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1.
The
question for which we are seeking a clear biblical answer is HOW IS A
PERSON SAVED?
Let’s
put the question another way – from God’s perspective ….
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ON
THE BASIS OF WHAT SUFFICIENT REASON DOES GOD ACCEPT ANYONE INTO
FELLOWSHIP WITH HIMSELF?
In
other words, what is the basic requirement that someone must fulfil
to be reconciled to God?
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Is it (1) faith (2) being born
again (3) a life of perfect obedience to God, or (4) something else?
In
Christian groups when this question is asked, most people answer '(1)
faith'. This is understandable, but we must drill down deeper to find out
what we must put our faith IN. That will be the basis
for our acceptance: our faith is just the means by which we acquire
it. Faith is just our empty hands held out to receive the gift that God
wants to give us. But what precisely is that gift?
The Bible’s unequivocal answer to
our original question (in the box above) is (3) a
life of perfect obedience to God!
But how can that be, since we cannot ever live a perfect life?! The
question is WHOSE perfect life are we thinking about? Let's investigate
this.
Most
people choose ‘faith’ or ‘being born again’. But it is very
important to understand why these cannot be the answer. Both ‘faith’ and ‘being born again’,
while the results of God’s work, take place WITHIN US. But to think
that anything that happens WITHIN US or AS PART OF US is the basis for
God’s acceptance is to be right back in the realm of natural religion.
Natural
religion results whenever mankind tries to invent for itself how to be
good enough for God. Mankind will always create a religious system which
enables them to make themselves acceptable by something they do to make themselves better or more acceptable in some way.
This is not the revealed religion
of the Bible. The revealed religion of the Bible is that God has provided
a means OUTSIDE OF US by which we can be made acceptable to Him. It is
THAT thing which qualifies us when we put our faith in it. Faith must have
an object. It is not OUR FAITH which is God’s basic requirement. If
something IN US qualifies us where is the need for God’s grace?
2.
A
life of perfect Obedience to God
This
has always been God’s requirement of man. It was what He demanded of
Adam and Eve and it is His demand throughout Scripture. In Lev 19:2
He declares ‘Be holy because (as) I, the Lord your God, am Holy.’ In
other words His standard is for us to be as holy (morally perfect) as He
is! Jesus emphasised exactly the same point when He said ‘Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ (Matt 5:48) And in case we haven’t yet got the point, when
asked what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied ‘Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ and ‘Love you neighbour as yourself.’ (Matt
22:37-39). To live perfectly
like that is what the Bible calls righteousness.
We need righteousness if we are to be accepted by God.
But hearing that a life of
perfect obedience to God is the only way we can be acceptable to God
sounds like very bad news. What hope can we possibly have? No amount of
good works on our part could possibly meet the standard God requires. Not even faith plus works will do. John 6:28,29;
Rom. 3:28, 11:6; Eph.2:8,9; Titus 3:5.
3.
So
how can we be perfect in God’s sight? How can we have righteousness?
This was the
big question that challenged the great reformer Martin Luther in the 16th
century. How could he stand before a perfect God? It was when he read and
properly understood Rom 3:21-26 that
the truth broke into his soul and gave him the freedom he sought. You see,
the secret is that when we say that only a life of perfect obedience will
satisfy God we have not said WHOSE
life of perfect obedience will satisfy God!
Let’s look at Rom.3:21. ‘But now, a righteousness from
God, apart from [keeping] the
law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets [ie
the OT]
testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus
Christ to all who believe. There is no difference. For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him
as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.’ (my
underline) To
have given Christ’s perfect life to us is God’s remarkable grace.
Luther
realised for the first time that the righteousness we need is a gift
from God when we believe and it is that
righteousness (ie Christ’s) that qualifies us for fellowship with
God.
Have you got it? To everyone who believes in Jesus Christ’s
sacrificial death on the cross, God credits righteousness.
The words ‘reckoned’ or ‘imputed’ are also used.
For a concise explanation of the reformation in its importance please go
to Augustine's Mistake and Luther's Rediscovery - on this
website **
We all know what it means to credit money to a bank account. So we may say
that God credits righteousness to our heavenly account. In other words,
when we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, God not only forgives us
but also treats us as if we had lived a perfect life - so He can accept us
without denying His own justice. This is the way we are put right
(justified) with God. To be justified means to be declared ‘not
guilty’. When we believe in Christ we are not made righteous (we all know we go on sinning), we are declared
righteous legally by God. We know God’s final verdict on us NOW!
In 2 Cor. 5:20,21 Paul writes ‘God
made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.’ This verse is often called ‘The
Great Exchange’ because it explains that Christ takes our
sin and we are credited with his
righteousness! Christ’s perfect
life is credited to us as if we had lived it! >>>>>>>
After Paul’s explanation in Rom.3, he goes on in Chap.4 to demonstrate
that this is how God has ALWAYS related to people. Read Gen.15:6 ‘Abram
believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.’ See!
there it is again. Paul quotes this in Rom.4:22-25 ‘This
is why “it was credited to him as righteousness”. The words “it was
credited to him“ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to
whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised
Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins
and raised to life for our justification.’ Could it be clearer? So,
even in the Old Testament those who are said to be ‘righteous’ are not
living perfect lives, but living by faith and trust in God, which God
reckons as righteousness.
In Philippians 3:9 Paul says ‘[I
want to] be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from [keeping] the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from
God and is by faith.’
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He
lived a perfect life on our behalf because
we could not: He died on the cross to pay for our sin so
that we need not.
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In
Eph.2:8-10 Paul says ‘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 [there it is again!], so that no one can boast. For
we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.’
This
teaching about justification and righteousness by faith alone is the key
to understanding the Gospel of Christ; (Is.53:11; Rom. 5:1,9,18;
Gal.3:6-14)
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Your Notes
‘Being
righteous’ is not just ‘trying’ to be perfect! It is
perfect living!
**
Please
do this or you will never understand the Reformation.
Luther
called justification by faith ‘the article of the standing or falling
church’
Luther said ‘Mine
are Christ’s living, doing, and speaking, his suffering and dying, mine
as much as if I had lived, done, spoken, suffered, and died as he d |