Faith Alone for Full Justification

And it's just the same argument again and again, but it definitely flatly contradicts Paul's writings, who clearly tells us that justification has always been by faith apart from works. Abraham was justified apart from works when he believed God's promise, 23 years before he was circumcised, and David describes the blessedness of the one who God justifies apart from works. Blessed is he who works not, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted to him as righteousness. And that's speaking of the kind of justification that David experienced, who, by the way, was under the law. So no, it's never been by faith plus works. It's always been justification as a faith apart from works. It's the only way to be justified. And you think about what this says about the work of Christ. You say it's unnecessary. Paul says in Galatians that if righteousness could have come through the law or by works, Christ died in vain. And I think about Jesus in Gethsemane.

says Abraham believed God and was reckoned to him for righteousness. That was before Abraham was circumcised, that was before Isaac was born, I think just to 15, yeah. And that was before he offered Isaac. You know, there was no works that had been done, and yet he was justified by believing not about sin. It really was, sin was not in view in that proclamation of the gospel. Galatians 3 tells us that the scripture proclaimed the gospel to Abraham saying, so shall your seed be. So that was a proclamation of the gospel, and it was positive without reference to sin. You know, we are so sin conscious because we're law focused that we think that the gospel is all about the forgiveness of sins, but actually the gospel justifies us through faith so that we can be positioned to be heirs of God. And that's what Abraham was, and remember by being baptized into Christ, we've been made Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So there's a legitimate offer of the gospel without reference to sin that's entirely focused on purchasing you so that you can be positioned and have a right to inherit. That's really the point. By redemption, Christ purchased us so that he can make us share in his inheritance. But in that purchasing, he had to justify us because we're sinners too, and that's what we get to with David. With David, the justification really is the focus on sin. Blessed is he whose sins are forgiven, right? So there's two aspects of justification. There's forgiveness of sins, and then there's the qualification to be heirs. And God is much more focused on the inheritance than he is on the sin, but this is Romans, and Romans is about how man can be justified even though he's a sinner. But Ephesians is about what does this inheritance look like? We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We've been made members of the body of Christ. We've been given the spirit as a seal and a pledge to guarantee the redemption of the purchased possession, and we've been made heirs of God, and God is our inheritance, and we're in his inheritance, and not only that, but we're being built up and transformed to become the habitation of God in spirit. All of this stuff is heavenly, and that's our inheritance, which justification qualified us for. But here in Romans, it's really about what is justification for a person on earth who comes to believe, and what does that look like? So let's just read Romans 4. I'm talking a lot. What shall we say then concerning Abraham as pertaining to the flesh as found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he has something to glory, but not before God. For what, says the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness? Now to him that works is the reward, not reckoning from grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Boy, this is to me, this is all one concept, but I don't want to get too far. So we'll just, I guess these, these verses, but we have Abraham, our father, and then we have David and what they have in common is that they are justified by faith apart from works. And this is a work that, uh, this is a faith that, that does not work, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly. So he says, uh, behold, the word of the Lord came to Abraham. This shall not be your heir, but he shall come forth, shall be out of your own bowels. He shall be your heir. And he looked, uh, he brought him forth abroad and he said, look now towards the heaven and tell the stars if you are able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall your seed be. And Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted to him for righteousness. And you know what? I thought this was after Ishmael too, but it wasn't. It was after the battle of the Kings, after Melchizedek blessed him, he hadn't done the deal with Ishmael yet, but it is interesting because he had just done this mighty victory and he gave ties to Melchizedek and Melchizedek told him, look, the glory is really to the Lord because he's the one who gave you such a great victory. He's the God of heaven and earth. And Abraham knew that. So it's not his victory that's going to cause him to inherit the land. He just defeated all those Kings. That's really what it is. And he's been told, he knows he's going to inherit, but it's not through his ability to conquer. It is through God's promise. But yes, either way, it's his own strength that he realizes can't justify him. Okay. And then to him who works not, but believes on him that justifies, oh, here it is. Now to him that works is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him who works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counter-righteous. Now verse four, him that works is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. So this is something positive where someone says, I've worked so hard religiously and I've manifested this supposed glory. And because of that, I'm going to get reward, right? But that is not how this works in grace. God is not in debt to anybody. God's gift of grace comes because of Jesus Christ, not because of something you do. All you can do is believe in Jesus. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counter to righteousness. So now that brings us right to David. And even as David describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And we just stop there and say, oh, I'm so blessed because I'm forgiven. That's true. You're forgiven, but you're blessed.

And then it says, even as David described the blessedness of the man to whom God will not impute sin and blesses his sins are forgiven. My sins are forgiven and God's not imputing them to me. Meaning there is no account. There's no judgment. There's no record of my sins. It's been expunged and I'm an heir like Abraham. I'm to inherit the world to come and the promise is sure to all the seed. So both forgiveness of sins and right standing before God and peace with God and the blessing of the gospel, which is the inheritance and the enjoyment of it is secured to me because God has given Christ to me as my righteousness. Simply by believing apart from any works.

