Friday DIVE – Romans 2-1-16 – Universal Guilt (Part 3)

 

 

OUR FOCUS TONIGHT …

• Romans 2:1-16 … Universal Guilt (Part 3) … especially guilt of the unrighteous

• Romans 2:1-16   Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. ² But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. ³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? ⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your ^[q]impenitent heart you are ^[r]treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the ^[s]Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.

  ¹² For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law ¹³ (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; ¹⁴ for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) ¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

Before we unpack the text for tonight …

WHAT WE SAW LAST TIME …

• why the Gospel is the power of God to/for salvation for those who believe …

Romans 1:17  KJV   For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

• EHV   For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed by faith, for faith, just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”
• AMPC  For in the Gospel a righteousness  which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith].  As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.
• EXB   The ·Good News [Gospel] shows ·how God makes people right with himself [or God’s righteous character; ^Lthe righteousness of/from God]—·that it begins and ends with faith [or that advances from one believing person to the next;  or  that begins with God’s faithfulness and results in people’s faith; ^L from faith to faith].  As the Scripture says, “But ·those who are right with God will live by faith [or those made righteous through faith will live (eternally); Hab. 2:4].”
• PHILLIPS   For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. I see it as the very power of God working for the salvation of everyone who believes it, both Jew and Greek.  I see in it God’s plan for imparting righteousness to men, a process begun and continued by their faith.  For, as the scripture says: ‘The just shall live by faith’.
• NMB   For by it the righteousness which comes from God is unveiled, from faith to faith.  As it is written: The just shall live by faith.  

1. The righteousness is OF God … in that it reveals the righteousness that is IN God (inherent in God), given that the Gospel speaks to the rightness … and the goodness of God …
2. The righteousness is FROM God … It is a righteousness that God gives/ascribes/imparts.
3. The righteousness is from faith to faith … from first to last … from start to finish.

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Romans 2:1-16   

Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.  ² But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.    

 

In this passage Paul is directly addressing the Jews.  The connection of thought is this.  In the foregoing passage Paul had painted a grim and terrible picture of the heathen world, a world which was under the condemnation of God.  With every word of that condemnation the Jew thoroughly agreed.  But he never for a moment dreamed that he was under a like condemnation.  He thought that he occupied a privileged position. God might be the judge of the heathen, but he was the special protector of the Jews.  Here Paul is pointing out forcibly to the Jew that he is just as much a sinner as the Gentile is and that when he is condemning the Gentile he is condemning himself.  He will be judged, not on his racial heritage, but by the kind of life that he lives. (Barclay)

 

 

The Jews always considered themselves in a specially privileged position with God.

• • • “God,” they said, “loves Israel alone of all the nations of the earth.”
    • “God will judge the Gentiles with one measure and the Jews with another.”
    • “All Israelites will have part in the world to come.”
    • “Abraham sits beside the gates of hell and does not permit any wicked Israelite to go through.“

When Justin Martyr was arguing with the Jew about the position of the Jews in the Dialogue with Trypho, the Jew said,

• • • “They who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh shall in any case, even if they be sinners and unbelieving and disobedient towards God, share in the eternal Kingdom.”

The writer of the Book of Wisdom comparing God’s attitude to Jews and Gentiles said:

• • • “These as a father, admonishing them, thou didst prove; but those as a stern king, condemning them, thou didst search out” (Wis.11:9).
    • “While therefore thou dost chasten us, thou scourgest our enemies a thousand times more” (Wis.12:22).

The Jew believed that everyone was destined for judgment except himself.  It would not be any special goodness which kept him immune from the wrath of God, but simply the fact that he was a Jew.

To meet this situation Paul reminded the Jews of four things … 

(i) He told them bluntly that they were trading on the mercy of God. 

 

 

³ And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?   ⁴ Or do you despise the riches of His goodness,  forbearance,  and longsuffering,  not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?   

• Paul essentially asks them: “Are you treating with contempt the wealth of his kindness, and forbearance and patience?”  Let us look at these three great words. (Barclay)

(a) Kindness/Goodness (chrestotes).  Of this Trench says: “It is a beautiful word, as it is the expression of a beautiful idea.” There are two words for good in Greek; there is agathos and there is chrestos.  The difference between them is this.

