Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Romans 5:1-11 | Date: March 25, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to Romans chapter 5. And I will warn you ahead of time, we will take time to look at a few different passages as well. The subject for this morning is “Justified Already.” Justified already. In order to establish that theme, I want not only to look at Romans 5, but I want to look at some of the background material, particularly in the Old Testament. I think for the sake of time, I will have to presume on you and just refer to some of those passages, maybe quote some, maybe read some to you. We won’t have time to look up each one of them together, but we will be glancing back to some of the Old Testament background to the doctrine of justification in order to understand some of the particular significance of it here in Romans chapter 5.

But 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 suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and 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 even dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet 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 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, we ask that you would open your word to us, that your Spirit would minister your word to us, that we would understand it well, that we would understand it rightly, that we would comprehend the great blessing for us in understanding more of what your Son has done for us. Help us, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As you are no doubt aware, the word “to justify” means to declare righteous. The doctrine of justification in the New Testament is a kind of a legal category. It pictures us before the judgment of God and God rendering the verdict “righteous,” and we are acquitted before the law court of heaven. That’s the doctrine of justification. Justification does not mean to make us righteous; that’s another theme in the Bible. Justification means to declare righteous. It’s a legal category picturing God as the judge, we are the accused, and God renders his verdict: not guilty.

That theme looms large in the Apostle Paul’s writings, as I’m sure you’re aware. We see it often all throughout his letters, and it is the subject under consideration in large part in this epistle to the Romans. If you’d like to glance back, Paul takes in chapter 1 something of his text, of his theme for the letter itself, in verses 16 and especially 17. Familiar verses. Romans 1:16: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Now notice the next word; it’s a connective, an explanatory conjunction: “for” or “because.” I’m not ashamed of the gospel because what? Because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” So I boast and exalt in the gospel of Christ for precisely this reason. Not only is it a revelation of the love of God—that’s not what he says here; it is that, but that’s not what he points out here. I rejoice and exalt in the gospel of Christ because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. That is, God declares us righteous. And the great teaching of the New Testament is that God declares unrighteous people to be righteous, and he has a righteous way to do that, which is a fantastic theme in the New Testament: how God can look at ungodly people who are unrighteous and yet righteously render a verdict and say, “Not guilty.” And they’re acquitted.

And Paul says, “This is what I rejoice in.” And this righteousness from God is revealed from faith for faith. And I take that to mean something like by faith and nothing but faith. And that’s a theme that Paul develops in the book of Romans. And then he takes his text from the prophet Habakkuk: “As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.” Or if I can retranslate that to push the sense of it, I think, “He who through faith is righteous, shall live.” Not the one who through works is righteous, but the one who through faith is righteous shall live. And that’s something now of Paul’s text that he’s going to expound through the book of Romans.

He begins now with verse 18, just declaring now the need for justification, and here for the next couple of chapters, he explores the universal sinfulness and guilt of humanity, and then the universal condemnation of all people because of sin. We get late into chapter 3, verses 21 and following, and Paul turns the corner, and here he speaks of the means of justification. How is it that God will justify sinners? And here he expounds for us at length through the following several chapters, but in a very compact way in chapter 3, verses 21 and following, just how it is that a righteous God can declare unrighteous people to be righteous. And he does it, of course, through our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to take the place of sinners. And on the ground of what he has done in place of sinners, because he is our substitute, because he stands in our stead, God looks at us and declares us righteous for his sake. And so the stunning announcement of chapter 4 and verse 5 is that God justifies the ungodly. What a remarkable thing that God can justify and declare righteous ungodly people.

The Old Testament Background

Well, that’s the doctrine that Paul expounds through the book of Romans, and we will see it a little bit more now in chapter 5 in a moment. But I think it’s helpful first to recognize that this prominent doctrine of justification doesn’t just arise out of nowhere. But in fact, it has an important background in the Old Testament. And in particular, it has its background in the Old Testament doctrine of the coming judgment—that God will come in the end and bring about judgment against all that is ungodly. All the world will be brought before him and he will render judgment.