The justified account is that we waxed strong in faith, gave glory to God, didn't doubt, hoped in hope, you know, hoped against hope, believed in faith, and saw the promise eventually. Okay, and therefore it's counted to him as righteousness in the record. Now, the righteousness is of faith. And the righteousness secures what? It doesn't secure for you to go to heaven, that's not the point. The righteousness secures God himself. The righteousness secures Christ, who is the blessing. And without righteousness I don't have him, and righteousness is of faith, and the just shall live by faith. So it all comes down to, okay, you are either operating in the lust of the flesh because you still think the flesh can do something, and you're committing adultery with the law, and stirring up the motions of sin that you have not yet identified as sin, you still think it's all your righteous service, and you're mislabeling it as sanctification when you're really defiled, you know, you're out of fellowship with God and trying to work your way in through confession, or law-keeping, or sinning less, or whatever it is you think you can do, and yet all of that is predicated on a basic lack of despair. You have not yet despaired on the flesh. You haven't given up yet. You have not seen what it really is. You really believe you can get up and clean the room. And you're trying to do it, and you've not discovered that there's this other law, and that this is the reason I had to die. You don't agree that you must die. See, if you finally agree that you must die, then you'll stop looking at yourself for anything. This is so fundamental that it's not just a doctrine. And there's plenty of people who have not seen it yet, because they still think they're pretty good.

It's not that Jesus didn't preach the gospel, and the apostles preached the testimony of Jesus Christ given by the prophets, and confirmed that he's the one that they spoke of, and that he's risen from the dead, and that if you believe, you'll be saved. So what people want to say is then, of course, they were clear on justification because they knew how to get saved. Well, actually, the problem is that we're not clear on justification, and so if anybody says they weren't clear on justification, we say, well, they knew how to get saved. That's not what justification really is in its entirety. We have what I call a stripped view of justification. It's been redefined so that it's only a piece of the puzzle. Or I would say it is redefined, but it's really just stripped of Paul's teaching on it, okay? And so what I was saying yesterday was James and those guys didn't have a New Testament. They didn't have even the gospels. They didn't have Paul's writings. They had Proverbs, Deuteronomy, the same law that they grew up with in a religious environment with a Talmud that had gone even further. They had the expressions and sentiments of David, blessed is he to whom God will not impute sin, and they had statements like from Isaiah, come and reason with me that you may be justified, that your sins are scarlet, they'll be white as snow. They had those scriptures, but there was not a clear ordered teaching. Remember that in the Old Testament under the law, they looked forward to a hope that was within the veil. So like the tabernacle system, the whole system of worship was designed to show them that there was something that they could not obtain within the veil, and they were separated from it, and only the high priest could go there, and it was God himself. They knew that God is a fountain of light, and with him there's pleasure evermore, and they longed to be in his presence, but they didn't have it. And Hebrews also tells us that they didn't have the perfecting of the conscience, which is not available just because of an argument, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, our conscience can be purged in his presence. As we come forward with a heart and full assurance of faith, our heart is sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body is washed with pure water. We're actually renewed and washed by Jesus Christ himself in his high priestly ministry that he's entered into after the resurrection. As the seed of David, that's one of the promises that was given to him in resurrection is he's now the high priest who actually can minister his life to strengthen us, to stand in God's presence in the atmosphere of sonship with no fear. That's available to us today on the basis of justification. Now what we are traditionally taught is that justification is the salvation message, to say how do I get saved is to teach the answer to that question is justification. And in a sense, that's true. And anybody who has that message wrong has a obvious, what we call front-loaded works gospel. So the front-loaded works gospel is like the Arminians who say, no, you can lose your salvation, you have to earn it. I mean, the extreme is there is no such thing as justification by faith. It is by law. Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, and unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you won't enter the kingdom. And that means you got to keep the law. Okay, that's a front-loaded works gospel. It's a false gospel that denies salvation and denies justification, seemingly denying the same thing. Because in our mind, denying justification is denying the answer for salvation. But that's not all denying justification means because the back-loaded works gospel, which says, how do I know I'm saved now that I believe, will tell you that you have to have the fruit to show that you really believed. Okay, we call that a back-loaded works gospel. And it takes away from the power of the message itself. And it takes away from the assurance that believers have before God, and makes them question whether or not they're really saved by faith because they don't understand what faith is. If it's not just believing a message, but making Jesus the Lord of my life or whatever, then it becomes back-loaded because again, it does end up undermining what justification is. Justification is for him who works not, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted to him as righteousness. And that is how we know we're saved. It's because God's faithful to his word and he's righteous to credit faith as righteousness. And we look to the gospel and the fact that we believe it as the basis for our assurance that we have eternal life. Like it says in 1 John 5, whoever believes that Jesus is the son of God is born of God. And then he says, if