A Conversation about Justification and Faith with works...
Anyone else love diving deep into God's Word? Uncovering layer after layer of life-giving Truth?
I can honestly say it is one of my favorite things to do!
Why? His Word never gets old. It is always so fresh and relevant. No matter how long I've been a follower of Christ, there is always room and need for growth, and studying God's Word, His love letter to mankind, teaches me and guides me in this growing process.
Recently, I've been studying the topics of justification and faith accompanied by works. I recognize these are subjects people have been studying for years and people with a lot more knowledge than me have written and taught about these subjects in length.
Even so, I'd like to share what the Lord has been teaching me through His Word and hopefully encourage you.
Justification (dikaioo: rendered just or innocent)
The Bible teaches us that sin entered the world when Adam and Eve doubted God's goodness and chose to eat the forbidden fruit. After God created them and breathed life into their lungs, He gave them everything they needed to flourish within the garden. His most precious gift was the fellowship He had with them.
Every human being since then has been born with a sinful nature and into a world damaged by the effects of sin. All mankind has fallen significantly short of God's glory, holiness and perfection.
God didn't give up on mankind after the fall of Adam and Eve. Being the generous, good God He is, He chose Abraham and promised him that a great nation would come from his lineage and would be God's chosen people. Through this nation, the Savior of the world would come.
God kept His promise and years later, He delivered this great nation from under the tyrannical hand of Pharaoh.
After delivering His people, He gave them life-giving rules to obey and a way of life to flourish within. Many people know these rules to be the Ten Commandments, but there were far more than Ten Commandments. God cared about every detail of His peoples' lives, and His love for them was reflected in the commandments He personally revealed. Built into the commandments God gave, was the blood sacrifice required to cover the sin of a person. The sin sacrifice had to be made with a spotless, blemish-free animal.
This was something the Israelites had to do continually because these sacrifices, although good and required by God, could not take away the sins of the people. (Hebrews 10:4,11)
Time and time again, the Israelites failed to keep God's commandments. They turned their hearts to other things and followed after false gods.
There were men and women who believed in God and obeyed His commandments, not perfectly yet with a sincere heart, but the Bible says the law couldn't make people perfect (Hebrews 7:19) and if a person failed in one aspect of the law they were considered guilty in all of the law. (James 2:10)
Mankind desperately needed a Rescuer and God's plan was already in place.
This is where Jesus came in. He stepped down from Heaven to live life as a man and did so perfectly. He came to accomplish God's will and gave His body to be sacrificed as the perfect and final blood sacrifice required as payment for our sins. On the cross He declared, "It is finished". "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,...by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." (Hebrews 10:12-14)
The Bible tells us that we are justified, judged innocent, by the blood of Jesus through faith in Jesus:
ROMANS 3:23-26
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption (ransom in full, deliverance) that is in Christ Jesus.
Whom God put forward as a propitiation (atoning victim, one who pays the penalty for wrong done) by his blood, to be received by faith.
This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
ROMANS 5:6-10
"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled (to be restored to the favor or restore relationship with) to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."
ROMANS 5:1-2
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
We are justified by the blood of Jesus, through faith in Jesus, not by the law or works.
(Galatians 2:16, Ephesians 2:4-9)
Even Paul, the apostle, recognized he could not justify himself through the good things he did, and said, "not having a righteousness (same word as justified) of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—" (Philippians 3:1-9)
When we recognize that we cannot save ourselves and we rest our faith in Jesus' perfect, finished work, we stand justified before God. We are declared innocent and welcomed by God as His son or daughter. We become heirs with His Son, Jesus Christ.
Faith with works
So if we are justified by the blood of Jesus, through faith in Jesus, why does the Bible talk so much about works?
First, when we are justified, the Bible tells us that we are brought from death to life. We were dead in our sin and God made us alive in Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-6, Colossians 2:13) He then gives us His Spirit, our Helper, who works to produce God's character in us. (Galatians 5, John 14:26)
True faith in Jesus brings life. The life that God gives produces good works.
James 2:14, 17, 21-23
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?...So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
"Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."
Let's take a look at what is said here about Abraham.
First, the phrase "active along with" means: working together, cooperating. Abraham's faith (in God) was working together and cooperating with his works. They weren't separate entities.
Second, the phrase "completed by his works" means: complete. Abraham's faith was complete by his works. Abraham didn’t just SAY he had faith in God, he LIVED it out.
(Abraham)
Sarah, Abraham's wife, was barren, but God opened her womb in her old age and she gave birth to Isaac. God gave Abraham the promised son him and his wife had been waiting for. When Isaac was older, God told Abraham to sacrifice him. Can you imagine?! Abraham obeyed but in the end, Isaac was not sacrificed because God provided a ram to take Isaac’s place. God tested Abraham's faith and Abraham obeyed because, "He considered that God was able even to raise him (Isaac) from the dead..."(Hebrews 11:17)
What caused Abraham to obey?
His faith in God and God’s ability. His obedience was a result of his faith. In other words, his faith was alive and work-producing. The Scripture doesn't say Abraham's works were counted to him as righteousness. It says, "he believed". His works revealed his genuine faith.
James 2:25
"And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?"
(Rahab)
Rahab lived in Jericho, the first city the Israelites conquered in the land God promised to give them. Joshua, Israel's leader at the time, sent two spies into Jericho. When the king of Jericho heard there were spies in his city, he sent men to pursue them. Rehab took them into to her home, hid them on her roof and helped them escape. Before she let them go, she said to them, "for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath" and asked them to save her and her family from the destruction that was coming to her city.
Notice here Rahab stated her belief in Israel's God and therefore she hid the spies.
Just like Abraham, her faith caused her to respond. Her faith in the One, True God produced the works James refers to.
I believe the Word of God is teaching us this:
We are justified by the blood of Jesus alone, through faith in Him alone. When we are justified, something miraculous happens. We are awakened to new life and with our new life, we produce works that reflect the One we have faith in.
This is not a surprise to God. In fact, it is His work in us that causes us to produce good works. The Bible says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)
Genuine faith will be accompanied by works because genuine faith reflects the work of God in the hearts of His children. It reflects God's faithfulness to prune us (John 15:2) and the guidance He provides through the Holy Spirit.
So in conclusion,
Let us have full confidence that we are justified by Jesus' blood when we rest our faith in Him alone for salvation.
Let us remember that we are not justified by our works, but that good works are a result of a faith that is alive and genuine.
Let us be encouraged that our walk of faith is a process. As we stand justified, God continues His faithful work in our hearts, pruning us so we can bear more fruit and walk in the good works He has prepared for us.
Let us live out our faith, doing good works so that we will reflect and give glory to our Father, "the just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
"Therefore, my beloved,...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."
Sincerely,
Amy
