Pastor's blog

Justification is this big, church word that describes how we are made right before God. Justification describes how we can have a good standing with God. If you imagine God as a judge in a courtroom, justification is the way by which God will pronounce us innocent after all the evidence is in. Now that sounds kind of scary. If each of us told the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we’d have to admit that the evidence is pretty strongly stacked against us. In fact, if you’ve been around the last few weeks we’ve already gone over wrath and sin, so we know there’s a problem. Last week Paul started describing the solution when he talked about faith; a trust in God that is more than a set of beliefs and deeper than membership in a religion.

We are made right with God because of this trust. We don’t have to make up for past sins with a flurry of sacrifices. We don’t have to pay God back for the debts we owe. We don’t have to work our way out of a hole to balance an account. In order to be right with God, all we have to do is to trust that Jesus is Lord through the resurrection and entrust our life to him. In other words, we are justified by faith. It’s still a pretty puzzling phrase, so it’s good to have some help in the next few verses. Paul will write that we have peace with God. That’s one way to think about justification. He will also write that we have access to grace. That’s another way to think about justification. Paul will also write how we can boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. That’s also a way to think about justification. Consider peace with God.

Often times what plagues us as humans, as it did with Martin Luther, is an uncertainty when it comes to God. No matter how hard we try, we wonder if we are or have been doing enough to satisfy God’s desires. This uncertainty can easily become an anxiety or a nervous obsession. Paul is saying that we have peace with God; peace of mind at the least. Because we are justified by faith, all of the pressure is off. Paul has already written, to one who without works trusts God who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. In other words, if you trust in God because of Jesus, God will pronounce you justified. If we put our trust in Jesus, God will pass over all of our sins and consider us right so that we can have peace with God.

We will also have access to God’s grace. We heard the story of Jesus’ death this morning. Talk about a change in the history of the world! The skies darkened for a whole day. Jesus hung on a cross. As he breathed his last, the curtain of the temple tore in two. The curtain of the temple was the kept all things unclean away from God. No one could enter unless it was prescribed by the law. As Jesus died a way was opened for all people to come to God and receive his gifts. Even a Roman centurion believed. Even the soldier who believed that the ways of the world were power and strength, who probably flogged and beat Jesus, who witnessed the crowds mocking and ridiculing him, who heard all the condemnation of him; even this Roman soldier came to see Jesus as God’s Son.

Paul has already written that since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, they are now justified by his grace as a gift. When we trust that Jesus is God’s Son we stand in that same gift. It doesn’t matter how unclean we’ve been. A way has been opened for us to draw near to God and that way is by trusting in Jesus as God’s Son. It doesn’t have to be a big, bold trust. It can be even a small, mustard seed-type faith. This faith justifies us, it makes us right before God so that that we can stand in the outpouring of God’s grace and receive all the gifts that God wants to share with us. Many of those gifts are still to come.

Paul says that to be justified not only means peace with God, it not only means access to God’s grace, justification also means a hope of sharing in God’s glory. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead so that we could know what is in store for us. Paul has already written that Jesus was raised for our justification. In other words, God raised Jesus from the dead because God wants us to be in right standing before him. It’s not like God is guarding his glory or keeping his glory a secret. God wants to share his glory with us. When we put our trust in God through Jesus, we have this hope.

If you will only trust in God, God will declare you to be in good standing before him. Jesus died on the cross and God raised him from the dead to make this trust possible. No matter your past, God will consider you justified if you trust him. You can have peace with God. You can have access to God’s grace. You can even boast in your hope of one day sharing the glory of God. You can have all of it if you will only trust. It sounds so simple. It sounds so wonderful. But you can almost hear someone asking, “But how do you know? I mean, how do you really know?” Paul answers that question with the rest of the passage.

For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly…God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Paul’s point is that it’s not something you see everyday, or any day for that matter. You might find someone who is willing to die for a good person, but you won’t ever find someone who is willing to die for a sinner. At least, you won’t find someone else who would die for a sinner. Because that’s precisely what Jesus did. So, Paul writes, if God would do that much for us, the rest is easy. Now that we have been justified by Jesus’ death, how much more surely will we be saved from wrath? If Jesus died for us while we were enemies of God, how much more can we expect to be saved by his life?

It’s this kind of news that helped Martin Luther overcome his uncertainty, his anxiety before God and, hopefully, the kind of news that will do the same for us. Having to justify yourself all the time is a heavy burden to carry. We’re asked to do it at school. We’re asked to do it at work. We’re asked to do it when we need help. We’re asked to do it in our social circles. In one way or another, in almost every aspect of life, we are asked to prove that we qualify, to prove that we are right, to prove that we are justified to be present, to prove that we have the right to be alive. It’s as if we are always on trial. Church is the one place that should be different.

Church is the one place where we hear the message that we are already justified. Whether we believe it or not, church is the place where we are told that we have the right to be alive. The case has been decided and God has decided in favor of those who trust him. The message we hear in this place is that God has opened the way so that we are justified to be present here with one another and before God. No one sitting here today doesn’t deserve to be here. But in entrusting our lives to Jesus all of us have been reconciled to God and are right to be here. So there’s only one thing left to do. We boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We celebrate the peace we have with God. We rejoice in the access to God’s grace in which we stand. We worship in hope of sharing the glory of God. And, hope will not disappoint us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that was given to us. Thanks be to God! Amen.