SINGING: 109 – 420: 3,4,5 – 125: 1,2,3,4,5 - 398

READING: Romans 8: 1–28; Apostolic Creed – C.o.D 5: 14,15

THE GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION

Lords Day 23: Q and A 60

How art thou righteous before God?

Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience

accuse me,that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments

of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil;

notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere

grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction,

righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had,

nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that

obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I

embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

  1. This Ground is Not in Man
  2. This Ground is in Christ Only
  3. This Ground is Embraced by Faith
  • We must know that the doctrine of justification by faith

holds a most important place in the Christian religion.

  • Thus it is for our spiritual well-being that we have a clear

knowledge of the ground of justification, that we have a

clear knowledge on which ground faith rests.

  • God requires perfect righteousness, and even the best of

God’s children can never bring perfect righteousness to God.

  • But if Jesus instructed them in the way of suffering and

death, they didn’t like that.

  • The righteousness of Jesus Christ is the sole ground of a

sinner’s justification before God. That is of such great value.

  • It is that legal act of God whereby He declares the sinner

righteous on the ground of the perfect righteousness of

Christ.

  • Sanctification is a continuous process which is not completed

in this present life.

  • Here stands a person who has no answer to all the

accusations of the devil, his own conscience, and the holy

law of God.

  • There is a moment that we are willing, that we fall on the

side of God, and that He is right and just to cast us away.

  • To such a sinner the righteousness, the perfect satisfaction

of Christ, is imputed, it is brought to such a sinner, covering

all their sins!

  • There is no imputation without embracing of faith, and there

is no embracing of faith without first the imputation of God.

  • Where we began today, we may end, that faith as a work of

God does not rest in our feelings, but it is a certain

knowledge of what God in His word has revealed.