2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Friends,
The book of Job has great value to us for many reasons. The most obvious is its view of the supremacy of God over Satan and of the results of Job’s unwillingness to abandon his faith in the face of tremendous temptation. However, there is another picture which emerges from it too. Most of this OT book is taken up in a series of discussions between Job and his friends in which his friends respond to Job’s suffering in terms of the reward-punishment system of traditional Jewish thought. Since Job is suffering so much, then he must be sinning to deserve it, his friends reason. Job longs to be justified, deemed acceptable in God’s sight, and he knows he has not sinned. Thus, he is confused and boldly challenges God. In the end, God overwhelms Job with a poetic picture of His divine power and wisdom. Job humbly acknowledges God as wise and great. He takes back his wild, angry, and challenging words. God responds by restoring Job’s prosperity. An all-knowing God is always aware of the desire and need for a person of faith to be justified. He is also aware of that need (albeit not understood) by those who have not yet come to faith.
Yesterday, I promised to spend some time in the NT, looking at what God reveals about the issue of justification in it. To know that you personally are justified and to accept that brings extraordinary encouragement in one’s faith walk. I hope this will confirm that in yours. In Luke 9-14, Christ tells the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. These two men come to the temple to pray. The Pharisee asserts that he thanks God that he paid is tithe and followed the Jewish laws. The tax collector approaches God in humility and acknowledges himself as a sinner, begging for pity. LK 18: 14 is Christ’s teaching. “ ‘I tell you,’ said Jesus, ‘ the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For everyone who makes himself great will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be made great.’ “ How clearly our Lord reveals here the mind-set, heart-attitude, and behavior real faith manifests!
While in Antioch in Pisidia, Paul spoke to the people in the synagogue there, telling them how it is that salvation can only come through faith in Jesus Christ and not from the Law of Moses. You can well imagine that such a message coming to Jewish ears was controversial. ACTS 13: 39, “…It is through Jesus Christ that the message about forgiveness of sins is preached to you. You are to know that everyone who believes in Him is set free from all the sins from which the Law of Moses could not set you free.” We learn in (44) that in spite of the controversial nature of Paul’s message, he and Barnabas were invited to come back and teach them more about these things. What can be seen here is the power of the Spirit to sway these traditional Jews bringing them a hunger to learn more about Christ’s teaching and to be deemed acceptable to the Lord.
Nowhere in the Scriptures is the crucial nature of justification more clearly revealed than in the book of Romans. Do you remember yesterday I quoted David’s prayer for forgiveness in PS 51? This is the one in which David speaks of God’s right to judge his sins. RO 3: 4 is where Paul responds to his own questions: Do Jews have any advantage over Gentiles? God entrusted His message to the Jews first. What if some of them were not faithful? Does that mean that God will not be faithful? Paul answers, “Certainly not! God must be true, even though every man is a liar. As the Scripture [PS 51: 4] says, ‘You must be shown to be right when you speak; you must win your case when you are being tried.’ “ Further down in this same chapter, this assertion is made clearer. RO 3: 20, “For no one is put right with God by doing what the law requires; what the law does is to make man know he has sinned.” RO 3: 23-24, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But by the free gift of God’s grace, we are put right with God through Christ Jesus, Who sets them free.” Both RO 3: 28 and Galatians 2: 16 repeat this all-important truth. “For we may conclude that a person is justified only through faith and not by doing what the law commands.”
If you are asking why is this important to you, then look at the following citations. RO 5: 1, “Now that we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” RO 8: 30, “And so, those whom God set apart, He called; and those He called, He put right with Himself and He shared His glory with them.” What greater blessing can there be than to know that you have peace with God and will be going one day to be with Him to share in His glory??? Doesn’t that make all the suffering we must endure in our earthly lives worth it?
In 1 COR 4: 4-5, God through Paul teaches about judgment. This message takes the burden that men trying to usurp God’s sovereignty placed on themselves off of their shoulders (and ours). “My conscience is clear, but that does not really prove that I am innocent. The Lord is the One Who passes judgment on me. So you should not pass judgment on anyone before the right time comes. Final judgment will bring to light the dark secrets and expose the hidden purposes of people’s minds. And then everyone will receive from God the praise he deserves.” Once we leave the judging up to God, we can take great comfort in knowing it is in the hands of a Judge Who is always righteous, always faithful, loves us enormously, and wants only what is in our best interests eternally. The best part is that we can know that with our faith in Christ, He has already deemed us acceptable to Him. We are justified!
PRAYER: O Lord, thank You for making the issue of justification so clear to us in Your Word. We approach you in humility and gratitude that Your love for us is great enough that through our repentance and faith in Your Son, You have deemed us acceptable to You. We are blessed that You love us that much and dedicate ourselves to living by the teachings You have revealed to us. You are the Lord of our lives, and we humbly seek Your presence and Your guidance in them. In Christ’s name, amen.
Peter and I hope you are feeling the warmth of God’s loving presence in your lives today and always. We send you our love too.
Grace Be With You,
Lynn