Justification Pt. II
Justification is crucial as Christians for us to learn and to pass it on to those whom we disciple. It makes the difference between knowing the true gospel=salvation by faith alone, and other false or “imitation” gospels=salvation by faith + anything else. For if it is salvation by faith + anything else, then grace would not truly be grace, because grace is an undeserved gift, given by God’s generous and loving heart.
Other faith founders pointed the way to salvation, or at least their version of it, only Jesus says of Himself to be the way of salvation. People are often turned away by the word religion (even though “religion” just means “a disciplined way of life” and therefore not to be feared by a Christian). They often think of religion as “earning salvation through moral effort or good deeds”. If this is the way of religion, then the gospel is “salvation by and through grace“. Grace means God’s favor.
“Religion” in this sense focuses on the self, while grace turns our attention to others.
We cannot stress this enough. Trying to be good, or be justified in God’s court of law by our own efforts alone is futile. The following blog is drawing heavily from Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God, and I want to give him proper credit as well as recommend this text for anyone as it is an easy yet insightful read.
Perhaps you may well know the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll believes that his bad nature is holding back his good nature as he is a mixture of both, so he tries to concoct a potion that will separate the two natures, so that his good self will be free to pursue noble goals. But, when Hyde emerges at night, he is selfish, self-absorbed, etc. Hyde even kills if someone stands in his way. As Jekyll realizes this horrible side of himself, he then dedicates his life to charity and good works, and refuses to take the potion again, but something terrible happens.
One day, Jekyll is reflection on all the good he has done, and how much better he is than everyone else despite Hyde, when suddenly Jekyll looks down and realizes he has transformed into Hyde automatically without knowing it!
This is the beginning of the end for him. But why does he become this evil person without even taking the potion? Because despite trying to bury Hyde under a pile of good works, Jekyll’s pride and self-centeredness were not diminished but enhanced, leading to his feeling of superiority and arrogance. Suddenly Jekyll becomes Hyde, not in spite of his goodness but because of them. Even if we try to hid our sin and selfishness, it comes out when certain things trigger us.
This Jekyll and Hyde represent two extremes, and Jesus tells of them in the familiar Prodigal Son parable. One son is being very bad and breaking all the rules, while the other is being very good, keeping all the rules but is self-righteous; two different ways to be your own Lord and Savior. The first is to live your own way on your terms. The second way may look better because you are living morally and may even have Jesus as your teacher, but avoiding Him as your Savior because you still trust your own goodness. It is still just “religion” but a Christianized version of it.
The one son built his identity on “religion” (moral achievements or good behavior), the other son built his on irreligion (some other pursuit or relationship). Both are sinful.
The key to justification can be summed up in a metaphor. Suppose both you and I have tar on our hands. It is black, sticky and impossible to remove, I can try to clean your tar off or you mine but because each of us has it on our hands it never completely comes off. To be rid of the tar we need someone with clean hands who has not been affected by it: enter Christ, who is like us in every way except without sin (Heb. 4:15). He takes our tar-stained hands, and cleanses them to make them like his own, but it is not accomplished by our good works, religious acts, or anything else except God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone!
Stay tuned for more.