Lesson One, Introduction
Christ's shed blood justifies and purifies the sinner from sin. What does it mean to be Justified? And must we be Purified?
BEING JUSTIFIED [pronounced by the Judge as "not guilty"] BY FAITH IN CHRIST MEANS, WE ARE NO LONGER CONDEMNED BY GOD'S LAW EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE BEEN GUILTY OF SIN, BECAUSE WE HAVE BELIEVED AND ACCEPTED THE FACT THAT CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS, AND WE HAVE ASKED HIM INTO OUR HEARTS SO THAT HE MIGHT CHANGE US AND HELP US WANT TO OBEY. WE ARE FREE FROM CONDEMNATION WHEN HE FORGIVES US OUR SINS AND CLEANSES US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. BUT AFTER FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION, THEN WHAT? SHOULD WE KEEP ON SINNING?
If I were stopped by a highway patrolman and given a ticket for speeding, then there is usually a reason. Was it because the patrolman is at fault for catching up with me? or does he hate me and that is why he gave me a ticket? No. The reason is, that I have been speeding and deserve the ticket. I am guilty. The ticket says that the Law caught me disobeying the speed limit imposed on the population for this particular road, and the penalty is a fine of $240.00 (US). Unfortunately, I know that I was speeding, maybe without realizing it, but nevertheless, I was speeding. And just as unfortunate, there is nothing I can do but pay the fine as it reads. I can't confess that I was being absent-minded, which I might have been, or that I was suffering from an emotional high or low, for that won't do, either. So I pay the whole sum of the fine. Once I pay the fine, then am I guilty? No, I am acquitted, declared no longer guilty under the law of the land, I am free. What should I do now? Breathe a sigh of relief for one thing, that I could pay the fine and not be charged with another penalty, which may be something like 30 days in jail with hard labor.
But many people feel that once they pay the fine, then they do not need to keep the speed limit, that the speed limit came to a certain end once the penalty was paid. Isn't that ridiculous? But even more ridiculous and incredulous is the fact that people today claim that once Jesus paid the fine of our guilt of sin on the cross, then the Law's demands were met, and the Law becomes totally dysfunctional for them, no longer necessary to be KEPT!!!
They feel this way for one of various reasons: (1.) Christ's death and life are applied to the sinner's record as his own, and no matter how evil he has been in the past, or will be in the future, he believes that a forgiven person cannot sin again, but is counted sinless. He is above the law. He cannot be lost or condemned by the Law. So that means there is no more law for him. It is once saved, always saved. It is similar to the doctrine of indulgences for sin. Once he is freed from the Law by paying the fine, he will not be condemned in the future, because the fine was already paid for all disobedience. He is no longer counted a sinner, no matter what his life is like. (2.) Another reason given by those who advocate Sunday as the Lord's day, is that the Law is good in all areas of life except for the one area which is declared to be obsolete in today's modern society, the seventh-day Sabbath. For whatever reason is given for any part of God's Ten Commandmentlaw to no longer be essential for the Christian to keep, the whole law is made of non-effect. Adding sin to sin, Sabbath-keepers are held in contempt as declared unsaved legalists, being in bondage to sin and death, because they keep all Ten Commandments, foremost being the Sabbath day, while the rest of the Christian world says it is living under grace, keeping the Lord's day Sunday. The problem with this concept is that it directly contradicts 1 John 3:4, which basically says, that "sin is transgression of the Law [of Ten Commandments]." compare to James 2:8-12.
Who would think up such nonsensical reasons as those above? Let's follow through on their line of reasoning: (1.) If the person who broke the speeding law pays the fine, then is it true that he is placed above the law, and therefore it is impossible for him to break the law again, even if he speeds faster than than the speed limit all the time? NO. Speeding again on the highway and getting caught doing it, will not release a person from sure penalties. No judge is going to listen to the plea on the second round, that the Law has become of none effect for him, and he is free to speed all he wants now. Can you imagine such a plea presented to any court??? Everyone would be rolling with laughter at such nonsense. So preposterous is the idea that the fine only needed to be paid once, and that covers all future disobedience! What if the speeder killed a pedestrian the next time around? Would not stiffer penalties be applied?
But many people are breaking the Law today and denying it. They are saying, God's Ten Commandment Law has come to a complete end since Jesus Christ died and paid my penalty for sin, and I have given my heart and life to Him. There is no Law of God to keep now except the Law of love of the New Covenant which is the Law of Jesus Christ, they say. If you ask them what that law of love is, they might say, love God and love your fellow man, that is all that is required. So how do you love God, and how do you love your fellow man, you ask them? Just listen to the Holy Spirit and He will tell you what you should do, they say. Then they try to say, You don't need the Ten Commandments, and if you try to obey them, then you are being a legalist, because now those commandments have been replaced with the command to love one another! How dare you think to even try to keep the Ten Commandments, you are just doing works, and you can't save yourself by the Ten Commandments!
Is this all we need to do now? Once Christ forgives us, all we need to do is love God and to love one another? Is it true that "Love fulfills the Law?" And that fulfilling the Law means to do away with the Ten Commandments? All that is required is that now we just love everybody, and listen to the Holy Spirit? What part does the Ten Commandments really play today? What does the Bible really say on this subject?
The Bible says, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8. Now if this was all the texts to go with this Scripture, then we could say, yes, Love is all we need. That is the key to it all. We do not need the Law anymore.
But if we go on to the next verse, we might become puzzled. "For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Romans 13:9 And further, "Love worketh no ill uo his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." verse 10. There is God's outline of what love will do or not do as an ongoing process, a fulfilling of the law, for his neighbor, the second table of the Ten Commandments. To "fulfill" in the way it is used here means to keep the Law fully! To do anything evil against our neighbor as outlined in the last six commandments of the Ten Commandments, would be to sin against our neighbor! Love, then, is the motive power behind the Law that enables us to fulfill the Law! Isn't that beautiful! Love for man would mean that we keep the last six commandments, and love for God would mean that we would keep all the first four commandments of the first table of the Law.
The Law of God is the Law of Love! It embodies the principles of God's love! So in a sense it is true, all we need to do is to Love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. But we should know how to love God and our neighbor, because love does not come to us naturally, we are by nature, sinful. So how do we love God and our fellow man and obey the Law? Now it is possible to understand the Law of God, not just from reading it in Exodus 20, but seeing also how it was lived out in the life of Jesus Christ while He was on earth. Remember that "God is love," and love is of God. "We love Him because He first loved us." 1 John 4:8, 4:19. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. That is God's love in action. (John 3:16) And because of seeing and beholding His love in giving us Jesus Christ our Savior, we love Him. And this is how we show that we love Him. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3.
"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23. It is true, Jesus, who is our Creator, who is the Son of God, who is equal to His Father, this same Jesus in human flesh lived a perfect life, yet died on the cross for our sins. He paid the price of our sins. The weight or guilt of all our sins was laid on Him, and He died for them on the cross. That way, if we accept His sacrificial death in place of our death for sin, then the penalty (the fine) for breaking Law has been paid for all our past sins, and we are freed from the condemnation of the Law. But what about our future sins, won't we sin again? Yes, we will. But there is hope. Let's see what Justification or being made free from the penalty of disobedience to God's Law does for us... Does it mean we are free to disobey the Ten Commandments and crucify our Saviour again, or are we free to be able to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly and not be condemned?
That is our next lesson....Justified by Faith in Jesus Christ