SERMON TITLE: Justified by God
TEXT: Romans 8:31-39 (ESV)
SPEAKER: Josh Hanson
DATE: 4-25-21
You can find the sermon notes here.
As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And the one thing I always want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshipping with us in person at our North Main campus or are joining us online — the one thing I want you to know is that God loves you and that I love you too.
We’re continuing in our series in the book of Romans — specifically — the eighth chapter of Romans. We’ve been in this chapter over the course of two years and our goal is to finish it in the next few weeks. So let’s turn to our passage for today.
If you have your Bible please turn with me to Romans chapter 8. We’ll be looking at verses 31-39. And if you’ve been with us the last few weeks, you know that we’re going to be in these final nine verses for a total of six weeks — this being our third week in them.
We’re in Romans chapter 8. Beginning in verse 31.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39 ESV)
Thus far — in these final verses of Paul’s pinnacle chapter in his letter to the Christians living in Rome — thus far we’ve seen that God is for us and that — because God has given us his Son — we can trust that he will give us everything we need. And one thing we need is to be justified. To be declared righteous before God — no longer guilty for our sins against him.
However — when it comes to justification — what we see a lot of in our culture is a form of self-justification. Where we justify ourselves through our own works or by comparing ourselves to others. And — usually — when we compare ourselves to others — we end up either devaluing our own self-worth or we devalue the worth of the person we’re comparing ourselves to.
It’s either “I’ll never be as good as them” or it’s “thank God I’m so much better than them.” And the “I’m so much better than them” option has resulted in the cancel culture spirit of our day. As someone has said, “Social media has shown us we are much better at judgement than we are at grace.” (Paul David Tripp) Whereas the first option — I’ll never be as good as them — is a weapon used by Satan to convince us that — even once we’ve turned to God — all we’ll find is a god who’s cold and unforgiving.
The other thing we see quite a bit of in our culture — when it comes to justification — is the idea of needing to silence the voice of condemnation we all hear — that voice — in our head that disturbs us — or that voice from someone else. We might try to ignore the voice or — when we do hear it — we may deny that we’ve done anything wrong. And especially due to that voice in our head — some choose to self-medicate through drugs, alcohol, porn, or entertainment — because — we’re told — do whatever you can to silence that condemning voice.
Now — no one I know of — Christian or not — thinks that this voice of condemnation is declaring some wonderful news. No one loves the feeling of being guilty. But bad news — such as — you’re guilty before God — can lead to great news if it causes you to face your guilt head on — which can lead you to repentance — where you turn away from your sin as you turn to Christ in faith.
But culture won’t tell you to repent. It won’t tell you to turn to Christ for your justification. It tells you to avoid condemnation, to deny it, or minimize it — but you never deal with it. Thus — instead of dealing with why we feel a sense of guilt — we try to sweep it under the rug and hope that it’ll go away. But it never goes away.
But as we’ve already seen in Romans chapter 8 — the Christian faith offers great hope — for “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1, ESV) And the verse we’re focusing on today demonstrates to us why those — who are in Christ Jesus — can have confidence in this promise that they are not condemned nor will they ever be condemned. And as we see — beginning in verse thirty-three — Paul asks two more of his rhetorical questions. Remember — there are seven of these questions that Paul asks — not so we’ll debate what the answer is — he’s asking these questions to make a point. We’ve already looked at three of his questions and his next two questions are, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn?” (Romans 8:33-34a, ESV)
And what we see — and what I hope you’ll leave here believing in — what I hope you’ll — during this sermon — have great assurance in — is this wonderful promise: The gospel frees us from all condemnation. Why? Because the gospel loudly proclaims to us that God — not us — God is the one who justifies. God is the one who declares guilty people to be not guilty. Why — because of something we’ve done? Nope! God declares us justified because of the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. We’re not condemned because Christ was condemned in our place on the cross. Thus the gospel frees us from self-justifying behavior and leads us into a relationship with our God and our — “I gave my life to justify my people” — Savior. And — as if this isn’t already a sweet gift to our tired and weary souls — the truth and promise we’ll see today gives us a way to counter those voices of condemnation we all experience.
