“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24, NASB)

The True Nature Of Man

In today’s Emergent Gnostic new evangelical Purpose Driven “it’s all about me” religion it isn’t fashionable to say so but the Bible teaches that prior to our being born again we are slaves to our sinful human nature. And as this man-centered form of self-worship continues to permeate and poison our Lord’s Church we need to help people come to understand that apart from Christ we really aren’t the delightful little creatures we like to think we are. I’ve pointed this out before, but here’s what Christ Jesus of Nazareth, our Creator, said about man – “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?” (Matthew 7:11).

Did you get that? Jesus says – “though you are evil.” The Lord then instructs us through His Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 that without the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, despite what teachers of counterfeit Christianity like Rick Warren and Living Spiritual Teacher Richard Foster and Joel Osteen tell us, the truth remains that our basic nature is selfishness because our minds are set on the flesh, or the carnal, it is set upon ourselves and what we want. In point of absolute fact, the Scripture even says – the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s Law, nor can it do so (Romans 8:7).

In commenting on this verse, the great Churhc Reformer John Calvin put it this way, “the will of man is in all things opposed to [God’s] will; for, as much as what is crooked differs from what is straight, so much must be the difference between us and God.” Now here is some more truth with “certitude” in regard to mankind’s true sinful nature; look at what Jesus tells us here – “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside” (Mark 7:21-23). And Paul once again – “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature...What a wretched man I am!” (Romans 8:18, 24). Do you still think we ought to “go within” to find God as the false prohets of contemplative spirituality teach?

Because the Ecumenical Church of Deceit (ECoD), following along in the filthy footsteps of the apostate Church of Rome her man-pleasing mother, does not preach this people never get to face the ultimate questions of this fleeting vapor of a life: How can a man, under the just condemnation of the LORD Almighty and under the penalty of death possibly be made righteous before a holy God? And the second is like it: Is there anything we can possibly do to earn our way to Heaven? To this latter question the true Church of Jesus Christ must answer absolutely and categorically: No! So this will then lead us then into the doctrine of justification.

The Heart Of The Gospel

I will only skim the surface here, but if you have this doctrine wrong, and it was the pivotal doctrine of the Protestant Reformation, then you are still on your way to Hell. Men and women I exhort you, don’t let the Brian McLaren’s and the Doug Pagitts cause you to gloss over this because it is not a small matter, nor is it some little side debate. O no, for this is the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the very reason He came into the world in the first place. We all know the favorite verse of the compromisers of the ECoD – “For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”(John 3:16).

However, “the rest of the story” as a famous radio commentator was fond of saying, is found as we read the next two verses – For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God’s One and Only Son. I pray you can see here that the unbeliever is already condemned to spiritual death in conscious torment in a literal place Jesus of Nazareth Himself called Hell. And here is John 3:36 – Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him or abideth on him as the KJV reads.

The horrible situation described in these verses of Scripture, which save for the last verse were spoken by the Master, tells us that mankind is hopelessly doomed apart from Christ. The absolute Truth is that unless you personally have been born again by placing your complete trust in the Lord through personal faith then you are condemned already for God’s wrath remains on you. And so the Apostle Paul will first ask the pertinent question, and then share the Good News with us – “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).

Justification Defined

And the doctrine of justification, so tragically obscured in today’s watered down and fetid American Church, speaks to what happens because Jesus rescued us from death and Hell. It is my prayer that this short missive will give you a little working knowledge of this most critical subject. Here is a good brief definition of what the historic orthodox Christian Church means by justification. Dr. Charles Hodge (1797-1878), the esteemed professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary writes:

Justification is defined in the Westminster Catechism, “An act of God’s free grace, wherein He pardoned all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone” (Systematic Theology, Vol. III, 114).

And further, Dr. Wayne Grudem research professor of Bible and theology at Phoenix Seminary adds:

[The doctrine of justification] was the heart of the difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism at the Reformation. Protestantism since the time of Martin Luther has insisted that justification does not change us internally and it is not a declaration based in any way on any goodness that we have in our selves (Systematic Theology, 727).

As simply as it can be stated: the Bible teaches that justification happens the nanosecond a human being places his faith in Christ. And it is the act whereby God, as the righteous Judge declares a sinner absolved of his sins. based solely on the merit of the finished work on the Cross by Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Perhaps the best place for you to see that mankind has no reason to expect anything but death due to his sinful nature–no matter what you ever do in this life apart from Christ–is Romans 1:18 through 3:20. Then from Romans 3:21 all the way through chapter 6 you will see that justification is a free gift from God, simply because He chose to give it, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it.

This is summed up in the following classic passage of God’s Word – For it is by grace – [being justified by God’s unmerited favor] – that you have been saved – [written in the past tense; it’s already happened for the true believer] – through faith – and this is not from yourselves – [leaving aside any Calvin-Arminian debate, here is the absolute sovereignty of God] – this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - [can you see, you didn’t do anything, the Lord did it all–and if you truly are a Christian–you would rejoice in this] – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works – [which come after you are justified, we do works because we have been saved] – which God prepared in advance - [again, forget the debate, in some way God had this decided before you were even born] – God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).

The Spiritual Prison Of This World

Let me begin to sum this up with an illustration I believe the Lord gave me. Perhaps we might picture the doctrine of justification like this. Before a person is saved he is living in the huge prison cell that the god of this age has erected here in this world. And it is your own sinful human nature that dooms you to a life of sin. So there you are locked in this prison cell of sin, with no way to escape on your own, a spiritual Alcatraz if you will. Now the only way you can ever be let out of this cell is if you are perfectly righteous, in other words, you must be completely sinless. Then, as soon as you place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the LORD God Almighty suddenly pounds the gavel on His bench and declares: “This one is righteous.” You are literally born again and that cell door swings open to set you free as an adopted child of the one true and living God.

We might refer to this as part A of salvation. Through no merit of your own, the LORD God Almighty simply declares you innocent. The part B of this equation, which is the doctrine of sanctification, is how you then live out your new life as a free man in Christ. Though you are not actually free, as you now belong to your Lord – Do you not know that your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). So let’s not confuse the issue with part B right now, which is specifically what the Roman Catholic Church, that Dr. John MacArthur rightly calls “a front for the kingdom of Satan,” does.

Beloved of God, as we see enemy forces of the ECoD penetrating the Body of Christ like the Purpose Driven religion where they teach that a man can even be saved and not know it, through the Emergent “Christian” mystics who say that supposedly God already lives within all mankind, and the alleged “little gods” speaking their Word of Faith message, you’ll note that each of these groups are teaching what is also consistent with apostate Rome. But let us never forget that with this crucial doctrine of justification–part A–we are speaking of how are we set free from that dank prison cell of our spiritual Alcatraz. How through God’s incredible love and mercy we are declared innocent, and pardoned from our guilt by God’s grace alone; through faith alone; in the finished work of Christ alone.