Therefore Being Justified By Faith (Part 1)

We are in Boston this week for our granddaughter, Lindsay Alice Groen's open heart surgery. The surgery will be performed this morning at 7:30 AM at Boston Children's Hospital. We covet your prayers for our kids especially since our daughter, Laura, had a miscarriage yesterday. For updates on Lindsay, visit the KESWICK homepage: www.americaskeswick.org.

Our good friend, and Colony grad, Chris Hughes, has graciously written this week's Freedom Fighters.

"Therefore, Being Justified By Faith..."

"Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." Romans 4: 23-25

Abraham was a man who was justified by faith. His loyalty was to God and he unquestionably obeyed God in the commands that were given to him. If God suddenly spoke to you and said "Get out from your country, from your family, from your father's house and go to Canaan." would you do what He said? Or would you say "Lord, let me go and bury my father."

What if He commanded you "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love and offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain of my choosing."
Would you be able to load the wood on your son's back and walk up the mountain? And when your son asked you "Where is the lamb for the offering?" would you be faithful enough to look at him and say "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for the offering."

These are great examples on how faith and obedience can be accounted for righteousness and therefore brings on justification. Paul spent all of chapter four in the book of Romans explaining how this came about before the Law was given to Moses. Justification is a gift from God and cannot be earned by works and remember justification has no bases in the Law.

The American Heritage Dictionary definition of justification goes right along with what the verb "dikaioo" would mean in the Greek text. The word would mean, "to acquit or absolve". To be declared free of blame. How many times in our own lives would it have been good to say, "I am free of blame!" "I am not being punished for my wrong doings."

There have been times in my own life where it would have been a good thing to hear a judge declare me free of blame and no punishment being necessary. It would have been a good thing if someone got up and said "I got you covered. Let me talk to the judge and see what I can do." That would have been justification. That someone, my brothers, would have been Jesus.

The following can be found in The Life Application Bible (NLT), "When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, an exchange takes place. We give Him our sins, and He forgives us and makes us right with God. There is nothing we can do to earn this. Only through Christ can we be made right in God's eyes. What an incredible bargain this is for us! But sadly, many still chose to pass up this gift to continue "enjoying" their sin."

I pray you are not "passing up" this gift. Chris Hughes 3/10/2008

God's Word for Today: 1 Samuel 7-9; Luke 9:18-36

Think about it: Motion and busyness, no matter how great, yield nothing unless we allow God to give us the heart. Grant Lovejoy