Word of Salvation - Vol.51 No.17 - May 2007

 

By Faith Alone

 

A Sermon by Rev Martin Geluk on Romans 3:21-24

(Sermon 1 of 3 on Faith Alone)

Scripture Reading:  Romans 3:9-31

Suggested Singing:  BoW 116:1,3,4; 474; 426

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In our series on the "solas" of the Reformation, after "Scripture alone" and "Christ alone" comes "faith alone". The scriptural teaching of 'by faith alone' has to do with justification by faith alone in Christ alone. The word 'justification' means to make just or to make right. How can sinners, who have a sinful nature, are inclined to sin, and daily commit sin, be made right with God, who is altogether pure and holy? That is the fundamental question. The answer from Scripture is - through Christ alone. That is, only the sinless Christ can take away, through His death, the sin and guilt of those whom God is saving. In other words, God wants us to believe that Christ sacrificed Himself for others by being their Substitute.

Justification by faith alone in Christ alone became the scriptural teaching that reformed the church in the 16th century from the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, which said that sinners are saved through Christ and by their good works. No, said the Reformers, believers are saved on the basis of Christ's work only. They looked at the apostle Paul, who, before he got to know Christ, thought he had plenty of good works acceptable to God. Paul boasted: "If anyone else thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eight day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" (Phil 3:4-6).

But when Paul was made to see his sinful state before God, he then said, "Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (Phil 3:7-9).

As the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone began to reform the church, Martin Luther said it spelt the end of the pope's pardons, purgatory, monastic vows, and the mass. Righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, remarked Luther, had little by little begun to overthrow the whole papacy. And John Calvin said, "Remove the knowledge of this doctrine (i. e., justification by faith) and the glory of Christ is extinguished, religion is abolished, the church destroyed, and the hope of salvation utterly overthrown."

1. Justification by faith alone in Christ alone is a necessary doctrine

Not only was the 'faith alone' teaching central to the Reformation and its success, it is still a fundamental question that each of us much answer for ourselves. One day you and I are going to die and stand before God. This will happen. How then can you, how then can I, be made right in His eyes? The Philippian jailer put it like this: "What must I do to be saved?" The answer, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:30-31). Believe! We are made right with God, not by living a moral life, because it would never be moral enough. Not by good works, because they would never be good enough. Nor by religious deeds, because they would never be pious enough. Only by faith alone in Christ alone.

Justification by faith alone in Christ alone is the heart of the gospel. And because it is, it is therefore also central to mission work. A book dealing with the five solas of the Reformation says that, since the Reformation, every fruitful ministry has seen a renewed emphasis on justification by faith alone. It said that the preaching of the great evangelists, John Bunyan, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, or Charles Spurgeon all majored on this doctrine. "No other doctrine so illustrates the sinfulness of man and the futility of his efforts to save himself. No other doctrine so glorifies Christ as the sole ground of our salvation. No other doctrine so establishes the security of the believer in Christ", as this doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. For this reason no other doctrine is so vital to biblical preaching and effective ministry.

And yet today this important biblical teaching is not popular. Koorong Christian bookstores stock many books on their shelves but there are not many titles dealing with justification by faith alone. What is popular today are books that deal with experiences and sensations. That's what people want and there are plenty of church leaders, scholars and pastors, who claim to be evangelical but who produce what people want and ignore this fundamental teaching of justification by faith alone, or distort it.

For example, the books by Rick Warren, 'The Purpose Driven Life' and 'The Purpose Driven Church' are seen everywhere, and whilst they do contain some good stuff, they mainly deal with what people think they need. Rick Warren's books give all kinds of advice on how to know your target audience and then how to attract them by meeting their needs. But there is hardly any mention of how sin destroys man's relationship with God. Hence, there is very little, if anything at all, about Christ having to die His substitutionary death because of man's sin and rebellion. Thus any reference to justification by faith alone in Christ alone is also lacking.

In 'The Purpose Drive Life' the author has a chapter on "Friendship between God and sinful man". In this heading there is mention of 'sinful man' but it would be more biblical if the heading was 'Enmity or conflict between God and sinful man' instead of 'friendship'. There is no friendship between God and sinful man until Christ has dealt with the problem of sin. It would appear from the book that the author assumes that Christ has died for everyone and people are now to develop friendship with God for being so nice to them. Six steps are then given as to how to do develop this friendship:

1. Through constant conversation with God;

2. Through constant meditation with God;

3. I must choose to be honest with God;

4. I must obey God in faith;

5. I must value what God values; and,

6. I must desire friendship with God more than anything else.

(pp 87-99)

There is not a word about the need to believe in Christ for being the Sacrifice, the Substitute. Hardly a word about how to fight sin and live holy before God.

