If you would open up your pew Bible to page 1119, I am eventually going to get there.
Well, have you ever changed your mind about someone?
Let's say you met someone initially and you were not impressed.
You're kind of like, who is this person?
Kind of turned off, you're guarded, not thinking you're going to spend much time with it.
Then something happens.
And you have a change of heart towards that person.
You've heard about this in some marriages.
Like the wife is initially turned off by her to-be husband back in the early days.
And then something dramatic happens.
And all of a sudden, the wife changes her heart towards this young man and they get married.
Change of heart.
Or maybe someone has changed their mind about you.
You started out out of favor with someone.
And for whatever reason, that person changed their mind about you.
You went from being out of favor to being in favor with them.
Last week's sermon, I made the case from Romans 1, 2, and 3, that all of us, all of us are unrighteous in God's sight.
Whether we are unrighteous hedonists or unrighteous moralists, we're all without excuse before God.
We can't excuse ourselves.
And we are justly under His wrath because of that.
In Romans 5, 10, we read,
We were enemies of God.
Out of favor.
Enemies.
Let me ask you, what would it take
For God to change His mind about an unrighteous sinner who is without excuse and under His wrath?
What would it take for God to change His mind towards you and towards me?
If we are all justly without excuse?
If we are all justly under God's wrath, what would need to change the mind of a just God towards us?
God would need to change us.
Justly.
And here we have the doctrine of justification.
Last week, I shared with you from Romans 1 that the gospel of Jesus Christ, this message from God to an unrighteous humanity, it is historic and powerful.
Christ's life, death, and resurrection happened in real space and time.
And that event of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, according to our Bibles, is the source of God's power to people of salvation.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God's power for salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it, the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith.
For it is by faith.
The righteous shall live.
The righteous shall live by faith.
The gospel solves our terrible unrighteousness problem by making us right in the eyes of God.
It is extraordinary.
At the end of the sermon, I circled back to Romans 3.21 because Paul circles back to the gospel.
And I introduced three words to you.
Do you remember those three words if you're here?
The first one was propitiation in 3.25.
It comes from the realm of animal sacrifice.
And animal is sacrificed.
Its blood would shed.
And it would satisfy God's wrath.
Back in the Old Testament, it was only temporary.
But Jesus is our propitiation now.
And his blood shed for us satisfies all of God's wrath that was hanging over us for our unrighteousness.
Then there's another word, redemption.
It's the language of the slave market.
And Jesus ransomed his life to deliver you out of slavery to sin.
And then we came across that word justification, which is in the domain of the law court.
It's legal ease.
By believing in Jesus and his finished work, God declares an unrighteous sinner righteous in his sight.
You go from being out of favor with God, in wrong standing with God,
to by this declaration of God, you are in right standing with God.
So this morning, I'm going to devote the whole sermon to the doctrine of justification.
And here's how we're going to do it.
Doctrine defined, doctrine supported, doctrine applied.
The doctrine of justification explained.
That's why we have this in front of us.
Doctrine supported.
We're going to do a tour de force of Romans 4 and 5.
And then doctrine applied.
There are a number of ways that the doctrine of justification will bring health to your soul, Christian.
And if you're a non-Christian, this is one of the best things you're going to hear in your whole life.
If you're a Christian, God has changed his mind towards you once for all.
You were once under wrath, but now you are under his grace because he changed you.
So let's look at this doctrine defined.
Now I know, some of you in the room, I hear the word doctrine, and you're like,
honey, wake me up in about 30 minutes.
When you hear the word doctrine, you think academy.
You think sleep time.
You think boredom.
You think of the Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown's sitting and his teacher's going,
wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah.
When you begin to the New Testament, especially in the past orals, the first, second Timothy,
Titus, whenever that word doctrine shows up, there's usually an adjective in front of it.
Translated healthy, sound.
Doctrine simply means teaching what the Bible teaches about something.
And biblical doctrine, Bible teaching is healthy for the Christian.
It brings soundness to the Christian.
And so when we talk about the doctrine of justification, oh, it will bring health to your soul.
In this little book, Concise Theology by J.I. Packer, this is an introduction to Christian doctrine.
