If the only true justification available to a human being is a faith justification (that is what I wrote about yesterday) then the only true walk is a resurrection walk...
"...And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness," - Romans 4:5 ESV
"We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." - Romans 6:4-5 ESV
Romans is building a case for us. It is a very legal and mechanical book. A religious person is convinced that what they do makes them acceptable to God but this book reproves them.
We must die with Christ in order to be raise with Him and any hope of self-righteousness must die with us. Once dead we can be raised and walk with God in newness of life.
All of humanity has died with Christ. He became a man to represent all men.The moment we believed the gift was placed on our account.
"For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." - Romans 6:7-11 ESV
This translation says 'you also must consider' but the KJV says 'reckon yourselves' and I like that better. Reckon makes it sound like a math problem and that is just what it is. We remove our self and add Christ.
We have a God who will only justify those that say, 'I won't justify myself. Instead of doing that I will reckon myself dead with Christ and let God justify me by His power.'
Can we shift from a, 'You are Good therefore I like you.' mentality to a, 'God has justified the ungodly.' one? It will take dying to self but it will mean that we can be raised in newness of life.
God. Please help us to think like you do. We want to live in a justification that comes by faith and not by performance. Quicken us by your Spirit. Raise us from the grave of our old way of thinking and into the newness of grace thinking. Thank You God. Thank You.
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Showing posts with label Justification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justification. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Justified By Faith
"Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness," - Romans 4:4-5 ESV
This is a cornerstone principle. Trust is the foundation of any relationship. God is basically saying, 'Trust in Me and I will justify you.'
If our relationship with God is based on us and what we bring to the table there is no justification but if it is about who Jesus Is and what He has brought to the table then we are justified. The cross has that power like nothing else does.
If I found out a friend cheated me or betrayed my trust in some way it might damage my relationship with them but if instead I learned that a friend was speaking kindly of me to others and was helping me in ways I was not even aware of it would affect me in a much different way. God has been loving us behind our backs all along and the moment we trust Him we become connected to Him by that love.
Grace must have this element.
"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6 ESV
The world is a hard place sometimes but is God good? Yes.
Does God care about us? Yes. He sent His Son as proof that He cares and His Son healed the rift between divinity and humanity.
Unconditional favor is not possible without this understanding. God Is holy. He does not compromise with sin. God has a method that applies favor apart from sin because the transgressions have been blotted out by Christ's blood.
Now I can look at another person and say, 'They are justified because of what Jesus has done.' Their actions are not justified but they are. It isn't what they bring to the table. It is what Jesus brought to the table.
If we think this way we can give grace because this is how the God of all grace is thinking about us.
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This is a cornerstone principle. Trust is the foundation of any relationship. God is basically saying, 'Trust in Me and I will justify you.'
If our relationship with God is based on us and what we bring to the table there is no justification but if it is about who Jesus Is and what He has brought to the table then we are justified. The cross has that power like nothing else does.
If I found out a friend cheated me or betrayed my trust in some way it might damage my relationship with them but if instead I learned that a friend was speaking kindly of me to others and was helping me in ways I was not even aware of it would affect me in a much different way. God has been loving us behind our backs all along and the moment we trust Him we become connected to Him by that love.
Grace must have this element.
"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6 ESV
The world is a hard place sometimes but is God good? Yes.
Does God care about us? Yes. He sent His Son as proof that He cares and His Son healed the rift between divinity and humanity.
Unconditional favor is not possible without this understanding. God Is holy. He does not compromise with sin. God has a method that applies favor apart from sin because the transgressions have been blotted out by Christ's blood.
Now I can look at another person and say, 'They are justified because of what Jesus has done.' Their actions are not justified but they are. It isn't what they bring to the table. It is what Jesus brought to the table.
If we think this way we can give grace because this is how the God of all grace is thinking about us.
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Saturday, August 30, 2014
God's Praise
Every justified person will have praise from God.
"For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." - 1 Corinthians 4:4-5 KJV
That is grace... wonderful grace... imagine a person who has done nothing right and has messed everything up but they stand before God and He has praise for them... maybe nobody else would do that or if they did they were disappointed again and again.
But when God sees them He might well say something like this, 'Thank you. I am glad to know you. You received my Son and I gladly receive you.'
