Delivered and Raised

“Make your choice, adventurous Stranger, Strike the bell and bide the danger, or wonder, till it drives you mad, What would have followed if you had.”

This poem summarizes well the inner turmoil we as humans experience when we are uncertain about an outcome.

This is a great example of what has made The Chronicles of Narnia so popular for so many years.

He is able to capture both the human experience and the Christian experience in so many artistic ways.

However, not everyone has received Lewis’ masterpieces well.

In fact, some downright despise them.

For example, after the first Narnia movie was released in the early 2000s,

Once reviewer, who also happened to be the leader of the British Humanist Association,

Wrote;

“Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion…Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the nation of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls…Did we ask him to?”

So, in other words,

The most hateful thing about religion is doctrine.

And this should not be that surprising to hear.

It seems for many people,

We want Christianity to be an experience,

To be something that makes us feel good,

To be something that give me a buzz in life,

To be something that gives me friends.

To be something I belong to.

Now Christianity can,

And in many ways,

Should be these things,

But we must understand that approaching Christianity in this way is making the main thing belonging, not believing.

Belief must be the main thing in Christianity,

From our belief, we can then find our sense of belonging.

Allow me to give you a subtle example of why this is important.

A book that I have likely referenced before became very popular while I was in college.

The book is called Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.

In it, he argues that doctrines are not important,

Instead, He says living like Jesus lived is important.

He claims that making certain doctrines essential diminishes God,

Saying that confidences in these doctrines make God seem small and limited,

As if God is reliant on these doctrines.

Another book, Reimagining Christianity, by Alan Jones,

Similarly describes this undermining of doctrines as a thread of just criticism.

Describing Christ substituting Himself,

By taking the penalty in our place,

As a vile doctrine.

The issue Jones has with this,

He says, is that this doctrine makes God vengeful in the name of justice,

He believes this “has left thousands of souls deeply wounded and lost to the Church forever.”

This is obviously an extremely important thing for us to talk about.

We can get a sense of passion from what authors like Bell and Jones say.

And while we are not seeking to diminish the things they are saying are important,

Such as living like Jesus lived,

Bell is correct that living like Jesus lived is important.

But to say doctrine,

Specifically the doctrine of Jesus as the substitute who took the penalty for our sins,

Is either not important,

Or even worse,

A vile doctrine,

Is something we cannot affirm.

Our passage this morning,

Romans 4:25,

States clearly that Christ was delivered up to death for our sins.

Last week, we were in Romans 3:21-26,

Looking at Paul’s argument about Christ as our Righteous Propitiation.

Last week, we talked about how the first three chapters of Romans show that all people,

Both Jew and Gentile are condemned before God for our sins.

As Paul said in our passage last week,

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The law reveals that there is no way we can be obedient enough to justify our self before God.

Our efforts to save ourselves are hopeless.

However, the start of our passage last week,

Began with the words, “But now.”

And we talked about how Paul was saying,

Now that Christ has come and sacrificed Himself on the cross,

He has satisfied God’s wrath toward our sins,

Restoring us to a right relationship with God.

Our passage ended by teaching that now if we have faith in Christ,

We have access to this restored relationship,

And by God’s grace we will become more obedient to God.

Looking ahead,

Lord willing, next week, we will be in my personal favorite passage in all of Scripture,

Romans 5:8-10.

This morning, we are looking at Romans 4:25 in great detail.

So, after the passage we looked at last week,

Paul basically makes the argument that justification by God’s grace through faith is nothing new.

As King Solomon wisely said,

There is nothing new under the sun.

So, Paul, being the OT scholar he was,

Points to Abraham in Romans 4.

He said Abraham was faithful but he was not perfectly obedient to the law.

Therefore Abraham was justified by his faith,

Not by works.

Quoting Genesis in ch. 4,

Paul shows how Abraham believed in God,

So, God credited Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness.

For this reason,

Paul argues that Abraham was actually the best witness to justification by faith.

And you have to understand how powerful of a witness Abraham is to this audience.

This is Father Abraham,

He is the father of the entire Jewish nation.

Think of who you view as the most important or most influential human being,

For the Jewish audience Paul is writing to,

That would be Abraham.