And about halfway through the book, he talks about justification and he defines it.
Let me define it for you, according to J.I. Packer.
Justification is a judicial act of God pardoning sinners, accepting them as just,
and so putting permanently right their previously estranged relationship with him.
This justifying sentence or declaration is God's gift of righteousness.
It's bestowal of a status of acceptance for Jesus' sake.
When God justifies an unrighteous sinner, God changes that unrighteous sinner's legal standing before him.
It's a legal change of status.
And he changes his mind about us.
Now, right out of the gate, I want to help you understand how God did that.
The inner workings of how the God of the universe can change his mind about an unrighteous sinner.
Would you turn in your Bibles, if you have a pew Bible, it will be to page 1143.
It's in the book of 2 Corinthians 524.
And Paul's been talking about reconciliation.
We're going to come back to that later in the sermon.
But in 521, he says this.
For our sake, he, God, made him, Jesus, to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him, Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.
So right out of the gate, I want to help you understand what theologians call double imputation or the great exchange.
So in light of 2 Corinthians 521, in our conversation about justification to God,
God making just right an unrighteous sinner,
there are two things I want you to see.
Here you are.
And before you believed in Jesus, you were justly under God's wrath.
And so all of God's wrath was storing up over you and would have poured out on you for eternity.
Now the reason for that is, dun, dun, dun, dun.
Can you read this?
This is a binder of your unrighteousness.
A list of offenses in great detail about your life.
Your thought life, your actions, sins of commissions, sins of omissions.
All right here.
And this was the data God needed to pour out his wrath on you.
Justly.
Now over here, we have Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ, totally God, totally man, lived on this planet.
And his binder is of perfect righteousness.
Christ's righteousness.
Every day of his life, 24-7, 365.
He pleased God.
He did what none of us can do just in a single day.
He did it his whole life.
So here you have it.
Jesus Christ, Christ's righteousness.
You, under God's wrath because of your unrighteousness.
By the way, Jesus was beloved by the Father.
Accepted fully.
So here is what the doctrine of double imputation is.
When a sinner like you and me believes,
God now responds to that faith by thinking differently.
He now thinks of your righteousness being placed on Jesus.
And that wrath that was over you, he pours out on full.
Poured.
Out on full on Jesus Christ on Good Friday for you.
On all of your sin.
So much so, all of God's wrath for all of your sin was poured out in full.
So there's no more wrath.
He satisfied it.
Propitiated your wrath.
That's the first part of double imputation.
And it gets better.
Because God in that single response,
His justifying grace and mercy,
not only considered your unrighteousness placed on Christ
and all of His wrath poured out on it,
He now thinks of Christ's righteousness
as being imputed to you.
Legally.
A new legal status for the Christian.
And instead of God's fury being poured out,
Oh, there's nothing but favor and mercy and grace,
beloved child that you are.
Do you hear what's going on here?
Now the question is, when did that happen?
The moment you believed that Jesus died for you for the very first time.
That moment, God changed His mind about you.
Because He justified you on the basis of imputing your unrighteousness to Christ
and Christ's righteousness to you.
Can anybody give me an amen?
Amen.
Let me drill down on this a little bit more.
So when we talk about the doctrine of justification,
we're talking about a change of legal status.
There's five things you need to know about the doctrine of justification.
It is a legal declaration.
It's not necessarily experiential.
God changes your legal status.
We've got a couple, James and Joelle,
they're going to be married this Saturday.
I think they're over there.
Give me, hoorah!
They're going to have a legal marital status change.
Done.
When God justifies an unrighteous sinner,
they have a change of legal status before God.
Now that legal declaration is a declaration of God alone.
An unrighteous sinner has nothing to contribute to it.
If you want to say we can contribute to it,
it would be just simply our faith of receiving God's grace.
It's not a work, it's a response.
And even that originates from God's work in you.
So justification is a legal declaration.
It is God alone.
We don't play a role in that other than receive the gift.
It's immediate.
Instantaneous.
The moment you believe,
you are justified in God's sight.
And it's complete.
