Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Romans 4:24-25 | Date: April 12, 2020 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Thank you, Pastor Boyd. You will take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter four. I think this often at Easter, that it is just enormously difficult, maybe I guess just impossible, for us really to enter into the experience of those people who lived in Jerusalem in those days. Here we have this one Jesus, who as Peter says, went about doing good, not only performing miracles in a general sense, but going about healing people, even raised the dead. Certainly a great attention given to him, a lot of talk around Jerusalem, all around the area, excitement about who he was. And then of course he runs into the opposition of the Jewish leadership, and eventually he’s crucified.

And then you just can’t imagine when the word started going around Jerusalem Sunday: He’s alive. That this one who everyone saw dead, crucified, he’s alive again. And the ladies saw him, and the disciples saw him, and more disciples saw him. He’s alive. Surely that has to mean something. The ancients weren’t stupid. They knew this kind of thing doesn’t just happen. That has to mean something. What is it? And one of the clearest passages in the Bible that answers that question is in Romans chapter four, verse 25.

Now in Romans three through eight, we have what’s recognized as Paul’s great exposition of that wonderful theme of justification by faith. In Romans 3, beginning with verse 21, all the way through the end of the chapter, Paul presents the doctrine of justification in very compressed kind of language, but in very important detail as well. In chapter 4 then now, in Romans 4, he offers two Old Testament illustrations of justification by faith: David and Abraham. With regard to Abraham, Paul quotes Genesis chapter 15 and verse six, which says, “He, Abraham, believed the Lord and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

All right, now in Romans four, beginning in verse 22, verses 22 to 25, Paul wraps up that whole discussion with these words: “This is why his faith was, quote, ‘counted to him as righteousness.’ But the words, ‘it was counted to him,’ or ‘it was imputed to him,’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours only. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord.” And here’s our text: “Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Notice that again: who was Christ, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

What Is the Connection?

Again, the question I want to consider this morning, I want to focus our attention on it, is the last half of verse 25: Christ was raised for our justification. So the question is, what’s the connection? What’s the connection between Christ’s resurrection and our justification? We sang it: “Rising, he justified.” So just how is that?

Let’s back up and get the big picture as Paul gives it in Romans 3 and 4. The most important question any of us can face is, “How can I be right with God?” Now, that question assumes several things, of course. It assumes that we’re not right with God. It assumes that we need to be. It assumes that we’re sinners. It assumes that God is the judge, that we’re accountable to him, that there’s a final judgment, and so on. But given all of those assumptions, this is life’s most important question. How can we be right with God?

Now in biblical terminology, the question is, “How can I be justified?” The word “justified” is a very important word in the Bible. If you don’t know it, you need to learn it. How can we be justified? Justified means declared righteous. It’s a term that has legal connotations. It envisions a courtroom. And in this case, it’s a courtroom where God is the judge and we’re the accused. Standing before God, the judge, the big question is, “How can he declare us to be righteous?”

Now that question—how can he, God, declare us to be righteous?—that question is complicated by the fact that God is a righteous judge, a just judge. We are unjust. We are unrighteous. And the question at issue is, how can he, the righteous judge, declare us to be righteous when in fact we’re unrighteous? Will he just pretend? Will he lie? It’s a tough question. And it’s a real problem. And actually, it’s the first problem that our salvation faces. In its first instance, our salvation is not a question we face. In its first instance, it’s a question that God faces. God doesn’t need to save us. But if he would save us, how could he? He could never deny himself. He must always act in righteousness and in keeping with all of his perfections. But that’s just the problem. On what possible grounds and by what conceivable means could God maintain his righteousness while declaring unrighteous people to be righteous?

That’s the question. Other religions, all other religions, either play down that question or ignore it altogether. But that is the question that the Christian gospel faces squarely. How can a righteous God declare unrighteous people to be righteous? And the answer to that question is given in the doctrine of justification. The Apostle Paul expounds that doctrine, as I said, at length here in Romans 3 through 8.