So let’s look at two things. Justification and protection. God justifies us — this is one way that he’s proven he is for us — and — another way that God is for us — is seen in how he protects us from condemnation.
Let’s begin by looking at our justification. Paul writes, “It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33b ESV)
It is God who justifies. This — quick and to the point sentence — should squash any trust we have in self-justification. We don’t justify ourselves — you won’t find that verse in the Bible. You won’t find a command anywhere in Scripture that tells you to accomplish your justification. It is God who justifies. God is Judge over the court of Heaven. And he has declared his people — the elect of God — to be justified.
But what does being justified mean? The word justification means to “declare one righteous.” (W.E. Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (McLean VA: MacDonald, 1940, 624.) Righteous means to be right with God. So justification means to be declared right with God by God. Additionally, justification has the sense of being acquitted or vindicated. (Lawrence O. Richards, Expository Dictionary of Bible Words (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1985), 183.) The idea being that a defendant has been acquitted from all guilty charges.
So justification — then — is related to the idea of justice. Now — in Paul’s day — justice was a bit loosey goosey. What do I mean? Well there were different standards of justice — for example — for the wealthy and the elite — a favorable system of justice for them — and a not so favorable system of justice for those who were considered less important by society. Yet biblical writers — like Paul — emphasize the fact that God is a just Judge — God is impartial in his justice — for everyone is equal in the sight of God — no one gets a free pass because of their social status or gender or wealth or nationality or skin color.
And these same biblical writers also emphasize the fact that self-justification is a losing endeavor. It always ends with a guilty verdict. The only means of acquittal is by being declared righteous before God — by God. And all of humanity is guilty — due to our sin — we all deserve a guilty sentence. Yet God — in his great love for us — declares a not guilty sentence to those who are in Christ.
And Paul writes quite a bit about justification in his letters. It’s one of the main themes he comes back to again and again in his writings.
To Titus, Paul writes, “But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.”” (Titus 3:4-7 NET)
To the Christians living in Galatia, he writes, “We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:15-16 NET)
Earlier in Romans we read, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24 NET)
And all of this is in agreement — with our verse — where we see that it is God who justifies — self-justification ends in a guilty verdict. But it’s not just in Paul’s writings that we find that it is God who justifies.
Psalm 34:22 says, “But the Lord will redeem those who serve him. No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.” (NLT) To take refuge in the Lord is to seek protection — not from yourself or from anyone else — but from him alone. It relates to the idea of God being the only one who justifies and protects us.
Isaiah 43:25 ““I — yes, I alone — will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.” (NLT) God blots out our sin — we don’t. He makes us holy — we don’t. He justifies.
John 3:16-18 “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.” (NET) No condemnation is for those who believe in Jesus Christ — it’s not for everyone. For the one who rejects Christ is condemned already.
1 John 3:19-20 “By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (ESV) Here we find great hope because we all have times where that voice in our head condemns us. And here — we see that — God is greater than that voice in our head. His love for you is more powerful than that voice. If you believe in his Son, know that no voice of condemnation will ever overpower his infinite love for you.
As one pastor has said, “Who can make any charge stick against God’s elect? Nobody! Let yourself feel the force of that freedom! Feel the clean, clear, morning air of “all charges dropped.” You’re in a courtroom. You know you’re guilty. You’re awaiting a terrible sentence. Your future is over. [But] to the gasps of the courtroom, the judge says, ‘All the charges against you have been dropped.’” (John Piper)
And this mind boggling good news isn’t even the extent of what it means to be justified. As Tim Keller has said, “Forgiveness is ‘you may go, I’m not going to punish you,’ but justification is ‘you may come and you are welcome in my presence.”
This means we’re no longer paralyzed — but free. God justifying us mobilizes us to live a “no condemnation life” for the glory of God. Why? Because our justification declares to us that we’re being transformed into the people whom God has said you are welcome in my presence for eternity.
