Special: Christ Died Because of Our Sins and Was Raised Because of Our Justification
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 5, 2026
Special: Christ Died Because of Our Sins and Was Raised Because of Our Justification
The Lord Jesus Christ was raised for the Christian’s justification in the sense that the resurrection of Christ demonstrated that God the Father had accepted His Son’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross to resolve the problem of personal sin and the sin nature in the human race.
In Romans 4:25, the apostle Paul declares that the Lord Jesus Christ died because of our sins and was raised from the dead because of our justification.
Romans 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” 9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (NIV84)
“He was delivered over” is the verb paradidōmi (παραδίδωμι), which is used of the judicial act of God the Father in delivering His Son Jesus Christ over to the Jewish and Roman authorities in order that He might suffer spiritual and physical death.
John 3:16-18, 1 John 4:9 and 14 also teaches that God the Father delivered over His Son to death because of His love for sinners.
Peter declares on the day of Pentecost that it was according to the Father’s plan from eternity past and His foreknowledge that His Son was delivered over to sinners to suffer spiritual and physical death (Acts 2:22-24).
It was the will of the Father that His Son might suffer spiritual death as our Substitute in order to rescue us from the cosmic system of Satan (Galatians 1:3-5).
Also the Scriptures teach that the Lord Jesus Christ chose to give Himself up for sinners (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:1-2, 25-27).
His spiritual and physical deaths dealt with the problem of the sin nature, personal sins, the devil and his cosmic system, sinful mankind’s inability to obey the Law perfectly (Matthew 27:45-46; cf. Isaiah 53:10-11).
However, his physical death was necessary in order that He might be resurrected from the dead in fulfillment of prophecy, to demonstrate that He was who He claimed to be, the eternal Son of God and to affect our justification.
The reason why our Lord’s spiritual death was the payment for our sins is that spiritual death is the root of the problem with members of the human race.
The penalty of sin is spiritual death, which means the inability to experience fellowship with God in time.
Romans 6:23 For you see the sin nature pays out spiritual death however God the Father graciously gives eternal life in the Person of Christ, who is Jesus, our Lord. (Pastor’s translation)
Spiritual death originated with Adam in the Garden of Eden when he chose to disobey the command of the Lord not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17), which resulted in Adam and his wife losing fellowship with God (see Genesis 3:6-8).
Adam and his wife did “not” die immediately physically but rather they died immediately spiritually when they disobeyed and this is demonstrated by their actions after their disobedience when they hid themselves from the Lord.
Since then, every human being past, present and future receives the imputation of Adam’s sin in the garden, which makes every human being physically alive but spiritually dead (Romans 5:12).
The reason why God did this is found in Galatians 3:22.
Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (NASB95)
In John 19:30, the Lord triumphantly said “It is finished” while He was still physically alive and which statement refers to the payment of our sins, thus indicating that His physical death did not pay for our sins but rather His spiritual death.
Isaiah 53:11 records that the Father was satisfied by the anguish of the soul of the sinless human nature of Christ on the cross caused by His spiritual death as the payment for the sins of the entire world.
“Suffering of His soul” refers to the intense suffering of our Lord’s human soul as a result of being separated from the Father on the cross and which suffering no angel or man will ever be able to identify with since no angel or man has kept themselves experientially sinless.
The anguish of the Son’s soul was valued much more than His blood since blood is inanimate but the human soul is created in the image of God.
Our Lord’s loss of fellowship with His Father in His humanity during those last three hours in darkness on the cross was infinitely more painful to our Lord than the physical suffering He had endured and was enduring.
Our Lord’s loss of fellowship with His Father in His humanity during those last three hours in darkness on the cross was valued infinitely more by the Father than the shedding of His literal blood or His physical suffering.
This is not to say that the Father did not value the physical suffering of His Son, or His literal blood, which was sinless, He did, but literal blood though sinless cannot resolve man’s problem of separation from God under real spiritual death.
The separation from God of a perfect human being whose soul was never contaminated by sin was the penalty that had to be paid in order to redeem human souls from the curse of Adam’s sin of disobedience and spiritual death.
Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (NIV84)
“For our justification” indicates that the sinner’s justification as a result of exercising faith in Jesus Christ is the cause or reason why the Father raised His Son Jesus Christ from the dead.
Christ’s spiritual and physical death are meaningless if He isn’t raised from the dead since His resurrection demonstrates who He claimed to be all along, the Son of God (See Romans 1:3-4).
Therefore, since He has been raised from the dead demonstrating He is the incarnate Son of God, His command to believe on Him for eternal salvation must be obeyed.
Furthermore, since He has been raised from the dead, without compromising His perfect integrity, the Father can declare the sinner justified who exercises faith in His Son.
“Justification” is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.
The mechanics of justification are as follows: (1) God condemns the sinner, which qualifies them to receive His grace. (2) The sinner believes in Jesus Christ as His Savior. (3) God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer. (4) God declares that person as righteous as a result of acknowledging His Son’s righteousness in that person.
Romans 3:24 teaches that justification is a gift of God’s grace and is made possible by the voluntary, substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Galatians 2:16 teaches as do the rest of the Scriptures that the only way that a member of the human race can ever be declared righteous by God is through receiving the gift of divine righteousness by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.
