Great Doctrines of Salvation, Justification & Forgiveness
Mike Doyle · Jul 30, 2006
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826235804276

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

I want to start this morning with a little bit of a review. The first chapter was repentance. What was that? What is repentance? What does the word repentance mean? Change of mind. Just to have a change of mind. Maybe another way to put it is to think differently. That's all it means. Emotion is not involved. It's just a change of mind. So what does conversion mean? I was going to leave Iraq and now I'm staying. Changing direction. How about regeneration?

It's very easy. Make new. You could say again birth. It isn't a fix up, it's a brand new. And redemption. What does the word redemption mean? It means to buy back. These words are pretty simple. It's interesting, you take these 25 cent Christian words and over time you hear all kinds of pseudo definitions applied to them when in fact they're really pretty simple. Redemption, conversion, regeneration, repentance. What we're going to talk about today are two things, justification and forgiveness. Another word that is not very well understood, what does justification mean? To regard as righteous. What do you think? Is that enough?

Would you say that it means maybe to pronounce or declare one to be righteous? Regarding as righteous is okay, but it's more along the lines of declaring one to be righteous. Now, whose undertaking is righteousness? Well, before I go there, what does righteousness mean? If I say, OK, I'm going to declare Jessica to be righteous, you could say, oh, well, you just justified Jessica. And someone else says, well, what did you do? What does righteousness mean?

What does it mean? It means to have a right standing. Now, is that important? Having a right standing? You think so? Does a non-believer have a good standing with God? Has no standing whatsoever. For God to say, I declare you to have a right standing before me, means that you've been justified. That's what it means. So what's the difference between Adam, before he sinned, and a justified Christian? Adam hadn't sinned. He had no need to be declared righteous. Was he in fact righteous? What do you think? How many think he was? How many think he wasn't? Okay, those who don't think he was, tell me why.

Okay. He was innocent. He walked with the Lord in the cool of the evening? You know, it's interesting, what did the author say? He said that Adam didn't need to be justified because he was innocent. Does justified kind of assume that there is a change of description, a change of... Innocence is just your innocence.

Uh huh. Uh huh. What we're saying here is justification. It's like everybody here. What's Steve saying? What do you think? OK. You've got a quizzative look on your face. What do you got in your mind? I don't think that's you. Innocence, regarding how we're discussing it, strikes me as a neutral condition. And so when we're talking about justification in this context, it's saying that to become righteous were being rendered and regarded out of a fallen state. The author said that the Christian is said to be holy, undefiled, and separated from evil in Christ. Now, when God declares a man righteous, he does so based on what is a man's responsibility.

Does he have one? He has to believe, right? Did Adam have to believe? No. No. No. So, I think... Yeah? I don't believe that her father had a very clear deal, and Adam became a child of God, whereas he was just because of the Savior, he doesn't come back to where Adam was. That's correct. Yeah. We're not heading back to innocence in the Garden of Eden. We're not going there. As cool a place as it must have been. That's not where we're headed. Absolutely we do. Absolutely.

Because it's never said that Adam was in Christ. And you and I are. And we are, if you think about this, 2 Corinthians 5, I think it's 12 or 17 somewhere, says that, He who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Now, that's different than God declaring Abraham righteous because he believed.

See that? Justification is a declaration that I declare you righteous. Okay? But the believer is said to be positioned in Christ and have God's very own standing before himself. Would you say that the righteousness or the standing that the resurrected, glorified Lord Jesus Christ has before God, the Father, is unique? Yeah. And would you say then your righteousness is unique because of your position in Him? Yes. Absolutely.

So it's more than a declaration when it comes to the believer. It has everything to do with your standing or your position in Christ. Make sense? Was Adam justified? Well, that's the question. You mean before or after he sinned? Yes, I think he was. You know why? Yeah, you do.

What Adam sinned, he discovered a few interesting things about himself, not the least of which is that he was naked. And I think the reason he thought he was naked or he was naked was that He didn't need to worry about that before, because being created perfect, he probably was closed in light. And when the light goes out, you feel naked. So he sought a remedy for his nakedness, which was philodendrons.

