Only for the Obedience of Christ
Having excluded both works done by us and grace wrought in us, Pastor Martin now sets forth the positive ground of justification: the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ alone. He develops three lines of biblical truth - that the ground is in the person of Christ alone, in His perfect obedience alone, and in His full satisfaction alone - drawing on Romans 5:19, Philippians 3, 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, and Hebrews 10:5-10. He briefly explains the active and passive obedience of Christ as one indivisible obedience.
Primary Texts
Topics
A full transcript is available on the tab. 80 paragraphs, roughly 48 minutes.
Accountability and Guilt: The Undeniable Testimony
The undeniable testimony of the Word of God and of every unseared conscience of every man, woman, boy or girl in this building this morning is that you, with me, are accountable to the God who made you, that you, with me,
are guilty before the God to whom you are accountable, and that that guilt will result in God bringing judgment upon you unless somehow it's removed. I say that's the undeniable testimony of the Word of God, clearly established in such portions as Romans 1 and Romans 2.
And it is the testimony of every unseared conscience. For the Scripture teaches that man as an image-bearer of God, even in his fallen state, has the consciousness of his accountability to God, his guilt before God, and his liability to the judgment of God indelibly stamped upon him unless he has been given over to a seared conscience.
Therefore, the question, how shall sinful man be just with God? Or how shall guilty man find forgiveness from God? Is not a light or a secondary issue. It is the great question that every man, woman, boy or girl must ask in those sober moments.
when he is true to the dictates of his own conscience concerning his guilt. And there's not a one of us who, if we were true to our own consciousness and knew that we had but ten hours to live, would regard every other question as of no consequence whatsoever but this question, how shall I stand before the God into whose presence I will soon be ushered
Reviewing the Catechism Framework
and not receive judgment, but receive His favor. Well, in the course of our Sunday morning studies in basic Christian doctrine, we are presently engaged in an examination of that provision of God's grace, which is addressed specifically to the question of human guilt. And, of course, that provision is the provision of justifying grace.
And I want to emphasize again and again and again and again until it is written upon the tables of our hearts and etched into our minds that justification has to do with the courtroom of heaven. In the concerns of justification, we are not directing our thoughts to sin's polluting and binding effect upon man, but we are dealing with sin itself. as it relates to God as the judge of the universe, as it relates to His law, as it relates to the issue of guilt and of condemnation. We've been using the larger catechism as a framework within which to come to grips with the major portions of Scripture which set forth this wonderful provision of God's grace. And thus far we have noted...
That God is the author of justification. Justification is an act of God's free grace. This is why the apostle could say in Romans 8.33, it is God that justifies. The source of justification is free grace, being justified freely by His grace. Romans 3.24 The objects of justification are sinners Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, which is simply expressing the truth of Romans 4, 5. God justifieth the ungodly. And then we have noted that the essence of justification, it is an act of pardon and of acceptance. It is an act of God's free grace in which He pardons all of our sins,
and accepts our persons as righteous in His sight. Now we've been grappling for several weeks with this very vital question. On what basis can God pardon sinners and declare them righteous in His sight? On what basis can He treat them as though they had not only not broken His law, but as though they had perfectly fulfilled all all the requirements of his law. On what grounds can God, who declares us sinners, who declares that the wages of sin is death, on what grounds can he justly say to the death-deserving sinner, Thy sins are pardoned, thou art received and accepted as righteous? Well, the old catechism gives the answer first of all in two negatives.
not for anything done by us, nor for anything wrought in us. And we've examined many portions of the Word of God which teach explicitly that the grounds upon which God declares sinners righteous is in no way related to anything that the sinner does or
or to anything that God may do in the sinner, even in His grace. The ground of our justification is not to be found in anything done by us, nor anything wrought in us. Well, that's a very brief review of many hours of study in the Word of God. Now we come this morning to consider the positive statement of the Word of God concerning the ground of the sinner's justification.
And the old confession wonderfully brings together the teaching of Scripture in these words. We are justified only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to us and received by faith alone.
