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| Michaelsavedbygrace Registered user Username: Michaelsavedbygrace Post Number: 15 Registered: 7-2010 |
"A message that leaves you feeling hopeless guilty and condemned cannot be called “Good News.” " taken from a book I am writing. “Legalism is the notion that a sinner can, by his own efforts, or by the power of the Holy Spirit in his life, do some work to OBTAIN or RETAIN his salvation.” - What Is Faith, John W. Robbins (Editor - The Trinity Foundation) , pg. 121-122. The following is an experience I had last month - Michael This afternoon (June 6, 2010) I had a most striking conversation with a friend, who has served in a Seventh-day Adventist ministry for the last two decades. He and his wife as well as both of their children work full time in the work of promoting the Three Angels Messages of the Seventh-day Adventist church. I began the conversation by asking him a very personal question, “If you were to die this evening, do you know what your destiny would be?” Without hesitation he said, “I would go to hell.” I expected any one of several responses, but I must confess that this candid admission surprised me. I suspect most Adventist would hesitate when asked this question. Most would not be sure how to answer since they are taught not to say or think of themselves as saved or sanctified. I continued by asking him, “Why do you say that,” he explained, “I am not living a righteous enough life.” This is more common in the Seventh-day Adventist church than most of its members would care to admit. I will tell more of this story but before I continue I am delighted to share that earlier today I finished conducting 20 hours of Bible study over three days, going through the Bible with an Adventist friend of mine concerning all the texts in the New Testament about grace, faith, the atonement, the law and works. For years this other friend had been feeling that he too was not good enough for Heaven, in fact he had been feeling completely condemned. By the end of this weekend he told me that he felt all of his burdens lifted and that he felt both loved and accepted by God. He fully accepted Christ into his life. Before his countenance had no joy. I wish you could have seen the transformation I witnessed in him. Although he would smile a great deal, the fact that he lacked genuine happiness was apparent. He left my home feeling relieved and his joy was deep and very real. Now back to the first story. I asked my friend, “Do you believe Christ died for all the sins of the world, including all of yours?” He said, “Yes!” Next I asked him, “Do you believe God loves you more than you can know and that he has a plan to save you?” He again replied, “Yes!” He continued, “I have been to Adventist seminary, and I almost decided to become a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, I have studied everything about everything, and I just know that I am not living perfectly enough to go to Heaven. There is nothing you can say that will convince me otherwise!” I explained to him what it means to be ‘reconciled to God.’ It is two things, first God does NOT impute sin, and secondly at the same time He imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Once Jesus declares that there is NO SIN IN YOU then it does not matter if the whole world says, differently, let every man be a liar and God be true.” That is exactly what I told him. Romans 4:6-8 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. I explained to this dear friend, “When you accept the grace of Jesus Christ through faith, you acknowledge that Jesus lived a life in perfect obedience to the Ten Commandments, and that He died for all the sins of the entire human race. Jesus does not impute their sins to them, in other words God who cannot lie declares that there is NO SIN IN YOU. 100% of your sins are now legally dead in Christ. Jesus then imputes His life’s perfect obedience to your life’s record. This means that we had no part in doing a single one of those good deeds. Only Christ and his righteousness satisfies the requirements of the Law and the justice of God. All of this is imputed to the sinner and he is at once reconciled to God. Let’s be crystal clear, that the Apostle Paul defines ‘reconciliation to God’ as two things taking place. Christ DOES NOT IMPUTE SIN Christ IMPUTES HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS Both of these things were made possible by the cross. We are reconciled to God by the death of His Son. The Apostle Paul said in Christ WE HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE ATONEMENT. Not off in the future, but NOW through what Jesus has done at the cross. Romans 5:10-11 (KJV) 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. What do your personal good works have to do with making you worthy of Heaven? How can your good works entitle you to what the Bible calls a gift? Are we to earn a gift? My friend told me that he failed to ‘rightly use the will,’ thus failing to live perfectly in every detail of the Ten Commandments. The Bible says, So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. Romans 9:16. My friend revealed to me that after a lifetime of effort he could not experience ‘sanctification, the work of a life time,’ no matter how hard he tried. The good news is that the Bible says we are NOW sanctified through the death of Christ, ONCE FOR ALL TIME. More than this the writer of Hebrews says that we are PERFECTED FOREVER by what Christ did at the Cross, so why would anyone believe our own good works have anything to do with God declaring us perfectly fit for Heaven? Hebrews 10:10 (KJV) 10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:14 (KJV) 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Once God gives to us the gift of eternal life how could our good works recompense, repay or compensate God in any way? Can our good works prove us worthy of God’s gift of grace? If that were so then salvation would not be a gift, it would be earned on our own merits, by our own deeds of right doing. The Apostle Paul went to great lengths in all of his writings to make this point abundantly clear. Romans 4:2-8 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Ephesians 2:8,9 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. Let’s