"Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" Romans 4v23-25.
We come now to the bedrock, the firm foundation of saving faith. Firstly, God's way of salvation is the same for all of us, has been the same for all from the very beginning, Abraham being the supreme example. We are made right with God by acceptance of God's word to us, and this has always been true. The word "impute," as we have seen simply means God credits to us a right standing before Him. It does not assume there has been any moral change in us but that God now treats us differently. In the case of Abraham and all the Old Testament saints they would know nothing of Jesus death and resurrection, but as indicated in Romans 3, God demonstrated His forbearance with them until Christ would come. The timing of things is irrelevant to an eternal God. Today we live firmly in the period of Jesus first advent, universally acknowledged in the dating of everything as b.c./a.d. His coming into the world was a watershed for all humanity, and having proved that faith in God's word was the way to be right with God, now he underlines exactly what our faith is in today, what God is saying today. This involves two momentous events, namely the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Centuries of human history has indicated that God will only save a human being on the basis of the death of another, there being no merit in any of us. Jesus died as our perfect substitute. Such a work would have been futile and incomplete without the second event the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, in which God ratified His work at Calvary, accepted His sacrifice for humanity, exalted Him on the throne of heaven, and gave Him absolute authority to bring to salvation all who would believe. It says in the verse " if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." Both events were necessary for our salvation, He must die to take away our sins, He must be raised again to verify that His work was accepted and so He proclaims the glorious truth of the gospel like this " He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification."
There are numerous scriptures which bring together the death and resurrection of Christ as the foundation for saving faith. Taking the two events together we see this in the following scriptures:
- 1st Corinthians 15 v 1-3 " I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved...... for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures."
- 2nd Corinthians 5 v 15 " And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and arose again."
- 1st Thessalonians 4 v 14 " For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."
- Romans 8 v 34 " Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, ye rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
- Romans 14 v 9 " For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living."
These scriptures, with many others bring together the twin truths, the bedrock truths of Christianity namely the death and resurrection of Christ.
We now look at these events individually "He was delivered for our offences" this is the great biblical doctrine of substitution, echoing the prophecies made by Isaiah the prophet "He was wounded for OUR transgressions, He was bruised for OUR iniquities etc. etc." All our transgressions are an offence to God, a challenge to His authority, a disregard of His sovereignty, an insult to His person, and we are all of us guilty of this almost every day. Jesus was delivered for OUR offences. Who delivered Him? The bible says that Judas delivered Him to the high priests, the high priests delivered Him to Pilate, Pilate delivered Him to the soldiers to be crucified, but the truth is this; none of them could have delivered Him anywhere had it not been the sovereign will of God of whom it was said " Him being delivered by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God." Acts 2 v 23 In an act of Divine grace and mercy towards the human race, God delivered Jesus to the cross, where He transferred to Him all the sins and transgressions of humanity and took them away. Jesus went into death, but since death was only the penalty for sin, and He had no sins of His own, and what He did at that cross was to remove our sins, death could not hold Him. In the language of Peter, it was said " it was not possible that He should beholden by death." It is now a historical fact, proven beyond the shadow of any doubt (read 1st Corinthians 15) that God raised Him from the dead. In that chapter Paul argues that the resurrection was necessary for our justification. He says there if Christ did not rise from the dead " our preaching is vain, your faith is vain, the apostles are found to be false witnesses, you are yet in your sins, and all those who have died have perished." Indeed we could say if Christ is not raised from the dead the whole human race is doomed.
Our faith is firmly on the death of Jesus Christ, in which He took away our sins, and our faith is firmly in the resurrection of Jesus Christ which means that God has accepted His sacrifice and we can be saved.
THIS IS THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH
Believe this, rest on this, place your entire future on this that God in Jesus Christ has secured your salvation, has verified it, and offers it to you freely. All He wants from you, is your true heart faith in this glorious work.
Tomorrow d.v. we commence our study of the effects of justification.
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