Rome and the Reformers both declared that a man is justified by God’s work of grace. It is all-important that we see the real contrast between the Roman and the Reformation faiths:

Rome	Reformation
Justified by God’s work of grace in man.	Justified by God’s work of grace in Christ.

The real difference between Rome and the Reformation was in fundamental emphasis. Romanism is essentially subjective – it is man-centered, experience-centered. The Reformation faith was objective – it was Christ-centered.

The focal point of Catholic theology is God’s work of grace within human experience. That is why it is so devastating to Christian freedom. Man is a prisoner because his own experience has become the center of his concern.

Catholic doctrine adds despair to grief by basing a man’s standing with God on what grace does within him.

If a man’s acceptance and right standing with God depend upon God’s grace within his own heart, then he must ask himself, “How much grace must I have operative in me before I can stand justified before God? How prayerful, repentant, loving or obedient must grace make me before God can accept me?” This was the problem that confronted that devout Augustinian monk, Martin Luther. While he based his right standing with God on God’s work of grace in his heart, he could never be sure that he had enough of God’s grace in his heart. In fact, the more he looked within his own experience to find a basis of his acceptance with God, the more he was tormented by the sight of his own sinfulness.

Then came the enlightenment of the gospel in the rediscovery of Paul’s doctrine of justification. Says the apostle: “. . . being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 3:24. The New English Bible translates the passage: “. . . all are justified by God’s free grace alone, through His act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus.” This shows us that rather than being justified by what God does within us, we are justified by what God did altogether outside of us. God accomplished His act of liberation for all men in Jesus Christ. Here is the dividing of the way between Rome and the Reformation. Rome declares that a man is justified by God’s work of grace in his heart. The Reformation declares that a man is justified by God’s work of grace in Jesus Christ.

Christ, Our Everlasting Father

How did we become sinners before God? The answer to this question throws great light on the vital question, How do we become righteous before God?

Paul’s doctrine is this: We did not become sinners before God by something that happened within us. We became sinners because of something that happened outside of us, in another person altogether. “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” Rom. 5:19. Adam was our first father. He stood as our federal head. The whole human family was constituted in him. When he fell, it was the same as if every man had fallen. This is Paul’s argument in Romans 5:15-19: One man’s offence brought death and condemnation upon many. Other translations read “the many,” “the whole race.”

The tragedy of the fall and condemnation of the whole human race in Adam was the outworking of the law of fatherhood. Children share the lot of the father. The Canaanite children were destroyed along with their parents. Achan’s family died because of the father’s covetousness. Even in secular life, if a wealthy father loses his property in business reverses, the children are made poor in their father’s poverty.

Satan rejoiced at the fall of Adam — rejoiced because he won the whole human race in him. Now if Satan could cause the condemnation of all men in one man, could not God do the same thing in one Man? Indeed, this was the gospel mystery that took the devil by surprise.

God reversed the fall of Adam by giving the human race another Father, as it is written, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isa. 9:6. We do not generally think of Christ as being our Father, but this is exactly as Paul presents Him who became “the second Adam.” God gave His only-begotten Son to be our Everlasting Father.

Just as the whole race was comprehended in Adam, God comprehended all humanity in His Son. Jesus became the new Head, the Representative, the Father of the fallen race.

Christ’s Victory Is Every Man’s Victory

The law of fatherhood applies not only negatively for bad, but positively for good. Children are constituted clean by the believing parent (1 Cor. 7:14).

NKJ 1 Corinthians 7:14 “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.”

Even in secular life, children participate in the happy fortune of the father. If he comes into possession of great wealth, the children rejoice, exclaiming, “We are rich!” If he buys a shiny new automobile, the children say, “We have a new car.” And they say all this as if it is their perfect right (as indeed it is), even though it was entirely their father’s work without their help, that procured it all.

When Jesus became our new Father, He undertook the responsibility of keeping the law of God perfectly for us. As our Head and Representative, He rendered to the law an obedience that in every way measured with its infinite claims. We must see that before God and the bar of eternal justice, Christ stood as if He were every man. All humanity was constituted in Him. Thus His obedience was every man’s obedience. It was the same as if every man had personally kept the law of God with the same infinite perfection as Jesus Christ. So Paul says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many [literally, the many, i.e., the whole race) were made [or constituted] sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many [the many) be made righteous.” Rom. 5:19.