we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. This is the testimony which he has testified concerning his son and whoever believes the testimony has the testimony in himself because the spirit is the one that testifies. So it's the testimony of God, the gospel, that is the evidence that I'm saved. The fact that I believe it is the evidence that I'm the righteous that is saved. And that comes from a solid understanding of justification too. But then there's another, that's more really, to be honest, that is more about the redefinition of faith that touches justification. The more I know about justification, the less susceptible I am to the damage that Calvinists can do. But the Calvinists are very good at speaking about justification, initial justification. But the free grace ones are the ones I feel like do the most damage in house. When I say in house, it's like, okay, we're the community of people that we're not Arminian, we're not Calvinist. We know we can't lose our salvation. We know that believing the gospel message is the evidence that we're saved. What the free grace takes, and so we think we're free grace. And somebody said on my wall, the fact that they have to qualify free grace is already a red flag. It's a, you know, to say free grace is to almost like say, I'm qualifying this, this grace is free. There's another kind of grace that's earned. You know, there's no such thing as a grace that's not free. But we call ourselves, I mean, I consider myself free grace, you know, the grace is freely given. But it's the definition of justification that's so important. Because it's in the free grace community, where they really openly redefine justification. The Arminians say it doesn't almost doesn't even exist. But the free grace community says, no, justification is the message of, you know, is the salvation when I believe in you can't take that away from me. I'm going to heaven and I'm assured. Now we need to move on to sanctification. As they start defining what their view of sanctification is, they end up redefining justification. And they're actually seeking to be justified. Even though they are justified if they believe the gospel, and they officially teach that there's another kind of justification, another kind of righteousness to seek. And this is where it just produces so much confusion. Because we're so used to hearing that justification just means how I got saved. But if I say, well, I, you know, those guys in Jerusalem were not clear about justification. People say, what are you talking about? They're preaching the gospel. And people were getting saved. He's saying that it was, you know, no, justification is more than just getting saved. Justification is the qualification I have today to enter into what the Old Testament saints prophesied, but couldn't describe because they had no experience with it. Paul knows on this side of the resurrection, along with the revelation that he's been given, he's also been given comforts from God about his status as the greatest of sinners and the least of saints. And yet he's able to judge his flesh and stand with God confidently and stand before God confidently in spite of his past and in spite of who he is. Even to the point where he says, I don't even judge myself, Paul didn't live introspectively like David. Oh, cleanse me with his self and I shall be clean and oh, that my heart was directed to know your ways and keep your ways. And there was, he was seeking to repudiate that whole thing, that whole spirit of bondage and fear that when it approaches God, the flesh starts seeking justification. Paul's saying, I'm seeking to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is out of the law, but based on faith. And I'm forgetting everything which lies behind and I'm just seeking to know him. I have direct access now. And in his presence, I actually have the fullness of joy that David longed for and described, but I actually enjoy it. To the point where he said, you know, even if I'm poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice. And he wasn't being religious. He was really rejoicing, filled with the spirit because of his doctrine of justification. Your doctrine of justification is not complete. Your knowledge of the doctrine of justification is not complete until you're standing confidently before God and rejoicing until you're standing in the grace of Christ based on the peace you presently have with God. And see, when I say those guys weren't clear in Jerusalem, it wasn't that they were not clear how to be saved. They were like James even said in Acts 15, that we didn't send the Judaizers out to Gentiles to be circumcised. He didn't support the idea necessarily, at least at that point, that people had to be circumcised to be saved. That wasn't their issue. Their issue was how is the Christian life lived once you are saved. And for them, it was a matter of law. Once you're saved and you believe the gospel, then you need to work on righteousness. And they didn't know what the flesh was. They didn't know the difference between flesh and spirit. They didn't know the flesh was crucified. You know, I mean, we can clearly see in Genesis 6 that God had repented that he made man. And the only reason the human race survived at all was because he called Noah, because Noah is carrying the seed of which is Christ. Christ is the only reason why the human race exists after the flood, is because God promised everything to him. He's the seed to whom all the promises are made, and he has an inheritance. So he's going to inherit the earth, and he's the righteous one. That's why Noah was preserved. He was perfect in his genealogy, and it had to do with the birthright and the blessing that belongs to Christ. And our only relationship to the birthright and the blessing that belongs to Christ, which is the kingdom, which is the world to come, the ages to come, but it's also righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Our only right to have that is justification, where God manifested his own righteousness in Christ, apart from the law, as the propitiation for our sins, and righteously bestows this blessing on us and makes us sons and heirs, not because of anything we do, but because of who Christ is and what he's done for us, and then by faith, to him who works and not, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, blessed is he whose sins are forgiven and God won't impute iniquity to him. That's the blessing. And also, this blessing of the Spirit, which is the enjoyment of God himself. So Galatians 3 says that the scripture preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. And then it says that the promise would be of faith. Let me read that real quick. Even as Abraham believed God, it was counted to him as righteousness, though therefore that they were of faith, the children of Abraham, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify, well, it's the nations. It says heathen here in the King James, but it's nations. Abraham was not a Jew, so it was all the nations, including Israel, that they would be justified through faith. Preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then those which are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. He talks about the curse of the law. The law is not of faith. And here it is. