Sermon: A Hidden Mystery in God!
#1754
Martin G. Collins
Given 30-Mar-24; 64 minutes
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transcript:
The world is perplexed by all of its suffering and wars. We live in a world that is plagued by terrorism from religious zealots, ideological fanatics, and corrupt governments. People are confounded by overwhelmingly unsolvable social difficulties including environmental pollution, legalized drug cartels, legal injustices, and political fraud, and on and on the list goes.
Most people view these things merely on a superficial level and some might be truly concerned asking, why is the world this way? But that is where the world ends in its thinking. It cannot understand because the problems are spiritual.
Please turn with me to I John 1, verse 3. There are no answers and there is no hope for those who have no true fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. The first epistle of John addresses those questions about which the world is bewildered.
I John 1:3 That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
This is where the first epistle of John comes in with its specific message. We are not surprised by the state of the world because we know why it is this way. What is happening in the world confirms the world's attitude towards life and what they observed that has happened during the history of the world. They look back and they are still bewildered at why things are the way they are. And that confirmation is that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
I John 5:18-20 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
So at least four times there we were told that we know, we know we know these things. We know, not because we are smarter than anyone else, but because we have been given this understanding by the grace of God.
A world such as we live in proves that the Word of God actually depicts that the world is under the power of the prince of the power of the air, the damaging evil power that has set itself in rebellion against God since the beginning of man's creation. And we know and understand that there is a deep-seated evil in life due to sin and while it remains, there can be nothing in the world except what we continue to see and experience.
But thankfully, we are saved from all of that hopelessness and despair. Jesus Christ teaches us the satisfactory answer to why the world is as it is.
Essentially we are taught that all is due to man's rebellion against God. And we are delivered from the waste of time of trying to analyze the world's political, economic, and social philosophies to look for answers. Wars and aggression cannot be explained in those terms and so are inadequate.
With our God-inspired insight as members of God's church, we see things as they really are. We know that the explanation is something much deeper than anything the world can understand. And these worldly problems manifest the deeper causes in which foolish humans find themselves. Using a business term, this is the bottom line of the cause: Mankind is in a state of rebellion against God.
The wrath of man mentioned in Psalm 76:10 shows that God was right all along. Men and women were placed in a state of physical paradise and physical perfection but they felt that even paradise was an insult to them because they were required to be in subjection to God. One act of rebellion led to all later troubles.
This initial defiant act by Adam and Eve put the wrong kind of fear in them. Once they knew they had done something wrong, that caused them to look at each other with jealousy and envy. Then the children came and they also became jealous and envious—and the cycle continues to this day. Sorrow follows sorrow. It can all be traced back to the fact that humans were designed to be content and happy only if we fellowship with God.
Happiness in a full and complete sense is only possible when we submit to the will of God. A person who refuses to do that will experience confusion and misery which we certainly do see throughout the entire world. He may have shallow moments of joy, but they do not last and they do not give hope. So the Bible says this is the state of the world away from God. It rebels against God and therefore produces its own miseries. Now you can do what you like, but while people are contentious toward God they can never be truly happy. And so we are in a world like this because of sin and the influence of the wicked one.
The world is incapable of righteous behavior because its foundation is still that of the old man drowning in sin. And if the world cannot keep the basic morality of the Ten Commandments, how can they live according to Christ's teachings of the New Covenant? How can they follow Christ and have fellowship with Him? It is absurd to think they could without a call from God! And in a world under the influence of the evil one, we can expect nothing but contention, wars, lies, and confusion.
Please turn with me to to Ephesians 2, verse 11. The cause of man's troubles is that he has rebelled against God and is in a wrong relationship with Him. We did not know our fellowship with Him before receiving God's Holy Spirit. And God has designed something in us that can never be at rest until we willfully submit to that right relationship. But sin is a wall to that.
Ephesians 2:11-16 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh [instead of Gentiles, you could always put worldly]—who are called Uncircumcision [that is, not Israelites] by what is called the Circumcision [Israelites] made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
The ultimate central need of the world and people as individuals is true knowledge of God, genuine fellowship with Him, and a real unity with Him. The world lives at the opposite of all that. But man rises against man, nation against nation, because each one does not recognize God. And the only way to reconcile man with man is that both must be reconciled to God.
