Justification By Grace

Being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24

As soon as a repenting sinner is justified, remember, he is justified for all his sins. Here stands a guilty man. The moment he believes in Christ, he receives his pardon at once and his sins are no longer his. They are cast into the depths of the sea. They are laid upon the shoulders of Christ and they are gone. The man stands a guiltless man in the sight of God, accepted in the beloved. “What?” you say. “Do you mean that literally?” Yes I do. That is the doctrine of justification by faith. Man ceases to be regarded by divine justice as a guilty being. The moment he believes on Christ, his guilt is all taken away. But I will go a step further. The moment the man believes in Christ, he ceases to be guilty in God’s esteem! And what is more, he becomes righteous, he becomes meritorious—the moment when Christ takes his sins he takes Christ’s righteousness, so that when God looks upon the sinner who but an hour ago was dead in sins, He looks upon him with as much love and affection as He ever looked upon His Son! Christ Himself has said it—“As the Father loved Me, so have I loved you.” He loves us as much as His Father loved Him! Can you believe such a doctrine as that? Does it not pass all thought? Well, it is a doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine whereby we must hope to be saved. Can I to any unenlightened person illustrate this thought better? I will give him the parable we have given to us in the prophets—the parable of Joshua the high priest. Joshua comes in, clothed in filthy garments—those filthy garments represent his sins. Take away the filthy garments. That is pardon. Put a miter on his head. Clothe him in royal raiment— make him rich and fair—that is justification. But where do these garments come from? And where do those rags go? Why the rags that Joshua had on go to Christ and the garments put on Joshua are the garments that Christ wore! The sinner and Christ do just what Jonathan and David did. Jonathan put his robes on David. David gave Jonathan his garments—so Christ takes our sins—we take Christ’s righteousness and it is by a glorious substitution and interchange of places, that sinners go free and are justified by His grace! “But,” says one, “no one is justified like that, till he dies.” Believe me, he is—

The moment a sinner believes 

And trusts in his crucified God, 

His pardon at once he receives— 

Salvation in full, through His blood.

 If that young man over there has really believed in Christ this morning, realizing by a spiritual experience what I have attempted to describe, he is as much justified in God’s sight right now as he will be when he stands before the throne of God! Not even the glorified spirits above are more acceptable to God than the poor man below who is once justified by divine grace! It is a perfect washing, it is perfect pardon, perfect imputation—we are fully, freely and wholly accepted through Christ our Lord! Just one more word, here, and then I will leave this matter of justification. Those who are once justified are justified irreversibly. As soon as a sinner takes Christ’s place and Christ takes the sinner’s place, there is no fear of a second change! If Christ has once paid the debt, the debt is paid and it will never be asked for again! If you are pardoned, you are pardoned once and forever! God does not give man a free pardon under His own promise and then afterwards retract it and punish the man—far from God to do such a thing! He says, “I have punished Christ. You may go free.” And after that, we may “rejoice in hope of the glory of God,” that, “being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Justification By Grace, Sermon 126 - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Photo credit: By Randi Hausken from Bærum, Norway (Sunshine after rain - 2) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons