The Case for Faith Alone VS. Eastern Orthodoxy

[00:00:00]We're talking on the topic of justification by faith alone. Peace.

[00:00:05]Peace. Wonderful peace. We want peace between families. We want peace between communities. We want peace between countries. But most importantly, we want peace with God. But how can we have peace with God? Out of all the topics in the world, being right with God is the most important. Why? was as Jesus himself said, "What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What shall a man give in return for his soul?" Even if you are a trillionaire right now, if you forfeit your soul and end up in hell, you gain nothing. So, this talk is not about trivialities. So, in this talk, I'm going to be looking at what the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches is the way to be justified and compare that to the biblical doctrine of justification.

[00:00:51]And we'll also be looking at common ways people mess up justification and how our view on this doctrine affects our personal assurance. So let's look at the Eastern Orthodox view. The Senate of Jerusalem in 1672 is a council that is universally accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Church not only historically but even to this day. And this is shown by the fact that this 1672 council was listed among the councils of quote universal authority at the recent pan orthodox council of 2016.

[00:01:25]And so this senate of Jerusalem of 1672 agreed to the confession of dissius which was in response to the confession of Sirilicaris who was an ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople in the early 1600s. He was an Orthodox patriarch who sided with a lot of Protestant doctrines and his confession caused a firestorm of backlash. And so this confession of Dytheus is a response to Sir Licaris and it's the authoritative position of the Eastern Orthodox Church today. Let's dive into it.

[00:02:00]Decree three of the confession of dyia says but to say as the most wicked heretics do and as is contained in the chapter of Sirill's confession to which this answers that God in predestining or condemning did not consider in any way the works of those predestined or condemned we know to be profane and impious. For thus scripture would be opposed to itself, since it promises the believer salvation through works, and to teach him how he may cooperate with it if he will and do what is good and acceptable, and so obtain salvation. So, do you hear what it's saying? It's saying that the scripture promises believers salvation through works and that if he'll do what is good and acceptable, then he'll obtain salvation.

[00:02:50]Notice that they don't even hide it in the Eastern Orthodox authoritative confessions. They say a believer obtains salvation through works by doing what's good and acceptable. And this would give a person a huge reason to boast before God. And it's in direct contradiction to Ephesians 28-10, which says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Notice how good works are what we're saved for, but not by. This is something that the Apostle Paul stresses not just here, but also in a lot of his letters. The confession of Dyus goes on in decree 9 to say, "We believe that no one can be saved without faith. By faith we mean the right notion that is in us concerning God and divine things which working by love that is to say by keeping the divine commandments justifies us with Christ and without this faith it is impossible to please God. So they speak on the necessity of faith but then seem to have a mental ascent kind of faith. They say right notion concerning God and divine things.

[00:04:10]That sounds like just having right facts in your brain. But that's not what faith is defined biblically. Faith is not just knowing some facts about Jesus that he died and rose from the dead. The devil knows those facts to be true. It's about trusting in Jesus, seeing that his work on the cross is completely sufficient to save you and so therefore being assured of eternal life. As Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. the conviction of things not seen. Jesus has promised eternal life to anyone who believes. So trusting in Jesus is being fully convinced that you're going to heaven only because of what Jesus has done for you and not based on any of your commandment keeping or good works. But what did we see decree 9 saying? Faith which working by love that is to say by keeping the divine commandments justifies us with Christ. So they think keeping the divine commandments along with some right facts in your brain justifies us with Christ.

[00:05:11]That's literally salvation by lawkeeping. And that's not a free gift.

[00:05:15]Imagine if you were drowning and a lifeguard says, "I'll save you, but only if you swim half the distance yourself."

[00:05:23]At that point, your rescue is partly dependent upon your own effort. If justification depended on lawkeeping alongside faith, then salvation is no longer resting entirely on Christ's finished work. It's basically to say that Christ is not enough. And compare that to Titus 3:5. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. or Romans 3:2828, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

[00:06:01]Notice it wasn't by lawkeeping that he saved us. It was purely by faith. In fact, Paul had to consider all his lawkeeping as filthy rags in order to gain Christ. We see this in Philippians chapter 3 when Paul lists all his achievements, things that he could boast in. He lists circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

[00:06:38]Look at all these achievements. And yet, in order to gain Jesus, he has to count all these things as loss. Let's have a look in the next verse. But whatever gain I had, I count it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. You see the middle highlighted part here? He said he had to count all these things as rubbish in order to gain Christ. Meaning, if he didn't count those things as rubbish, he wouldn't have gained Christ.

[00:07:29]So, we come to Christ empty-handed and we just take hold of the righteousness available to us through faith. And so, if decree 9 is saying that keeping the divine commandments justifies us, the Apostle Paul would greatly disagree. And that's a very major person to disagree with, particularly as he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But I've got some more of the confession of Dyius to show you coming up. But I do have to ask this important question. Do we even keep the divine commandments? If we're honest with ourselves, the answer is a clear and resounding no. Think about the amount of times you've had a lustful thought. being angry or rude, jealous or prayerless, proud or lazy, failing to do the good you ought to do, and repeatedly doing the things you shouldn't do. That's exactly what Paul described about himself in Romans 7:19.