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, that curse is everyone that hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, or the nations. It's the same word, nations, because the way a Jew receives the Spirit is the same way a Gentile receives the Spirit. That's the whole point in Acts 15. That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. What is the blessing of Abraham? It's the promise of the Spirit. But that Spirit is Christ himself multiplied. It's the multiplication of Christ. So God had told Abraham, you know, your seed will be multiplied as the stars of the heavens and the sands of the seashore. And that seed that was multiplied was a grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died, according to John 12, and does not abide alone. But in resurrection has produced something new. A multitude of people indwelt with Christ. It's this multiplication. It's the blessing of Abraham. The blessing of Abraham is the multiplication of Christ. And so that's why he can say, talking about the inheritance, you know, he says, if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise. And then he talks about how we had to be justified by faith in order to what? He's not talking about forgiveness of sins here. He's talking about the inheritance. For as many as have been baptized into Christ or put on Christ, we're all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, because you've actually been clothed with Christ. And in him, there's no Jew or Greek. It's not about status, bond or free. You're all one in Christ. And if you're Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Why? Because Christ is the seed of Abraham. Everybody else is ruled out. The only people that have a right to exist, the only person that has a right to exist after the flood is Christ. And he inherits it all and then shares it freely with the heirs who he justifies. So okay. The message of the free grace is that we've obtained forgiveness of sins and eternal life and justification tells us how. But that's where justification stops. Then your Christian life starts. And so this is why they can say, well, James and those brothers, of course, they were clear on salvation, on justification. They preached the gospel. You said they didn't believe the gospel? No, they believed it basically just about the same way most Christians today believe it, which is a mix of law and grace. Grace to begin the Christian life, law to continue it, which is the whole point that Paul's making in Galatians 3. Did you receive the spirit by the hearing of faith or the works of the law? Now what's the spirit? The spirit is the inheritance. The spirit is the blessing. There's not another blessing. It is the blessing. And those who are heirs, so he takes it out of the realm of forgiveness of sins. The law is about sin consciousness and forgiveness for sins. But when you take the law out, what is justification for? If I don't need to be forgiven, why do I need to be justified? Well, justification is not just as if I never sinned. Justification is the qualification to enjoy the inheritance and the official free grace position. And when we say free grace, we mean a group of people that coin the term or say they did. And it's relatively new, you know, in the last 60 years. The official position is that the inheritance and the reward and the blessing is not secured by justification. It's secured by works. And that is their official teaching on James 2 that, yes, you're justified to go to heaven. But there's another kind of justification. There's a lot of wordplay going on here where they're moving the cups around like a magician with the cups and which ball is the cup on, you know, which ball is under the cup or which cup has the ball. And they keep moving around and moving around, moving around. What are you saying? Am I justified? Yes. Okay. But, um, the, the, the, you say to John Calvinist and MacArthur and the MacArthurites, am I saved? They'll say, am I saved by faith, by believing the gospel, they'll say, yes, but do you really believe? Well, I think I do. Well, where's the fruit? Faith without works is dead. Don't you remember what the beloved apostle James said? The most important book in the Bible. And then, uh, the free grace said, you say, am I justified or not? Yes, but, okay, what, well, that justification is free grace for you to go to heaven when you die. I know that my sins are forgiven and I know I'm safe from hell. They make a big difference. Deal about that. I'm safe from hell. Okay. When the gospel was preached to Abraham, hell wasn't even mentioned. In fact, when the gospel was preached to Abraham, there wasn't even a mention of forgiveness of sins. There are two components to the gospel. There's the forgiveness of sins, which David mentions, like look at Romans four. Now what shall we say that Abraham, our father is pertaining to flesh is found for Abraham were justified by works. He has something to glory, but not before God. For what says the scripture, Abraham believed God has come to him for righteousness. Oh, and then he, that means he's not going to hell. No, um, now to him that works is the reward, not reckoned of great, but of debt. Now remember Genesis 15, the first thing God says to Abraham, and this is what Paul's referring to is be fear not Abraham. I am your shield and you're exceeding great reward. And then he hasn't prepare a burnt offering and puts Abraham to sleep. And while Abraham is under a deep sleep, he walks through the pieces, the oven and the torch, two entities walking through the pieces. And Hebrews six tells us that because God could swear by no other, he swore by himself saying blessing, I will bless you. And Galatians three says that God confirmed the covenant in Christ before with Abraham, that