Justification By Faith & The Believer’s New Identity In Christ
Romans 4:5
Most Americans who were outraged in 1995 when O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman, found some satisfaction when he was found guilty of another crime last October and then sentenced to 9 years in prison. And as outraged as most of us probably were at the jury that acquitted Simpson back in 1995—can you imagine how much more outraged we would have been if he had been found guilty but then pardoned by the President of the United States. And how much more angry would we have been if the President, on national TV, said to Simpson: “In this full pardon that I am granting you, you shall be seen and considered as a law-abiding citizen with full rights of citizenship in this country and shall be treated as one who has never even committed the crime for which you were found guilty.” Something like this would probably have caused a riot every bit as destructive as the LA Riot of 1992 after the four police officers who had been charged with beating Rodney King were acquitted.
I mean, how can a person who really did break the law and especially in such an unbelievable horrendous manner be told that he is not guilty and then be treated as a law-abiding citizen, be restored to the full rights of citizenship, and not have to be punished for his crime? Well, let’s turn to Romans 4:5 and find out.
Do you know what it means when God justifies the ungodly? It means that God says to people who have broken His law in heinous and horrendous ways that they are not guilty, and that they are to be treated as those who have not broken His law, as well as given full rights to God’s Kingdom, and will never be punished for their crime. And all because they placed their trust in Jesus Christ, Who took their place as their sin bearer and stood in their place as their law-keeper. You see, this is what it means to be justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
Now we have over the last couple weeks considered the fact that in justifying us, God has separated our sins from us, covered them with Christ’s blood, and will never remember them again. Thus, in justification, the believer is indeed freed from his sin and from the penalty of his sin.
But there is more to justification than that. You see, in justifying the believing sinner God also credits him or her as having perfectly fulfilled His law and thus all of His demands and expectations for Christ’s sake. That’s right—as one who has been justified—you are seen by God as a “law-abiding” citizen of His Kingdom even though in your experience you were and are a law-breaker.
Now how can this be? Because as our substitute, Christ obeyed perfectly on our behalf and in our place, every aspect of God’s Law and thus perfectly and completely satisfied everything God expects, requires, and demands of us. This is also what it means to be justified. This is what it means when we say that the moment a person places genuine faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very righteousness of Christ is then imputed to him and applied to his account.
If we do not understand that in imputing Christ’s righteousness to our account—that God really and actually sees us as having perfectly fulfilled and obeyed everyone of His Laws, in Christ Jesus our substitute—we do not understand our justification and certainly can never totally enjoy it.
Look at Romans 8:1-4. Verse 4 makes the point that those who are in Christ, which is defined as those who no longer walk in the flesh but according to the Spirit—which according to verse 9—simply means you’re saved—are those who have had the Law of God fulfilled—and that means obeyed— on their behalf and in their place by Christ.
In other words, besides having all your sins removed from you and covered by the blood of Jesus and besides being granted all of Christ’s righteousness—you, as a believer in Christ Jesus have had the total requirements of God’s Law fulfilled on your behalf by Christ so that when God looks at you and your life—He sees that His Law has been perfectly fulfilled in you.
Paul, in Romans 10:4 makes the point that Christ is the end or the fulfillment of the Law to everyone who believes. The word “end” comes from the Greek word telos and means: the completion, the fulfillment, the accomplishment, the conclusion, or the end of something. In this verse then, Paul is telling us that Christ has completed, fulfilled, and accomplished all of the Laws requirements on our behalf and thus has brought to an end its righteous obligations and demands against us.
What this means is that in effect, as far as God is concerned, the person who has placed faith in Christ Jesus for salvation not only has been separated from all of his sin and separated from his sin record, he is also seen as one who, in union with Christ and because of Christ, has completely kept and obeyed all of God’s law perfectly and thus, has nothing to answer for as far as sin and the breaking of God’s law is concerned. In a sense, it is as though the believer has never sinned because in justification, God reckons to the believer’s account the fact that Christ Jesus perfectly fulfilled God’s Law on our behalf as our substitute.
Listen, if Christ was our perfect substitute as Scripture says and took all our sin upon Him and gave us all His righteousness then we are seen by God as those who are as righteous as He is because we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness. And in that righteousness of Christ’s, which is applied to our account, is the fact that Christ in His life perfectly obeyed and thus fulfilled all of God’s law on behalf of the people He came to die for.
If this is true, as the Scriptures teach it is, then we have to conclude that the believer is one who, in Christ and because of Christ, has no sin reckoned to his account any longer and in fact is seen by God as one who has perfectly kept His Law.
In other words, the believer is seen by God, in the act of justification, the moment he first believes and for all of eternity, as a person whose sin has been completely removed, covered, forgiven, and who has perfectly met and obeyed all the righteous requirements of God’s Law. Thus, as far as God is concerned, the justified sinner is not only declared righteous—in God’s sight he is righteous.
Oh, I know that we are not experientially righteous—that is—I realize that in our life experience we are growing in righteousness as we are fighting sin. But, in our position before God—as He really sees us—we have not only been declared righteous—we are righteous and this is our new identity in Christ.
Listen, God doesn't say things about us that aren't in fact true. And so if God says we are justified—which is what He declares us to be on account of Christ—then we must truly and really be righteous in our position before God. I have heard preachers say that when we are saved it is only a legal –pronouncement and that there's no real change in our identity and position before God at all, it is simply that God declares us righteous but does not necessarily see us as really righteous and totally sin free. That is not true.
