Justification

Pastor Martin moves from the Gospels into the period of explanation and application, demonstrating that the apostolic epistles continue to assert Christ's true humanity as essential to the gospel. He surveys Romans 1, Romans 9, 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 4, 1 Timothy 2, and Hebrews 2 to show that Paul and the writer to the Hebrews never blush to call Jesus a man. He then applies the doctrine, showing that Christ's humanity authenticates him as the promised Messiah and equips him as an efficient mediator who could establish legal union with sinners, obey the law in their stead, and suffer the curse for their sins.

After a digression of several Lord's Days, Pastor Martin returns to the Here We Stand series with a lengthy review of the ground covered — the book we believe and obey, the God we worship and confess, and the salvation we receive and proclaim, including Christ in the mystery of His person and the majesty of His offices. He then transitions to the next major division: the cardinal blessings of salvation — calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. Using the analogy of a multi-course banquet, he argues these are not synonyms for 'saved' but distinct courses of one gospel feast. He closes with two framing truths — the orbit of these blessings (union with Christ, outside of which there is not a crumb) and the order of these blessings (those that bring us into union, those that are present fruits, those that are future benefits).

Pastor Martin opens his treatment of the doctrine of justification by underscoring its supreme importance. After showing that the doctrine answers the most fundamental of human questions, 'How shall sinful man find acceptance with God?', he argues for its importance on two grounds: the glory of God, since in justifying the ungodly God displays the brilliance of every divine attribute, and the good of the creature, both for the conversion of sinners and the establishing peace, holiness, and joy in believers.

Pastor Martin sets the doctrine of justification within the supportive framework of three indispensable truths without which it cannot be rightly understood: the character and position of God as holy and just Creator and Judge, the character and position of man as accountable creature and guilty sinner, and God's overall ultimate purpose to conform His people to the image of His Son. He warns that whenever justification has been wrenched out of this larger context, it has suffered grievously even at the hands of its friends.

Pastor Martin establishes from Scripture that the word 'justify' is forensic and declarative - to pronounce, accept, and treat someone as righteous in relation to a standard of law - never to make personally righteous. He traces four lines of biblical evidence: passages where any other meaning is impossible, contexts where it is the opposite of 'condemn', equivalent expressions, and the formal usage in Romans and Galatians. Justification is therefore God's judicial verdict, not an inward transformation, and that distinction is essential to gospel comfort.

Using the Westminster Larger Catechism's definition as a teaching framework, Pastor Martin opens up the first three elements of justification: God Himself is its author, His free grace its source, and sinners as sinners (not half-reformed sinners) are its objects. He illustrates with a vivid scenario of a condemned criminal receiving a reprieve and presses the parable of the publican and the Pharisee to show that God justifies the ungodly the moment he casts himself on mercy, not after any reformation.

Pastor Martin establishes that justification is an act of God, not a process - one is either wholly justified or wholly condemned, with no degrees and no growing into it. From Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1, Luke 18:14, and John 5:24 he demonstrates the once-for-all character of justification, then applies the distinction practically: the believer must take indwelling sin seriously like Paul in Romans 7 yet rest in 'no condemnation' like Paul in Romans 8. He closes with the debtor's prison illustration introducing pardon and acceptance.

Pastor Martin opens the very essence of the justifying act, showing it is two distinct yet inseparable elements: God pardons all our sins and accepts our persons as righteous in His sight. He marshals texts on forgiveness from Acts 13, Romans 4, Exodus 34, Psalm 103, Psalm 130, Isaiah 43-44, and then turns to the master-and-two-servants illustration to demonstrate that pardon alone is not enough - positive righteousness is also required, conferred in Christ as 1 Corinthians 1:30 and Romans 5:1-2 declare.

Pastor Martin opens the negative side of the catechism's statement of the ground of justification: 'not for anything done by them.' He establishes from Romans 3-4, Ephesians 2, Philippians 3, and Titus 3 that no human performance - whether before, at, or after effectual calling - contributes any thread to the ground of justification. He then applies the truth to those holding a damning confidence in their own works and to true Christians battling the conflicting witnesses of conscience and the gospel.

Pastor Martin opens the second negative of the Larger Catechism: the ground of justification is not anything wrought in us by the gracious work of the Spirit. He acknowledges that God always sanctifies whom He justifies, but insists that nothing of that internal work - new heart, new affections, repentance, growing holiness - forms any part of the legal ground of justification. The righteousness justifying us is a God-righteousness in Christ, external to us, received only by faith.

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.

Pastor Martin opens up the biblical concept of imputation - the charging or reckoning of one's account to another - as the very fabric of the doctrine of sin and salvation. He traces the word's general usage in Leviticus, 2 Samuel, Psalm 32, Romans 4, and Philemon, then sets out the three great imputations: Adam's sin imputed to the race, the sins of God's people imputed to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers. The basis of all three is federal headship and covenant union.

Pastor Martin closes the catechism's definition of justification by treating its final clause: justification is received by faith alone. He marshals the testimony of Scripture from Romans 3-5, Galatians 2-3, Philippians 3, and Ephesians 2 to show faith is the sole instrument; defines justifying faith as a Spirit-wrought, conviction-born receiving and resting upon Christ; and explains why faith alone - because it is wholly receptive, an empty hand that takes what God gives. He closes with a member's surgery testimony of resting on Christ alone in the face of death.

Pastor Martin continues his pastoral appendix on justification and sin, reviewing the first two principles and expounding the third: sin in a justified person must be dealt with primarily in terms of God's fatherly displeasure, not judicial wrath. He argues from Matthew 6, 1 Peter 1, 1 John 2, and Hebrews 12 that while God no longer wears the face of an angry judge toward the justified, He does wear the face of a displeased Father. He exposes the antinomian's discomfort with obedience and fear and the legalist's discomfort with filial confidence, and closes with a Murray quote summarizing the change of relation.

Pastor Martin closes his four-part treatment of sin in the justified life with the final principle: sin must always be dealt with in conjunction with evangelical repentance. He distinguishes evangelical from merely legal repentance using 2 Corinthians 7, then unfolds four marks of true repentance in a believer — honest acknowledgement, genuine grief, a sincere resolve to forsake the sin, and willingness to confess and make restitution horizontally. Rich illustrations from David, Peter, Judas, and homely family scenes ground the whole pastoral counsel.

Pastor Martin opens a new section on adoption, arguing that adoption is an even higher blessing than justification — as a judge's son rescuing a criminal only illustrates justification, but the judge adopting the pardoned criminal as his own heir pictures adoption. He then traces adoption's centrality through four spheres: God's eternal purpose (Ephesians 1), Christ's temporal activity (Galatians 4), the initial application of salvation (John 1, Galatians 3-4), and the final application of salvation (Romans 8, 1 John 3, Revelation 21). He closes by rebuking the notion of universal fatherhood and urging believers to enjoy this pinnacle privilege.