• • • • • The goodness of a man who is agathos may well issue in rebuke and discipline and punishment;
        • but the goodness of a man who is chrestos is always essentially kind.

Jesus was agathos when he drove the moneychangers and the sellers of doves from the Temple in the white heat of his anger.  He was chrestos when he treated with loving gentleness the sinning woman who anointed his feet and the woman taken in adultery.

So Paul says, in effect, “You Jews are simply trying to take advantage of the great kindness of God.”

(b) Forbearance (anoche).  Anoche is the word for a truce.  True, it means a cessation of hostility, but it is a cessation that has a limit.  Paul, in effect, is saying to the Jews, “You think that you are safe because God’s judgment has not yet descended upon you. But what God is giving you is not carte blanche to sin; he is giving you the opportunity to repent and to amend your ways.”

A man cannot sin forever with impunity.

(c) Patience (makrothumia).  Makrothumia is characteristically a word which expresses patience with people.  Chrysostom defined it as the characteristic of the man who has it in his power to avenge himself and deliberately does not use it.  Paul is, in effect, saying to the Jews: “Do not think that the fact that God does not punish you is a sign that he cannot punish you.  The fact that his punishment does not immediately follow sin is not a proof of his powerlessness; it is a proof of his patience.  You owe your lives to the patience of God.”

One great commentator has said that almost everyone has “a vague and undefined hope of impunity,” a kind of feeling that “this cannot happen to me.”  The Jews went further than that; “they openly claimed exemption from the judgment of God.”

They traded on his mercy, and there are many who to this day seek to do the same.

 

⁵ But in accordance with your hardness and your ^[q]impenitent heart you are ^[r]treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness — indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the ^[s]Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.   ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.   

 

 

Paul told the Jews that they were taking the mercy of God as an invitation to sin rather than as an incentive to repentance.

There are two attitudes to human forgiveness.  Suppose a young person does something which is a shame, a sorrow and a heartbreak to his parents, and suppose that in love he is freely forgiven, and the thing is never held against him.  He can do one of two things.

1. 1. 1. 1. He can either go and do the same thing again, trading on the fact that he will be forgiven once more;
         2. or  he can be so moved to wondering gratitude by the free forgiveness that he has received, that he spends his whole life in trying to be worthy of it.

It is one of the most shameful things in the world to use love’s forgiveness as an excuse to go on sinning.  That is what the Jews were doing.  That is what so many people still do.  The mercy and love of God are not meant to make us feel that we can sin and get away with it;  they are meant so to break our hearts that we will seek never to sin again.

 

¹² For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law  ¹³ (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified;   ¹⁴ for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, ¹⁵ who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves  their  thoughts accusing or else excusing  them)  ¹⁶ in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.    

In the sense of the passage Rom. 2:16 follows Rom. 2:13, and Rom. 2:14-15 are a long parenthesis.

• • • It is to be remembered that Paul was not writing this letter sitting at a desk and thinking out every word and every construction.
    • He was striding up and down the room dictating it to his secretary, Tertius (Rom. 16:22), who struggled to get it down.
    • That explains the long parenthesis, but it is easier to get the correct meaning in English if we go straight from Rom. 2:13 to Rom. 2:16, and add Rom. 2:14-15 afterwards.

In this passage Paul turns to the Gentiles.  He has dealt with the Jews and with their claims to special privilege.  But one advantage the Jew did have, and that was the Law.  A Gentile might well retaliate by saying, “It is only right that God should condemn the Jews, who had the Law and who ought to have known better; but we will surely escape judgment because we had no opportunity to know the Law and did not know any better.”  In answer Paul lays down two great principles.

(i) A man will be judged by what he had the opportunity to know. If he knew the Law, he will be judged as one who knew the Law. If he did not know the Law, he will be judged as one who did not know the Law. God is fair. And here is the answer to those who ask what is to happen to the people who lived in the world before Jesus came and who had no opportunity to hear the Christian message. A man will be judged by his fidelity to the highest that it was possible for him to know.

