From Gospel Translations

Dibenarkan Oleh Yesus

Sebelum Martin Luther menjadi terkenal karena peran pentingnya dalam Reformasi, ia dikenal seluruh Eropa sebagai seorang pelajar hukum yang brilian. Yang paling banyak mempengaruhi pendeta pengikut Agustinus ini adalah pembelajarannya akan hukum Allah di dalam Firman Tuhan. Saat ia merenungkan perintah-perintah Allah, ia menjadi sangat menyadari murka Allah. Setiap kali ia mempelajari pribadi dan pekerjaan Yesus Kristus ia mengenal inilah Yang benar yang pada akhirnya akan menghakiminya.

Kesadaran yang terus menerus itu merongrong Luther dengan perasaan bersalah yang tak terbendung. Sementara rekan-rekannya menghabiskan beberapa menit untuk mengaku dosa, ia menghabiskan berjam-jam. Sebagian orang mengira bahwa mentalnya tidak stabil.

Teolog Anthony Hoekema menggambarkan kesedihan mental itu membawa pada penemuan teologi besar Luther:

Martin Luther telah mencoba segalanya: tidur di atas lantai yang keras, tidak makan, bahkan menaiki sebuah tangga di Roma dengan tangan dan lututnya – tapi tidak berhasil. Para gurunya di biara memberitahunya bahwa ia telah melakukan cukup untuk mendapatkan kedamaian jiwa. Tapi ia tidak memiliki damai. Kesadarannya akan dosa terlalu dalam.

Ia telah mempelajari kitab Mazmur. Kitab ini sering menyebut “kebenaran Tuhan.” Tapi istilah ini mengganggunya. Ia mengira itu berarti kebenaran Tuhan yang menghukum, dimana Ia menghukum orang berdosa. Dan Luther mengetahui ia adalah orang berdosa. Jadi manakala ia melihat kata kebenaran di dalam Alkitab, ia melihat merah.

Pada suatu hari ia membuka kitab Roma. Di sana ia membaca tentang injil Kristus yang adalah kekuatan Allah untuk keselamatan (1:16). Ini adalah sebuah kabar baik! Tetapi ayat selanjutnya berkata, “Sebab di dalamnya nyata kebenaran Allah“- ada kata buruk kebenaran itu lagi! Dan depresi Luther kembali lagi. Hal itu menjadi lebih buruk ketika ia meneruskan membaca tentang murka Allah nyata dari sorga atas segala kefasikan dan kelaliman manusia (ayat 18).

Maka Luther kembali ke ayat 17 lagi. Bagaimana bisa Paulus menuliskan kata-kata mengerikan seperti itu?...Tiba-tiba pencerahan datang padanya. “Kebenaran Tuhan” yang Paulus maksud di sini bukanlah keadilan Tuhan yang bersifat menghukum yang membuatNya menghukum orang berdosa, melainkan kebenaran yang Tuhan berikan kepada orang berdosa yang membutuhkan, dan yang orang berdosa itu terima dengan iman. Ini adalah kebenaran yang sempurna dan tidak bercacat, didapatkan oleh Kristus, yang dengan kemurahan Tuhan berikan pada semua yang percaya. Luther tidak perlu lagi mencari dasar untuk kedamaian jiwa di dalam dirinya, di dalam perbuatan baiknya sendiri. Sekarang ia dapat melihat lepas dari dirinya sendiri dan melihat kepada Kristus, hidup dengan iman daripada bersembunyi dalam ketakutan. Pada saat itulah Reformasi Protestan lahir.^[1]

Luther melanjutkan dengan berkata bahwa doktrin pembenaran adalah doktrin yang olehnya Gereja berdiri atau jatuh. “Doktrin ini merupakan kepala dan batu penjuru Gereja yang melahirkan, memelihara, membangun dan melindungi Gereja. Tanpanya gereja Tuhan tidak dapat bertahan hidup untuk satu jam.” [2]Di poin yang lain ia menambahkan, “Bila doktrin pembenaran ini hilang, maka semua doktrin kekristenan yang benar hilang.”[3]