Special: Christ Died Because of Our Sins and Was Raised Because of Our Justification
Doctrinal Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 5, 2026
Special: Christ Died Because of Our Sins and Was Raised Because of Our Justification
The Lord Jesus Christ was raised for the Christian’s justification in the sense that the resurrection of Christ demonstrated that God the Father had accepted His Son’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross to resolve the problem of personal sin and the sin nature in the human race.
In Romans 4:25, the apostle Paul declares that the Lord Jesus Christ died because of our sins and was raised from the dead because of our justification.
Romans 4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6 David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” 9 Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 12 And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” 23 The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (NIV84)
“He was delivered over” is the verb paradidōmi (παραδίδωμι), which is used of the judicial act of God the Father in delivering His Son Jesus Christ over to the Jewish and Roman authorities in order that He might suffer spiritual and physical death.
John 3:16-18, 1 John 4:9 and 14 also teaches that God the Father delivered over His Son to death because of His love for sinners.
Peter declares on the day of Pentecost that it was according to the Father’s plan from eternity past and His foreknowledge that His Son was delivered over to sinners to suffer spiritual and physical death (Acts 2:22-24).
It was the will of the Father that His Son might suffer spiritual death as our Substitute in order to rescue us from the cosmic system of Satan (Galatians 1:3-5).
Also the Scriptures teach that the Lord Jesus Christ chose to give Himself up for sinners (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:1-2, 25-27).
His spiritual and physical deaths dealt with the problem of the sin nature, personal sins, the devil and his cosmic system, sinful mankind’s inability to obey the Law perfectly (Matthew 27:45-46; cf. Isaiah 53:10-11).
However, his physical death was necessary in order that He might be resurrected from the dead in fulfillment of prophecy, to demonstrate that He was who He claimed to be, the eternal Son of God and to affect our justification.
The reason why our Lord’s spiritual death was the payment for our sins is that spiritual death is the root of the problem with members of the human race.
The penalty of sin is spiritual death, which means the inability to experience fellowship with God in time.
Romans 6:23 For you see the sin nature pays out spiritual death however God the Father graciously gives eternal life in the Person of Christ, who is Jesus, our Lord. (Pastor’s translation)
Spiritual death originated with Adam in the Garden of Eden when he chose to disobey the command of the Lord not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17), which resulted in Adam and his wife losing fellowship with God (see Genesis 3:6-8).
Adam and his wife did “not” die immediately physically but rather they died immediately spiritually when they disobeyed and this is demonstrated by their actions after their disobedience when they hid themselves from the Lord.
Since then, every human being past, present and future receives the imputation of Adam’s sin in the garden, which makes every human being physically alive but spiritually dead (Romans 5:12).
The reason why God did this is found in Galatians 3:22.
Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (NASB95)
In John 19:30, the Lord triumphantly said “It is finished” while He was still physically alive and which statement refers to the payment of our sins, thus indicating that His physical death did not pay for our sins but rather His spiritual death.
Isaiah 53:11 records that the Father was satisfied by the anguish of the soul of the sinless human nature of Christ on the cross caused by His spiritual death as the payment for the sins of the entire world.
“Suffering of His soul” refers to the intense suffering of our Lord’s human soul as a result of being separated from the Father on the cross and which suffering no angel or man will ever be able to identify with since no angel or man has kept themselves experientially sinless.
The anguish of the Son’s soul was valued much more than His blood since blood is inanimate but the human soul is created in the image of God.
Our Lord’s loss of fellowship with His Father in His humanity during those last three hours in darkness on the cross was infinitely more painful to our Lord than the physical suffering He had endured and was enduring.
Our Lord’s loss of fellowship with His Father in His humanity during those last three hours in darkness on the cross was valued infinitely more by the Father than the shedding of His literal blood or His physical suffering.
This is not to say that the Father did not value the physical suffering of His Son, or His literal blood, which was sinless, He did, but literal blood though sinless cannot resolve man’s problem of separation from God under real spiritual death.
The separation from God of a perfect human being whose soul was never contaminated by sin was the penalty that had to be paid in order to redeem human souls from the curse of Adam’s sin of disobedience and spiritual death.
Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (NIV84)
“For our justification” indicates that the sinner’s justification as a result of exercising faith in Jesus Christ is the cause or reason why the Father raised His Son Jesus Christ from the dead.
Christ’s spiritual and physical death are meaningless if He isn’t raised from the dead since His resurrection demonstrates who He claimed to be all along, the Son of God (See Romans 1:3-4).
Therefore, since He has been raised from the dead demonstrating He is the incarnate Son of God, His command to believe on Him for eternal salvation must be obeyed.
Furthermore, since He has been raised from the dead, without compromising His perfect integrity, the Father can declare the sinner justified who exercises faith in His Son.
“Justification” is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.
The mechanics of justification are as follows: (1) God condemns the sinner, which qualifies them to receive His grace. (2) The sinner believes in Jesus Christ as His Savior. (3) God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer. (4) God declares that person as righteous as a result of acknowledging His Son’s righteousness in that person.
Romans 3:24 teaches that justification is a gift of God’s grace and is made possible by the voluntary, substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Galatians 2:16 teaches as do the rest of the Scriptures that the only way that a member of the human race can ever be declared righteous by God is through receiving the gift of divine righteousness by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.