Justification - United Methodist Distinctives

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Last week I left you with the visual of this glass, filled with colored water representing the sin that stains our lives. Like the glass, we’re helpless to do anything about the color of the water that’s already there.

I also left you with the picture from Revelation 3:20 of Jesus standing at the door, knocking.

The first picture isn’t very comforting – it presents a rather bleak image. In fact, when I was in Russia, I had a conversation around a glass of Pepsi. My friend likened himself to the glass, saying, "I’d like to come to Jesus, but my life is like this glass – full of junk, and dirty and stained. I need to clean it up before I could come to Jesus." He was onto something, but, as I stated before, there’s nothing the glass can do. All the good deeds we can do are just like adding more water to what’s already stained.

God’s Prevenient Grace goes before us, calls us, shows us that by ourselves we cannot do anything, but that we need someone to intercede on our behalf.

This is where the picture of Jesus, standing at the door, knocking, comes in. He has already paid the price for your sin and guilt, and he’s asking if you want the forgiveness and victory that goes along with the price He paid.

When He comes in, he cleans house. Today’s scripture reminds us that this is Christ’s work, not our own. He takes our tainted lives, cleans them out – in fact, taking our sins upon Himself – and fills us with new, Living Water.

This is justification. An easy way to remember what "justification" means is that through Jesus Christ, we are made "just as if we’d never sinned."

Martin Luther called the doctrine of justification the "article by which the church stands or falls."

If it’s as easy as that, just opening the door to Jesus Christ, why doesn’t everyone just do it? Well, on one hand it is that simple, but on another hand it’s not. We get the chance to look out the door before we open it. He doesn’t trick us or sneak in, but instead waits until we ask him in.
Our invitation to Him includes our admission that we can’t do it on our own – that we’re guilty of sin and that, apart from God’s mercy, we’re stuck. Romans 6:23 explains it well: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

That gift leads to a real change – from sinner to clean. The passage from Romans has often been interpreted simply as dealing with the future – that justification means we’re delivered from God’s wrath in the final judgment. While this is true, it is only one aspect of justification. The other side of justification is that it is a present reality.

This has implications for us. You see, if we are presently justified, then we necessarily will behave ourselves as those who are justified. This doesn’t mean that we’re automatically free from the earthly consequences of sins we committed before we were saved. We often see someone "get faith" while they are incarcerated, but the "faith" they "got" was only for the sake of the parole board and they really just want out of the consequences of their actions. No, and some of the elements involved in opening the door to Jesus Christ are confession of our sins, requesting God’s mercy, ceasing from sin, forgiving others, and doing good works.

When we are justified, certain actions are required of us. John Wesley put it this way: we are required to act with outward expressions of our inward contrition and grace, including ceasing from evil, doing good, using the ordinances of God, and obeying God.

I find it interesting to read how John Wesley defined "Ceasing from evil" – he included the following: taking God’s name in vain, profaning the Sabbath, drunkenness, fighting, uncharitable conversation, and laying up treasures on earth. "Doing good" included works of mercy such as clothing the naked, entertaining the stranger, and visiting the sick and the imprisoned. "Using the ordinances of God" includes prayer, reading the Bible, and receiving the Lord’s Supper. He also expected that Christians would participate in the body of the church, because this is what helps us grow in grace.

Those actions do not cause us to be justified, but they flow from justification. Because we have been made clean, we behave ourselves as cleansed people would. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Ephesis, For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.