THE GROUND OF OUR JUSTIFICATION

If someone were to ask me, “Upon what ground do you expect God to bring you into His eternal fellowship and glory? What is the ground of your justification (being forgiven of all your sins, declared righteous and accepted) before and with God?” I would answer without hesitation, “The righteousness God has provided in and by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, through His obedience unto death, the merit of which God has imputed (charged, accounted) to me.” There is no other ground of justification before God. Faith is not that ground; repentance is not that ground; obedience is not that ground. The ground of forgiveness and acceptance before God is entirely and exclusively the work of Christ on the cross because God the Father “made Him to be sin for us” (charging, accounting our sins to Christ), “that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (accounting, charging Christ’s righteousness to us; II Corinthians 5:21).

Someone once asked me, “Why do you preach this doctrine so much?” I answer that this truth is the heart of the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16-17). Also, this truth is attacked by the enemies of Christ in every generation and on every side. When this great truth is ignored, denied, challenged, or confused, the whole Gospel of God’s sovereign grace and the whole standing of the church is also ignored, denied, challenged, and confused. It is from this great Person and work, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord our righteousness, that God gives spiritual and eternal life to all His people – “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death” (Proverbs 12:28).

 

-preacher Bill Parker

http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=reignofgrace


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