(ii) Paul goes on to say that even those who did not know the written Law had an unwritten law within their hearts.  We would call it the instinctive knowledge of right and wrong. The Stoics said that in the universe there were certain laws operative which a man broke at his peril — the laws of health, the moral laws which govern life and living. The Stoics called these laws phusis, which means nature, and urged men to live kata phusin, according to nature.

It is Paul’s argument that in the very nature of man there is an instinctive knowledge of what he ought to do.  The Greeks would have agreed with that. Aristotle said: “The cultivated and free-minded man will so behave as being a law to himself” Plutarch asks: “Who shall govern the governor?”  And he answers: “Law, the king of all mortals and immortals, as Pindar calls it, which is not written on papyrus rolls or wooden tablets, but is his own reason within the soul, which perpetually dwells with him and guards him and never leaves his soul bereft of leadership.”

Paul saw the world divided into two classes of people.

1. 1. He saw the Jews with their Law given to them direct from God and written down so that all could read it.
   2. He saw the other nations, without this written law, but nonetheless with a God-implanted knowledge of right and wrong within their hearts.

Neither could claim exemption from the judgment of God.  The Jew could not claim exemption on the ground that he had a special place in God’s plan.  The Gentile could not claim exemption on the ground that he had never received the written Law.  The Jew would be judged as one who had known the Law; the Gentile as one who had a God-given conscience.  God will judge a man according to what he knows and has the chance to know.

 

 

 

 

 

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BRAWTA

 

In this section, I want to address (briefly) some topics that came up in our discussion during the Bible study last Wednesday night … as a result of my trying to answer a question about a “Christian” committing adultery at the time of Christ’s return …

1.  Overcoming  
2.  Assurance of salvation
3.  The Unpardonable Sin
4.  Romans 14:5b,15a,7, 22b

 

1.  Re:  Overcoming

 

The Message of Jesus: Finding Righteousness … by J. Michael Feazell

(NOTE:  You may click on the title to read the original article on the GCI website.)

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As Christians, we know that salvation comes by grace and not by works.  It’s part of the bedrock of Christian faith.  Yet we also know the Bible tells us we need to be overcoming sin and living right.  It’s easy to get the idea that salvation is really based on our good works more than it is on grace.  And since we all still find ourselves sinning, life can get pretty frustrating and depressing at times.

In Ephesians 2:8-9, the apostle Paul tells us, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.”

And yet, other passages in the New Testament seem to indicate that we will only be saved if we are doing good works.  Take Revelation 20:13, for example: “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works” (KJV).

How do passages like this one fit with the passages that tell us we are saved by grace and not by works?   The problem is, we can’t enter the kingdom of God unless we are righteous.  That is a fact, and there is no way around it.  Unless we’re righteous, we’re doomed.

The further bad news is that we don’t have what it takes to be righteous.  Paul reminds us in Romans 3:10, “There is no one who is righteous, not even one.”

So if we have to be righteous to be saved, but none of us actually are righteous, how can anyone be saved?  That’s where the gospel, the good news, comes in.  Second Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “God made him who had no sin [that is, Jesus] to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

That means we are saved by, and only by, God’s gracious acts of love on our behalf.  In spite of our sinfulness, God loves us and wants us in his kingdom.  First Timothy 2:3-4 says, “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”

Even though God wants all people to be saved, it seems that some aren’t.  But contrary to what many Christians might think, it’s not because they aren’t righteous enough.  It’s because they trust in their own so-called righteousness instead of in Jesus Christ, who actually is their righteousness.

Jesus told a parable about a man who tried to sit down at a king’s banquet table wearing his own garments instead of the banquet garments provided by the king. Let’s read the story in Matthew 22:1-14:

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

‘Then he sent some more servants and said, “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”

‘But they paid no attention and went off — one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

‘Then he said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

‘But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. “Friend,” he asked, “how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man was speechless.

‘Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”‘

Jesus’ point is that God wants us at his banquet table, so he’s made sure we can have, free of charge (because we haven’t got enough to pay for it), everything we need to be there.

So, when we read a passage like Galatians 5:24, which says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires,” it doesn’t mean that if we crucify the sinful nature then we can belong to Christ.  It means that we are righteous because we belong to Christ.  We are not righteous of ourselves; we are righteous only in Christ.