In his book on the church, one also looks in vain for solid biblical teaching on what Christ achieved in His suffering and death on the cross. There is a chapter on how to develop mature church members. Again, it's all about programmes, values, building character, being positive, but there is hardly a mention of sin and repentance, and very little on being thankful to God for forgiveness of sins, denying oneself, and living in and through Jesus Christ.

Why are the basic biblical truths missing? Because there is no teaching about who God really is, nor about man being a sinner and having to believe in Christ as the only Saviour. There is just no theology but there is a lot of popular analysis of the sociological needs of man.

One only wishes that popular authors like Rick Warren had taken note of Calvin's warning that removing the knowledge of the doctrine of justification by faith alone will result in extinguishing the glory of Christ, destroying the church, and overthrowing the hope of salvation. Even better, would that the words of our text be taken seriously, "But now a righteousness of God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

What beautiful biblical teaching this is - a righteousness that God gives through Jesus Christ. He gives it to all who know and believe what Christ accomplished by His death on the cross. But before we can appreciate this gift of salvation we need to see our need for it. And to see our need is to realise we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It's a pity that some feel the church is always harping on sin. But Scripture mentions sin in order to for us to see that we have no righteousness of our own and therefore need the righteousness that God gives.

In other words, to understand justification by faith alone through Christ alone, we need to be clear on the nature of man and the nature of God. Only God is righteous. We are unrighteous. We cannot meet God's standard. We break His laws. We have rebelled against Him. Morally and religiously we have utterly failed. We are hopelessly lost.

And all people have sinned, the text says. Paul was thinking of both Jews and Gentiles. 'Gentiles' refers to everyone who is not a Jew, so that is the rest of mankind, and Romans 1 describes the sinful ways of mankind. People had knowledge about God from what He had revealed about Himself in man's conscience, nature and history. But they did not glorify God, they did not give thanks to God, but their "thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" (1:21).

But the Jews weren't any better, says Romans 2. Even though they knew of God through His good laws, they, too, fell far short of God's requirements. Thus in Romans 3, God came to say that no one is righteous, not even one. The fact that the Jewish people, notwithstanding God's long association with them from Abraham to Christ, are as unrighteous as anyone else in the world, makes it clear that today there is no advantage in being a Jew. The Jewish people, by virtue of their Jewishness, do not have a claim to God's grace. Paul once thought that he did because he belonged to Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews (Phil 3:5). But when he was made to see that he was as sinful as the Gentiles, then he considered all his Jewishness as a loss. Christ was his only hope.

So like Paul, we too have no claim to salvation on the basis of having moral and religious goodness. We have no claim to salvation because we are nice and decent people. We have no claim that we honestly seek after truth. God knows exactly what we are like and says: there is no one who does good. No one who seeks God.

So where does this place us in relation to God? Romans 1:18 says that God's wrath is "revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." Outside of Christ our situation is not just bad, it is hopeless. If you think this is over the top, then try looking at yourself as God looks at us. Even that is difficult because we cannot fully grasp God's standard of righteousness. As a young boy cannot grasp full manhood, as a junior clerk cannot grasp top management, as someone knowing only first-aid cannot grasp all medical knowledge, so also can sinful human beings not grasp the glory of God. We always fall short of it, says our text.

So what can we do? Nothing. After God has finished describing sinful human nature in Romans 3:10-18, we have nothing more to say. Verse 19 says God has silenced every mouth "and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin."

So how can we be saved? How can we stand before God? How can we escape being cut off from God forever? How can we not die eternal death? The gospel tells us that whatever we do in order to get right with God will not work. Our obedience is not pure enough. Our love is not earnest enough. It does not matter how many times we go to church, or say the creed, or sing spiritual songs, or put money in the offering bags. All attempts are futile. They are of no help to being saved. Our religion will not save us. Our morality will not save us. There is nothing we can do to escape destruction. Our efforts to make ourselves right with God just don't measure up. God is too holy and we are too corrupt.

So if we are to be right with God, then we must seek a righteousness, not in ourselves, but as our text says, from God. This righteousness, our text adds, comes to us "through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." So the holiness of God and the wickedness of man make faith in Christ the only way for sinners to be saved.