Ketakutan Luther akan murka Allah telah dibenarkan, seperti kita pelajari di bab sebelumnya. Semua orang Kristen harus mengingat siapa dan apa mereka sebelumnya: jahat dalam perilaku mereka, musuh Allah, sepenuhnya terasing dari-Nya, dan sasaran kemarahan-Nya. Tetapi mengenali masa lalu hanya memiliki nilai sejauh hal itu membuat kita menyadari dan mengagumi akan posisi kita sekarang di dalam Kristus. Kita harus mengenali siapa kita sekarang karena hadiah kemurahan Tuhan akan pembenaran.

Mereka yang telah menerima pekerjaan pembenaran Kristus mengalami sebuah perubahan yang dramatis dan luar biasa. Kita telah dibenarkan karena iman melalui anugerah yang besar dari Allah yang Maha Kuasa. Tanpa pengetahuan yang akurat dan pengetahuan yang datang dari pengalaman tentang pembenaran Gereja “tidak dapat bertahan hidup untuk satu jam”…sedikitnya tidak dengan keotentikan. Kita pun juga tidak.

Posisi atau Proses?

Pembenaran adalah istilah resmi yang berarti “mendeklarasikan benar.” Hoekema mendefinisikan pembenaran sebagai “perubahan permanen dalam hubungan yuridis kita dengan Tuhan dimana kita diampuni dari tuduhan bersalah, dan dimana Tuhan mengampuni semua dosa-dosa kita di atas dasar pekerjaan Yesus Kristus yang telah tergenapi.”[4]Walaupun kita bersalah di hadapan Hakim semesta yang kudus, setelah melanggar hukum-Nya dan layak menerima murka-Nya, Ia telah mendeklarasikan kita sebagai benar. Bagaimana? Atas dasar apa yang Yesus Kristus telah capai di Kayu Salib. Hanya Salib dapat membuat kita dapat diterima di hadapan Allah. 

Pembenaran adalah sebuah hadiah yang kita terima dari Tuhan, bukan sesuatu yang kita peroleh atau capai. Kita tidak bertanggung jawan ataupun mampu untuk menyumbang bagi pembenaran kita di hadapan Tuhan. Status benar ini tidak bisa dicapai atau dilayakan, hanya diterima dan dihargai. Kita menerima apa yang Kristus dan Kristus sendiri capai untuk kita.

Untuk dapat sepenuhnya mengerti akan kebenaran yang ajaib ini, adalah esensial kita membedakan pembenaran (justification) dan penyucian (sanctification). Walaupun kedua doktrin ini tidak dapat dipisahkan, kita harus membedakan antara perannya masing-masing di dalam kehidupan iman.

Justification means we are declared righteous. Sanctification means we are being made righteous. (Comprehend that difference alone and your life will never be the same!) Justification is the gift of righteousness; sanctification is the practice of righteousness. Perhaps most critically, justification is a position —established immediately and completely upon conversion— whereas sanctification is a process of internal change and character development that begins at regeneration and continues as long as we live. “In Scripture,” writes Sinclair Ferguson, “to justify does not mean to make righteous in the sense of changing a person’s character. It means to constitute righteous and to do so by declaration.”[5]

Justification isn’t a process. It is a declaration, a divine decree which cannot be challenged, altered, or appealed. Paul emphatically states, “Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ro 5:1, emphasis added). This glorious transformation doesn’t take place by degrees, nor does it fluctuate. You’re not more justified during certain periods than you are at others. You’ll never be more justified than you are at this time. That’s worth repeating: You’ll never be more justified than you are at this time. To top it off, no one in history has ever been more justified than you are now. Not Martin Luther, not Paul—nobody.

