This is the question that
causes me most concern. Like other men, I am curious about the decrees of God
and the events of the future. But this is the question which outweighs all
others. I know that God is holy, righteous, and just, and that I am a sinner.
Soon I will stand before the bar of God's judgment and be weighed in the
balances with his strict righteousness and justice. Woe unto the man who is
found wanting in that day! How can a man be just with God?
I know this, I Cannot Justify Myself. Job said, "If I
justify myself, mine mouth shall condemn me." It is not possible for me,
or any other man, to be justified before God by my own works. It is written,
"By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." Having onto
broken God's law, we can never make reparation.
This too I know, If Ever I Am
Justified, It Will Be By The Work Of God Alone. The Apostle Paul wrote,
"It is God that justifieth." God can and does justify sinners. But he
will only do it in a way that is in agreement with his law and justice.
Justification is a gracious work of God, accomplished through the shed blood
Christ, his Son. The Lord Jesus Christ stood before God as the sinner's
Substitute. He legally represented us before the law by the appointment of God
himself. The law required perfect obedience to its precepts. Christ rendered
that obedience. The law required a full payment for sin. Christ paid the awful
debt. This is the only way that God could forgive sin. His law had to be
fulfilled. Therefore, Jesus Christ voluntarily assumed our nature and place.
Fulfilling the law's righteousness and its penalty, all who ever believe were
"justified freely by his grace". Through the blood of Christ, God is
both just and the justifier of all who believe.
Yet it is equally clear that If I Am
Justified, I Must Receive That Justification By Faith Alone. My faith will not
satisfy the law's requirements. Christ alone can do that, But resting in Christ, and trusting in the merits of his
righteousness and shed blood, God declares that I am justified! "All that
believe are justified from all things." "We have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ."