How can a man be justified with God?

How then can a man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?                                                                                             -- Job 25:4

 

God's holiness and justice demand the punishment of sin. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezek. 18:20). There are no exceptions. "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 17:15). "How then can a man be justified with God?" (Job 25:4).

There is only one answer to that question -- DIVINE IMPUTATION! This is the doctrine of Holy Scripture. This is the only hope any sinner has of being saved (Read Rom. 4:5; 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 3:18).

[Romans 4:5]  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

 

[Romans 5:19]  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

 

[2 Corinthians 5:21]  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

 

[1 Peter 3:18]  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS MADE TO BE SIN BY DIVINE IMPUTATION. All the sins of God's elect were imputed to him. Our sins became his sins! The holy Lord God dealt with him on the basis of our sins, which were imputed to him, and punished him for sin in the place of his people. And by his death Christ made complete satisfaction, or atonement for sin. He put away all the sins of his people, fully and forever, by the sacrifice of himself!

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST IS IMPUTED TO ALL WHO TRUST HIM, so that we are made the righteousness of God in him. Sinners can be made righteous only in the same way that Christ was made to be sin -- by divine imputation! God deals with his elect on the basis of Christ's imputed righteousness. He rewards every believer with eternal life and heavenly glory because EVERY BELIEVER HAS BEEN MADE WORTHY OF HEAVENLY GLORY AND ETERNAL ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD THROUGH THE BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST, THE SINNER'S SUBSTITUTE! This is how God save sinners. This is the only way a man can be justified with God. May God give you grace to trust his Son and grant that you, this day, may experience the blessedness of justification with God, for Christ’s sake.

Amen.