Welcome to the Truth Time podcast.
Welcome back.
This is part four of the Studying the Terms series and today is justification.
We began this series when we had some listeners send us some quotes from a limited forgiver.
Here's another one from one of his YouTube videos.
At 17:57, the speaker says, "The reality is that to be forgiven is to be justified.
To be justified is to be forgiven. You cannot be forgiven without being justified by meaning and definition of words."
Then he says, "Now, in this particular video, I went all the way back and showed this. I showed it with Wycliffe and how he used the words. I showed it with Luther. I showed it with Tyndale. I showed it with translators, King James translators
themselves, Lancelot Andrews, as well as John Reynolds."
He continues, he says, "I went through and I showed that you cannot be forgiven without being justified. There's no such thing as being forgiven and not justified. And the way we know that is because of the grammatical structure. This is why grammar matters. We cannot come in here ignoring the grammar, ignoring the context and say things about these verses in second Corinthians 5, just because they fit our preconceptions or what we think is going on." End quote.
Okay, well, this is polluted with many errors.
So, since grammar matters, let's grade this paper from this self-proclaimed grammar expert.
Forgiveness does not justify anyone.
The definition of justified is not to be forgiven.
These terms are not interchangeable.
To be forgiven is not to be justified, not by definition, not by grammar, or by context.
Oh, you may be able to study certain men and come away believing that forgiveness and justification are synonymous.
Maybe so.
I cannot speak to that because I don't study their writings.
But, what I can speak to is you cannot give an honest and thorough study of God's writings and come away with this.
If you want to be 100% accurate in defining these Bible terms, you have no need to rely on the opinion of this limited forgiver, or the men he puts above the word
of God.
Preferring the opinions of men over the divine inspiration of God's own holy words, placing man's commentary over God's context and redefining his words with man's
opinion, that's never a wise choice.
Anything wrong with looking into the writings of men?
Not at all.
But when God's word doesn't line up with man, whose side are you on?
Today, we will prove our position by comparing scripture with scripture, not by inserting the preconceived notion that you cannot be forgiven without being justified.
No, because that has nothing to do with what's going on in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Previously, by examining Exodus chapter 34 verse 7 and Numbers chapter 14 verse 8, we learned that atonement automatically brings about God's forgiveness.
But, forgiveness does not clear guilt.
And if forgiveness doesn't clear the guilty, then are the guilty justified?
No.
If the guilty were cleared, they would be justified.
And in order to be justified, they'd have to be righteous.
God doesn't call sin righteous.
And there is no justification for sin.
Never has been, never will be.
As a matter of fact, if there is one thing God hates more than sin, it is when people justify it.
Sin is an abomination.
It was forgiven, but never justified.
So, let's not insert our own meanings into words and make up definitions.
If being forgiven meant being justified, these verses would simply say so.
But they do not.
They say the opposite.
Pertaining to righteousness, as we covered last week, in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 25, Moses told Israel that righteousness came by doing.
And according to Luke chapter 1, the same was true for Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth.
They were both righteous and blameless before God.
Why?
Because they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
It is impossible to be both righteous and guilty at the same time.
Forgiveness alone does not clear the guilty.
And if the guilty are not righteous, then it is impossible for righteousness to be imputed solely on the basis of forgiveness.
Now, this is important because we need to know what justification means and what it does not mean.
We need to know what God is talking about when He tells us how justification works according to His own words.
Who can be justified?
Deuteronomy 25:1 tells us only the righteous can be justified.
A truth also supported by 1 Kings 8:32 and 2 Chronicles 6:23.
Regardless of the word blenders popping up today, God says only the righteous are justified.
You better test what you're hearing.
Now just what is justification?
When writing to Israel, King David puts it this way. Psalm 51 verse 4, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."
The Apostle Paul to us, Romans 3:26, "To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believe in Jesus."
What is justification?
A declaration of righteousness.
We must pay attention to the order, God's order.
Can unrighteousness, sin ever be justified?
The limited forgiver we quoted earlier said that to show what those men thought about it, he, quote, '...went all the way back." End quote.
Well, not far enough apparently.
We choose to go much further back, back to the Word of God for the answer.
We're not comfortable relying on man's sermon notes for our answers.
Man's wisdom falls short.
We neither know or care what Tyndale, Reynolds, Andrews, or Luther wrote about it.
As Bible students, we're concerned with what God said.
Let's check it out.
Exodus chapter 23 verse 7, "Keep thee far from a false matter, and the innocent and righteous slay thou not, for I will not justify the wicked."
See that?
I will not justify the wicked.
The truth is so plain.
Forgiveness and justification are not synonymous.
Luke 10:29, "But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, Who is my neighbor?"
Luke 16:15, "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."
For further study, see Isaiah chapter 5 verses 20 to 23, chapter 43 verse 9, Ezekiel chapter 16 verses 51 and 52, and Proverbs chapter 17 verse 15.
You see, while absent from what some men choose to write, this truth is everywhere in God's writings.
Some want us to believe that justification is either the same thing as forgiveness or that it happens at the same time, as if it's an automatic thing a person receives when they're forgiven.
According to logic, that is absurd.