Numerous Christians confuse the doctrines of justification and sanctification and are subsequently robbed of the full benefits this great salvation entails. It is imperative that we understand the difference between our position (justification) and our practice (sanctification). While sanctification is both the evidence and objective of our justification, it should never be viewed as the grounds for our justification before God, regardless of how mature we become. We are incapable of adding to what Christ has accomplished. As Alister McGrath states, “The only thing we could really be said to contribute to our justification is the sin God so graciously forgives.” We are justified by grace alone.[6]

Frustrating and Futile

The doctrine of justification needs to be constantly reinforced and reviewed, as Martin Luther was well aware. His typically blunt advice? “Beat it into their heads continually.”^[7]In addition to such persistent repetition from our leaders, we need to be applying and appreciating the truth of justification in our lives on a daily basis. If we don’t, we will find ourselves susceptible to one of the Church’s most subtle and serious enemies: legalism.

Legalism involves seeking to earn God’s acceptance through our own obedience. We only have two options: either receive righteousness as a God-given gift or try to generate our own. Legalism is the attempt to be justified through some source other than Jesus Christ and his finished work.

To adhere to legalism is to believe that the Cross was either unnecessary or insufficient (Gal 2:21, 5:2). That is an accurate interpretation of your motive and actions, even if you still ascribe mentally to the necessity of Christ’s sacrifice. In our legitimate pursuit of obedience and maturity legalism slowly and subtly overtakes us, and we begin to substitute our works for his finished work. The result is either arrogance or condemnation. Instead of growing in grace we abandon grace. That was Paul’s assessment of the Galatian church when he wrote, “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace” (Gal 5:4).

If you’ve ever attempted to live this way you may have learned by now that legalism is as futile as it is frustrating. Every legalistic attempt at righteousness inevitably ends in failure. Over the years I’ve learned to recognize some unmistakable signs of the presence of legalism. Here are a few of them:

• You are more aware of your past sin than of the person and finished work of Christ.
• You live thinking, believing, and feeling that God is disappointed with you rather than delighting in you. You assume God’s acceptance depends on your obedience.
• You lack joy. This is often the first indication of the presence of legalism. Condemnation is the result of pondering our deficiency; joy is the result of considering his sufficiency.

Have you been ensnared by the subtle presence of legalism? If so, beware. It tends to spread rather than remain restricted (Gal 5:9). Legalism must be removed.

The only effective way to uproot legalism is with the doctrine of justification. If you’ve neglected or ignored this doctrine, then take whatever dramatic action is necessary to change. Set aside time each day to review, rehearse, and rejoice in this great, objective, positional truth. Restrict your spiritual diet to the study of justification until you are certain of God’s acceptance, secure in his love, and free from legalism and condemnation.

When we think of Christ dying on the Cross we are shown the lengths to which God’s love goes in order to win us back to himself…He is saying to us: I love you this much…The Cross is the heart of the gospel. It makes the gospel good news: Christ died for us. He has stood in our place before God’s judgment seat. He has borne our sins. God has done something on the Cross we could never do for ourselves…The reason we lack assurance of his grace is because we fail to focus on that spot where he has revealed it.^[8]

Where will you focus your attention? Will it be on past sin, your present emotional state, or areas of character in which you still need to grow? Or will you focus on the finished work of Christ? Legalism need not motivate you. Condemnation need not torment you. God has justified you.

===Don’t Argue with the Judge === Intellectually understanding the doctrine of justification is in itself insufficient. God intends that we be transformed— totally, genuinely, and permanently transformed by this central doctrine. J.I. Packer has insightfully stated, “The issue is not, can one state the doctrine with full biblical accuracy (that, as we have seen, is a task that demands care), but, does one know its reality in experience.”^[9]

Our goal in writing this book is not primarily that you learn how to articulate this great doctrine but that you be changed by it, that your understanding results in personal freedom from legalism and condemnation as well as an ever-increasing passion and love for Jesus Christ. It’s possible to be aware of justification by grace without being personally affected. We need to appreciate and apply this magnificent truth each and every day.

