Monday, April 13, 2015

Faith

Question: What do you mean by "justification by faith"? Is faith the only means of salvation?

The Greek word that is translated "to justify" in the New Testament would, according to its word origin, mean to "to make righteous." However, this meaning is extremely rare in in Greek usage, if not altogether doubtful, and it certainly is NOT the New Testament usage of the word. In Biblical usage, "to justify" does not signify "to make righteous" but "to reckon, declare, or show to be righteous." A person is justified before God when God reckons him righteous, that is, when God not only forgive his sins but also credits all "positive righteousness" to his account. This means that when God justifies us, He not only cleanses us from the sins that we have committed against Him (sins of commission) but also credits to our account all the good works that we should have done but failed to do (sins of omission.)

There is one condition upon which men are justified before God: simple faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:26; 4:5; 5:1; Acts 13:39). It is the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the Cross in our place that secures justification for us (Romans 5:9; Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21). His shed blood is the ground of our justification, and simple faith in Him makes that shed blood ours. Provision is made for our justification by the shedding of His blood; we are actually justified when we believe in Him who shed His blood. Faith is the only means of securing for ourselves the atoning power that there is in the blood of Jesus Christ. If a person will not believe, there is nothing he can do that will bring him justification.

If a person does believe, he is absolved from "all things" the moment he believes (Acts 13:38-3). Not only are all his sins put out of God's sight, but in God's reckoning, all of God's own righteousness in Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary, He took our place (Galatians 3:10, 13), and the moment we believe in Him, we step into His place and are just as pleasing to God as Jesus Christ Himself is.

~R. A. Torrey~

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.