Plants. And if you've ever been to Hawaii, you can see how they would work, because they've got philodendrons over there, you can do a three-piece suit out of one leaf. But God came to him and said, look, Adam, that's not good enough. I have these skins to cover you with. Where did the skins come from? They had to come from an animal. They didn't come from Wal-Mart. So right away, from the very beginning, you have the idea that to cover sins there must be a bloodletting.

So God gave Adam this clothing, the skins, and said, cover yourself with these. And he said, OK, I'll accept your remedy. I don't think the word of God says that Adam was justified then, but I think he was. Because he accepted God's remedy for his nakedness slash sinfulness. And there's evidence that he was a godly man after that.

He certainly taught Cain and Abel and Seth the things of God. How did Cain and Abel know about sacrifice? Who taught them? Adam did. How did he learn it? He learned it from God. So back to the issue. Was Adam, before he fell, justified? Had he had a change of mind? I think so. I would think you'd have to have a change of mind in order to accept the remedy that God afforded. Yeah, I think so.

I think I agree with the author that Adam was not justified because he didn't need to be. He didn't need to be. We have a tough time understanding the innocence of Adam. Because all of us are born and infected with the sin nature which is the knowledge of good and evil. And we can certainly recognize that Adam probably didn't know what evil was. He didn't know what good was either. He didn't know either one because he was innocent.

What do you think? Did Christ's blood reach all the way back to Adam? Sure it had to. And the reason, when we get to the chapter on propitiation, you'll see why. Because God can't leave any sin committed by anybody at any time unpaid for, for lack of a better way to say it. Yes. And notice, the skins of Adam were just for a covering. The bloods of bulls and goats, what was that for? For a covering. So when the Lord Jesus shows up, and we'll see that in forgiveness, when the Lord Jesus shows up on the planet, what does John the Baptist say about him? He's the Lamb of God who does what with the sins of the world?

It takes them away. It doesn't cover them. It takes them away. A real important difference. Is justification something that man does or God does? God does. So, explain. How does he do it? God sets the principle in place. He accomplishes the work. And then he says to man, here's what I want you to do. And what is it? Believe. And when you believe, what does he do? He declares you righteous. So what is the ground on which you are said to be justified?

The shed blood. And the point that I think the author made there, which was kind of an interesting point, is something I'd never thought about. The redeeming death of Christ, it's not the resurrection. You're not justified based on the resurrection. You're justified based on the redeeming blood of Christ.

Remember last week we talked about redemption. In redemption there's a price to be paid. There's a commodity that must be paid in order to accomplish the redemption. What was the commodity? The blood of Christ. It's the most valuable commodity ever. They don't trade it on the board of options exchanges because it isn't tradable. It's the most valuable commodity ever, the blood of Christ. Why does a man need justification and righteousness?

I would direct you to Romans 3, 9, 10, 11. Paul says that he's asked the question when he's talking about Jews somehow having an advantage because they had the law from God. He says, what then, are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jew and Greeks that they are all under sin. And so then he says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. It doesn't get any more definitive than that. There is none who seeks after God. All have turned away or turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none that does good. No, not one.

And then he expands it down through 23, which is kind of intimidating if you read it. But I would say that the first work of the Spirit of God is to convince you that you fit into that category. Because if you don't think you fit in that category, you don't need the Savior. If you think you got things wired even as little as 5%, you do not need the Savior. But if you're convinced that you are not righteous and you're one of those ones that none of you are, that nothing will help you, that you totally don't understand and you have never sought after God, then maybe you're open to at least consider a savior. So the answer to the question is, who needs a savior? Everybody. Every single human being.

Why did it take Calvary in order to allow God the ability to declare a man righteous? Is the question clear? Why did it take Calvary though? Why did it take that event? Why did it take the death of the Son of God Why did this blood have to be perfect? It had to be perfect because it has to satisfy God. Why can't you die for your own sins? You're dead already? That's right. You're dead already. It's interesting.