The story I’m about to relate has been a powerful lesson for me as I have sought to appropriate the doctrine of justification. During my pre-conversion days as a college freshman I was arrested for possession of marijuana. The details of the trial are still vivid in my mind. As I sat in the courtroom facing the judge, I tried my best to look both sincere and sorrowful, but I was just scared. I knew there was an excellent chance that I would be convicted and even charged with additional violations.

As it turned out, my case never progressed beyond the first witness. Because officials had searched my dorm room without the necessary legal documents, argued my lawyer, the court would have to drop the charge.

The judge sat listening stoically as the prosecution objected and reiterated the evidence against me. Finally, he looked down at me. The man was obviously frustrated. Powerless to give anything more than a reprimand, he lectured me in the strongest possible terms. I tried to appear contrite. I nodded my head at each statem e n t. But I don’t remember a thing he said—I was too excited about the fact that he was going to let me go.

When I stood trial I knew I was guilty. I think everyone knew. But when the judge released me I didn’t argue with him. I didn’t appeal and plead with the judge to continue the case. I didn’t request that he overlook the legal technicality and allow the prosecution to proceed. For once, I gladly deferred to someone with greater authority. If the judge wanted to dismiss the violation, I would happily accept his decision.

Each of us stands guilty before the Judge of all. But our crime against him is in a totally different league than my misdemeanor. And though I escaped on a technicality, we have been declared righteous on the basis of Christ’s pre meditated and substitutionary sacrifice. Jesus Christ voluntarily and purposefully laid down his life so God could remain just while justifying the guilty—you and me. God has declared us righteous. All that remains is the issue of whether or not we will receive this pronouncement. The choice confronts us daily, often multiple times in a given day: Will we receive justification by faith because of the declaration by God, or will we allow condemnation and legalism to control us as we depend on our emotions and obedience?

Determine that your unstable and unpredictable emotions will not dictate or deceive you. Do not allow them to be the final authority in your life. Believe what God says about you. If you’re wise you will follow my example: Don’t argue with the Judge.

Forsaken for Our Forgiveness

The God who created you accepts you. His Son voluntarily faced the unimaginable horror of the Cross, forsaken by God the Father and by man, in order to justify you. He was forsaken so we might be forgiven. He experienced separation so we might forever be secure in God’s love. He endured the wrath of God so that we would never have to. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Ro 4:25). You have been justified!

Is it any wonder the Reformation changed Church history? There is no way to confine this doctrine. Once it is let loose it will change the life of every one it touches— including your own.

Group Discussion

1. On page 52 the author writes, “You’ll never be more justified than you are at this time.” What effect does this have on your efforts to live a life that pleases God?
2. Quietly meditate for a minute or two on the Cross. How do you think Jesus felt when he realized God had forsaken him?
3. Is it possible to focus too much on conforming to the image of Christ?
4. What makes legalism such a subtle heresy?
5. How can we balance the doctrines of justification and sanctification without tilting toward legalism or license?
6. What one thing can we contribute to our justification? (Hint: It’s nothing to brag about!)

Recommended Reading

The Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986)

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1994)

The Atonement by Leon Morris (Downwers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1984)

Notes

1. ↑ Anthony Hoekema, Saved by Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Co., 1989), p. 152.
2. ↑ Sinclair Ferguson, The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Introduction (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), p. 80.
3. ↑ John R.W. Stott, Only One Way: The Message of Galatians (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968), p. 60.
4. ↑ Anthony Hoekema, Saved by Grace, p. 178.
5. ↑ Sinclair Ferguson, The Christian Life, p. 72.
6. ↑ Alister McGrath, Justification by Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), p. 132.
7. ↑ John R.W. Stott, Only One Way, p. 59.
8. ↑ Sinclair Ferguson, Grow in Grace (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), p. 56, 58–59.
9. ↑ J.I. Packer, God’s Words: Studies of Key Bible Themes (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981), p. 147.