Thus it is forever settled that only the obedience rendered personally by Jesus Christ makes us righteous in the sight of God. Just as we were made sinners by an act of disobedience outside of us, so we are given right standing with God by an obedience outside of us – even by the personal doing of Jesus Christ.

Christ’s obedience was more than His holy living. It included His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). When Christ consented to become our Father, He assumed the debt accruing to all our delinquencies. For instance, if children damage your property, you seek justice by dealing with their father. You may rightfully ask him to pay for all the damage done by his children.

What love caused Christ to become our Father, and thus to assume the full extent of our debt! As Luther put it:

“Our most merciful Father, seeing us to be oppressed and overwhelmed with the curse of the law, and so to be holden under the same that we could never be delivered from it by our own power, sent His Son into the world and laid upon Him all the sins of all men, saying: Be thou Peter that denier; Paul that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor; David that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the apple in Paradise; that thief that hanged upon the cross; and briefly, be thou the Person which hath committed the sins of all men; see therefore that thou pay and satisfy for them. Here now cometh the law and saith: I find Him a sinner, and that such an one as hath taken upon Him the sins of all men, and I see no sins but in Him. Therefore let Him die upon the cross. And so he setteth upon Him and killeth Him. By this means the whole world is purged and cleansed from all sins, and so delivered from death and all evils. Now sin and death being abolished by this one man, God would see nothing else in the whole world, especially if it did believe, but a mere cleansing and righteousness.”—Commentary on Galatians, p.272.

The apostle Paul declares, “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then were all dead.” 2 Cor. 5:14. By this precious statement, the apostle means to say that since Christ died, it is the same as if all men had suffered death for their sins.

Christ’s victory is every man’s victory if he will but believe and accept it. Christ has vanquished. This is the joyful news. Our everlasting Father has restored all that was lost in Adam.

Objective Justification

The gospel is the good news of what God has done for all men in Jesus Christ. He has accomplished our act of liberation in the Person of His Son. While we were ungodly, without strength, and enemies in our minds by wicked works, God wrought out our complete salvation in our great Head. He placed our sins upon Christ, punished them in Christ and put them away by Christ. So Paul declares, “…[He] was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Rom. 4:25. Some translations read that He was raised again “because of our justification.” This means that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was God’s witness that He had forgiven all men in Jesus Christ. If there were one sin left for which atonement had not been made, if there were one transgression for which Christ had not made full satisfaction. He would still be a prisoner in Joseph’s tomb. But the gospel proclaims, “Christ is risen! The tomb is empty! God has liberated you from all sin in Christ!” This is why the resurrection was the dynamic of the apostolic message.

Then in the fifth chapter of Romans, Paul continues, “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.” Rom. 5:18.

The resurrection is the witness that in Jesus Christ the entire human family has been justified. Liberation, forgiveness and redemption are accomplished realities in Jesus Christ. For if we can confess that we were made sinners by the disobedience of our first father, how “much more” (to use Paul’s expression) should we now confess that God has made us righteous and accepted in the Beloved. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He ascended as our Representative. It was the same as if we had gone into heaven. Did God receive Him? He received Him with great joy. He glorified Him with glory impossible to describe. He seated Him on His right hand far above the angels. But we must see that all this was done for humanity. It was the same as if God had already done this for all of us. In Christ humanity is not only pardoned but promoted, not only justified but glorified.

This is the good news of the gospel. It is good news for poor, struggling sinners. They need no longer look within their own experience for anything on which to base their hope of acceptance with God. God has already reconciled the whole rebellious world to Himself in the death of Jesus Christ. As surely as Jesus has been given to every lost sinner, just so surely has pardon and justification passed upon all men by God’s gracious Gift. Every sinner may respond to the gospel, saying, “In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” Isa. 45:24.

The declaration of what God has done in the uplifted Christ creates faith in the heart of a sinner. And it is by faith that every sinner may possess his Possession and know the peace and assurance in the certainty of right standing with God on the basis of what grace has already done for all men in Jesus Christ.