The following is an extract from the great sermon series on Romans by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones.

It is the faith that believes what God says in Christ in spite of all I know about myself, my past sins, my present sinfulness, in spite of the fact that I know that I still have an evil nature within me which makes me say with Paul, ‘In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing’. Justifying faith is that which enables a man to believe the Word of God in spite of all that, to believe the Word of God in spite of knowing his own weakness, his own proneness to fall, his own proneness to fail – that is justifying faith.

We must always remember this analogy of Abraham. How helpful and encouraging it is! Abraham’s faith was a faith that held on to the Word of God, and gave glory to God, in spite of all he knew to be true about himself. Your faith and mine must be the same. It is of no use saying, ‘I would indeed like to believe that, but I have been a terrible sinner.’ If you say that, and if you bring that ‘but’ in, you are not a Christian at all. The Christian is a man who says, ‘Yes, alas, it is true; I have been vile and horrible and a desperate sinner, yet I believe I stand righteous in the presence of God in Christ.’ He can face his past, he can look into himself and see the vileness, the pollution, of sin still remaining, and when the devil says, ‘Do you think you have a right to say that you are a Christian?’, he says, ‘Yes, I do. In spite of the fact that all this is true of me, I know I am righteous in Christ.’ He does not look at himself to find justification, he looks entirely out to Christ and all that he is in Christ. He believes this Word about the resurrection, the proclamation of God in raising Christ from the dead. He looks to that in spite of all. If you cannot do that you have not got justifying faith. Faith is this confident protest against every voice that assails us from within and from hell. It stands with Paul in [Romans] chapter 8 and says, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.’ Who is he that condemneth in the light of that? There is no one, there is nothing. It is in spite of what we know about ourselves, of what the Law knows about us, of what hell knows about us. So stop talking about your past sins, stop talking about your present sinfulness. In this matter of justification you must not mention them. You just stand as you are in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in Him believe the staggering Word of God about yourself.

That is the final word – Abraham did not stagger at the greatness of the promise. The devil will come to you, and voices within you will say, ‘How can I possibly say a thing like that? Look at this life which I am entering as seen in the Sermon on the Mount, the lives of the saints, and the life of Jesus Christ. I am so weak, I am constantly falling – how can I?’ You must just say, ‘I believe this word of the resurrection, I believe the old word spoken unto Abraham. That man was dead, as it were, physically, and so was Sarah’s womb. But God told him that they would have a child. He believed God, and I believe God. I believe that though I am weak and helpless and hopeless and vile and without strength, I believe this God of the resurrection, this God who can “bring to life” the things that are not, “who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were”. I believe He can call into life within me a new man and a new nature and give me strength and power.’ That is Christian faith. That is justifying faith. It is faith that enables the believer to dare to believe on the bare word of God, that one day he will be ‘faultless and blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing’. Through this faith he can believe ‘that he which hath begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ’ [Philippians 1:6], and can stand confidently and defy everybody and everything. Possessing it he no longer fears death and the grave. Indeed, he no longer fears the final judgement because he knows that he has ‘passed from judgement into life’ in Christ Jesus.

Martyn Lloyd Jones – Commentary on Romans – pg. 248-249 [Romans 4:23-25].