There was a man in England in the first part of the 20th century who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and sailed across the English Channel to go on a road trip through Europe. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car.
He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, "I'm having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?" Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his vacation.
As you can imagine, the man was wondering, "How much is this going to cost me?" When he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He then received a letter from the office that read: "Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce."
Now I don't know if the man ever cleared it up and paid the bill, but the point here is this: That is justification!
Justification: Just as if I've never sinned! What a wonderful gift of righteousness God has provided for us!
Justified? Whew! What a great relief! But besides receiving God's righteousness as a free gift (as if that isn't enough) let's review the "benefits" of justification that we talked about this morning:
Romans 5:1-2 - "Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand."
Did you catch that? We now have peace with God and we have access to Him.
Romans 5:9-10 - "Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
Yep! God's wrath is no longer upon us and we have been reconciled to Him.
So we have benefits beyond anything we could ever earn. If that doesn't set your heart a-dancin' then I don't know what will!
Showing posts with label justification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justification. Show all posts
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Imitating Abraham's Faith
God's righteousness. We can't buy it. We can't earn it. We certainly don't deserve it. We can only receive it through faith. Period.
It strikes me that this is good news for those of us who acknowledge our brokenness and sinful state.
When we think about God and His righteousness, His holiness, and His standard of perfection, it would be overwhelming if the burden was upon us to climb that mountain of attainment. I believe we know innately that this is something we can't do. It is asking the impossible. It is doomed to fail.
Except God.
Paul wrote the first three chapters of Romans, building a case for our helpless plight in terms of our bondage to sin and our inability to change that. But now we get to the good part.
If I was God and I was looking at the sinful mess that mankind finds himself entangled in, I would probably feel like "they made their bed, so let them lie in it."
If I didn't do that, I would probably give them a list of things they had to do to "earn" righteousness. Here are some things that would make the cut in compiling my list:
1) You must work at the soup kitchen every week for at least four hours.
2) You must give at least half of your money to the church.
3) You must go out witnessing at least six hours a week. (Does that sound familiar?)
4) You must wear clothes and hair styles that make you stand out in the crowd and show how pious you are.
5) You must adopt at least three orphans and take food to at least two widows each week.
Hmm, aren't you glad I'm not God?
Instead of looking good and acting nice and "earning" your righteousness, God offers it as a free gift. Of course it is a good thing to give money, dress modestly, help people, and share the gospel, but that isn't how we "earn" salvation.
It kinda takes the pressure off, doesn't it? I cannot earn salvation. I cannot do anything that will help me to measure up. God offers salvation through faith out of His abundant grace and love. Any good that I do is NOT to earn anything. Good works come from a place of already being justified. I do good because I love Him.
So what are your thoughts? Post a comment, please!
It strikes me that this is good news for those of us who acknowledge our brokenness and sinful state.
When we think about God and His righteousness, His holiness, and His standard of perfection, it would be overwhelming if the burden was upon us to climb that mountain of attainment. I believe we know innately that this is something we can't do. It is asking the impossible. It is doomed to fail.
Except God.
Paul wrote the first three chapters of Romans, building a case for our helpless plight in terms of our bondage to sin and our inability to change that. But now we get to the good part.
If I was God and I was looking at the sinful mess that mankind finds himself entangled in, I would probably feel like "they made their bed, so let them lie in it."
If I didn't do that, I would probably give them a list of things they had to do to "earn" righteousness. Here are some things that would make the cut in compiling my list:
1) You must work at the soup kitchen every week for at least four hours.
2) You must give at least half of your money to the church.
3) You must go out witnessing at least six hours a week. (Does that sound familiar?)
4) You must wear clothes and hair styles that make you stand out in the crowd and show how pious you are.
5) You must adopt at least three orphans and take food to at least two widows each week.
Hmm, aren't you glad I'm not God?
Instead of looking good and acting nice and "earning" your righteousness, God offers it as a free gift. Of course it is a good thing to give money, dress modestly, help people, and share the gospel, but that isn't how we "earn" salvation.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
It kinda takes the pressure off, doesn't it? I cannot earn salvation. I cannot do anything that will help me to measure up. God offers salvation through faith out of His abundant grace and love. Any good that I do is NOT to earn anything. Good works come from a place of already being justified. I do good because I love Him.
So what are your thoughts? Post a comment, please!
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