[00:08:24]For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. So if even the Apostle Paul, the one who was considered the hardest working apostle, failed to do things he knew he should do and did things he knew he shouldn't, then we're really kidding ourselves to think that we keep the divine commandments. James 2:10 says, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it." So just breaking one of God's laws makes you guilty of the entire thing and it makes you a transgressor.

[00:08:59]If someone kept every law in society, but then they just do one crime, what are they? A lawb breaker. So if someone kept every law of God, but they do one sin, let's say they told one lie, what are they? A lawb breaker in God's eyes, criminals before him. And you wouldn't consider that person someone who's kept the divine commandments, but you consider them as someone who's broken them. And so if the way of salvation was what the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches, none of us would make it.

[00:09:29]Galatians 3:10 says, "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.

[00:09:35]For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them."

[00:09:43]He's saying, "If you want to rely on the law, you need to keep everything it says. And if you don't, you're under a curse." He goes on to say, "Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith, but the law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them." So the very error that Paul refutes in Galatians is what the Eastern Orthodox Church thinks is the way to be justified. The Galatians were adding lawkeeping for justification. So does the Eastern Orthodox Church.

[00:10:20]When a criminal breaks the law and is found guilty, they have that crime on their record, a mark against their name for life. And since we've broken God's law, we have a mark on our record. As Colossians 2:14 says, a record of debt.

[00:10:38]And no amount of future obedience to God's law gets rid of that debt. That record. It's like driving through a red light and you get a fine for that. But then you say to yourself, "I'll drive through the next 50 green lights."

[00:10:52]It doesn't fix the fine you've got. It doesn't remove the record of your offense. And so, what is our solution?

[00:11:00]It's Jesus. Colossians 2:13 says this.

[00:11:05]and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling that record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

[00:11:20]This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. This is why the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone is so beautiful. We can't keep God's standard, but Jesus has on our behalf. God is not infusing a bit of righteousness into us and then we have to cooperate, work well enough to keep it pure, keep it good, otherwise we're lost. No, God counts us as righteous. Not with a righteousness that's our own, not some sort of subjective change in us, but a legal declaration of not guilty, positively righteous. Justification is God's verdict upon the sinner. It's a courtroom term, not a medical term. It is not God gradually making us righteous. It's God declaring us righteous because of Christ. Yes, we also do believe in regeneration and sanctification. Those are ways that God does change us. Regeneration is God giving us a new heart with new desires.

[00:12:22]And progressive sanctification is God making us gradually more and more like Jesus every day. But justification is not the gradual growth in holiness. It's a pronouncement of not guilty. How can God justly do that if we are guilty of breaking the divine commandments?

[00:12:40]Because we do know that scripture says, "He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord." But if God is justifying the ungodly, as Romans 4:5 says, isn't he doing exactly that? He's justifying the wicked. He is, but it's not wrong. And before I tell you why, I just want to notice in this verse in Proverbs 17:15, this verse debunks the idea that justification is a subjective change of morality in the person or some sort of infusion of righteousness. I raise this because the Eastern Orthodox Church will say that justification mainly is transformative, making the individual a better person.

[00:13:25]But if justify meant to make someone imwardly righteous or morally good, this verse would make little sense because what would be wrong with transforming a wicked person and making him good? In fact, that's exactly what God does in the process of sanctification as taught throughout the New Testament. But that is not the point of Proverbs 17:15. The verse is not speaking about an inner transformation. Rather, it refers to the act of declaring a wicked person to be righteous or declaring an innocent person to be guilty. Both actions are detestable to God because they are legal judgments that misrepresent the truth.

[00:14:04]Therefore, both justify and condemn are being used in a judicial sense. And this is the same sense that Paul is using the word justify in the New Testament.

[00:14:16]Biblical scholar Leon Morris said this.

[00:14:19]It is sometimes argued that the verb normally translated to justify, do means to make righteous rather than to declare righteous. But this agrees neither with the words formation nor with its usage.

[00:14:34]Verbs ending in O in referring to moral qualities have a declarative sense. They do not mean to make and the usage is never for the transformation of the accused. It always refers to a declaration of his innocence.

[00:14:50]So how can God justify the wicked, declare them innocent if they're guilty of sinning?

[00:14:57]Because Christ, the righteous, got condemned on their behalf. 1 Peter 3:18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous, which is Jesus, for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. We're the unrighteous in that verse. The law puts a person under a curse because we can't keep it, and it demands perfection. But Christ became the curse for us by hanging on that tree. His death satisfies the justice of God and allows wicked people to be counted as righteous. So the redeemed person is not getting justice. He's getting mercy. Friends, you don't want justice. That's you and I going to hell.