Statement #1: The Ground Is in the Person of Christ Alone
The ground of the sinner's justification is declared to be the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. And this morning I want to trace out a number of lines of biblical truth, and I want to group everything under three simple statements, and I trust that the most uninstructed amongst us will be able to lead this morning...
at least having in his mind some understanding of this wonderful and liberating truth of the ground of the sinner's justification. The first statement is this. The ground of our justification is in the person of Christ alone. Notice the language of the old catechism.
not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. So whatever the obedience and the satisfaction are, they are the obedience and the satisfaction of a specific person. And the Scriptures make abundantly clear that the ground of our justification is in the person of Christ. Christ alone. Now examine with me, please, three pivotal texts which teach this truth. First of all, in the book of Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. The Apostle Paul, in the end of chapter 9, has been describing the problem of national Israel in its unbelief. They have sought a
righteousness, but they have not sought it God's way. Now, picking up on that thought, we read in chapter 10 in verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them that they may be saved. He regards his fellow Israelites in their present condition as unsaved, that is, as still under the canopy of divine wrath and judgment. And if I'm speaking to anyone this morning who's offended with the term saved, you're offended by the terminology of God. The term saved is not a term coined by a bunch of narrow-minded religious bigots. The God who made us and has revealed himself in Scripture has chosen to use the term saved.
And the apostle tells us here that his great concern for his fellow Israelites is born of the conviction that in their present state they are unsaved. They are under the wrath of God. Now he's going to describe the peculiar manifestation of their unsaved state. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God...
but not according to knowledge. It is not that they are irreligious, but their religion is the product of ignorance and not of truth. For being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Now, do you see their fundamental problems?
They know that there must be righteousness if they are to be accepted before God. But their problem is that they are seeking to establish their own righteousness, their own way of acceptance, and in so doing they have not submitted to God's way of acceptance. Now as Paul would describe the essence of God's way of acceptance, notice how he does it in verse 4.
For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believe in. In other words, he is saying that in the case of everyone who is a true believer, Christ in his person and work has been embraced and being embraced He is the end of the law. That is, no longer is the person seeking to establish righteousness by his own performance. No longer is he seeking by his own law works to build a ladder of acceptance to God. Having come to grips with what God says about Christ, Christ has become the end of the law for righteousness.
Here then the apostle establishes in language that cannot be misunderstood that where there is true biblical faith, Christ terminates all hopes for righteousness by our own works of the law. The ground of our justification then is in the person of Christ alone. Notice a similar emphasis in Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. Now you remember the problem to which the apostle was addressing himself at Galatia. Certain teachers came along and said, Christ is not enough. You must have Christ plus circumcision, ceremonial law, Christ plus something else. Now in addressing himself to that heresy, we read in Galatians 2, beginning with verse 15,
We being Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, yet knowing that a man, Jew or Gentile, is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid. And then he goes on to develop the argument. Now, it is not my purpose to open up this entire section, but simply to underscore this very fundamental principle. As the apostle is seeking to drive men off this legal grounds of seeking justification by the law, he not only states it in the negative, a man is not justified by the works of the law, but he states it in this very simple positive manner, we are justified in Christ, underscoring again that the ground of our justification is in the person of Christ alone.
And then that which is perhaps the classic passage on this fact, or pertaining to this fact, the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 3. In Philippians chapter 3, the apostle is warning the Philippian Christians concerning false teachers who would add something to Christ. So he says in verse 2, Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are
circumcision. That is, we are the true people of God who worship by the Spirit of God, now notice, and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more. And then he goes on to give his pedigree. Now he says, if any man can attain righteousness, then by what he is in himself and by what he does, he says, I qualify. And then he gives the account of what he was by birth and by upbringing, what he did in terms of religious zeal and performance. But now concerning all of this, he says, verse 7, "...howbeit what things were gained to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea, verily, and I count all things to be loss."
