But think about this: Is forgiveness the same thing as being justified or having someone else’s righteousness freely attributed to your account? They are not one and the same!
Our sins have all been forgiven, but forgiveness alone does not mean the person having forgiveness is as perfectly and totally righteous as the one who is doing the forgiving!
Justification is far more than the negative imputation of the sins fo the world to the world, it is the positive imputation of Christ’s righteousness to those who believe what was accomplished on their behalf. Justified by Blood.
We find that our magnificent redemption demanded a monumental price. So justification, believing in what Christ’s sacrifice accomplished, is a requirement in order to be justified.
I may forgive another a debt that he owes me, but does that mean that the one that I have forgiven is now the primary on my bank account? Being justified (declared to be righteous) freely by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
Satan wants to blind people’s eyes to the truth of Paul’s good news, he is very clever in using ministers of righteousness in accomplishing that blinding. Satan is offering people a way to become righteous, to achieve a righteous standing before God and he always attaches people’s performance, people’s fingerprints are found on Satan’s method of becoming righteous.
God justifies freely, not by way of people’s performance or promise, but as a gift. God justifies those who take him at his word, concerning what his son accomplished for them. Something for nothing!
Satan would say, “Why, that cannot be right! God can not be just and call a person righteous, when it is obvious that person falls short of the standard God himself set, when he gave Israel the law contract.”
Do you know the really sad thing about that, is that Satan is not the only one who would raise such an objection! Those steeped in religianity, and it is not confined to those in religianity, but those steeped in religianity raise the same objection every Sunday, if not every day!
We have to admit, that’s difficult for people imbued with the pride of life to imagine. It is difficult to accept, because it does not seem fair to the human mind, especially to the religiously minded.
It does not seem quite right that God could consider someone righteous, especially if that person is not expending the same amount of effort or attention that we are to become righteous by way of our practice!
The fact is Jesus Christ became the redeemer of the entire world when he satisfied the justice of God for the sins of the entire world. So the redemption price worked, the sin issue was resolved, for how many, for everyone!
But understand, that having a redeemer and accepting the redeemer that you have, and what that redeemer accomplished, are two different things. Jesus Christ is the Savior of all people, but all are not willing to believe Paul’s good news, and therefore, not all will be joined to the redeemer, and therefore, they will not be righteousified.
Why, if your are guilty of any of these things in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, you are flat out of luck as far as Heaven is concerned. You can not do those things and make Heaven, which leads more than some of the religiously minded to say, “I am not guilty of any of those vile behaviors.”
Listen, if you think you are above these particular sins because you do not commit them regularly, or because these types of behaviors are not a regular pattern in your life, or because you are certain to gain new forgiveness when you do find yourself somewhere on that list to some degree, perhaps you had better give it a little more careful consideration.
1 Corinthians 6:11-And such were some of you: But after you were saved, you became progressively more holy such that you never sinned again? Does that verse say that? But after you were saved, you sinned less and less until sin finally disappeared altogether from your life. That verse does not say that either.
But, after you were saved, your sin nature was removed, root and branch, and never have you had the propensity to sin again! Does that verse say that? No, it does not say any of those things. At least you will not sin higher than the 6’s, 7’s, and 8’s on the sin richter scale that you hold for yourself.
These Corinthians were called saints, they would remain set apart, even though they were carnal, meaning fleshly minded, fleshly oriented in their behavior, because their sanctification like their justification was God’s transaction, not their own. It was God who performed the sanctifying.
How many in Fundamental Christianity set themselves apart, because in their minds eye, they believe they are more holy by doing so in the eyes of God? Many of them think they are more holy in the eyes of God, because they have achieved that set-apartness.
It is a judicial transaction that takes place in God’s mind the moment you believe, God is the Sanctifier, not the person, in this case. Our justification, our righteous standing before God is accomplished through our being set-apart, justification is accomplished through sanctification. God’s act of sanctification is a part of that gift transaction connected with justification.
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