[00:15:42]We want mercy, don't we? And in order for God to remain just and the justifier of the one who is faith in Jesus, God put Christ forward as a propitiation by his blood. What propitiation means? It means a wrathabsorbing sacrifice. God's wrath, his justice was satisfied by Jesus being offered in our place. It's like a fine. Let's say you had $1,000 you must pay for a crime you did. No amount of writing letters to the government. No amount of saying, "Look, I'll be better from now on." will ever remove that fine. It must be paid either by you or by someone else who could choose to pay it on your behalf. And Jesus was the one who volunteered to pay our hell debt, take our punishment. A lot of people think if I pray enough, regret my sins enough, ask for forgiveness continually, or just be better from now on, that that'll remove the punishment they deserve for their sins. It will not work. It doesn't remove past wrongdoings we've done, just like in the fine example. And so this makes me think of the hymn Rock of Ages, which says, "Not the labors of my hands can fulfill your Lord's demands. Could my zeal no restbite? No. Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. You must save and you alone." Doesn't that sound far more amazing than decree 9?

[00:17:13]Oh, and wait up. Decree 13 is coming up.

[00:17:17]But this doctrine of justification by faith alone is not just for those in ivory towers. This is for you and for me, the ordinary person, the one who realizes his own inability to save himself. And so we flee to the savior who's done everything to save us. Now there were two things that Jesus accomplished on the cross for believers.

[00:17:40]Firstly, our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross. And secondly, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. He took what was ours and we receive what is his. Therefore, when God looks upon the believer, he sees someone clothed in the perfect righteousness of his son. It makes me think of 2 Corinthians 5:21.

[00:18:03]For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That's saying Jesus was treated on the cross as though he did every one of our sins so that we could be treated as though we lived Jesus's perfect life. Think about that for a moment. He's treating us, yes, us, as though we have never sinned.

[00:18:28]And he's treating us for all eternity as if we did all the righteous things Jesus did.

[00:18:36]Wow. So why can I, a sinful creature, stand accepted before a holy God? It's not because my faith is so strong. Is it because my works are so splendid? No. My church attendance is on point? No. My participation in the divine life is consistent? No. It's Jesus. He's my righteousness.

[00:18:59]The believer in Christ does not live wondering whether he's done enough, obeyed enough, or loved enough to remain justified. His confidence rests entirely outside of himself in the finished work of Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox Church will usually say justification is a process, not something that happens in an instant. But Paul speaks about justification as something that's happened already for a believer. And it happened at the moment of faith. Look at Romans 5:1. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:19:34]Notice it's past tense. We have been justified. Not present tense. We are still being justified. And it happened at by faith. For Paul, the timing of justification and it being instantaneous is really important because without it happening in an instant, his argument falls apart. In Romans 4, he uses Abraham as it his exhibit a to show the instantaneous nature of justification and that it's by faith and not works. In Romans 4:2, he says, "If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."

[00:20:19]Notice, if justification happened how the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches it, it gives a person a reason to boast. And not just for Abraham, but for anyone would all have a reason to boast if our works played a part in justifying us.

[00:20:34]But Paul describes Abraham believing in a moment in Genesis 15:6, believing a promise that God gave to him and at that very moment being counted as righteous.

[00:20:47]Now, an Eastern Orthodox person may protest by saying, "But Abraham had three chapters of works prior to Genesis 15." So clearly he's being justified by his works. Even though we do see Abraham doing works in those chapters prior, we don't see him being counted as righteous on the basis of those works. It was only once he believed the specific promise of offspring as many as the stars of the sky in Genesis 15 did God count his faith to him as righteousness. We have to go with what the text says. So justification for Abraham didn't happen in Genesis 12 when he was told to leave his homeland. Nor did it happen in Genesis 17 when he got circumcised or 22 when he was told to sacrifice his own son. It was in Genesis 15.

[00:21:36]To support his argument on why it is not on the basis of any works Abraham did, Paul asked this question in Romans 4:10.

[00:21:45]How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised?

[00:21:51]It was not after, but before he was circumcised. If justification was a lifelong process for Abraham, then Paul's question makes no sense because it was completed prior to circumcision.

[00:22:03]And Paul never speaks about it as an ongoing thing, as if it started but not completed until glorification. No, it's done the moment Abraham believed.

[00:22:16]But what about James? I can almost hear my Eastern Orthodox friends saying that.

[00:22:21]Don't worry. James agrees with justification by faith alone by the fact that he quotes the same Genesis 15:6 passage in James 2:23.

[00:22:32]So even according to James, at what moment was Abraham's faith counted to him as righteousness?

[00:22:39]The moment he believed God.

[00:22:43]But what about what it says in verse 24?

[00:22:46]You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Is he contradicting Paul here? No, not at all.

