Rom 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” ESV

How many times I’ve read this verse and said, “I’ve got it … I am the spiritual seed of Abraham.” And how many times have I missed the deeper significance of what Paul put forth for us to contemplate. That’s where I was once again last week in studying Paul’s letter when I came upon something that Barnhouse said:

“Let it be said once again that there is no virtue or merit in faith. Trust is man’s answer to God’s truth. Faith is the condition, not the ground of salvation. God is the One whom we trust, and it is His free grace that warrants and elicits our confidence.”

That got me to thinking about being “justified” in the eyes of God and that led me to something that Thomas Bradbury wrote. He was one of the English Separatists who were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England. He pondered the question … “Why are we justified, why are our past sins put on Jesus? His answer was that our believing faith is accepting God’s promise as truth and therefore God accepts our belief as truth.”

He then addressed the “doctrine of justification” by putting together eight verses that show the phases of justification. What he wrote is an excellent summary of God’s plan and what has gone into making our justification a reality. Take a few minutes and meditate on these eight verses.

1. We are justified in the sovereignty of God … Rom 8:33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ESV
2. We are justified without a cause in us by His Grace …  Rom 3:24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ESV
3. We are justified by the blood of Christ … Rom 5:9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ESV
4. We are justified by Christ’s obedience … Rom 5:19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. ESV
5. We are justified by the Jesus resurrection … Rom 4:25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. ESV
6. We are justified by the work of the Holy Spirit … 1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. ESV
7. We are justified by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ … Gal 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. ESV
8. The evidence of our justification is found in our works … James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ESV

What an amazing God we serve. His perfect plan to redeem sinful man and stand Him before the throne of God, fully justified as a result of his faith in believing the promise of God. Yes … trust is man’s answer to God’s truth and the result is evidenced in the resulting fruit of his work.