I think we have made it plain just how one is justified, and now we
come to another question and that is, the extent of justification.
To what extent is a man who believes in the Lord Jesus justified?
This question is very plainly answered and wonderfully answered,
and gloriously answered in Acts 13:38, 39, +"Be it known unto you
therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you
remission of sins: and by him every one that believeth is justified
from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of
Moses."+ These words very plainly declare to us that every believer
in Jesus Christ is justified "_from all things_." In other words,
the old account against the believer is all wiped out. No matter how
bad and how black the account is, the moment a man believes in Jesus
Christ, the account is wiped out. God has absolutely nothing which
He reckons against the one who believes in Jesus Christ. Even though
he is still a very imperfect believer, a very young man and immature
Christian, he is perfectly justified. As Paul puts it in Rom. 8:1,
+"There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus."+ Or, as he puts it further down in the chapter, verses 33,
34, +"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus
that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."+ If the
vilest murderer or sinner of any kind on earth should come in here
this morning and right here now, hearing the gospel of God's grace,
should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, put confidence in Him as his
Saviour, and accept Him as such, surrendering to Him and confessing Him
as His Lord, the moment he did it every sin he ever committed would be
blotted out and his record would be as white in God's sight as that of
the purest angel in heaven. God has absolutely nothing that He reckons
against the believer in Jesus Christ. But even that is not all. Paul
goes even beyond this in 2 Cor. 5:21, +"He who knew no sin he (God)
made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of
God in him."+ Here we are explicitly told that the believer in Jesus
Christ is made the righteousness of God in Christ. In Phil. 3:9, R. V.
we are told that when one is in Christ he has a righteousness not of
his own, but a "_righteousness which is of God upon faith_." In other
words, there is an absolute interchange of positions between Christ and
the justified believer. Christ took our place, the place of the curse
on the cross (Gal. 3:13). He was "made to be sin on our behalf" (2
Cor. 5:21). God reckoned Him a sinner and dealt with Him as a sinner,
so that in the sinner's place, as He died, He cried, +"My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?"+ And when we are justified we step
into His place, the place of perfect acceptance before God, or to use
the exact words of Scripture, we +"Become the righteousness of God
in him."+ To be justified is more than to be forgiven! Forgiveness
is negative, the putting away of sin; Justification is positive, the
reckoning of positive and perfect righteousness to the one justified.
Jesus Christ is so united to the believer in Him that God reckons our
sins to Him. The believer, on the other hand, is so united to Christ
that God reckons His righteousness to us. God sees us, not as we are in
ourselves, but as we are in Him and reckons us as righteous as He is.
When Christ's work _in_ us is completed we shall be in actual fact what
we are already in God's reckoning, but _the moment one believes_, as
far as God's reckoning is concerned, he is as absolutely perfect as he
ever shall be. Our present standing before God is absolutely perfect,
though our present state may be very imperfect. To use again the
familiar couplet:
"Near, so very near to God,
Nearer I cannot be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am just as near as He.
Dear, so very dear to God,
Dearer I cannot be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am just as dear as He."