I used to describe it this way. If you come over to my house and my dog bites you in the ankle, and you're offended, and I say, OK, I'll shoot the dog, and you say, that's not good enough because the dog's a dog and I'm a human being and I need a greater sense of appeasement than just shooting your dog. Would that make sense to you? I want to sue you. I want some of you. Because you and I are the same level of creation.

Your dog is a dog and it's below and beneath me. So when we sin against the Holy God and we say, well, you know, we'll do whatever we can to appease you. He's got to say to us, I'm sorry, I'm God and you're not. And no matter what you do, you can't appease me because I'm a holy, righteous God. So I have to, if I'm going to satisfy myself about the sin issue, what do I have to do?

I have to have someone pay the price who's on the same level with me. Hence, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? That's why it took the blood of Christ at Calvary to do the job. Nothing else would have sufficed. Steve. So he seems to further emphasize in here that Christ became sin. Does that have something to do with that perfectness? So there's that fallback in history too, that sacrifice in some sensories had to be perfect. They didn't sacrifice humans, they sacrificed a goat or something. Yeah, and they had to be without blemish.

There's two aspects, two main aspects of the cross. The penalty for the sins, which Christ did by himself, and that's what we're talking about. The other is the sin nature, the thing that I am, the sin nature that I have, which that aspect of the death of Christ, I was included in. so that my old man was crucified with him. But in this case, what we're talking about from a justification righteousness standpoint, we're talking about the aspect of the death of Christ, in which he died by himself, alone, to pay the penalty for the sins. Because in the garden, when God said to Adam, here's this tree, it's called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and every other tree in the garden, help yourself. But in this tree, you can't eat it. And the day that you do eat it, there's going to be a consequence, Adam.

Guess what it is? You're going to die. Die, die. So, there's the consequence. And that's the penalty. Did Adam know what death was? Oh, what a question. I'm not sure. Well, I think he knew that death meant separation and what God was saying, if you do this, you'll be separated from me. I think he understood. Consider Adam being made by God.

I think he's brilliant. God gave him dominion. And he gave them the capacity to name the animals. And he named them all based on their characteristics. So, you know, Adam isn't, you know, some 16 year old running around who's half stupid. You know, he's probably the most brilliant man ever before he got sent. I got one of my own neighborhood. Thank you. I think Adam did understand that if you do this, Adam, you'll be separated from me and there are more consequences. In dying, you will surely die.

So the author gave five aspects of justification. What were they? Or what are they? What's the first one? It's done by grace alone. Everybody understand grace? Oh sure, no problem. What's the second one? It's procured by what? By the blood of Christ. What's the third one? There's a guarantee involved. What's the guarantee? The resurrection. That guarantees it. The fourth one, that this work of Christ was acceptable to the Father.

And the verse he gave is 1 Peter 1.21. And here's the interesting one. He said it's manifested by works. Isn't that interesting? What does he mean by that?

And he uses James 2.21 and 22. Somebody explain that to me. This being a grace-based church, explain to me how it's going to be manifested by works. How does that... James chapter 2, 21 and 22.

It's justified before man. By works, it's not justified before God, but before man. Did you hear what Craig said? It's a very important point. When you read James, James talks about being justified before men by his works, not before God. Your justification before God is based on faith alone. That faith causes you to be recreated in Christ and you have a new life. As that life is lived out through you, you are justified before men. You declare before men what is already true of you before God. Trust me, you cannot fake that.

You can't read James 2 and say, oh yeah, I'm going to look around and see what those Christians, how they act, and that's what I'm going to do. No. No. But there is a difference between being justified before God and justified before men. Everybody understand that?

So what's the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament justification? What made a man justified in the Old Testament? Abraham believed God and he was accounted righteous. How about the rest of those Old Testament Jewish guys? Yeah, I think that's right. They never were.

