The Wednesday Word ~ JUSTIFIED!
How God Gets us to Heaven: Part 2
D.G. Miles McKee
The next matter we want to consider is that we are Justified by Grace. Romans 3:24 says, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:“ He declares us justified.....not guilty.....by grace.
I was talking to a man once and mentioned that we are justified by grace. “Oh no” he said. We are justified by faith (as if they were contrary). However, we don’t need to reconcile these truths, they are not at war. They are friends and not enemies.
Justification by grace is one of the vast kaleidoscope of truths discovered in the great doctrine of Salvation.
A person who is Justified by grace realizes that there is nothing deserving in him that made God declare him not guilty. It is justification by grace … unearned and undeserved favour. We are declared ‘Not Guilty” without a cause in us. That’s grace!
Not only is Justification without a cause in us, but it is also without a cost to us. – We are justified …FREELY.
Notice our text in Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: “
It was in God’s heart to do it this way for He is the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10). Justification is free to us and without a cause in us.
In John 15:25, Jesus, quoting from Psalm 35:19 said, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
Jesus was hated, and here’s the truth of the matter… He was hated freely … literally without a cause.
There is nothing in us to recommend us to God. You and I each deserve Hell. But we have been justified ‘freely’ … literally justified without a cause and without a cost to us. We are justified by grace.
We have learned two things so far in this series … 1) It is God who Justifies and 2) He does so by grace. There will be only one person in heaven who deserves to be there … His name is Jesus. But there will be an uncountable number there because of Him.
The next matter about Justification that we want to mention is that we are Justified by blood.
Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
There is no cleansing, magical quality in the chemical makeup of the blood of Calvary.
No indeed!
It cleanses because it is the blood of the God/man … Jesus the Christ.
Remember how in the Old Testament, it was the blood that was the essence of sacrifice. It was the blood that made an atonement for the soul … Leviticus 17:11.
The sacrifices in the Old Testament pointed towards the Lamb of God who would intercept the just and holy wrath of outraged majesty. This fury was coming straight at us. In the Bible we see that without shedding of blood there is no remission of our sins (Hebrews 9:22). Which again brings us back to Jesus.
Because of the one great blood sacrifice that Jesus made at Calvary our sins are cleansed and taken away. He has justified us by His blood. Do you believe this?
It’s vital that you do. Jesus said, “He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
And that’s the Gospel Truth!
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