This is closely associated in the Old Testament with the famous “Day of the Lord” theme. We don’t have time to explore that at length. If you’d like, you can mark down passages like Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah chapter 13, Jeremiah chapter 46, and the whole book of Amos. If you’ve read the prophets at all, you’re familiar with this Day of the Lord theme. “In that day, in those days, in that day, God will come. He will rend the heavens. He will shake the earth. He will bring all before Him, and the evil will be cut off, and His righteous will be vindicated.” Huge theme in the Old Testament prophets in particular. The Day of the Lord. It is no longer your day. It’s no longer the day of the nations. It’s no longer the day when the world gets its way. This is God’s day. And He will come, and He will come in judgment, and He will rectify all things, and He’ll set the books accordingly. The Day of the Lord. He comes, and He comes in judgment.

Well, as I said, I’d love to explore that at length; we can’t. But you’re familiar, I think, with that background in the Old Testament prophets. The necessity of divine judgment lies in the character of God himself and in our relationship to him. When the word “righteous” means something like measuring up to a norm, measuring up to a standard—it’s right. Think in terms of a yardstick or a plumb line. What is right is righteous. Well, in view here is a moral dimension, and that is the righteousness of God. When we say that God is righteous, it doesn’t mean, of course, that God measures up to some external standard. He himself is the standard. And he always acts according to his own perfections. He’s a righteous God.

And by virtue of his own righteousness, one of the aspects of his righteousness is that he demands righteousness of all of his creatures. We are created in his image. We’re intelligent creatures. We are responsible creatures. We must act according to righteousness. It wouldn’t be right for God to require anything less. He requires righteousness of his creatures. Another dimension of God’s righteousness is that he punishes all unrighteousness in his creatures. That is, all that doesn’t measure up to this norm must be punished. And out of that grows this doctrine of divine judgment, that in the end, God will make things right. It does not teach that God will necessarily, here and now, in every instance, make bad things right or judge the guilty. God is incredibly patient. But he does tell us that in the end, his righteousness will prevail, and will prevail against all unrighteousness, and in the punishment of all sin, and in the rewarding of all that is good.

Well, that’s the doctrine of divine judgment that you’re so familiar with in the Old Testament. All the world brought before God, all of the world held accountable before God. We find that coming to culmination in Revelation chapter 20, where all of the dead are brought before God in judgment. Again, backing up to the Old Testament, some of the prophets and even some of the Psalms sometimes hint toward the fact that in that coming judgment, there’ll be this divided outcome. In that day of judgment, when God comes to judge, the wicked will be punished, the righteous will be vindicated. You have this divided outcome in the time of judgment.

Let me take just a moment to look at a couple. If you want to look with me, look at Psalm 37. You’ll see this contrast actually throughout the psalm. It’s a famous psalm where the psalmist exhorts us not to be worried about evildoers. And he tells us, for example, in Psalm 37, verses 1 and 2, “Fret not yourself because of evildoers, be not envious of wrongdoers.” Why? “Because they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.” Drop down to verse 5: “Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday.” That is, your righteousness. If you are righteous, God will vindicate you and He’ll make it known to all.

But drop down to verse eight: “Refrain from anger, forsake wrath. Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. For the evildoers will be cut off, and those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while the wicked will be no more. Though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek will inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.” Well, you find it more throughout the psalm. Verses 27 and following, we have more of this contrast, the two outcomes of divine judgment. The children of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell forever in it. You’ll find the same in Isaiah chapter 65 and chapter 66 as well, Zephaniah, other places like this, where we have this divided outcome of the divine judgment. I suppose one of the more famous ones is Daniel chapter 12, verses 1 to 3: in that day, many who are in the dust of the earth will be raised—these to eternal life, these to condemnation and eternal contempt. Here are the two outcomes of judgment in the end.

What we have then, that theme throughout the Old Testament, we find it actually very famously in the New Testament a couple of places as well. It’s brought up very early in the ministry of John the Baptist. You remember he used actually some language from Zephaniah, the winnowing fork analogy, where you put the pitchfork into the pile of wheat, and you shake it, and the wheat drops, and the chaff is blown aside in the wind, and you gather up the chaff, and it’s burned because it’s useless. That’s a judgment theme: that God will in the end separate the good from the evil, the righteous from the unrighteous, and the righteous will be blessed and the unrighteous will be punished. Jesus picks up that theme famously as well with regards to the cities of Galilee and speaks of it in his Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25: the separation of the sheep and the goats. The sheep come and enter into the glory prepared for you by my Father, and the goats then are separated off: “Depart from me into everlasting fire.”

