Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 37 – The essence of God – Justice. Rom 3:21-26; 4:1-5; Jam 2:14-19.

Title: Doctrine of the Angelic Conflict, part 37 - The essence of God - Justice. ROM 3:21-26; 4:1-5; JAM 2:14-19.

 

 

The most dramatic display of divine justice, as well as righteousness and love (integrity) was at the cross.

 

Christ was judged as a substitute for us. Our Lord never complained about being judged unfairly for us.

 

Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God was qualified to go to the Cross because He remained absolutely perfect in His humanity, because His humanity remained inside the prototype plan given to Him from the Father. He fulfilled the Mosaic Law, the only One to do so, and never once lost His impeccability. Therefore, He was qualified to be made sin for us.

 

Portrayed in the OT as the spotless lamb, Jesus Christ remained perfect so that He could die a spiritual death as a substitute for us, so that whoever believed in Him would be justified.

 

While on the Cross, our Lord remained impeccable. Even though the ridicule He received was intensified and Satanically inspired, not once did our Lord succumb to the greatest of temptations during His first three hours on the Cross.

 

Then during the last three hours on the Cross, the justice of God called for the printout of all the personal sins ever committed in the human race. The omnipotence of God the Father imputed all those sins to Jesus Christ on the Cross.

 

Then the justice of God the Father made the most difficult decision of all time—to judge every sin ever committed by all the members of the human race.

 

ISA 53:8

But the Lord was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

 

For three hours He administered this decision to judge sins ad infinitum; so many sins that they numbered in the trillions or even hundreds of trillions.

 

Luke 23:44

And it was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour

 

Matt 27:46

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, " Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? "that is," My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? "

 

There never has been a sin committed in the history of the human race which was not judged on the Cross. That is why anyone who believes in Christ “shall never perish but have eternal life.”

 

Because God’s perfect righteousness demands the judgment of sin, all the sins had to be judged on the Cross.

 

John 1:29

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

 

The justice and righteousness of God were the point of contact with Jesus Christ in Hypostatic Union on the Cross. His humanity had to be judged for our sins. This was why He said, the night before His crucifixion, “This represents My body which is given for you; take and eat thereof.”

 

Jesus Christ remained perfect in His humanity while He was being judged for our sins.

 

1 Peter 2:24

and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

 

Therefore, God’s justice was satisfied at the cross through the work of Christ so that anyone who believes in Him is justified forever.

 

ROM 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

 

ROM 3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

 

ROM 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

ROM 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

 

ROM 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

 

“propitiation” - i`lasth,rion[hilasterion] = satisfaction, mercy seat, expiation or atonement where sin is covered and remitted.

 

ROM 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 

The cross, or the gospel is our introduction to justice and now the believer has the opportunity to live in justice.

 

The believer operates in God’s justice when he does in thought, word, deed what divine Righteousness determines.

 

What righteousness demands justice executes and the same is true for the believer. Whatever he knows of God’s righteousness will spur him to action in thought, word, and deed and as such he would be experientially justified before all witnesses in the AC.

 

Positional justification - at the moment of salvation, being justified before God forever based on the work of Christ.

 

We use Abraham as the example given in the NT.

 

ROM 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?

 

ROM 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God.

 

ROM 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."

 

ROM 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due.

 

ROM 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,

 

ROM 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

 

Experiential justification - when imputed divine righteousness reveals itself in deeds or fruit (thought, word, action). In this sense the word comes to mean vindication.

 

We can actually use vindication for justification at salvation since faith in Christ vindicates the work of Christ. God can do nothing that is not holy, righteous, and justified, and if faith in Christ opens the grace pipeline for God to impute +R and justify the believer forever, then the work of Christ is vindicated as complete or finished.

 

Post salvation vindication or justification by works has nothing to do with salvation, rather it is the evidence or vindication of the +R of God in the believer functioning by means of grace.

 

Our Biblical example of this is in Jam 2.

 

JAM 2:14 What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

 

“has” - e;cw[echo] = to have and to hold. If a man says he “has and holds on to faith.”

 

This is akin to claiming that one clings to his faith in the word of God but he has no fruit.

 

“faith” - pi,stij[pistis - anarthrous] = the quality of faith or faith resting with doctrine ready on the launching pad of the heart.

 

“works” - e;rgon[ergon] application of doctrine or production of divine good. Divine viewpoint thought, word, and action. Doctrine is the working object of faith.

 

It’s not so much faith that is important, since everyone has faith, that’s how everyone learns. Children have faith that their teachers and parents are right. Unbeliever adults have faith in evolution or agnosticism, or any number of other things that they place their faith in. It’s not the faith that’s important, but the object of that faith. At salvation the object of faith is the person of Christ and good news about Him. After salvation the object of faith is the mind of Christ or the full realm of Bible doctrine.

 

This could be simply a relaxed mental attitude. It could also be not saying something, or saying something, or not doing something, or doing something. The production of the fruit of the Spirit can manifest itself in a million ways.

 

“save” - sw,zw[sozo] = to deliver. Salvation is not in view, but rather deliverance in time by means of your faith rest in application of doctrine.

 

What confuses so many is the translation of the Greek word sozo as save always. Save is ok as long as you don’t always think it is being saved from the second death of the faith in Christ needed for salvation. That is not at all in view in this passage. James is addressing the believers in Jerusalem who have been poor witnesses to those unbelievers who are always around them. They keep telling them they have faith, but there is never any evidence of it. Not in faith rest, a relaxed mental attitude, a kind word, a gracious act, nothing is being produced. What if you told someone you had faith for eternal life and then they witnessed you freak out at the littlest thing? You’re a saved believer forever, but your so-called faith in doctrine did not deliver you from a simple adversity.

 

JAM 2:15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,

 

JAM 2:16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

 

The believer who professes to have faith or doctrine in his soul and has come to know that one who is around him is in need of necessities that he in fact possesses and he says - “go away, be in peace and be warmed and filled,” kind words but no giving. This reveals the type of reversionistic believer who is very nice and sweet and has learned a certain vocabulary that makes them sound spiritual, but they have no fruit born from doctrine.

 

“What use is that?”
 

Believers are to inhale faith (PM) and exhale faith (A).