We can believe it or not, but that is what God says he has done.  If we believe it, we will welcome the free wedding garments. If we don’t believe it, that is, if we don’t accept God for who he is, the Father of Jesus Christ through whom he has saved the world, then we’ll keep on living like we always have, cutting ourselves off from the joy of real life that is waiting for us in God’s banquet hall.

Jesus is telling us that in the kingdom of God, people who think they have righteousness of their own aren’t welcome.  It is sinners who are welcome, people who know they are sinners, and who trust God to forgive them and make them righteous in Christ.  Those who think they are in some way more deserving, or more acceptable, or less dirty than the others, aren’t able to stay.

Ephesians 2:4-7 tells us:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We can enjoy the glorious fruit of Jesus’ victory only by trusting him, not by improving our behavior.  Paul wrote in Romans 3:27-28, “Where, then, is boasting?  It is excluded.  On what principle?  On that of observing the law?  No, but on that of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.”

When God sent his Son to die for our sins and to be raised for our life, he made two things plain:

1) He loves us immeasurably and unconditionally, to the point of taking our burden as his own, even to the point of death, and

2) Our salvation was entirely his work; there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.

Imagine what would happen to, for example, a tomato plant if that plant suddenly declared independence from soil, water and light.  Without resting in the elements that produce its life and growth, the plant would be doomed.  It can never be what it is, a tomato plant, without soil, water and light.  It can never do what tomato plants do — bear tomatoes — without soil, water and light.  Yet our self-assured little tomato plant, if we can still call it a tomato plant, has decided it can be a better plant by its own hard work than it can by resting in its source of being.

Sin amounts to a state of declared “independence” from God.  It’s a denial of who we really are, of who we were created to be.  It’s like that tomato plant saying it has a better idea of what tomato plants ought to be.  This denial of who we really are is the very condition of our lives.  Each individual sin we might commit is just the natural fruit of a corrupt heart that doesn’t know the true source of its own life.

No matter how much we overcome, no matter how many sins we shed, no matter how many bad habits we replace with good ones, no matter how much better we are today than we used to be, it is still fourth down and a thousand yards to go.  It’s not enough.  We’re not going to make it.    

That’s why we have to get our minds off ourselves and onto our Lord and Savior.  We need to give up on ourselves and put our trust in Jesus.  He fixes us from the inside out.  We need to quit looking at the evidence we see in our lives and start trusting Jesus to be for us and do for us what he says he will be for us and do for us.  We need to quit worrying that he will not be faithful on account of our being sinners, and start trusting him to forgive us and clean us up like he said he would.

It works like this: our unfaithfulness does not keep God from being faithful.  He will be faithful because that is the way he is — faithful.  We can stick out our tongues at him all day long, and he will still be faithful.  We will have sore tongues and we will miss out on all the fun he wants us to have, but in spite of our wooden-headedness he will still be faithful.

God will not stop loving us and he will not stop knocking on our door, urging us to let him come in.  He is, and always will be, faithful, even when we are not.  We are free even to deny him.  We are free to give up on him.  We are free not to believe him, even to hate him.  We have that choice, the choice to love our own so-called lives and turn down his gift of real life.  We don’t have to enjoy his kingdom.  He will let us be miserable if we insist on it.

Even so, he will always remain faithful, always love us, never forcing us to accept his love, but always urging us to.  As Paul wrote: “The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:11-13).

We can get ourselves into all the trouble we want, and God will still be faithful.  He will hurt for us and grieve for us, because he loves us, but he will not force us to trust him.  If love is forced, it’s not real love.

“Wait a minute!” you might be thinking. “Are you saying I can sin and still be saved?”  All I can say to that is that you are a sinner and God saves sinners, so there can be no other answer but yes.

Does that mean I’m encouraging you to sin?  Of course not.  I’m encouraging you to trust God to love you and forgive you and save you in spite of your sins, because that is what he promises to do.

But how can a person can have true faith in Christ and still keep sinning?  Well, it would be nice if we believers would quit sinning, but nobody, ever, in all history has quit sinning this side of death.  Only Jesus was without sin.

