Justification – The Enemy of Justification

Steve Corley

 

Given in Kingsport on 3-26-2022

Given in London/Corbin and Knoxville on 4-2-2022

Given in Roanoke on 4-9-2022

 

The two little brothers and their sister take turns with their hands in the cookie jar when their mother is not looking.  She comes back and finds most of the cookies gone.  She confronts the children – who was the guilty party?  They all point at one another.  They all testify against one another.  The mother decides to punish all of them.  Then all of them eventually admit taking cookies but they still blame one another for being the ringleader.  “I wouldn’t have taken any cookies except that he said ‘why not take some?’”  “Well I wouldn’t have taken any except that she told me how good they tasted when she took one!”  And on and on goes the circle of finger-pointing.

It is a bit funny to us when children do this.  But it is not funny to God – and should not be to us – when we adults do the same thing.  Go all the way back to Adam (Gen. 3:12).  What did he tell God when God confronted him?  “The woman whom You gave me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”  How about Eve?  “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”  Our attempts to justify our sins – to put the blame on someone else or something else outside our own minds – go back to the very beginning.  This attitude has been with us ever since then, and is still with us today.  In this sermon I would like to show why justifying our own sins is totally corrosive to our proper relationship with God and keeps us from taking even the first step (repentance – cf. Heb. 6:1) toward having ourselves justified by Christ.  We might title the sermon “Justification – the Enemy of Justification.”

What is justification?  The New Testament Greek verb meaning “to justify” is δικαιόω (“dikaioo,” Strong’s #1344), which can also be translated as “to render innocent.”  A noun form translated as “justification” is δικαίωσις (“dikaiosis,” Strong’s #1347), which can alternatively be translated as “acquittal.”  When we are justified we are declared innocent of sins which we have previously committed.  This justification occurs through the grace of God the Father (Titus 3:7) through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:9) which we will symbolically consume at the Passover.  Gal. 2:16 and other Scriptures tell us that we are justified by faith “of Christ” (KJV) or “in Christ” (NKJV).  Works also play a part in that they demonstrate our faith (James 2:14-26).  (There has been much debate in the past – even within God’s Church – as to whether the proper translation of πίστις Χριστοῦ (“pistis Christou”) should be “faith of Christ” or “faith in Christ.”  I believe, based on comparison with other Scriptures, that both translations are correct and show different aspects of the truth – another example of the principle that the Bible is like a hologram.  A detailed exploration of both of these aspects of justification by faith – as well as their connection with works – could be the subject of another sermon, perhaps before Passover next year.)

But if we attempt to justify ourselves – to declare ourselves innocent when we are guilty, to say that we have not sinned when we have sinned, or to say we have sinned but blame not ourselves but some other person or outside force – we are not meeting the first condition for the true justification which Christ offers us.  When we try to justify our sins – to excuse ourselves, blame others for them, or otherwise try to minimize our own guilt  – then we are not repenting of our sins and are not meeting the conditions for Christ to forgive our past sins and thereby to justify us through the application of His sacrifice (1 John 1:8-10). We are guilty – we are not justified – until we are forgiven.  To be forgiven – to be released from the penalty of the second death through Christ who paid the penalty through His first death – we must first acknowledge our sins and repent.  We cannot repent of a sin which we say we have not committed, or for which we externalize blame.

We are approaching Passover and are commanded to examine ourselves before the day arrives (1 Cor. 11:27-29).  As we examine ourselves before the Passover we must always acknowledge our own guilt and never attempt to blame our sins on other persons, on the devil, or on circumstances.  If we try to externalize the blame we are not truly confessing our sins – we are not showing repentance and we risk taking the Passover unworthily – ἀναξίως (“anaxios,” Strong’s #371). 

Here are a number of Biblical examples.  Did the devil make Eve sin?  No.  He tempted her but it was her responsibility to say no.  She was the one who took the fruit voluntarily.  Satan was not the one guilty of Eve’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit – even though she tried to blame him.  Eve herself was guilty of that sin.  Satan, on the other hand, was guilty of a separate sin – the sin of tempting Eve to commit the sin which she then committed.  It is true that Eve probably would not have committed the sin had Satan not tempted her, but such did not absolve her of her responsibility for her own sin.  Satan did not force her to eat the fruit.  The two distinct sins – Eve’s and Satan’s – should not be confused or conflated.  The example of Eve’s sin would be analogous to a criminal court case in which a “mitigating factor” was present – such as the example of a manslaughter case where the victim initiated the argument and slapped the killer before the homicide occurred.  The victim’s actions, however, certainly did not justify the killing and the criminal remains at fault.

