Letters to the Family of God

by Joe Franzone | May 12, 2022 | Pastor's Blog

Family of God - Website (600 × 282 px)
5.12

May 12, 2022

His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.

Revelation 19:12-13

Dear Friends,

 

It can often seem in the Christian life we are on trial. That is the world, the flesh, and the devil is in a continuous loop of throwing accusations, condemnations, dishonesties, or revisions of bits and pieces of our lives. Just look at yourself, is their main weapon of choice. Trying to drag the Christian back into the courtroom, with themselves the presiding judge.

 

Of course, when we do look at ourselves alone there is tension, but that is part of their ploy.

 

Justification

 

The use of the verb justify in the New Testament, occurs thirty-nine times. Twenty-nine come from the writings of Paul. Justification is a special concern for Paul. It's his way of framing the essential gospel message—that through Christ's death, guilty sinners once justly under wrath, come into a new relationship with God as His beloved sons and daughters, under grace.

 

Justification then is the very heart of the gospel. Justification means, God's act of canceling all the sins of, and counting righteousness to, ungodly sinners freely, by His grace, through faith in Christ, on the ground, not of their own works but of the representative righteousness and redemptive, propitiatory, substitutionary blood-shedding of Jesus Christ on their behalf. (Romans 3:23-26; 4:5-8; 5:18-19)

 

To justify in the Bible means to be declared righteous: to declare, that is of a person on trial, not liable to any penalty, but enjoy all the privileges due to those who have kept the law perfectly. Justifying is the act of a judge announcing the opposite sentence to condemnation—that of acquittal and legal invulnerability.

 

The law of God rightly makes a double demand: it requires full obedience and full endurance in that obedience. Justification is God's gracious act of blessing, for it saves us from the demands of the law. It saves us from our past, present, and future disobedience to the law. It stabilizes us in the immediate and secures us for the future. Justification is God pardoning sin, and it is God ending our exposure to His justifiable wrath and anger in light of sin.

 

Therefore, every Christian has been already brought to trial, but Jesus came with them. Thus, God bestows on us the righteousness of the innocent Christ, who died to make Justification true. Therefore, all the blessings which God promises to the just and the obedient are theirs. (Galatians 3:14-22; 8:1,14-17)

 

Therefore, and this is a huge therefore, when the world, the flesh, and the devil try to drag you back into the courtroom, trying to misuse the Word of God or conjuring up in you an improper sense of fear to accuse, condemn, expose, and destroy, tell them:

 

I want to be judged according to the Word of God; because I know that according to the Word of God, I have already been found righteous, only because of Jesus.

Tell them you've already been to that courtroom, and you already have been found righteous, not because you are or ever have been righteous, but only because of Jesus. Subsequently, you will never be on trial again.

 

Tell them—when I look at myself, I see nothing but emptiness and weakness, but when I look upon Christ, I see nothing but fullness, righteousness, and sufficiency. And because of Christ, it is mine, all mine, and I thank God for such grace!

 

If it is another person, then graciously tell them there is no need for a trial. The courtroom is empty.

 

Justification means when accused by the devil, the world, or our own flesh—Jesus is our advocate. When we are guilty of sin, Jesus is our Great high priest and our righteousness. When we have lost our way, Jesus is our way. When we are afraid that we will fail, and in the end be condemned, or in the now, be condemned by other people, Jesus is our representative, and in whose death, we died and whose satisfaction it's all that God requires.

A debtor to mercy alone,

Of covenant mercy, I sing,

No fear, with God’s righteousness on,

My person and offerings to bring.

The terrors of law and of God

With me can have nothing to do;

My Savior’s obedience and blood

Hide all my transgressions from view.

 

                                    A Debtor to Mercy Alone.

And we praise His great, merciful name together!

 

God bless you and may He tie this truth tightly to us.

Pastor Joe