So, Paul is taking the most important person to them and saying,

He is the greatest witness of this idea he is arguing,

Which is,

Justification by faith.

So, Paul summarizes this entire argument with Abraham as his witness,

In vs. 25 by saying that Christ was delivered up for our trespasses,

And raised up for our justification.

Which makes for a natural outline for us to follow;

Delivered Up

For Our Trespasses

Raised Up

For Our Justification

Paul’s statement here in vs. 25 is so concise.

It has led many to wonder if he may have actually been referring to an unknown creed in the early church.

This is such a straightforward verse that ties the OT and NT together in such a masterful way.

Which is so important because,

I remember when I first became a Christian,

I planned on reading the entire Bible cover to cover.

I remember planning to read at least a chapter each day.

Some days, I would be captivated by the stories of Genesis or Exodus and read more than one chapter.

Other days, I plodded through a chapter chalked full of names I could not pronounce.

I remember reading through Leviticus and never reading more than one chapter each day,

Some days I felt like I just barely made it through the chapter,

I would close my Bible and think to myself,

What the heck did I just read?

By the time I got through Leviticus,

I lost all the excitement and momentum I started with.

I was able to force myself to get through Numbers,

Still feeling confused about what I was reading more often than not,

Then I only got a few chapters into Deuteronomy before feeling like I really did not understand so much about the OT.

So, I began to find myself gravitating toward the NT because it was more comfortable.

The OT is hard to read and often hard to read.

With my experience, I did not even get to the OT prophecies which are also very difficult books to understand.

Despite the challenging nature of the OT,

We must understand that the entire Bible is for our benefit.

Because as comfortable as we may be with the NT,

The reality is that the OT illuminates the NT in even greater ways.

It is all God’s Word,

Therefore, we should still read the OT.

For example, here in Rom. 4,

Paul is alluding to Abraham from the OT.

We see how Abraham’s experiences are as relevant to us as they were to him.

In vs. 23, Paul explains that the words “It was credited to him” were not written for Abraham’s sake alone.

But they were written for our sake also.

We serve the same God who does the impossible as Abraham!

Paul explains in vs. 24,

How faith will be credited to us who believe in God, who raised Jesus from the dead.

This means we are credited as righteous before God in the same manner as Abraham,

By faith.

If we shy away from reading the OT,

We do not grasp the comparison Paul is making here.

WE: Delivered Up

Now turning our attention to vs. 25,

It begins with Paul saying that Jesus Christ was delivered up,

Other translations spell it out a little more clearly,

Saying He was delivered over to death.

So, Jesus being delivered up means Jesus was killed.

When talking about the doctrine of Christ as our substitute,

The fact that Jesus was killed is the most basic fact of it all.

And it was not like Jesus died peacefully in His sleep due to old age.

No, He was violently killed by the Romans,

Only in His 30s.

Those who reject Jesus’ death in our place feel this way because of how grisly the Bible explains Jesus’ crucifixion.

In another letter Paul writes,

1 Corinthians,

Paul talks about how scandalous it is that God would take on flesh and suffer this way.

But God, obviously being all knowing,

Is able to use the facts of this unexpected and offensive death,

To take away some of the earliest arguments used by skeptics.

Because the reality is,

God becoming a human and dying at the hands of humans is not a story that would be made up.

Especially if the Person who is dying is the same Person the religion is centered around.

In fact, if this were made up,

And Jesus were killed,

Those who were making up this religion would never say He was killed,

They would do everything in their power to erase it from history,

Yet here it is, history shows that Jesus was killed.

His punishment was severe,

His suffering was great,

His scourging was profuse,

His torture was so encompassing that He no longer had the physical capacity to carry His cross to the top of Calvary.

His death was so gruesome,

Imagine how painful it must have been for the early Christians who saw it first hand.

Seeing the open wounds of Christ on the cross,

Knowing why He was being punished in such a detestable way.

The hero of the Gospel,

Crucified on the cross.

Why would those who believe in Him include this if it were not true?

Jesus was delivered up,

He was killed.

He had been bound up and brought to the Romans.

Then nailed to the wooden beams of the cross.

It was a death reserved for the worst of criminals.

Often just the threat of crucifixion would be used to obtain a surrender.