Well, these are prominent themes throughout the Bible: that God will come in the end and he will judge. And there will be two outcomes: the righteous and the unrighteous. To put them in the theological terminology: justification and condemnation. God comes in judgment, and in the end, there’ll be one of two verdicts rendered. You’ll either be justified (declared righteous) or you will be condemned and punished.

Well, that in broad overview is the Old Testament doctrine of divine judgment. We see a nice summary of it—if you’d like to go back a few pages in Romans—in Romans chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. We have a very nice summary of the whole doctrine in verses 5 through 11:

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 for the unbeliever, isn’t it? Because of your hard and impenitent heart, you’re storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath. Every sin is like putting it in the bank. And every next sin, put in the bank. Every evil thought, every evil word, everything they’ve done that is wrong, put in the bank. Put it in the bank and build up this large account so that finally, in the day of judgment, all of it comes back on you in divine judgment. It’s a horrifying thing.

And he picks that up in verses 6 and following. Here he deals with the principle of judgment, and that is that the judgment will be according to exact retribution. 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’ll 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 to the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality.

So here we have the principle of judgment: exact retribution, that God takes every man and measures accordingly to the judgment that is exactly deserved. Horrifying theme in the scriptures. Then we come to verses 12 to 16 in chapter 2, and here it gives us the standard of God’s judgment. We don’t have time to work through it, but the standard here is God’s law. Whether you have read it in Moses yourself, or if it is God’s law written on your heart, or both, we recognize that there are principles of right and wrong, and that law will be the standard of divine judgment, whether or not we have lived up to what we know to be right or wrong. And then he tells us something of the scope of divine judgment in verse 16: “on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” A thorough analysis, a thorough evaluation, and judgment fitted exactly to what each deserves. Even the secrets of their heart will be examined. All through these verses, it is God who will be the judge. The point of it all is that justice will be served. Sinners must, must, must and will be punished. And only the righteous will be acquitted.

Justification Is an Eschatological Concept

Now all of that background regarding the doctrine of divine judgment—all of that informs this doctrine of justification in a couple of important ways. One, justification is a judicial concept. As I’ve said, it’s a legal category where God—it pictures God in the day of judgment—looking at us, the accused, and pronouncing us righteous. It’s a judicial concept, but more to our point this morning—and I’m going to have to use a bigger word here because I don’t know how to get around it. I don’t like using big terms, but do you know what I mean when I say it is an eschatological concept? Okay. Eschatology is the study of last things. All right. People are laughing. I’m missing something, I can tell. Evidently, you’re familiar with this word. All right. The study of last things. And justification is an eschatological concept in that it has reference to the judgment of the last day.

So reading through the Old Testament, when you come to the New, you would expect that justification is the outcome of the final judgment to come in the end time. Now we have a hint of that here in Romans chapter 2, if you want to see verse 13: “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.” We find it in other places as well, like Romans 8, verse 33, a famous verse: “Who shall lay any charge to God’s elect?” Looking again, I think, to the end-time judgment, when the accusation is made, the question is brought up, “Who can accuse these people?” We have it reflected, I think, in some other passages like where Paul speaks of the “hope of righteousness” or receiving the “crown of life” or the “crown of righteousness.” All of that looks forward to the final justification at the end of time in final judgment.

So all of that now to say that this background of justification is the doctrine of judgment, and it puts it squarely in an end-time category, something that is yet to come. And the hope of the faithful throughout the Old Testament was: in that day, in that day God will come, and the wicked will be punished, and his people will be vindicated. Now how they will be vindicated is another story, and we’ll pursue that, I think, at another time, and we’ll just bump into it today.

