JUSTIFICATION

…who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 4:25

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 2:15-16

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Romans 5:18

When remembering this theological term, justification, my girlfriend remembers it’s meaning by saying it this way: “Just- as- if- I- never sinned at all.” That is very true and a good way to remember it.

Justification is actually a legal courtroom term that means to have right legal standing before God. You see, when someone puts their trust in the person and works of Jesus Christ, their guilty verdict of sin is put upon Jesus Christ (propitiation), and his innocence is imputed to them and they are completely forgiven and no longer liable to punishment (justification).

The Galatians verse I posted above (2:15-16) makes it completely clear that we are not justified by our feeble attempts to please God, but through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The term justification is just dripping with grace because it is all from God.

Picture this: There are 2 men living completely different lives. The first is a “man” who lives the perfect life. He never lies, never steals, in fact he never sins at all. He ends up becoming a well-known judge and is responsible for sentencing criminals to prison for their wrong doings. Now, the second man is a filthy criminal. He has good intentions, but overall is guilty of lying, cheating, stealing, etc. No matter how hard he tries to be “good” he ends up failing.

Imagine this: The criminal stands before the judge for all his crimes. The judge knows he is guilty but decides to take the man’s due punishment upon himself and let the guilty criminal go free. In the same way, Jesus Christ, the sinless perfect Judge has taken the punishment of all who are guilty that put their trust in Him. Those who do trust in Christ are gracefully given a completely innocent title.

We must realize that Paul did not invent the concept of justification. In the Parable of the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus justifies a tax collector for his humility and trust in Jesus Christ. Justification is also a concept we see laced through the Old Testament, especially in the Passover. Isaiah 53:11 says:

Out of the anguish of his (Jesus) soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11

There is a lot more to justification than this, but I believe these basics are understandable and will give you a general understanding. If you remember these 2 parts, you will have a basic understanding: 1) Forgiveness of past sins takes place through faith in Jesus Christ 2)Christ’s righteousness (perfect life) is imputed to us through justification.

Praise God for justifying me, for I was guilty in my sin. Think through this concept today and what it means to you. Explain this to your non-believing friends.

Propitiation

As you read these studies, keep a few questions in mind that we need to answer, or at least attempt to answer. The first question we must keep in mind is, was it necessary for Christ to die? Let that specific question linger while we discuss our first term of the atonement: Propitiation

Propitiation: In simple terms, propitiation means that God’s wrath against sin is appeased, or satisfied.

God is a holy, righteous and just God, among many other attributes. Because He is all of these things all of the time, sin is completely offensive to God and He cannot sin nor be in the presence of sin. You see, when we sin we offend His holiness and for Him to be completely just, His wrath must burn against us and the due punishment is hell. Before I explain a bit more of whether or not Christ had to die, I will list the 4 times the word propitiation is used I the Bible.

…whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. –Romans 3:25

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. –Hebrews 2:17

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. -1 John 2:2

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. -1 John 4:10

So, out of love for us, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to be the propitiation of our sins. The only way this could take place is if the sacrifice was sinless (Rom. 5:19) and that God’s wrath was paid in full. Therefore, Christ took our place on the cross and soaked up ALL the wrath of God out of love for us, leaving us innocent in God’s eyes.

God did not just forget our sin, but instead poured out all his wrath on the Son at the cross. Here is where things get very emotional and should force you to your knees in thankfulness:

1) Jesus Christ was in perfect unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. In Matthew 27:46 Jesus cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At this point, for the first time ever, the Son was separated from the Trinity and made to be sin, separation because God cannot be in the presence of sin.

2) Fathers, think through this one: The Father was pleased with the sacrifice, since that is what propitiation basically means. Imagine your son crying for help, being tortured and beaten, and you stand there pleased at what is happening to your son. Some people have gone as far to say that this is the most vulgar account of child abuse in human history. However, God did this knowing that 1) Jesus would conquer death and be raised from the dead 2) God would restore all sinners who trust in the person and work of Christ on the cross back into a right relationship with Him.

This is the definition of propitiation in short. Please meditate on these facts today and realize the love God has for you.

“But the gospel begins with the outspoken assertion that nothing we can do, say, offer or even contribute can compensate for our sins or turn away God’s anger.” –John Stott, The Cross of Christ

THE CROSS

Over the next week to two weeks I will be studying and writing on the atonement. My main focus and purpose in this is to grow closer to Jesus and look a bit deeper into the cross. There is a secondary purpose to this study, which will be shown through the writing. I want my study to be a tool for the church, specifically Seven San Diego Church. A lot of times we throw around words like justification, propitiation, and reconciliation and some Christians might not understand these. However, they are highly important concepts and help make clear why Christ died on the cross, for who Christ died for on the cross, etc.