The people both hated and feared crucifixion.

The Romans would use it to break the will of those who resisted their rule.

And not only did Jesus receive this punishment,

But the cross was the illustration He used to communicate what it means to be His disciple.

In Luke 14:27, He tells us;

Luke 14:27 ESV

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Today, this is not a strange thought to us.

We have a small cross displayed on the outer wall above me,

I wear a necklace with a small cross on it.

We see the cross displayed in a variety of places today because it is a symbol of Christianity.

But when Jesus said this in Luke 14,

The only association people had with a cross was feelings of hatred or fear.

The closest illustration I can think of would be like Jesus telling people in the south during the height of slavery to put on their noose and follow Him.

Do you see how shocking and offensive this is?

Why would we follow someone who says something like that?

Because these symbols represent shame, suffering, and torture.

It is the way Jesus was killed.

And it is what Jesus is saying we should expect if we are going to follow Him.

If you are listening and you do not follow Christ.

I am sure you already knew that Christ was killed on a cross.

You likely have seen crosses decorating churches like I already pointed out we have this one up here.

But even though we have the decorative symbol up here,

It is my hope that your see the cross in a different way.

That you see the cross as you listen to this message,

And as we sing songs.

Here at FBC,

We should display the cross in our lives,

In the way we lay down our lives for one another.

And we do this because we believe that Christ laid down His life for us on the cross.

Now, at the same time, in 1 Cor. 15:2 Paul says that it is possible to believe in Christ’s death in vain.

Since it is possible to believe in vain,

It is important to ensure our faith is genuine.

This means, what we believe matters,

This goes back to the focus on doctrines at the start of our time in the Word.

We have foundational doctrines that we all agree on,

They can be found listed in our statement of faith.

However, the Bible is so rich that there are a variety of minor doctrines that we may not necessarily agree on,

And that is okay.

It is quite challenging to live in this tension where we live according to our convictions,

While maintaining humility by being aware of the fact that our interpretation of the Bible is not perfect.

This is how we hold to sound doctrine without being unnecessarily divisive.

This should grow an even greater appreciation in us for Christ,

Who was the Word,

Therefore, He knew the Word perfectly,

And He perfectly obeyed it.

When we realize how challenging it is for us to do that,

We really begin to see how badly we need Christ.

GOD: For Our Trespasses

Because not only was Jesus delivered up,

He was delivered up for our trespasses.

Due to the historical reliability of Christ’s death,

Not many argue that Christ was killed,

Yet why Jesus died on the cross is heavily debated.

Many will say that Jesus was a lovingly selfless person.

And His death was an example of that love.

But, we must understand that Jesus died for more than just love,

Yes, He was motivated by love to die for our sins.

If we do not understand that Jesus is our substitute,

Than what is loving about His death?

The example of drowning is often used to illustrate Christ’s sacrifice.

We are in the middle of the ocean drowning,

And Jesus, out of love for us,

Sacrifices Himself by jumping off the boat to save us,

And He drowns in the process.

But when we only emphasize God’s love in this situation,

It is more like we are sitting on the boat,

Jesus runs up to us and says,

“Because I love you so much, I am going to die for you.”

Then He jumps off the boat and drowns.

Why?

What did His sacrifice accomplish?

We were sitting on the boat,

His death served no purpose.

So, in reality, how did His death show His love?

If anything, all it would do is make us feel guilty,

That this person killed Himself for us for no reason.

When only focusing on God’s love as the reason for dying on the cross,

Mark Dever makes this comment;

“The sacrifice of Christ is reduced to a purposeless suicide if it just shows something rather than accomplish something.”

But Christ did accomplish something,

Going back to our drowning illustration.

The Father told us to stay away from the edge of the boat,

Because the waters are choppy.

Well, you thought to yourself that you are a good enough swimmer,

Or you were strong enough to hold the rail,

Or you thought you saw something in the water and you want to get a closer look.

Whatever reason, you did not obey what the Father told you,

And sure enough,

When you got too close to the edge of the boat,

The rough waters caused you to lose your balance and fall in.

What you did not realize,

Is that before you even got on the boat,

The Father and the Son agreed that when you fell in,

Because they knew you would disobey the Father,

The Son would jump in to save you,

Knowing, that when He did, He would drown in your place.

