Justified ~ Redeemed ~ Propitiation
I came home to explore this further and came across a similar sermon that spoke to my heart also. The complete set of sermons can be found in full at http://www.ivoroakley.com/The%20Cross/The%20Cross.htm, but I will copy in some things that spoke to my heart.
Justification – the Law Court
Tried by the perfect law of God, how do we plead? Guilty or not guilty? Guilty of course. As our Pastor reminded us from Romans 3:23 this morning ALL have sinned! Our only hope is God – the very last place we would expect to go, since it is His law we have broken. Thomas Chalmers wrote, “What could I do if God did not justify the ungodly?”
Our sins are transferred to Christ. Christ’s righteousness in transferred to us. Put to our account. This makes me want to cry to think about it. God sees us not as we are, but in Christ. Not only pardoned criminals but treated as righteous before his law. The prodigal son – not just have his rags removed, but having had a new robe put on.
Christ takes our place and we take His. Martin Luther writing to monk worried about sin said, “Say to the Lord Jesus ‘you took what was mine, and you set on me what was yours’.”
Just as if I’d never sinned ...
Justification ~ “just as if I’d never sinned”! Here is the good news for those trying to win acceptance with God and salvation by their own efforts. Acceptance with God is not result of toiling up a steep hill and all the time never being sure we will reach the top. But it is an immediate and free gift. Abandon all efforts and lean on Christ alone.
“His name the sinner hears and is from sin set free.
‘Tis music in his ears, ‘tis life and victory.
New songs do now his tongue employ
And filleth his glad heart with joy”
‘Tis music in his ears, ‘tis life and victory.
New songs do now his tongue employ
And filleth his glad heart with joy”
Redemption – The Slave Market
Redeemed from the curse of the law. Things holding us down are now broken and we are liberated. The price has been paid. We are bought to be set free!! The Pastor this morning told of the Emancipation Proclamation that set the slaves free. First the slaves didn't know they were free because they had never been told ~ the word hadn't reached them yet. How many of us are not hearing the WORD of God that we are FREE? Once the word had reached the slaves some couldn't believe. They had been slaves for so long, how could it be true? Are you still a slave to sin, wondering how true freedom could be real? Some had been slaves to good masters and chose to remain that way. Sometimes we like the sin we are in and choose somehow to stay, that somehow it is easier than stopping.
Christ paid the price ~ you are FREE!
Reconciled - The family circle
“Reconciliation” between God and Man presupposes a breakdown in the relationship. God in His great grace makes first move to put things right. He was the wronged one ~ grasp His outstretched hand. Will you not take it?
Because Christ has died for you, the light has never been put out and the door never
locked. If you, like the Prodical, has left ~ the door is open, come home! It doesn't matter how long it has been ... the door has never been locked!
At the new birth, His laws are put into our mind and written on our heart. A new relationship is formed when God becomes our God and we His people, sins and iniquities are to be remembered no more.
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1). Though not saved by good works, we are saved for good works. Saved from sin and perhaps sins consequences for lives of holiness.
Under new management ...
Sanctification means we are being made holy and Christ-like. Christ died not only to give pardon, but purity. It is not only that we might be redeemed, but renewed; not only that we might be forgiven, but changed.
Purity * Renewal * Change
In theological terms, justification deals with the past, sanctification deals with the present. The very act of faith which justifies me is very act which God begins the work of sanctifying me. Christ’s work in us.
Resources are available to us, but we do not know how to appropriate them. The result is we flounder about and, if truth be told, we become disappointed especially when the first flush of enthusiasm of our salvation experience has disappeared.
Are we still at the mercy of certain temptations? Living to please ourselves? Feeling enslaved and mastered by sin? Temptation will come James tells us that ... but we have a choice ... our choice is to be effected inwardly by our faith, bringing us supernatural power (Matthew 17:20) that is manifested outwardly?
So when temptation or sin from the old life/nature comes, the answer is that "we have finished with that life". But is it really that easy? The flesh, the sinful nature, the world with all its seductions, which ruled us before becoming Christians, is still there. BUT for those of us claiming to be under Christ's authority it should have no right or claim of authority over me. It takes a FIRM decision ~ when old temptations come and present their familiar faces stating "it is I" our response should be, "but, yes, it is not I". We have (or should have) changed. Don’t wear the old man's clothing any longer and keep up his habits! Put on your new robe and your ring which the Father gave you when you came home begging just to be a servant and He made you His daughter!!!
Our new life should have an entirely new outlook, new power, new appetites, new resources, new direction – because Christ lives within.
I supply the vessel, He fills it with living water ...
Martin Luther said, “If someone should knock at my heart’s door and ask ‘Who lives here?' I shall answer "Jesus Christ lives here. Martin Luther (insert your name here) used to live here but s/he died. Jesus Christ lives here now.”
We should be committed to an entirely different kind of life now. Everything is different because we are different!
I can still sin, but it is (or should be) a grief to me now, and out of place, because I am new [wo]man.
I can do all things in union with him who keeps on pouring strength into me (Philippians 4:13). Sin shall not have dominion over you (Romans 6:14).
Yet the tragedy is how few professing Christians seriously consider this. Some act as if conversion is when Christ comes into the heart, and that seems to be the end of their story.
Basic problem – too much reliance on self ...
Here is the secret of victory over sin, freedom, fruitfulness, peace and grace for today and every day. Our attitude to Christ needs to be utter dependence, submission, surrender, yieldedness, reliance. Not until this is the response to Christ will the facts we have discussed already become force in my life. We think we run the show and are master of own resources, we forget to begin with total and complete submission! In my recent reading of Debi Pearl's "Created to be His Helpmeet" she talks about the submission of a wife to a husband in the respect that it teaches us how to bend the knee to the Heavenly Father. If we can't "get it" here with our husbands, how in the world are we going to "get it" there with the Father. This life is preparation for the next. SUBMISSION!
Offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13). That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17).
Continue on this journey, one day at a time Sweet Jesus ...
Bless and be blessed,
Michelle
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