ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Friday April 7, 2017

“Clothed in His Righteousness”

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." - Romans 5:1-2

"being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed," - Romans 3:24-25

Justification

How can God Justify? - continued

1)  Christ lived a life of total obedience to God.

2)  Christ, despite his personal innocence, was treated as a guilty man.

3)  The explanation of this mystery, that the sinless one suffered as the guilty one, is to be found in the bond which God has established between Christ and his people. - continued

Sometimes, however, we undervalue this grand teaching of Scripture and we do not feel its power the way we should. For example, it is sometimes said that “justified” means, ‘just-as-if-I’d never sinned.’ Doubtless there is an element of truth in this, but it does not do justice to the biblical teaching. For one thing it does not bring out sufficiently forcefully that it is the ungodly in the guilty were justified. In that is the heart and the glory of the teaching of the Scripture. It also leaves justification short of where Scripture takes it. For justification is not merely take us back to square one as it were. In justification we are not only told that Christ has paid the debt of our sins. We receive Christ’s righteousness. We are not simply like Adam, beginning all over again; we are in Christ. In the sight of God we are not only innocent, but as righteous as Christ is, because righteous with his personal righteousness. Dare we believe that? It is what Scripture encourages us to believe and a truth that has brought strong assurance too many:

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness

my beauty are, my glorious dress;

midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

with joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in that great day,

For who ought to my charge shall lay?

Fully absorbed through Thee I am,

From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

The holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,

Who from the Father’s bosom came,

Who died for me, even me, to atone.

Now for my Lord and God I own.

This spotless robe the same appears

When ruined nature sinks in years;

No age can change its glorious hue,

The robe of Christ is ever new.

                                                Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf

                                                Translated by John Wesley

It is this perspective which led us discussed earlier in the chapter, that justification is not subject to degrees. It cannot wax and wane. If only we grasped that justification is ours in Christ; that we are therefore it is truly and find justified in Christ is; that justification is free and unmerited, we should enjoy this ever deepening sense of peace with God and proceed to rejoice in the hope of sharing his glory (Romans 5:1 – 2).

Memory Verse:

"KO ia, tau tuku ke fakatonuhia‘i kitautolu ‘i he tui, ka tau ma‘u melino ai mo e ‘Otua ‘i hotau ‘Eiki ko Sīsū Kalaisi;" - Loma 5:1

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" - Romans 5:1

Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)

Week 14 – Joshua 14-24; Judges 1-6; Psalm 15, 116, 16; Luke 17-21