Justification vs. Sanctification – He Pursues

7.13.25

Scripture: Romans 4:4-5

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness…

Faith is the means in which we receive justification.

Sanctification only takes place from the legal ruling of justification. In God’s courtroom, Christ fulfilled the punishment of guilt and we are declared innocent. We have been acquitted of all charges due to our guilt and our now viewed as innocent.

This verdict is only applied when we, the guilty party, confess our inability to ever earn or achieve innocence on our own, and ask Christ to stand in our place.

Our challenge is to actually believe it in real time… again and again and again. Not that we are brought to court by God again and again. Not that we need acquittal again; this was completed once and for all time. However, we find ourselves in our own self-imposed courtroom…applying a guilty verdict to that which has been acquitted.

It is natural, in a way, and also antithetical to how we live and function in the courtroom of life and the scales of justice. We are a merit-based society and rightfully so in areas such as business and education.

Grace is alien to our nature. It is a strange phenomenon. It goes against everything we stand for and when mixed with our sinful nature, we can actually fight against it.

Perhaps this is why justification and grace and forgiveness is discussed so frequently in scripture because we wonder away from it at every turn. Particularly when seeking sanctification applied to our daily actions, we can so easily forget that sanctification does not happen without justification which is an action that has taken place outside of me. So then, an action taken outside of me, which is Christ’s redeeming work, is now the status of who I am inside, being justified, and becomes the fuel for the actions by me - sanctification… all through the help of the Holy Spirit.

How did we get here?...

Five main covenants in scripture all stemming from the act of grace in the garden

1.    Noahic Covenant

2.    Abrahamic Covenant

3.    Mosaic Covenant

4.    Davidic Covenant

5.    Christ’s Covenant

Paradise – Genesis 2:7-15; 2:15-25

The Fall – Genesis 3:1-7

Relentless Pursuit – Genesis 3:8-11; 21

Pursuit

·      Why does God pursue us when He knows we’ll fail Him?... why does He make covenant with us when he knows we are going to break it?

·      Protoevangelium: Genesis 3:15

·      God is always pursuing us, even when we fail

·      Genesis 3:21

o  Grace was enacted in the garden; God could have ended the human race then

o  Mans attempt at covering (3:7) vs. God’s (3:21)

§ Inadequate vs. Adequate

§ Taking matters into our hands vs. receiving God’s grace

§ Presumably a shedding of animal blood

·      Hebrews 9:22 without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins

§ Reflective of man’s continuous failed attempts at righteousness vs. God’s perfect plan of grace that would foreshadow Jesus’s atoning sacrifice for our sins

·      Describes God’s plan for sin:

o  Hosea 6:1-7

o  1 Corinthians 15:21-27; Romans 5:12-21

o  Galatians 3:10-14

·      Describes God’s heart towards sin:

o  Hosea 11:7-9 (God’s recoiled heart; compassion grows warm and tender ESV)

o  John 21:17 (Jesus pursues Peter)