[00:22:55]When James mentions justification, he's talking about it in the sense of before people. Verse 18 makes that very clear.

[00:23:02]Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. People can really see Abraham as a man of faith by his willingness to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, which happened 30 to 40 years after Genesis 15. But was he only justified before God when he did that action? No. Since justification for Abraham happened before his circumcision, which is Genesis 17, which is clearly before Genesis 22, the sacrifice of Isaac chapter, James 2 is also making the point about how not all kinds of faith save. If someone just says they have faith, that kind of faith can't save.

[00:23:44]Look at verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? A faith which is merely an empty profession doesn't save because we believe the God who justifies a person has already regenerated them and begins to sanctify them. So you'll begin to see them you'll see them begin to walk in good works. Not perfectly and they'll still stumble into sin but as time goes on you'll see changes in their behavior.

[00:24:17]So yes, good works certainly follow justification, but they are a fruit of being accepted, not the cause of being accepted. They're an evidence of justification, but not the basis of it.

[00:24:28]The ground of our justification is Christ alone, and the means by which we receive it is by faith alone. Salvation is not a joint venture between Christ and the sinner. It is a gift purchased by Christ, accomplished by Christ, and received by faith in Christ.

[00:24:49]Let me give you an example. If your friend baked you a cake, they did all the work. And so, who deserves all the credit for making it? Your friend. You simply receive the benefits of their work by enjoying the cake. But since you didn't help bake it or contribute to its creation, you have no reason to boast.

[00:25:08]But if on the other hand, you and your friend cooperated together to bake the cake, then both of you share the glory for baking the cake, you both have a reason to boast about what you've accomplished together. It's synergistic, you might say, which is language the Eastern Orthodox Church uses. But God doesn't make salvation that way.

[00:25:28]Salvation is not a joint project between God and man, where God does his part and we contribute ours. Rather, Christ accomplishes everything necessary for our salvation, and we receive the benefits by faith alone. If our obedience, our commandment keeping or our cooperation formed any part of the basis upon which God would justify us, then we would have some reason to point to ourselves and say, "I helped secure my right standing before God." But scripture shuts the door on that completely. The sinner comes to God empty-handed. He brings no righteousness of his own, no merits, no deeds. He simply trusts in Christ who has already done everything required. The gospel is therefore not Christ made salvation possible. Now finish the rest. Christ is not merely a contributor to our salvation. He's its author and finisher.

[00:26:25]We receive the benefits, but he receives the praise. And because salvation rests entirely on Christ's work, the believer can have assurance. If salvation depended partly on us, we could never know whether we had done enough.

[00:26:42]Now Paul speaks about the exclusion of boasting in Romans 3:27 when he says, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded." Notice he says, "Our boasting is excluded. There's no reason for boasting because our works or obedience played no part. Because if they did play a part, even just an inch, then we would have a reason to boast.

[00:27:05]Remember Romans 4:2, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. But some will say, look, I would never boast about my works before God, but I still think my works are needed for my acceptance before him.

[00:27:20]But saying I don't boast in my works while believing your works are necessary for your acceptance is like saying I don't take credit for building the house while insisting that the house could not have been built without your contribution.

[00:27:37]If your works are part of the reason why God accepts you, they become part of your ground for boasting.

[00:27:45]And Paul says he can only boast in Christ what Christ has done.

[00:27:50]But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So if you think the difference between you ending up in heaven compared to going to hell depends on any of your works, you've got a reason to boast. And Paul says that God set up salvation in such a way that no human being might boast in the presence of God. So saying it's 99% Jesus and 1% your works is to not believe in a message of salvation by grace. In Romans 11:6 he says, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace." If it depend on works, it's not grace anymore. So then what does it depend on? If it's not works, faith. Romans 4:16. That is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace.

[00:28:46]Sometimes you'll hear people wanting to redefine faith to make it sound like works. We just can't do that. Faith is not something we do. It's a conviction we have. Remember Hebrews 11:1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Just like if you're resting, are you doing something? No. It's the opposite of doing something. You're not doing something. You're resting. And that's what faith is. It's the opposite of trying to merit your own salvation. It's the stopping of doing, the stopping of working to rest in the finished work of Jesus. And that's why it says in Romans 4:5, "And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." See, the person is not working just believing. Believing is the opposite to working. Well, later on in the same chapter, Paul describes Abraham's faith and what it meant that he believed God and it was counted as righteousness. Verse 21, it says that Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. So, what does faith mean here? Well, clearly it means to be fully convinced that God will keep his promises. It doesn't mean works.

[00:30:08]Faith in itself has no intrinsic worth.

[00:30:12]What matters is the object of our faith.

[00:30:15]As in who is our faith in? And we don't place our faith in faith. We don't think because of our great faith we're saved.

[00:30:23]That's placing faith in our faith. The saving power of faith is not in faith itself, but in the amazing savior upon whom it rests. Faith is simply the empty hand that receives what Christ has already purchased. The value is not in the hand itself but in the gift being received.