settle it forever that salvation is NOT OF YOURSELVES in any way. We must trust wholly in Christ, we must put all our faith in Christ, we must believe completely in Christ. Nothing but His blood and righteousness. Let’s stop trying to earn our way into Heaven. Of course Christians ought to strive to be like Christ and to obey His teachings. No one is truly a Christian who has not made a commitment to be a disciple of His. Christians ought to love one another and show forth the fruit of the Spirit in all that they do and say, but not as a means of becoming worthy of salvation. All of this is fruit of God’s saving grace in the life, nothing more and nothing less. If we feel that we must be perfect in every word, every deed and every thought and motive, that we must be in perfect harmony with the Law of God in order for us to be worthy to have our sins blotted out, then the burden of our salvation rests on us, not on Christ. If we believe that the Law still has power to condemn us, then we have failed to fully accept the fact that we are crucified in Christ. The law has no power to condemn those that are dead! As guilty as they might have been while alive, the law can not punish the dead. If we are dead in Christ then ALL our sins are dead in Christ. The law requires that the guilty person must die. “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. If you are indeed dead in Christ through faith in His Cross, then the Law has no more power to condemn you. Period, end of the story. John 5:24 (KJV) 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. Prior to accepting Christ death on our behalf, we all stood condemned, because that was the purpose of the Law. Its entire job was to convict the whole world as guilty and worthy of death. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Galatians 3:22 Romans 3:19-20 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Once you accept the death of Jesus Christ on your behalf your life’s records with all its sins die in Him, and the Law can no longer condemn you. Period! End of the story! If you still feel condemned then what you need to do is take a long hard look at the Cross and until you fully understand what the purpose of Christ’s death was all about in relation to you personally. Pastor Mark Martin makes the point that had the government dragged the corpse of Lee Harvey Oswald into the courtroom and thrown the book at him for killing John F. Kennedy, and had the jury found him guilty, the law could do absolutely nothing to him. The law could not punish Lee Harvey Oswald in the slightest. The law cannot condemn a dead man! If you are dead in Christ the Law cannot condemn you. Period! End of the story! That is half of the good news! The other half of the gospel is that Jesus death legally gives Christ the right to impute His righteousness to you. He is able right now through the grace given Him by His Father to place His robe of righteousness upon you. Wearing this robe by faith means that in the sight of God and all heaven you are just as righteous as Jesus Christ. The robe of Christ’s righteousness is the gift of God. Are you to work as hard as you can and do as many righteous things as possible so that God may count you worthy of the robe? Not at all! It is the gift of God, and this gift cannot be earned. It is unmerited and no recompense could ever be made to pay for it. To try to compensate God through our own righteousness would frustrate God’s grace and the very act itself could only be done by figuratively removing the robe. Wearing this robe means we trust wholly in the righteousness of Christ and this alone to account us worthy to have our sins blotted out and receive eternal life. It is a sad and miserable existence to live our entire lives without the robe of Christ, feeling that we must some how find in ourselves the will power necessary to become good enough in order that we might be accepted by God. Such a gospel is based on self, not Christ. Self must become good enough rather than acknowledging that Christ is good enough in our stead. Let us abandon all such thoughts forever. The Bible teaches we are saved by Christ’s imputed righteousness, by faith and not by our own works. After presenting these Bible truths, my friends heart began to open and see rays of hope. For a lifetime he has been conditioned to interpret scripture as saying that his works were to play a monumental role in determining whether or not he would become worthy of heaven. He understood the law well enough to know that he could never measure up and had since given up all hope of passing this impossible test. I assured him that God has a plan to save him and that he will finish what he began. It is my hope that all men may come to know that, Romans 8:1 (KJV) 1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Christ understood that the flesh was weak and that the spirit was willing. His disciples all failed him in the trial the night of Gethsemene, and yet their failings to perform perfectly did not prevent him from dying on their behalf. Your failings do not prevent you from being able to accept Christ’s death on your behalf either. His death is perfect. It covers your sinfulness entirely. It blots out your sinfulness entirely. Christ’s righteousness covers you entirely. Nothing about you is a surprise to God. Cast your condemnation down to the ground and leave it at cavalry. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. Psalms 109:31 John 3:17-18 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. John 12:47 If you are feeling condemned and not good enough, here is my advise. Stop thinking about yourself and give yourself wholly to thinking about the goodness of Christ’s life death and resurrection. Turn from the Law long enough to realize that Christ fulfilled the demands of the law on your behalf. He obeyed it in every way, because we could not. Turn away from your guilt long enough to realize that Christ died to satisfy your legal guilt before God’s law. Turn to Christ and put your faith in Him. Put all your faith in Him. Put no faith in self, because a lifetime has proven that gospel of justification by works, having to live up to all the standards of the church has failed you completely. It is therefore no gospel at all. |