We are all sinners, and God saves us anyway, because saving sinners is what he does. That is not an invitation to sin; it is simply a fact. God remains faithful to us even when we are unfaithful to him. If we put our trust in him and admit we are sinners, he is faithful and just to forgive us.

Someone might ask, “But God won’t save us unless we change, will he?”  Change how much? Change a little, change a medium amount, change a lot?  How much is enough?  God saves sinners.  He heals the sick, not the healthy.  In Mark 2:17 Jesus says, “ It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

But don’t we have to change at least some before God will save us?   God doesn’t save on the basis of human changes. He saves on the basis of his own righteousness. Romans 3:21-28 says,

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.

Salvation isn’t about how much sin we put out of our lives.  God wants us to trust him to make us righteous in Christ.  We are saved by Christ’s righteousness, not ours. We don’t have any. But Christ has taken all humans, including you and me, into himself, and he stands in for us before the Father. He has brought all humanity, including you and me, into his intimate, loving relationship with the Father. So when we sin, as we all do, we can trust God’s word that we are already forgiven in Christ.

God’s children want to obey him. The Spirit of God in us leads us to obey him. Our consciences, appropriately, plague us when we know we are disobeying him. Still, there are two things we need to remember: 1) We have been forgiven already, and 2) We keep sinning no matter how much we overcome.

The person who thinks he stands is the very one who needs to take heed. Why? Because nobody stands except in Christ. Even with all the apostles urging to do what is right, not one of us actually walks a perfectly pure and holy life—except as we are held in Jesus.

Unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, Jesus said, we have no part in the kingdom. The Pharisees were the most careful and devoted law abiders around! They took the word of God seriously, and they devoted themselves scrupulously to observing it. But Jesus said that anyone who will be in his kingdom must have even greater righteousness.

Do you have such a level of righteousness? I sure don’t.

That’s just the point. Salvation doesn’t come by what we do, no matter how good we are—or think we are. Our righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus, as we’re told in 1 Corinthians 1:30-31: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”

So how do we stand? By trusting Christ who raises the dead.

How do we stand? By trusting our Father who justifies the ungodly.

How do we stand? By trusting the Holy Spirit who leads us continually back to Christ.

We do have a choice. We can try to make life worthwhile on our own steam, or we can die to all the things we thought were worth clawing for in this world, and trust God to give us the real life we don’t yet see, the one that is hidden in Christ with God, as Colossians 3 tells us.

Yes, it’s good to “get serious” about overcoming sin. We can avoid a lot a pain and heartache by not sinning. But we need to do so in the complete assurance that we are already God’s forgiven and beloved righteous children for Christ’s sake.

The reason God wants us not to sin is that sin hurts us. It hurts us and it hurts others. It’s like what Proverbs 6:27 says about adultery, “Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?” Sin hurts us, and it also makes us think God doesn’t love us.

So even while we seek to live a godly life and stop sinning, we can quit worrying that our failures, setbacks and dry periods cut us off from God. They don’t. God is absolutely true to his covenant promise; he will never leave us nor forsake us, and we can count on that no matter how deep in the miry pit of sin we have wallowed.

In our heavenly Father’s eyes, even while we still work to turn away from our sins, we are already new and righteous with him in Christ. He sees us for what he has made us to be in Christ, not for what we have made ourselves to be by a lifetime of wrong turns, bad decisions, weak moments, failures and sins.

That’s why we can find comfort, peace and rest in Jesus Christ. And that’s why the gospel is called good news!

Author: J. Michael Feazell

 

The Message of Jesus: Believing the Gospel  … by J. Michael Feazell

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Many Christians are afraid of the gospel. We are afraid of the gospel because it is too good.  Many of us are more comfortable with religion than we are with the gospel … But the gospel is not a new and improved religion.  The gospel is an affront to religion. It is the end of religion, the end of all systems of works designed to make us acceptable to God.  The gospel, by contrast, tells us that God himself has already, through Jesus Christ, made us acceptable.  The gospel is good news; religion is bad news; and the gospel wins.  Christ is victorious.  Sin is vanquished.  