Micah 6.8 says, Men were therefore just because of their own works before God. But it's interesting, if you look carefully in the Old Testament, all of the godly men were declared righteous because of their faith. But the Jews were put under the law system in order to try to accomplish of their own strength righteousness and God held them to it. See that? What did Paul say? He was righteous under the law once. Right? He was totally fine under the law because he just completed the last sacrifice for the last sin that he committed. Right?

So what's the difference between that and New Testament or Christians? It's God's work for man based on man's faith. The only issue with man today is faith. That's the only issue. And when you're dealing with a non-believer, the entire discussion centers around whether or not he has or she has faith in the person and work of Christ. That is the only issue. Every other issue is you know, non-discussable until that one issue is resolved.

You see that? And I must say I'm probably more guilty of that than anybody. Okay, what are the two ideas in the biblical definition of the word forgiveness? Anybody? Did you not get that far? Let's talk about what forgiveness is. What is it? Ephesis means to be released from bondage or imprisonment, pardon of sins, letting them go as if they never had been committed, remission, deliverance. It means all of those things.

Now, so again I ask you what the two aspects, or the two ideas in the biblical definition of the word forgiveness, and we've already kind of covered some of them. What were they? What are they? Actually we've covered both issues. The first issue is the idea of remission or deliverance from. The other idea is the putting away.

Now do you think, let me ask you a question, do you think that when you, by God's grace, get to leave the planet and go home to be with the Lord, that there's going to be a remembrance about your sinfulness? You think God is going to remember? And every once in a while say, I remember when you were... How about your own memory? Why not? What's that?

Sin is no longer the issue before God, right? As a resurrected creature in Christ, are you a sinner? No. Say that again. Perfect in Christ. So, if you could say it this way, a million years down the road, here you are cruising through eternity, and you're going to say, I'm really glad God saved me from my sin. Are you going to have that kind of a thought? No, you're not. You know why? Because it's a self-centered thought. You see that? It's all about self. Donna? Can you chase a rabbit for me? Oh, sure. Right there where you're talking, you know, we had a conversation for being a judgment. where you're in the new man, there's no signature attached to him. That's right.

So I can see where the rewards would play in, but how does the burning off, if you're no longer affiliated with your sins any longer, how does that all work together? Do you understand what I'm asking? Yeah. The burning off of the good works? Yeah. Put it this way.

The issue before the beam of judgment is going to be, the focus is going to be rewards. It's not to judge you to see how well you did. It's not like that. And God will sit there and say, well, okay, you've done enough. I'll give you a little reward and we'll move on. You get to go to the wedding. It's not like that.

The deal is that for us as believers, in James 2, were to manifest our justification before men. The resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be manifested through us, and it's His life. It's His work. That's what we will be rewarded for. Whatever God did through us, He will reward us for.

Is that a pretty good deal? But there's plenty of time in which we think we're doing good works, or we think we're performing Christian functions, I don't know, we're teaching, we're in the missionary field, we're helping people across the street, I don't know, we're being a Boy Scout, whatever it is, that are not, the source of that activity is not the resurrected life of Christ.

That's what gets burned. Are those sins? Paul says whatever is not of faith is sin. You could say that they are sins, and they probably are, but the issue is that the fact of the sin issue, even those have been paid for. And the reason that there is, as described in Corinthians, a burning of them, is to put them out of your memory, and out of God's memory, and they're gone. So that the only thing you're left with, when you come through the fire, is what Christ has done through you. and the rewards that you get for that.

So is it more of a clearing of your memory then? That's kind of an interesting way to look at it, yeah. It's interesting that your mindset, after the beam of judgment, will never refer back to anything that wasn't of God. Well, and there's going to be things that brought up, you know, that you think, oh gee, I thought I was really spiritual then. And you weren't. Which is okay. I think the Bhima judgment is something I'm really looking forward to because I don't want anything, any impediment between myself and the Lord. Nothing. So whatever is unsuitable to him, he's made a provision for it to be laid out in the open for me to see and everybody to see, to have a judgment about it, and then to get rid of it. I think that's terrific.