When you believe for the first time,
and God justifies you,
it's not like God's like,
hey, I'm going to put 10% of your justification down,
and follow up 90% with the rest when you're dead.
No, no.
It's all of Christ's righteousness imputed to you
the moment you believe.
It's complete.
It's full.
That's why the fifth one is,
it's unchanging.
You can have the worst day of your life, Christian,
but you're still completely justified in God's sight.
Isn't that good news?
It's a legal declaration.
It's by God alone.
It's immediate.
It's complete.
It's unchanging.
And you know what?
We can walk away by saying,
you're as justified follower of Jesus
as the apostle Paul is justified.
Because you both share the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Christ, it's not going to change.
You can't earn this.
You can't work,
put this on layaway and work to it.
It's only received as a gift.
That's why Romans 3.24 says that we're justified
by His grace as a gift.
So the one time and forever legal judgment of God
in which He justly declares an unrighteous sinner
to be righteous in His sight
on the basis of Jesus Christ's finished work,
that's what justification is.
You can do it shorthand.
You can say,
God's declaration of an unrighteous sinner
righteous in His sight.
It's legal.
And so once you've been justified,
you're totally forgiven,
totally accepted.
The great exchange has taken place.
It doesn't get revoked.
It's yours forever.
What has God done to change His mind about you?
He's changed you.
You see?
That's doctrine defined.
Let's look at doctrine supported.
Now you may be sitting in your seat
and you're like,
somebody,
this is just too good to be true.
Are you sure Paul didn't make that up?
How do you know that's true?
When Paul and Silas were on their second missionary journey in Acts 17,
they showed up in this town called Berea,
shared the gospel,
and the Bereans,
they examined the scriptures daily
to see if these things were so.
So for us,
when we hear something
as amazing as this doctrine of justification,
it is good and right for us to say,
is this biblical?
And for what we see in Romans 4 and 5,
the Apostle Paul
lays out four lines of support
for the doctrine of justification,
for a righteousness that's by faith.
You ready?
Tour de force.
We're going to blaze through it.
First line of support,
we read in Romans 4,
1-12.
Precedent.
Old Testament precedent.
He's laying out a case.
In Romans 4,
1-12,
the Apostle Paul starts
by talking about
Abraham
and how Abraham
was justified
not by his works
but by his faith.
So in verses
1-5,
1-4,
Paul points to Abraham
and says,
Abraham was justified,
made righteous
by faith
in God's grace.
And he quotes
Genesis 15-6.
Abraham believed God
and it was counted
to him as righteousness.
And then in verse 6,
verse 5 and 6,
7 and 8,
he moves from Abraham
then talking about
David.
And he quotes
Psalm 32,
1 and 2,
Blessed are those
whose lawless needs
are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man
against whom the Lord
will not count
his sin.
And so,
right out of the gate,
Paul is supporting
this righteousness
by faith,
this alien righteousness
imputed to sinners,
the righteousness of Christ,
by pointing to
Genesis 15
and by Psalm 32.
And he's already
showed his cards.
Because back
in Romans 1,
16 and 17,
this righteousness
from God,
this is how it's always been,
Habakkuk 2-4,
the righteous shall live
by faith.
So I hope you see
what Paul's doing here.
He's setting the precedent.
Now,
there is a word
that gets repeated
in this section.
It's the word count.
In verse 3,
Abraham believed God
and it was counted.
Verse 4,
his wages are not counted
as a gift,
but as his due.
Verse 5,
his faith is counted
as righteousness.
Verse 6,
of the one to whom God
counts righteousness
apart from the work.
Verse 8,
the Lord will not
count his sin.
Verse 9,
that faith was counted
to Abraham as righteousness.
Verse 10,
how then was it counted
to him?
Verse 11,
righteousness would be
counted to them as well.
And if you go all the way
down to verses 22-23,
you've got three more
counted.
What's all this counting?
This is Paul talking
about God's thinking.
God's change of mind.
God's reckoning
a righteousness,
not your own to you.
He's again and again
saying it.
That's what happened
to Abraham.
That's what happened
to David.
That's what Habakkuk
was talking about.
