Making It Legal

On what basis can God justify sinners? Or to put it another way, what are the legal grounds on which God can declare that an unrighteous person is righteous?

What things can’t be the legal grounds?

• Our works or our righteousness, even Spirit worked works or works done “in Christ.” Only perfect righteousness or perfect works could provide the basis for God, who always judges according to truth, to declare someone righteous, and believers will never in this life perform any perfect works or be perfectly righteous.
• Our faith. God does not accept faith in place of actual righteousness in declaring a sinner righteous. For one thing, our faith has the same problem our works do. It is never perfect. As Joel Beeke writes “My best believing is always defective. I am always too ungodly even in my faith.” 

What is the only thing that can be—and is—the legal grounds?

• Christ’s righteousness—his “perfect obedience and full satisfaction” counted (or imputed) to the believer. This includes both his bearing the curse of the law for us in his death on the cross and his obedience to all of God’s precepts in our place. It’s the full package deal, everything needed for God to justly declare a sinner to be righteous.

Sunday's Hymn

I Know Whom I Have Believed

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

Refrain

But I know Whom I have believèd,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.

I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.

I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing us of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.

I know not what of good or ill
May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
Before His face I see.

I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.

—Daniel Webster Whittle

I’ve featured quite a bit of choir music lately, so today I’m mixing things up a bit. I grew up in country churches, you know, so this really is down-home music to me.

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Now the Shades of Night Are Gone at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 2, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise at Whatever Is Good
• And Can It Be at Hiraeth
• Heart Aflame - January 10th at The Upward Call
• I Love to Tell the Story at Field Stone Cottage
• Oh How the Grace of God Amazes Me (a hymn written by an African christian and translated into English at Whatever Things

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

My Desktop Photo 86

Photo by Andrew Stark
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