So, after you disobeyed the Father and fell in the water,

The Father and the Son,

Out of love for you,

Followed through with the plan to have the Son jump into the water,

To save you,

And drown in your place.

This is how we are to understand that Christ’s sacrifice is about love.

It is because we disobeyed God,

The Bible calls this sin,

And the consequence of our disobedience is death.

So, because God so loved the world,

The one and only Son,

Was delivered up for our trespasses.

That is what Paul is saying here in Romans 4:25,

Christ was delivered up for our trespasses.

Think about what it means to trespass.

I know Pastor Ryan has gone out turkey hunting a couple times this year.

From what he tells me, it is apparently more like turkey watching.

Although, I have no room to talk based off my fishing record,

But anyway,

He goes turkey hunting with permission out on certain individuals property.

When he is out there in the woods,

If he comes to a tree that says “No Trespassing,”

He knows that is his boundary,

His limit.

He cannot go any farther than he has been given permission to go.

If he does, there will be consequences.

That is the idea that Paul is getting at here.

When Paul says that Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses,

He is saying,

Jesus was delivered up for the times we went too far,

The times we went beyond our boundary,

When we overstepped our limit.

But Paul is not speaking of trespassing on private property.

He is talking about moral trespassing.

God has given us boundaries and limits in His law.

Our trespasses are all the times we overstepped those moral boundaries and limits.

These are offenses against God and others.

And all it takes is one trespass to result in condemnation.

Our forefather, Adam, trespassed this moral boundary when he ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil,

This led to condemnation for all people.

But Paul contrasts the hope of Jesus being delivered up one chapter later in Romans 5:18;

Romans 5:18 ESV

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Jesus was sacrificed for our trespasses.

He was delivered up to pay for God’s just penalty against us.

He is our substitute,

He died, as Paul says here, for our sins.

If you remember the prophecy about the suffering servant in Isaiah 52-53,

We already saw this idea of Jesus being delivered up for our sins in Isaiah’s prophecy.

John the Baptist declares Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, in John 1:29.

The Apostle John describes Jesus as the atoning sacrifice for our sins in 1 John 2:2.

The Bible is clear,

Jesus was delivered up for this purpose,

To save us from our sins,

To be our substitute,

Because we have all gone astray,

Therefore, the Lord laid on Christ the trespasses of us all.

So, what are your thoughts about this?

Do you think that you have sinned?

Do you think that you have morally trespassed?

Even if you want to pretend you have not offended God,

Have you ever done something harmful to someone else?

Are you holding a grudge against someone?

Perhaps there is something you are thinking about right now that you feel a sense of guilt about.

You have sinned.

So, what are you going to about your sins?

God knows all about them,

You will not be able to argue your way out of being guilty,

He knows what you would say even before you open your mouth.

So, what are you going to do about your sins?

Well, I have good news for you.

Jesus Christ came to save you from them.

If you confess that you have sinned,

Trust that He was delivered up for you sins,

And you will be saved.

Brothers and sisters,

Did you trudge your way in this morning feeling overwhelmed with a sense of guilt?

Do you come here thinking that you need to do something for God to be pleased with you again this week?

If so, I caution you,

That way of thinking is not the Gospel!

If you feel like you need to do something to gain God’s favor,

Allow me to assure you that you don’t!

God has given you everything you need for His favor in Christ.

Jesus is the substitute who bears your punishment.

As a result, your relationship with God is restored.

Pastor Dever comments;

“For us to think there is something else we need to do is to take away from the sufficiency of Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice.”

FBC, we do not gather as a church on Sunday or at a Connect Group,

We do not serve or give to missions,

We do not read our Bibles or participate in outreach,

In order to gain God’s favor.

We do these things because Christ has gained God’s favor for us.

When talking about Jesus being delivered up to die,

It is easy to overlook who delivered up Jesus.

Was it Judas?

He was one of Jesus’ closest friends,

He betrayed Jesus for money.

He led the soldiers to the garden and singled out Jesus.

Then again,

Maybe it was Pilate.

He knew Jesus was not guilty but he had Him crucified anyway.

He appeased the mob instead of upholding justice.

And just for good measure, he washed his hands of the act taking no responsibility.

