Apr 19
21
Who Will Be Justified
Before God?
I recently asked a local religious leader who would be justified before
God at the judgment seat of Christ (John 5:21-22)? To which he replied,
“I believe all good people will be in heaven.” To which I said, “What is
the basis or root cause of goodness?” The religious man said, “He
thought that the standard to which we would gain eternal heaven was
based upon how many goods works we produced.” This man, like most
religious lost people have no concept what God Almighty requires (Gal.
3:10). Because God is Holy and all men sinful, the best we can produce
will never satisfy His demand (Isa. 64:6). The scriptures plainly and
powerfully proclaim that, “there is none good, no not one” (Rom.
3:9-12). Certainly, any thinking person would see that creature merit
and righteousness is excluded in the scheme of God’s salvation. The only
way any guilty sinner can be justified before God is to have a perfect
justifying righteousness provided by God Himself without any
contribution from the sinner (Rom. 4:1-7). This indeed is the good news
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is based upon His
performance not ours (Psalm 57:2). No wonder the apostle said, “Yea
doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of
all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith: (Phil. 3:8-9).
If any man thinks that he is justified before God by his good works he
is tragically and dreadfully mistaken (2Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5). What a
horrible rebuke of the effectual, substitutionary sacrifice and perfect
obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, to entertain thoughts of self glory,
self righteousness and self salvation (Phil. 2:6-9; Luke 16:15). Paul
made this very argument to the Galatians church. “I do not frustrate the
grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain” (Gal. 2:21).
The Lord Jesus Christ alone is all any sinner needs to stand in God’s
presence justified. Those in Christ by sovereign adoption, effectual
calling, powerful regeneration and saving faith have no other hope
(2Thes. 2:13-16) nor ground on which to stand. Some might ask, “Is the
Lord Jesus Christ enough?” If the Lord Jesus Christ is all you have, God
says that is enough! Here is one of many scriptures that tell us this
blessed truth, “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all
principality and power” (Col. 2:9-10).
Tom Harding
Justified for Real
Justification, as it is revealed in Holy Scripture, is much more than a
mere forensic (legal) standing. It is a state of being (Rom. 5:1-11). It
is more than a judicial declaration. Justification is the real
emancipation of our souls in Christ. To be justified before God is to be
free of guilt in your conscience by the sprinkling of Christ’s blood,
that is by the Spirit’s application of Christ’s atonement (Heb.9:14)
Don Fortner.
Born of Water and The Spirit
“Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven” (John 3:5). “Of water “is not the waters of baptism.
Water refers to the water of the Word. We read in Ephesians 5:27of “The
washing of water by the Word.” In the new birth the sovereign Spirit
gives life. And He does so with the Word of God. He never acts
independently from the Word, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which liveth and abideth
forever” (I Peter 1:25).Someone may think, “But God is not able to give
life without the Word.” That is not the issue. Does God give life
without His Word? The answer is no. Just as the physical creation came
about by His Word, so too does the new creation. No one is born of the
Spirit apart from the Word of God.
~Todd Nibert
Faith
Contrary to popular opinion, true faith is not the courage, strength,
fortitude, and power of its possessor. True faith is what God gives to
the poor and needy. True faith is the only hope the fearful, the weak,
and the helpless have. True faith is the admission of one’s total
inability. True faith is the acknowledgment of one’s total dependence.
It does not boast of its confidence. True faith is humble and quiet. It
cannot be judgmental of others while it stands in such doubt of itself.
It dare not act outwardly religious and pious, in fear that the true
nature of its own weakness be exposed. The Lord said; “my grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” To
which the child of God says; “most gladly therefore will I glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me… for when I am
weak, then I am strong.” ~Greg
To believe God is no small thing! It is the evidence of a heart
reconciled unto God; it is the proof of our being weaned from our own
works and deeds; it is a clear sign of the true conviction of sin; it is
honouring to Christ, our only Redeemer; it is the essence of true
worship; and it is the root of sincere obedience.
~Henry Mahan
Because Words Matter: Bowels In The Bible
Robert Hawker | Added: Apr 13, 2019
I should not have thought it necessary to have offered a single
observation on this word, considered in the general acceptation of it,
for every one cannot but know its obvious meaning. But it may be proper,
notwithstanding, to observe, that as in its literal sense, the bowels
mean the entrails, so when used figuratively, it refers to the heart and
the affections. Hence, it is said of the patriarch Joseph, that at
beholding his brother, “his bowels did yearn upon him” (Genesis 43:30).
