Miles McKee Ministries
PO Box 541, Kingston Springs, TN 37082
Justification Part 3 ( Miles McKee)
Some suggestions
Some suggestions
Maybe, as some suggest, God’s solution is to take the sinner and infuse righteousness into him by the work of the Holy Spirit. Sounds good doesn’t it?
But there’s a problem with that. While it is true that God does infuse a certain amount of righteousness into the believer by the Holy Spirit, the work of the Spirit is an on-going one and, as such, is incomplete. The Spirit’s work is not a finished work but a continuing ongoing one. But we need a perfect and complete righteousness if we are ever to be accepted before a perfectly Holy God.
Under the “infused righteousness” theory no one ever knows what level of righteousness he or she has obtained. Nor indeed do they know if they have satisfied the level of righteousness which God requires. Anyone living under this system of thought has to continually ask himself or herself whether or not they have enough righteousness in their account. Have they fully met God’s demands and standards of righteousness?
But there’s a problem with that. While it is true that God does infuse a certain amount of righteousness into the believer by the Holy Spirit, the work of the Spirit is an on-
Under the “infused righteousness” theory no one ever knows what level of righteousness he or she has obtained. Nor indeed do they know if they have satisfied the level of righteousness which God requires. Anyone living under this system of thought has to continually ask himself or herself whether or not they have enough righteousness in their account. Have they fully met God’s demands and standards of righteousness?
No one living like this could ever come to an assurance of faith. After all they would have to ask themselves whether or not they have a level of righteousness which is acceptable in heaven. Every time they sin they surely would feel some measure of subtraction from the reservoir of righteousness which they hoped they had been building.
STRAW MEN AND CONFUSED GEESE!
Someone else then says OK I know I don’t have righteousness in terms of character but God has given me a most wonderful experience therefore I must be justified and accepted by Him-
That is just another straw man!
I once talked to a lady who told me she had had a vision and had given a prophecy and therefore she must, she said, be saved. God, she reasoned, would not speak through an unsaved person so her salvation must be intact. The poor thing was as confused as a goose in a snowstorm. At the back of it all she did not know whether her vision was genuine enough or her prophesy pure enough. She was building her Christian life on sinking sand.
All Christians believe the Lord is coming back again. Let me pause for a moment and ask you if He came back right now would He be coming back for you? If you answer yes then let me ask you what’s the basis for your assurance? I’ve had people tell me “Oh I know He is coming back for me for I’ve had a most wonderful experience of God and my life really changed” That’s all well and good, but was the experience intense enough and was your change profound enough? Also have you ever lapsed back into some, not all, but just one or two of your old sins?
All Christians believe the Lord is coming back again. Let me pause for a moment and ask you if He came back right now would He be coming back for you? If you answer yes then let me ask you what’s the basis for your assurance? I’ve had people tell me “Oh I know He is coming back for me for I’ve had a most wonderful experience of God and my life really changed” That’s all well and good, but was the experience intense enough and was your change profound enough? Also have you ever lapsed back into some, not all, but just one or two of your old sins?
GOOSE BUMPS UPON GOOSE BUMPS
“But you don’t realize what you are talking about” someone says “You see one night I raised my hand at a meeting, I cried and got goose bumps” Yes but did you cry enough? Anyway how many buckets of tears is God requiring nowadays-is it a quarter of a bucket or a half a bucket? Did your experience meet God’s standard?
Someone else suggests that if they will work hard enough for God and sacrifice and suffer enough then they will be accepted in heaven.
Apart from the fact that the scripture clearly states that, “by the deeds of the law no one will be justified” Rom 3:20. Working, sacrificing or suffering can never give you a righteousness which will fit you out for heaven. Ask yourself have you done enough, have you sacrificed enough and suffered enough? Can your deeds reverse God’s verdict? The answer is obviously no.
Someone else suggests that if they will work hard enough for God and sacrifice and suffer enough then they will be accepted in heaven.
