You will never be asked to consider a more important question than this. It is the question which Bildad asked Job - "How then can man be Justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" God, who cannot lie, has sworn saying, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." And we know that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." The problem is just this - How can God forgive sin, without tarnishing his holiness? How can God spare a single sinner, without relaxing his justice? How can God be just, and yet justify the ungodly?
I know this - I CANNOT JUSTIFY MYSELF. It is written, "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh justified in his sight." I might repent, but repentance cannot justify me, for my repentance cannot atone for my sin. I might reform my life, but, even if I could live without sin from this day forward, my moral obedience in the future cannot atone for my past transgressions. I might believe on Christ, but faith itself cannot atone for sin. Even if I suffered the terrible vengeance and wrath of God in hell, it would be only what I justly deserve. It could not atone for my sin.
Could my tears forever flow,
Could my zeal no languor know;
These for sin could not atone,
Christ must save, and Christ alone!
BUT THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUS OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST AND THROUGH HIS SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH AT CALVARY GOD CAN BOTH BE JUST AND JUSTIFY EVERY BELIEVER. This is what the Apostle Paul tells us. We are "Justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (a mercyseat, or a satisfaction) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS: that he might be JUST, and the JUSTIFIER of him which believeth in Jesus." God has accepted the sacrifice of Christ as a sufficient and satisfactory atonement for the sins of all who believe on him.
IN HIS LIFE the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, lived upon this earth in perfect compliance with God's holy law. All that the law required of us, Christ performed for us, as our Representative. By his representative life, the Lord Jesus Christ established perfect righteousness for his people. Then, IN HIS DEATH our Savior satisfied the wrath of God against us. As our Substitute, Jesus Christ assumed our sins. They were imputed to him and became his. Standing in our place, with the guilt of our sins being laid to his charge, the Lord Jesus Christ died for us, and we died in him, satisfying the penalty of God's holy law against us. AND GOD, LOOKING UPON EVERY BELIEVER IN CHRIST, DECLARES THAT WE ARE JUSTIFIED. In the sight of God, we are both guiltless and sinless. In Christ we are perfectly righteous. And it is a perfectly righteous thine for a holy God to declare that we are justified.
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