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April 26 – LD 17, Day 4: Jesus Raised for Our Justification
Friday the 26th of April
in Heidelberg Catechism Meditations
Romans 4:25, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
We turn now to the question, “What doth the resurrection of Christ profit us?” We now want to say something about the first profit mentioned, “First, by His resurrection He has overcome death that He might make us partakers of that righteousness which He had purchased for us by His death.”
Justification is the word used to describe God’s response to the death of Christ as the substitute for our sins. Literally it means, to make one just or right with God (righteous). When Jesus was on the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” That was His high priestly prayer for us and for all those for whom He died. He knew that if God would answer this prayer, He would descend upon the cross and place upon Him the guilt of the sins of all those whom the Father gave to Him. The Father would deal with him as the guilty sinner. This took place; it explains the hellish wrath and suffering Jesus bore on the cross. At the end, He said, “It is finished”. God did pour out on Him His hellish wrath and He bore it all, even to the end. Hence His atonement for sin was finished. The Father agreed and received Him into His presence in heaven that very day.
Nothing proves this so much as the Father’s response to raise Jesus from the dead. It was God’s answer to Jesus’ cry, “Finished”. After His body rested for parts of three days in the grave, God reached down and raised the body of Jesus from the dead. Yes, Jesus arose in power and glory. From God’s point of view, He raised His Son. He did that for our justification. God declared in this act of resurrection that He accepted Jesus’ suffering and death as the substitute for His people and now declared to all those for whom Jesus died that they are right with God because of what Jesus had done for them.
The resurrection is the legal declaration from God as Judge that the debt of sin has been paid.
It becomes ours through faith in this God, in Jesus His Son, by which we confess we are right with God only through the perfect work of Jesus.
Is this your faith?
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