An Eternally Important Question

(Article for publication week of 8-8-2012 AD)

“I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?” (Job 9:2).

This week we return to the place we started when we began our series on the doctrine of justification. We began this series on March 14 of this year and we have shown that you must have a perfect record with God, that you have no righteousness of your own, and we have begun to show you the gospel of imputed righteousness. I would encourage you to visit our blogspot at matthewsevenfourteen.blogspot.com and go back and read all the articles in this series to see the progression of truth that is involved in the doctrine of justification.

There is no more serious matter for you to contemplate than the salvation of your soul, and your record before the all holy and all righteous Jehovah Who is the Judge of all the earth. The question pondered by Job in our text this week is indeed the most important question we can ask, and we had better be sure we have the Biblical answer to it. As I say in my title this week, it is the eternally important question.

You ought to be concerned about the doctrine of justification for your safety. Dear Reader, don’t you know you have a never dying soul that must live in eternity somewhere? Don’t you know you will face God on the Day of Judgment? For your eternal safety, please hear the word of the Lord! God will do one of two things with you. He will either justify you, and bring you to heaven, or He will condemn you and send you to hell. Unless God declares you “not guilty”, you’re a goner. I come to this computer every week with your eternal soul in view. I am labouring for your eternal good. Some of you do not care for your own soul, but please know that Thomas Ray Floyd does care for your soul. Unless you are justified by God you are in great danger, eternal danger. But if you are justified by God by His free and sovereign grace, you are safe eternally.

Secondly, you ought to be concerned with the doctrine of justification for your comfort. There are some of the Lord’s people who are truly saved, but not having a good understanding of how God justifies them, they are often in great distress of soul. They struggle with assurance because they do not have a clear understanding of how God imputes the righteousness of Christ to their account, and how Christ actually put away all their sins, past, present and future. The gospel is the good news of how an ungodly sinner may stand before God as if he had never sinned. Poor elect sinner who is struggling under the burden of guilt and condemnation, believe in the dear Saviour Whose righteousness is reckoned to you, and it will comfort your soul like nothing else can.

Thirdly, we ought to be concerned with the doctrine of justification for our usefulness to God. Those who rightly understand the article of faith upon which the Church stands or falls, that is, the very heart of the gospel, are the most useful to God and to His dear people. Preachers who think that the gospel is social activism are poor excuses for preachers. In fact they are generally not true preachers, but false prophets. Preachers and Sunday school teachers who just tell their hearers to be nice and polite are not giving the gospel. Religious people who do not know the gospel are a menace to society. Now let us take a short, simple test of whether we know the gospel. Suppose you were called to the bedside of a dying man who has never been to church and has lived a desperately wicked life. Now in his dying hour he becomes concerned for his soul and what can be done about his sins. It is too late for the poor wretch to amend his ways. Could you in such a case take the word of God and show this poor wretch how his sins are actually absolved, and how he can die and face God with a righteous record? If you can’t then you don’t know the gospel yourself, and you are of no use to God, or anybody, as far as anything spiritual and eternal.

If you will keep reading the Narrow Way I will (DV) keep labouring for your eternal good. Keep reading and with the help of the Lord we will learn more of the answer to Job’s great question.

The Righteousness of God Imputed

(Article for publication week of 8-1-2012 AD)

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:” (Romans 3:21-22).

“The righteousness of God” is a phrase that we find many times in the Book of Romans, and is fundamental to our understanding of the doctrine of justification and of salvation. Paul used this expression in chapter one, verse seventeen to introduce his great theme in the Epistle to the Romans. A careful reading of our text today reveals that Paul is not referring to the “righteousness of God” as one of His essential attributes, but rather he is describing the righteousness that is imputed to the believer in Christ. It is the very “righteousness of God” which is accounted to the believer. Judicially, God considers a believer in His Eternal Son to be as righteous as Himself. What a glorious gospel!

This is a most astounding truth of God’s word. Although the believer is in and of himself ungodly (Romans 4:5), God imputes the righteousness of His Son to him, yea, to everyone who believes in Him. God declares every believer in Christ to be righteous. Because of the justifying righteousness of Christ, the believer is in right relation to the law of God. This is the only way a poor sinner can ever have his record right with God, that is by imputed righteousness.

Now, Paul declares here in our text that this way of justification had been witnessed by the Old Testament (“the law and the prophets”). God’s way of salvation has always been the same. Abraham and David, and every other Old Testament saint were justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ (Romans 4:3,6). The Old Testament believers did not have the light that we now have, but they were just as saved as we are. With the coming of Christ and the giving of the New Testament there was a full manifestation of what had always been the gospel of grace. What Abraham and David believed for their salvation is now fully manifest to us. The very righteousness of God is “unto and upon all them that believe.”

   

The righteousness of God is “unto” them that believe. That is, it is a free gift. Salvation is a gift, not an offer. Remember, we have already shown in previous articles that it is God Who justifies (Romans 8:33), and we are justified without any cause in us (Romans 3:24). A poor sinner can do nothing to save himself, or help save himself, so he simply trusts in the merits of Christ for his whole and sole righteousness. So the justifying righteousness of Christ is said to be “unto” the believer.

But notice also that the justifying righteousness of Christ is “upon” the believer. This tells us that the righteousness of Christ covers us. Thus did David say, “blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered” (Romans 4:7). The prophet Isaiah wrote so sweetly (see again how the Old Testament gave the gospel witness), “. He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.”

Finally, let us see that this righteousness is unto and upon everyone that believeth. Though your sins be as black as the hinges on hell’s gates, the righteousness of Christ is counted as yours through faith in Christ. Remember, God justifies the ungodly. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). My text promises that everyone who believes in Christ for his whole and sole righteousness is right with God, that is justified. May the Holy Spirit draw you to the Saviour, and give you faith to believe in Him for justifying righteousness.