covenant was cut between the father and the son. Abraham was asleep. And not only that, but the one who said, I am your shield and exceeding great reward promised himself to Abraham because he was the seed to whom this, all the promises are made. He's the heir. So he is Abraham's salvation. He is his reward and his inheritance. And it's the multiplication of the seed that represents the inheritance of Abraham. And this multiplication, blessing and inheritance, those three go together, are all secured in justification. So when Paul says, not to him that works is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt, he's ruling out working for anything as a wage or a debt paid to you by God because of your service, you cannot qualify for rewards that way. But to him that works not, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man under whom God imputes righteousness without works saying, blessed are they whose sins, whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blast is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And what they do, free grace, is they divide blessing into two parts, two pieces. One you work for, and that's the reward or the inheritance, which is the same thing. But the other is the forgiveness of your sins, and that's what justification secured. So when they say James and those guys were clear on justification, they mean those guys knew about the forgiveness of sins. They knew how to get saved. But the average Christian knows how to get saved but has no idea what the salvation is. For them, they knew it was the kingdom, Christ is the seed of David. They probably knew in some ways more than the Christians, but how was the Christian life lived? This is where really justification extends to the whole Christian life. We don't graduate from justification. See the free graces say, no, we move on from justification to sanctification. And then they set about seeking to be justified, just like the Galatians were. And this is why they say Galatian error is dealing with initial salvation, not the Christian life. But because Paul is using the word justification, and in their mind justification is only about the forgiveness of sins, save me from the lake of fire and save me from hell, therefore Paul can't be talking about the Christian life. The Christian life is another matter entirely, and James and Paul agree. It's amazing what they do, what we've done. I pick on pastors because they claim to be in a position of authority, and they're the ones who espouse this stuff. But this is what everybody by default believes, because this is the flesh. The flesh is always seeking to be justified, even once it's justified. Abraham was an already justified person who knew that his salvation was tied up in the seed, his inheritance and blessing was tied up in the seed, and yet he didn't have a seed, and Sarah's womb was barren. So Galatians describes how he then, as a justified person, went into Hagar and produced Ishmael, who was not the seed. And he said that that's an allegory of going into law, because Hagar represents Sinai, and engenders children to bondage. And we were all Jews, they were all under bondage to the law. They lived under a situation that was bondage, because the way into the holiest had not yet been manifested. The continual sacrifices they did could not perfect their conscience. They didn't have a high priest backing all that up. They aspired and longed to be in God's presence, but they didn't have a way in, and they wouldn't be able to stand in His presence. When God showed up in glory, they would say things like, oh wretched man that I am, or I dwell in a people of unclean lips, and woe is me, and God had to strengthen them temporarily to stand. But it was a fearful, terrifying experience, shrouded with the atmosphere of Sinai. Well Paul says we haven't come to that mount in Hebrews 12 that is shrouded with the dark cloud and the thunder and the voice that was so strong, like a trumpet that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. No, we've come boldly to the city of the living God, the festal gathering, where the saints of just men have been made perfect. The spirit of just men are perfect. There's a perfecting. When we come to Zion, when we come forward rejoicing in Christ, who is saying Abba, Father in us, presenting us to the Father as the trophy of His work and declaring the name of the Father in us as the spirit of the Son, the spirit of Sonship. This is something that no Old Testament saint could relate to, and they didn't know about this in Jerusalem either. They've already come to Zion. They were still waiting for the kingdom. And we do long for the day when we see everything subjected to Him, not only by faith, but externally. But we can enjoy something now because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a stand in grace today to enjoy the spirit as the foretaste of the inheritance that's guaranteed, and it is the blessing of the gospel. He is the blessing. So what Christianity has done, and it's not just the free gracers, it's most disappointing that it's free gracers because they're the ones who seem to contend for the right gospel the most, right? They've made a name for themselves that they distinguish these things, and they really know what justification is. But their version of justification leaves you knowing you're saved from hell because your sins are forgiven, but working today to earn the blessing and the reward. And they tell you that God withholds His presence from you when you sin. And they tell you that you have to work for the rewards as a wage, and they literally use those words. And they tell you in their official doctrine that we have a dual status as sons and slaves. When Paul tells us in Galatians very clearly, you're no longer slaves, but sons and heirs. Now the whole thing in Galatians is about not forgiveness of sins, but the inheritance and the blessing. That's his emphasis. How is the heir to walk? The heir is to walk as a son of the promise. The heir is to live by faith like Abraham had to learn to do and like Isaac had to do. It's not just Abraham, it's also Isaac, which means coming forth supernaturally, and Isaac in Galatians represents Christ. I know this is deep if you're not that familiar with Galatians, but Christ is the Christian life. And He's the blessing of the Christian life, and He's the reward of the Christian life. That's why Paul said in Galatians, I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ in me, and the life I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came