For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Hear again the little phrase, Verse 9, that I may be found in Him. You see, the apostle recognized that the ground of his justification did not lie in himself in any degree whatsoever, but it lay completely in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Application: Excluding All Other Considerations When Dealing With Guilt
Now, when the mind and heart are taken up with the great questions of sin and guilt, when we begin to feel something of the law in its condemning power, what is to be the focus of our minds and of our hearts? The answer of these passages is this. It is to be the person of Christ and the person of Christ alone. Now, listen carefully.
When we are concerned with other questions, such as the mortification, the putting to death of remaining sin, how to beat, as it were, the life out of certain lusts, how to subdue certain passions, there are many facets of Christian duty and responsibility which involve our being occupied with something other than Christ. We must be occupied with other concerns if we are biblical in our thinking. And anyone who tells you that the only answer for every dimension of the Christian life is to be occupied with Christ is spouting nonsense. When you're occupied with cutting off a right hand and plucking out a right eye, you're occupied with your hand in your eye. Now, it must be done in the strength of Christ and out of love to Christ and in the virtue of the death of Christ.
But for anyone who tells you, for every dimension of Christian responsibility and every facet of the Christian life, just think of Christ and Christ alone, I say that is unscriptural. But, now listen, when the mind and the spirit are taken up with the issue of guilt, the consciousness that we have broken the law of God, that we have exposed ourselves by our sin, to the anger and the wrath of the Holy God, at that point of consciousness, the mind and the spirit are to be taken up with one thing and one thing only, and that is the person of Jesus Christ alone. When it comes to mortification, when it comes to other aspects of Christian responsibility, it will be Christ plus other principles.
Christ plus other duties. But when we are in hand with guilt, when we are in hand with the knowledge of our undoneness, then we must learn the discipline of excluding every other consideration from the mind and the spirit, but the consideration of the perfection of the Lord Jesus and of the righteousness that is in Him. There is a wonderful expression of this in the prophet Isaiah. In chapter 45, verses 23 to 25. Isaiah chapter 45, verses 23 to 25. By myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.
Only in Jehovah, is it said of me, is righteousness and strength. Even to Him shall men come, and all they that were incensed against Him shall be put to shame. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
And when you bring that over into the light of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, you have the apostle saying, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us righteousness, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You see, no little part of beginning to come to stability in the Christian life is learning what truths of the Bible ought to be the focus of your consciousness and of your spiritual activity at what particular point in your spiritual pilgrimage. And the problem with many believers is when the mind is oppressed with guilt, they take up the truths dealing with the mortification of the sin that produced the guilt instead of being taken up with Christ
to find relief from the guilt and in the joy of forgiveness to get on with the work of mortification. And then the other problem is, you have people who sin and who are playing games with God. And instead of setting themselves to mortify their sin, they say, oh well, I'm complete in Christ. I'm perfect in Christ. My justification is complete in Christ. I'm not to think of my sin. I'm only to think of Christ. They're using a wonderful truth in the wrong ways.
and between those who abuse the doctrine of justification as an excuse not to be serious with mortification, and those who use the truths pertaining to mortification to cripple themselves in having the joy of justification between the rock and the hard place. So many of God's people get fouled up in their Christian experience. And that's why I've been so tedious,
and tried to be so simple and plain and go back over this ground again and again and again, that the ground of our justification which has to do with guilt and condemnation for sin is in the person of Christ alone. And you and I must come to the place where we understand and joyfully embrace the truth that it is in the Lord that all the seed of Israel shall be justified, and in Him and in Him alone will we glory. Well, that's the first statement, that the ground of our justification is in the person of Christ alone. Secondly, the ground of our justification is in the perfect obedience of Christ alone.
Statement #2: The Ground Is in the Perfect Obedience of Christ Alone
The ground of our justification is in the perfect obedience of Christ alone. God's law demands perfection. Our Lord Jesus Christ assumed a position of submission to that law. And in that position of submission, He rendered perfect obedience to all the requirements of God.
Turn to Romans chapter 5 for what is the clearest statement in the New Testament concerning the fact that the ground of our justification that is in the person of Christ alone is in the perfect obedience of Christ alone. In Romans chapter 5, you'll remember that the apostle is drawing this parallel between Adam and Christ.