As James makes clear — in his letter — there’s more to the Christian faith than just believing the right things. Believing the right things should lead to transformation just as being justified leads to a new way of living. But — James says — believing doesn’t always lead to transformation. This is how he says it.
“You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear. 20 But would you like evidence, you empty fellow, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (James 2:19-26 NET)
At first glance it seems as if James is contradicting Paul — but he’s not. What James is saying is that true faith in Christ — which results in a person being justified by God — true faith in Christ results in God glorifying works. But — and this is what James is warning us about — is that there’s a believing in Christ — that even demons have — that doesn’t lead to justification nor to God glorifying works. A believing in Jesus that leads to no change. This is why we’re told over and over again — in the Bible — to test our faith — to ensure that it’s genuine — using the Bible to examine whether or not our lives are demonstrating a life changed by Christ.
But true faith — always results in being justified which always leads to God glorifying living. Think of justification like us taking off the prisoner clothes we’ve always worn — take your pick — the all orange kind or the black and white striped kind — justification is us taking off those prisoner clothes — we don’t wear them any longer because we’re no longer in prison — we’ve been released — declared not guilty — justified — set free from our enslavement to sin — and we’ve now been given new clothes. God’s heavenly family clothes to wear. Which clothes does your life indicate that you’re wearing? Prisoner’s clothes or God’s family attire?
And part of who we now are — in being justified by God and welcomed into his family — is a protected people. So let’s turn to the protection that God provides to his people. Back to our verses. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn?” (Romans 8:33-34a ESV)
God protects his people from condemnation — the condemnation of others, ourselves, and our enemy — Satan. And in these two rhetorical questions — who shall bring any charge against God’s elect and who is to condemn — a few words should stick out to us. The first is the word charge — “who shall bring any charge…” This is another judicial term — again — we’re meant to be thinking of a courtroom setting. But notice the word shall — “who shall bring any charge…” This is a future tense word — meaning this isn’t a present tense charge — a charge we experience today — but a future charge against us. A charge that’s to come on the day of judgment. On that last day — the day of judgment — who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? Are you ready for an assuring answer? No one will bring a charge against us.
Another important word is elect — “who shall bring any charge against God’s elect?” 9Vine, Vine’s Expository Dictionary, 361-362.) Elect means “to be picked out” or “chosen” for a specific purpose. The word also implies that these people — who are the elect — are God’s special possession. And who are the elect? Those who are in Christ.
And — our final word to look at — is condemn — “who is to condemn?” Condemnation is another legal term — do you think Paul is wanting us to think judicial here? The idea is that someone is believed to be guilty of a crime. An investigation takes place to discover the truth. And — based on the investigation — there’s two possible outcomes: condemnation or vindication. (David L. Turner, “Condemnation,” in the Baker Theological Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 110.) Vindication is the person being cleared of the charges. Condemnation is a person being guilty of the charges.
Now the word condemnation occurs 70 times in the Bible. And — when used in relation to God — condemnation is always in the context of God being a just and fair Judge. For he’s the Creator of all things — he’s the one who gave us the Law — and he alone has the right to execute judgement on all people on the last day.
Yet we live in a world where God — though he is always just in his judgement — we live in a culture where God’s been rejected and condemned by society. Humanity rejects God’s just judgement and instead — foolishly — judges God. And we think there will be no consequence for this.
Yet God is so loving, and kind, and merciful, and good to us that — though he could condemn all of us — he sent his Son to be condemned in our place. Listen to what Isaiah prophesied about Jesus — we looked at some of these words a few weeks ago.