According to the scriptures, it's false doctrine.
A forgiven person is never automatically justified in the thing they needed forgiveness for.
Otherwise, they would have never needed to be forgiven.
This is scriptural logic.
Plus, there is no instance for forgiveness automatically making anyone justified found anywhere in scripture.
Sin can only be forgiven.
Sin can never be justified.
The scriptures teach that the justification of sin is an abomination to God.
So, you can forget that.
Forgiveness is not a declaration of not guilty, but justification is, because they're different.
According to God, only the righteous will be justified.
Deuteronomy 6:25, Proverbs 11:6, 13:6, and Job 1:1.
Righteousness can only be obtained by faith through obedience, and only the righteous
can be justified.
Listen closely.
This is important, and we must get this.
In time past, Israel's righteousness was obtained by faith.
Faith that had to be followed by their obedience to do the works of the flesh that was required of them.
No obedience equaled no righteousness.
Now watch.
In the time period we're in, our righteousness is also obtained by faith.
Faith that must be followed by our obedience.
But it's our obedience to the gospel.
Obedience from the heart, not works of the flesh.
For us, no heart obedience equals no righteousness.
See, the order hasn't changed.
What changed is the means.
Instead of faith plus obedience to do works of the flesh, for us it's faith by obedience to the gospel.
Look at our mail in Romans 6:17, "But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you."
From the heart, not of the flesh.
Today we obey, quote, "That form of doctrine, the gospel."
Our Gentile dispensation is unique from all others.
Think about Cornelius.
Cornelius was a righteous working Gentile, which is why he was called a just man.
And that is the only reason he was accepted of God to receive the gospel of the kingdom from Peter.
You can find that in Acts chapter 10, verses 22 and 35.
To be clear, again, only the righteous can be justified.
Righteous, and therefore, justified people don't need forgiveness, because they're not guilty of anything that needs to be forgiven.
Forgiveness does not and cannot also mean justified or righteous as the limited forgivers claim.
Offenses, sins, transgressions, iniquities, wickedness, evil, unrighteousness, etc, are never justified.
Neither is the person who is seen guilty of those things.
That would be blasphemous.
That would be calling evil good and good evil, an abomination.
Righteousness has always been and will always be only obtained by faith. Justification is obtained by showing proof of righteousness, which is works,
and therefore justification is a declaration of righteousness.
For Israel, you can see that in James chapter 2, verses 21 through 25.
For those of us in the body of Christ, our proof is in the work of Christ on our behalf.
Again, the order hasn't changed, only the means has.
I pray you're seeing this.
There is no indication anywhere in Scripture that even remotely implies that
forgiveness automatically brings about justification.
That's just made up.
A made up concept, a preconception from those who have not put in the time and the effort to study the Scriptures out to see what God says about it.
To be justified is to be declared not guilty and without fault.
Forgiveness is only needed for the guilty and at fault.
Justification is a judicial term.
Forgiveness is an accounting term.
Forgiveness alone has never justified anyone.
I saw a video once, a courtroom scene.
A man had been declared guilty and was being sentenced for murder.
Before the sentence came down, the mother of the victim, she gave her, her statement, and during her statement she expressed to the murderer that she forgave him and was not holding his trespasses against him.
It was a very moving scene that brought even the murderer to tears.
It ended with the mother of the victim asking permission to go over and give a hug to her son's killer.
During their embrace, through their tears, she repeated over and over to him that she had forgiven him.
Most everyone in the courtroom was in tears at the grace that this mother, this grieving mother, displayed to her son's murderer, and the reaction he had to her was
quite amazing.
His humble gratitude and excessive sobbing reflected the fact that he received her
declaration of forgiveness.
The murderer was never declared not guilty.
The mother never expressed that the murderer was justified, justified in killing her son in cold blood.
The murder was never seen as a righteous act by anyone.
The mother simply chose not to hold bitterness and contempt toward her son's killer.
It was an act that she did on her own without the need of any participation from the one that she forgave.
Her forgiveness was not contingent upon the murderer's acceptance or belief in it. Her forgiveness didn't even depend on whether or not her son's killer deserved it.
As a matter of fact, the murderer showed absolutely zero remorse during the entire trial, but his remorse was on full display at the mother's declaration of forgiveness toward him.
Not one person ever questioned the sincerity of the mother's forgiveness toward her son's killer, and even if the murderer didn't believe that the mother had truly forgiven him, it would not have changed a thing.
It could not have changed the fact that she did.
The mother's forgiveness was not a judicial act.
She knew that.
The judge knew that too.
That's why the guilty party was still sentenced.
No one pled for him to be set free on the basis of her forgiveness.
No amount of forgiveness that she could offer him would ever justify his actions.
No amount of forgiveness would render this murderer not guilty.
No amount of forgiveness could ever make a cold-blooded evil act turn into a righteous work.
What this mother did was an act of grace, a gift of something not deserved or merited.
She simply forgave him.
The forgiveness belonged to her.
To her.
But what if the situation were different?
What if this man who killed another had done so in self-defense?
What if that self-defense plea was accepted and this man was declared not guilty? Well, then the man would have been justified in his actions of defense that resulted in the death of another.