And when you get into
Hebrews 11
and the Hall of Fame,
all those men
and women of faith
made righteous
in God's sight
by faith in God's grace.
In fact,
in verses 9 and 12,
Abraham was justified.
Paul makes this point clear.
Before he was circumcised.
By faith,
not by works.
Here's the point.
Justification by faith,
not works,
is what the Bible
has always taught.
So here's what that means.
Maybe you grew up
in the church
and you're like,
oh yeah,
the Old Testament.
The Old Testament
teaches a salvation
by works of the law.
And the New Testament
teaches a salvation
by faith in God's grace.
You're mistaken.
It's always been
God's grace
receiving righteousness
by faith.
That's the point
Paul's making here
in Romans 4.
Isn't that good news?
Now you may be asking,
hold on a second.
So,
alright,
okay,
alright,
I'm justified
by trusting
in the past
finished work
of Jesus.
Okay,
how about,
like,
how is Abraham
justified
if Jesus hadn't died yet?
How's David justified
if Jesus hasn't died yet?
God justified
Abraham,
David,
and these
Old Testament saints
based on their faith
in the future
finished work
of Jesus.
It's always been
by faith.
Line one,
Old Testament precedent.
Line two,
why justification
is the real deal.
We see this
in chapter 4
verses 13 through 25
in Romans
and it has to do
with this word promise.
If you look
through this part
you will see
the word promise
showing up
a number of times.
In verse 13
we see the word promise.
For the promise
to Abraham
and his offspring
that he would bear
be the heir of the world
did not come through the law
but through the righteousness
of faith.
Verse 14
and the promise
is void.
Verse 16
in order that the promise
may rest on grace
and be guaranteed
to all his offspring.
You scroll down
to verse 20
no unbelief
made him waver
concerning the promise
of God
but he grew strong
in the faith
as he gave glory
to God.
Fully convinced
verse 21
that God was able
to do what he had promised.
But you know what?
There's more.
Because in verse 17
the word promise
isn't used
but there's an actual promise.
As it is written
I have made you
Abraham
the father of many nations.
Promise.
That's Genesis 17.5
And then at the end
of verse 18
God says
so shall your offspring be.
Genesis 15.5
Promise.
What's this promise?
It's God's promise
to Abraham
that through
one of his offspring
he will bless
all the nations
of the world.
That Abraham
will be the father
of many nations.
Not just Israel
the circumcised folk
but everybody.
He will make him
the father of many nations.
His heirs
will number
as the stars
of the heavens.
That promise.
And the point
Paul is making here
is that God's plan
for the very fullness
of time
from the very beginning
was to save
to bless
people
from all nations
through Jesus Christ.
Paul in Galatians 3
makes the case
grammatically
that Jesus Christ
is the offspring
of Abraham
through whom
God will bless
the nation.
So what does this
have to do
with justification
by faith?
This promise
rests on grace
received by faith
not the law.
So that
you can have people
coming into
the kingdom
who aren't Jews
but Gentiles too.
The heirs of this promise
are made righteous
by God's grace
received by faith.
God's promise
to bless the nations
to Abraham
was a promise
of grace
to all people
through Jesus Christ.
God's promise
plan
is a plan
of grace
in which he would
change his mind
towards unrighteous
sinners
by changing
them
by his grace.
God's promise
to Abraham
So when we sing
Father Abraham
had many sons
and many sons
had Father Abraham
I am one of them
and so are you
so
let's just praise
the Lord.
Do you know
how you can be
a son or daughter
of Abraham?
It's not by being
circumcised
it's not by
obedience to
Jewish dietary laws
it comes
through a righteousness
by faith
based on grace
it's the promise
Do I have an amen?
Come on
I'm so thrilled
all week long
man
you should think
I'm like lying on my back
can't we preach this?