First, man tries to make treaties between themselves. They diplomatically try to get agreements going to bring peace. But it is just short-lived because it is never based on a relationship with God. Because of the coming of Christ, who is the Son of God, and what He has done, it is possible for us to be in fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us that this fellowship had been kept secret by God and is revealed through Jesus Christ and His church.
Ephesians 3:9-10 And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Christ Jesus; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places.
So what has Christ done? How has Jesus Christ made this fellowship with the Father possible? We read earlier that the apostle John said, "We declare Him." "We remember Him." The entirety of the New Testament is, in a sense, a reminder of Jesus Christ, how He lived, what He taught, and what He came to do. And this is a major purpose of the Passover service. Jesus told His disciples to remember Him, to memorialize that event.
And what is the basic element of this fellowship? How can we become reconciled to God and have this fellowship with Him? How can we have similar fellowship with each other? In what sense is peace possible among people in a world like this?
According to John, it is all based on Jesus Christ and it is He who has made it possible.
Certain things are essential before we can have fellowship and unity with God the Father and Jesus Christ. The first essential thing to fellowship and unity is that the obstacle of sin be removed. There must be no obstacles or barriers. If there is anything like that between two people, there is no true fellowship. If there is suspicion or distrust, if there is a question as to whether we can trust one another, if there is a grudge, if something has been done that has hurt the other, true fellowship is impossible.
Fellowship demands the removal of every barrier and every obstacle, everything doubtful or that can come between. That is essential before there can be true fellowship. And in light of that, we begin to understand the work of Jesus Christ. The reason people are outside the life of God is because of sin. It came in between God and man, and that obstacle can be regarded as a terrible cloud of darkness.
The character of light reveals hidden things of darkness. So sin keeps a barrier between God and us because He is holy and cannot look casually upon sin until Jesus Christ did what He did (which we will get to). God made it clear from the beginning that if a person sins, he must die. And with the ground rules set, man sees a barrier between himself and God; man's guilty conscience feels that God is unfamiliar.
Now, a disobedient child eventually dislikes his parents and often the bitterness turns into hate. Guilt always has that effect. It always attempts to excuse itself and put the blame on the other person. So people in sin and a state of guilt have unfair thoughts against God. They disagree with God's laws and argue and create a barrier between themselves and God and they cannot see Him because their guilty thoughts have become a wall and there is no respect, friendship, or trust in a conflicting relationship like that.
The exciting thing the apostle John says in his first epistle is the result of Jesus Christ coming into this world. The result of what He has done is that we can have fellowship with the Father. So how has Christ done this? By dealing with the obstacle of sin. The justice and righteousness of the Holy God demand that sin be destroyed. God cannot say something and then withdraw it. He cannot speak and then deny it. And He said that sinners must be punished.
Please turn with me to back to I John 2, verse 1. God's law and God's Word remain absolute and remain the same. They cannot be avoided. But Christ came into the world and by His infinite sacrifice and love He has offered Himself to the Father and called on the Father to lay upon His holy body, His holy life, the sins of the world.
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him [that is, Jesus] the iniquity of us all.
So the apostle John tells us,
I John 2:1-2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
There are certain terms in the Bible that are more legalistic, so to speak, as far as they have to do with legal issues and they sound confusing and things like that. Propitiation is one of those words, as well as justification and sanctification and so on. They are not as complicated as those words seem to make us feel. And so I want to cover some of those terms today.
What does the propitiation for sins mean? Why is propitiation necessary? Propitiation means "sacrificial atonement." It is an appeasement and expresses the idea that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin that the Holy God demands from the sinner. Christ's atoning death for the world's sins altered the human race's whole position in its relationship to God because God recognizes what Christ accomplished on behalf of the world. Whether a person enters into its blessing or not, Christ's sacrifice has rendered God propitious or appeased, in a sense, toward the unconverted and erring saint. But to receive the benefit of it, a person must have faith, repent, and be baptized.
The fact that Christ has borne all sin renders God propitious. The three Greek words dealing with the doctrine of propitiation are hilasmos, hilasterion, and hilaskomai. They are all translated propitious or mercy and that type of thing. Let me give you some examples.