Did Eve then force the fruit into Adam’s mouth?  I don’t think so.  When Eve went the wrong way did Adam then have to follow her?  Adam could not be blamed or held accountable for Eve’s eating the fruit (though it would have been his responsibility to warn her if he was with her at the time). However, he did bear the accountability for choosing to follow her and put the fruit into his own mouth.  He knew better than to do so – unlike Eve, Adam knew that what Satan said was wrong (1 Tim. 2:14).  But Adam lacked the character to say “sin stops here” and he foolishly followed his wife into sin – probably out of a desire to preserve “family harmony.”  (Sounds similar to what happened much later when Solomon’s wives succeeded in tempting him to worship their pagan gods!)  (It is of course true that Eve committed not only the sin of eating the forbidden fruit herself – but also the additional sin of tempting Adam to do so.)  And when God confronted both of them, were they each individually willing to say, “I was tempted.  It was my responsibility to resist.  I did not.  I failed this test.  I accept blame.  I repent.  I beg forgiveness.?”  The Bible gives no indication that they ever were.

(By the way – note the penalty that God told Adam and Eve that they would suffer if they ate the forbidden fruit.  They would die on the same day that they ate it (Gen. 2:17).  But aren’t we told in Gen. 5:5 that Adam lived 930 years?  Isn’t there a contradiction here?  But wait.  Let’s look at 2 Peter 3:8 (Psalm 90:4 is a companion Scripture). Adam died less than 1000 years after he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Hence, in God’s sight Adam did die on the same day – apparent contradiction solved.)

What about their son Cain?  When God confronted him about his murder of his brother, did he admit his own guilt and beg forgiveness?  No.  He first lied, denied his sin and spoke as if God’s question to him were itself inappropriate (Gen. 4:9).  He then blamed God for giving him a punishment which he said was greater than he could bear (verses 13-14). Cain was a man certainly trying to justify himself with no sign of repentance!

How about a later example?  Take King Saul in 1 Sam. 15.  When God told him (through Samuel) to wipe out the Amalekites he did not do so.  When Samuel confronted him, did Saul openly admit his sin?  Did Saul say, “It was my responsibility to obey the commands of God which you transmitted to me and to make sure the people also would obey them.  I failed to do so.  I gave in to my greed and I took plunder which should have been destroyed.  I let the people do likewise.  The blame rests with me.  I failed this test.  I repent.  I will immediately order all the plunder destroyed and will also order that King Agag be executed.  I beg God’s forgiveness.”?  Had Saul shown this attitude when he was confronted, he might not have been rejected as king (verse 23).  But what did Saul do?  He blamed the people. He refused to face up to his own guilt.  Only later did he grudgingly admit “I have sinned” (verse 24) and even then he kept on shifting most of the blame to the people.  That was not an attitude of genuine repentance.  And that was why God could not continue to use Saul as king. 

Contrast the attitude of David when Nathan confronted him with what he had done to Uriah (2 Sam. 12).  The first words out of David’s mouth were “I have sinned against the Lord” (verse 13).   He did not try to blame Bathsheba or the messengers who had brought her to him.  And we can see the genuine acceptance of guilt – and the genuine repentance – which David expressed in Psalm 51.

How about the unprofitable servants, the ones who had received one talent (Matt. 25:24-28) or one mina (Luke 19:20-24) in the parables?  Did they admit that they had been unprofitable servants and beg forgiveness for their lack of growth and accomplishment when the Master corrected them?  No.  In the two parables the unprofitable servants showed no attitude of repentance for their lack of accomplishment and did not beg forgiveness and throw themselves on the mercy of their Master.  Rather, they tried to justify themselves.  They turned around and accused their Master of making severe and unreasonable demands (remember Cain who said his punishment was greater than he could bear?).  We, on the other hand, must remember that God the Father and Jesus Christ are always right.  They are always fair (Ezekiel 18:25, 29-30).  Everything that God does to us is for our ultimate benefit.  We must never criticize God or feel that He is treating us unfairly.  Job had done so during his trial and God pointed out to him that he had been treading on dangerous ground (Job 40:8-14).