Apart from the fact that the scripture clearly states that, “by the deeds of the law no one will be justified” Rom 3:20. Working, sacrificing or suffering can never give you a righteousness which will fit you out for heaven. Ask yourself have you done enough, have you sacrificed enough and suffered enough? Can your deeds reverse God’s verdict? The answer is obviously no.
What is the solution?
If experience won’t reverse God’s verdict and works won’t alter it and infused righteousness is not enough how can we, as guilty sinners, ever be accepted in heaven? Will God just look out of the sky like some big Santa Claus and say - “Ach, he is not so bad and she- well she is making her effort”? God can’t do that!! He is inseparably bound to His own law. God has to be true to His own character. There is no way for Him to pretend that sin just didn’t happen. What then is God going to do?
God’s Answer -The Lord Jesus Christ
Earlier we said that the conflict between Justice and Love was in God and therefore had to be solved in and by God. Justice called for the death penalty while Love called for mercy. Now here is a divine fact which can’t happen in a human courtroom. A man comes into God’s court - he is a lawbreaker, He is guilty. He has to pay. But God takes the sin of the man and charges it to another but this other man has no sin of his own. This is good news, especially for the condemned sinner, for this is exactly what God has done for us. God has taken our sin and placed it on to Christ Jesus and punished Him as if He was us ----but that is only half of the story. God then takes all of Christ’s righteousness and places it on us. Listen to God’s word,
“For God hath made him (Jesus Christ) to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”(2 Cor. 5:21).
Christ was treated as a hell deserving sinner as He hung upon the cross. He received our verdict and we receive His. This is indeed very good news. Our verdict is reversed because of one man. This one man, Christ Jesus, is now our only hope and all our hope. This is why God can say in Romans 4:5 that He “justifies the ungodly” We don’t have to water it down and say He justifies or declares not guilty those who are not so bad or those who try very hard. No, He justifies the ungodly - that is radical - but it is good news--especially for the ungodly.
Outside of and apart from us!
In the same way, as our condemnation took place outside of ourselves so our justification also takes place outside of us. One man’s work got us into trouble while another man’s work got us out. I can not overstress that our salvation was accomplished outside of and apart from us. Just as we weren’t there when Adam got us into trouble, neither were we there when Christ got us out.
Not there!!! Well that’s almost true. We were there in the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned: There by representation. Old Adam stood and represented us. We were reckoned as being in him, as Father of the race, when he rebelled. When he sinned we sinned. When he was separated from God we were also separated. “But that’s not fair” says someone “this all happened apart from me”. Yes but consider this, we were not there, except by representation, when the “Last Adam” Jesus Christ went to the cross. When He died, He died as our representative. When He lived He lived as our representative. He accomplished our redemption outside of and apart from us. (see Rom.5:12-19)
The big issue for us to face is whether we are “in Adam” or “in Christ”. In Christ we receive a new verdict and the Father declares us to be not guilty.
Not there!!! Well that’s almost true. We were there in the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned: There by representation. Old Adam stood and represented us. We were reckoned as being in him, as Father of the race, when he rebelled. When he sinned we sinned. When he was separated from God we were also separated. “But that’s not fair” says someone “this all happened apart from me”. Yes but consider this, we were not there, except by representation, when the “Last Adam” Jesus Christ went to the cross. When He died, He died as our representative. When He lived He lived as our representative. He accomplished our redemption outside of and apart from us. (see Rom.5:12-
The big issue for us to face is whether we are “in Adam” or “in Christ”. In Christ we receive a new verdict and the Father declares us to be not guilty.
Which Brings us to Faith!
Faith enables us to receive our new verdict and our position in Christ. One of the great problems with many of us is that we lack faith. We are, as one preacher said - unbelieving believers. We believe our doubts and doubt our beliefs.
Genuine faith, however, will lay hold of the fact that all our sins have been given to the Lord Jesus Christ and that all His righteousness has been reckoned to us.
Genuine faith, however, will lay hold of the fact that all our sins have been given to the Lord Jesus Christ and that all His righteousness has been reckoned to us.