The short answer to the question, of course, is Jesus. We all know that. We’re in church. The answer to all the questions is Jesus. How can God, the righteous judge, declare unrighteous people to be righteous? The short answer is Jesus, our righteous substitute. He took all the sin of all of his people to himself. And on the cross, he offered himself in sacrifice to God, bearing the curse of our sin. And God cannot now, cannot now condemn us because that judgment that he owes us has already fallen on our substitute. The demands of God’s justice are satisfied in Christ. And so divine justice now demands our acquittal.

And that’s what Paul means. If you’d like to look over across the page at Romans 5 verse 9, what he means when he says we are “justified by his blood,” justified by Christ’s blood. There’s an old hymn, a couple hundred years old, that I just love that says this very well: “I hear the accuser roar of ills that I have done. I know them well and thousands more. Jehovah findeth none. Though the restless foe accuses, sins recounting like a flood, Every charge our God refuses, Christ has answered with his blood.” That’s what Paul means when he says, “justified by his blood.” Because Jesus Christ, the righteous one, took our place and bore our curse, bore our sin, because he satisfied the demands of justice against us, we go free.

The Great Exchange

But there’s more. Because Christ is in our place, in justifying us, God not only pardons our sin, but he also declares us righteous. Justification is a positive declaration that having examined the evidence, we are declared before the court to be in fact righteous. So we’re not just saying that in justification our sins are pardoned. We’re saying that in justification, the court declares us to be righteous. It declares that we have done all that we have ought to have done before God; the court, the judge himself, declares we have not sinned.

Now, how is that? And the answer, of course, is what you’ve heard me say a hundred times, that there was this great exchange. Jesus Christ, the righteous, took our sin and in exchange, he gave us his righteousness. Now that’s the doctrine of imputation. Our sin was imputed to Christ, put to his account. His righteousness was imputed or put to our account. God condemned Christ, his own son, the sin bearer, in our place. And now he accepts us as sons in his son. He declares us righteous because of the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us.

Normally in a court proceeding, a person is justified after it is shown to the court that he has not broken the law or when there’s a lack of evidence that he has broken the law. Now in our case, in this court, the court of heaven before God, we have in fact broken the law. We’re guilty. And the evidence is overwhelming. But to answer the problem, Christ both takes our punishment and gives us the righteousness that the divine court requires. He’s our substitute in both senses. Necessarily, our justification entails imputation. We couldn’t make it on our own, but Christ’s righteousness is counted as ours.

Now all of that is very important. It is essential to justice. When God declares us righteous, he is not pretending. It is not legal fiction. It is actually the case that justice is satisfied. Christ has answered for us in his curse-bearing death and in transferring to our account the righteousness that God requires of us. God pronounces us righteous. In justification, we receive both pardon for sin and righteousness because of our union with Jesus Christ. And all of the demands of divine justice are satisfied for us in him. And that is to say, God did not sidestep justice in saving anyone. Instead, at his own expense, He provided in our place everything that we need in Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ did for us everything that God required of us. Because of our righteous substitute, we now, on righteous grounds, are declared to be righteous.

That’s why after Paul expounds all of this in brief in Romans 3, verse 21 and following, he says in verse 26 that the gospel is the display of the righteousness of God. You might expect to read that the gospel is the display of the love of God. And that, of course, is wonderfully true. But that’s not the point here. The gospel is not just a display of the love of God. It is a display of the righteousness of God. God saves us by Christ, Paul says, so that he may be just and the justifier. The major obstacle to our salvation—the righteousness of God—the major obstacle to our salvation is removed and it’s removed on righteous grounds by our righteous substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And God declares us to be righteous. And when he does so, he does so righteously.

Now, Paul expounds on all of that in a compressed way in Romans 3, verses 19, all the way through the end of the chapter, verse 31. Next now, in chapter 4 of Romans, you can glance through it if you’d like, and illustrates all of this from the Old Testament scriptures and the experience of David and the experience of Abraham. In Genesis 15 and in Psalm 32, both of which Paul quotes here in Romans 4, we read of our acceptance before God by faith alone and by an imputed righteousness. So Paul’s illustrating the doctrine that he expounded in the previous verses. Both David and Abraham were justified by grace. That is, they’re declared righteous by no work of their own.