My friends, there is nothing more important than studying what Christ did on the cross. Please feel free to ask questions, write comments, or call me so we can discuss anything I do not write clearly enough for you to understand. My heart loves studying this stuff and I will do my best to make it simple and understandable. One thing I ask is that you pass on what I write to non-Christian friends and please be purposeful and missional and discuss these things with them. I hope this will bring you as much joy as it will for me.

Lesson Learned

The other day, October 9th to be exact, I changed my relationship status to single on Facebook. I did not expect the flood of questions that came along with that. So, this is my attempt to answer those questions, share an honest story of disobedience, and explain an amazing lesson learned through trust and repentance.

As most of you know, I was married in August of 2008. What most of you do not know is the disobedience I had towards God and what lengths I went to to ignore His commands. To save time and typing, I was given the impression through lots of prayer and scripture reading that I was not to marry the girl I was dating. However, I wanted to be Jesus to a broken girl and despite the physical and verbal abuse that took place from and to both of us, I pushed forward. Many friends told me not to marry this individual, but I did. Her relationship with Jesus was not authentic, as far as scripture says, and I felt she pursued God through me, but I am a sinner and I soon showed to be imperfect and a sinner.

After some clear and extreme signs to not marry her came about, we married in August 08'. I loved like Christ loved the Church, I was willing to die for her. However, due to an abusive upbringing and lack of trust in men, I was soon pushed away and she chose other things over me. In February of 2009, I gave an ultimatum that would force her to choose me, or these "other things." She chose the other things. I humbly moved out and into a dining room where a kitchen table should be. 3 close brothers took me in and nurtured me, but I was not used to such love.

This break led to the most intense study of the atonement of Christ and what He did on the cross for me. I was broken and camped daily and nightly at the foot of the cross...but I was still blaming her and had a lot of anger and bitterness, so I kept studying!!!

God kept breaking me, over and over and over. I spent many days in tears, literally balling my eyes out and loudly weeping in confusion. I was more upset that God allowed it, not at her disobedience and unfaithfulness. Only the closest most trusted people in my life new. I somehow shoved it down while at school all day and still attained straight A's. Slowly over time, my roommates, some other close friends, my pastor, and my parents brought me to a place of unconditional love. I was loved!!!

I always judged those men in ministry who got divorced, "Did they not understand the sanctity of marriage?" A few months later I was served divorce papers and watched my wife return to the lifestyle of her past. I fought for this marriage, like no other. But we have a sovereign God who knows all, and while some might disagree, this was His will for me. It was a lesson and discipline of my disobedience. The blame must not be put on her for this, but on me alone!

If it was not for this all taking place, the cross would not be as glorious as it is to me, I would not have the lenses I have now for a equally "gospel-lensed" woman, and I would not know the extreme call of obedience to holiness God requires of us!!! I was transformed!!!

So what now??? I am a man who loves Jesus like no other. I am finishing my last year of my undergraduate degree, preparing to move to Dallas for seminary, and have my eyes fixed on a gospel-lensed woman!!!

I am healed!!! I am loved!!! I am a vessel of honorable use when I was heading towards a path of being of dishonorable use. Thanks for all the questions and concern...this is me now!!!

The Great Exchange

As some of you may know, I get up very early every day to read the Scriptures. This is my way of meeting with Jesus and just learning about how I can glorify him, where I am falling short, where I am doing good, etc. I keep a file on my computer of my daily recordings of my readings. I write an analysis on every single verse, which helps me study deeper, learn more, remember more, and glorify my Creator.

Today I was brought to tears, which isn't a rarity most mornings, but I just really wanted to share a bit with you today from a specific passage. Please enjoy...and think!

Luke 23:25

Barabbas is a violent, grotesque animal that when we read through the lenses of our current salvation, we tremble at the fact of this murderer being released in exchange for Jesus. We must take off our bias lenses and look what is really happening here. Who is Barabbas? We are Barabbas! We are the robbers, the insurrectionists, the murderers. We have sinned and been released!

Pilate can almost be seen as the Father here. He let us go, while we were once guilty, but the innocence of the sinless Christ is now applied to us. We are free to go, from all condemnation. But, Christ is then punished for our innocence. Taken captive as a criminal, beaten, mocked, flogged, and crucified, to DEATH! This is quite an exchange!!! Sad, amazing, not worthy, loved, these are only a few emotions that can be expressed.

You have killed!!!

MURDERED!

There was a day, as I took my walks abroad,
when I came by a spot forever engraven upon
my memory, for there I saw this Friend,
my best, my only Friend... MURDERED!