2. The nature of justification

What we need to do here is to say as clearly as we can what actually happens when we are justified before God. We receive justification, not with a blind faith, but with a knowing faith. So what must we know? God demands we fully obey all of His laws for all time. Not the ceremonial laws with respect to the sacrifices. They are now obsolete. We are talking here about God's will for our lives, as Christ and the apostles have explained it in the New Testament. Now as we have seen, we cannot fulfil that law. But Christ did. He obeyed God's will perfectly. Yet, Christ died. His perfect obedience ended in death. God punished Christ with the death penalty for the sins that others had committed.

So God's law was not suspended. It had not been altered. No, its demands were satisfied by Christ, acting on behalf of sinners. So God holds on to His justice. He did punish sin and He did so by putting His own Son to death on behalf of others. By Christ taking the sin and guilt away from sinners, God is now able to declare just those sinners who believe. What happens is that God gives His righteousness to those sinners for whom Christ died, for those who believe in Christ.

Let me try an illustration so that you might understand what justification means, although I am well aware that it is difficult to find an illustration that covers all aspects. Suppose a young man breaks a traffic law. Let's say he went through a red light and caused considerable damage to another car. The police camera picked it up and he has to pay a substantial fine. On top of that he was not insured, still studying and poor. His father, who realises the mess his son will be in if he doesn't pay up, decides to pay the fine and the cost of the damage caused. The inability of the son to pay is now covered by the father's ability. The father did not break the traffic law, yet his payment satisfies the court. The records will show that the son paid the fine and the damage caused, even though he didn't, but his father did. Because of what the father did, the son is now seen as having satisfied the law's demand. He is now right before the court because there is no longer a penalty against him.

What Christ did is a lot more. When He suffered for the sinner then Christ represented the sinner in His suffering. When Christ died for the sinner, then the sinner died with Christ. When Christ arose in His new life, then the sinner arose with Christ into a new life. This union with Christ in all that He did as the Saviour is a most blessed reality.

Now it is very important that we understand justification, not as a process, but as a declaration by God. Conversion is a process and so is growing in holiness. By process we mean that it happens over a period of time. But justification does not happen over time. It is a declaration by God. And to believe this is to instantly receive all the benefits of Christ's substitutionary death. When God declares the believing sinner right with Him, then the believer receives a new status. It does not instantly change the believer's nature or his life. That takes time, but in Christ he is right with God.

3. The ground of justification

When we say that we are justified by faith alone through Christ alone, then we have to be careful that we do not understand faith to be the basis. That's why the words 'through Christ alone' are added. The ground of our salvation is the work of Jesus Christ. It is not faith as such that saves. It is faith in Jesus Christ that saves.

So you must not trust that your faith will save you. Some say 'as long as you have faith' then you're right with God. If that were true, then it no longer matters what you believe but that you believe. But that of course is not what 'by faith alone' means. It's faith alone in Christ. Not faith in faith. If our faith were to be the basis for our salvation, then faith becomes a good work, an activity on our part for which God gives us credit. Ultimately, it would mean that Christ is not necessary any more. Faith does the trick. But 'by faith alone' we mean that faith is only the instrument whereby we lay hold on Christ the Saviour. Faith is the empty hand that receives the gift of righteousness from God.

We must also understand that believers who lived in the Old Testament times before Christ was born were also saved by faith alone in Christ alone. They were not saved by their obedience, and could not have been, because their obedience was as imperfect as those who lived after Christ was born. Believers in Old Testament times had to believe that Christ was coming and would save them by His death. God helped them in this by making frequent promises about the coming of Christ.

The first promise was given soon after the Fall into sin, and Adam and Eve believed God. They too were saved by faith alone. Over time God made it more clear how Christ would save. The whole sacrificial system in Old Testament times was a pointer to Christ the sacrifice for sin. And through the prophet Isaiah, who lived 700 years before Christ, God made it very clear, in chapter 53, that Christ would suffer and die as the Substitute. So whether believers believed that Christ would die for them at some point in the future, or believe that Christ has died for them at some point in the past, it has always been by faith alone in Christ alone.

Therefore we can still sing the words of Old Testament Psalm 32, and it is as truthful for us, who are after Christ's birth, as it was for believers who were before Christ's birth.

How blessed is he whose trespass has freely been forgiven,

whose sin is wholly covered before the sight of heaven.

Blest he to whom the Lord God does not impute his sin,

who has a guileless spirit, whose heart is true within.

The sorrows of the wicked increase from year to year,

but those who trust the Lord God know love instead of fear.

Then in the Lord be joyful, in song lift up your voice;

be glad in God, you righteous; rejoice, O saints, rejoice!

(BoW Ps 32:1,4)

Amen.