Faith in Justification

Habakkuk 2:4 “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith."

Holy Scripture tells us again and again that none of us has kept God’s law, commandments and statutes sufficiently enough to be declared “righteous: based on our own obedience.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.”

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way.”

Romans 3:9-11, 23 “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

James 2:10 “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Evangelism Explosion explains how most people know that they’ve sinned. Stating that what they don’t know is the seriousness of that sin. Many times people hear that “All have sinned.”  But they conclude that since sin is something everyone is doing, it can’t be so bad.  And they think “While I’m a sinner, I’m not so bad a sinner that I can’t get to Heaven by being reasonably good.”  Another way they may put it is that, “their good outweighs their bad.”  When you share your faith with someone it’s important for them to understand that God’s standard is perfection and that any sin, even as small as a bad thought (i.e. lust or hate), disqualifies them from Heaven. A good way to explain sin is it’s anything we say, think, do or don’t do that is displeasing to God.  Now, just imagine if someone sinned only three times in a day – one bad thought, one unkind word, one loss of temper about something.  You’d probably think that’s pretty good.  But three sins a day adds up to more than a thousand sins in a year.  Imagine standing before a traffic judge with 1,000 transgressions of the law. And yet, we try to stand before an all Holy God whose standard is perfection. The foundation of people saving themselves by some inherent goodness has to be torn down. Close enough only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades. We are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. At the final judgment, only Christ’s righteousness will preserve us unto eternal life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Scripture is clear: justification is based only on the righteousness of Christ, which is received only when we repent of our sin, renouncing all claims to having met God’s standard and trust only in Jesus Christ for salvation. Faith is the only instrument by which we receive the righteousness of Christ. We can survive God’s judgment and wrath to inherit eternal life only through faith. Those who are righteous on Judgment Day are not righteous through their own works, but only through faith in Jesus Christ; by His righteousness and the finished atoning work at the cross that justifies us.

Blessed in Christ