25 Minutes
Most of us understand that we are justified by faith. But then we have a difficult time comprehending what that means.
I Peter 4:18
Jesus Christ kept the law of God perfectly. He demonstrated perfect righteousness, and a life lived in the presence of God. Jesus was righteous and he earned righteousness for us in earnest to be drawn on at a later time. For that, he experienced for a brief pause, the substitutionary role of the guilty sinner, the penalty for breaking the law of God, which is separation from the presence of God. He became sin for us. The righteousness and life that Christ earned for us are still in the bank of heaven. Whosoever chooses to do so, may, by faith, in the name of Jesus Christ, draw righteousness and life from that account. We call this being justified by faith. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can receive perfect righteousness in God’s sight with the hope of eternal life. In order to be free legally from our own obligation to the law of God, we must count ourselves as having died with Christ on the cross. We must portray this death. We must be born again.
Many of us have been baptized by water and by the word. But not all of us have counted that as the end of our first life, our first personality. Many continue in the erroneous belief that God is going to save them as they are. God is not going to save anyone as he or she is. For us to be saved we must allow God to crucify us with Christ, we must die daily that we might have the newness of life in Christ. Until we and God accept the fact that we have been crucified with Christ, we are still under the law. We are not free to draw righteousness and life from the bank of heaven. We are to understand that salvation is not a one-time event. Salvation is a program of accessing faith to enter into grace. But find truth in the path of faith given in measure, for that faith is proportioned according to our abilities to measure to the full stature of Christ.
Romans 10:14
It is hard to be saved if you do not believe the word of God. Salvation is dependent upon hearing, upon knowing the right word of truth. That right word is Christ. Most think the word of God means simply the bible and this causes many to loose their way making it hard to be saved. The word of God is the bible. And it is also and most certainly words that are prompted by the Holy Spirit to some who are chosen to preach, to teach the truths of God. The word of God is pure, and it is the seed of God. And those who teach, teach with words that cannot be broken from scripture. Many of the word of God is spoken that is not written, giving much increase to the truth of the word.
Acts 4:31; 6:7; 12:24
Those that teach the word must do it according to the proportion of the grace of faith. There is the measure of faith dealt to every man. Let him that teaches set all the faith he hath to work, to impress the truths he teaches upon his own heart in the first place. And these expressed words of faith are manifestation of the truth as they bear record and testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that are shown by God through reason and revelation. Jesus is the Word. That is who we teach. And to what end can the truth of Jesus come. As most people cannot hear well the word of God, so teachers cannot teach well, without faith in every word of God. Let him first believe and then speak. And the teacher must remember the proportion of faith. Though all were given some faith, a great many have become beside themselves. And therefore we must allow others to have a share of knowledge and ability to instruct, as well as we, even those that in less things differ from us. Have faith to thyself; and do not make it a ruling directive to others, remembering that ours is but our proportion. Our teaching must be according to the proportion of the doctrine of faith, the word, as it is revealed in the holy scriptures of the old and new testament.
There are some staple-truths, plainly and uniformly taught in the scripture, which are the touchstone of teaching, by which we must prove all things, and then hold fast that which is good. Truths that are more revealing must be examined by those that are of more faith. And these truths are then entertained when they are found to agree and comport with the analogy of faith; for it is certain one truth can never contradict another. Here is what ought to be the great care of teachers, to teach sound doctrine, according to the form of wholesome words. It is not so necessary that the revelation be according to the proportion of the logic and rhetoric of another; but it is necessary that it be according to the proportion of faith as is measured by every word: for it is the word of faith that we are to teach. The works are to teach and to exhort. And this is proper to be done by the same person at the same time. And let him that teach, wait on teaching. Teaching is the bare explaining and proving of gospel truths, with practical application, as in the expounding of the scripture. Teaching and learning should not be of a different faith. Now he that has a faculty of teaching, and has undertaken that province, let him stick to it. It is a good gift, let him use it, and give his mind to it. He that teaches, let him be frequent and constant, and diligent in it; to apply gospel truths more closely to the case and condition of the people, and to press upon them that which is more practical through reasoning. Teaching requires a clear head and a warmer heart.
God will only meet us at the cross. It is here where boldness is given us to come to the throne. A holy God who condescended to change to be like us that we might change to be like Him. Our change is into the image of Christ, and our entrance into untroubled rest in the center of God’s Person and will. Our change into the image of Christ comes about as the Holy Spirit puts our sinful nature to death, and Christ is formed in us. Neither is the easypath...it’s hard to be saved. We need the wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit. We will have to enter into the suffering of Christ and God is going to allow Satan to place us in trials. Here is to be the patience of our perfection. And we need not wait until we have been perfected in our relationship to Jesus Christ, or are in his image, or are dwelling in untroubled rest in God’s will, in order to serve the Lord in the roles and tasks assigned to us today. It is our responsibility today to move by faith progress toward spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is the ability to judge what is good and what is evil, and the willingness and strength to embrace the good fervently and totally reject and renounce all that is evil. So why is it hard to be saved?
The righteous are in contrast to the ungodly and the sinner. The righteous is the one who has put his faith in the blood atonement made by Jesus Christ rather than in the letter of the law and is laboring to live a godly life. This is not an ungodly, or a sinful person, though still a sinner, but a righteously justified person. We cannot overemphasize imputed righteousness. There are many professing believers who are wicked, who do ungodly things. There also are people who do not yet know Christ, for one reason or another, who practice righteousness. God will bring such to Christ in His time. God has a people who obeys the laws of conscience, places faith in Christ when Christ is presented to them, and then obeys the commandments of God as did Christ. Saving is a transforming morally, spiritually, and it has its beginning and ending on earth. It is to be released from the person and works of Satan, to have Christ formed in us, to be in the moral image of Christ, to have the Father and the Son dwell in our transformed inner nature, and to dwell in untroubled rest in the God’s will. It is to be released from the love of the world, from the lusts of the flesh, and from self-will and disobedience to God. God’s people are in a difficult task because of the means God uses to effect such transformation. Our sinful nature is reluctant to respond correctly to the sufferings that God employs to change us from Satan’s image to God’s image. The word informs us that judgment has begun in the house of God, and that this judgment consists of intense suffering, suffering designed to save the believer. We are saved by these fires of Divine judgment because they burn out of our personality what is of Satan. We find this program of salvation by judgment difficult because our sinful nature seeks continually to
find its life in and of the world, in the lusts and passions of our flesh and soul, and in our self-will and personal ambitions. We find this program of salvation by judgment difficult because we desire to blame people, and even God Himself, rather than to humbly submit ourselves to God and remain in the prison of suffering where He places us for a short while. These trials are not punishment because we are continuing to sin, but are necessary for our purification because God desires to perfect our spirit.
I Peter 4:1, 2, 12, 13
Comments