Running To Win

Guest: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Does confessing your sins over and over guarantee you a place in heaven? No, it doesn't. Certainty only comes when we understand justification by faith. Today, why believers can rejoice in their acquittal before God.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Today we continue a series from Romans chapter 8 on the blessings we've been given as children of an awesome God. Pastor Lutzer, you speak of a certificate of acquittal. Does this certificate work even if we sin after salvation?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: First of all, Dave, I do want to clarify that, of course, a child can be saved. They may not understand justification, but they do know that they are sinners and that Jesus died in their place. That's really the heart of the gospel.

But in answer to your question, the answer, of course, is yes, this certificate of acquittal is for us even though we may stumble, we may sin, we confess our sins, but we are children of God, and because we are children of God, he takes us all the way home to heaven. What good news.

We here at Running to Win not only desire to get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world through technology, but rather to help you, the listener, understand that we are all sent into the world. We all have a role to play and what excites me is when we begin to realize that God is working in other people's hearts, knowing that we shall come across their paths and we shall connect.

That's why we are very encouraged through the book entitled Sent. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how this book can be yours and it will enlarge your horizon and see the people who live next door, your friends, your neighbors, and the opportunity that has been given to you to show them Christ.

Now, let me ask you another question. How many times do you have to be justified by God? How many times do you have to be declared righteous? You say, well, every time you sin. No, no, no, no. Then you wouldn't know where you stood with God.

When you trust Christ as savior, God declares you to be as righteous as Christ is and he acquits you. He acquits you of all of your sin in one bundle. He takes it all away. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10, by one offering, he perfected forever those who are sanctified.

By one offering, God says, I have to just get rid of the whole legal entanglement that exists between me and a human being. And when they trust Christ as savior, I simply wipe it away and credit to them Jesus Christ's righteousness and they are mine forever.

[Applause]

Praise God. Thank you.

[Applause]

If that didn't ring your bell, your clapper's broken, my friend.

Now, let me ask you a question. Today we're thinking theologically, but I'll tell you why, because I want your life changed. Wimpy theology, wimpy Christians. Strong theology, strong Christians. Amen. I think you should clap again.

[Applause]

Let me ask you something. Was Martin Luther saved back there in the monastery when he confessed his sins six hours at a time? No, of course not. There are millions of people who are going to be in churches today, in synagogues, and mosques, and other places that are going to be confessing their sins, and when they're finished, they have no idea where they stand really with God.

And tomorrow's going to be another day and they have no assurance that they belong to him forever because tomorrow's another day to sin and they don't know where they're at, and they are not converted. You see, confession is not the way into the Christian life.

The way into the Christian life is for you to receive the fact that Jesus died for sinners, he died in your place, and when you receive him as savior, God acquits you and declares you to be righteous and gives you the gift of righteousness when you trust Christ as savior.

Now, after that we do confess our sins, absolutely. But we confess them not to be justified again. We confess them because it is a discipline that God puts upon us so that we will walk with him in obedience, and there has to be deep repentance on the part of us as Christians.

But it does not affect the status, the basic fundamental legal status of our relationship with God. God has acquitted us. And God has said, your sin, your condemnation for sin is wiped away.

You know, one of the first doctrines that Luther dropped after he understood this was purgatory because you see, purgatory was based on this notion that nobody dies righteous enough to go to heaven. Maybe a few and we call them saints, but most people aren't righteous enough.

But if they are purged long enough in the fires of purgatory and all the sin is burned away, then they'll be able to go to heaven. But Luther said, you know what? If the righteousness of God is credited to me right now because I believed in Jesus, I can go from this life to the next without a break in consciousness, no need for purgatory because Jesus paid it all.

And all to him I owe.

[Applause]

And so you see, in one act, he justifies us. 24 hours a day, God says, you need the righteousness of Jesus Christ if you're to be my child. 24 hours a day, Jesus supplies what God demands, the righteousness of Christ.

So you see it is a free gift, it covers all sin, past, present and future, it frees us from God's condemnation. Now, God may discipline us, but the anger of God towards sin was taken out on Christ. It would be double jeopardy for God now to bring up those issues and to punish us in the way that Jesus was punished because he bore it.

And therefore, it was really an exposition of Romans chapter 8 verse 1. I hope that you were here when we began this series. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. You know, that's really good news for sinners. How many of you are sinners, by the way? Could I see your hands, please?

How many of you have two broken arms? Could I see you?

[Laughter]

I'll tell you. If you didn't raise your hand, you just sinned. You lied. That's good news for sinners. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

Now, you say, well, on what basis can God do this? Why can God do this? Well, Paul goes on to say, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it to condemn? Who is to condemn? Some people think that it's a reference to Christ. Would Christ condemn? No. But is there anybody else out there who would condemn? No. Why? Because Jesus is the one who died. More than that, he was raised, he is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

So there you go, devil, there you go, wormwood, screw tape.