Christ’s Vindication

All right. So what does all of that have to do with the resurrection of Christ? Notice again Romans 4, 24 and 25, where Paul explicitly links our justification to Christ’s resurrection. Verse 24, where he says, “It (that is righteousness) will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Now that is Paul’s first mention of the resurrection of Christ in this whole discussion. How did he get there? There seems to be some kind of unexpressed assumption in verse 25b. He was delivered for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Something’s going on there that he doesn’t express explicitly. So what is it? “Raised for our justification.” How’d that happen?

Now notice we have two parallel clauses. Take your time and think through verse 25. We have two parallel clauses. Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Notice again, more carefully, there are two—and I’ll use the grammatical expression—these two prepositional phrases, the two “for” expressions. Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Now, the first line, I think, is easier to understand on a first reading. Christ was delivered up “for,” for here meaning “in the sense of on account of.” Christ was delivered up on account of our trespasses. That is, our transgressions were the reason for Jesus’ death. He went to the cross bearing our sin; God put him there in our place to take our curse. That’s 24a. To say it again, our transgressions were the reason for his death. Verse 25b then tells us that our justification was the reason for his resurrection. He was raised on account of our justification. Again, there seems to be some kind of unexpressed assumption here. So what is it? In what sense was Christ raised for our justification?

On our way to answering that, I want you to keep your hand in Romans 4, if you have your Bible in front of you, but look over at 1 Timothy 3. First Timothy 3:16 is a marvelous summary of the person and work of Christ. It even seems like an early Christian confession that was familiar to them. “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory.”

Here, Paul gives a wonderful summary of the person and work of Christ. He was manifested in the flesh. That is, he became the incarnate Son of God. God the Son became a man. Next, he was vindicated by the Spirit. We’ll look at that in a minute. Third, he was seen by angels in his triumph. Fourth, he was proclaimed among the nations in the church’s Great Commission. Fifth, he was believed on in the world in his successful gospel advance. And finally, he was taken up into glory in his ascension.

Now I’m going to back up and notice that second statement. “Christ was vindicated by the Spirit.” That refers to the Holy Spirit’s activity in raising Jesus from the dead. In the New Testament, Jesus’ resurrection is consistently spoken of in the passive voice. He was raised. He was raised by God the Father, and here by means of the Holy Spirit. And his resurrection here is described as his vindication. Now, if you happen to have the old King James Version in front of you, you’ll notice that it’s translated, “He was justified by the Spirit.” That’s our word here, justified. Christ was justified by the Spirit in his resurrection.

The great hope of Israel was the resurrection of the righteous. Isaiah spoke of it. Daniel prophesied it explicitly. There are traces of the resurrection hope as we’ve seen, I think, last year in our evening studies. There are traces of the resurrection hope as far back as Genesis. In the day of Messiah, the righteous, so long oppressed, would finally be vindicated in resurrection. And before God, they would be acknowledged as his, and all the world would know it. Finally, the tables will be turned, and the righteous will be acknowledged as such. They would be vindicated in the great resurrection.

Jesus was the first to experience that resurrection. And all the biblical passages that speak of Christ’s resurrection remind us that his resurrection was, in fact, that long-anticipated resurrection of the age to come. Now, others, like Lazarus, had been resuscitated only to die again, but not Jesus. His resurrection was the resurrection of the age to come, the final, the eschatological resurrection. He emerged from the tomb with a glorified body, and he, before anyone else, had entered into the age to come. And so Christ’s resurrection says something. It is the announcement of his justification, the announcement of his vindication.