And at the same time, every single believer, I don't care how crummy they were, will get rewarded there. Every one. And you want my take on rewards? I think believers are vessels and vessels contain things. So what's going to happen there, I think, is that each one of us will be filled to the capacity that we can contain Christ. Because He's the reward. And for all eternity, you as a vessel will expand in capacity. And that will never stop. And you will contain more and more of Christ forever.

Isn't that cool? And you will look across at your fellow saint who has a larger capacity than you, and you know what your attitude will be about that? Isn't that cool? Isn't that cool? Imagine a whole group of beings, like us, who are the sons of God, who have expanding capacities to contain Christ, and that process never ends. I can't imagine anything cooler than that.

And like Verne talks about these crowns that we're continually throwing down in front of the Lord, that's an attitudinal thing, rather than, boy, your arm would get tired doing that all the time. Do you see what I mean? We will live, moment by moment, in the operating principle of grace, which means God does everything and all we do is receive. We will rule and reign with Him in the Millennial Kingdom solely based on the premise of grace alone. Grace is hard to get your arms around because it's highly active, very dynamic, But it's never you doing it. It's being done through you, but you're not the one who's the originator of the action. See that? That's a very cool thing. Steve? Could you please state Brian's question so it comes across on the tape? What was your question?

The question was, is that when you arrive at the beam of judgment, if the sin nature does not come along with you, what is your... What is our standing as we look at the sins that are burned off? The question was, at the beam of judgment, if our sin nature doesn't come along with us, what is our standing in relationship to the sins and the things that are not of Christ? How they're dealt with or what are they?

Is the answer okay? God cannot excuse sin no matter how great his love for sinners is. His inflexible and unchangeable word is, the soul that sins it shall surely die. On what basis then does God forgive a sinner? You know, maybe a simple way to ask this question. Does God care how sorry you are?

Not a whit. Why does he forgive me then? because of what Christ did and that's the sole reason that he forgives us. There is no other reason. It doesn't matter if you're crying those alligator tears. God isn't going to more forgive you because you're sorry. He forgives you solely on the basis of the work of Christ and nothing else. What's the difference between the way in which a man forgives and on the basis of which God forgives?

If I offended you and I came to you and said, please forgive me, and you said, okay, I will, what have you done? Out of the goodness of your heart, you said, okay. And maybe the only requirement you had was the fact that I approached you and asked you. So if I go to God and say, forgive me, He doesn't say I'm forgiving you because you came and asked me.

Why is He forgiving me? because of the work of his son. That's the only reason. And we'll maybe dovetail into something there. How do you distinguish between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness? Well, God sits in judgment God sits as judge and freely and eternally forgives all past, present, and future sins of everyone, not only the saved. Let me ask you, might as well cover that question now.

My buddy who lives across the street, who's not the believer, right here in this White House, are his sins paid for? What do you think? Absolutely. Are they forgiven? What's the difference? He's going to meet them at the Great White Throne Judgment, isn't he, if he doesn't believe. But they have been paid for. Aren't they? What's that? That's right. But God has taken care of the issue before him. Past, present and future sins.

Because the work of Christ. Judicial forgiveness is based upon a covenant between the Father and the Son. Now, family forgiveness. We as believers act inconsistent with our new creation position, and on occasion, and when we do find that we have been separated from fellowship with our Father and the Lord Jesus. So, we're always going back. Within the family, we're always seeking forgiveness and the goodness of each other. But like the Lord said, or Paul said, the reason you forgive others is why? It's because you've been forgiven. That's the reason.

Do I need to? Yeah, I might as well do this. Will God not forgive you your sins if you don't forgive mine? You mean the Lord's Prayer is inaccurate? What do you think? Forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who have sinned against me. So if I don't forgive them, I'm not forgiven? What do you think? So what do you have to conclude about the quote-unquote Lord's Prayer?