through the law, Christ died in vain. O foolish Galatians who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus was set forth and declared as crucified, this I would learn from you, did you receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith or by the works of the law? Why is he talking about the Spirit? Because the Spirit is the reality of Christ and the blessing of justification. See here in Romans it says, when we look at Romans, David says, blessed is the one who you will not impute sin, whose sins are forgiven. Well what's that blessing? Knowing my sins are forgiven, at least my sins are forgiven. No, the blessing is the reward and the inheritance. The blessing is standing in a status as heir. Forgiveness of sins was a qualification for that, and it required justification, but justification is more than just the forgiveness of sins. Justification allows me to stand before God as a son and an heir right now in grace, regardless of what my condition or my past is. To him that works is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of a debt. But to him who works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is kind to him as righteousness. There's a present tense crediting of righteousness by faith. The just are to live by faith. And if you put yourself under law, you put yourself under the curse, which means you're doomed to all the frustration of not having the presence of God. The blessing is having the presence of God. The curse is not having the presence of God. That's really what it comes down to. And the law is a thick veil, a curtain, separating you from the holiest. It's enmity. Christ blot out the handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to us and against us, taking it out of the way and nailing it to his cross. Why is it against us? It keeps us from the presence of God. Ephesians 2 also talks about slaying the enmity. He abolished in us, for he is our peace, who has made both one, has broken down the middle wall of partition. And everybody thinks that that means the separation of Jew and Gentile. It does. But it's more importantly, the separation between man and God represented by the holiest, the veil, having abolished in his flesh, the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances to make himself of both into one new man. So making peace, he created peace and atmosphere of peace that he might reconcile both to God. That's the point. It's not reconcile them both to each other. It's reconcile them both to God in himself on the cross, having slain the enmity. What is the enmity? The law of commandments and ordinances. It's not just ordinances. It's commandments and ordinances. In the King James, it says contained in, but that's in the italics, which means it's not in the Greek. It's not just the ordinances because the ordinances were not the ministration of condemnation and death that the law was said to be. You look at second Corinthians three, but if the ministration of death written and engraved in stones was so glorious, so the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses. See, there's a veil there. So he covered his face representing this fading glory of the law. And this was to be done away. What was the ministration of condemnation written in stones was to be done away. How shall not the ministration of the spirit be more glorious, which is eternal. And it's called the ministry. If the ministry of condemnation be glory, how much more the ministration of righteousness. So there's a ministration of righteousness, which does what supplies the spirit of life, the ministry of the spirit by revealing Christ not veiled, but openly available to the sons and heirs who can come forward freely by grace based on what justification. And he's their blessing there to be reconciled to him, not alienated from him and see what they do when they talk about Galatians and James, they start moving the cups around. Where is justification, which, you know, because while they're talking about their teaching on Galatians, they'll say, no, we're not teaching Galatian air because Galatians is talking about justification. And we all know that that's just how to get saved. And we know we're saved. So you can't accuse us of teaching Galatian air when we mix law and grace for the Christian life, because that's just, you know, Paul mentions justification there and that's how we know we're not going to help. That's all Paul's talking about. No, we're talking about sanctification. Okay. We're talking about growing as a Christian. Okay. And then as you start talking to them about, well, how do you think we grow and we're sanctified? Well, let's look at James. James is their apostle for the most mature Christian life. He's the representation for the most mature Christian teaching. If you really want to grow, it's James. How do you grow? By works. Okay. Well, what is this whole James two thing? Now you're no longer talking about Galatians and you're now you're really focused on Christian growth. They've moved the cups all around. You don't know where justification is anymore. And they say, well, James is actually talking about another, he's not talking about your eternal salvation. Don't worry. He's talking about another kind of justification, a justification before men. Now this sets them in a position to be the man, to observe whether or not you're justified before them seriously, number one. And number two, they really teach from James and then they try to harmonize it with Paul that the reward and the blessing is not guaranteed. The presence of God is not guaranteed. The multiplication is not guaranteed. The blessing and the enjoyment and satisfaction is not guaranteed. That's not included in justification. That's obtained by sanctification, which is another kind of justification. I mean, it's crazy because they'll deny up and down that they are changing the definition of justification in one set of teachings, and then they will proceed to teach officially. When Paul talked about justification, he's talking about how do I know I'm going to heaven and not going to hell? It's all focused on punishment for sin. Then when James talks about justification, he's actually talking about how do I get rewarded and blessed? And this is about my life here, how I live. And they're right in the sense that the early church in Jerusalem didn't have so much a problem with how do I get saved? There was some confusion about that because of the Judaizers and stuff. But James said, we didn't send those guys to go