Paul shows that every Person must be Justified by
Faith Alone, even King David Understood
Romans
4:5-8 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the
ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes
the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.” NKJV
The Apostle Paul concluded the last section of
Scripture detailing how Abraham (the father of the Jewish people in the flesh
and the spiritual father of all of us who trust our Lord Jesus Christ) and any
soul attempting or trying to earn favor with God or earn their salvation by
being good and doing good deeds is actually not being rewarded for his or her
so-called good deeds, but on the contrary their toil to be good enough or
regard themselves pleasing to God is being concluded and counted by God as a
huge un-payable debt on His Eternal ledger. Paul is hammering home the point
that no one not Abraham or any other man on the face of planet earth will come
to God with any of his own goodness. We have shown in previous studies that in
every generation of humanity the false notion has been perpetuated and taught
to children by miss-guided and unregenerate adults that people are not born bad
or evil, but due to some tragedy or miss-treatment early on in life these
things make men and women become bad people. I have documented personally that
I was under this false assumption of humanity as well before my encounter with
the living Christ.
God the Father, my Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit
reaffirmed this point to me yesterday evening as I was watching an episode of
the Rifleman starring Chuck Connors. This program aired on ABC from 1958-1963.
In the episode I watched yesterday, the character played by Chuck Connors
(Lucas) was confronted by a gunfighter (at his ranch home in front of his young
son) who Lucas witness kill a man in a gunfight in town a few days earlier. The
man demanded some papers from Lucas that the dead man carried because Lucas had
taken the man to the town Doctor before he died. The man was very angry and
even tried to kill Lucas but he was able to take away his gun and sent him on
his way off of his property. Shortly after the man rode away, his son asked him
what made this man so mean and violent and Lucas said to his son, “Son men are not born bad, but something must
have happened to that man when he was younger or even when he was a boy to make
him mean and violent now.” The point of me giving this account in a TV show
that is over 50 years old is to affirm that we human beings have been
erroneously teaching our children about man’s nature in every generation
through radio, books, stories, TV, etc. I am certain this is what so moved our
Lord Jesus to say that many people go the way of the wide broad rode to
destruction and hell, but there are few who find the narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14).
Well-meaning people who are good (by human
standards, not God’s) find it very hard to believe that we all are born with
the same spiritual handicap of total depravity, spiritual deadness, and
enslavement to sin. If you do not believe me then try going to a relative, a
friend or acquaintance, or even a total stranger and say to them that their new
born baby or toddler or preschooler has the same corrupt nature in them as the
young man that brutally mascaraed those little children and teachers at Sandy
Hook school in Connecticut. I assure you that you will not like the response
you get, trust me I have done this before and the people did not throw a party
for me or have a parade in my honor for bringing them such enlightening and illuminating
and informative news. Paul now affirms God’s only method and that is the person
who sees the reality of their depravity they were born with and is brought to
the understanding that there is nothing they can do to fix or repair themselves
and in their discovery throw themselves prostrate before God’s Mercy (the Cross
of Jesus Christ) bringing none of their own effort to be better or good or to
reform their behavior. The person who discovers this marvelous truth just does
as Abraham did and believes God’s Word trusting totally and only in Jesus
Christ and His Blood sacrifice to wash away their sins. Paul says when the
person comes to the Father by way of the Son then and only then will their sins
be covered up by the Blood of the Lamb.
God sees in the dark just as clearly as He sees in
the brightness of the noon day sun. The soul that tries to hide or cover up sin
before God in religious activity/affiliation or in worldly pleasure/atheism
will never prosper (not in monetary sense, but in quietness and rest of soul).
However, the soul that confesses (agrees with God about their sin) and then
forsakes (that is leaves, loosens, and relinquishes his sin) will receive from
God the Father through God the Son and by the Power of God the Holy Spirit
Mercy (God’s compassionate love for sinful human beings whereby He covers,
conceals, and hides their sin giving them strength and power to live a new life
in Christ) (Proverbs 28:13). Paul
confirms that even the great King David knew of this blessed truth and reality
in his own life when he tried to hide his sin of adultery and murder from God
for over a year. David’s soul was in agony as he testifies with these words, Psalm 32:3-4 “When I kept silent, my bones
grew old Through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was
heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer.” NKJV And
also he said, Psalms 51:8-12 “Make me
hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide
Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from
Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy
of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” NKJV
These words spoken by King David bear witness that
sin can never be hidden from God whose eyes are in every place watching over the
good and evil, that is His Children and sinners. David also knew the glorious
flip side to this equation and that is how God covers up the sin of a truly
repentant sinner and he acknowledges this truth by these words, Romans 4:7-8 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man
to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.” NKJV These words simply mean that God will not lay
one sin to the account of any of His Children. All of God’s Children born not
of the flesh or of blood but born of God will never ever have any of our sins
placed on our ledger. This would be like someone having a credit card and they
made purchases against that card, but the account was never charged even one
dollar instead the bill always came reading a balance due of $0.00 (Hallelujah!).
This truth does not make the son or daughter go out and see how much stuff they
can buy on their unlimited credit card knowing it is already paid in full, but
instead it produces love for the account holder (God the Father) that restrains
the son or daughter from indulging in the purchase of stuff (committing willful
sin) (Ephesians 2:10).
Isaiah 61:10 I
will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has
clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of
righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, And as a
bride adorns herself with her jewels. NKJV
Micah
7:19 He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You
will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. NKJV
Galatians
3:14 “That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ
Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” NKJV
2
Timothy 1:9 “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was
given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” NKJV
“Thus God justifies the ungodly, and yet remains
just, and true to all His attributes! But let none hence presume to ‘continue
in sin;’ for to the impenitent, God ‘is a consuming fire.’ On Him that
justifieth the ungodly - If a man could possibly be made holy before he was
justified, it would entirely set his justification aside; seeing he could not,
in the very nature of the thing, be justified if he were not, at that very
time, ungodly.” John Wesley
“The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to
punish the ungodly has
become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions.” A. W. Tozer
“If Christ has died for me - ungodly as I am, without strength as I am - then I can no longer live in sin, but must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend. I must be holy for His sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?” Charles Spurgeon
Sincerely in Christ,
Author of “Silent Assassins
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