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| When did God justify you? |
You have probably read through Gen 15 by now if you are following a yearly reading plan covering the whole Scriptures.
Here's a question for your consideration. It deals with a fundamental truth of great importance, so important that some said it determines the standing or falling of the church! The popular phrase is attributed to Luther, "justificatio est articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae" - "justification is the article by which the church stands and falls.” If it is of such momentous importance, it deserves our careful attention.
When did God justify Abram, when he was still in the land of his nativity Ur of the Chaldees or when he was in Gen 15?
(The question is not, when was Abram justified by his faith?)
(The question is not, when was Abram justified by his faith?)
What do you read and see in Gen 12-14 concerning Abram - was he a man still in his native unjustified state or a man in his justified state?
Let's remind ourselves of some basics first:
a. Sin, the transgression of God's law, brought condemnation and death.
- Rom 5:18 "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."
- Rom 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
- Abram too was conceived in sin and born in sin; he was in his native state of condemnation and death until that is reversed by the free and gracious act of God in the justification of life.
b. Righteousness, the obedience to God's law, secures justification and life. Righteousness is the absolute prerequisite of the justification of life, see Rom 5:18. No righteousness, no justification before God; period.
- This righteousness is either by your own obedience to the law or by the righteousness of God's own provision through the perfect and sinless obedience of Jesus Christ to the complete law of God.
c. In God's free and gracious act of justifying the condemned, He freely applies the righteousness of Jesus Christ (whether prospectively before the cross or retrospective after the cross), to the condemned man personally, declaring him righteous and not guilty, and forgiving him of all his sins.
- Romans 3:22 "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." That righteousness of God's own provision is by the faith of Jesus Christ, i.e. by His faithfulness in His work as a redeemer of His people. Many have perverted the "faith of Jesus Christ" into their own "faith in Jesus Christ." (The KJV remains true.)
- Remember, it is the justification OF LIFE; when righteousness is applied to a man personally, it is unto life, i.e. eternal life is given when the righteousness of Jesus Christ is applied to a man personally.
- Remember? Sin > condemnation and death; righteousness > justification and life.
- Remember? Sin > condemnation and death; righteousness > justification and life.
d. God freely justifies the ungodly based on the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
- Rom 3:24 "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
- FREELY necessarily implies no condition is needed; no faith or believing on the part of the unjustified is needed for him to be justified before God.
- The reason is so simple and plain; the unjustified is in the state of condemnation and death. Such can't meet any condition in order to be justified by God.
e. Only those whom God has freely justified; remember, it is the justification of life. The UNjustified by God are still in their native state of condemnation and death; such are absolutely incapable of believing the things of the Spirit of God.
- 1Co 2:14 "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
- John 3:3 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now, with those basic truth covered, let us ask, when was Abram justified by God? Way back in his land of birth in Gen 11 or only Gen 15?
Renowned theologians and their followers insist on the latter, with the necessary implication that Gen 11-14 Abram was still an UNjustified by God, a man still under the condemnation of sin and death! What impudence!
That view is contrary to all the plain evidence of Abram in Gen 11-14.
Read them again without the coloured glasses.
That view is contrary to all the plain evidence of Abram in Gen 11-14.
Read them again without the coloured glasses.
Mat 11:25
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