Alright
third line of support
I'm going to have to
speed this up
a little bit
this next section
is chapter 5
1 through 11
Tour de force
and in this section
we go from
talking about promise
to talking about
a very important word
in your Bible
let me see if I can
emphasize it
by reading it
therefore
since we have been
justified by faith
we have
peace with God
through our Lord
Jesus Christ
peace
shalom
and the peace
that's being talked
about is
the satisfaction
of all of God's
wrath
for your sin
in the propitiating
work of Jesus
and you being
made righteous
in his sight
by being imputed
the righteousness
of Christ
so there is
therefore now
no condemnation
for those who are
in Christ Jesus
that's the peace
so now you turn
to the end
of this section
and you're like
okay
where's the peace
verse 10
salvation
where's the peace
no peace
verse 11
no peace
there's a different word
reconciled
for if while
we were enemies
we were
reconciled to God
by the death
of his son
made peace with
much more
now that we are
reconciled
shall we be saved
by his life
more than that
we also rejoice
in God
through our Lord
Jesus Christ
whom we have
now received
reconciliation
peace
this passage
is about peace
this is what
the justifying
grace of God
does for sinners
it results
in peace
real peace
not fake peace
real peace
it is the only
means given
by God
in which a sinner
can be at peace
with God
Paul is arguing
here
there's no other
peace
with God
outside of this
justification
by grace
through faith
God has changed
his mind
by changing
you
now there's
something
you just gotta
see
just gotta
see it
in the middle
of this
passage about
peace
something else
comes up
what
would
compel
a just
and holy
God
to go
to such
lengths
to send
his one
and only
son
to live
a perfect
life
to die
in the
place
of sinners
to be
raised
from the
dead
reigning
on high
and offer
salvation
to the
nations
what
would
compel
God
to go
to such
extreme
lengths
for
sinners
check out
verse 6
chapter 5
for while
we were
still weak
at the
right time
Christ
died
for the
ungodly
for one
will scarcely
die for
a righteous
person
though perhaps
for a good
person
one dare
even to
die
but God
shows
his
love
for us
in that
while we
were still
sinners
Christ
died
for us
since
therefore
we have
now been
justified
by his
blood
much more
shall
we be
saved
by him
from the
wrath
of God
you see
what
drove
our
just
and holy
God
to go
to such
lengths
to make
you
righteous
in his
sight
was his
love
for you
he wanted
to be
reconciled
with you
he needed
to make
peace
with you
he knew
you couldn't
make peace
with him
your unrighteous
deeds stood
against you
so he
made a
way
through
Jesus
the peacemaker
all throughout
this passage
you have
Christ
died
for the
unrighteous
godly
Christ
died
for us
justified
by his
blood
we are
enemies
reconciled
to God
by the
death
of his
son
the death
of Jesus
is God's
love
for sinners
to make
peace
with us
to justify
us
it's
beautiful
so by
believing
in the
gospel
a sinner
is not
just
justified
in God's
sight
he is
she is
reconciled
to God
and there
is peace
between the
sinner
and God
and what
drove that
is love
perfect love
casts out
fear
what a
God
what peace
okay the
fourth line
of support
is in 5
12 through
21
we've looked
at precedent
we've looked
at promise
we've looked
at peace
and now the
fourth p word
proxy
in chapter 5
12 through
21
one of the
other results
of God's
grace in our
life
is that we've
got a new
proxy
in 12
to 21
Paul
contrasts
two men
Adam
and Jesus
Christ
and think
of these
two men
as the
proxies
for all
mankind
you're
either
represented
by Adam
or you're
represented
by Jesus
all human
beings
are either
in Adam
or in
Jesus
and by
proxy
as a
representative
head
and throughout
this passage
Paul lumps
all people
as either
being in
Adam
or being
in Christ
Jesus
notice
he doesn't
lump all
people as
either Jew
or Gentile
what he's
talking about