Remember that the lawyer in Luke 10:25-37 acknowledged that he should love his neighbor as himself (verse 27) but was “wanting to justify himself” (same Greek word) by asking who was his neighbor (verse 29).  Apparently he was failing to admit the sin of hating others by trying to exclude them from the category of his “neighbors.”  Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan – showing the lawyer that he had a wrong attitude and that he should love even the hated Samaritans as his “neighbors.”

People can be mean to us.  People can flagrantly violate God’s Law in their dealings with us.  They can give us a “bum deal.”  They can make us angry and make us want to fight back.  If John Doe “cuts in” 6 inches (15 cm) in front of my car as we are going 65 mph (105 kph) on Interstate 81, then is it OK for me to scream curses at him?  Can I blame him for my cursing?  If certain provisions of the federal income tax code are unfair, and tax me on income that should not rightfully be taxed, does that then give me the right to get back at the government (that is – to steal, to break the Eighth Commandment) by cheating on my taxes?  Can I blame the government for my stealing?  No.  Someone else’s disobedience to God’s Law never excuses mine.  Similarly, when someone else urges me to violate some point of God’s Law and says it is good to do so (as Satan did to Eve and Eve did to Adam), that likewise never excuses my disobedience.  Both of these are forms of temptation.  Other people tempt us.  And there is one verse that absolutely disallows our blaming others for our own sin, anywhere, at any time.  We often read this as a reassuring verse – and it is – but if we look closely we see that it also contains an implicit warning.  Let’s turn to 1 Cor. 10:13.  God tells us He will never let us be tempted beyond our ability to resist.  This means we can rightfully be held accountable for failure to resist any temptation which God allows others to throw at us.  If the temptation were truly beyond our ability to resist it – a situation where our “passing the buck” would indeed be valid – God would never have allowed the temptation to come upon us in the first place!  Hence we can never rightfully blame others for our own sin.  Likewise, God already knows that we are dust (Gen. 3:19, Psalm 103:14) and we cannot excuse our sin by reminding Him of this – that we are only physical flesh.

If there is one key point I would like to emphasize it is this.  A sin which is denied, or which is blamed on others, cannot be repented of and hence cannot be forgiven.  (Repeat this.)  We are about to take the Passover in the annual commemoration that we have accepted Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.  But how can His sacrifice be applied to our sins if we will not admit our own guilt, but “pass the buck” to others?  It can’t.  Blaming others for our own sins totally blinds us to our need for Christ’s sacrifice.  Also, we will later go through the Days of Unleavened Bread, which symbolize coming out of sin and our need to be constantly putting sin out of our lives.  If we blame our sins on others then we fail to make even the first step toward coming out of sin and putting it away. 

Mr. Petty wrote an excellent article entitled “Who Really Killed Jesus?” in an issue of the Good News at this time of the year back in 2013.  He made the very good point that when we imagine looking at the Roman soldier who thrust his spear into Christ – the one who apparently actually caused His death through loss of blood (John 19:34) – we should see our own face.  When I look in my mind’s eye at the face of this soldier, I should see the face of Steve Corley.  Not the face of John Doe who cut so close in front of me on the freeway.  Not the face of the congressman who introduced the unfair tax bill on the House floor.

So let us realize that self-justification is indeed the enemy of true justification.  Let us not be like the little kids who blamed each other for their disobedience to their mother’s warning not to put their hands in the cookie jar.  Let us not try to justify ourselves, “pass the buck” and blame others (or the devil) for our own sin.  That is the opposite of repentance and disqualifies us for the application of Christ’s sacrifice which is the only way that we can be truly justified – that our sins can be forgiven.  If our sins are not forgiven we have no hope of salvation and eternal life.  So let us not be like Adam, Eve, Cain, King Saul or the unprofitable servants in the parables.  Let us each be man enough, or woman enough, to say “It was my fault.  I am guilty.  I repent.”  Let us own up to our own sin, take the blame, accept Christ’s sacrifice for our sin, take the Passover in a worthy manner, and then work on putting the sin out of our lives and keeping it out.  Only then will we be approved of God.