Romans 3:23-26 – “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
From the beginning, man has sought to be right with God. Even atheism, in a sense, is an attempt at this in that how they right themselves with God in that they seek to avoid accountability by denying He exists. So it is true of every person, whatever their beliefs, that inwardly there is this question that must be answered – “What must I do to be right with God?”
You know, a lot of people speak about various religions in the world, but really there are only two. You have the religion of man’s achievement or of God’s achievement. Every other religion, apart from Christianity seeks to be right with God through their own achievement. The Pharisees, the “Holy” men in Jesus’s day sought to become right with God based on their own achievement and Jesus rebuked them. In Matthew 5:20 Jesus tells the thousands who had come to hear Him, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What has man to offer God? What sacrifice could he give that was not given to Him by God? Psalm 50:7-10 – “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.” If you were to work your whole life for righteousness, what credit would that be to you? Where does your strength come from? Whose air do you breathe? Acts 17:24-25 – “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
It has been revealed throughout God’s revelation in His Word that from the beginning salvation was not about man’s achievement but God’s achievement. It was foreshadowed in the Law and the Prophets, and manifested in Christ. Hear Jesus’s words in Luke 24:44-47 – “Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Look to the Old Testament (Law and the Prophets and Psalms) and see. God told Abraham to number the stars if he could, and promised that his offspring would be the same. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Later God called on Abraham to sacrifice His only son, Isaac. When asked by Isaac where the sacrifice was, Abraham replied “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” (Gen 22:8) Later God responds to Abraham’s faith, Gen 22:12-14 – “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.”
Abraham did not know who the name Jesus, but He believed the promise of God and believed that God would provide the sacrifice. We too, if we would be right with God, should not look to ourselves, but to Jesus, who was the fulfillment of all of the promises of God, the once and final sacrifice for our sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Not our righteousness, but the righteousness of God. Not our achievement, Christ’s achievement. This is gospel. In the old testament, no sacrifice atoned for a single sin, but those who gave them believed God’s promise to provide a sacrifice and their sacrifice was one of symbol and thanksgiving of their belief. Now we all, believing and trusting the promises of God fulfillled in Christ offer up a sacrifice of obedience, not to inherit a righteousness apart from Christ, but from thanksgiving and a symbol that He is in us.
My exhortation today comes as way of reminder – if you would be right with God, make your heart wholly united with Christ and believe on Him. He is just and the justifier of all who believe Him.
Grace and Peace,
Adam
Following the Way 