circumcise Gentiles, but we do expect that the Gentiles will learn Moses in the synagogues every Sabbath. They believed that the law was the rule of life for the Christian. They didn't come out from Judaism. They stayed associated with the temple. That was the mixture of law and grace, wasn't how to get saved, but how to live the Christian life in order to be blessed. And any of them would have taught, whether it be James or Peter or any of the other ones that stayed in Jerusalem at that time when James was written, they would have taught that the Christian life is lived by works. And if you're, you know, now James uses extreme examples and says, faith without works is dead and don't you know that Abraham was justified by works and it was his faith perfected through works and all these things he says at a time when nobody was speaking about justification apart from works except Paul. So if I have a YouTube channel and there's somebody who I kind of know, who suddenly starts teaching, well, don't you know that Christ is not our sanctification, sanctification is by works, you know, and I, and I really hammer on the, and I'm the only one hammering away at Christ is our sanctification. Of course, I'm going to think that guy's talking about my teaching, even if he doesn't mention my name. I mean, it's obvious James too is refuting an argument made by somebody and it's using the language, it's using a theological language of justification apart from works and he's arguing against it. I think it's naive to say that James and Paul at this point were in harmony. It's unscriptural to say it, oh, they believe the same thing. James is talking about a different kind of justification, not saving even though he uses the word. See, the problem is, what I'm not saying is that James is a false brother teaching falsely. What I'm saying is he's not an apostle and he's using theological language to try to address a practical problem and he's gone too far, but he's reflecting what they would have by nature agreed. Most people by nature agree with James too, even if they would deny it up and down. Of course a genuine Christian is going to bear fruit, if you really believe. I've had to catch myself many times using the phrase, if you really believe, and I say, well no, not really believe, I mean believe the actual gospel. But we default to the flesh seeking to be justified. See the thing is with Galatians, he was talking to a group of people that had begun in the spirit and were seeking to be perfected in the flesh and he was calling it justification. You're seeking to be justified by works. You're seeking to be justified by law. So we all say, well then he's talking about initial salvation, we already know how to get saved. So that's the problem that they faced. And he was just talking about circumcision and observing ordinances. He wasn't talking about moral commandments. Of course we keep the moral commandments, that's how we please God. We take the function of the law away, which is the ministry of condemnation and death and we keep it, prolong it, even though it's supposed to be fading away. And at that point we stop being ministers of righteousness and of the spirit. Because the ministry of righteousness tells ungodly people that they are qualified to be sons and heirs through faith and that that's how they're to stand. Romans 4 leads to Romans 5. Romans 4 is Paul's doctrine about justification which includes not just the forgiveness of sins but the forgiveness of sins as the qualification to be the heirs and to have the reward and to be blessed. It's the blessing. When David said, blessed is the one whose sins are forgiven, to them the blessing was a big deal. It wasn't like God blessed you because you sneezed. We don't understand the significance of the word, oh bless, I sure am blessed today, you know, the car works. The blessing is the promise of the spirit and it's given to those whose sins are forgiven even though they're ungodly and work not. This is the basis of the Christian life. How is the Christian life lived? It's lived in union with Christ. I've been crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ in me. By the supply of the spirit, did you hear, did you receive the spirit by the hearing of faith or by the works of the law? Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit are you now going to be perfected in the flesh? What Paul is calling perfected in the flesh there, Christians today would call sanctification. We're seeking to be sanctified and we do it under the threat of cursings for those who don't and blessings for those who do. The way, how do you get God's presence in your life? I confess my sins, I repent, I go to church faithfully, I read my Bible faithfully. I don't harbor any grudges. I keep short accounts with God in order to stay in the fellowship. Well what happens if you don't do those things? Well I'm in darkness and God has turned his back on me until I do. Yes I'm going to hell, heaven, I'm not going to hell but I'm probably going to not have any rewards and I'm going to get a beating a shameful day at the revelation of Jesus Christ and in this life he may even kill me. This is what they officially teach that God will take you home early and they use a couple of really bad examples from 1 Corinthians and Ananias and Sapphira and I don't have time to get into it but I have a book called Messages of Grace and Discipline that diffuses all these things. All sons of God, good or bad, receive discipline, it's a training in how to live Christ. It is not a punishment for your sins. See they teach that we're to live under a threat of cursings and blessings and they even tell you that that's the motif that James is using in their official doctrine in their seminary where they generate the commentaries, James is in their view referring to the cursings and the blessings of the law which still apply to the Christian life. So you're justified but not justified and you try to catch them on it, they say no we're not teaching Galatian error because Galatians is about justification, we already know we're justified. Now let's look at James, James is how to live the Christian life, now James is talking about another kind of justification. What are they doing? They're redefining justification to undo what Paul said it qualifies us for. So I've hammered this point home a million times but this is a real big distinction and for this reason we need to understand that justification is about Christ becoming everything in the Christian life. He is our righteousness, he is