The first word translated propitiation, hilasmos, signifies what Christ became for the sinner as we just read in I John 2:2. He Himself is the propitiation, that is, hilasmos, for our sins. The second word translated propitiation, hilasterion, expresses the place of propitiation. It is the term for the Mercy Seat.
Please turn over to Hebrews 9, verse 1. In the Old Testament, the Mercy Seat and the Holy of Holies could be made, in type, a place of propitiation by animal sacrifice. Here in Hebrews, the author of Hebrews, which was probably Paul says,
Hebrews 9:1-5 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All [or Holy of Holies], which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that it had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
So that term, the Mercy Seat, could also be translated propitious or something of that sort. It is the same word, but in a different term, a different sense. So God has been merciful, all the while passing over people's sins with no adequate legal ground to do so under the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 7:26-27 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself.
Christ's sacrifice was so tremendous, and great, and awesome, and above all others in the universe and beyond, that it only took one time, one sacrifice of Him to cover all sins past and future. This is why the Old Testament sacrifices are no longer required.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
So the Mercy Seat is a continual throne of grace. From the sinner's perspective, what would otherwise be an awful judgment throne becomes an altar of infinite mercy for the faithful.
Now, the third word translated propitiation, hilaskomai, indicates that God has become gracious, propitious, or appeased, as in Luke 18:13, where it says, "The tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, 'God, be merciful [hiloaskomai or propitious] to me a sinner!'" We see humility in this tax collector, an essential attitude, especially for the Passover observance and the whole of a Christian's life.
Since the death of Christ, God does not have to be asked to be propitious because He has become so towards human beings through that death. So the Father is gracious, appeased, merciful in His judgment of human beings who submit to Him. The propitiation originates with God not to appease himself, but to justify Himself in His consistent kindness to human beings who deserve harshness.
Please turn over to Romans 3, verse 25. Propitiation signifies the removal of wrath by offering a gift. It is a reminder that God the Father is relentlessly opposed to everything evil, that His opposition can be described as wrath, and that His wrath is put away only by the atoning work of Christ for those who submit to God. Propitiation no longer keeps us from fellowship with the Father because the veil has been removed. In referring to Christ as a propitiation, the apostle Paul said,
Romans 3:25 Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in his forbearance God has passed over the sins that were previously committed, . . .
So God's legal requirement to resolve was, "How could He forgive sin and remain a holy and just God?" You can only do that if the legal requirement was appeased or was covered by the blood of Christ. The answer of course is that He has set Christ to be a propitiation for our sins. And the result of this is stated in the next verse.
Romans 3:26 . . . to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
So the shed blood of Christ justifies God. He remains holy because He has punished sin in the death and the shed blood of His Son. So although we are aware of our potential and even sometimes our tendency to sin, we may look to the blood of Jesus Christ and see there the forgiveness of God. In Christ, there is no longer an obstacle. Fellowship has been made possible. And the enmity, as Paul puts it, has been removed.
This first essential thing to fellowship and unity is that the obstacle of sin be removed, which is part of what Passover pictures.
Now, the second essential before we can have true fellowship and unity is likeness; a fundamental sameness. Christ opened this opportunity for us by His selfless sacrifice following His perfect example while a physical human being.
Jesus showed us what God is like and that His own oneness with the Father came through the faith, humility, sacrifice, and love seen in His life and horrible death. Becoming like God is carried over into the Days of Unleavened Bread picture. Part of how we become like God is to overcome sin, expunge it from our lives, and ensure it cannot come back. And all this is empowered by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
Please turn over to II Corinthians 6. Before there can be true fellowship and unity, there must be a likeness of nature, an identical character. Paul expressed this succinctly to the church in Corinth in II Corinthians 6 where he tells the church to be holy.
II Corinthians 6:11-18 0 Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open. Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? And what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people." Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
He says, "And what communion has light with darkness?" Communion is another word for fellowship. So what fellowship, what social connections should we have with people in the world who are sinning? Of course, when we work in the world, we have to work with the people in the world. But socially meeting with them and that type of thing is very, very dicey, very touchy. Certain things in the world cannot mix because they have a different kind of spirit.
