Chapter Five - Acquittal
by Dane C Ortlund
We grow as we go deeper
The gospel is not a hotel to pass through but a home to live in.
This book is about sanctification. This chapter is about justification.
Sanctification is lifelong. Justification is an event.
Sanctification exists because of the constant returning to the event of justification.
Justification
It is outside - in and is lost if we make it inside - out.
We are justified by Christ. He takes our guilt so we are innocent. We can only receive this by acknoleding that we don’t deserve it.
Sanctification
It is inside - out and is lost if we make it outside - in.
Sanctification is a change in regard to our walk, personal holiness, the subjective result of the gospel and must happen internally.
Growth in godliness is not generated by conformity to any external code.
Having the appearance of godliness without godliness is a trait that Paul warns the church about in 2 Timothy 3:5.
True sanctification, true growth in holiness, is internal. It will manifest itself on the outside.
Matthew 12:33 - The tree is know by its fruit. But the tree creates the fruit; the fruit does not create the tree.
Edward Fisher - External conformity to rules without an internal reality fueling it is akin to watering every part of a tree except its roots and expecting it to grow.
Sanctification by Justification
Inside-out sanctification is largely fed by daily appropriation of outside-in justification.
I can’t crowbar my own change, I can only be melted into something else.
Looking away from myself and toward the work of Christ on my behalf softens my heart.
Justification is the doctrine where the sheer gratuity of the grace stands clearest.
I can grow by going deeper into the justification that forgave me in the first place.
We can grow when we put our sanctification in the light of our justification.
Thomas Adams - “Justification by sanctification is man’s way to heaven….Sanctificatoin by justification is God’s.
Justification and Fear
Growing in Christ is coming back time and time again to justification to do chemo on the remaining malignancies of our craving for human approval. Don’t let the fear of other’s approval get in the way.
Don’t put yourself back in prison. Jesus freed me.
Don’t build my sense of self around other people’s viewpoints or feedback.
Justification frees me from fear of judgement.
Use the gospel not as a spark plug to ignite, but as the engine to sustain.
Go into everything already justified. Not just in my mind but in my gut. Be a world shaker.
Justification and Idolatry
Idolatry is the flip side to justification by faith.
What in my life is competing for my hearts’ deepest loyalty? Are those things displacing Jesus?
Who will I allow to have a verdict over me? Someone created or the Creator?
Idols are not simply what we worship, but what we trust. To break any other of the 10 commandments is to break the 1st.
Let Jesus dignify and justify me. Nothing else can.