[Applause]

Listen to that, eh?

That's why I quote this so often. Disquiet of soul, begone, Satan, for it is written, who shall lay a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? Christ died, yay, rather that has risen again.

You see, the reason that God can acquit us is because Jesus died. Jesus died. I've explained before that God couldn't allow bygones to simply be bygones. God couldn't simply pretend that nothing happened. He had to provide a way for us in which his holiness would be totally preserved, not like Allah, who simply forgives, but God needed to make sure that someone paid for sin because the soul that sins, it will die.

And so God needed someone to pay. And God says, the only one who can do it is myself. I I'm going to do it in the person of Jesus, and the Trinity is going to come into play, and God the Son is going to die for God the Father and in our place and take our just condemnation and our sin. And he's going to take the hit for us.

And so that's what the text says, it is Christ who died. He is going to take my place, and God will remain impeccably righteous and just, and yet the justifier of those who believe on Jesus. And then he goes on to say, he is raised again.

Why is the resurrection so important? It is not the basis of our forgiveness and acquittal. It is the cross that is. But the resurrection was absolutely important because it was proof of the fact that Jesus was who he claimed to be and did what he claimed to do, namely to bear our sin.

And so because death and hell are two of our enemies, Jesus triumphantly was raised from the dead to prove his total victory over death and hell. And to prove that he indeed is God, a very God and a redeeming God. And so the Bible says that Jesus was risen again, and he sat down in heaven. He's at the right hand of God, the Father, the text says.

Now, you know that in the Old Testament, the priest could go into the Holy of Holies only once a year, one day a year, I should say. And when he would go into the Holy of Holies, the Bible says always with blood that he would lay on the altar because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And so that's what the high priest did.

Now, someday, maybe this afternoon, you ought to read Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 says that there is a Tabernacle in heaven, and that the one on Earth was a faint replica of the Tabernacle in heaven.

And it says that when Jesus died, he entered into that Tabernacle, not with the blood of bulls and of goats, but with his own blood, and this was done before he sat down at the right hand of God, the Father. He entered there with his own blood, and there is proof, everlasting proof, redemption accomplished, the saved have been purchased, God's people have been guaranteed that they will find their way home.

Because the blood of Jesus is even there in heaven in the heavenly sanctuary. That's what it says in Hebrews chapter 9, as proof of the fact that redemption is totally finished. Or else he couldn't have sat down. That's why the priests in the Old Testament were not allowed to sit down when they were on an eight-hour shift.

It is because you can only sit down when your work is done, and until redemption was totally accomplished, it is then that Jesus sat down at the right hand of God the Father, where he sits today saying, it is finished, it is done. Nothing more left to do to redeem those who will trust me as savior.

Now, the thing is that it's not only there, but it says he makes intercession for us. He is constantly there as a reminder that the benefits that he purchased in his death and resurrection are theirs for us to be guaranteed and to receive, and those benefits will take us all the way to heaven safely to our heavenly home.

And route doubts, fears, many dangers, toils and snares as it says in the hymn, amazing grace, but grace will lead me all the way home. And Jesus is there as the guarantee that indeed that is going to happen.

Now, how do we summarize all this and bring it down and why should your life be changed? First of all, do you notice that the security of the believer is really guaranteed? When you think it through, it is God who leads us to salvation and grants us the ability to believe in Christ, and those who do believe are the ones that God is committed to to take all the way home to heaven.

Now, if you're here today and you say, I don't have that kind of security. I don't have that sense of assurance. Let me speak with you very, very candidly, pretend that we're having a cup of tea together in my study and it's just us talking. So, if you can, look into my eyes and I'll try to look into yours too, though I have more than one person whose eyes I need to look into.

First of all, number one, I speak to those of you who have trusted Christ as savior. But you can't get your mind around this, you lack assurance because you say, it is too good to be true. If I could believe these promises, then I'd know indeed that I was secure because the promises are the guarantee.

What you need to do is to ask God to show you the truth of these promises. To be so deeply rooted in the fact that who shall lay a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. And if you fit into that category, God is the one who has vindicated you, who is going to disrupt and undo the work that he has done. There's nobody out there who's able to do it.

Then I speak to those of you who've never trusted Christ as savior, or you're not sure if you have, and you may not have at all. Or even though you prayed a prayer, or you made a decision. The fact is that it didn't take root, it was not transforming. It was it was a prayer that you prayed, maybe somebody asked you to pray it, maybe even as a child, or maybe it was a decision that you made, and you kind of thought, well, you know, I think I should add Jesus to the other things that I trust.

Well, you have a different kind of a problem. But here's the good news. Do you see yourself as an absolute helpless sinner who cannot attain to the righteousness of God, who must receive it as a free gift from Jesus alone? Because he's the only one qualified to give it to you, and it's only his righteousness that God accepts. As long as you're thinking, well, you know, I belong to another religion and that's okay too, you're missing the point.

