Foundation of the Christian Faith
Course:
Salvation
Introductory Lesson One
Title: Just and the Justifier
Text: Romans
3:25-26, ‘Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, at
this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus.’
Introduction:
Question: Can
God do anything?
No - There are things that God cannot do.
God cannot deny
Himself. 2 Timothy
He must be
righteous in His actions.
The name Yahweh or
Jehovah (hwhy - YHVH) means ‘The One who is who He is’.
In Exodus
If God ever did something
contrary to His nature He would cease to be who He is.
Question: Can God allow sin to go unpunished?
No – God must
punish sin.
God must condemn
the sinner.
The love and mercy
of God can never contradict the holiness of God.
Holiness can never
condone sin.
Yet mercy desires
to forgive.
If God forgives
the sinner but leaves sin unpunished then God is unrighteous. He has denied Himself.
Yet God forgave
sins even before the crucifixion.
i)
In the
gospels (Mark
2:5).
ii)
In the
Old Testament. Psalm 103:3, ‘Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your
diseases;’
God must be just
when He justifies His people. Romans
God's promise of
salvation meant He had to be both just and the justifier of His people.
a)
The
promise - God promised in the Garden of Eden that He would send a Redeemer who
would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis
b)
The
problem - The Fall of Adam (Genesis 3) could not be eradicated. Once Adam and Eve were joined to sin this
union was irreversible. Even God could
not separate Adam from sin. Every
descendant of Adam inherited this irreversible union with sin.
c)
The
conundrum - How could God ever be just to justify a people who were
irreversibly joined to sin? Even the
angels could not understand how God could do this.
Introductory Illustration: A
contradictory argument.
Philosophy tries
to show that God does not exist by a contradictory argument. Here is the reasoning that is used.
Can God create a
stone He cannot lift?
If God can't
create it then He is not all powerful.
If God can't lift
it then He is not all powerful.
Conclusion: It
is not possible to perform both therefore an all powerful God does not exist.
The error of this
logic is that it is based upon a wrong concept of the nature of God. The attribute of omnipotence does not mean
God can perform any task.
Omnipotence means
He is in control of all things and is able to cause everything to work for the
good according to His divine plan and purpose (Romans
The
paradox of God.
God is holy and He
must condemn sin.
God is love and
desires to forgive.
a)
Sin
can only be justly forgiven when the law has been satisfied.
b)
If God
shows mercy with disregard to His holiness then He is denying Himself.
c)
In
order for God to be just in forgiving His people, He must also justify
(legally) His people.
d)
This
was impossible because mankind could never be separated from sin.
Main Points
1.
War in
heaven. Satan attacks the nature and
character of God.
It is amazing how
much we can see in scripture.
How could Lucifer
fight God?
He does not have
the resources.
Lucifer is a
created being and God can destroy him in an instant.
Jesus did not come
to destroy the devil. He came to destroy
the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8, 'He that commits sin is of the devil; for
the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.'
Satan's reasoning
Satan attempted to
make God deny Himself.
He saw his
opportunity because nothing could change Adam and Eve's sinful condition.
Even God could not
change the fact that Adam and Eve were sinful.
Their condition
was irreversible – they would die in their sins.
The death of God
In promising
salvation Satan thought God was promising what He could not rightly do.
Satan saw the love of God for the sinner contradicting the righteousness of God.
If God was not
acting righteously because of His love, then He was not being holy,
He was not the
unchanging God - He had changed in character.
Conclusion: The I AM THAT I AM no longer existed because
God had denied Himself. Therefore God is
dead.
Illustration:
The terrorists did
not have the resources to attack the
Lucifer used these
tactics to war against God. He did not have the resources to fight God but He
tried to attack God through His own nature and character.
2. The Accuser – attacking the nature and character of God.
Satan is called the accuser of the
brethren. His accusation was against the
promise of God to His people. Through
this he sought to attack the very nature and character of God. Revelation 12:10, ‘And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.’
Question: Why did Satan accuse God’s people?
To accuse God of
being unjust in His dealings with His people.
For at least 4000
years Satan accused God of justifying an unrighteous people and God kept
silent, but little by little He revealed to His prophets what He would do.
Note: When we are
spoken against unjustly it is something God understands very well. For at least
4000 years God allowed Satan to accuse Him of being unjust. Matthew
5:11-12, ‘Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and
be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.’
a)
Moses
God showed Moses
all the promised land from
Deut 34:6, ‘And he buried him in a valley in
the
But
Jude tells us more. He quotes from the Book of Enoch
Jude 9 ‘Yet Michael the
archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke
thee.’
What
is this all about?
Well
Moses instituted the law and the Aaronic
priesthood. But the law can only condemn
it cannot save and the sacrifices offered by the priests could not cleanse from
sin.
Moses
was a murderer and his sin was not removed, yet God said he was righteous.
Even the angels
could not understand how God could justify His people, ‘…things the angels desire to look into.’ 1 Peter 1:12b,
Michael
did not argue with the accuser but just said ‘the Lord rebuke you’.
b) Joshua the High Priest (Zechariah 3).
Joshua as the High Priest represents all of God's people.
Satan is accusing all of God's people when he accuses the High Priest.
Zechariah
3:1-3, ‘And he shewed
me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan
standing at his right hand to resist him.
And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke
thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen
The reason Satan accuses God's people is because he is accusing God of denying His holy character.
Satan's accusations are an attack against the nature of God.
3. God is declared to be just. (Romans 3:25-26)
The finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross declares the righteousness of God in
justifying His people both now and in the past.
God is seen to be righteous in forgiving His people in the Old Testament. His love has never contradicted His righteousness.
He is just in declaring His people to be righteous.
How
did God do it?
He
did not make the old better.
The
Old is crucified with Christ and buried with Christ.
If
any person is in Christ they are a new creation.
Colossians 2:13-15 explains it like this:
a)
Sins
forgiven v13
b)
The
law satisfied v14
c)
The
accuser silenced v15
'And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which
was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.'
The devil did
not understand why Jesus came.
The demons knew
Him, Matthew
They tried to
understand why he had come. They thought
he had come to execute judgment before the final judgment.
The princes would
not have crucified Jesus had they known.
The princes are
earthly rulers but it also refers to spiritual powers because they are the
instigators of their actions.
1
Corinthians 2:8 Which none of the
princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory.
Satan
can no longer accuse God’s people in the presence of God. The cross declares the righteousness of God
in His mercy towards them. Satan can
still make personal accusations against us but we are to put on the armour of God and resist him by standing on the Word of
God.
Summary:
God
is seen to be just in His dealings with His people.
1.
God must be just when He justifies His people. War in heaven – God
cannot deny Himself. His love and mercy cannot deny His holiness.
2.
The promise of God regarding salvation appeared impossible to fulfil. How could
God justify His people when they were united with sin and by nature children of
wrath? Satan’s accusation against the
people of God was an attack upon the promise of God to forgive them.
3.
The finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross has declared the
righteousness of God in His dealings with His people. God is and always has been just in forgiving
His people. He is shown to be just in forgiving sins before the
crucifixion because of His foreknowledge.