Adam stood as the head and representative of the entire human race. Adam's sin is charged to our account. Likewise, Christ stands at the head of the new humanity. Therefore, Christ's obedience, Christ's death, and all the benefits that accrue from it are laid to the account of all who are in him.
Now verse 19 of Romans 5. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made or constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous. How are we constituted sinners? Because God charges us with the sin of sin.
our representative, Adam. As through the one man and his disobedience, the many, the entire human race, were constituted sinners. Even so, through the obedience of the one, through the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is now a ground for God to constitute the many righteous ones. to declare them not only free from punishment, but to declare them as being the recipients of a law that has been fully kept. Righteousness is something positive. Pardon and forgiveness are a mere negation, but righteousness is something positive. And this text says that it is through the obedience of the One, even the Lord Jesus Christ,
that the many are constituted righteous in the sight of God. And so our statement then, the ground of our justification, is in the perfect obedience of Christ alone. We are justified by the keeping of the law, but not our law-keeping, but His. His obedience is earned a title to life on behalf of all those for whom he obeyed. Now I come back to the same exhortation. When your mind is filled with the sense of your own disobedience, when your heart is agitated with the awareness that you have not kept the law of God, you have failed to do what it requires, you have done what it forbids,
And that brings upon the conscience the sense of guilt and the wonder. And in the question, do I come under condemnation? I have sinned. I have broken the law. I have dishonored God by my sin. What am I to do? It is at that point that I am to fill my mind with the perfect obedience of the Son of God.
The ground of my justification is the perfect obedience of Christ alone. He could say, I do always the things that please my Father. The Father could say from heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And the acting of faith for a believer then is to come to God and say, O God, I acknowledge my sin. I acknowledge my disobedience. But you have said of your Son, in Him I am well pleased. And Lord, I hide in the obedience of your Son. I, as it were, submerge myself in His perfect obedience, so that being in Him, you can say of me, my Son in whom I am well pleased. The ground of our justifications
Statement #3: The Ground Is in the Full Satisfaction of Christ Alone
is in the person of Christ alone. The ground of our justification is in the perfect obedience of Christ alone. And then thirdly, the ground of our justification is in the full satisfaction of Christ alone. The language of the old confession is theological language, but it's good language. God pardons and accepts us for the
full satisfaction of Christ. Now the word itself occurs only twice in the authorized version, but it's a rich word in the history of Christian theology. And one of the things you will not find in this pulpit is robbing unborn generations of the legacy of the history of theology. We do not come to the Christian faith as though no one else had ever wrestled with what's in the Bible.
And as the people of God have wrestled with the truth of the Bible, they have found that this term satisfaction wonderfully expresses a very precious truth. And the basic idea is this. God in His holiness and His justice demands that the wages of sin be paid. The broken law demands punishment. That punishment is death. The essence of that death is separation from God. No matter what God may know in the motions of His love, no matter what God may design to fulfill the motions of love, God cannot deny Himself. He cannot express His love in a way that suspends or violates His justice and His holiness. He would cease to be God. How then does love
cut a channel for men's salvation consistent with justice and holiness, consistent with the magnifying of the law of God, maintaining intact the righteous standard of that law. Here is the way. Jesus Christ takes upon Himself all of the liabilities of His people, and He renders to God's law in His death a full
Satisfaction. That is, he turns away the wrath of God by swallowing up the wrath of God in his own agony and in his own death. He does not turn it away by changing something in God, but by being the recipient of the unmingled wrath and anger of God against the sins of his people.
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 for the clearest statement of this fact. At least what I believe to be the clearest statement in Scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20. We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ. As though God were entreating by us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ.
Be ye reconciled to God. Now on what basis can the apostle plead that sinners be reconciled to God? That they return to God? You see, as long as the conscience is filled with the sense of guilt, there is an aversion to God. Isn't that your experience? When the conscience is filled with guilt, there is an aversion to God. Isn't that what happened to Adam? When he sinned, he runs from God.