He was vindicated of all of the unjust verdicts against him. He was vindicated with reference to his death, which he said was for sinners. He had said he would give his life a ransom for many. He had said he would give his life for his sheep. He had said that his death would affect the forgiveness of sins for his people. He had said that his death would establish fellowship with God for his people. He said that in his death, he would accomplish the salvation of all of his people. And now in his resurrection, God publicly announces that it is so.

Now that idea is echoed in Acts chapter 17. You remember when Paul was at Mars Hill with the philosophers. In Acts 17 verses 30 and 31, Paul declares that by the resurrection of Christ, God has given notice to the world that Christ will come and judge the world in righteousness. I’ll read the verses for you. Acts 17:30 and 31: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Jonathan Edwards was the great American theologian of the 18th century. He puts it this way: “For if Christ were not risen, it would be evidence that God was not yet satisfied for our sins. Now the resurrection is God declaring his satisfaction. He thereby declared it was enough. Christ was thereby released from his work. Christ, as he was the mediator, is thereby justified.”

Now, of course, Christ’s justification differs from ours in one very important way. Christ’s justification was not by imputation. No righteousness was imputed to him from the outside. The ground of our Lord’s justification was his very own righteousness. He had no need of a substitute righteousness. And in his resurrection, before God, he was declared to the world to be righteous. He was vindicated.

Participation in Christ’s Resurrection

Now, going back to Romans four, verse 25, all of that informs and helps us understand what Paul is talking about. Christ was delivered up on account of our trespasses and raised on account of our justification. Our sin was the reason for his death and our justification was the reason for his resurrection. The unexpressed assumption in verse 25 and that second clause is his, Christ’s, resurrection or Christ’s justification. In his death, he identified with us in such a way that our punishment became his. So also in his resurrection, he identified with us such that his vindication and his justification becomes ours. He was accursed in death, in union with his people. And he was raised in vindication, in union with his people. And just as his resurrection declared his vindication, so also his resurrection declares the vindication of all who are in union with him. He was raised on account of our justification.

The songwriter put it well: “Living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away, rising he justified freely forever.” Very simply, the resurrection of Christ is the divine announcement of Christ’s vindication and therefore ours. This is reflected also in the famous statement of 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, where Paul tells us that Christ was made unto us righteousness. All the passages in the New Testament that speak of our having the righteousness of Christ assume this. He died for our sins. He was raised for our justification.

Christ’s justification declared in his resurrection becomes ours as we are united to him by faith. If Jesus was justified in his resurrection, and if in his resurrection he was in solidarity with us, then our justification is caught up in his. Our justification is nothing more and nothing less than a participation in Christ’s own resurrection justification. God vindicated him, and in association with him, we are vindicated also.

Now there’s more, there’s lots more. The gospel promises to us much more than, if we can say this, more than just justification. It promises renewal, it promises transformation, it promises glorification, but all of those hinge on the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, our regeneration, our renewal, our transformation, our eventual bodily resurrection and glorification, all of those are just a participation with Christ in his resurrection. But this justification is basic. Declared righteous in Christ and therefore accepted by God, all the other blessings follow.

So that Sunday morning in Jerusalem, when they found Jesus’ tomb empty, a new era began, an era that was marked by the marvelous proclamation that sinners can be right with God. God, the righteous judge, declares us righteous by virtue of our union with his crucified and vindicated son. And that is the glory of belonging to Jesus Christ. We are accepted, as Paul puts it in Ephesians 1, we’re accepted in him. Our whole hope before God is Jesus. Our whole hope of acceptance rests entirely on his acceptance. Our hope of vindication in final judgment rests wholly on his vindication. Or back to Romans 4:25, our whole hope is Christ, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

And that is the message of Easter. That’s the message of the resurrection of Christ. When the Lord Jesus came out of that tomb, he brought our justification with him. He was declared righteous. He was vindicated, and in union with Him, our vindication is therefore established also. Well, as we’ve done before in our webinar meetings, I’d like to open this up now for discussion about all of this. Not general discussion, but on this topic, perhaps Pastor Greg or Pastor Boyd would like to add something or questions from any others.