If that were the case, if that were the situation, what offense would the mother have need to forgive?
I forgive you for doing what was necessary to save another's life?
That seems like a pretty arrogant statement, does it not?
The only correct response from the mother in this situation would be, I'm sorry my son put you in this situation where you had to take his life in order to save yours. Non-offenses have no need for forgiveness.
Offenses do.
God has forgiven the world on the cross.
He did not declare the world as righteous, and the world is not justified as a result of God's forgiveness.
Nowhere in scripture is there an example of God's forgiveness automatically resulting in justification no matter what these limited forgivers try to sell you.
Non-imputation of sin has never automatically resulted in the imputation of righteousness.
The scriptures make it clear that no one has ever been considered righteous without faith.
Likewise, no one has ever been justified without works of righteousness.
Justification is a declaration of righteousness.
James understood that.
The writer of Hebrews understood that.
Paul understood that.
And Christ fulfilled that work for us so that we might, through faith, obtain it. Praise God.
Had God not forgiven the world, the dispensation of grace would have never happened. Some who claim to understand that today's current economy runs according to the dispensation of grace seem to have forgotten this.
The opposite of forgiveness is unforgiveness.
The result of God's unforgiveness is imputation of sins resulting in his anger and his wrath.
And if that's the case, then we've digressed back to religion, blaming God for tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and every natural disaster that occurs.
The very fact that God isn't pouring out his wrath on mankind today is proof of Truth Time's position on forgiveness.
If God were imputing sins today, he would likewise be pouring out his wrath.
This is simple mathematics.
And let us address this real quick.
Some right dividers teach that Romans 2 is Paul proclaiming that those who are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath means they're going to hell to pay for sins.
You see, what they fail to realize is that the day of wrath doesn't occur until the next dispensation, after we're out of here.
We're called up.
The second Corinthians chapter five sins that are not being imputed is parenthetical dispensational news.
So that's just another swing and another miss.
All the limited forgivers of the world, the traditional and the hybrid, they can keep trying to disprove the ministry of reconciliation by claiming that no one's sins are forgiven until they merit it by something they do, as if it's unsettled that God hasn't reconciled himself to the world, that his forgiveness is in a perpetually ongoing state.
You know, because forgiveness didn't happen on the cross, it was only stored away and gets handed out each time someone gets water baptized, or they ask for forgiveness, say the sinner's prayer, or believe the gospel.
And they say that the lost are under the law that was nailed to the cross, that forgiveness is limited to only those already in the body of Christ, that righteousness and justification are automatically granted upon forgiveness, which would technically be universalism since sins were in reality forgiven on the cross.
They'll say that the lost are having each and every sin counted against them so God can make them pay for what his son already died to pay for, as if any human is capable of paying for sins.
Think about that.
That of itself is blasphemy.
They have people going to hell to pay, to pay for their sins, as if that's possible.
The unintentional comedy is priceless.
Listen, the very reason Christ had to die to pay for our sins was because we can't.
We can't pay for them.
If we could, God the Son could have stayed home.
It's as if each time another opposition to reconciliation arises, it only moves the
opposer further away from the cross.
The more these false definitions of terms are embraced, the more fundamental truths pertaining to the dispensation of grace get tarnished, twisted, or even eliminated completely.
The more reconciliation is opposed, the further one is removed from Paul's gospel.
People have always been able to obtain righteousness by faith, but only in this dispensation of grace can justification be obtained through faith.
Justification has always required works for righteousness, but it's only in this dispensation of grace that it isn't our works that justify us, but rather the righteous, finished, satisfying, atoning work of Christ.
Salvation has always required forgiveness, righteousness, and justification, but in this, the dispensation of the grace of God, He has already forgiven the world of sin,
He stopped imputing them so that we can by faith have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and it is through that faith we are justified and will be counted as not guilty before God, and on the merit of the righteous works of Christ, and that is salvation.
This series should help us with placing things in proper order.
If you missed parts one, two, or three, go back and review.
The limited forgivers make contradictory statements.
They confuse others because they themselves are confused.
They struggle with forgiveness issues because they do not follow God's order, His order, His requirements, His order and requirements have not changed since He set them forth.
Think about it, while Israel was in the endless wash rinse repeat cycle for them to achieve reconciliation with God, we rely on the fact that all that was needed to accomplish everything required for salvation was achieved by Christ, and to be made the righteousness of God in Christ all we have to do is believe on what He did.
God made salvation for the dispensation of grace so simple that a child can understand it.
So don't let some modern day wannabe scholar, some law doctor in a grace disguise,
come along and mix you up by striving about words that the scriptures define clearly.
With each part of this series we're proving that.
Sadly, I think the mix-up is on purpose.
An attempt to convince you that you cannot be forgiven until you do something.
To try to convince you that your belief is powerful enough to magically complete
a historical fact that God the Son has already accomplished with His atoning blood.
We'll wrap up the series with the next episode as we zero in and focus on reconciliation.
With scripture, we'll demonstrate how all these necessary requirements for salvation
fit perfectly into the ministry of reconciliation to form the most beautiful grace picture for all humanity.
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