Righteous in Christ
A Sermon on John 1:16
Scripture
16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Sermon Description
The grounds for any relationship is a mutual interest and certain likeness. This is no different in our relationship with God. In this sermon titled “Righteousness in Christ,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains righteousness as one’s nature corresponding to the nature of God. This leads to a question: how then can anyone be righteous? No one can arrive at the knowledge of God because they cannot produce righteousness. As a result, in the fallen condition, all are prone to righteousness by works and this will never do. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains from John 1:16 how to get back into a state of fellowship with God––it is the doctrine of justification by faith. Through Christ, guilt is removed and Christians are given His righteousness. This righteousness is permanent and the relationship with God is now absolute. There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. What does this mean for the believer? It means that the devil can never raise within them the question of their standing with God. Yes, Satan will still accuse and what he says about human actions is true. But the believer’s hope is not in themselves––it is in Christ who has saved. Christians are recipients of grace upon grace.
Sermon Breakdown
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The scripture text for the sermon is John 1:16 - "And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace."
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The sermon examines how we receive from Christ's fullness through righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
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Righteousness refers to our restored relationship and fellowship with God through Christ. We receive Christ's righteousness by faith.
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Originally, man had righteousness and fellowship with God. But through the Fall, man lost righteousness and fellowship. Man cannot restore this through his own efforts.
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Christ lived a perfect life of obedience to the law and bore the punishment for our sins. God transfers our guilt to Christ and Christ's righteousness to us. We are clothed in Christ's righteousness.
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Though we still sin, our justification and relationship to God remain unchanged. We are still God's children, though we may have "dirty feet" that need washing. Our standing is in Christ, not in ourselves.
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We must look to Christ alone for our righteousness, not our own works or efforts. Our beauty and glory is in Christ's righteousness, not our own.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.