There is no likeness between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. This applies to all of us individually in our relationship with God. And before we can truly know God and have fellowship with Him, we must be like Him. And we can never really know God until we have God's own nature, which we receive by receiving the Holy Spirit, which is the nature and the mind of God helping us to become like Him. If we have God's own nature, we have become sons of God or as the apostle Peter puts it in II Peter 1:4, we can become partakers of the divine nature. It is Christ alone who makes that possible for us.
Please turn over to John 6, verse 51. The apostle John says that in Christ eternal life was manifested, but he did not stop at that. He also says in John 10:10, Christ came to give us life. He said, "I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly." So this is where it again relates to Passover.
John 6:51-54 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
Before we can have true fellowship with God, we must have the nature of God dwelling in us. We must share His life and in Christ that is made possible to us. We cannot have fellowship with God before we are like Him. In Christ, we can receive a new life and nature. So Christ is the center of all of this enabling us to have fellowship with God. We can become a new man and we can say with Paul, "I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me." That is how we do it. That is how we are enabled to do it—Christ living in us.
So this second essential thing to fellowship and unity is begun in a new us and pictured in Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, and our becoming like God by following Christ's example of humility, sacrifice, love, and conquering sin.
Please turn over to II John 1, verse 4. The third and last thing that is essential before we have can have true fellowship and unity with each other and with God, is we must love the same things, we must love the truth.
II John 1-4 The Elder, to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth, because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever: Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from the God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in the truth, as we received commandment from the Father.
So how do we love in truth? John goes on to say that we walk in the truth and love one another by keeping the commandments. It seems like such a simple statement. But we know there is both the letter of the law and the spirit of the law to be kept.
II John 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.
We must love the same things that God loves. God loves His children. We must love one another, there must not be any suspicion. There must be a complete understanding, there must be a complete confidence, and there must be complete trust. This is also what we have to work on: our relationships with one another. In fact, it is a core and a basic foundational issue in our Christian growth.
Please turn over to Romans 5, verse 6. People apart from Christ may believe in God as a great power or as Creator. They may believe in Him as the one who controls everything. People can have such beliefs and conceptions of God, but there is no fellowship without love and it is only as we see Him in Christ Jesus that we truly come to love Him.
Romans 5:6-11 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. [That is, Jesus Christ.] For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
So we know the Father through Jesus Christ, and we have fellowship with the Father through Jesus Christ. Christ's death and life make that possible. The world as it is is not in fellowship with God. A world that is unhappy and miserable is disfellowshipped and disunified from God. Even in a world like that, we can be unified with God in fellowship with the Father and the Son. And having this relationship, we can experience what Christ Himself experienced and experiences.
Now, there may be problems for us. But because Christ has unity with the Father, He was able even to go to a cruel, shameful death with confidence and joy. We are told by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, that "Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame." So we too in trials and sicknesses and injuries can also have that joy by focusing on the will of God.
Therefore, the ultimate question is, do we have this confidence and joy of Christ despite what bad things may happen—grief and sorrow and uncertainty?
Turn over to I John 1, verse 6. You can see that John had a lot to say about this. What must we do? If our fellowship with God is to continue, we must walk in the light. What does that mean?
I John 1:6-10 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [And that is not saying, confess it to one another. It is saying, confess it to God and do something about it.], He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
So we must walk in the light which requires acknowledging and confessing our sins. We just cannot sweep them under the carpet. We must face them.
Talking about fellowship with God is hypocritical and accomplishes nothing if we walk in darkness. So we must walk in the light by repenting and believing that Christ speaks the truth and that He lives by it setting us the example of what we should do.
Generally, light exposes the hidden things of darkness and reveals things that we are unaware of. In a physical sense, light in a room reveals dust and various particles, other things that are floating in the air. On a dark country road, it reveals all sorts of things. Light does that; and it does that spiritually as well. We have all seen children when they first see dust in the air, in the sunlight, and how they try to grasp it and catch it. It is always an interesting thing to watch that new knowledge being formed there.
In a spiritual sense, light reveals the hidden things of darkness and shines on sin which must be completely removed. So when we walk with God and His Word dwells in us, we are convicted of sin. Everything that is wrong, unworthy, and sinful in us is exposed, hopefully. But being in the church for a while there is not very much there, but we all are working on it, are we not?
