Justification

“For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest…”

Psalm 51:3-4

Religion has a way of clouding and obscuring the thought and purpose of God in Christ. Righteousness is not simply a standard of moral conduct. Righteousness is a description of a life that is compatible with God’s character and an expression that is consistent with His redemptive plan of salvation. It is here in David’s acknowledgment of his transgression, with godly sorrow and repentance, that he shows what the righteousness of God is. “For I acknowledge my transgression…that thou mightest be justified”. It is in our acknowledgment of our sin that we justify God’s sending His own Son to atone for our wickedness. We are now in the place of agreeing with God that this way is absolutely necessary for us to have relationship with Him. We clear Him to speak to the accuser of the brethren on our behalf. By faith we release the efficacy of the blood of His Son to justify us to the righteousness of God. It is here that many of us stumble and labor under a sense of condemnation that is not of Him. Condemnation is a ministration of the enemy that ever seeks to undermine our faith in God. It causes our countenance to fall from that of hope in Him to a hopelessness in ourselves. Its intent is to motivate us to try and establish a “righteousness” based on our efforts and resources. It ever declares that we are not worthy of the mercy and grace of God. When we agree and allow ourselves to wallow in that ministration of condemnation we now are siding with the adversary of God and we become recipients of all that he stands for. The fruit of such a ministry will produce bitterness, discouragement, anger and hopelessness for us and others. Those who agree with and hide not their transgressions from the face of God will find themselves the recipients of His mercy, grace, faith and forgiveness and the fruit of such a life will be found in agreement with Gal. 5:22-23. Fruit by its very nature is the result of something else. It is the inherent result of a law that is either unto life or unto death. So we find David at one of the lowest points in His life agreeing with God and as the Psalm continues we see the hope of God’s forgiveness and his restoration to the joy of God’s salvation.

Let us not linger in our failures and sins. Let us not wallow in the mire of our wickedness but let us agree with the purpose of all that Calvary stands for! For it is in this place of agreement with Him that we will discover the resources to rise out of our own helplessness into the joy of His salvation. It is in this place of us honoring the grace and salvation of God that His righteousness will be revealed in us from “faith unto the faith”. It is in our acknowledgment of the righteous work of God in Christ that His righteousness is ministered into the reality of our own life. Who cannot glory in such a God? Who can remain silent in the revelation of such things! Who could ever seek any other righteousness than this! It is declared with great clarity in 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The salvation of God is two-fold. First is the forgiveness of sins and the second work is to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Unless we agree with the first there will be no ability to draw upon the resources of God to complete the second. So let us go on and not grow weary but agree with our gracious God and draw from Emanuel’s veins the life and the power of the everlasting covenant that He signed with His own blood. Let us declare unto Him that He is worthy of our praise. He was just in sending His own Son for our atonement, He paid the debt of our transgression, He died that we might live, He was bruised for our iniquity, wounded for our transgression, He took upon Himself the shame and sorrow of sin, in dying He tasted death for every man and in rising from the dead He now offers life to everyone that comes to Him by faith. “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified”

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

Let us arise in the power of this! Let us lay aside every weight of sin and run with endurance and hope because of what He has done. Let us seek to provoke and encourage one another to rise up in His life and by the blood of the Lamb overcome the accuser of the brethren so that we no longer partake of his lies but that we through the life of agreement partake of the truth and life of the Lamb of God.

“And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him”.

(Luke 7:29 – 30)

Brian Troxel