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
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