[00:30:43]And faith is not obedience. Some people say that it's impossible to have trust in somebody if you don't obey them also or obey them first. But that is just fundamentally incorrect. If someone promises to cut your grass, can you trust that they will do it without obeying them first? Of course you can.

[00:31:05]Now, if you do trust the person's promise and say they cut your grass as a free gift, it'll likely lead you to want to do good things for them. Just like if we trust in Jesus, it does result in us now having a desire to obey Jesus. But those good actions are a result of us having faith in Jesus but are distinct from what faith in Jesus truly is.

[00:31:27]Now others will say that we enter justification by faith and then we keep it by our works.

[00:31:36]But hold up, that's not a free gift of righteousness anymore. That's like being offered a gift of $50 on the condition of having to follow that person's rules into the future. That's not a gift.

[00:31:48]That's a performance-based contract.

[00:31:51]Instead, Paul says in Romans 5:2 that we enter and we stand in grace by faith. So, yes, we should flee from sin and yes, we shouldn't continue in sin that grace may abound, but future sins don't destroy the work of justification in a person. Future sins simply make God's grace abound for the believer, as Romans 5 says. Now the law came in to increase the trespass. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

[00:32:25]So when the sin count of a believer increases, in turn, it means God's grace increases because Jesus had to bear that sin on the cross. So that is precisely why a believer knowing that sin doesn't separate them from God can walk away from that sin saying, "Sin, you don't have dominion over me. I'm not enslaved to you anymore." And by the Spirit's power, they have a greater resistance to giving into sin. So justification by faith alone doesn't make us sin more. It makes us sin less. I have to say this because this is a charge that's often leveled against those who hold to justification by faith alone. They say, "If it's not based on your works or obedience at all, then why not sin, sin, sin?"

[00:33:14]To me, that's interestingly reveals the heart of those who push back with subjection. To me, it sounds like they have a love of sin themselves and that the only reason why they're not trying to sin is mainly because they're afraid they won't attain salvation if they did.

[00:33:29]But for believers, in justification by faith alone, God has opened our eyes to the disgusting nature of sin. We realize what it costs Jesus to save us. And so we don't seek to add to the cost.

[00:33:44]We simply obey out of gratitude and love to God for all that he has done for us.

[00:33:52]Yes, we aren't perfect, but God is growing us.

[00:33:56]Now, some people will object by saying, "If a person really has faith in Christ, but they still stumble into sin, it means that they don't have faith in Christ." But that's just not the case.

[00:34:08]For example, tomorrow if a Christian tells a lie, have they stopped trusting in Jesus for their salvation? No. Someone can still trust Jesus, his promise of salvation, and yet still stumble into sin, those two things are not incompatible.

[00:34:25]This, I think, will help many people who struggle with assurance because they often base their assurance on their current progress in sanctification rather than what God has declared or pronounced in regards to you.

[00:34:38]not guilty, righteous, not condemned.

[00:34:42]Nothing can change that. Not past sins, not present sins, nor future sins either. Because 100% of the punishment we deserve was taken by Jesus on the cross, leaving us with none left. God has pronounced a verdict on the believer already, not guilty. Just like if the Supreme Court makes a verdict, is there any higher court that can overturn that judgment? No. And so if God has justified a person, can that pronouncement be overturned? Well, there's no one higher than God. He's the standard. So, can anyone or anything condemn a person whom God is justified?

[00:35:20]This is the question that Paul asks in Romans 8. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?

[00:35:31]If the judge himself has already pronounced a not-uilty verdict for a person, would any charge stick against them? No. So, if the judge is not going to condemn the person, no one can condemn the person. And we don't just have the father on our side. We've got Christ Jesus who died, was raised, and is continually interceding for us. Any chance a believer might be condemned then? By whom? Who is there who could possibly do that? God is stronger than all the forces of the evil one combined, stronger than all creation, stronger than ourselves, stronger than any sin.

[00:36:10]And if the only one who could condemn us has justified us, we can say with the Apostle Paul, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for you, Christian, nothing can be against you that will really matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure, the world, the flesh, and the devil will be waring against you, trying to make you stumble, but none of those three enemies can condemn you. And if God has not even spared Jesus for you, and that he gave up Jesus for you, he's died for you, what will God not do for you? Would he give up Jesus for you and then fail to keep you? Would he fail to bring you to glorification if he's justified you?

[00:36:59]No, because the verse 30 says, "Those whom he justified, he also glorified."

[00:37:06]And even verse one says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And to top it all off, he concludes the chapter by saying that nothing can separate a believer from the love of God. Not even anything in time because he mentions the present and the future. Nor anything in space because he mentions nor height nor depth. Not anything in the spiritual realms because he mentions nor angels nor rulers nor powers. Nor anything else in all creation could separate a believer from the love of God. I don't see how Paul could be any more exhaustive in this list to make that point. So if somebody thinks, "Oh, but my future sin can separate me from God's love." That's covered under the present and the future. It's also covered under anything else in all creation because you're in creation. So that includes you.

