Pastor Curt Crist, www.welcometograce.com
Romans 4:5 "But to him that worketh not (for his right standing before God) but believeth on him that justifieth (or, righteous-ifieth who?)....the ungodly, (why...that's you and me, is it not? Sure, it is. The ungodly... that person's faith is counted for righteousness)... his faith is counted for righteousness." Because the word "his" is referring back to the man who is working not!
Working to maintain a standard...any standard whatsoever while tying that standard in your mind to the acquisition of or the maintenance of your right standing before God is an exercise in futility! It won't work! Works are absolutely excluded as a basis by which God gives the righteous standing Paul has in mind for mankind. If you're a believer at the Judgment Seat of Christ, (the Bema of Christ) anything that you've done that was tied in your mind to earning more favor with God, or earning your right position with Him, the delete button is hit, gone! It's never to go into Heaven as a testimony of "Look what I brought you." "This should really please you." "Open it up, God and see what I've got." If you think your justification is related in any degree to your law-keeping, your rule-keeping, you've missed the principle of faith.
I am saying that if we think our living up to any standard is what God uses to justify, or righteous-ify us, we've missed the gospel of the grace of God. God is providing perfect right-ness apart from law-keeping, rule-keeping and notice the last part of the verse: "...being witnessed by the law and the prophets." This one can quite frankly make grace dispensationalists a little bit nervous. "...being witnessed by the law and the prophets." Why is that? Because we know that Paul's gospel was a mystery. It was hid in God so it wasn't revealed before Paul in any sense of the word. It was a secret or mystery! Here we find Paul saying that righteousness apart from law-keeping is being witnessed by the law and the prophets. If we look at this, the solution isn't all that difficult.
Paul is not saying here that righteousness apart from law-keeping was taught by the law and the prophets. And he is not saying that you can go to the law, and you can read the scriptures of the prophets, and you can find out how to gain a perfectly just standing before God Almighty without keeping the law. The principle of the law taught just the opposite. What did the principle of the law teach? The principle of the law said "do this...and live." "Do the other...and death will be the result." "I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing...choose life!" Deuteronomy 30:19
He's never attributed any right standing to anyone according to the law contract. And now, if we understand righteousness from God's perspective, we can look back and we can see how that was the case for particular individuals that were living under that law at the time. Paul is going to give us some examples of that when we get to chapter 4. If anyone lived under the law, David surely did! Yet we know that David broke the law in his relationship with Bathsheba. And yet, God did not impute David's sin unto David.
The point is...God imputed righteousness to men in time past on the basis of those men taking God at His Word to them. That's the only way He imputed it.
Remember, Abraham believed God, and it was counted (imputed) unto him for righteousness. Remember also, that God reserved for Himself the right to operate outside the parameters of the law contract when He gave the law contract.
Exodus 33:19...., "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy."
If I'm telling you that God can save you, God can forgive you, or that if you do certain things, you need a measure of forgiveness from God, I'm taking away from what His Son accomplished at Calvary and from the truth of the gospel that He's not imputing those sins unto you because He imputed them to His Son. Does this mean we stop praying? You folks know better. We have all the more reason to pray today, but rather than say, "Forgive me where I've sinned." Thank Him. Thank Him daily for what you already have in Christ and what Christ has accomplished for every member of the human race. Thank Him that what you did was one of those things that Christ was paying for on that cross of Calvary as He died taking on the sins of the world. Let's thank Him today not only for mercy, but let's especially thank Him for His grace today and not just giving us what we deserve, but in giving us far more than we could ever earn.
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12:47
I'm Changed Part 2by gccopelandful565 views
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