our sanctification, he is our redemption, he is our life and he's our reward. All of those are explicitly stated in the scripture and anytime you talk about reward or sanctification or righteousness or life or redemption, if you're not talking about the person of Christ, you're actually talking about something else and this isn't how we consider things. You know the seminaries break everything up into, you've got soteriology which is salvation, Christology which is Christ, pneumatology which is the spirit and then they've got these different categories like sanctification. Why is that a different category? Christ is my sanctification. See that's just how we're trained to think. We think the Bible has many things to say about many different things and the volume of the book is written of him and it all points to him and if we don't see him as the reality behind everything that we're talking about then anything we are talking about that is void of him is really void of him and is going to be error. So you talk about sanctification and you say well this is how I sanctify myself, I work and I clean up my behavior. Well Mormon can do that. This is a Christless sanctification. What makes yours better? Because my sins are forgiven. Now Paul again, when he talks about justification in Galatians, if you read the whole epistle you'll see he's not talking about how do I get saved. He's talking about how do I have the presence of God and live before him as an heir and how do I walk in the spirit and have the fruit. The effectiveness of the Christian life, that's the course of the book of Galatians. It is a book for the Christian life. In the Reformation and in church history, James and Galatians go back and forth because they're about the same size and they're dealing with the same topic from two different sides. Not complimenting each other, they're clearly in disagreement. I mean from the plain language they're in disagreement. If James is talking about a justification that is the Christian life and this is how I live the Christian life and you say that's how I approve of James and say that he's in full agreement with Paul, then you have stripped justification of its definition. Just because you call it sanctification doesn't mean you're not trying to be justified. So again, Abraham was an already justified person who went into Hagar, bound himself to law to try to produce from the efforts of the flesh the fulfillment of the promise. And Ishmael ends up being an imitation or an emulation of Isaac. He's not the real thing. He's a son of a bondwoman engendered by a justified person who doesn't understand what justification really secured. He doesn't really fully believe that justification secured everything for him and that all he needs to do is wait on God and be at peace. He brings strife into his house trying to fulfill what is his by right. That is seeking to be justified. Even though he's already justified, he was seeking to be justified and Christians do that. They were doing that in Galatia. Having begun in the spirit, are you now going to be perfected in the flesh? And he goes on for the next three chapters to talk about, look, religious flesh is like Hagar and Ishmael and it will always oppose the spirit. It will oppose the children of promise and oppose the promise and you bring yourself under the curse. Does he, what was he saying? You're unsaved? No. He's saying you've been moved away from him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel, which is not another, only some would trouble you seeking to pervert the gospel of Christ. And if you look all the way through Galatians, you'll see that the main thing was that they lost the sense of blessing that comes from being directly in the presence of God because they got their eyes off the crucified Christ and they went back to law as how do I live the Christian life? And maybe they called it sanctification, but they were really seeking to be justified because they were trying to earn from God what had already been given to them. And they were trying to produce through effort and emulation, the fruit of the spirit. But it was really just a sanctimoniously cultured flesh that was full of envy, strife, provoking one another. And they were going to consume each other, fight and devour one another. There was no peace. Were they unsaved? No. And the same people will argue, James is not saying people are not saved. Obviously he's not. He's calling them brethren. I mean, chapter one is beautiful that we're the first fruits of his creatures, regenerated, produced by the word of life, by his own will, he begat us, the father of life in him. There's no variance in shifting shadow. We're children of God, according to James. But how do we live the Christian life? And what is justification? Well, you've got two options with James. Either he knew full well Paul's doctrine in depth, because he's an apostle, so he has to be clear, and he's opposing the truth and coming up with a different definition of justification. Or more scripturally and more true, without laying that kind of accusation at his feet, we say this was written before Acts 10. And that's like historically agreed. Somebody said, well, you know, don't look at just the cross-reference about the timeline. No, these timelines have been pieced together from Paul's own narrative. And also the history in Acts gives us, okay, this guy was the Tetrarch and this guy was the king and this, it's all been pieced together. They may not have the exact year, but they've got the timeframe. And we know from Paul's own testimony and from the chronological narrative of the book of Acts, that before Peter went to Antioch, he was persecuted in Jerusalem for eating with Gentiles. And after he went to Antioch, men came down from James to Antioch, and Peter was so afraid of them that he shrank back from eating with the Gentiles and it was influenced from Jerusalem. That was the climate in Jerusalem when James wrote this letter. So what we do is we don't credit him with doctrinal knowledge he doesn't have. And we say he's misusing language. People say, but it's in the Bible, it can't contradict itself. Well, why are you willing to contradict the narrative in the book of Acts? And why are you willing to contradict Paul's own testimony in the book of Galatians? He describes the whole thing. And why are you willing to contradict what justification secures and fabricate a new version of justification by works? Bible can't contradict itself, well, what are you doing? So that's where I stand on it.