[00:38:03]God's verdict of justified for a believer has been rendered. Nothing can undo it. And the God who justified us is the God who will keep us in the faith as well.

[00:38:16]Now, some people may object with, "Look, God won't kick you out, but you can walk away." But that flies in the face of scripture. Yes, there are people who profess to be Christian and then walk away from a profession of faith, but that isn't the same as a person possessing faith in Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 1, it says, "Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." So according to this verse, what is God going to do for the believer? Sustain them to the end. And what's the result of that? Well, on judgment day, they are guiltless. So clearly that means not condemned.

[00:38:56]In Jude 1, it says that believers are beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. He keeps us. In verse 24 of the same letter, he says, "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. He keeps and he and you're presented blameless before him." For an Eastern Orthodox person, they can't say there's no condemnation for them because they can't know if they've sufficiently kept the divine commandments. As soon as a person brings in an extra requirement on top of faith to be justified, it brings uncertainty for the person and it distorts the gospel of grace. Now let's go to decree 13 of the confession of Dyusius. And just a reminder, this is an accepted authoritative confession in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Decree 13 says, "We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but through faith which works through love, that is to say, through faith and works." Wow. Here we see the Eastern Orthodox Church explicitly rejecting justification by faith alone and opting to teach justification by faith and works. Now there are three options we have. Justification is either by faith alone, that is to say, faith and not works, or it's by faith and works, or it's by works alone. The Eastern Orthodox Church rightly rejects option three, as do we. It's not by works alone. But they also reject option one, which is clearly the biblical position.

[00:40:41]We've already seen how scripture teaches to the one who does not work but believes. That's the person whose faith is counted to him as righteousness. But even the verse following that that one I just cited, Romans 4:6, backs it up further by saying, "Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works." So, is righteousness counted along with works or apart from it?

[00:41:09]Scripture couldn't be clearer. It's apart from works. To deny faith alone is to basically say that Christ is not enough. Faith alone means trusting exclusively in Jesus to save us as opposed to our works in addition to that. And to say that faith in Christ isn't enough is to say that the merits of Jesus are not sufficient. Let me give you an example. If someone gives you a ticket to a concert, but you say, "I can't trust or rely just on that ticket alone to get me into the concert. I need to do 10 handstands at the gate, and only then will they let me in." That is to say, that the ticket is not sufficient.

[00:41:54]And so, if someone says, "I can't just rely on what Jesus did for me on the cross, paying for my sins to get me to heaven. I need to do this good work or that good work to be led in and pass maybe the demon toll houses as many Eastern Orthodox Church folks believe in is to say that the work of Jesus on the cross is insufficient to save. Or another example, if a friend says, "I will provide you skis for your skiing trip as a gift to you." But you say, "I don't think that their skis will be enough, so I'm going to make my own."

[00:42:27]And so you attempt to make your own skis. which obviously those skis are going to be terrible and not sufficient to ski on. And so when your friend sees you with your own failed homemade skis that aren't even straight, and he sees that you aren't willing to take them off your feet, he says, "Fine, I won't give you mine." Notice you then fail to receive the gift because you didn't think that your friend's skis would be sufficient. And so if we try and get justified by partly our works and partly by faith in what Jesus did, Jesus won't give you his righteousness. He will see your lack of willingness to recognize your own inability and will say, "I won't save you." Remember how Paul said he had to consider all his achievements, his own righteousness as rubbish in order to gain Christ. So if you think your works play a part in justifying you, Christ won't save you. Remember the people in Matthew 7:22.

[00:43:27]On that day, many will say to me, Jesus said,"Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you? Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." Look what these guys are trusting in to justify themselves. Faith and works. They still call Jesus Lord, but they also point to their works. I've prophesied. I've cast out demons. I've done mighty works.

[00:43:57]They're bringing one of their own skis.

[00:44:00]They've got one of their own skis on one foot and they want Jesus' ski for the other. And Jesus rejects them. He won't give them his skis as long as they're clinging to any of their own. He examines their ski and he sees as worthless. He sees them as workers of lawlessness because if we trust in any of our deeds for our justification, he judges us entirely on our deeds, our righteousness, and he finds it laden with sin. Because you only have to do one sin to be a worker of lawlessness because as first John says, all sin is lawlessness.

[00:44:38]The people in Matthew 7:22 are holding on to the to decree 13 of the confession of Dytheus because they still call Jesus Lord, have some kind of faith. It's just not faith alone. And so they're rejected.

[00:44:53]Don't be like them. You never want to hear the words, "Depart from me." So yes, do good works. Just don't think that your works, your acts of obedience play any part in your acceptance before God. And another good biblical example of the problem of bringing your own ski, your own works or righteousness to be justified is found in Galatians 5. Paul says that this church was departing to a another gospel. Now what was this other gospel? We know that Paul pronounced an anathema upon those who are preaching this other gospel.