“The Sovereign Lord has given me his words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will. 5 The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away. 6 I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. 7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame. 8 He who gives me justice is near. Who will dare to bring charges against me now? Where are my accusers? Let them appear! 9 See, the Sovereign Lord is on my side! Who will declare me guilty? All my enemies will be destroyed like old clothes that have been eaten by moths! 10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. 11 But watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. This is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon fall down in great torment.” (Isaiah 50:4-11 NLT)
Now — I said that these words were about Jesus. His back was beaten. His beard was pulled out. They spit in his face. All before they hung him on the cross. Yet he was not disgraced. He was not put to shame. Even though we thought, “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. 3 He was despised and rejected — a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. 4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. 7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. 9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. 10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. 12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.” (Isaiah 53:2b-12 NLT)
Though we tried — in our sin and rebellion — to put Christ to shame. Though we tried to bring disgrace upon him. Though we brought false charges against him and declared him guilty of crimes he did not commit. It is God who justifies. And God declared that his Son was innocent of all charges. And God raised Christ up from the dead as evidence that no one and nothing can bring any charges against his Son.
And — you may be thinking — “well this all sounds great for Jesus. But how does any of this help me?” It all goes back to something Paul said earlier to us in Romans.
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.” (Romans 5:8-11 NLT)
And later he writes, “Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.” (Romans 6:5-8 NLT)
What does this mean? It means that — if you believe in Jesus Christ — if you’ve turned from your sin and self-justifying ways — and turned to Christ for your justification — you’re now in Christ. His death was your death. His resurrection was your resurrection. His payment for sin was your payment for sin. And — here’s where we go back to those Isaiah passages — God — in declaring that his Son was innocent of all charges — God in justifying Christ before his accusers by raising him from the dead — now to you — through your faith — are in Christ and are justified. No one can bring a charge against you. No one can condemn you. Why? Because you are in Christ — and no one can condemn him.
Thus you are now protected — oh are you protected from condemnation. Not — in the sense — that others won’t try to condemn you — they will. Other people — even our enemy — the Devil — others will try to condemn you — but they do so with no authority. They don’t have jurisdiction. And on the day — when we all stand in the heavenly court — not one of their charges against you will stand. (This word picture comes from Thomas Schreiner, Romans (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 462.)
And — if that’s not enough good news for you today — here’s some more. Not even your own condemnation will stand in that court. Because — for some of us — we’re our worst critic. It’s not the condemnation of others — that we carry around — it’s our own self-condemnation that we’re buried under. But on that day — in God’s heavenly court — even your own voice will be silenced — in love — as God’s voice reigns in and over and through you.
God does not condemn his people — he sent Jesus to free us from all condemnation. And know that God doesn’t send his people into the world to condemn others. We’re not called to share news of condemnation — we’re called to share the Good News of salvation. Thus we — the people of God — have an opportunity to be people who are better at extending grace to others — than we are at extending judgement and condemnation. The world is short on grace and quick to condemn. How about we choose to be people who are quick to extend grace and who are short on condemnation.
And — if you’re not a Christian — know that the world will betray you. You may be on the right side of history today — but tomorrow — who knows what side you’ll find yourself on. For culture quickly shifts — no one can keep up — eventually we’ll all find ourselves being judged and condemned by the world. But the question for you is this: Will you find yourself under the condemnation of God on the Day of Judgement? God is offering you an escape from a guilty verdict. But only if you turn to his Son in faith. For to reject Jesus is to welcome the just judgement of God. But to receive him is to welcome the grace and kindness of God into your life — and his forgiveness — but not just his forgiveness — also him justifying you. For it is God who justifies. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, each week it seems as if we have another reason to rejoice because of who you are and what you’ve done for us. This week our joy comes from this great truth: You are the one who justifies.
Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice on the cross in our place. Where you took the condemnation we deserve so that we might reap the rewards of the perfect life you lived in our place. In your death we died and in your resurrection we’ve been raised from the dead. To live new lives — justified lives — God glorifying lives. People who are quick to extend grace and short on condemnation.
Spirit of God, help us to be this kind of people. Having exchanged our prisoner clothes for the family attire of the King of kings. Clothes of mercy and kindness towards others. Patience and contentment. Joy and peace. Thanksgiving and praise. Why? Because no one can condemn us. What freedom we’ve been given — by the one who justifies. And we pray all of these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Be assured — it is God who justifies. And — in being justified by God — may you go and be known for proclaiming news — not of condemnation — but known for proclaiming the Good News that it is God alone who justifies. Amen.
God loves you. I love you. You are sent.
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