I can't tell you how much this little fact means to me. When I first heard it in P Lutz's class 20 years ago it changed my life. Even reading it now it breaks me. This is my loving God. This is the heart of my Savior.
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"For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." - 1 Corinthians 4:4-5 KJV
That is grace... wonderful grace... imagine a person who has done nothing right and has messed everything up but they stand before God and He has praise for them... maybe nobody else would do that or if they did they were disappointed again and again.
But when God sees them He might well say something like this, 'Thank you. I am glad to know you. You received my Son and I gladly receive you.'
I can't tell you how much this little fact means to me. When I first heard it in P Lutz's class 20 years ago it changed my life. Even reading it now it breaks me. This is my loving God. This is the heart of my Savior.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The Third Day
" 'Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.'
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:1-6 ESV
I love these verses. We see in them the same resurrection that Jesus taught and even boasted about. A coming back to life after three days that changed the nature of love for the individual.
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20 ESV
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV
Yes. Messiah needed to die. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 show that so vividly but the scriptures also specify that He would be raised and the time frame is given in Hosea 6 but it is missed because instead of talking about Messiah directly it talks about those who would be raised up with Him.
Us.
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV
"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:1-3 ESV
"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." - Matthew 16:21 ESV
Jesus taught that He would be raised on the third day but it was not a new teaching. What was unique was that He applied to teaching directly to Himself.
"Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last fraud will be worse than the first." - Matthew 27:64 ESV
The Sadducee sect spoken of in the New Testament didn't not believe in a bodily resurrection. The Pharisee sect did. Jesus' claim mocked them and if He even seemed to rise then it would be a further mockery.
Yet Here is Jesus in these next verses. He is not only teaching it... He is boasting about it.
"At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, 'Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.' And he said to them, 'Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.' " - Luke 13:31-32 ESV
From angelic lips there is a reminder of the fulfillment of scripture.
" 'He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.' And they remembered his words," - Luke 24:6-8 ESV
"And he said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." - Luke 24:25-27 ESV
The risen Christ revives these men walking away in disappointment just as He revived Mary and the disciples on His third day post resurrection appearances.
Let's read it again...
" 'Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.'
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:1-6 ESV
Before we were revived our love was like a morning cloud. It vanished quickly away. God wanted to give us steadfast love that lasts forever not a life of sacrifice after sacrifice but a deep experiential knowledge of God. A death burial, resurrection, ascension and session with Christ.
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:29-31 ESV
Justified by grace and glorified by grace... today let's mix faith with that divine reality.
--
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:1-6 ESV
I love these verses. We see in them the same resurrection that Jesus taught and even boasted about. A coming back to life after three days that changed the nature of love for the individual.
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." - Galatians 2:20 ESV
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV
Yes. Messiah needed to die. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 show that so vividly but the scriptures also specify that He would be raised and the time frame is given in Hosea 6 but it is missed because instead of talking about Messiah directly it talks about those who would be raised up with Him.
Us.
"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV
"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." - Colossians 3:1-3 ESV
"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." - Matthew 16:21 ESV
Jesus taught that He would be raised on the third day but it was not a new teaching. What was unique was that He applied to teaching directly to Himself.
"Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last fraud will be worse than the first." - Matthew 27:64 ESV
The Sadducee sect spoken of in the New Testament didn't not believe in a bodily resurrection. The Pharisee sect did. Jesus' claim mocked them and if He even seemed to rise then it would be a further mockery.
Yet Here is Jesus in these next verses. He is not only teaching it... He is boasting about it.
"At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, 'Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.' And he said to them, 'Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.' " - Luke 13:31-32 ESV
From angelic lips there is a reminder of the fulfillment of scripture.
" 'He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.' And they remembered his words," - Luke 24:6-8 ESV
"And he said to them, 'O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." - Luke 24:25-27 ESV
The risen Christ revives these men walking away in disappointment just as He revived Mary and the disciples on His third day post resurrection appearances.
Let's read it again...
" 'Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.'
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." - Hosea 6:1-6 ESV
Before we were revived our love was like a morning cloud. It vanished quickly away. God wanted to give us steadfast love that lasts forever not a life of sacrifice after sacrifice but a deep experiential knowledge of God. A death burial, resurrection, ascension and session with Christ.
"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8:29-31 ESV
Justified by grace and glorified by grace... today let's mix faith with that divine reality.
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