And the aversion of a guilty conscience makes communion with God utterly impossible. So Paul is saying, I'm pleading, I'm beseeching in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God, return to God, be done with this aversion to God. Well, on what basis can he make that appeal? Well, the next verse tells us, Him who knew no sin, that is Christ, he made sin.
Now notice, our becoming the righteousness of God in Christ is possible because God did something with respect to His Son. He, God, made Him sin on our behalf. And God willing, next week we're going to look at the concepts of substitution and imputation. Rich biblical concepts without which we can have no settled, intelligent grasp upon the gospel or upon the doctrine of justification. But suffice it to say, for our purposes this morning, that this text declares that the only way sinners can have a perfect righteousness in Christ is
is because of the satisfaction of Christ. He was made sin for us. When He was made sin for us, the Scriptures make it abundantly plain that in a manner that we cannot fathom, the wrath and the anger of God broke upon His own beloved Son until the Lord Jesus could cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then when the full measure of satisfaction was rendered, he could cry, It is finished. And so the old confession is right when it says, The ground of our justification is not anything wrought in us, nothing done by us, but only for the full obedience
Active and Passive Obedience as One Indivisible Obedience
and perfect satisfaction of Christ. Now, some of you in your reading have come across the terms the active and the passive obedience of Christ. Well, some of the old writers were simply trying to bring these things together and to show, you see, that Christ's obedience in life, that obedience rendered to God in terms of His law, that that positive obedience is is reckoned ours because He is the representative, the surety, the substitute of His people. And by the passive obedience, they meant that which He suffered upon the cross when He rendered satisfaction to God's law. Now, more modern writers don't like the terminology, and I can understand why. Because, you see, Christ was never more active than when He died. The Scripture says He offered Himself without spot unto God.
The Scripture says in His own words, I lay down my life. And His obedience was never more active than it was obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. And so we may not want to use the term the active and the passive obedience of Christ. Perhaps it is better to say His obedience rendered to the precepts of God and His suffering received.
in terms of the penalty of God, they form the basis of our justification. So that all that He did in obedience to the law is reckoned mine. And all that He rendered in a way of satisfaction to the penalty of the law is reckoned mine.
So that all the debts are discharged and all the obligations fulfilled. And there is now a basis upon which a holy God can say to a sinner who is united to his Son, Your sins are pardoned. Justice has been satisfied in the death of my Son. And I give you the reward and title of eternal life. For in my Son you have perfectly kept my holy law.
Hebrews 10 and the Will of the Father
This is why the Scriptures emphasize so much that our salvation rests upon the obedience of Christ. A classic passage is Hebrews chapter 10, verses 5 through 10. There are several other key passages. This is only selected as a specimen passage. We read in Hebrews 10 and verse 5,
Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou didst prepare me. In whole burned offering and sacrifice for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I am come. In the role of the book it is written of me, To do thy will, O God.
saying above, Sacrifice and offering, and whole burnt offering and sacrifices for sin thou wouldest not, neither hast pleasure therein, the which are offered according to the law. Then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. Now notice, By which will
We have been sanctified, and the word sanctified here in Hebrews is a parallel term to justification. It is not sanctification in terms of the internal cleansing. The use of the word here in most settings in Hebrews is in the more forensic sense. By the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
You see, our salvation is said to be the result of His performance of the will of God. And that performance was obedience to the precept as well as absorption of the penalty. That's the ground of our justification. Therefore, if we would come to any settled confidence with regard to that great ultimate question, how shall I, a guilty sinner,
Pastoral Application: Have You Asked the Question?
Stand before the holy God of heaven and earth, before whom seraphim rail face and feet and cry one to another, Holy, Holy, Holy. How shall I stand before that God who knows the deepest recesses of my heart, whose eye, whose slightest glance can trace out every motion of sin, every disposition of uncleanness and pride and lust and jealousy? How shall
Shall I stand before that God who is committed to mete out judgment upon every single deviation from His law? My friend, there is no way to face that question squarely and with any comfort unless you face it in the light of these three simple statements we've looked at this morning. The ground of justification is in the person of Christ alone. The ground of justification is...
is in the perfect obedience of Christ alone. The ground of our justification is in the full satisfaction of Christ alone. And until that becomes a matter of felt and conscious religious conviction that goes as deep as the awareness of God in sin, there will be no comfort, there will be no stability,
There will be no constancy in the Christian life. Let me ask in closing, have you ever asked the question to which justification is the answer? Have you ever asked the question to which justification is the answer? Can you sit there this morning utterly indifferent to this whole business? My friend, listen to me.
