Justification is an act of God’s free
grace wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight
only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone
(Westminster Shorter Catechism).
This definition of justification is
exactly what our world needs even though they may not yet realize it.
Wilfred McClay wrote an article in The Hedgehog Review called The Strange Persistence of Guilt, in
which he says that religion in modern society is in decline, yet the feeling of
guilt remains.
McClay says, “Those of us living in the
developed countries of the West find ourselves in the tightening grip of a
paradox, one whose shape and character have so far largely eluded our
understanding. It is the strange persistence of guilt as a psychological force
in modern life. If anything, the word persistence understates
the matter. Guilt has not merely lingered. It has grown, even metastasized,
into an ever more powerful and pervasive element in the life of the
contemporary West, even as the rich language formerly used to define it has
withered and faded from discourse, and the means of containing its effects, let
alone obtaining relief from it, have become ever more elusive.”
Nietzsche theorized that the “death” of
God would show a “decline in the consciousness of human debt.” Sigmund Freud said that guilt was the biggest
problem in the development of society and he tried hard to minimize it and to relieve
his patients of the guilt they felt for the many problems in the world.
McClay also talked about the infinite
extensibility of guilt and said with increased power comes increased
responsibility and this responsibility leads to guilt. He said, “Whatever donation I make to a
charitable organization, it can never be as much as I could have given. I can never diminish my carbon footprint enough,
or give to the poor enough. … Colonialism, slavery, structural poverty, water
pollution, deforestation — there’s an endless list of items for which you and I
can take the rap.”
The news covers suffering around the
world and it seems as if we live in the hardest times ever. But actually, the opposite is true. We live in the most peaceful times in the
history of our planet now without much war and conflict as compared to times
past, not to mention the comforts we enjoy today such as being able to turn on
a water faucet instead of having to walk ten miles a day to get water to keep
your family alive.
Kevin DeYoung says that before we didn’t
hear much about suffering in other parts of the world but today we live in an
interconnected world in which we know all
about the volcano, tornado, starvation, hurricane, earthquake, homicide,
traffic accident, plane crash, shooting spree, as well as acts of terrorism,
etc. etc.
McClay referred to a concept called “stolen
suffering” in which people make up stories of personal suffering to obtain the
honor and prestige that our society gives to those that have suffered
greatly. DeYoung said, “Our heroes are
the ones who hurt the most.” Politicians
try to jump on the bandwagon of suffering.
Take our military for example.
When we recognize them, it is more for suffering they endured than for the
battles they have won. McClay said that being
a victim of suffering or identifying with these victims is a way to discharge and
release the great guilt that we feel. We
also release this guilt by being able to point the finger at “oppressors” and
pronounce them guilty while proudly proclaiming ourselves as innocent.
We also face increasing judgment from
others in our modern society about the food we eat—is it healthy, organic, did
the chicken grow up in a cage, was it injected with hormones, did it have
access to a gym and fine poetry, etc. We
are also judged by the clothes we wear, where our kids go to school, if we
homeschool, if we recycle, having too many kids or not enough kids, nursing vs.
using formula, if we take our kids to the right doctors, if we have our kids
taking piano lessons, soccer, ballet, and an endless number of societal
pressures and expectations. Environmentalism
has become a “surrogate religion,” argues DeYoung, in an attempt to atone for
our sins of spoiling the earth and for our sins of consumption.
We in the western culture have also
accumulated centuries of guilt through all of the “isms” and phobias: colonialism,
imperialism, capitalism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, etc. We always have this burden of not doing
enough and the pressure of trying to meet all of society’s demands and of
keeping up with the Joneses on Facebook.
Maclay says, “Notwithstanding all claims
about our living in a post-Christian world devoid of censorious public morality,
we in fact live in a world that carries an enormous and growing burden of guilt
and yearns, even sometimes demands to be free of it.”
If guilt is the problem, then justification
is its answer: an act of God’s free grace wherein He pardons all our sins and
accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ
imputed to us and received by faith alone (Westminster Shorter Catechism). This idea of justification is precisely what our
guilt-ridden world needs! “It is the
cure for the disease they don’t even know they have,” says DeYoung.
