I’m Either Justified by Christ or Self-Justifying

I watch a lot of crime shows and shows about police officers, lawyers, and such, and those who commit crimes often have a justification for their crime. Sometimes the officers and lawyers are sympathetic, but much of the time, the punishment fits the crime. In the same way, there are two categories of people in the world: those who are justified, and those who self-justify. The first category are justified, not in themselves, but in the finished work of Christ. They have no grounds or basis to stand before God and claim innocence, but Jesus Christ took died for their sin, was buried, and rose on the third day; God no longer sees their sin, He sees His Son who died for it!  Everyone else, however, is either living in lawlessness or legalism, attempting to justify themselves for the rebellion they’ve committed against God.

Those of lawlessness accuse God (if they acknowledge Him at all) of being unfair, a tyrant who makes, in their justification, arbitrary rules and punishes those who don’t follow them. Ironically, many of them would call the police if they feel they had been the violated, and many DO use a form of morality to justify their causes. On the other hand, those who fall in to the snare of legalism use rule following to show a moral high ground. They say “I do everything right, and even if I don’t, I’m not as bad as that person over there.” They use adherence to rules, laws and traditions as the basis of their justification. Whether in lawlessness or legalism, it is all self-justifying, and when we all, someday, stand before the Righteous Judge, none of it will hold up in court.

Loved ones, before a Holy and Mighty God, the One who established the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth in wisdom, I have no justification. I am guilty. I am a rebel who has broken His laws and righteous requirements, and, by default, I deserve death. But His mercy and Grace is awesome. He saw fit to lay on Jesus Christ, His Son, my iniquity, my lawlessness, and my punishment. On the Cross, Jesus took the wrath reserved for me upon Himself. He died, was buried, and rose from death on the third day, showing that I could live in Him now, but be raised up again on the last day with Him. Because Christ lives, I have a hope and a future that I can’t claim on my own. I cannot claim credit, apart from putting Him to death, and yet He saw fit to pardon me! So our only options, at this point, surrender to Christ, or continued self-justification. Choose wisely!

Romans 6

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self[a] was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.