Number one, it isn't Christian. Number two, it's Jewish. And it's legal. It has nothing to do with grace. If that were the case, then you couldn't say that God has forgiven me all my sins. And you certainly wouldn't be an ambassador of the reconciliation. You couldn't go to the guy across the street and say, look, I want you to believe that God has paid the penalty for your sins. You'd have to go over there and say, your sins will be forgiven if you forgive all those who have sinned against you. Yet that is taught in Christian circles all over the place. So, to rest your mind at ease, there is a real Lord's Prayer. It's John chapter 17. That's the real one. I should rip out Matthew out of my mind? No, but I think you need to understand who it's written to. Okay.

Judicial forgiveness based on a covenant between the father and son? Yeah. Where a Calvinist would say that The covenant, right? A covenant relationship. Like they think we're continuing what Israel left off. Right. The church and Israel merged together. Right. They think it's a covenant between God and us. Right.

What's the covenant between the Father and the Son? The eternal covenant. What is it? What's the deal? If Christ become a man, come to the earth, die for the sins of the world, the Father would do what? Raise him up. Who are the two parties in that covenant? God the Father and God the Son.

Where are you? Nowhere to be found, right? Well, how come you get the benefits of it? That's exactly right. I'll ask this question when we get to propitiation. Once God has propitiated about your sins, once He's satisfied about it, is there anywhere that He has to offer that to you?

No part of the deal that I can find. God could have said, look, I'm totally satisfied, I've blipped these turkeys out of existence and we'll move on. He does not have to offer salvation to us. But because He's a God of love, once His righteousness and His justice is satisfied, because He loves us, He comes to us and says, OK, I'm satisfied. Want some? I want you to be with me. I want to accomplish in you my original intent, which is to manifest my glory to you and through you. And if you believe me, I'll do that.

I've never heard it quite stated this way, but at the bottom of that second to last page, he says, God forgives them in faithfulness to Christ. Isn't that interesting? So as much as Christ was faithful to the Father to fulfill the law and perfection, God in reverse is faithful to the Son. That's right. God was faithful, and Christ was faithful, and God the Father was faithful. They didn't back off of their deal at all. So, we've probably already answered this question, but are the sins of the non-believers forgiven? So how could they not be forgiven if they were paid for? Forgiveness is between us.

It's between us and God, it's belief in Christ's Word. So, maybe you could add another aspect to it. What's the whole issue now, between man and God? What is the entire and only issue? In who? The issue is, what do you think of this man? Who is this Christ? What about him? Right? The issue really isn't your sins. as a non-believer. The issue is not your sins because... What's the gospel message? Christ died for your sins according to the scripture.

He was buried and he was resurrected according to the scripture. So what are you asked to do? To believe in what? Him. The issue is now Him. Your sins aren't the issue anymore. The non-believer, you can say to the non-believer, your sins are no longer the issue, it's this man Christ.

Now that's pretty gracious in a sense, but if you read in Acts, when Peter stood up at Pentecost and gave his first sermon, when he asked them to change their mind, what did he ask them to change their mind about? Was it their sinfulness? No. You need to repent about who this man Jesus is. You need to change your mind about him. So repentance is not so much an issue of your sins as it is an issue of who is Christ and what has he done. I can maybe take a track. and say, do you believe you're a sinner? Is that a wrong approach? No, no. What do you think about Christ? No, I don't think it's wrong to say to a non-believer, are you a sinner?

Because the answer is yeah, because that's all you can do. That's all you do do, 24-7. Every nanosecond you're sinning, right? And the issue is because of who you are and what you do, you're condemned. Now, I think at the Great White Throne, you know, you go into eternity, into the lake of fire, and you're going to suffer, and your sin and your sin nature goes with you. But the issue of salvation is the person of Christ, not whether you're sorry about your sins.

We've got to go. One question. I've been involved in that relationship before, but if you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven? Yeah, the real issue is, like Hal says, there's three questions every man has to ask himself. Where did I come from? What am I doing here? And where am I going? That's the issue.

That's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace towards us and the fact that we are forgiven, we are justified, but more than that, that we have a righteousness and a standing before you and that we can approach you and behold your glory and rest and abide in you, Father. We thank you for that. We pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.