The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden brought sin and death to us all. We were born into this world, dead in our trespasses and sins, as St. Paul wrote to the believers at Ephesus (Ephesians 2:1ff.). But God provided a remedy for our lost and condemned estate when He sent His Son into the world to fulfill all righteousness and to bear upon the cross the full and just penalty for the sins of all mankind. But how does this salvation provided by God through His Son, Jesus Christ, become our own? How are we saved from our just condemnation?
We learn from God's own Word, the Gospel, that God, for the sake of Jesus Christ's holy life and innocent sufferings and death upon the cross for the sins of the world, extends and offers to us and all people of this world His pardon and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. He reaches out to us in mercy and with forgiveness and offers to us all the blessings Christ won for us, desiring that we simply look to Him in faith.
The Bible tells us that Jesus is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29); and that "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:1,2). It tells us that "all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). It says that "He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will..." (Ephesians 1:6-9). It tells us that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:23-26).
Therefore, we are justified (declared just and righteous) and receive the forgiveness that Christ Jesus earned for all when we believe the Gospel message which makes known to us Christ's atoning sacrifice and offers and gives to us the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting which He earned for all when He suffered and died in our stead and then rose again. God's forgiveness and pardon become our own through faith in the Gospel -- when we trust that God is indeed gracious to us and forgives us all our sins for Christ's sake.
Again, the Bible says, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46-47). It says, "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin'" (Romans 4:5-8); and "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43).
The opening verses of Psalm 32 (verses 1-6) make clear that God forgives the sins of the penitent -- those who acknowledge their sins to the Lord God and look to Him for mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus -- but does not forgive the sins of the impenitent (cf. 1 John 1:7-10; cf. Matthew 16:19; 18:15-18; John 20:23; Mark 4:11-12). We are reconciled to God through the atoning or reconciling sacrifice of Christ through faith in Christ Jesus -- "if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel...." (Colossians 1:23).
Therefore, the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation which Jesus won for all when He suffered and died upon the cross and rose again become our own through faith -- by believing the Word of God which tells us that God pardons and justifies sinners for Jesus' sake.
As we have seen, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ died for all and satisfied God's just wrath against (or made atonement for) the sins of all mankind. And the way the benefits of Christ's redemption and atonement are credited to us and become our own are not by our own works or righteousness under the law, but through faith and trust alone in Christ Jesus and what He has done for us -- His holy life and His innocent sufferings and death in our stead.
Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life ... He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:16,18). And Jesus warned those who did not trust in Him: "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).
The Bible does not teach and we therefore must reject as false the views that God declares sinners just and righteous apart from faith in Christ or that faith itself, as a human work, is the cause of justification instead of the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer and the pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Rogers. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 07/06/2016