The other religion may have good teaching. What the other religion doesn't have is a savior able to save you from your sins. So remember that.

[Applause]

At this point, you don't need good teaching. However beneficial it may be in a different context. What you need is somebody to deal with your sin, who's able to. And Jesus is the only one out there who's able to do that. There is nobody else out there.

And so what you need to do is to realize that you need to give up all dependence upon who you are in terms of your abilities, in terms of your gifting, in terms of your accomplishment, in terms of your beliefs, in other good teachings, and you must say, I receive Christ as my savior.

That's how you can find out whether or not you are a member of the elect. Because God, if he grants you that ability, and if you have the smallest desire in your heart to trust Christ as savior. I urge you to, and if you're not sure that you've done it in the past, say now, I am doing it understanding what I'm doing. Because I need a savior. And you trust him alone.

There's something else, and that is that self-condemnation, self-condemnation must be must be confronted with the declaration of God. It must be confronted with the declaration of God. Who is it that lays a charge against God's elect?

You see, if we look within and we see our sins and we see our failures and we become absorbed with them and we have this terrible, terrible opinion of ourselves, and it's because we don't believe God's word and we don't know where to turn, what we do is we turn to what God has done for us in Jesus and we affirm the fact that who is he who condemns? Christ is the one who died.

How can Satan possibly stand against that? It is our faith in him. And that, by the way, is why we know that God loves us. I think of a man, for example, in Scotland that I read about who had a terrible accident when he was a teenager, broke his neck. 40 years in bed. And yet he's a firm believer, and somebody said to him, you know, how do you know that God loves you?

You know, and that's that's the way we treat people today. We go to people like that in the hospital and we say, oh, you know, God loves you and their point is, what do you mean he loves me? Here's everybody else running around and they've got two good legs and and they're living and look at here, I'm lying here. I've lost my job. I've got this problem, this problem. I mean, that really, really registers, God loves me. Where in the world is the love?

My friend, how do we answer that? We answer it like the man lying in bed for 40 years does. He says, when I begin to doubt the love of God, I go back to this, He who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? And who shall lay a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

You always return to the cross as the greatest proof that God loves, God cares, God saves, and that is your hope, and if you trust Christ, it will take you all the way to heaven.

[Applause]

The terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do. My savior's obedience and blood hides all of my sins from view. My name on the palm of his hands, eternity cannot erase. Forever there it stands, a mark of indelible grace.

That, my friend, is the gospel. Will you believe it? Will you trust it? Will you acknowledge it? Will you live by it? And when you're in despair and depression, will you do as I do? Point to this text and remind myself that nobody can bring a charge against God's elect. Nobody can condemn. God justifies, Jesus died, Jesus is in heaven as proof. And I belong to him forever. Join me as we pray.

Now, Father, apart from the work of your spirit, what I've said is just words. Who is going to convince the person who comes here today satisfied with himself that he needs a savior? Only your spirit will. Who's going to give hope to the addict who's come here today, feeling that they have so disappointed you that you're mad at them? Who's going to transform their lives?

Who's going to show to the woman who is with us, who is self-assured, who's convinced that she doesn't need a savior? Who is going to overcome all that? Father, we just acknowledge that you've shut us up to total helplessness.

Only you can, but would you now? Would you draw people to yourself? If you're here today and you're a believer, would you say, Lord Jesus, thank you for saving me. Thank you for the assurance that I belong to you. If you're not sure that you're a believer, would you at this moment say, God, today, I receive your son as my savior? I trust him. I believe that he died in my place and took my condemnation that I so richly deserved.

Would you tell him that you trust him as yours? Tell him right there. You're listening by radio, internet. You've joined us here in the sanctuary of Moody Church. Would you right now receive Christ as savior?

And so why won't you? Why do you struggle? What are you waiting for? Father, save those who've listened to your word today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Guest: My friend, I want to ask you a question. Don't you think that you owe it to others to share the good news of the gospel with them? What hinders you? Do you see insurmountable barriers in sharing your faith? Wouldn't it be wonderful if you would learn how to share your faith in the ordinary events of life, being able to represent Christ to your neighbors, to your friends, to those around you, and then to realize that God is working in their hearts already for the good news of the gospel?

Very quickly, I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because we're making available for you a book entitled Sent. It emphasizes that ultimately all of us are sent and it's not as complicated as we make it. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book is simply one word, Sent. Thank you so much in advance for helping us and joining with us as we run toward the finish line.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. There are among the most soaring words ever penned. The words the Apostle Paul used to conclude Romans chapter 8. Here, he lists all the things that cannot separate us from the love of God. If you need some encouragement, plan to listen next time for a message brimming with hope. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAlister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.