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Declared Righteous

It could be an urban myth, but I recently heard of a product on sale in the US called the Disposable Guilt Bag kit. It consists of 10 ordinary brown paper bags on which is printed the instruction: “Place bag securely over your mouth, take a deep breath and blow all your guilt out, then dispose of the bag immediately.” Amazing! And it would be wonderful if, in reality, we could be rid of guilt and pain so readily and easily. But it just isn’t so. Neil Finn, lead singer of Split Enz, for one, sings, “I’d crawl over broken glass, if we could start again . . .”

your day in court

The Bible says we must all appear before the judgment seat of God and give an account of what we’ve done (2 Corinthians 5:10). But upon what basis can a sinner stand before God and receive an acquittal? The word acquitted is a legal term, the same as justified, which means “to declare in the right” (see also Deuteronomy 25:1).

1. Can God justify people because they haven’t sinned?
Romans 3:10, 23 “There is no-one righteous, not even one…. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
This is bad news. God’s standard of judgment is higher than we can imagine. It is nothing less than perfection—100 per cent obedience to His law. Our true condition in His eyes is worse than we would dare hope. James (2:8-13), speaking of the law of God as the standard of judgment, says we need only to break one point of the law to be guilty of breaking it all.

2. Can we be declared righteous by our obedience to the law?
Romans 3:20 “Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.”
Trying to “be justified by law” alienates us from Christ and from grace (Galatians 5:4).

now the good news

3. How are sinners justified in God’s judgment?
Romans 3:24 Sinners “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The Oxford Dictionary defines grace as “privilege or concession that cannot be claimed as [a] right.”

4. How much does eternal life cost us?
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
One distinguishing characteristic of Christianity is its teaching of salvation—given freely, by grace, through faith, and apart from human works. It is a gift from God! When we accept Jesus and what He has done for us, we receive God’s gift.

5. On what basis does God freely acquit us and declare us innocent or righteous in His sight?
Romans 3:25, 26 “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood . . . so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
Jesus’ death satisfied God’s justice. Now, through Jesus, we can be “at one” with God. We were made for friendship with God and only in that relationship can we find our true meaning and happiness.

no fishing allowed

6. What does God do with our Sins?
Colossians 2:13 “He forgave . . . all.” God says He casts our sins into the “depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
Corrie Ten Boon adds, He puts up a sign, saying, “No fishing allowed.” God will separate them “as far as the east is from the west” and “remember” our sins “no more.” (Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 43:25).

7. How are sinners righteous before God?
2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
The only way to be righteous is through faith. In faith we claim the goodness of Jesus, then God puts this to our account. Jesus’ obedience (righteousness, goodness) is accepted in place of our mistakes, and God accepts and pardons us, because of what Jesus has done.

forgiveness

During the Korean War, a South Korean Christian—a civilian—was arrested by the Communists and ordered shot. But when the young Communist leader learned the prisoner ran an orphanage, he decided to spare him and kill his 19-year-old son instead, whom he executed in the presence of his father.* Later, fortunes changed and the Communist leader was captured, tried and condemned to death. But before the sentence could be carried out, the man whose son had been killed pleaded for his life, arguing that the perpetrator was young and didn’t know what he was doing, declaring, “Give him to me.” The bereaved father took the murderer into his home and cared for him.

That’s the way it is in the Christian life. Jesus offers to set us free from condemnation and death. It’s an offer everyone has to respond to.

* Roland Philips, in Encyclopedia of 7700 lllustrations, 1996

 

Extract from Signs of the Times, October 2004.

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