The Timing of Justification

In Romans chapter 5, now finally where we started, it treats this doctrine of justification with some of its details, but also with an unexpected turn. Let’s begin with what’s familiar to us. First of all, the ground of justification, verse 9 that we read. Notice the expression: “since therefore we have now been justified by his blood.” There’s the ground of our justification. One of the great questions that comes up is: how is it that God will vindicate anybody in the coming judgment given that all of us are sinners? That’s what Paul established in the early chapters of Romans. On what ground could God justify anyone?

And the great doctrine of justification is that the Lord Jesus Christ has come in the place of sinners. He’s established a righteousness for us that God requires of us. He has taken the punishment that we deserve in his death on the cross, bearing the wrath of God. And Paul summarizes that here with this expression, “justified by his blood.” Here is our substitute, standing in our place, doing for us all that God requires of us. And God now is able righteously to declare us righteous because of our substitute, the Lord Jesus. The whole ground of our hope is that we have someone who has done for us what God has required of us.

We find a kind of parallel expression other places in the New Testament, Romans 3 verse 24, for example: “justified by His grace.” That is to say, the whole source of this is God. He comes to us and gives us what He requires of us. It’s not something that we earn. The ground of our acceptance before God is not our efforts and not our works, and it’s not even His work in us. It is his work for us in the person of our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. The wonderful thing to notice, the glorious fact of justification, what we learn is righteousness—the righteousness that God requires of us—is not in the gospel. It is not something we give to God. It is something he gives to us in Christ, justified by his blood.

Well, then he also tells us next the means of justification. Again, that’s familiar to you. Verse 1: “we have been justified by faith.” This is the instrument by which we receive the righteousness that God requires of us. Not by works, not by earning it by our merit, but simply by faith. Receiving in Christ, laying hold of Christ, and having in Him all that God requires of us. The ground of our acceptance is Christ, and the means of obtaining it is faith alone.

And then Paul, throughout this passage, expounds—we can’t explore at length, in fact, not only in chapter 5, but on through chapters 6, 7, and 8—he begins to expound for us some of the benefits of justification. And that is things like reconciliation, peace with God, hope, a recognition of the love of God through his Spirit, pouring out God’s love in our hearts, and the sense of acceptance before God, and so on. Safety in Christ. All of these are benefits of justification that we have. Because we have our substitute who has done for us all that God requires of us, we have all the attending benefits of one who is righteous.

But now here’s where it comes to something that’s very surprising. And that is the timing of justification. Notice verse 1: “since we have been justified by faith.” Now wait a minute. I thought justification was an eschatological concept, right? It’s something pictured to the end time when God comes in judgment and his people are vindicated. It’s something we must wait for in the end judgment, right? Well, verse one: “we have been justified by faith.”

That is to say the pronouncement of that end-time judgment has happened already. We’ve already passed the end-time judgment, and in fact, this is such standard language in the New Testament that you’re almost surprised to see this distinction brought out, aren’t you? Because we’re just used to seeing “we have been justified,” “we are justified,” “we have been justified by faith.” You are justified by grace. This is the standard teaching of the New Testament: that already in Christ Jesus, we have survived the judgment and been acquitted before God. Through faith, the verdict of that heavenly court has already been pronounced, and that dreaded end-time event of final judgment has been brought forward into our own experience.

The verdict has been rendered. It’s not that we are justified now and then later justified again. It is that that justification has been brought forward, and this is our status now already: that before God, that end-time judgment has already been rendered. Christ has accomplished righteousness for us. We have received that righteousness through faith, so that already, because of our substitute and because we have in Him all that God requires, already that judgment has been rendered and we are righteous before God.

Look at one expression of this in Romans chapter 8, a very familiar verse. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Now, biblical scholars love to say this in as fancy terminology as they can, and so we have familiarly here in the commentaries and in the theological literature what this has described—this word “now”—the “now of eschatological realization.” Eh, I say it great. The now of eschatological realization. That is, the end time has been brought forward; we already have it. One writer put it like this: this is “the is-ness of the shall be.” The is-ness of the shall be. You see the point. It’s pointing toward that end-time judgment, but already now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

As you might know, in Roman Catholic theology, it is a terrible sin of presumption to say that you know you are saved. We won’t know that, according to Roman Catholic theology. We won’t know that until the end-time judgment when the verdict is rendered. Well, the reformers read this passage a lot better than that. And they saw here that the verdict belonging to the end of history has already been brought forward, already pronounced on believers in history. And this is our present status. Present status? That end-time judgment has already happened. It happened on Christ, my substitute, and in Him, I am pronounced righteous.