As we fellowship with God and walk with Him in the light, we all experience something like what the apostle Peter experienced during one of His first experiences with Jesus working a miracle. They had been unable to catch any fish, they had tried but failed and Jesus sent them back to the same place. This time they caught a great haul of fish. Do you remember the effect that had on Peter? It always has an effect. He was emotional when he realized this aspect of Christ's divine nature and glory.
Luke 5:8 . . . he fell on his knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
In other words, depart from me, Lord! I am not fit to be in Your presence because I am so conscious of my sin. That is the effect of realizing the existence of the glory of the Son of God. It is what happens when we are truly in the presence of God.
What has God provided for us in fellowship with Him as we become conscious of our sin? The answer is in,
I John 1:7 . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
I John 1:9 . . . He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The assurance is that God does it for us if we submit to Him.
Let us move on to the next term: justification. The apostle John does not use the terms justification and sanctification which Paul used. But of course, John teaches exactly the same doctrine. Paul tended to use more legal terms than the other apostles. And I think because he was so well trained, probably being trained toward being a rabbi or at least well trained in Judaism, that he was conscious of the legalities of things. John, in his pictorial way, is teaching the same truth as the apostle Paul teaches in his more logical and legal manner by means of his terms justification and sanctification.
So what has God provided for us regarding fellowship with Him as we become conscious of our sin? It is helpful to define these two terms to answer this. So what is meant by justification? Now simply, justify is a legal term meaning to acquit or declare righteous. It is the opposite of condemning. Justifying is the judges act. To be justified means to receive the verdict.
In the New Testament, justification is a declaration that God has made a judgment. It is a legal act on God's part to impart the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us. And once we have accepted His sacrifice on our behalf, it puts us in alignment with God and His law. You remember during a baptism ceremony, what we ask the person being baptized? "Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" It is absolutely crucial that we do agree to that.
Righteousness, which is conformity to the law, is what He requires of people. He shows His righteousness as Judge by taking vengeance on those who fall short. There is no hope for anyone if God's verdict goes against Him. And because God is sovereign, the thought of Him as justifying may have an executive and a judicial aspect. Like the ideal royal judge in Israel, He will not only pass a verdict in favor of the accused but will actively implement it by showing favor towards him and publicly reinstating him.
Justification represents our status in the presence of God. Justification includes not only the forgiveness of sins, but also that our sins have been dealt with and are removed from us through faith in Jesus Christ. We benefit from this justification when we repent of our sins.
Now, the justification of sinners that the apostle Paul expounds is simply the passing of a favorable verdict. Paul taught that God shows favor to those whom He has acquitted. Now what God does for us in justification is to remove the guilt of the sin altogether. And it is not only that He does not require punishment of us for it, but that He regards us as righteous as if we had not sinned; that sin has been removed. It is a stronger term than forgiveness. We may be forgiven yet our sins remain upon us.
Please turn to Romans 4, verse 5. Justification is a judgment passed on a human being, not a work produced within him. It is an act of remitting the sins of guilty people and accounting them righteous, freely, by His grace through faith in Christ. Not of their works, but of the law-keeping of Jesus Christ and the shedding of His blood on their behalf.
Romans 4:5-8 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin."
So Paul's explanation of justification is his characteristic way of saying that God more than forgives faithful and repentant people. Though justification has much in common with forgiveness, the two terms should not be regarded as interchangeable because forgiveness of sins can be stated as related to confession and repentance, setting it apart from justification, which is a declaration of God on behalf of the faithful ex-sinner. To be justified includes the truth that God sees the sinner in terms of his faithful relationship with His Son, with whom He is well pleased.
Paul says that faith in Christ is the means by which righteousness is received and justification bestowed. Sinners are justified by and through faith. Paul does not regard faith as the foundation of justification. Faith is not the foundation of justification. In Romans 4, verse 3, Paul quotes the case of Abraham who "believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness" and to prove that we are justified through faith without works.
Now, just a comment about faith without works, that is, we are justified by faith, but we must repent of our sins. Just to have faith and do nothing or to have faith and do nothing about what we are involved in that we are having faith about, we must search for what our part is in that. So if we have committed sin, we have faith in God that He will forgive that. But we have to do the repentance part so that we can be forgiven for that. He has already done the work. But we have our part to play in that aspect.
