Do you believe?

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the loved ones in my life. This includes family members, close friends, and acquaintances. When I think about there claims that they "believe" in God, my heart is just covered in sadness. You see, we are in a culture where we completely worship ourselves, want to live our lives for us, and we might on a quick "I believe in God" statement just in case there is a God. As this weight has continued to press me lately, I have been reading through the Gospel of John a lot to see what "believing" really means.

In John 6, Jesus feeds 5,000+ hungry people by turning 2 loafs of bread into enough to feed all of them. So everyone is full and there is even bread left over, but something crazy happens. These 5,000+ people who saw this miraculous miracle got upset when Jesus says that the physical bread he gave them will perish, but he himself is the bread that gives eternal life (6:27). These 5000+ disciples leave Jesus' presence and He is left with just the 12 disciples (v.66-71). They wanted just the physical quick temporary pleasure, like so many of us today, instead of the fulfilling Jesus that would satisfy them for eternity.

Again, in John 8 Jesus is defending himself among the religious leaders and explaining that He IS GOD. In v.30, these folks "believe" in Him. Or do they? In the very next verse (v.31), Jesus says to the Jews who HAD (past tense) believed in him that the truth will set them free. This begins an argument where they say they cannot be free if they are not enslaved. Jesus goes on to prove they are enslaved to their sin (v.32-57), claims again to be God, and look what happens next: Those who "believed" try to kill Jesus in v.59.

You see, so many people have been fooled into the lie that saying a quick prayer when they were at an 8th grade camp has secured them eternity with Jesus. However, these texts I showed you give us an example of continued belief. We are to trust in Christ as our Savior, not just once but always!! In a culture where we run to sex with random partners, substance abuse, materialism, vacations, etc. to give us that quick pleasure, it is only Jesus, the eternal bread of life, that can sustain and fulfill us. So please, if you are reading this and are unsure of your salvation, please read the Bible, call me or a friend who loves Jesus, and spend time asking God to reveal Himself to you. Jesus is the most beautiful treasure one can ever find (Matt. 6:44).

RECONCILIATION

blessed be the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

Romans 4:8

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 God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:9-10

Concerning reconciliation, John Stott writes:

“Justification is our legal standing before our judge in the court, reconciliation is our personal relationship with our Father.”

To me, reconciliation is one of the most beautiful themes, if not the most, in the entire Bible. You see, for us to be reconciled it must have once been that we were already in relationship and things were good. However, we must also recognize that for reconciliation to take place that our relationship with God was fractured, and we see this as we read Genesis 3 and from then on watch the disobedience of man against God.

The beauty of it is that “while we were enemies (Rom. 5:9),” God came and rescued us. Once again, like in propitiation and justification, we have no part in reconciliation. The Father is loving enough to not just restore us into right relationship through the death and resurrection of the Son, but we now are adopted sons and daughters with all the love possible from the Father (Rom. 8:12-17).

So what are the effects of reconciliation, other than being adopted by the Father?

The first result of reconciliation is simple, complete humility! When we rightly deserved eternal punishment (Rom. 3:23), God the Father initiated reconciliation, God the Son made it possible, and God the Holy Spirit made us new.

The second result is seen in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 and Ephesians 4:17-24. We are to put off the old self (our sinful wicked ways) and live in obedience to God and be ambassadors of Christ. To hear more on the 2 Corinthians passage you can hear a sermon I just preached on it at www.sevensdchurch.com or go on iTunes and type in Seven San Diego Church.

So, as we ask ourselves the question I asked you two days ago to keep at the forefront of your minds, did Christ have to die for us, the answer so far is a definite yes. The Father needed a perfect sacrifice to satisfy His wrath, the Father needed a perfect man to take our punishment if we were to be seen innocent, and the Father needed Christ’s death and resurrection to restore us into right relationship with Him.

Of all these, reconciliation is by far the most personal, for we have now been restored to a VERY personal relationship with God.

JUSTIFICATION

…who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 4:25

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 2:15-16

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Romans 5:18

When remembering this theological term, justification, my girlfriend remembers it’s meaning by saying it this way: “Just- as- if- I- never sinned at all.” That is very true and a good way to remember it.

Justification is actually a legal courtroom term that means to have right legal standing before God. You see, when someone puts their trust in the person and works of Jesus Christ, their guilty verdict of sin is put upon Jesus Christ (propitiation), and his innocence is imputed to them and they are completely forgiven and no longer liable to punishment (justification).

The Galatians verse I posted above (2:15-16) makes it completely clear that we are not justified by our feeble attempts to please God, but through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The term justification is just dripping with grace because it is all from God.

Picture this: There are 2 men living completely different lives. The first is a “man” who lives the perfect life. He never lies, never steals, in fact he never sins at all. He ends up becoming a well-known judge and is responsible for sentencing criminals to prison for their wrong doings. Now, the second man is a filthy criminal. He has good intentions, but overall is guilty of lying, cheating, stealing, etc. No matter how hard he tries to be “good” he ends up failing.

Imagine this: The criminal stands before the judge for all his crimes. The judge knows he is guilty but decides to take the man’s due punishment upon himself and let the guilty criminal go free. In the same way, Jesus Christ, the sinless perfect Judge has taken the punishment of all who are guilty that put their trust in Him. Those who do trust in Christ are gracefully given a completely innocent title.

We must realize that Paul did not invent the concept of justification. In the Parable of the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus justifies a tax collector for his humility and trust in Jesus Christ. Justification is also a concept we see laced through the Old Testament, especially in the Passover. Isaiah 53:11 says:

Out of the anguish of his (Jesus) soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11

There is a lot more to justification than this, but I believe these basics are understandable and will give you a general understanding. If you remember these 2 parts, you will have a basic understanding: 1) Forgiveness of past sins takes place through faith in Jesus Christ 2)Christ’s righteousness (perfect life) is imputed to us through justification.

Praise God for justifying me, for I was guilty in my sin. Think through this concept today and what it means to you. Explain this to your non-believing friends.

THE CROSS

Over the next week to two weeks I will be studying and writing on the atonement. My main focus and purpose in this is to grow closer to Jesus and look a bit deeper into the cross. There is a secondary purpose to this study, which will be shown through the writing. I want my study to be a tool for the church, specifically Seven San Diego Church. A lot of times we throw around words like justification, propitiation, and reconciliation and some Christians might not understand these. However, they are highly important concepts and help make clear why Christ died on the cross, for who Christ died for on the cross, etc.

My friends, there is nothing more important than studying what Christ did on the cross. Please feel free to ask questions, write comments, or call me so we can discuss anything I do not write clearly enough for you to understand. My heart loves studying this stuff and I will do my best to make it simple and understandable. One thing I ask is that you pass on what I write to non-Christian friends and please be purposeful and missional and discuss these things with them. I hope this will bring you as much joy as it will for me.