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Caretaker
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http://www.justforcatholics.org/7.htm


Right with God

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ - Romans 5:1.

How can a person, burdened down with the guilt of his sin, obtain peace with his Creator? According to Scripture there is only one remedy: justification by faith in Christ. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

'Justification' is a legal term; it is the opposite of 'condemnation.' The person who obeys the law is just or righteous, whereas the person who disobeys the law is unjust and guilty. The judge should justify the righteous and condemn the unjust. Thus justification is the judge’s favourable pronouncement, declaring the accused to be ‘just, not guilty,’ and thus frees him from all punishment.

God, the Judge of the world, would certainly justify us if we were righteous. But the sad truth is that we are far from being righteous. On the contrary, we must all plead guilty because we have acted contrary to his Law. And since we are sinners and unjust, God’s sentence must be our condemnation. How then can a man be just before God?

Should the sinner make up for his failures and lead a life altogether righteous, God would be obliged to justify him (since then he would be truly righteous). Roman Catholics are taught that in justification God “makes us inwardly just” (Catechism, 1992). That means that God justifies a person when the sinner, by the sacraments and good works, becomes just in himself.

Admittedly, God works in the life of his children, changing them to become more and more like his Son. Still, as long as they are on earth Christians remain sinners (1 John 1:8). The Catholic teaching -- God justifies the righteous -- is bad news for the sinner! But may God be praised for his unspeakable mercy: the Bible presents a different message!

"But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Romans 4:4,5).

God declares the believing sinner ‘not guilty!’ God does not justify him because he is righteous (he is not!). In fact God justifies the ungodly. Neither does God acquit him because of any credit that the sinner gains by his good works. God justifies ‘him who does not work’! This is the true gospel, comforting balm for the poor sinner’s soul!

How can God justify the believer, seeing that he is still a sinner? The answer to this vital question lies at the core of the Gospel. God is perfectly just when he justifies those who believe in his Son. Christ, the Lamb of God, accepted full responsibility for the sins of his people, and paid the penalty due to them by shedding his own blood. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity (sins) of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

Though God wants us to trust in Him alone, we are too proud to accept his gracious pardon. We feel we can do something to merit forgiveness and instead of trusting in Him, we end up trusting in ourselves. The Lord Jesus once told a parable in the hearing of some “who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.”

"Two men went up to the temple to pray; one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you, that I am not like other men -- extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other" (Luke 18:9-14).

The first man presented his own righteousness and good works to God. The second approached God empty-handed. The Pharisee considered himself righteous and came confidently forward. The publican was painfully aware of his poverty and was ashamed of himself. Both went up to the temple to pray; the self-righteous man asked for nothing while the publican pleaded for mercy. Both returned home. One was trusting in himself to be spiritually acceptable, but in God’s sight he was not. The other one depended solely upon God’s mercy. And it was this believing sinner that went home justified, declared righteous by the Judge of heaven and earth.

Everyone must make a choice between these two alternatives. Either you are trusting in God’s mercy alone, or else you are relying on your co-operation and best efforts. On one hand, the Roman Catholic church pronounces a curse on all those who say that “justifying faith is nothing more than confidence in the divine mercy, which forgives sins because of Christ.” On the other hand, evangelical Christians, like the publican, have nothing but “confidence in the divine mercy,” and according to the Lord Jesus, that is what is required to be right with God.

In whom are your trusting for your acquittal (liberation from punishment) - in your own attainments or in the mercy of God as revealed upon Calvary’s cross? Are you seeking to be accepted of God because of your deeds, or are you leaning by faith upon the all-merciful God? Would you stop trusting in yourself and believe in Jesus Christ alone?



© Dr Joe Mizzi. Permission is given by the author to copy this article without any changes.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My faith is based upon the resurrection, for it is the empty tomb, which is the pivotal point differentiating the Christian from all other religions, and establishes the credibility of the Word of God.

1) The resurrection was foretold by Jesus Christ. Matthew writes, “From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and raised up on the third day”(Matt. 16:21) Though his followers did not understand what He was telling them at the time, they remembered and recorded His words.

2) The resurrection is the only reasonable explanation for the empty tomb. If Jesus had been only wounded he could not have removed the stone or gotten past the soldiers, likewise his disciples could not have gotten by either. His enemies would not have taken the body for it would have only encouraged belief in the resurrection.

