It is so crucial that you understand justification does not come in pieces. You don't get a piece of justification in your first act of faith and then get another piece of justification the next day when you believe and get another piece of justification

on the third day when you believe and maybe if you believe

enough days you get enough pieces of justification so that the end of the

last judgment God will see of enough pieces of his justification and you'll be

saved forever. That is not what justification is. A verdict is

indivisible. Not guilty is not guilty. It has no pieces. Forgiven is forgiven.

Accepted is accepted. In Christ is

in Christ, nobody is half in and half out.

So what gives us the confidence that we will make it to glory?

In this episode of Light and Shruth,

John Piper opens Romans 4, 19 to 25,

to examine the basis of our assurance.

This sermon was originally preached

at Bethlehem Baptist Church on October 10, 1999.

I asked last week, secondly, if it's faith that glorifies God, humbles my pride, secures my salvation, makes it firm through grace, then what sort

of faith does this? And the way I posed the question was, was it Abraham's faith that he

had in Ur of the Chalde's when he first heard God saying go to the promised land and he believed

him? Or was it Genesis 15-6 faith where God said,

look at the sky, it's full of stars, so shall your descendants be? And he believed him.

Or was it chapter 17 where he's 99 years old he's had a baby

through Hagar Ishmael and he doesn't think he can have a baby through Sarasota

he's 99 and God says next year you got your own son

...