is how
God
sees
all people
as either
being in
Adam
or being
in Jesus
and if you're
in Adam
you're
experiencing a
life marked
by sin
death
judgment
condemnation
the reign
of sin
but if
you're
in
Christ
Jesus
your life
is marked
by ongoing
righteousness
it's
life
not death
grace
as a
free gift
you're
made
righteous
legally
and now
you're
under
the reign
of grace
who's your
proxy
how
does
God
change
his mind
about you
he gives
you a new
proxy
Jesus
his
justifying
grace
moves you
from
Adam
to Jesus
you know
I know
not everybody
is a
what's his
name
I forget
his name
Harry
Potter
fan
I've read
the books
seen some
of the movies
I know
it's about
wizards
going to
wizard school
apparently
when
first year
wizards
go to
the wizard
school
of
Hogwarts
they're
eating
in this
big
banquet
hall
and
there's
this
talking
hat
that
goes
on
their
head
and
the
talking
hat
decides
which
house
for them
to go
to
and
there
are
four
houses
in
Hogwarts
but
there's
really
two
that
matter
most
Slytherin
and
Gryffindorff
and
this
hat
decides
which
house
you're
in
God's
word
here
we're
learning
that
God
sees
all
humanity
in
one
of
two
houses
house
of
Adam
sin
reigning
to
death
or
the
house
of
Jesus
grace
reigning
in
life
and
the
way
you
move
from
one
house
to
the
other
is
not
by
working
your
way
there
it's
by
trusting
in
Jesus
finished
work
there
and
so
God
now
declares
a
sinner
righteous
in
his
sight
in
the
house
of
Jesus
solely
based
on
that
sinner's
trusting
in
God's
promise
is that
amazing
Christian
you're
in the
house
of
Jesus
now
non
Christian
it's
time to
go
from
the
house
of
Adam
to
the
house
of
Jesus
all
right
let's
do
doctrine
applied
we've
defined
justification
God
declaring
an
unrighteous
sinner
righteous
in
his
sight
based
on
the
finished
work
of
Jesus
we've
looked
at
the
support
there
is
biblical
precedent
there
is
the
promise
to
Abraham
there
is
this
peace
and
now
Jesus
is
our
proxy
doctrine
applied
I
actually
have
five
B's
but
I'm
getting
hot
up
here
is
anybody
hot
out
there
I'm
about
to
wilt
but
man
I'll
name
the
B's
and
I'm
going
to
pick
just
two
to
hit
doctrine
applied
for
Christians
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
your
belay
one
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
your
ballast
two
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
your
boldness
three
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
your
battle
cry
four
and
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
your
boast
five
let's
talk
belay
ballast
battle
cry
when I
was a
youth
pastor
I'd
bring
youth
all
around
Wisconsin
and we
would
do a
lot
of
rock
climbing
it
was
great
for
young
people
to
get
stretched
team
building
is
wonderful
but
what
would
happen
is
a
student
would
wear
a
girdle
and
there's
this
rope
that
goes
down
they
would
click
in
with
a
carabiner
and
that
rope
would
go
all
the
way
to
the
top
of
the
cliff
that's
anchored
up
there
and
they
would
come
down
and
behind
them
was
a
person
called
a
belayer
and
that
belayer
was
actually
kind
of
anchoring
the
rope
and
so
this
climber's
health
and
well
being
actually
depended
on
the
belayer
and
so
when
a
student
was
about
to
climb
they
would
look
back
at
the
belayer
and
they
would
say
belayer
on
question
mark
and
the
belayer
would
say
back
belayer
on
I
got
you
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
like
this
inseparable
rope
between
you
and
Jesus
in
which
you
every
morning
can
you
imagine
you
are
turning
to
the
God
of
the
universe
and
you're
like
belayer
on
am I
justified
and
then
the
God
of
the
universe
says
belayer
on
baby
if
God
is
for
you
who
can
be
against
you
the
thing
is
if
you're
a
believed
in
Jesus
the
belayer
is
on
whether
you
think
it's
on
or
not
he's
got
you
regardless
of
how
you
feel
you're
justified
it
is
a
legal
declaration
if
you
were
American
living
in
Iran
chances
are
you're
not
going
to
be
feeling
too
American
but
you
are
a
U.S.