We are overcomers only in Christ, not in our overcoming anything.  We are sinners, always have been and will continue to be to the day we die.  Whatever we may have overcome is like removing a spoonful of sand from the beach.  Unless and until we are found in Christ, we remain dead in our sins.  And we are found in Christ only by trusting him to be for us who he says he is and to do for us what he says he does.  Only when we trust him will we accept his gift of mercy and life, and only when we wake up to our sinfulness will we trust him.

As long as we think we are “doing OK,” or that we “aren’t all that bad” or that we are “making progress” or even that we will never be “good enough,” we will not trust him.  All such thinking is trusting not him, but ourselves.  It is thinking that his acceptance of us is based on how well we behave.  It is thinking that if we do better, then he will accept us, or conversely, that he accepts us because we have been overcoming.

God accepts us because he wants to accept us, and not because we have measured up.  God dealt with our sin by the blood of Christ, not by giving us a new and improved law code. We are justified because God justified us himself, personally, through his Son. God did for us in Christ what we could not do for ourselves, and he calls on us to trust him to be our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).

That means we do not have righteousness. It is not just a matter that we “have got some problems.” It is not just a matter that we have “a few things to overcome.” It is not even a matter of “putting sin out of our lives.” It is a matter of understanding that we are hopeless losers, sinners through and through, and that even our “good” deeds are thoroughly laced with selfish impurity. Until we see that, until we see ourselves for what we really are, we will not trust him who alone saves sinners.

 

 

 

2.  Re:  The Assurance of Salvation (which is really based on the doctrine of Eternal Security)

John 10:25-30   

²⁵ Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. ²⁶ But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, ^[e]as I said to you. ²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. ²⁸ And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and My Father are one.”     

Romans 8:28-30   

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.  ²⁹ 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.  ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.   

Philippians 1:3-11   

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, ⁴ always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, ⁵ for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, ⁶ being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; ⁷ just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasomuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. ⁸ For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ.  

⁹ And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰ that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, ¹¹ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.   

 

 

 

 

3.  Re:  “Unpardonable” sin … or “Unpardoned sin”?

 

Mike Feazell:  “Are you worried that you might have committed the unpardonable sin?  The very fact that you are worried about it is proof positive that you have not committed it.  The unpardonable sin is unpardonable only because it is the sin of refusing to come to Jesus to be forgiven.  It is the Holy Spirit who leads us to Jesus Christ.  The blasphemy Jesus refers to in this passage is the rejection of the Spirit’s witness to him as the Son of God and Savior of the world.”

Author: J. Michael Feazell, 2004, 2012  … from an article on the GCI website, entitled The Gospels: Mark 3:22-30 – A Lesson About Damnation

 

Greg Albrecht:  The gospel of Jesus Christ insists that the relationship to which God invites us is based on his goodness, not our own.  Even the act of turning to God or asking to receive forgiveness is a gift we receive from him, for the Bible insists that humans are not naturally disposed to ask God to forgive them.  That is, if you like, the only thing we need to do — ask for and accept his forgiveness.  You mention the term “unpardonable sin” — the only unpardonable sin is believing that God will not pardon sin.  It’s unpardonable because God does not force us to
receive his pardon.  He offers his forgiveness and pardon, and we must accept it — we must accept that he is big enough and good enough to do what we cannot.

So yes, Jesus’ sacrifice is able to cover all our sins — all.  It is “big” enough, “strong” enough and
“righteous” enough.  “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.” — 1 John 5:14-15

… from an artice, “Have I truly accepted Christ?” … on the PTM website.

 

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Re: Romans 14:5b,15a, 7, 22b …

¹ Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. ² For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. ³ Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. ⁴ Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

⁵ One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.  Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.  ⁶ He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; ^[a]and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. ⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died ^[b]and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. ¹⁰ But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of ^[c]Christ. ¹¹ For it is written:

¹² So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. ¹³ Therefore let us not judge one another ^[d]anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.

¹⁴ I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. ¹⁵ Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love.  Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.  ¹⁶ Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; ¹⁷ for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ For he who serves Christ in ^[e]these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

¹⁹ Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may ^[f]edify another. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for the man who eats with ^[g]offense. ²¹ It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles ^[h]or is offended or is made weak. ^22 [i] Do you have faith?  Have it to yourself before God.  Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. ²³ But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is ^[j]sin.