again, look at Romans chapter 2 where we find the Apostle Paul summarizing this whole doctrine of divine judgment or this Judgment Day theme. Romans chapter 2, verses 5 through 16, the Apostle Paul gives us a nice summary of this whole doctrine. Romans 2, beginning with verse 5:
But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
What a horrifying verse, isn’t it? Every sin committed, it is as though it is put in the bank, storing up wrath against the day of wrath.
He will render to each one—verse 6—he’ll render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also to the Greek, for God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when the Gentiles who do not have the law—that is the law of Moses—by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Well, again, we have here not only the divided outcome—the two outcomes, those who are condemned and those who are justified—Paul gives us the principle of divine judgment in verses 5 through 11. The principle of divine judgment is exact retribution. That is what is so horrifying about divine judgment. The principle of divine judgment is exact retribution: that every sinner is measured up and given a judgment that’s fitted exactly to what he deserves. Horrible theme.
Then verses 12 through 16, we are given the standard of judgment, and that is the law of God. Whether you have read it from Moses or whether you have it written on your heart, having never seen Moses, you understand the basic principles of right and wrong, and God will judge accordingly. Verse 16, at the end of the verse, is another haunting aspect of judgment, and that’s the scope of divine judgment. It will take in even the most secret things, even every detail of life. God, who judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. What you think you have done in private, what you think you got by with, what you think no one knows about—God knows, and it will be brought up in divine judgment. And all of this, again, verse five: every sin is as though it has been put in the bank, storing up wrath against the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
And of course, all through this passage and all the others, it is God who is the judge. And the point of it then is that justice will be served, sinners must be punished, and only the righteous—only the genuinely righteous—will be justified. Now that raises another question: who in the world is that? Who is genuinely righteous? We’re going to chase that theme for a long time later in the series, but we’ll bump into it here as well. Here the point is justice will be served, sinners will be condemned, the righteous will be justified.
All right, we’re coming to the point. All of that is sort of introductory, though we had to see the background to it. But all of that informs the doctrine of justification in two very important ways.
Justification Is A Judicial Concept
Number one, justification is a judicial concept. You see how the law court atmosphere is, what’s going on? Is God the judge coming, measuring according to the law, and rendering verdict accordingly? Justification is a judicial concept. It does not mean to make righteous. It means to pronounce righteous. It’s the declaration of the judge that they have done what is right. They’re examined with regard to the law, the verdict is rendered accordingly, and God pronounces us righteous. That’s justification. It’s the courtroom atmosphere. How in the world can that happen? Well, we’ll see in a second.
Justification Is An Eschatological Concept
Number two, and I’m going to have to use the big word again: justification is an eschatological concept. It has to do with the end-time judgment. It has to do with the end, when God comes in the consummation and pronounces judgment on the whole world. It’s that kind of a concept. It has to do with the end times. It has to do with the final judgment resulting in condemnation or in vindication.
Now there are several passages in the New Testament that hint of this. We might have it here in chapter 2 verse 13 where Paul says, “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who”—future tense—”will be justified.” There are some other passages in the New Testament that talk like that. I think it might be alluded to in Romans 8, verse 33: “Who shall”—future tense—”who shall lay any charge against God’s elect?” picturing the final judgment. We also have it in Galatians 5:5 where Paul says, “We ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.” It’s also in 2 Timothy 4:8 where Paul speaks of the crown of righteousness which we will receive, again picturing the judgment when we are vindicated and justified. And there are other passages as well.
But this then is the doctrine of divine judgment: that God will come at the end of history, he will call all men into account, he will condemn the unrighteous, he will justify the righteous, and the hope of the faithful throughout the Old Testament was that in that day, at last, God’s people, now condemned by the world, God’s people will be vindicated. And God, the judge of the earth, will declare them righteous.
And now with that in the background, finally we can come back to Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 11 that we read at the outset. These verses could take us weeks longer. I’m trying to give the big picture here. It treats the doctrine of justification, verses 1 through 11, with some of its details, but with one unexpected turn. Let’s glance at it quickly. We’ve already read through these verses. Notice verse 9, the ground of justification is the blood of Jesus Christ: “Since therefore, we have now been justified by his blood.”
And you get the logic of that, don’t you? Christ has come, he has taken the place of his people, he has given a righteousness that they need and in their place, and he has borne the curse and the wrath of God’s law that they deserve. And having stood in their place and borne their sin, and having done for them all that God requires of them, God pronounces us righteous. And so in brief, we are justified by his blood. We’ll see more about that as we go on. This is the same, by the way, when we find expressions like “we are justified by grace.” The whole point of it is to say God pronounces us righteous not because of anything we have done, but precisely because of what Christ has done in our place. And so justification comes to us freely and by grace.
So that’s the ground of justification: the blood of Christ. Verse 1 gives us the means of justification: “Since we have been justified by faith,” not by works, not by anything you’ve done, of any accomplishments. We don’t contribute to this thing. It is what Christ has done, and we have Christ by faith, and joined to Jesus Christ the Redeemer by faith alone, we have in Him all that God requires of us. Justification is by grace, and therefore, it is by faith. The ground of justification—it is through his blood, verse 9. The means of justification, verse 1, is by faith. And then verses 1 and following, which we can’t take time to expound, we have the benefits of justification: reconciliation, we have peace with God, we have hope, we have joy, we have anticipation of glory, and all of that that comes as a result of justification.
The Timing Of Justification
Now the really surprising thing that we find here about justification—and all that we’ve done this morning now builds to this, okay?—the really surprising thing that we find about justification in verse 1 is the timing of it. “Therefore, since we have been justified.” Or verse nine, if you like, “Since therefore we have now been justified.” That is to say, the pronouncement of the end-time, the end-time judgment, has already been made.