And the Lord himself is represented as expressing His tenderness for
Ephraim under the same similitude; “Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a
pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember
him still; therefore, my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).
But when the word is spoken in reference to the person of Christ in His
human nature, here it is not figuratively used, but literally; and the
meaning of it is uncommonly blessed and sweet. If the reader will turn
to Psalm 40:8, he will find Jesus thus speaking by the Spirit of
prophecy, “I delight to do thy will, O my God! yea, thy law is within my
heart.” The margin of the Bible renders it, within my bowels, meaning,
that so perfectly holy and pure was the human nature of Christ, that the
law of His Father was incorporated in His very being; an inwrought
holiness mixed up and becoming His person and His existence. What a
precious blessed view doth it afford of the Lord Jesus!
And what I beg the reader also particularly to remark, this purity, this
holiness of the Lord Jesus in our nature, is, to all intents and
purposes, that holiness in which JEHOVAH beholds His church in Jesus.
This, I believe, is not so generally understood nor considered by the
faithful as it ought; but it is what the Scriptures of God, in every
part, warrant. Jesus becoming our Surety is expressly said to have been
made both sin and a curse for His redeemed, that “they might be made the
righteousness God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). And what
a blessedness is there contained in this one view of the completeness of
the church in Jesus? So that, in the very moment that the child of God
feels the workings of corruption within him, and is groaning under a
body of sin and death, which he carries about with him, though he sees
nothing in himself but sin and imperfection, yea, sometimes, as it
appears to him, growing imperfections, yet looking to the Lord Jesus as
his Surety, and considering the Redeemer’s holiness, and not anything in
himself, as the standard of justification, here he rests his
well-founded hope. This was blessedly set forth by the Holy Ghost:
(Isaiah 45:24) “Surely, shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength; even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed
against him shall be ashamed.”
“New Focus http://go-newfocus.co.uk”
The Faith Of God’s Elect
Peter L. Meney
Faith is precious. The Bible tells us so. Yet, not the bare existence of
faith. In that sense, faith, in and of itself, is meaningless. I doubt
there is a person on the face of this earth who does not claim to have
faith in something or other, even if it is simply their own opinion.
Similarly, the term ‘people of faith’ has become an all-purpose
description to gather together every flavour of religion and all manner
of weird and wonderful notions. Christians, Jews, Muslims and
flat-earthers are part of the ‘faith community’ but they are not all
going to heaven.
The Bible says the just shall live by faith and the faith by which the
just live is called by Paul the faith of God’s elect. There is natural
faith and there is the faith of Christ. There is faith borne of human
wisdom and faith from above that is spiritual and created by God the
Holy Spirit. Thus when the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Thy faith hath saved
thee, go in peace”, it is the faith of Christ graciously gifted, the
faith of God’s elect that is in view, exercised in humble worship and
reliance upon the Saviour.
James Wells, a London preacher of the nineteenth century, once said,
“For myself, I believe that the substituting of mere mental and moral
conversion—this mere natural faith for the faith of God’s elect—I
believe that there are more souls deceived by this doctrine than by any
other found in all Protestant Christendom”.
Wells is speaking of the great error of manmade religion. Hell will be
populated by damned souls who earnestly followed their creed or
confession, obeyed their preacher’s teachings and with his (or her)
connivance imagined themselves fit for heaven. In their heads they
believed, by their conduct they observed all the norms of custom and
practice their church required, and yet they are not saved. What
confusion will follow those words of Christ in that day, “Depart from
me, I never knew you.”
The faith of God’s elect is belief in the being of God, and trust in His
promises as revealed to the church in the person and redemptive work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. JEHOVAH, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, has
revealed Himself as “forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin” and
giving eternal life to the church in Christ Jesus. Faith is giving
credit to this Divine testimony, and relying upon God’s faithfulness for
the fulfilment of it.
Not the glory and wonder of the promise; but the glory, wonder, and
faithfulness of the Promiser is the proper object of faith. To believe,
and rest in the almighty Promiser and His assurances in Christ, the
Godman, is faith. “Acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness”
is faith.
The possession of the faith of God’s elect and the exercise of it in
this world is the gift of God. “Unto you,” says Paul, “it is given to
believe” (Philippians 1:29). And every truly awakened and regenerated
believer finds reason, to cry out, as the apostle did to Christ, “Lord,
increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).