The most important aspect of the Understood series will be brought fourth in this and the following segment which will enable readers to fully understand the Lord’s message to the church at Rome anciently, and to us today. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE ROME CHURCH CONCERNS JUSTIFICATION AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE LIFE OF THE SALVATION SEEKER. IT IS, AS THIS POSTING WILL REVEAL, THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE SALVATION PROCESS. SIMPLY STATED: IF THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION THERE CAN BE NO RIGHTEOUSNESS. WITHOUT RIGHTEOUSNESS THERE CAN BE NO SALVATION. As this teaching will reveal, those within the Catholic/Protestant Religious System (the church) have not been justified. The Lord will now explain why.

I will begin with a fact I presented earlier in the series: JUSTIFICATION AND SALVATION REPRESENT TWO TOTALLY SEPARATE, TOTALLY DIFFERENT ACTS OF THE LORD. In fact, justification is the first act and salvation is the final act in the salvation process. Read about that process using the key word–Process. Though justification was mentioned several times earlier, the Lord wants you to know much more about its importance. As stated, justification is the removal of all of the believer’s PAST SINS, THEREBY MAKING THE RECIPIENT RIGHTEOUS, MEANING WITHOUT SIN.

Justification and salvation are intimately tied to God’s Ten Commandment Law. This creates a spiritual union which, though extremely important, is understand only by a tiny contingent of Very Elect saints who comprise God’s remnant church which numbers only a few thousand people globally. Once you have been exposed to the Biblical Truth concerning the justification-salvation-faith-grace-Law connection, I hope that you will become one of the few who will rise to meet the Lord in the clouds upon His return to earth. Read The Three Resurrections and the Kingdom of God. Key words–Three and Kingdom.

Romans chapters 3 through 10 and the first part of 11 are all about justification, which is mentioned approximately 20 times. In many cases JUSTIFICATION IS REFERRED TO AS RIGHTEOUSNESS because justification renders one righteous (without sin). The Law defines both sin and righteousness. This is where the Law comes into play relative to the salvation process. In First John 3:4 we find God’s definition of sin: “TO TRANSGRESS THE LAW IS SIN, FOR SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW.” The Biblical definition of RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE ABSENSE OF SIN. Therefore, to obey the Law is righteous; to break the Law is sin. The Law, also called “the commandments,” consists of the Ten Commandments which God (the Word who later came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth–Jn. 1:1-4,14) wrote in stone. His entire Bible is His Law. He condensed it into ten, easy to obey commandments which cover every sin a human being can commit.

The focus on JUSTIFICATION and its connection to RIGHTEOUSNESS is made clear in chapter 3 verses 19 through 26. Therein we are told that all people have broken God’s Law, therefore, no one can be justified simply by obeying the Law, which identifies sin (vss 19,20). In verses 21 through 25 Paul equates justification with righteousness, noting that both are acquired, not by obeying God’s Law, but through the believer’s faith in God’s grace (vs 22). As noted, verse 25 tells us that Justification erases all of the believer’s PAST SINS. Note that, following justification, THERE IS NO MENTION OF FUTURE SINS. There is a reason for that omission which we will address in the following segment.

Verse 26 should speak loudly to the “fine print” seeker. Here Paul notes that God will justify those who believe in Jesus. This proves that BELIEVING IN JESUS QUALIFIES PEOPLE TO BE JUSTIFIED–and nothing more. At one point, many Jews “believed in Him.” However, after hearing Him, “took up stones to cast at Him” (Jn. 8:30-59). Recall that Judas believed in Jesus, as did 70 other disciples. However, Judas betrayed Him and many of the others (Lk. 10:1,17) left Him and went back into the world (Jn. 6:60). Believing in Jesus saves no one.

In verses 28 and 30 Paul reiterates the fact that justification is acquired only through the believer’s faith in the grace of God. JUSTIFICATION IS AN ACT OF GRACE BY GOD. PERIOD. THE LAW HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ACT THAT RENEDERS THE JUSTIFIED BELIEVER RIGHTEOUS. However, the Law does come into play following justification. In fact, following justification and conversion, obedience to the Law becomes the most important aspect of the salvation process.

In chapter 4 verse 18 Paul tells the people in the church then and now that, when they are made free of sin by justification, they automatically became righteous. In verse 22 he tells them that, being made righteous by the grace of God, they must remain true servants of God by maturing into ever more righteousness and holiness, the end result of which eternal life (Rom. 5:21; 6:22). Note that the END RESULT OF WALKING IN SPIRITUAL RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS IS ETERNAL LIFE. What does this tell the Truth seeker about sinning after being justified and made righteous by God’s grace? Righteousness and holiness are not the results of participating in the sin-repent, sin-repent cycle that is so popular within religious circles. Participating in the sin-repent cycle prevents its participants from receiving justification–the first step on the road to salvation. So says the Almighty in His Holy Scriptures.

This series has made clear the Bible Truth that once justification has been awarded by man’s faith and God’s grace, THERE IS TO BE NO MORE SIN IN THE LIFE OF THE JUSTIFIED ONE. Sin–the breaking of God’s Law–cannot be part of the righteous person’s life, for sin and righteousness cannot abide together in a believer who is “in Christ” in that “In Him there is no darkness (sin) at all” (1 Jn. 1:5).

One reason church people cannot be justified is because they do not know God’s definition of sin, which must be repented of in order to be justified. Believing that the Law was “nailed to the cross, it plays no part in the Christian’s life in spite of First John 3:4. This deadly error eliminates the possibility of anyone repenting of breaking the Law. According to Law-rejecters, they are no longer under the Law (7:6) and are “dead to it.” Therefore they see no reason to address the subject.

However, a “fine print” study of the subject reveals that what the true believer has escaped is THE DEATH PENALTY PRESCRIBED FOR BREAKING THE LAW. Justification delivers the believer from that penalty (8:2). God, through his incredible grace, offers the believer a chance to have all of his/her death-producing sins removed as far from him/her as east is from west (Ps. 103:12), meaning that the justified one is no longer “under the Law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). Having be justified, their past sins can no longer bring about their deaths. They have been rendered RIGHTEOUS, CLEANSED, FREE FROM DEATH CAUSED BY SIN. The question then is: NOW WHAT? The following segment will answer that question. L.J.