Maintaining a Healthy Fear of God
Trust and Obey – Part 5
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The Gospel of Christ – JUSTIFICATION – You’re Not Guilty!! Says God
While we do His good will, He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey.
“ Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: THAT CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, AND THAT HE WAS BURIED, AND HE ROSE AGAIN THE THIRD DAY ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, AND THAT HE WAS SEEN BY CEPHAS, THEN BY THE TWELVE. AFTER HE WAS SEEN BY OVER FIVE HUNDRED BRETHREN AT ONCE, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
We are continuing with our look at the first stanza of the hymn, Trust and Obey by John Henry Sammis as part of our mini series “Maintaining a Healthy Fear of God” In previous posts we have looked at God’s good will, His original plan of His eternal purpose Ultimately being, PLAN A – The Glory of God – We saw that it is safe to say that His good will, His eternal purpose, is a plan to ultimately, bring us to His Glory, with provision made for perceived blunders we will make along the way.
In our last post we looked at Redemption: Before that, Propitiation as part of God’s Regeneration of man. We saw redemption as being the act of buying something back; or an act by which the original or prospective owner of a thing pays a price to return that thing from a present owner (back) to his/her possession.
In this post we will continue with our look at this provision He has made for our blunders, Now in our mortal bodies: as we saw in PLAN A1- The Gospel of Christ – where we started looking at regeneration as part of GOD‘S FULL SALVATION. Here we saw regeneration as the act by which God justifies us through propitiation by Christ Jesus and regenerates us in our spirit with His life by His Spirit; that it involves: Redemption, Sanctification (positional 1 Pet. 1:2; 1Cor. 6:11), justification, reconciliation. We will now look at Justification
Justification
Justification is a doctrine that is a legal matter to the core; as the word infers, It describes a sinner under trial before the tribunal of a God who is:
Life – He is the essence of the breathe of life
Spirit – It is impossible to see Him with human eyes, but through the eye of the spirit
Omnipotence – He has the ultimate power to do whatever He wills.
Omnipresence – He fills the whole of creation which makes it possible for Him to be present everywhere at once
Omniscience – He knows all things that can be known in the past, present, future, so nothing can escape His knowledge
Infinity – He is, if I may say, interwoven into all things.
Nature of Love – God’s love for us is just as His attribute of being immutable, it cannot change
Immutability – God cannot change because He is the beginning and end ‘Alpha & Omega’
“If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, …who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3).
“There is none righteous, no, not one….” (Romans 3:10).
The dictionary Says of Justification:
A good reason or explanation for something
So in other words, Justification is:
The Act or a good reason or explanation for Making Man Right with God by grace through faith In Jesus Christ.
Justification is the “Act of God” by which (according to His promise) He approves us based on His own standard of righteousness. This He can legally do without compromising His divine righteousness because of the finished redemptive work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on the Cross at Calvary. This justification can only be obtained through the grace of God and not by our works.
Aspects of Justification
There are two distinct aspects of justification:
Forgiveness
This is God‘s act of pardoning and releasing us from our mistakes or wrongdoings and actually ‗wiping them off the slate‘. (Jeremiah 31:34; John 3:18; 5:24; Acts 10:43; 26:18; Hebrews 8:12; 10:17).
Imputation
This is the application of the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us in our sinful state. (Romans 4:4-6; 5:1, 19; 8:1; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8-9)
We have:
Imputation for Positional Sanctification
Thank God
Imputation for Experiential Sanctification
Imputation for Perfection (Christian Liberty)
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” (Galatians 5:13) “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1) “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)
In our next post please look out for Faith (Hebrews1:1) the 4th component of Regeneration.
You might say – “Why do I have to know and experience this Jesus you are going on about” Here is why, when and how you can get to know Him.
Admit your spiritual need.
We all are sinners: nobody likes that title “SINNER”, but the bible says in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.
What is the result of sin?
In Romans 6:23 we read “The wages of sin is death…” in other words, every sin is another step towards death. One thing that we need to remember is that God never sends anyone to hell; one can send himself there by rejecting the truth.
Since we can never measure up to God’s standards by our own strength; God has reached out to mankind.
The Bible tells us in John 3:16-17. ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” In Romans 5:8 we read, “God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
What must a person do to accept this gift?
Simply receive it! Matthew 11:28 states –“come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light”.
Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me” Jesus stands at the door of your heart and knocks, seeking entrance into your life to give you peace, change you for the best. John 1:12 says: “For as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God”.
If you haven’t already received Christ as your Saviour, don’t put it off another day! Take time right now to reflect on the state of your life, how does Romans 3:23 apply to you? Ask God to empower you to see the true state of your heart – “The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) then when enabled, invite Jesus into your life. Confess your sins. Receive His forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. You might pray something like this REPENTANTLY (Having taken time to bring your sins before God with a determination to completely turn away from them):
Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner in need of a Saviour. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank You for giving me eternal life. Help me to live my life in a way that pleases You, for whatever time You give me here on earth. I look forward to living forever in Heaven with You. Amen.