God in his infinite wisdom pre-decreed that every believer would be joined to his son, fully identified with his son. He also pre-decided that we the believer would be blessed with all the blessings and privileges of an adopted son. God decided in advance that we the believer are to be to the praise of the glory of his grace. God has predetermined, his mind is made up, he has pre-decided something where we are concerned once we believe the good news of Paul, and his mind is not going to be changed on this.
Once we are justified unto eternal life, having first trusted in Jesus Christ, there are certain things that God has pre-determined to happen to us. God wants us to rejoice in these things, he wants us to praise him for all these things and he certainly wants us to thank him for all these things because he has pre-determined these outcomes for us. God did not predetermine to cause some individuals to belief unto eternal life, he predestined to conform everyone who believes to his son. He wants us to rest in these things, God’s mind is set.
God is not giving out his righteousness as a reward to those who are sorry for the past, and who promise to do their best in the future. At the point of our belief in what Christ accomplished where our sins are concerned, we are as closely associated with Christ as anyone could be, we are joined to him. What an ingenious salvation plan, to take someone else that is righteous and join us to that person, therefore what is Christ’s is ours! It is a gift, a declaration of rightness with God, and this comes totally apart from that unrighteous person’s production. We cannot earn salvation, and we can never lose salvation, because salvation is based not upon what we do, or promise to do, but upon what Christ has already done for us!
Holiness linked to performance is what religion is all about. Paul was reigning in life from a practical perspective, he refused to allow things which were not expedient or wise to take control of him. Whether we fail to make those correct choices or not, as believers, we reign in life because we have the very righteousness of Christ himself. Never make the mistake when it comes to improper choices that we can continue to make improper choices and face no consequences.
We all too often plant one crop and then before we know it, the crop we have planted is growing up all around us to the extent that what we have planted can begin to get a strangle-hold on us. It happens to the just and it happens to the unjust, if something comes up, it is because we have planted an improper choice. Our relationship with God is not contingent upon the crops we plant and the choices we make.
We cannot top reigning in life, because believers need not ever fear a change in attitude from God toward us. The improper choices we make do not change the direction of God’s mind toward those have have been joined to his son, because he sees those believers in his son. Unwise choices bring along with those unwise choices undesirable consequences. While they will not affect our salvation, they can indeed wreak havoc in our life.
God would have to do for the human race, what the human race was totally incapable of doing for themselves. Jesus Christ paid the price necessary to satisfy God’s justice. The world was given a Redeemer and the price the Redeemer paid through the shedding of his blood to ransom the human race was a satisfactory payment to take the sins off the table of God’s justice. The fact that Christ became a redeemer of the world, does not mean that the world will accept the gift the Redeemer purchased on their behalf.
Christ’s faithfulness was the only faithfulness sufficient to merit God’s favor. God used our faith in Christ’s faithfulness as the means whereby he would credit Christ’s righteousness to our account. To be justified does not mean to be perfectly righteous in performance. It also does not mean to become perfectly righteous or even more righteous in performance through time. It means having Christ’s perfect righteousness freely credited to the account of the ungodly who believe. Our justification was something accomplished for us by God’s grace.
This gift decree of righteousness comes totally apart from any and all human promise, any or all human performance, or any or all human production. God will never consider our works as a payment for God’s justifying declaration. Justification is God’s gift! To say your works have anything at all to do with God’s gift declaration of righteousness is to slap the giver in the face. Remember, we were given our righteous standing as a free gift.
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