If Christ died to redeem and justify all, and some are in hell, then one of two things must be so: Either Christ is a failure, or there are some in hell who are redeemed and justified!
By an Eternal Union One — Don Fortner (Tune: #118 — When I Survey — LM) 1. Blest union, formed by love divine — Christ says I’m His and He is mine! In all He is, in all He’s done, By an eternal union one!
2. Here’s love! Oh, tell it all around — God with a worm in union found! Christ Jesus, Monarch of the skies, Owns me as precious in His eyes.
3. Yes, I am one with Christ my King; The glories of His grace I’ll sing: — He took my guilt and, by His grace, Made me as righteous as He is!
4. Flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone, Christ and my soul are truly one! Living in Him I daily prove His sov’reign, everlasting love!
A friend once wrote to William Mason (1719-1791), saying, “Your writings are condemned as the vilest antinomianism.” To that Mason replied, “Truly this is no more than the common fate of all who are enlightened to see, enabled to believe, and strengthened to contend for the Scripture doctrine of full and final justification, and everlasting salvation by the Son of God only. This foul name, some are very lavish in bestowing on those who differ from them in some points of doctrine. But how little there is of that love, that Christian love, that perfect love which is so much cried up in this censure, is very evident. The Lord pardon such, and enable me to pass by this injury. However, I think it behooves me to embrace this opportunity, to testify, that if for believing and contending for these scriptural truths, I am deemed an Antinomian, I pray God I may increase and abound herein more and more, and live and die in such blessed antinomianism.”
“Made unto Us Wisdom” 1 Corinthians 1:30
We are in Christ by the rich, free grace and goodness of God the Father, who put us in him in sovereign election before the world began. In him we were and are preserved and blessed from everlasting. That secret, everlasting union with Christ was made manifest in time, when God the Holy Spirit gave us life and faith in Christ, by the operation of his mighty grace.
God’s Work
Our conversion, our saving union with Christ is not the result of something we have done. We are not in Christ because we are wiser, or better, or have made a better choice than others. We are in Christ because God put us in Christ. “Salvation is of the LORD!” It is the purpose of God to make this apparent, and to force all men to acknowledge it. He dispenses his grace in such a way that he makes men see with regard to others, and to acknowledge with regard to themselves, that salvation is his work alone.
Our Wisdom
Though we are foolish creatures by nature, by virtue of our union with him, Christ is made of God unto us Wisdom. He is the one who gives us wisdom and understanding in all things spiritual. He is the shining light that dispels darkness in our souls. Christ is our Wisdom objectively, too. I mean by that that our highest wisdom is knowing him. Under the personification of Wisdom, our Savior says, “He that findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain the favour of the Lord” (Proverbs 8:35).
Representative Wisdom
Christ is the Head of his body the church; and as all the wisdom of the body is in its head, so all our wisdom is in him. The Lord Jesus acts for us as our Wisdom representatively, speaking for us in the everlasting covenant of grace and peace; and he is our Advocate with the Father, still pleading our cause and interceding for us in heaven.
Revealed Wisdom
It is by Christ Jesus that the triune God is made known and revealed to man. He is the embodiment of God, the embodiment of Wisdom, the Word, the Revealer of God. As all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him, so all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are his. By him alone they are made known to men. — “No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him” (Luke 10:22).
Given Wisdom
Union with Christ makes the heaven-born soul truly wise, because when Christ is formed within, we are given the mind of Christ and know all things (1 Corinthians 2:16). Wisdom is given by which God, whose glory is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, is made known in the soul. All true spiritual knowledge is derived from Christ, and it is only those who submit to his teaching who are made wise unto salvation. Christ is our Wisdom within to direct our paths, guide us in his way, and order our steps day by day.
“Made unto Us Righteousness” 1 Corinthians 1:30
Many use the words “righteousness” and “holiness” interchangeably, as if they were synonyms. They are not. Righteousness is primarily a legal term. Though it may be and is used to refer to one’s character, it primarily refers to his deeds. Righteousness refers to that which is right before the law, or right in the eyes of the law. Holiness, on the other hand, is a word that is used to describe one’s character.
Yet the Word of God makes it abundantly clear that none are righteous (right before the law) and none are holy in character (sanctified) except the Lord Jesus Christ. And he alone is the Righteousness and Holiness (Sanctification) of his people. If we have righteousness before God, Christ must be our Righteousness; and he must be “of God made unto us righteousness.”
This is the blessed doctrine of the gospel revealed in Holy Scripture. The Son of God came into this world in human flesh that he might magnify the law and make it honorable as a Representative man, to bring in everlasting righteousness for his people. God’s demand is plain and clear: — “Walk before me, and be thou perfect.” It is written, “It must be perfect to be accepted.”
The Lord Jesus Christ did what none of us could ever do. He walked before God all the days of his humiliation in absolute perfection, totally obedient to the will of God and to the law of God. This he did, not for himself but for us, to bring in everlasting righteousness for us. When he died upon the cursed tree as our Substitute, he met and fully satisfied every demand of God’s law and justice for his elect and made us, by his obedience unto death, the righteousness of God.
Just as we were made sinners by the disobedience of the first man Adam, we are made righteous by the obedience of Christ, the last Adam (Romans 5:12, 18-19). That means that every sinner for whom Christ lived and died and rose again is right (righteous) before the law
Christ is made of God unto us righteousness and we are made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21; Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16; 50:20), by virtue of our union with him. When our Substitute obeyed God’s law and paid our debt to divine justice, we obeyed in him; and we died in him. When he was “justified in the Spirit” by his resurrection from the dead, we were justified in him and raised up from the dead in him.
Christ is our righteousness in such a sure way, and with such everlasting value and efficacy, that being one with him and redeemed by his blood we have his righteousness by right and title as the purchased possession he obtained for us, when he obtained eternal redemption for us. It is a righteousness that can never be lost, or even lessened. It is everlastingly perfect.
This is the righteousness for which we shall be fully and everlastingly rewarded in heavenly glory. What a blessed thought! It seems too great to be believed. Indeed, it could not be believed were it not written in the Book of God. Even though it is plainly written in Holy Scripture by the finger of inspiration, it can never be believed by any man until it is inscribed in his own soul by the experience of grace. Yet, when God the Holy Spirit grants a sinner the grace of life, giving him faith in Christ, this is the first and most blessed article of saving faith. — As God has made him sin for us who knew no sin, so he has made us the righteousness of God in him, though we are nothing but sin!
GRACE BULLETIN
March 1, 2009
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Schedule of Regular Services
Sunday 10:00 A.M. Bible Classes 10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service 6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
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