We laymen are prone to shy away from theological terms. This can cause poverty in our understanding of the meaning of Christianity.
Ask the average person, even many church members, what Christianity is and what it means to be a Christian and you will get a variety of answers. For example, “Christianity is a religion, and being a Christian means you are a follower of that religion.” And, “Christianity is a religion of good people trying to do good to others.” Neither of these two definitions would be much more accurate than describing a human being as a “finger,” or a “toe,” or an “ear.”
On God’s part, Christianity is a supernatural work of his love, grace, and mercy in the lives of men through which fellowship with himself is restored. It is a mysterious manifestation of God’s power that enables people to become new creatures, born again from above. Even the very wicked can be made clean, pure, and righteous in God’s sight.
On man’s part Christianity means realization of sinfulness and need—conviction. It requires sorrow for and repentance for sin. It requires confession. And it requires that in full humility man accept what God has done for him through Christ Jesus. In other words, he must put his faith in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God does not violate man’s right to decide, his privilege of accepting or rejecting Christ. Some may say there is a conflict between election and predestination on the one hand and man’s free will on the other. I do not believe there is any conflict. The one side looks at God’s offer of salvation from the standpoint of God’s infinite knowledge. The other view is from man’s side: his response to God’s invitation, “Whosoever will, let him come.”
Involved in this entire question of salvation, of Christianity, and of becoming a Christian is the fact of justification. This is not a matter of character. We cannot justify ourselves in God’s sight by being good. Nor is justification freedom from sin. Rather, it is freedom from the guilt and punishment that inevitably follow unforgiven sin. Justification does not mean that we are guiltless; it means that the Judge has paid the penalty for us.
Under ordinary circumstances a criminal has three things against him—the law, the judge, and the jury.
But through justification, the “criminal” in God’s sight—the sinner—can have everything going for him. First of all, God is on his side; none can dare to accuse him, for this God gave His Son to redeem him. In this amazing situation the Christian finds that the Judge has taken on himself the penalty for his sins and in so doing has declared him “not guilty”! All this is a reality that stems from the past, but the present and future are also secured by the fact that the Judge himself is pleading as an Advocate in the divine presence, so that the past is forgiven and the present and future assured by the Forgiver.
That is the meaning of Christianity and the assurance of the Christian. Because God in the person of his Son has taken on himself the guilt and penalty of our sins, we stand justified in God’s presence—“just-as-if-I’d” never sinned.
What is the result? Peace with God and the peace of God in our hearts. The rebellion is over, willful disobedience is ended, and Christ the Judge is now Saviour and Lord.
The Apostle Paul tells us, “Since then it is by faith that we are justified, let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have confidently entered into this new relationship of grace, and here we take our stand, in happy certainty of the glorious things he has for us in the future” (Rom. 5:1, 2, Phillips).
Perhaps some who read this have been searching and longing for peace with God but have remained frustrated and miserable. A possible explanation is found in these words of the Apostle Paul: “They do not know God’s righteousness, and all the time they are going about trying to prove their own righteousness they have the wrong attitude to receive his. For Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness-by-the-Law for everyone who believes in him” (Rom. 10:3, 4, Phillips).
Ever present in the ignorant heart is the feeling that our salvation depends on achieving. But becoming a Christian is a matter, not of doing anything good, but of believing the marvelous thing Christ has done for us.
In his statement that the Christian is justified by faith, the Apostle Paul opens with the word therefore. This connects the whole matter with saving faith.
He uses Abraham as an illustration of righteousness by faith: “For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’ ” (Rom. 4:3).
What did Abraham believe? He believed the seemingly preposterous promise that God would give him a son when he was one hundred years old and his wife, Sarah, was ninety-one. When that son came as promised and had grown to early manhood, Abraham believed that if, in obedience to God’s command, he offered the boy as a sacrifice, God would bring him back to life, for in this boy reposed the hope of God’s covenant. “By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.’ He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Heb. 11:17–19).
What was the secret of Abraham’s faith, a faith that we too should have? Abraham believed God’s promises. “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Rom. 4:20, 21).
Surely we should believe God’s promises! Surely we should believe that the Creator of the universe, the sovereign God of all history, has the power to carry out what he has promised!
Justification proceeds from faith, a childlike faith which is centered in what God has done for us and which we receive as his loving gift. “He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration [the new birth] and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. This saying is sure” (Titus 3:5–8).
Justification is nothing more or less than God’s offering us forgiveness, cleansing, and infilling with himself on the basis of what his Son has done for us.
To an unbelieving world that is utter foolishness, but for that same world it can be hope and joy and peace.
