The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). When we study doctrine, it’s not only important to teach truth correctly. It’s important to apply truth correctly.

To learn how to handle the doctrine of justification and to apply it correctly, we must first review the two great teachings of Scripture: the law and the gospel.

The law convicts and condemns

As you can see from the table, the divine law brings about some horrible consequences for man. It demands what none of us can ever deliver, namely, perfect obedience and untainted righteousness. The law peels back the outward veneer of our civil obedience and all our efforts to present a good face to those around us, and it exposes the wretched depravity of our natural human heart. It reveals the frightful fury of the living God, who is a consuming fire.

Many people have been taught that “God hates sin but loves sinners.” This statement is a tragic confusion of law and gospel, and it actually contradicts Scripture. The law introduces human beings to the true God—not the god of our own imagination—the God who hates all evil and who hates all who sin against him.

Why do we still need the law? Because the law must tear down before the gospel can build up. We do not correctly handle the word of truth when we preach the gospel to people who are comfortable loving their 401(k)s, their automobiles, their jobs, their leisure activities, their travel plans, or even their children more than God. We are to expose their idolatry and warn them to repent. We are not to rail upon the outward sins of the flesh that condemn all the wicked Hollywood movie moguls, slam the purveyors of porn, and indict the murderers and pedophiles at the state penitentiary. We are to condemn the sins that lurk, cold and sinister, within our own hearts and the hearts of those close to us. We cannot make excuses for apathy, stinginess, lack of Christian charity, prejudice, and indifference to the means of grace. We are to remember the words of Christ, “Unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Luke 13:5).

If a sinner has not come to grips with his own sin, can justification—especially objective justification—still be preached to the impenitent? Can Christ’s forgiveness as an objective reality be proclaimed to those who do not know their sin? The answer is: absolutely not!

The gospel heals and saves

Justification, on the other hand, is gospel—pure gospel. As gospel, it finds application to sinners who have been crushed and broken and brought by the law to see their helpless and hopeless condition.