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All right, day five. We're going to talk about justification by faith. We'll pick it up in verse 15. Paul says, We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. What he's saying here is that we had a head start. We had the prophets, we were raised in the synagogue, we had the Bible. Like we, if anybody should know about putting their faith in God, we should know best. He says, We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For though the law for through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. So, what does justified by faith mean? Well, here's the deal. You and I were created by God for God, as image bearers of Him. The very first man, Adam, receives the breath of God, the rule of God. He opens up his eyes and he is face to face with his creator, and that's what every single one of us were created for. Well, sin enters the world and we inherit that sin nature. And the problem of sin is not that it's just wrong and bad. The problem of sin is that it kills, it leads to death. And sin fractures our relationship with God. And because God is just, all sin must be paid for. Let me say that again. Because God is just, all sin must be paid for. That a just God could not overlook sin any more than a just judge could overlook a crime. Can you imagine if somebody murdered your wife and then you were in the court of law and the judge looks at this murderer and says, you know what? Nobody's perfect. Don't worry about it. You would stand up and scream at that judge, you were unfit to sit in that seat of judgment. You were an unjust judge. Well, God is a just judge, and because he is just, all sin must be paid for. Now there's two different ways that our sins could be paid for. When we sin against an everlasting God, it requires an eternal punishment. So you can either self-atone, that means you pay for your own sin. That means at the day of judgment, you will be separated from God forever and ever and ever, we call that hell, or you could take the substitutionary atonement, that you could receive what Christ has done on your behalf. So because God is just, all of a sudden must be paid for. Because God is merciful, God delayed the payment. You see, Romans 6 23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And you may ask then, well, how come I'm not dead? Because I have sinned. Well, the reason is because God is merciful. Because God is merciful, God delayed the payment. And because God is gracious, he made the payment on our behalf. That Jesus is the just and the justifier. If you want to do some homework, you could read Romans chapter 3 and it describes all this. And so for anyone who believes that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, the Bible says that you were saved. And it doesn't simply mean believe that, it means believe in or trust in. The Greek word is pestuo. It means to put your faith in Jesus, to trust in Jesus. And that is how you're justified. And what it means to be justified before God, theologically, this breaks down a little bit, but it'll just help remember it. If you were justified, that means you have put your faith in Christ and forgot from God's point of view, it's just as if I'd never sinned. And the only reason that works is because what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5 21, that God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of Christ. And so theologians call this double imputation, that when you put your faith in Jesus, you are justified by faith. When you trust that when Christ died on the cross, that counted for me, then all of your sins, all of your record or debt is imputed or credited to Christ on the cross. And he puts that record of debt to death and nails it to the cross. And all of Christ's righteousness, not only his right activity, but more importantly, his right standing before God is credited or counted to you. Now, it's not that we do a good job and earn it because we were dead. But salvation means that we receive the free gift of salvation by grace through faith and not by works. Because if it was works of the law, no one would be justified. That we are saved, we are redeemed, we are cleansed, we are adopted, we are justified by the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.