Actually,

Before Jesus was even handed over to Pilate,

He stood trial before the Sanhedrin under the cover of night.

They falsified claims to find Him guilty,

And they incited the crowds that eventually pressured Pilate into having Jesus crucified.

But what about on the spiritual level?

Ephesians tells us that we wage spiritual war against the devil.

We saw demonic activity throughout the ministry of Jesus.

The devil tried to tempt Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry.

Going all the way back to the garden of Eden,

The devil has been rebelling against God and seeking to recruit as many people to join him in his rebellion.

Certainly the devil had to be the inspiration behind Jesus’ being delivered up.

The answer is that to a certain degree,

All of these agents were part of Christ’s crucifixion.

But before we give too much credit to any person or the devil,

We must understand that Christ was ultimately delivered up by the sovereign God of the universe.

The Father brought Christ’s death to pass to fulfill His plan of redemption.

This is explained in Acts 4:27-28;

Acts 4:27–28 ESV

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Or as one commentary explains it;

“The Father delivered up Jesus for our trespasses, and raised him so that his righteous servant would justify many people.”

We know that Jesus willingly did this.

When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night He died,

He ended His prayer to the Father by saying,

“Not my will, but yours be done.”

Jesus was obedient to the Father’s will.

Jesus laid down His life,

As He said in John 10:18,

No one else could take His life from Him,

Only Jesus had the authority to lay it down.

And yet, our passage says,

Jesus was delivered up.

This is worded in such a way that indicates this delivering up happened to Jesus.

So, how can only Jesus have the authority to lay down His life,

And yet, He is delivered up by another?

Because God delivered Jesus up,

And Jesus is God.

This is the mystery of the Trinity.

As we also looked at last week in Rom. 3:25,

God put forward Christ as a propitiation by His blood.

So, behind all the other agents involved in the death of Christ,

Is the intentional plan of a sovereign God.

This is the truth we see being preached by the early Church.

Peter denied Christ the night of Christ’s death,

But then by Acts 2:23, he preached;

Acts 2:23 ESV

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Our belief must be large enough to understand that we people are responsible for our actions,

And yet God rules over all to accomplish His good and perfect and pleasing will.

This is how we understand that God is both just and gracious,

This does not minimize His holy nature,

Nor the fact that He is love.

For those who may believe there is a God but are not sure about Christianity,

Where do you get your understanding about God?

Is it as good as the way He is presented in the Bible?

Better question, is it as just as the way He is presented in the Bible?

I totally get how tempting it is to get rid of His just nature.

But when you do that, you get and unreliable replacement.

On the other hand,

For some of you,

It may be satisfying to get rid of His mercy.

But when you do that, you get a stoic and indifferent replacement.

So, how in the world could there be a God who is both just and merciful?

We find our answer in the Bible.

God’s Word teaches that He is holy and He made us in His holy image.

We have sinned, we have trespassed against His holiness.

As a result, we are guilty and deserving of punishment.

But God being perfect love would not leave us in our sin.

So, the Son of God took on flesh,

Lived perfectly,

Died our death,

And now, whoever acknowledges that they have sinned and trusts in Christ are saved from that punishment.

This is the core message of Christianity.

Do you see how in it, God does not compromise neither His holiness, nor His love?

There is no other way to explain that God is both just and merciful.

In 1888, C.H. Spurgeon preached about a concern he began seeing among Christians;

“Of late, I have heard things that I never dreamed of before, alleged even by professedly Christian ministers against the fundamental doctrines of God’s Word; and some have even dared to say that the substitution of Christ, his suffering in our stead, was not just. Then they have added that God forgives sin without any atonement whatever; but, if the first be not just, what shall I say of the second? If God continually forgives sin without taking any care of his moral government, if there be nothing done for the vindication of his justice, how shall the Judge of all the earth do right?…without an atonement and an atonement consisting of the giving up of a life of infinite value, there is no passing by of human transgression.”

Brothers and sisters, how do we respond to this?

We trust God.

In the darkest of days,

We trust God.

As Jesus trusted the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane,

We trust God.

God showed Himself trustworthy in response to Christ’s prayer,

Therefore, anything we face, we can trust God with.

