Rightly dividing the Word of Truth. 33
Rightly dividing the Word of truth
This is part 33 in a series of 53 articles about RIGHTLY DIVIDING GOD’S WORD OF TRUTH. All scripture quoted will be from the King James Bible.
In part 33, we continue where we left off in part 32, discussing the “Gospel of the grace of God.”
God’s justification of sinners lies only in God Himself; there is no cause in men why He should justify them, and He does not ask for any cause to justify them either. He knows they are sinners and deserve punishment; but in His love and mercy, He chooses to gladly justify, and most freely, any and all who will trust Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Salvation is absolutely free! Anyone can find it who will take it freely with a sincere heart of faith. Anyone may have eternal life who is willing to take it as a pure gift, as a person receives a present from a friend.
It is strange how slow men are to believe God in this matter, and receive their salvation on this gift principle. Only God can give salvation, but in our present time, it must be taken as a free gift, or never get it at all. Surely, we should not want it any other way, by which God, the Judge, becomes the Benefactor and Saviour. We do not rob our friends of the joy of giving presents to us. Why should men try to rob God ofbestowing the free present of eternal life on us?
Sometimes men think because they try to do the right things in life, they are not sinning, and that they are righteous before God, but if that is the case, then they really become self-righteous before God. God hates self-righteousness! The Pharisees, in our Lord’s day were too proud to admit their real condition, when Jesus told them their sin and offered to be their Saviour. They denied their sin, and of course rejected Him. For Jesus could only be the Saviour of sinners; and, if people were not willing to take the sinner’s place, they could not have the sinner’s salvation. All were alike sinners, as they are today; but many sinners then (as many now) took the false position of being at least somewhat righteous before God. And Jesus said to them, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” Mark 2:17. We must take salvation just as a beggar takes alms. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor (literally, poverty-stricken) in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
When a man really admits what God says about him as a sinner, and sees himself as a guilty lost person in God’s presence, and sincerely believes in Christ shed blood for the forgiveness of his sins; God then gives him eternal life through Christ his Lord and Saviour.
God longs to save all men, but many refuse to admit the truth about themselves, that they are guilty sinners. How can a righteous God bless such people?
Hebrews 9:27 tells us that there are two things we can be sure of in life; it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Everyone will die because of their sin nature, and then their every word, deed, and thought will be judged by God’s righteous standard.
To be continued