citizen
you
if
you're
justified
you
are
justified
and
belayed
in
regardless
of
how
you
feel
ballast
anybody
know
the song
the wreck
of the
Edmund
Fitzgerald
that would
have been
awesome
if that
was
actually
the wreck
of the
Edmund
Fitzgerald
well
on Lake
Michigan
you
can
get
some
crazy
seas
crazy
lake
waves
and
obviously
on the
Atlantic
Pacific
too
and
back
in the
day
I
think
they
still
do
this
they
would
put
ballast
at
the
very
bottom
the
hull
of
a
boat
and
ballast
would
be
rocks
metal
things
like
that
and
so
what
happens
is
the
center
of
gravity
for
a
boat
it
actually
then
resides
underneath
the
water
line
you
know
what
that
does
it
keeps a
boat
from
being
overturned
it
can
get
hit
by
a
rogue
wave
and
it
doesn't
overturn
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
ballast
for a
Christian
soul
because
if
you're
like
me
usually
a few
times
a week
maybe
a few
times
a day
you
get
accused
you
get
a
fiery
dark
shot
at you
trying
to
make
you
think
that
you
should
be
afraid
of
God
I
did
some
things
in
high
school
that
I
have
such
deep
regrets
over
and
to
this
day
I
know
I'm
51
I
look
like
I'm
23
but
to
this
day
to
this
day
those
things
can
haunt
me
and
you
know
what
I
have
to
say
to
them
I'm
belayed
in
and
Jesus
is
my
ballast
you
can
throw
anything
at
me
but
everything
that
I've
done
has
been
paid
in
full
by
Jesus
doesn't
stick
I'm
going to
keep
chugging
by God's
grace
the doctrine
of justification
is
your
ballast
we
need
to
help
each
other
there
remind
each
other
the
ballast
in
us
through
Christ
boldness
hey
confess
your sins
you've
got
nothing
to be
ashamed
of
battle
cry
the
doctrine
of
justification
you
know
what
it
does
it
makes
you
come
out
swinging
instead
of
letting
your
sin
rule
over
you
like
you're
still
under
your
old
proxy
Adam
you've
been
shifted
to a
new
house
you're
not
under
sin
anymore
at
the
reign
of
sin
has
been
destroyed
that
dominion
has
been
crushed
by
Jesus
and
now
we
are
under
the
reign
of
grace
and
so
when
I
think
of
being
justified
and
I
belay
in
the
morning
and
when
you
think
about
that
too
that
is
your
battle
cry
to
fight
the
sin
that
remains
within
because
the
reality
is
you're
simultaneously
justified
and
sinful
this
side
of
glory
justification
when
I
encounter
a
brother
who's
struggling
with
pornography
do
you
know
what
I
set
out
to
do
to
convince
him
of
his
justification
that's
what
I
set
out
to
do
and
that's
what
Paul
does
in
Romans
3
4
and
5
justifications
laid
out
and
then
Romans
6
he
starts
going
after
sanctification
and
that's
where
we're
going
to
go
for
the next
two weeks
I
needed to
help you
understand
what
we can
pursue
sanctification
justification
is the
one time
act of
God
in which
we're
made
legally
righteous
in
his
sight
sanctification
is the
day
in
day
out
street
fight
of
living
out
that
righteousness
come
for the
next
two
weeks
we're
going
to be
in
Romans
chapter
6
alright
doctrine
defined
doctrine
supported
doctrine
applied
somewhat
Christian
on the
basis
of
Christ's
finished
work
God
has
changed
his
mind
towards
you
because
he
changed
you
belay
on
belay
on
you're
justified
the
doctrine
of
justification
is
health
to
your
soul
non
Christian
if
you
still
fear
God
has
yet
to
change
his
mind
about
you
that
you're
still
without
excuse
you're
still
under
his
wrath
that
you
think
it
up
to
you
to
fix
your
life
he
loves
you
so
much
that
he
sent
his
son
to
die
for
you
to
change
you
so
he
could
change
his
mind
about
you
too
he
offers
you
full
forgiveness
and
acceptance
today
and you
too
can
belay
in
if
you're
a
non
Christian
it's
time
to
leave
the
house
of
Adam
and
come
into
the
house
of
Jesus
by
faith
if
you
confess
with
your
mouth
that
Jesus
is
Lord
and
believe
in
your
heart
that
God
raised
him
from
the
dead
you'll
be
saved
or
you
will
be
justified
pray
with
me
God
in
heaven
would
you
use
my
little
fish
and
loaves
to
do
big
work
in
people's
lives
for
the
glory
of
your
name
amen