Then thirdly tonight, there's justification.
Atonement is the redemptive sacrifice of Christ.
Propitiation is the removing of our sin.
Justification is the receiving of Christ's righteousness.
The word justified or justification means
declared or made righteous in the sight of God.
If you would, go to Acts chapter number 10.
Acts chapter 10, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
Acts chapter 10.
See, we like to emphasize the fact
that salvation is our sins being paid for
and being taken off of us.
And I understand why we do that.
But that's not the only thing that salvation is.
Salvation is not just that our sins were taken off of us
in exchange for our sins.
Our sins were taken off of us
and placed upon Jesus Christ.
That's only part of the exchange.
Salvation is an exchange, and the in full exchange is this,
that our sins were taken off of us
and placed upon Jesus Christ,
and it was punished and appeased in the person of Christ.
But there's more to salvation than just that,
because salvation is also this,
that the righteousness of Christ
was taken from him and placed upon us.
This is what the Bible calls justification.
See, Christ lived a righteous life, did he not?
I mean, the Bible says it, let's look at it.
Acts chapter 10, verse 38.
Acts 10, 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth,
Acts 10, 38, with the Holy Ghost and with power.
Notice, who went about doing good
and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,
for God was with him.
Have you ever stopped to think of the fact,
why did Jesus even have to live a human life?
I mean, why didn't he just come down
as a 33-year-old man and just died on the cross
for our sins?
But you need to understand that it wasn't just
our sins being taken from us,
it was his righteousness being put on us.
The reason that Jesus lived on this earth 30-plus years
was so that he could go about doing good,
and his good was placed upon us.
At salvation, though, as an exchange,
our sins were taken and given to Christ,
his righteousness was taken and given to us.
Christ lived a righteous life,
and Christ gave us his righteousness.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter five.
You're there in Acts, go past Romans,
past 1 Corinthians, and to 2 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians chapter five.
Justification is a legal term.
When you study it out in the Bible,
you'll find it in the law of Moses.
It means to be declared righteous.
It's more than just being found not guilty.
In our modern legal terminology,
you get accused of something,
and you're hoping to be found not guilty.
That's not enough to get you into heaven,
simply being not guilty.
It's not just that you're not found guilty,
it's that you're found righteous.
His righteousness has to be placed upon us.
2 Corinthians five, verse 21.
For he hath made him, talking about God the Father,
in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ,
for he hath made him to be sin for us,
that's propitiation, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That's justification.
He took our sin, we took his righteousness,
an exchange was made.
When I was growing up, people would often say,
and I don't have a problem with this, I think it's fine.
People would say, you know, justification,
a good way to remember it, they would teach us,
you know, justification is justified, never sinned.
You can remember, what does it mean to be justified,
or what is justification, is justified, never sinned.
But I would take it a step further,
and I don't have a problem with people saying that,
and I don't like that term,
but it goes even deeper than that.
It's not justified, never sinned,
it's justified, never been a sinner.
It's actually a new nature.
It's a divine nature.
It's a new man, it's not a recovery of the old man,
it is a new creature in Christ's righteousness.
The righteousness of God.
Go back to Romans, if you would, Romans chapter number three.
Romans chapter number three.
Christ lived a righteous life,
and Christ gave us his righteousness.
See, salvation is an exchange.
When we think of it under theological terms,
or in a theological lens,
it simply is an exchange between us and Christ.
He took our sins, we took his righteousness.
He paid for our sins,
we get to enter into heaven in his righteousness.
This is what we talked about last week,
when we talked about being robed
in the righteousness of Christ.
Look, when you get to heaven,
you're not gonna get to heaven
because God looks down and says, oh, I like you.
You're gonna get to heaven because God looks down and says,
oh, you're clothed in my son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You will enter in because of his righteousness.
You will enter in, the Bible calls it being in Christ.
I'm in Christ.
And because Christ gets to enter into heaven,
I get to enter into heaven
because I'm robed in the righteousness of Christ.
Salvation is an exchange.
He took my sins, I took his righteousness.
He paid for my sins, I get to go to heaven
as a result of his righteousness.
And when you think of salvation in a theological sense,
just through the theological terms of atonement
and propitiation and justification,
it's kind of funny to even consider all the heresy
that goes along with the doctrine of salvation.
Because if salvation is,
he took my sins and I took his righteousness,
where does good works play in in that?
Where does me getting baptized
and me going to the confessional booth
and me living a good life and me repenting of my sins,
where does any of that come into play
when salvation is, he took your sins and paid for them,
but now you gotta repent of your sins.
What sins?
He paid for them.
The Bible says as far as the east is from the west,
they've been separated from me, never to be brought back.
They'll say, well, you gotta live a good life
or you're gonna lose your salvation.
How does that play?
If he paid for my sins,
well, you gotta live a good life
or you're gonna lose your salvation.
I'm living the best life I could live, I'm in Christ.
You gotta do it right.
I got better than right, I got his righteousness.
See, when we realize salvation under theological terms,
it's an atoning substitutionary exchange
between us and Christ.
There's no living a good life,
there's no repenting of your sins,
there's no getting baptized, there's none of that.
All there is is did he pay for your sins on the cross
and have you taken on his righteousness?
Have you in faith, by faith, called upon him for salvation?
And that's all you have.
That's all there is.
Romans 3.23, notice what the Bible says.
We'll finish up.
For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
That's our need for atonement.
We were all sinners and our sin needs to be paid for.
Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
that's atonement,
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation,
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
to declare, notice, his righteousness, that's justification
for the remission of sins that are passed
through the forbearance of God,
to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just.
Now, I don't want you to, don't miss this.
What does it mean to be justified?
It means to be declared righteous.
To declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just, who's just?
Jesus is just, that he might be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
How do I get his righteousness?
By believing, by trusting,
by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior,
by placing my faith in him,
by calling upon him in faith for salvation.
It's not about me being just.
It's that he might be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
There's no room for you living a good life.
There's no room for you repenting of your sins.
There's no room for you doing good things
so you don't lose salvation.
Because salvation, in a very basic, fundamental,
theological sense, is my sins, past, present, future,
were taken from me and placed upon Jesus Christ.
And when he died on the cross,
he pleased and appeased God.
His righteousness was placed upon me,
and I have been declared justified.
I have been declared righteous,
not because I'm just,
that he might be just,
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
This is the doctrine of salvation.