Afterwords -- by faith
"...for 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." (Romans 3:23-25a)
June 10, 2023
Dear friends,
I'm currently reading Paul's epistle to the Romans. What's impressive is that the human race described in chapters one and two -- two thousand years ago -- is essentially no different from civilization today. Technology has advanced, of course, but not the moral and spiritual condition of humankind in general.
ALL HAVE SINNED. Chapters one and two speak of the moral and spiritual corruption of humanity. Chapter one deals specifically with the idolatry and bondage of people who reject God, and chapter two deals with virtuous (or at least, virtue-signaling) people, who have a sense of moral superiority and look down on those described in chapter one. (This could have been written yesterday.) In the first part of chapter three, the Apostle Paul says that both groups (all groups) and every person within those groups, have sinned and are under the wrath of God, facing an eternal judgment. Then he gives a wonderful summary of the good news of the redemption which God has accomplished through his Son, our Lord Jesus (3:21-26).
BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH. The redemption Christ accomplished is "to be received by faith" (3:25). God justifies "the one who has faith in Jesus" (3:26). The principle of our salvation is not the law of works, but "the law of faith" (3:27). We are "justified by faith" (3:28). (That's "faith" mentioned four times in four verses, in case we didn't get it the first time!) When salvation is by grace, when it is a gift, the only proper response is faith. On this passage in Romans, Francis Schaeffer said,
There are two factors in salvation: the basis and the instrument. The basis of our salvation is the finished work of Jesus Christ, without a hair's breadth of any human good works added to the scale. The instrument by which we share in this salvation is our faith, our believing God. Our faith does not have saving value. We're not saved on the basis of our faith. We're saved only on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. But the instrument by which we share in this is our faith. Our faith links us to the salvation Christ provides. Our faith is the empty hands that accept the gift of salvation.
Our faith has no saving value. Our religious good works, our moral good works, have no saving value because they're not perfect. Our suffering has no saving value. We would have to suffer infinitely, because we have sinned against an infinite God; and we, being finite, cannot suffer infinitely. The only thing in all of God's moral universe that has the power to save is the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our faith merely accepts the gift. And God justifies all those who believe in Jesus (3:26).
-- Francis Schaeffer, The Finished Work of Christ (Crossway, 1998)
What good, good news! So, we "...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." (Romans 3:23-25a) [This would make a great verse to memorize!]
IN OTHER NEWS.
-- I'm just now discovering (and enjoying) the music of Eva Cassidy. She was a relatively unknown blues/jazz/folk singer who died at an early age. Here's a bit of her story. And here's some of her music.
-- More Bible reading notes added: Genesis through Deuteronomy.
-- "The thing God cares about and honors is faithfulness, not famousness." (Stephen Altrogge)
FINAL QUOTE. "If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it's not so bad." (C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Image credit: photo above by Dev Benjamin on Unsplash. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
