WHY TEACHING AND UNDERSTANDING JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IS SO IMPORTANT

"For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Romans 3:20-26 ESV

Martin Luther considered justification by faith to be "the chief article of Christian doctrine. To him who understands how great its usefulness and majesty are, everything else will seem slight and turn to nothing. For what is Peter? What is Paul? What is an angel from heaven? What are all creatures in comparison with the article of justification? For if we know this article, we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness. Therefore if you see this article impugned or imperiled, do not hesitate to resist Peter or an angel from heaven; for it cannot be sufficiently extolled."

Justification is a declaration of God to a repentant sinner that not only are all his sins are forgiven, but also that He is acquitted, the wrath of the judge is removed, and he stands righteous before God. God announces that something has been taken away (our sin) and something has been added (the righteousness of Christ).

John Piper in his book Counted Righteous in Christ discusses why it is so critical in understanding the imputed righteousness of Christ in our daily lives.

Teaching and Understanding Justification by Faith is important:

1.For the sake of Marriage
I have a family to care for. The marriage must survive and thrive for the good of the children and the glory of Christ. God designed marriage to display the holy mercy of Christ and the happy sub-mission of his church (Ephesians 5:21-25). My own experience has been that the doctrine of justification by faith, and the imputed righteousness of Christ, is a great marriage saver and sweetener.

What makes marriage almost impossible at times is that both partners feel so self-justified in their expectations that are not being fulfilled. There is a horrible emotional dead-end street in the words, "But it's just plain wrong for you to act that way," followed by, "That's your perfectionist perspective," or "Do you think you do everything right?," or hopeless, resigned silence. The cycle of self-justified self-pity and anger seems unbreakable.

But what if one or both of the partners becomes overwhelmed with the truth of justification by faith alone, and with the par­ticular truth that in Christ Jesus God credits me, for Christ's sake, as fulfilling all his expectations? What would happen if this doc­trine so mastered our souls that we began to bend it from the ver­tical to the horizontal? What if we applied it to our marriages?
In our own imperfect efforts in this regard, there have been breakthroughs that seemed at times impossible. It is possible, for Christ's sake, to simply say, "I will no longer think merely in terms of whether my expectations are met in practice. I will, for Christ's sake, regard my wife (or husband) the way God regards me—complete and accepted in Christ—and to be helped and blessed and nurtured and cherished, even if in practice there are shortcomings." I know my wife treats me this way. And surely this is part of what Paul was calling for when he said that we should forgive "one another . . . as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32, ESV). I believe there is more healing for marriage in the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness than many of us have even begun to discover.


2. For the sake of WAYWARD CHILDREN
I do not believe that even per­fect parenting could prevent all wilderness wanderings of our children. Mainly because of what God said in Isaiah 1:2: "Heat; 0 heavens, and give ear, 0 earth; for the LORD has spoken: 'Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me" (ESV). But how do you survive and press on when a child has left the fold of God? What truth keeps you on your face in hope-full prayers and on your way to minister to others with needs as great as your own? No truth other than "the justification of the ungodly" gives as much hope for parents of a prodi­gal. Not only because our son or daughter may yet awaken to the hope that Christ is willing to be his or her righteousness—no matter what he or she has done—but also because the viperous guilt of failed parenting is defanged by the justification of the ungodly. Dad and Mom find a way to press on because their perfection in Christ.

3. For the sake of BIBLICAL COUNSELING
There is so much bro­kenness. So much sin that seems intransigently woven together with forms of failing family life and distorted personal perspec­tives. And it doesn't yield to quick remedies. After several decades of watching the mental health care system at work from the inside and outside, I am less hopeful about the effectiveness of (even Christian) psychotherapy than I used to be. I don't see any one strategy of helping people possessing a corner on all wisdom. But more than ever I believe the essential foundation of all heal­ing and all Christ-exalting wholeness is a soul-penetrating grasp of the glorious truth of justification by faith, distinct from and grounding the battle for healthy, loving relationships. Good counseling patiently builds the "whole counsel" of God" (Acts 20:27) into the head and heart of sinful and wounded people. And at the center of it is Christ our righteousness.

4. For the sake of WORLD EVANGELIZATION
Over the past twenty years of leading a missions-mobilizing church I have seen with increasing clarity that teacher-based church planting and not just friend­ship-based church planting is crucial among peoples with no Christian history. In other words, doctrinal instruction becomes utterly crucial in planting the church.

This is not surprising, since embedded in the Great Commission is the command, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20), and since Paul planted the church in Ephesus by reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus for two years, "so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord" (Acts 19:10). In other words, it is more clear to me now that doing missions without deep doctrinal transfer through patient teaching will not only wreck on the vast reefs of ignorance but will, at best, produce weak and ever-dependent churches. Therefore, pastors who care about building, sending, and going churches must give themselves to building sending bases that breed doctrinally-deep people who are not given to emotional dependency on fads but know how to feed themselves on Christ-centered truth.

The second thing I would say about the doctrine of justifica­tion and missions is that Paul develops this doctrine in the book of Romans in a way that shows it is absolutely universal in its relevance. It crosses every culture. It is not a tribal concept. He does this by building part of the doctrine out of the connection between Adam and Christ in Romans 5:12-21. For example, take only verse 19: "For as by the one man's disobedience the many were appointed sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be appointed righteous." This, along with the whole context, shows that what Christ came to do in his obedience was univer­sal in its scope and significance. It is not just for the posterity of Abraham, but for the posterity of Adam—namely, everyone.

The problem Jesus came to solve was a problem unleashed by the first man, leading to condemnation and corruption for all people everywhere in all cultures and all times. This is a stunning discovery for many people. The diagnosis of what needs to be remedied is the same in all cultures because it stems from Adam, the father of all cultures. Therefore the work of Christ to provide a "free gift of righteousness" (Romans 5:17, ESV) to all who will "receive" it is absolutely sufficient and necessary for every person in every culture everywhere in the world. And thus the doc­trine of justification becomes a warrant for the universal claim of Christian missions.

5. For the sake of WORSHIP
The imputed righteousness of Christ has been a great cause joyful worship over the centuries and has informed many hymns and worship songs. The theme has cut across Calvinist‑ Arminian, Lutheran-Reformed, and Baptist-Presbyterian divides...The doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness has not been experienced as marginal or minor in the worship of Christ. It has been explosive with revival power, personal comfort," and deep, biblically-rooted joy in worship.

Basking in the historical truth of the imputation of Christ's righteousness,
Pastor Bill