Isn't justification just an excuse to ignore our commitment to Christian morality?

Isn't justification just an excuse to ignore our commitment to Christian morality?

Question (in response to a previous post):

There is a modern tendency to claim to be justified, when sin is still reigning within the heart. Some people tend to say, “Jesus covers my sins: past, present, and future.” Is it really possible to repent of sins that you haven’t committed yet? This kind of mindset is often supported by treating the gospel as a kind of “indulgence” to sin. Like on the bumper stickers that say, “I’m not perfect, just forgiven,” which seems to indicate that forgiveness is just a free pass on the sins of the past and has nothing to do with internal affairs of the heart.

Answer:

If God does not forgive us by His grace alone through Jesus Christ, then all believers are on a highway straight to hell.

God justified a believer because they have chosen to believe in His Son. The moment one is ‘saved’, God imputed the righteousness of Christ upon their account, and their sins are nailed to the cross. This is a positional (legal) standing that God declares over that person. It is a spiritual verdict. Justification does not affect the flesh. When a believer gets ‘saved’, they don’t feel justified. They don’t feel any change. It is just taking God at His Word.

So, what happens after God justifies you?

Paul deals with these issues in Romans 6 and 7. Paul asks in Rom.6:1, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” and in Rom.6:15 “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?” Paul asks these obvious questions (as so many do today), so he can break the carnal way of thinking, and bring one back to faith in the grace of God. In both cases, Paul says, “God forbid!”

Now the question is, WHO is Paul forbidding?

Well, his forbidding in v.1 is not directed to sin,

Not sin, because: Sin was dealt with at the cross. Sin has no more hold on a believer! They are dead to sin. They are now raised to newness of life in Christ’s resurrection. If one is dead to sin, how can one serve it any longer? The forbid is not to sin, as it is powerless over a believer who now has the righteousness of Christ imputed to them. The forbid is directed to the believer who now has a responsibility, by the mercies of God, to live to Christ.

In verse 4 of chapter 6, Paul says of the believer, “even so we also should walk in newness of life”, and in verse 6 he says, “that henceforth we should not serve sin”, and in verses 10–12 he says, “but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God, so reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”

A believer in Christ has a reasonable service to God, (not forced, but willingly) to grow in the knowledge of His Word, and to have Christ formed within him. The Word will teach him that sin has consequences; harm to the flesh, separation from God, loss of reward at judgement. Sin in the flesh will never be eradicated, but it can be curbed as that believer grows in Christ. However, that sin is powerless to affect their justification, because the verdict is based on Christ’s righteousness, not their sins.

Paul's forbidding in v.15 is also not directed to law,

Not law, because: The law is holy and good (Rom.7:12). However, through the law is the knowledge of sin, hence, the law gives sin its power. Paul says, “the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death”. Paul did not forbid the law, but forbid the believer from running to the law in order to serve God.

The law was never intended to help believers to serve God. No! It was intended to show men their depraved state and slavery to sin. It was intended to show them their need for a Saviour. Paul tells us in 4 of chapter 7 that we are “dead to the law by the body of Christ”. In verse 6 he says, “we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter”. Since the flesh is sold to sin, all that the law can do is highlight sin and hold one captive to its power, bringing condemnation and guilt.

How do we respond then? By learning the Word and walking by the knowledge of the Word. The Word will bring forth an increasing measure of the fruit of the Spirit, to which there is no law! Paul warns us not to go under the law again. Speaking of the law, Paul says in Gal.2:18, “For if I build again the things which I destroyed [the law], I make myself a transgressor”. The law makes one a transgressor. However, in verse 19 Paul says, “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God”.

In Conclusion:

The Corinthian letters show us what happens when believers live in the flesh. Their justification is sure, Paul calls the Corinthians, ‘saints’, but they live in death to spiritual reward and liberty due to being slaves to sin. The Galatian letter shows us what happens when believers live under the law. They are actually worse than the Corinthians as they bring about such condemnation upon themselves, something that the Corinthians did not experience. As much as sinning brings about a loss or liberty and reward, the same happens when you put yourself under the law, trying to use the law to serve and honour God. It does NOT work!

So, justification has absolutely nothing to do with us. It is a work of God, not men. It is found in the completed cross work of Christ, 2000-years ago, and God declares justification to a person when they respond to the gospel of Christ, believing in Jesus for their salvation.

It has nothing to do with sin, since that is already defeated at the cross. It has nothing to do with trying to live righteous by the law, since the law brings death and condemnation. It has nothing to do with repentance, since God has already forgiven us when we believe in Christ. It has nothing to do with one's works, past, present, or future, since it is Christ’s work that justifies us. The only condition for justification, is believing in Jesus Christ. Thereafter, one serves God willingly, in the newness of the spirit, which is the increasing knowledge of His Word within us, and the blessed assurance that His grace through Christ is abundantly more than your limitations and weaknesses while in this flesh.