A Massive Ground of Confidence

Now here’s where all of this comes down. All of that, working through that, I think is so worth the trouble of working it out, if nothing else, for this reason: you have to see in that a massive ground of confidence before God. Already, already, I am justified. Already, that end-time judgment and its verdict has been rendered, and I have been declared righteous. In fact, I want you to see in Romans 5, verse 9, how the Apostle Paul speaks of it in just these terms. Romans 5:9: “Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God?” That is to say, how can I be certain? On what does my confidence rest that I will survive the end-time judgment and be acquitted? How can I know that? And Paul says it’s this: that already now, that verdict has been rendered. Already ahead of time. I am righteous before God.

You see here how he ties very tightly the idea of present justification to the end-time final judgment. And our assurance with regard to the future judgment is grounded in the fact that the judge’s pronouncement has already been made. And that’s why he can say in verse one, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.”

Now, I think this is massively important for answering a question that commonly comes up among Christians. I would be surprised if you haven’t asked the question yourself. We all have at some point or another. I know that when I come to faith in Christ, God forgives me of all my sins. All my sins past accounted for in Christ. But what about my sins future? That’s a question. Well, do you see how this teaching answers that question? Justification is an end-time event. It belongs to the end of time when I stand before God in judgment. And what he is saying is that our justification now is nothing less than that final pronouncement made now in our own experience. The basis of judgment is Christ and His cross, which has already happened in our place. And the perspective here, then, is big picture, realized ahead of time. All of my sins, when I was justified, were past. It’s the end-time judgment that has already been rendered. And because of that, because I have stood that end-time judgment already in Christ, I am perfectly safe in Him—all sins past, present, future, all of them, acquitted from them all.

Now, does that sound a little bit too good to be true? In fact, that sounds so good that our twisted little minds are going to say, “Well, if my sins all future have been forgiven already, then let’s just go ahead and sin more. It won’t matter.” And it’s precisely that question that Paul takes up next to answer in chapter 6. But you see, that’s just the point—that the gospel is just that free that it gives people the room to make up some excuse like that for sinning. Now, there’s an answer to that, and we’ve got to get to that in chapter 6. But you see what he’s saying here. I’ve already stood judgment in the end, and that verdict for the end time has already been pronounced. It’s done. I’m righteous in Jesus Christ. And the gospel offers us just that kind of confidence, grounded in the finished work of Christ. And we receive him and his righteousness now through faith.

I hope you can see what difference this makes. On one level, it teaches us how to read our Bibles and understand our salvation, and that is that this doctrine of salvation is an end-time, an eschatological teaching, and yet it’s been brought forward into us now in Christ, who has achieved it for us. But more personally, the difference this makes is that it’s just a massive ground of Christian confidence and joy. What greater confidence could you want than to say, “Christ has stood in my place. He has borne the punishment of sin. He’s given me the righteousness that God requires of me. That end-time judgment verdict has already been pronounced because I’m in Christ. I’m safe forever in him.”

I remember one time when I was preaching, after I had dealt with some of these kinds of themes, and a young lady who was visiting—she had a Roman Catholic background—wanted to talk to me afterwards. She wanted to straighten me out on my theology. And this, this was her objection: she thought it was terribly arrogant to say, “Already I know that I’m saved.”

I said, “Well, when can I know that?”

“Well, you can’t know that till the end of time when the judgment happens.”

And I just thought exactly of these kinds of teachings—that that end-time judgment has already been pronounced. I have that already. That’s the glory of being in Christ. And that’s the confidence and safety we enjoy in Him. Amen.

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, what a wonderful theme this is. What a glory is ours to be in Christ and to have in him this supreme confidence that we are accepted by you forever. Lord, encourage us with this. We thank you for Christ. We thank you that we have in him already all that you require of us. In his name we pray.