Three Reasons why this reformation
understanding of the good news is what we have been waiting for:
1. It is personal. If all of our offenses are ultimately against
God, then we know where to turn for salvation.
The secular world is unsure of where to turn for relief as we cannot measure
our “rightness” in the world subjectively by Facebook likes or retweets.
One of the main points of the book, Making Gay Okay, is that victory for gay
rights must be total and complete. It cannot
have any rivals because the mere tolerance of opposing viewpoints undermines
the quest for moral legitimacy. All opposing
viewpoints are to be sidelined or silenced to the cultural edges of the
universe. Romans chapter 1 and 2 says
that we all have a conscience and a knowledge of the truth but we exchange that
truth for a lie and suppress that truth in unrighteousness.
DeYoung told a story of working with
addicts and the guilt, shame, and failure they all felt for hurting and letting
others down with their actions. Those
people were told that the drugs were the problem and that they were not to
blame, but they did not believe that. DeYoung
says, “Until we have a God that we sin against, we have no God that can pardon
us,” and that the problem we have today is “an abiding sense of guilt for which
there is no effective atonement and no coherent plan of redemption.”
2.
We need the doctrine of justification because it is gracious. The Westminster definition of justification
begins and ends with mercy. DeYoung
says, “The world’s way to be justified is by strenuous effort exacting asceticism,”
and we can never do enough. He says, “If
you spend any time on social media, you know how it deals with offenses:
through a potent combination of abject humiliation, public ridicule, and
demands for immediate retribution. And there
is no real forgiveness.” There is no
removal of our mistakes, only a “fearful and permanent marking of our
iniquities.” There is no grace from
social media, only from God.
3.
We need the doctrine of justification because it is forensic, or a “legal
declaration of innocence based on the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.” Romans 4:25 says, “Christ was delivered up
for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Why the reference to Christ being
raised? Christ’s resurrection is “the
loud declaration that justice has been satisfied.”
DeYoung makes this point in light of the
rebellion of modern culture in being subject to a sovereign God: “We are saved
not by the removal of justice but by the satisfaction of it.” Many people think we are saved because God
loved us so much and that He says, “Your sins?
Forget about it,” and does not make a big deal about sin. Sin is a huge
deal to a righteous and just God and the gospel is about the satisfaction of
God’s justice by the propitiation of Christ to satisfy the wrath of God against
us.
Charles Hodge said, “Our sins were the
judicial ground of the sufferings of Christ, so that they were a satisfaction
of justice and His righteousness is the judicial ground of our acceptance with
God so that our pardon is an act of justice.”
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” DeYoung remarks that, “Shouldn’t that verse
say He should be faithful and merciful, faithful and loving, faithful and gracious? But no, it says He is faithful and just.
God would be unjust if He did not pardon those who belong to Christ. If those sins have been paid for then, “There
is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We have been justified because the justice of
God has been satisfied by the sacrifice of Christ.
We cannot wash away guilt with our man-made
devices of strenuous effort or positive self-talk. DeYoung says, “Guilt is an objective reality and
as such it must be dealt with by an objective satisfaction,” and that “Justice
is shot through the entire plan of redemption.
People go to hell because God is just.
People go to heaven because God is just.”
Because our sins were imputed to, ascribed
to, and credited to Christ, He deserved to die and…because His righteousness is
imputed to us, we deserve to live! We are
not forgiven because God waved His magic wand and decided to overlook our
sin. He demands satisfaction and justice
for all our sins. DeYoung says, “And this
is the good news, it has been paid for. The resurrection of the crucified Son of Man tells
us that the demands of justice have been met.”
The resurrection is the loud declaration that Jesus is enough to atone
for our sins and to give us the righteousness and holiness of Christ so that we
would be justified before a holy and righteous God in heaven.
There is therefore no condemnation, no guilt, and no shame for those who are in Christ Jesus and the world needs to hear it even though they don’t know it.
It has been a while since I last posted. I haven't fallen off the deep end, I still listen to sermons and read the Word but the writing I have been doing of late has been in working on the What Is the Gospel? series and expanding that and using it to teach my own children the truth of the gospel.