I stooped down in sad affright, and looked at Him.
I saw that His hands had been pierced with rough iron nails, and His feet had been torn in the same way.
There was misery in His dead countenance so terrible
that I scarcely dared to look upon it.
His body was emaciated with hunger, His back was red with
bloody scourges, and His brow had a circle of wounds about it:
clearly could one see that these had been pierced by thorns.

I shuddered, for I had known this Friend full well.
He never had a fault; He was the purest of the pure,
the holiest of the holy.

Who could have injured Him?

For He never injured any man: all His life long He "went about
doing good." He had healed the sick, He had fed the hungry, He
had raised the dead: for which of these works did they kill Him?
He had never breathed out anything else but love - and as I
looked into the poor sorrowful face, so full of agony, and yet
so full of love, I wondered who could have been a wretch so
vile as to pierce hands like His.

I said within myself, "Where can these traitors live?
Who are these that could have smitten such an One as this?"

Had they murdered an oppressor, we might have forgiven them;
had they slain one who had indulged in vice or villainy,
it might have been his desert; had it been a murderer and a rebel,
or one who had committed sedition, we would have said,
"Bury his corpse: justice has at last given him his due."

But when You were slain, my best, my only-beloved,
where did the traitors hide?
Let me seize them, and they shall be put to death!
If there be torments that I can devise, surely they shall
endure them all. Oh! what jealousy; what revenge I felt!
If I might but find these murderers, what I would do to them!

And as I looked upon that corpse, I heard a footstep,
and wondered where it was.
I listened, and I clearly perceived that the murderer was
close at hand! It was dark, and I groped about to find him.
I found that, somehow or other, wherever I put out my hand,
I could not meet with him, for he was NEARER to me than my
hand would go.

At last I put my hand upon MY BREAST. "I have you now"
said I - for lo! he was IN MY OWN HEART - the murderer
was hiding within my own bosom, dwelling in the recesses
of my INMOST SOUL.

Ah! then I wept indeed, that I, in the very presence of my
murdered Master, should be harboring the murderer - and I
felt myself most guilty while I bowed over His corpse, and sang
that plaintive hymn...
"Twas you, MY SINS, my cruel sins,
His chief tormentors were;
Each of my crimes became a nail,
and unbelief the spear."

Amid the rabble which hounded the Redeemer to His doom,
there were some gracious souls whose bitter anguish sought vent in
wailing and lamentations- fit music to accompany that march of woe.

When my soul can, in imagination, see the Saviour bearing
His cross to Calvary, she joins the godly women, and weeps
with them; for, indeed, there is true cause for grief, cause
lying deeper than those mourning women thought.
They bewailed innocence maltreated, goodness persecuted,
love bleeding, meekness about to die - but my heart has
a deeper and more bitter cause to mourn.

MY SINS were the scourges which lacerated those blessed
shoulders, and crowned with thorns those bleeding brows;
my sins cried -
"Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"
and laid the cross upon His gracious shoulders.

His being led forth to die is sorrow enough for one eternity;
but MY having been His murderer, is more, infinitely more
grief than one poor fountain of tears can express.

If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without strength
as I am, then I cannot live in sin any longer, but must arouse
myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me.

I cannot trifle with the evil which slew my best Friend.

I must be holy for His sake.

HOW CAN I LIVE IN SIN WHEN HE HAS
DIED TO SAVE ME FROM IT?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Shaping our Culture

The other day in one of my classes, we were discussing how much shapes have shaped cultures views, leadership, and even community. In early Egypt, they had a dictatorship style government where the leader was at the top, picture a pyramid, and the slave class was a large amount of people at the bottom. Oddly enough, their architecture was....you guessed it, pyramids.

America, especially in the 50's to know, has a mixture of the pyramid/square culture. We would say democracy is our goverNments approach, but face it we really don't have a say. Anyways, our land is always layed out in squares. Take a flight and look down sometime; square land plots, square buildings, etc.

Stick w/ me here, almost done w/ the illustration!

The Indians have a circle culture. They have a circular government where when a war leader is needed, that specific leader steps in the middle of the "circle" and is in charge. Then, when it's time to move villages, the leader who is best at moving the tribe moves to the center of the circle while the other leader exits. Guess what kind of structure they lived in? A circular Teepee.

As I thought through this in our culture today, especially the church, I had to be honest with myself and realize that, for the most part, it seems that most churches are led in a pyramid/square style. Sometimes, especially in a lot of the mega churches (not all of them), decisions come down to one man. As I thought through this, I thought about Romans 12 and how it can coincide with the circle shape that the Indians trusted in. If we have a body of believers, we can depend on those whose gifts are needed at the time and continue the cycle effectively.

These are just some random thought and hope they open up a discussion of some sort.