Musings of a Bystander

The second principle from the Reformed University Ministries campus ministry conference was that "justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ."

I thought I might be able to cover this in one post. Silly me. I'll simply try to introduce the topic now.

Here's how they outlined this second principle to be understood and committed to:

1. Justification is God's declaring the believer forgiven of all his sins on the basis of Christ's bearing the guilt and penalty of his sins on the cross.
2. Justification is God's declaring the believer righteous on the basis of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to him.
3. Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone.
4. A proper understanding of justification leads to:
• A Christian's continual acknowledgment that his acceptance by God is based totally on the work of Christ.
• A Christian's understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience.
• A Christian's knowledge that sanctification necessarily flows from justification.

That's a little more detailed than "just as if I never sinned."

There are two quotes that I love in connection with this doctrine:

So, making a happy change with us, He took upon Himself our sinful person, and gave unto us His innocent and victorious Person; wherewith we being now clothed are freed from the curse of the law.

From Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians

and

But when our iniquity was fulfilled and it had become fully manifest, that its reward of punishment and death waited for it, and the time came which God had appointed to manifest henceforth his kindliness and power (O the excellence of the kindness and love of God!) he did not hate us nor reject us nor remember us for evil, but was long-suffering, endured us, himself in pity took our sin, himself gave his own Son as ransom for us, the Holy for the wicked, the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else could cover our sins but his righteousness? In whom was it possible for us, in our wickedness and impiety, to be made just, except in the son of God alone? O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits, that the wickedness of many should be concealed in the one righteous, and the righteousness of the one should make righteous many wicked!

From the Epistle to Diognetus, 2nd/3rd century

Justification is at the heart of Reformed theology - not election, not predestination, not the five points of Calvinism (TULIP). It was emphasized as the heart of campus ministry, and so also it is the heart of church planting. The good news of the Gospel is this happy change, this sweet exchange, and so it should be front and center.

Labels: Calvinism, Church History, Church Planting, RUF

Posted by Martin on Friday, October 20, 2006 at 7:10 AM | Permalink