How do you stand before God?

If you’re anything like me, you’re very good at justifying yourself to everyone around you. To do this we often hide aspects of the truth; perhaps our true motives. I wonder though, have you thought about how you can justify yourself to the Living God, who knows your thoughts, motives and attitude.

The Bible says we can’t justify ourselves to God.

We stand condemned, but one of the most remarkable teachings in the Bible is that sinful men and women (you and I) can be justified before a perfectly holy, just, and righteous God. In simpler terms, the sinner who is in active rebellion against his Creator is declared to be right by that same Creator, who (by the limitations of His character) must judge and punish all that is wrong. This is quite the dilemma, but we will see later how it is possible.

First of all, let us understand what it means to be justified. Imagine you are in a court of law for a crime you have committed. You have been proven guilty, but the judge (under certain circumstances) is able to let you go free, without punishing you for the crimes. This would be a pardon, but it’s not justification. 

To be justified, the judge would not only let you off for the crime, but would also declare you to be righteous. In other words, he would declare that in the eyes of the law, you are seen as being right.

To be justified means to be declared to be right.

Now, no just judge would ever say this about a guilty criminal, so how is it that God (the ultimate judge), can declare me (a guilty sinner), to be right in the sight of His ultimate law?

The Bible gives us an amazing and full answer in three parts. Firstly, we see the importance of the blood of Jesus Christ in the process of sinners being declared righteous before God (Romans 5:9). Christ bears the judgement so that God is able to offer justification and salvation as a free gift of grace (Romans 3:24). We then come into the good of it through faith (Romans 5:1).

Let’s now look at this wonderful provision in some more detail.

How can God declare the sinner to be right?

Romans 5 v 9	Romans 3 v 24	Romans 5 v 1
Much more then,  being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.	Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:	Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1] Christ’s perfect sacrifice offered at the cross has opened the way for God to remain just and at the same time be the justifier of those that believe in Jesus, for when the Lord Jesus Christ suffered, bled and died on the cross He took on Himself the punishment for our sin. The Bible says: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

How Wonderful!

The punishment for the rebellion of mankind has been completely exhausted by what the eternal Son of God suffered on the cross for the sins of the world. 

This answers the sin issue concerning how God will punish our sin. Now that Christ has suffered, we can claim all punishment for our sin passed on to Him, and therefore need not ever fear it falling on us. We can now be justified because of what Christ did. Notice, the process to being declared right before God sits totally outside of anything we can do. It centres in Christ and the cross alone, and this is where all other religions go horribly wrong.

2] In Romans 3:24, we see that this sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour does not automatically mean God has to declare men righteous. The way has been opened by the finished work of Christ, but it is only by the graciousness of Godthat this opportunity to be declared righteous is offered to us. It is a costly gift that is freely given, and may we never think that we deserve it.

Ever since Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, mankind has shown itself to be in rebellion. We ignore His word; sin against His laws; and we crucified His Son. Yet, God did not turn His back on us and condemn 

us immediately to the Lake of Fire (prepared for the devil and his angels). No! 

He turned that murder scene into the means by which you and I can be declared righteous and can be saved. The Bible says: “For He (that is God) hath made Him (that is Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

What Grace Indeed!

Now, if the Lord Jesus made the way & God offers the way, how can the sinner obtain the way?

3] Romans 5:1 tells us: the sinner is justified – declared righteous – by his faith. The wrong-doer is declared to be right in the sight of God’s law and by God’s perfect standard, when he simply believes the testimony of God concerning his own guilt, and concerning God’s provision of a Saviour in the only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus. The Bible says: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3).

Yes – it’s that simple!

In Luke 16, Jesus Christ tells us of the eternal ramifications of this. Abraham has a place in the eternal heaven, separated from hell by a ‘great gulf, fixed’, but let’s be clear, this is not because Abraham was a good man or even a prophet. No, these eternal blessings are his because God declared Abraham to be righteous on the basis that he trusted that God’s way was sufficient for him. That way, even then, was the way of the cross.

Do you believe that the way of the cross is sufficient for you?

Are you willing to admit your sin and claim Christ’s sacrifice as made on your behalf? 

My friend, come to Christ today and be justified freely in God’s sight before it is too late. For if you die without Christ, you will stand before God the judge with no means of justifying yourself. Guilty will be the verdict and the full wrath of Holy God will fall upon you – banishment to the Lake of Fire forever.

[written by Peter Singleton]