Bible Readings:
1 Peter 5:1 – 14
Romans 3:21 – 4:12
Sermon Outline:
Romans 8:28–34 (NKJV)
28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
I What is justification?
Isaiah 43:25 (NKJV)
25“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
II How can a righteous God justify the guilty sinner?
Proverbs 17:15 (NKJV)
15He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
Four grounds for the certainty of justification
1 – Christ’s death for His sinful people
2 – His resurrection
3 – His sitting at the right hand of God
4 – His intercession
III The place of faith in justification
Westminster Confession of Faith
CHAPTER XI. Of Justification
Those whom God effectually calleth he also freely justifieth; not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous: not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone: not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith: which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.
II. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.
III. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet, in as much as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for any thing in them, their justification is only of free grace; that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.