November 17, 2013

"Justification by Faith Alone" written by Thomas Kavoori

What is it? It is to be justified before God whereby the righteousness of the whole life of Jesus Christ is credited to your account and the unrighteousness of your whole life is credited to Jesus Christ's account. This transaction is possible because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It is actualized in your life by grace through your 'faith' in Him. Since this is not of works of the law (Titus 3:5, Eph 2:8-9), you do not earn your justification. Jesus died for your past, present and future sins (Heb 10:11-12, Rom 6:10, 1 Pet 3:18) and He will never die again (Rom 6:9). Additionally, those who are justified are made perfect for all time (Heb 10:14). Therefore, once you are justified, you are justified for all time and you don't need to be justified again. Finally, once justified, you will never lose your justification because the Bible says that those who are justified will eventually be glorified (Rom 8:28-30), those who are Jesus's justified sheep will never perish (John 10:27) and that 'nothing in all creation' (including ourselves) can separate justified people from the love of God (Rom 8:38-39). Welcome to a salvation that you have not earned. How to be justified? Jesus Christ is the only way to God (John 14:6). He tells us to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 1:15, Acts 2:38; 16:31; 20:21). The Greek word for 'repent' is 'metanoia' which means 'change of mind'. The call is to 'change our mind' about who Jesus is and to place our 'trust' in Him for forgiveness of sins, eternal life, satisfaction, justification etc. If we genuinely 'believe' in Him, we will go to Him. We will 'do' something about it. Faith is always reflected by actions. Let's look at an analogy. When I tell a child that there is a candy bar in the fridge, only if he 'believes' me will he go and open the fridge. Notice that he doesn't open the fridge to believe me. He opens the fridge 'because' he believes me. Similarly, we are ‘justified’ before God by the inward ‘genuine faith’ that ‘works’ with the outward ‘action’ which reflects that ‘genuine faith’. James 2:22:-“You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected” So, if you 'change your mind' and believe that Jesus is the perfect, eternal-life giving, delivering, satisfying, holy etc. son of God, you will go to Him, be justified before God forever, be regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 3:16, 2 Cor 5:17) and will display evidence of a converted life. If you do not believe then you are condemned already and you have no hope (John 3:18). Why? The gospel gives us 'salvation' as a gift through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We do not earn our salvation through our dedicated discipleship, moral lifestyle etc. This ought to raise up affections of gratitude in our heart. Jesus demonstrated this in His own life when He looked at an adulterous woman and told her that He didn't condemn her. Only after saying that, did He tell her to stop sinning. This concept is seen all over the scriptures (Rom 6:8-14; 12:1, Col 3:1, Luke 7:47). Romans 5:8:-”But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 1 John 4:18:-”We love, because He first loved us.” You will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never outgrow your need for the gospel-John Piper. So, look at your 'Savior' and 'Savor' His love for you through the Cross and go live for Him. Amen.