And with faith without works, let us say, with ailments. We should search for what we can do to assist. As Richard was talking about the healing process that God has designed into the body and that God is the our healer. But we can also do what we can trusting in God to look for ways of helping the healing process. You know, we get a scratch and we put something on it that seems to encourage healing. God is the one who healed, put the healing in us and who heals us. But we can aid Him in that by doing, eating the right food to have good health, and that type of thing.
What I am talking about here is not saying that you do not have to overcome sin. I am just saying that the work that Christ has done has made it possible for that and it has already been done. I wanted to make that clear.
So getting back to Abraham in Romans four verse three, Paul quotes the case of Abraham "who believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness" and to prove that we are justified through faith without works.
Romans 4:2-4 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. [So Abraham was not the one who did it, God did it.] For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God [he had faith in God], and it was accounted to Him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.
We cannot earn grace. It is a gift from God; just like we cannot earn salvation, which is a gift from God.
Paul referred to the book of Genesis as teaching that Abraham's faith, his wholehearted reliance on God's promise, was accounted for righteousness. However,
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:3-18 gives us more detail on this. It says that the work of Christ does not benefit a person unless it is faithfully embraced.
So, justification and reconciliation are the first and primary fruits of Christ's death. We are justified by His blood and reconciled by His death. Christ has done all that was required of Him so that upon our repentance, acceptance of Christ's sacrifice, and baptism, we are put into a state of justification and reconciliation. Christ has done this for us, putting us right with God, or giving us the opportunity to be right with God and have fellowship with Him.
Our justification is attributed to the blood of Christ because without blood, there is no remission of sins. So Passover represents our justification and is a memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Passover, which made forgiving our sins possible. The focus is on Jesus Christ. We receive the benefit, of course.
Now let us understand another term related to fellowship and unity with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and that is sanctification. Sanctification is the process of dealing with our potential to sin. It means that we are infused with the Holy Spirit. In essence, it stamps us with a seal that shows we have God's Spirit, it gives us the help we need to resist and overcome our sin and any sin that we are tempted to commit.
So in comparison, justification does not deal with the potential to sin that is within us. It deals with the sins that we have committed. But after our sins have been forgiven and sin and guilt have been removed from us, the potential for sin remains in us. And what the New Testament means by this doctrine of sanctification is the process whereby the potential for sin is being taken out of us. We call it spiritual growth, character building, we call it all types of things. But sanctification is a process that we go on from the time that we are converted until the time that we are raised incorruptible. And then I suppose sanctification lasts for the rest of our eternity.
Now, we are assured that, ultimately, we will be completed and we will therefore be delivered, not only from the guilt of sin, but also from the power of sin and even the pollution of sin.
The point is that the difference between justification and sanctification is between dealing with the sins we have committed and their effect upon us and dealing with the potential for sin that resides in us.
The object of Jesus Christ upon the cross was not simply to release the potential for eternal life, but to fulfill the law of God. God's law says that the wages of sin is death. The punishment of sin is death, not the releasing of life, but the taking of a life, the shedding of the lifeblood.
We read earlier that the apostle Paul's words in Romans 5:10 were, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." So the blood was shed in that death, and that is the effect—"much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
Please turn over to John 17. The function of Jesus' death on the cross and its result has been to purchase our pardon; His death is concerned with justification, and reconciliation, and remission of sins. The death of Christ deals with the guilt of sin, the pollution of sin, and its defilement. On the other hand, sanctification is by the truth of God and the work of the life of Christ.
John 17:17-19 "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth."
So Jesus' death justifies us and His life sanctifies us by the truth of God, which involves living God's way of life. It is a life based on truth and we are set apart from the world and other religions because we guard the truth and live by it.
Other religions are based on tradition and human reasoning. We see this subversion of the truth of God and the promotion of tradition extensively in false Christianity. Sanctification requires the help of the Holy Spirit to understand and live God's truth. It requires the power of God's mind to enable us.
Christ's death is concerned with the guilt of sin, propitiation, and justification. His life is concerned with the power of sin and our sanctification. So, a person certainly cannot flagrantly, or as a course of habit, or as a way of life, sin and remain in fellowship with God. That is walking in darkness. And we know that sin separates us from God. But if we confess our sins to God, that is, acknowledge we have sinned, repent of them, and work to overcome them, the faithful and just God will forgive us our sins and use the blood of Christ to wash away our guilt of sin.