There is a declaration, there is a legal statement but there is a second aspect and theologians call this the ontology of justification, or the reality of it and it is this that God not only declares us to be righteous based on the satisfying work of Christ, but in Christ, He makes us righteous in our position and standing before Him.
In other words, in declaring us righteous, God also gives us a new status, a new position, and a new identity before Him as one who in His sight is righteous.
The Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646 put it this way:
“Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God.”
Now we are not made righteous in our experience—that is what happens in our sanctification as we grow in Christ to become as righteous as He says we are in our position before Him. And this is the reason why throughout the Epistles, the motivation for believers to live righteously is that they are righteous. In other words, our sanctification is the living out of the truth of our salvation. And so, you must see then, that when you were justified by faith you were not only declared righteous by God—you were made righteous by God. That which is declared about us by God can only be declared because in fact it is true that we have been recreated in His image and thus are righteous before Him. That is one reason why in Hebrews 2:11, Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers, because in a very real sense we bear the same family markings, the same family nature, which is the imputed righteousness of God.
I have told you before that one of my most favorite passages in the Bible is the story of the prodigal son. The reason for this is because it is not a story about a prodigal son as much as it is a story about a gracious merciful and loving father and His act of justifying his prodigal son. Turn to Luke 15:11-24. Now, we don’t have time to pull everything out of this story that is possible to pull out but I do want you to see how Jesus illustrates our justification in his story.
When the prodigal son came to his senses and began the journey home to seek his father’s mercy, he was surprised to meet his father out looking for him. (17-20)
What the son did when he saw his father we don’t know but we do know what the father did—he ran and actually the word in Greek is “sprinted” for his son and embraced him and continually kissed him over and over again before the returning boy had a chance to say a word. In other words, the Father had already forgiven him apart from anything the lad had done, said, or thought. But even though completely forgiven and restored to fellowship, the father could not have the prodigal son travel through the village and then enter into his home and sit at his table in the filthy sinful rags of the far country. So immediately, after expressing his forgiveness of and love for his wayward son, the father, in verse 22, tells his servants to “quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him.” Now the best robe was the father’s robe and so the son’s rags—his sinful rags, if you will, are removed from him and he is clothed in a new robe—the robe that was his father’s. In other words, the father’s robe in which the son was robed signifies the father’s own righteousness provided to the son as his own.
It's as if the son cannot receive all the blessedness of the father's table until he is robed in the right robe. And in addition to that—the Father’s desire was not to parade his son’s sin for all to see as it would have been seen in the rags his son was wearing from the far country—His desire was to remove every vestige of his son’s sin and cover him up with his own robe so as to turn the attention of onlookers from his son’s sinful disgrace to his own grace. And that glorified the father.
Listen the forgiven son is not who is glorified in this story—it is the wondrously gracious and forgiving father who is glorified.
I think the parable illustrates beautifully what happens when we place faith in Christ. The Father—not only forgives us and removes our filthy rags and garments of sin from us—He then gives us the best robe—His own robe—the robe of His righteousness and not only declares us righteous—He makes us righteous in our position and standing before Him as well. And then, just like the prodigal in verses 22-24, we are granted not only full forgiveness and full reconciliation but also the full privileges that come with being a son of God who has come of age and proved himself worthy.
Now why do I say that? Why do I say that we like the prodigal are treated by God as those who have come of age and proved themselves worthy? Because in giving the prodigal son his ring and in killing the fatted calf and in having a party for him, the Father is doing for him what was done for a son in those days who had come of age and had indeed proved himself worthy as a son before the Father. But—he didn’t prove himself worthy. In fact, all he did was prove himself unworthy. And this is true, but and this is a great big “but”—the Father in giving the son his own robe made him worthy. And that is exactly what He has done for us when we came to Him for forgiveness and reconciliation—He by virtue of applying Christ’s righteousness to us and Christ’s keeping of His Law to us—gave us His best robe and made us righteous, which makes us worthy before Him as a son.
But notice the older son’s reaction in verses 25-30. He is angry that his brother can be so easily and quickly and completely forgiven and not have to be made to grovel before the family as one who is shamed instead of welcomed and received by the Father. Interestingly enough, the only one in this story who remembers and brings up the sin of the forgiven sinner is not the Father but rather the older religious brother—the one who spurned and despised his father’s wondrous grace.
Again, God does not say things that are not true and He does not say things about us that are not true. If you have come to Christ for salvation then you are saved because you have not only been declared righteous—in God’s sight you are righteous.
CONCLUSION
As we close, look back at verse 24 one more time.
Notice that it says, “And they began to celebrate.” Listen, when you were saved—when you first placed your faith in Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior—God the Father declared you righteous and the party began. And the party will never ever end.
Listen, the Bible in Luke 15:7, 10, the same chapter we find the story of the prodigal son in, tells us that when you repented and placed your faith in Christ that there was great joy in heaven. And what is important to realize is that as great as this joy is in heaven the moment you first believed—there is a day coming when it will be even greater and much more intense and even more glorious.
That is day when in death you actually go home and arrive at that party in heaven that started the day you first believed. And that party only gets better as we spend eternity in a never-ending celebration of the grace, mercy, and glorious joy of our Heavenly Father as people who truly have been given a new identity in Christ Jesus. But until we get to the party—let us live as people who have a new identity in Christ—let us live righteous lives because in God’s sight we are righteous.
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