[00:45:28]Were they saying trust in Buddha instead? Nope. Were they saying it's all about works, no need for faith in Jesus?

[00:45:37]No.

[00:45:39]The Galatians were affirming the necessity of faith in Jesus, just not the sufficiency of faith in Jesus. Just like decree 13, the Galatians were thinking that faith in Jesus was not enough to be justified, but that works also required to make it effective or real. For the Galatians, it was only one work that they were requiring, circumcision.

[00:46:03]Now, circumcision is not a pagan thing.

[00:46:06]It's in God's own divine law. So, it's a good thing. But a good command of God becomes a bad thing if it's made as a requirement for salvation if God doesn't say that it is. So in the letter to the Galatians, Paul has to refute this false gospel by saying three times even in the one verse Galatians 2:16 that we are justified by faith and not by works of the law. Paul's issue wasn't a Galatians, that's Old Testament stuff.

[00:46:36]We're in the New Covenant now. No. And it wasn't, oh, look, you're going to dissuade the Gentiles from becoming Christians, so don't add circumcision.

[00:46:44]No. Nothing of that sort. In fact, Paul wasn't even against circumcision. He himself was circumcised. He even got Timothy circumcised in Acts 16 to prevent Timothy from being an obstacle in the preaching of the gospel. So, what was the issue with adding an extra requirement to the gospel to be justified? The issue was them seeking to be justified by what they did. And Paul says that's not grace.

[00:47:13]As we've already seen in Romans 11:6, it's not grace if works are required.

[00:47:20]And that wouldn't just be works of the Old Testament law. There would also be works of the New Testament law as well.

[00:47:25]For example, if a church today made the work of preaching the gospel to the lost be an extra requirement to be justified, we can say that's not grace, that's law, New Testament law. Because preaching the gospel to the lost is something we are called to do. Just not for justification. Not to secure our salvation, but to help others come to know Jesus. If you seek to be justified by New Testament law, you have to keep the entire thing. Just like those in Galatia wanting to be justified by one Old Testament law, circumcision on top of faith in Jesus, Paul says you have to be justified entirely by the law.

[00:48:04]Galatians 5:3, I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he's obligated to keep the whole law.

[00:48:13]Remember, lawkeeping puts you under a curse. Not because the law is bad, but because any law demands perfect conformity to it. Even in our society, the government doesn't say it's okay to break 10 laws, but the 11th law you break, now you're guilty and you deserve a punishment. No, the government's law expects you to keep all of them. And that's why breaking the law even once is enough to be a lawb breaker and deserving of punishment. And same with breaking even one New Testament law. It makes a person a lawb breaker. And Jesus said in Matthew 5:48, "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect." So my Eastern Orthodox friend, do you want to be justified by faith and your works? Well, then you're obligated to keep the whole thing.

[00:49:03]because Christ won't make up any shortfall. Because either you have Christ exclusively without your works contributing or you don't have Christ at all. That's Galatians 5:2. Look, I Paul say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. Remember, these guys weren't thinking circumcision alone for justification. They thought it was faith plus the work of circumcision. Yet by adding one extra law on makes Christ be of no advantage to them. And if Christ is of no advantage to them, where do they end up? You would be hell. Because without Christ, you're toast. But as I said, to have Christ, you need to rely on him alone. And don't think your works contribute. Otherwise, as Galatians 5:4 says, you're severed from Christ.

[00:49:53]Severed means cut off, sliced from Christ.

[00:49:57]Now for the Eastern Orthodox Church, what kinds of works do they require for justification? Well, firstly, it's baptism. Let's look at decree 16. It says, "We believe holy baptism which was instituted by the Lord is conferred in the name of the Holy Trinity to be of the highest necessity.

[00:50:18]For without it, none is able to be saved." Doesn't this sound like the same error Paul was addressing in Galatians?

[00:50:25]and the apostles face at the Jerusalem council. We see some men there who are saying unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. The similarities are stark. For the Eastern Orthodox Church, they're saying unless you're baptized, you cannot be saved. And not just for adults. They even think infants are condemned without baptism. Have a look.

[00:50:51]Decree 16 goes on. And therefore baptism is necessary even for infants since they also are subject to original sin and without baptism are not able to obtain its remission. And since infants are men and as such need salvation needing salvation they also need baptism. And those that are not regenerated, since they have not received the remission of hereditary sin, are of necessity subject to eternal punishment and consequently cannot without baptism be saved.

[00:51:26]That's the same issue addressed at the Jerusalem Council. It was just a different law they were adding on, but the same underlying problem. And the apostles comments at that council were not, "Guys, guys, it's not circumcision anymore that's required for salvation.