Fellowship with God is not made impossible because we occasionally sin. If that were true, no one would have fellowship with God. We can still walk with God though the potential to sin remains in us. We can still have fellowship with God though we have sinned out of weakness. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the guilt, pollution, and tarnishing effect, therefore, we can continue in the fellowship.
Sanctification is of supreme importance. But where sanctification comes in is this: our effort to walk in the light, to walk in the truth, is part of our sanctification. And so is our confessing our sins, and recognizing them, and repenting of them, and overcoming them. We must love the brethren and be kind and considerate. We must not live for the things of this world. This is all part of sanctification. But the blood of Jesus Christ is not directly related to sanctification. It is rather something directly related to our justification. But of course, the blood of Jesus Christ indirectly does have to do with our sanctification but not in the same distinction.
A true Christian is not the person who should be walking in the light, but who often walks in darkness. By definition, the true Christian is always walking in the light even though he occasionally falls into sin. And when we fall into sin, we do not return to walking in darkness although we are taking a step in that direction when we sin. We are not true Christians unless we are walking in the light.
Now, if we are truly called and have answered that call with faith, repentance, and baptism, and have followed all that up with a life of overcoming and living God's way of life, and during this process of salvation, we occasionally sin out a weakness, we are not walking in darkness. It is not habitual, it is not a flagrant, it is not a way of life for us. It is something that we have committed inadvertently or not willfully. So God will forgive us when we have committed such sins.
We are still in the realm of light in the church of God, even though we have sinned. The shed blood of Jesus Christ makes it possible.
Let us begin to wrap this up. This explains why the observance of Passover is so important for our membership in the church and our fellowship with God. The shed blood of Christ still delivers us from the guilt of our sins. The blood of Christ cleanses us and God the Father applies the blood, and He is faithful and just in forgiving our sins. God has made the provision and He applies it and we are delivered from the guilt, pollution, and corruption.
We are conscious that the fellowship is restored and we can continue. And even though we occasionally sin, which certainly must be repented of, we have fellowship with God and walk with Him in light. This is our assurance that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. It continues to do so and will continue to do so from all sin for those who love and obey God.
Please turn over with me to I Peter 1, verse 18. The apostle Peter reminds us that we should understand completely that we have been delivered from our sinfulness and hopeless ways inherited by tradition from our ancestors, not with temporary things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
I Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Let me wrap this up some more by briefly summarizing this message to try to clear up so much legal speak.
So that we may have fellowship and unity with the Father and the Son, at least three things are essential.
1. The obstacle of sin must be removed.
2. There must be a likeness of nature, an identical character, a fundamental sameness.
3. We must love the same things, love the truth.
To accomplish this, the Father needed to be given a reason—a propitiation—an appeasement by sacrificial atonement. Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin that the Holy God demands from the sinner. So the Father is gracious, appeased, and merciful in His judgment of human beings who submit to Him.
Our status in God's presence must be justified, which is a legal term meaning to acquit or declare righteous. It includes not only the forgiveness of sins, but also the fact that our sins have been dealt with and are removed from us through faith in Jesus Christ. We are justified by His blood and reconciled by His death.
We must be sanctified, which is the process of dealing with our potential to sin. The difference between justification and sanctification is between dealing with the sins we have committed and their effect on us and dealing with the potential for sin that resides in us. So justification is dealing with the sins we have committed and their effect on us and sanctification is dealing with the potential for sin that resides in us.
We see God's justice. We know that God has forgiven us, still forgives us, will forgive us if we walk in the light. "Truly our fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ," which brings us peace by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
For a final scripture, please turn to Romans 8.
Romans 8:28-31 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose [or you could say according to His will]. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
So those predestined by God are also effectively called to faith through the Gospel. And all those who are called are also justified, that is, declared to be right in God's sight.
Because not all invited to believe are justified, the calling here cannot refer to merely a general invitation, but must refer to an effective call that creates the faith necessary for justification.
All those who are justified will also be glorified, that is, receive resurrected spiritual bodies on the last day. Paul speaks of glorification as if it were already completed since God will certainly finish the work that He started.
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