Because even when people act wickedly,

As they did toward Jesus on the cross,

God is able to overrule to accomplish His loving purposes.

This is why we praise God,

This is why we celebrate God.

Because He planned our salvation,

And He saves us!

YOU: Raised Up

After being delivered for our trespasses,

Our passage says Jesus was raised.

He was raised up to life.

Jesus being raised to life is clearly referring to the resurrection of Jesus.

Our entire faith hinges on Christ being raised from the dead.

Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 15:17,

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Just like Jesus was delivered up,

Paul says that Jesus was raised up.

Meaning, just like God delivered up Jesus,

God also raised up Jesus.

Being able to raise someone up is extraordinary.

We do not normally see people being raised up.

So, Jesus being raised up vindicates His claims over death.

It sets Him apart from leaders of other world religions.

I remember when Stephanie and I took a mission trip to Malaysia,

We visited a Buddhist temple where we saw people worshipping a statue of Buddha,

Knowing that Buddha is dead.

Likewise, Muslims will make their treks to see the place where the dead body of Mohammed lays.

It is genuinely sad to see people placing their hope in a dead leader.

We do not worship a dead Savior!

Jesus is risen,

He is alive!

This is what sets Christianity apart!

Look at the facts.

The guards of Jesus’ tomb were paid off to keep His resurrection to themselves.

Yet, 40 days after His crucifixion,

Numerous people claimed to see Jesus.

Even the fact that Matt. 28:17 says that some doubted demonstrates the reliability of the Gospel’s account.

If Jesus’ followers were seeking to make false claims,

They would not include the detail that some doubted.

The only reasonable conclusion is that Jesus was risen,

And some really did doubt.

Perhaps the most convincing evidence is the transformation of the disciples.

I mean, something incredible happened to Peter!

The night of Jesus’ crucifixion, he repeatedly denied even knowing Jesus.

Yet, days later,

He is bold and fearless,

Preaching about Christ to the very people that had Him crucified.

So, what happened to Peter?

John 21 presents the risen Savior offering forgiveness to Peter,

Then recommissioning Peter to feed His sheep.

It is interesting,

This propaganda that Jesus was not raised up did not happen during the early church,

And why not?

This is likely because too many people knew that He had been raised up.

Many did not understand why or how Jesus was raised up,

But the fact that Jesus was raised up was not denied.

During that time,

Thousands and thousands of first-century Jews suddenly changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.

What could prompt such a sudden shift?

The fact that Jesus was raised up to life!

Because God took on flesh,

Died on the cross,

Then rose from the dead!

Brothers and sisters,

Do not forget this!

The resurrection of Christ is the fundamental definer of your life!

Does knowing this truth about Christ’s resurrection make a difference to you?

How?

How does knowing that death is not the end affect your life?

How do you live differently,

Knowing that your life in this world is only temporary,

And majority of your life will be experienced on the other side of the grave?

In light of this, how do you make decisions?

What do you value?

What are your priorities?

Christ’s death and resurrection assures us of our own resurrection,

This is the most fundamental definer of your life.

Do you live like you believe in the resurrection?

It is only because of the resurrection of Jesus that we can have unstoppable joy.

Not all religions are joyful.

But joy is a distinct product of Christianity.

And our joy comes from our hope in a risen Christ.

We are not left hoping to follow the five-fold path for enlightenment.

We are not burdened hoping to do the practices of Islam correctly and long enough for salvation.

You have likely heard how other religions are about what you do,

Christianity is about what God has done.

Jesus says His yolk is easy and His burden is light.

We do not labor to save ourselves.

Because God has raised up Jesus,

We have joy and hope and confidence in what God has done.

WE: For Our Justification

God raised up Jesus,

Paul says,

For our justification.

This phrase is what the entire verse is building toward.

Jesus repeatedly predicted His death during His life,

But He never really explained why.

Here in this verse,

Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit,

Explains that Jesus was delivered up for our sins,

Then, raised to life for our justification.

He was delivered up because of our sins,

He died in our place as sinners.

But Paul is not now saying,

In the same way,

It is our justification that raises Jesus from the grave.

No, instead, Paul is saying that Jesus was raised to ensure our justification.

Justification by faith was an emphasis in our passage last week.