And this is standard language in the New Testament about justification. “You have been justified,” or 1 Corinthians 6, “You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,” Romans 3, “You were justified by grace.” The standard language is of having been justified by faith. All of this emphasizes the “nowness” of justification—that it has already come. All of that is to say that through faith in Jesus Christ, the verdict of the heavenly court has already been pronounced; that end-time judgment verdict has already been rendered. The dreadful day of the end and the final judgment has been brought forward, and the verdict has been rendered, and God has already pronounced us righteous.
It’s not two different justifications. It’s all one. It’s all of a piece. It’s just that it’s been rendered ahead of time. Christ has come. He has accomplished on the cross all that God has required of us. We have entered into union with him by faith, and in him, we enjoy justification ahead of time because he has already done for us what God requires of us and we are joined to him by faith.
You’ll see this again in Romans chapter 8 verse 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to us who are in Christ Jesus.” Now, theologians like to say this in beautiful language—it makes it sound even better. They speak of the “eschatological now,” or really they like to say it with the Greek, the eschatological nun. The “now” of eschatological realization. The whole point of it is to say they recognize in verse 1 of chapter 8, in that little word “now,” a realization of the end-time judgment. “There is now, therefore, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
The Roman Catholic Church, in its theology, leaves the verdict of justification in question until the final judgment. It is a “terrible sin of presumption” to say with confidence that I am saved; we won’t know until the final judgment. The reformers read this verse and they saw much better. The verdict that belongs to the end of history has already been brought forward, already been pronounced on believers in history. And already we have the pronouncement of that end-time verdict.
Brothers and sisters, we just have to see—this is where all this is going—we just have to see the value of all of this. This is a massive ground of confidence before God. Already, that judgment has been pronounced. Already, I have been justified through faith in Jesus Christ. Already, I have stood judgment before God and been acquitted. Already. We have that again back in Romans 5 verse 9 that I pointed out earlier. And notice how Paul unpacks the logic of it. Romans 5:9, “Since therefore we have now been justified by faith by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
Do you see that? The wrath of God cannot come then because we have already now been justified. That end-time pronouncement has already come to us and therefore we have peace with God and condemnation cannot come because God’s judgment, God’s verdict, has already been pronounced.
Now, I suspect this should answer a puzzling question that many, probably most Christians have had at some point or other, and that is the question of subsequent sins. Okay, I come to Christ, I trust in Him, and God justifies me. He pronounces me righteous. And all my sins up to that point, they’ve all been forgiven. But what about the later sins? What about all those other sins I commit later? Does that justification cover it?
And you see how this answers the question. This is that judgment already pronounced. Already God has given the final verdict and he has pronounced us righteous in Christ. Justification is that end-time event already brought forward into our experience. The basis of the judgment is the work of Christ. We belong to him by faith and God then already pronounces us just and righteous before him. The perspective is big picture. The end-time judgment is still in view. It’s just that that verdict has been brought forward and we enjoy it already in Christ.
Now that sounds just a little bit too good to be true. And in fact, if you’re thinking, you might have just thought, “Whoa, that’s open to abuse, isn’t it? That’s open to misunderstanding. Well, if God’s already pronounced the end-time victory, well then, before sin abounds, grace abounds, let’s just sin more.” And that’s why Paul follows up with chapter six to answer that exact question. But you see, the point is the gospel is just that free. And the gospel is designed to give us just that kind of confidence: that that end-time verdict has already been pronounced and I stand righteous before God. It is as though I have already gotten to the end time. Christ has come. I’ve stood before the throne and been judged and pronounced righteous. That is what has happened when Paul says we have been justified by faith.
Again, you just have to see the value of this, that the gospel gives us just that kind of confidence grounded in the finished work of Christ. Now we’ve seen various themes then: kingdom, creation, new creation, eternal life, justification. These themes are not equivalent, but they all tell the same story, taking us to the end. What does it mean to be saved? That’s a big word. What does it mean to be saved? Well, it means a lot of things. It means that we will enter the kingdom of God, blessed in his presence. It means we will be in the new creation. It means we will be raised to eternal life, the life of the age to come. It means we’ll survive the judgment and God will pronounce us righteous.
And all of that, looking to the end, has been brought forward into the experience of every believer in Jesus. Already I’m in the kingdom. Already I have eternal life. Already I’ve been made a new creation. Already I’ve been pronounced just before God. And all of that is tied to our union with Christ who has entered that age to come ahead of us.
What difference does that make? Two things. One, most basically, this teaches us how to read our Bibles and how to understand our salvation. It helps us to understand the big picture of the Bible, that salvation has to do with the end times and that has been brought forward. And it teaches us to see how it all rivets our attention on Jesus and his redemptive work. It teaches us how to read our Bibles, how to understand the big picture, and how then to understand salvation.
But all of that, most specifically and more pointedly, number two, what difference it makes: it is a massive ground for Christian confidence and joy. Is it, as I told you that one young lady was so offended after my message one time, is it really presumptuous of us to say with confidence already, “I have been saved”? No, this is the declaration of the gospel—that those end-time blessings for God’s people have been brought forward into this age in Jesus Christ. And that is a massive ground for our confidence before God. Amen.
Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what a glorious theme this is. How blessed we are to know that you have already vindicated us, pronounced us righteous, not because of anything we have done, but because of Christ standing in our place. What glory is ours? What room for joy? I pray, Father, that you would enlarge the hearts and increase the joy in every heart of your people today. May we glory in the gospel of Christ for this. In his name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Well, as we conclude our service this morning, let’s turn in our Trinity hymnals one last time to number 127. And let’s sing together all five verses of “Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder.” Let’s stand as we sing this together.