3) The resurrection is the only reasonable explanation for the appearances of Jesus to His disciples. There were at least ten different occasions, and even eating and allowing them to touch him.

4) The resurrection is the only reason for the beginning of the Christian church. This was the foundation upon which the church was founded, and the primary subject of the first sermons.

5) The resurrection is the only reasonable explanation for the transformed lives of the disciples. They deserted Jesus during His trial and crucifixion. They remained in hiding, and it was only after the resurrection that they emerged. These same sheep hiding in the darkness emerged with power and boldness, in the very presence of their enemies, to turn the world upside down. Where once they had cowered in fear and confusion, and Peter had made his denial three times, they now endured horrid persecution and death, with faith unshaken. The transformation in the life of Paul, can only be reasonably explained by the resurrection. For he was the lead persecutor of the early church. After meeting the resurrected Lord upon the Damascus road, Paul was transformed, and he went forth boldly proclaiming the faith, even unto a martyr’s death.

6) Lastly I offer into evidence the transforming power of the resurrection, in the lives of countless millions through the centuries, who have received Christ. Each of us gives evidence in our testimony to the resurrection power of Jesus of Nazareth, to break the bonds of sin, and produce peace and righteousness in our lives.


Polycarp was a personal disciple of the Apostle John. As an old man, he was the bishop of the Church at Smyrna in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). Persecution against the Christians broke out there and believers were being fed to the wild beasts in the arena. The crowd began to call for the Christians' leader Polycarp. So the authorities sent out a search party to bring him in. They tortured two slave boys to reveal where Polycarp was being hidden.

When asked to renounce Christ Polycarp replied:
"Eighty-six years I have served Him. He had never done me wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who has saved me?"

The proconsul reached for an acceptable way out: "Then do this, old man. Just swear by the genius of the emperor and that will be sufficient." (The "genius" was sort of the "spirit" of the emperor. To do this would be a recognition of the pagan gods and religion.)

REPLY: "If you imagine for a moment that I would do that, then I think you pretend that you don't know who I am. Hear it plainly. I am a Christian."
Polycarp was burned to death, but his faith never wavered as the fires burned higher.

--------------------
A Servant of Christ,
Drew

1 Tim. 3:
16: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh..

Posts: 3978 | From: Council Grove, KS USA | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
NGCapnJack
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Member # 4238

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I don't know if this is the best place to post this, but I need some sort of enouragement/insight/advice. My entire life I've seeked God, and much more recently in my life I have tried to do His will, proclaim His message, learn much more about Him and do whatever it takes. I've always felt the need to have some sort of personal evidence - an undeniable form of solid evidence - to know He exists. At best I could call any of my experiences with Him unlikely coincidences. I've often felt like it was unfair, because many around me have witnessed His grace or something that truly showed His presence.

I could say that I have convinced myself there is a God, tried to make myself believe in Him and possibly even have decieved myself to accept the Christian ideas, yet in my heart, often enough, arises doubt. The Lord Jesus said that we only need a tiny amount of faith to do unimaginable things (i.e. "move mountains"), so my faith must be pretty weak. I have hope, and I think I have faith because more than anything I want it all to be true, but there are nagging doubts and even fears within me.

Is His Kingdom truly eternal? If so, what will we do for eternity? Would it not eventually get boring, to the point where you might even want it to end? Then again, my absolute greatest fear is a bleak end, a void, a complete loss of conciousness even at a spiritual level. To forget, to lose myself, is in a sense to lose everything because I won't even know what I'm experiencing or have experienced. This may be the reason I want so much to believe completely, but even with all the evidence and accounts from other people, I have no personal proof. If everyone in the world, except me, were to witness Jesus, I would still have doubt because I need something myself.

"Blessed are those who believe without seeing", because I know that the most I can ever do without seeing is want to believe.

And I think this is why I came here... It's why I'm trying to become a more active Christian. I can't live my life in doubt.

--------------------
Arr matey, May the Lord Bless yer soul. [thumbsup2]

"The LORD is my Shepherd" (Psalm 23). [Cross]

Posts: 30 | From: Canada | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator


 
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