Justification, if you remember,

Is a legal term that declares us right.

At our Connect Group this pass week,

One way justification was defined was it is just as if I never sinned.

And the inclusions of it here teaches that Jesus resurrection completes His work on the cross.

By both His death and resurrection,

Jesus completely secured our justification.

In 1 Cor. 15, Paul considers the ramifications if Jesus was not raised up.

The reality is that if Jesus had not been raised up,

We would have no way to be justified.

C.E.B. Cranfield writes in his commentary;

“What was necessitated by our sins, was, in the first place, Christ’s atoning death, and yet, had His death no been followed by His resurrection, it would not have been God’s mighty deed for our justification.”

Similarly, Charles Hodge writes;

“Both, therefore, as the evidence of the acceptance of his satisfaction on our behalf, and as a necessary step to secure the application of the merits of his sacrifice, the resurrection of Christ was absolutely essential, even for our justification.”

Lastly, Pastor Dever adds;

“The resurrection was God’s public vindication of Christ and his claims, his public acceptance of the sacrifice. Thus it is also the basis for our faith in Christ…without the resurrection Christian faith is pitiable and ineffective. It doesn’t work.”

This means there is a relational sense to being justified as well,

Being justified means God is declaring us right in terms of our relationship with Him.

Naturally then, if we are united with Christ,

Christ must be raised up,

Otherwise we would be united with Christ in the grave.

This justification is God now positively declaring that our fellowship with Him is restored.

It is a declaration that our righteousness comes on the basis of our union with the risen Christ.

The inclusion of Jesus being raised for our justification here is the conclusion of Paul’s OT illustration of Abraham.

Paul is connecting Abraham’s justification by faith to the foundation of justification in the work of Christ.

Both Christ’s death and His resurrection are the two sides of the same coin.

And that coin is Christ’s saving work.

As we have talked about earlier this morning,

The first part, that is Christ’s death,

Bore the legal penalty for our guilt.

But it is this second part, Christ’s resurrection,

That confirms His death as an all sufficient offering for our sin.

The resurrection of Christ is proof that the death of Christ was effective in pleasing the Supreme Judge as an offering for sin.

Both bring God’s saving work to a completion,

If Christ did not die,

Our sins would not be forgiven,

If Christ did not rise from the dead,

We would not be declared right.

Robert Haldane illustrates this well;

“As the death of Christ, according to the determinate counsel of a holy and righteous God, was a demonstration of the guilty of His people, so His resurrection was their acquittal from every charge.”

The wrath of God against our sins was satisfied in the death of His forsaken Son.

If Jesus remained dead,

He would have remained under God’s penalty for our sins and we would not have been justified.

Spurgeon puts it this way;

“The dying Christ has purchased for us our justification, but the risen Christ will see that we get it. The risen Christ has come to bring it to us, and herein we rest.”

Now you might be thinking,

I am hearing a lot of confusing words that all sound very similar,

For example you may think that justification and propitiation,

Which we talked about last week,

Are the same thing.

But Scripture teaches that though they are very similar,

They communicate two distinctly different things.

Propitiation is the act where the Son satisfied the wrath of the Father against our sin.

Propitiation satisfies the demand of God’s justice against sin.

And Christ did it on His own,

Apart from us.

Unlike propitiation,

We have a part to play in justification.

And that part is faith.

That is what Paul is calling us to in this letter,

To believe in Jesus Christ.

Justification is something both God does to us,

Yet it is done through the instrument of our faith.

It is not because of our faith,

Rather, our faith is how we cling to this gift from God.

Often, we look to sermons for application,

How do I apply this message to my life.

The overarching application of the entire It Is Well series is to believe.

Believe that Jesus was raised up for your justification.

Friends, if you do not believe,

In order to be saved, you must believe.

You must believe this message of truth,

You must trust in God.

Your justification has been purposed from the beginning of time,

It has been acquired through Christ’s work in His death and resurrection,

And yet, you will not be justified until you believe.

These is more than historical belief,

That you would affirm this historical event happened.

It is a trusting belief,

That you rely on the risen Christ as your only Savior for your sin.

The Bible teaches that you must believe this in your heart,

And confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth.

And if you do, it says, you will be saved.

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