You won't be indifferent when you're summoned to stand before God. There will be no submerging this issue in the face of other issues. When you are summoned from your grave to stand in the presence of the God who made you, the God who has stamped upon you the sense of your obligation to Him, and all your sins flash before your mind, and the book of God is open,
You'll curse the day you sat in a place like this and didn't ask the question, How can I have my sins justly pardoned? How can I have a basis to stand before that God and have Him declare me openly, visibly before the universe as absolutely clear before His law? My friend, if you've never asked the question to which justification is the answer, don't be proud of it. Cry to God to awaken you from your stupor. May God grant that some of us who know something of your pitiable state may have grace to weep in secret places for your soul until you begin to ask that.
Thank God there are many of you who have asked the question. And not only have you asked the question, but you've come to the conviction that the only way I can have peace of conscience and the knowledge that my sins are pardoned is in some way or another connected with Christ, who He is, and what He's done. But your views of precisely what He has done in order to give you a solid basis of confidence of your sins forgiven and of full acceptance. It's been those dim and indistinct views that have left you vulnerable to doubt.
It's those dim and indistinct views that have left you crippled so that when you see your sins and your failures and the areas of un-mortified lust and pride and all the rest, then you get yourself all in a muddle saying, how can a person fouled up as much as I am be declared righteous before God? Your problem is that you're filling your mind with the wrong set of biblical truths. When you are in hand with guilt...
when you are in hand with the issue of a condemning conscience, then is the time to have dealings with Christ and with Christ alone. Christ in the perfection of His obedience. Christ in the perfection of His satisfaction rendered to the law of God. Then begin to say by faith,
Bold shall I stand in thy great day, for who ought to my charge shall lay. Fully absolved from these I am, from sin and fear and death and shame. May God, by the Holy Spirit, enable us as His people to come to an ever-increasing grasp upon this wonderful provision of God's grace. And it will not be productive of license.
It will not be productive of indifference. As we shall see in subsequent studies, the firmer our grasp is upon Christ as our justification, the more we will love him. And the more we love him, the more we'll be careful lest we stain our conscience with sin. The more we love him, the more we'll want to obey him. The more we'll pant and hunger for communion with him. No, no.
Closing Prayer
The main spring of the highest dimensions of Christian zeal is the confidence of being accepted in the Beloved One. Let us pray. Our Father, we render thanks and praise to you this morning.
that such a provision would ever have been conceived in your mind, not only conceived in your mind and heart, but wonderfully wrought out in the history of man, we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon him the seed of Abraham, in the room instead of his people lived that perfect life,
in the room instead of His people underwent the terrors and the horrors of Your judgment, that we might this day stand before You justified. O God, by the Holy Spirit, reveal Christ and the glory of His justifying grace to the hearts of those who this very hour are yet strangers to that grace.
And we pray for us who are your people that we may learn how to apply this truth to the daily struggles with our sin. That we may learn what it is to come again and again to that place where we confess that in the Lord alone is our righteousness. That we may say with the prophet, He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.
O Lord, help those struggling saints who've wrestled some of them for years and have found no certain resting place. Come, O Holy Spirit, and teach them as only you can teach. We give you thanks now for the privilege of being in this place, of spending this hour in worship and praise, and in the study of your word. We now commit to you that word.
that you will watch over it and cause it to bring forth fruit in our lives, to your praise and to our profit. Be with us as we leave this place. Enable us by your grace to sanctify the remainder of this day. Hear our prayer and receive our thanks as we offer it in Jesus'
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
By the obedience of one shall the many be constituted righteous - the federal/imputational ground
Christ made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him
Christ's obedient performance of the Father's will is the basis of our standing