"Justified by Faith!" LD 23 & Romans 3 We are justified by faith ALONE! We are asked what does it profit? What does it gain us? The profit is that we are righteous before God. As if we had satisfied for our sins and met Christ's demands ourselves. We are still grievous sinners in our flesh, but we are justified by faith and it is ALL of Christ!
When we deal with the term righteousness we use words like justification interchangeably. Righteousness stipulates our relationship with God. It means we are RIGHT with and by God. Although our conscience wells up against us pointing out all of our sins, we see that righteousness escapes us EXCEPT by God!!! The "good fruit and works" also are only a very small beginning of that obedience and righteousness in God. The just SHALL live by faith! We find ourselves guilty before God and all pride and boasting is gone. We are righteous before God without any merit of mine, but by God's righteousness. By grace as a gift of God because of Christ's atonement. License to sin and be careless? On the contrary for the child of God.
By Christ's stripes we are healed. Our transgressions nailed Him to the cross. We are pointed directly to justification which is done by Christ! Before the foundation of the world and from all of eternity we were justified...covered in the lamb. (Ephesians 1) God plants the cross in the center of history whereby He gathers all things unto Himself. When Christ said "It is finished" on the cross, ALL things were fulfilled and we were then moved into sanctification and He fulfilled the law of God for us! And by faith we establish the law because we take hold of Christ who fulfilled it!
We are justified in our Lord Jesus Christ and He does that by faith! Faith is the GIFT of God. Not because we believe BUT because we believe in CHRIST! He saves us in Christ by a LIVING faith. The very bond that unites us to Christ! Through the gospel He calls to a living faith and touches our hearts first with the knowledge of our own sin. He calls and those that He calls respond to Him and He tells us we are justified both fully and freely and we are the children of Abraham standing in faith. The knowledge of knowing Christ died on the cross for us giving us eternal life and glory!
What does it mean to you?
Don't be careless with your life. Christ died to fulfill the very law of God that represents a sanctified, new and holy life in Him! And when we fall short of these standards know full well that you are justified by the faith that God has implanted within us. Jesus ate with sinners but also afterwards said "now go and sin no more!" As we fall short of His demands we live in the faith He has implanted within us, living as if....no...KNOWING that we are justified children of God! Utterly amazing isn't it?!!!
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