Righteous in Christ
A Sermon on John 1:16
Originally preached Jan. 12, 1964
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.
Sermon Q&A
Lloyd-Jones Sermon Questions: Understanding Christ's Fullness in the Believer's Life
What does Dr. Lloyd-Jones mean by "of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace"?
According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, this phrase from John 1:16 summarizes the blessings of the Christian life that come through Christ's incarnation. He explains that believers become "partakers of his fullness" through Christ. This fullness refers to all the spiritual benefits that flow from Christ to believers, which the sermon explores as various aspects of salvation that we receive in an ongoing way—"grace upon grace" indicating the continuous, abundant supply of Christ's grace in our lives.
How does Lloyd-Jones explain the meaning of Christ being "made unto us righteousness"?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that Christ being "made unto us righteousness" means that God transfers our guilt to Christ and then transfers Christ's perfect righteousness to us. He states: "His perfect, positive righteousness is taken by God, and it's put upon us. Now, the fathers were very fond of putting that in the form of an illustration. They talked about the robe of righteousness." This means God not only forgives believers but declares them righteous, seeing them clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness rather than in their own sinfulness.
What are the three aspects of Christ's work that Paul identifies in 1 Corinthians 1:30?
In 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul identifies that Christ is made unto believers "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Dr. Lloyd-Jones focuses on these as three main aspects (combining wisdom with the other three): righteousness (justification), sanctification, and redemption (ultimate glorification). He emphasizes that these work together as aspects of Christ's complete salvation work, like "three particularly high peaks in a great mountain range" that cannot be separated from each other.
Why does Lloyd-Jones argue against "dividing Christ" in the Christian life?
Lloyd-Jones strongly argues against the teaching that Christians can "take Christ as Savior" first for justification, and then later "take Him as Lord" for sanctification. He calls this "a travesty of scriptural truth" because "Christ cannot be divided." He explains: "It is impossible to have Christ only as righteousness, without having him as sanctification and without having him as redemption." While our realization of these aspects may vary, we receive the whole Christ at conversion, not Christ in parts or stages.
According to Lloyd-Jones, what is the difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant teaching on justification?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that "the Roman Catholic teaching is that a man's justification is the result of his sanctification," which he calls "one of the greatest errors of Rome." They believe a person is justified because they are first regenerated through baptism, which starts the sanctification process. In contrast, the biblical Protestant order puts justification before sanctification: we are first declared righteous through faith alone, and then the process of sanctification follows from that position of being right with God.
What does Lloyd-Jones teach about how Christians should respond to sin in their lives?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones teaches that when Christians sin, they should not question their salvation or relationship with God. Using Jesus' illustration of foot-washing with Peter, he explains: "When you fall into sin, don't allow the devil to raise with you the question as to whether you're a Christian or not. Remember henceforth that you're only a Christian with dirty feet." The relationship remains intact because it's based on Christ's righteousness, not our performance. Sin requires cleansing (like washing feet), but doesn't change our status as God's children.
How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones explain the eternal security of believers?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones grounds eternal security in God's work of putting believers into Christ: "It is of him that ye are in Christ Jesus. He's put us there, and it's God who's put us there." He explains that this makes our position secure because "any such notion of falling away from grace is an insult to the name of God." He emphasizes the permanence of justification: "When he pronounces that sentence of justification, of absolution, it's an absolute statement. There is no condemnation. There never can be, there never will be any condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
What illustration does Lloyd-Jones use to explain the relationship between justification and sanctification?
Dr. Lloyd-Jones uses two key illustrations. First, he compares righteousness, sanctification, and redemption not to "three separate mountains with nothing but plains in between," but rather to "three particularly high peaks in a great mountain range" that all belong to the same mass. Second, he uses the parent-child relationship to explain that sin doesn't break our relationship with God: "A child in a family may sin a grievous sin... But that doesn't make him cease to be a child." These illustrations show the permanent position we have in Christ while still needing ongoing cleansing.
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.