Years ago I had a faith that could be called the “can-and-will” variety. I believed God could set me free from homosexuality. And I believed that one day he would. And so, of course, my prayers would range from the “do it now, Lord” kind, through the more general, “Lord, please set me free from homosexuality,” to the futuristic, “Lord, I believe you will do this for me, one day.” The emotional range of these prayers, needless to say, ran the gamut from anxious intensity to frustration and despair, and occasionally settled at constrained attempts at resignation. But they were prayers without real Gospel faith. What, really, does faith believe in, after all? If it’s not the “can-and-will” variety, what is it?
When you’ve spent a good portion of your life trying to clear out all the lust and corruption of your sins so that you can stand innocent in God’s presence, and, when, no matter how much you tried, the situation remained the same or grew worse, it is simply staggering to read the words: “God justifies the wicked” man who trusts Him and treats him as if he were righteous (Romans 4:5 NIV). Now, stop. Read that again, carefully. To justify means to declare innocent. God declares the wicked who believe in Him innocent? When you’ve been trying to become good so that God could examine the results and declare you innocent, a verse like this is so contrary to every attitude in your mind that you think you’ve surely misunderstood it, and you bring up other verses to counter it. Or you gloss over it because it just doesn’t make sense. It’s morality standing on its head. Instead of cause (becoming good) leading to effect (being declared innocent), it’s effect leading to cause.
But the verse keeps stabbing at you. Ignoring it becomes hard. Yet to contemplate believing it feels almost like a temptation of the devil, as if believing it would be wrong.
Now why would we feel that way? God has birthed us all with a deep sense of justice (see Rom. 2:14, 15). When wrong takes place, instinctively, even as little children, we know it must be righted. The courts, the prisons, the litigations, the executions—and, of course, the therapist’s office—all bear witness to the inexorable drive in man to see wrong righted.
It should be no surprise, then, when every sense within us pulls back at the news that God declares the wicked innocent who trust in Him. Oh, yes, let me believe it! But, no, it’s impossible! Where’s the justice? I don’t deserve it! It sounds like blasphemy! And doesn’t the Bible say that to justify the wicked is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 17:15)? Then the memories of warnings against “cheap grace” flood in, and the judgment of the church against sinners, and the stark replay of our sins casts its cold image on our minds…and we pull back into the passive, deadening fear of unbelief.
As if that were not enough, there’s another subtle reason why believing that God declares the wicked innocent who trust in Him feels like a temptation of the devil. If God treats me innocent when I’m still struggling with my sins, then I might not feel so bad about my sins. And if that happens, all hell might break loose and I might sin all over the place.
And it dawns on us that Guilt, that pervasive state of condemnation, has been the sickly glue that has been holding our broken lives together. We have actually been holding on to guilt in order to control ourselves. If God treats us as innocent, guilt goes. Then what will stop us from sinning?
But the solution to all this fear of the gift is in the Gift itself. Jesus is the Gift. He is our justification. He is our innocence. God does not display a cavalier aw-forget-it attitude toward our sins that offends that drive to justice we possess at the core of our beings, so that we could never take Him seriously. Nor does He take away our guilt and leave us with nothing to control ourselves with.
The Great, Loving God, “set forth” Christ (the Greek word in Romans 3:25 suggests, in this context, a public display, similar to our modern advertisements on large billboards) “to demonstrate His justice” because in His forbearance, He had left our sins unpunished. He set forth Christ on the Cross so that He could be just while declaring innocent wicked men who trust in Christ (see Rom. 3:25, 26).
In other words, Jesus took the rap for you and me. He subbed for us. “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5). And since One died in punishment for all, then God considers all to have been punished in Him (see 2 Cor. 5:14).
God declares you, one of the wicked, who trust in Christ as your substitutionary punishment for all your sins, innocent. He justifies you. And you can believe it without your sense of justice being violated.
Furthermore, in your new, God-gifted innocence, you are free to let go of all the guilt and self-condemnation that you have been using to control yourself.
But what will stop me from falling into my old ways? At first, perhaps nothing. Maybe you’ll be so hilariously carefree that you’ll go on a binge. Maybe you’ll want to discover what it’s like to sin without committing the despair of spiritual suicide afterwards. Maybe you’ll go through a period of wondering whether you want to go gay or be heterosexually promiscuous now that you’re not having to hem yourself in by guilt-controls.
And, maybe (in fact, definitely, if you go the way of faith), you will grow up, because really believing that God declares you innocent when you’re wicked changes the motivation for everything you do. Sin loses the fun of the forbidden. You end the draining experience of forever trying to hide from God and make excuses when He finds you behind another one of your verbal bushes. And since you’re no longer drained and God is with you joyfully you discover the energy to examine your life.
Then it is that your life takes a turn for peace and a little bit of joy now and then. The wistful, fake faith that God “can-and-will-one-day-in-the-blue-yonder” has died. You are living in the faith that God-has-done-in-Christ what you had sought all your life: innocence. And you realize to your surprise that you like that more than you like your sin-habit. God has set up a beach-head of freedom in you. You can work in faith on bringing your corruption under the dominion of faith without fear.