[00:51:39]It's baptism. Come on, get with the program, guys. No. At that council in Acts 15, they tell us how people get saved. Listen to what the Apostle Peter says.

[00:51:51]Brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

[00:52:02]And God who knows their hearts heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by what?

[00:52:15]Baptism? No, by faith.

[00:52:18]Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke upon the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

[00:52:29]What's the yoke? The yoke is lawkeeping for salvation, which is what the Eastern Orthodox Church are doing. Putting a yoke on people, saying divine commandments is how what you need to do to be justified. Peter goes on, "But we believe that we'll be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will."

[00:52:50]Now, for the Eastern Orthodox, baptism is not the only work they require. It's also continued participation in the divine life. That means receiving the Eucharist, confession to the priest, following the divine commandments, acts of mercy. And they call this process theosis. Theosis is described as becoming partakers of God's divine energies such as his love, glory, and goodness, and being progressively transformed into his likeness. Salvation is therefore said to be synergistic on their view meaning it involves both God's grace and human cooperation and cooperation means to work alongside. Now we would agree that God is transforming us from one degree of glory to another. God's making believers more like him every day. But our right standing with God isn't based on our working with God's energies. It's based on the righteousness of Christ received by faith. Faith is the lever, the only instrument by which we receive Christ's righteousness.

[00:53:58]If we continue on in decree 13, the confession of Cyius argues strongly against that idea. It says, "But the idea that faith can fulfill the function of a hand that lays hold on the righteousness which is in Christ and can then apply it to us for salvation, we know to be far from all orthodoxy.

[00:54:18]For faith so understood would be possible in all. So none could miss salvation, which is obviously false. But on the contrary, we rather believe that is not the correlative of faith, but the faith which is in us justifies through works with Christ.

[00:54:37]But we regard works not as witnesses certifying our calling, but as being fruits in themselves, through which faith becomes efficacious, and as in themselves meriting through the divine promises that each of the faithful may receive what is done through his own body, whether it be good or bad. So remember how we talked about faith being the empty hand that takes hold of Christ. This decree says no to that because basically if it was that easy just depending on Jesus trusting him alone everyone will be saved is what their argument is which doesn't really make any sense because even though Jesus's yoke is easy and his burden is light most people don't want it because it requires humility to come to the end of yourself and not trust in your own actions anymore to trust on Christ. So if faith isn't the only way to hold lay hold of Christ's righteousness according to this decree. What was it? Says it is the faith which is in us justifies through works with Christ. So faith justifies us through works. So our works are the means of obtaining justification according to this decree.

[00:55:48]It explained that works are not an evidence of salvation, which is what we would hold, but that the thing that makes faith become efficacious and as in themselves meriting is the works. So your works make your faith effective and those works then merit your salvation.

[00:56:08]But grace by definition means unmmerited favor. So if a person needs to merit through their works the grace of justification, it's a contradiction in terms. You can't merit something which is unmmerited.

[00:56:21]This is the fundamental issue here with the Eastern Orthodox view on justification. It's something you need to merit since based on your works and that gives you a reason to boast. And as we've seen, it runs contrary to the free message of grace available in the gospel to anyone who believes.

[00:56:39]And so, as you've seen from the official authoritative statements of the Eastern Orthodox Church, their view on justification runs counter to the Bible.

[00:56:47]It runs counter to the free offer of the gospel and crushes any hope of assurance of salvation. John says, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." The Bible says we can know that we're saved. The Eastern Orthodox Church says we can't.

[00:57:05]How could you if it depended upon your works in any capacity? So my hope is that for those in Eastern Orthodoxy will consider the beautiful gospel message that they've heard in this talk today and decide to trust that Jesus is enough to save without their works. That Jesus took 100% of the punishment they deserve, leaving them with none left. So they can know they have eternal life and then works and obedience will flow out from that. My Eastern Orthodox friend, what do you need to count as loss in order to gain Christ? Remember Paul had to list all his achievements, all the things that he had done, his religious ceremonies, his background, all as loss to gain Christ. So do you. There is no safety in architecture, no safety in long fancy robes, there's no safety in long beards. Only safety is in Christ which is not found by being part of an institution. It's by placing your faith in Christ alone. Please don't be like the Pharisee in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who said who Jesus said about him. He trusted in themselves that they are righteous. And the Pharisee then proceeded to list all his good deeds. but instead be like the tax collector who didn't think he had any good deeds against his name but relied on the mercy of God and he went home justified rather than the religious man who thought he had participated in the divine life. And I hope anyone considering Eastern Orthodoxy will be dissuaded from joining it because to believe their view on justification would make them come under the anathema of Galatians 1:8 and sever them from Christ. And so I'll finish with these words from Galatians 2:21 where Paul says,"I do not nullify the grace of God.

[00:58:59]For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

[00:59:11]>> Yeah. His faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

[00:59:21]Oh.

[00:59:24]Oh.

[00:59:27]Oh.