Dynamic Doctrines of the Faith

Topic #7: Justification (Part 1)

Justification was the central issue of the Protestant Reformation.

Q: What does “righteousness” mean?

Q: “Justification?”

PSA 143:1–2. Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications! In Your faithfulness answer me, And in Your righteousness. Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, For in Your sight no one living is righteous.[All Scripture quotes from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.]

JOB 25:1–6. Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: “Dominion and fear belong to Him; He makes peace in His high places. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise? How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, And the stars are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?

ROM 3:9–18.

Q: What does the Bible say about man’s righteousness?

ROM 1:16–17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

ROM 3:19–26. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Q: What does this say is the purpose of the law?

Q: Can we achieve righteousness via the law?

Q: How do we get this “righteousness from God?”

Q: How does Paul say we benefit from Christ’s death?

Q: Note God’s roles as described in the last verse.

Q: Are believers righteous before God?

Q: Is God angered by our sins?

The “Solas” of the Reformation

Justification is

Sola fide ___________________________

Sola gratia __________________________

Solo Christo _________________________

Sola Scriptura ________________________

Soli Deo gloria ________________________

 

“sola fide” is the short version