The Power of Being Declared Innocent by God

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So we have this wonderful statement by Paul that if God is for us, or this question, a rhetorical question, if God is for us, who can be against us? And then he says something even more powerful. Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. And you remember yesterday I talked about God not bringing a charge against us. He does not accuse us. He does not bring a charge against us in the sense of a law court where we are arraigned before the judge and found guilty or innocent. He is the judge, and he is the one who justifies. Now, I want you to notice that. It says, who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. That’s 8 verse 33. What does it mean to justify? Well, it means to declare innocent. But how can it be that God declares the human race innocent? Well, you say, he doesn’t declare all the human race innocent. He declares only those innocent who repent of their sins. Well, now, wait a minute. You cannot be declared innocent simply because you repent of your sins because you have a history of sins. And therefore, that history charges you with guilt, whether you repent of it or not. So, what is this about? Well, remember what Paul says in the earlier chapters of this book. Jesus Christ takes the judgment of mankind upon himself. He is punished for the human race. He takes the sins of the human race upon himself as a representative of us and a substitute for us. and that therefore it is as if the whole world’s sins had been judged upon the cross, because God is in Christ, and Christ is one with God, and so God took the whole judgment of the human race upon himself. Now, remember what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now this statement by Paul, and many others like it, makes it very clear that Paul is talking about the whole world, not the few who repent. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing, that is, not charging their trespasses against them. So God has taken the judgment of the world upon himself, and he is no longer charging the world’s sins against us, against the world. But then what do all the judgments mean, and all the trials and tribulations, and all the discipline that God brings to us? It is for the purpose of redeeming us. It is for the purpose of bringing us to him, of making us, of sobering us up, of helping us to believe. when the chips are down in our lives and things go wrong, when our dreams fade and our goals are smashed, God is bringing us to a place where we call upon him for help and mercy. If God has taken the sins of the whole world upon himself, that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses against them, then it cannot be that the judgments are damnation judgments that come upon us. They are disciplines. They are bringing the world back to God. So, when we look at the issue of justification, where does forgiveness come in then? Well, justification is seeing it all from God’s viewpoint. That is, God has no longer charged the world’s sins against them. But forgiveness is seeing it from our point. We come before God in repentance. We come before God believing that Jesus Christ has atoned for our sins. We recognize that we have slipped away from belief and gone into our own flesh, and we come back to God by faith in him, and we ask him for forgiveness. And we receive that personal forgiveness, but it is because we are already justified or declared innocent in God’s, what shall I say, order of things. For God has decided, what it says here so clearly, that in Christ the world has been reconciled to him and he has not imputed their trespasses against them. Now, why is that important to understand? Because you and I are going through tremendous difficulties and upheavals in our lives and defeats and disappointments and problems and trials and temptations and addictions. And if we were to measure our progress, or rather if we were to measure our acceptance by God, by our… situation. I’m sorry, I’m struggling over this. If we were to measure our acceptance by God by the circumstances of our lives, well, we would simply say we’re not accepted by God because the circumstances are too bad. But you see, once you have that outside look of what God has done in Christ, and not the internal look of how good or successful or complete your repentance has been, then you have security. You have a certainty that God will bring you through, that the trials are not God casting you away, but God bringing you to himself so that you might fling yourself upon his mercy. That’s what we look for. Now, remember the difference between forgiveness and justification. To forgive sin is to remit the punishment for sin. But to be justified is to declare that there is no punishment warranted. Let me state that again. To forgive sin is to remit the judgment of sin. But to be justified is to declare that no judgment is warranted. Now, you and I may have very great difficulty in forgiving ourselves. We have a history of wrongdoing, of failure, of defeats, of shame, of addictions, whatever it may be. And we believe we have called upon God for forgiveness. We accept that he has forgiven us, and yet those memories and that guilt still haunts us. Well, when you realize that you are more than forgiven, you are declared innocent because Christ was your judgment, then you have a greater stability. You have a greater ability to believe that all your sins are wiped out. Now, remember what I… Well, perhaps you don’t remember, it’s a long time ago since we looked at Romans chapter 4, but Paul there equates forgiveness with justification. I shouldn’t say he equates them, he doesn’t equal them, but he implies that a person forgiven is a person also justified. Look at chapter 4, verse 7. Let’s look at verse 6. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Now, to impute righteousness is to justify, to declare innocent. Then he quotes from the Psalms. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Well, now, he was just talking about forgiveness. But here, rather, he was just talking about imputed righteousness, justification. And he quotes a verse that speaks of forgiveness. And so Paul is bringing forgiveness and justification together. When you are justified, declared innocent, you are also forgiven. And when God brings that good news to you that you are declared innocent, you are so thrilled by it, so awed by it, so melted by it, that you are drawn to repent of your sins. but you are already forgiven. And yet you have the personal experience of wanting to say, Lord God, I turn away from these sins because you have been so very good to me. And so justification brings the experience to us of forgiveness and repentance. because God is so good. Remember what it says in another place, the goodness of God leads to repentance, not the judgment of God, although God is good even when he’s a judge. But God’s goodness to us, which declares us justified and our sins removed and our being imputed with righteousness, is so wonderful, so unexpected, so joyous, that we say, oh Lord, I want to repent. I want to be yours. You know, it’s like the slave. In the book of Leviticus, I think it is, after six years, the slave is allowed to go free. But if he doesn’t want to go free because he’s sort of fallen in love with his master and his master’s family and feels very good and safe in the home of his master, then he has his ear pierced and a little ring put in his ear to indicate that he is his master’s slave forever. Do you see what that is? That’s a love slave. We have been slaves of sin, but we have been justified and forgiven. And our experience of being declared innocent when we were and are in fact guilty, treated as innocent, draws us so much towards our master, Jesus, draws us into his love that we want to be his slave forever. That’s what this is all about, you see. So we look at these verses and we recognize that if God is for us, Who can be against us? He’s for us, not only in defending us against our enemy, but also in declaring that he is our defender as a judge. That we, in Christ, are declared by the judge as not guilty. as innocent. And so you can come before God with your troubles, and you can say, Father, I feel guilty, I feel ashamed, but I want to assert my faith in you, that you have justified me, more than forgiveness, that is remitting my judgment, but declaring that no judgment is warranted. I thank you, dear God, that I am counted as righteous in your Son. Well, thanks for listening today. This is Colin Cook, and you’ve been listening to my program, How It Happens. And you can hear this program any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, SoundCloud.com or Podbean.com and key in How It Happens with Colin Cook when you get there. This is listener-supported radio, that is, listeners enjoy the program, appreciate it, it helps them, so they like to send donations to keep it going. This program is now in its 27th year. If you would like to make a donation, please send it to FaithQuest, P.O. 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