The Doctrine of Justification

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.

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

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

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

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