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Meaning and reality of being justified by faith (Romans 3:25-31)
Ephesians 2:6 "And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (now)
In the Bible, the right hand of God is not a seat, but a place that God justifies.
It means that the Lord led us to enter the dimension. It's amazing.
He also says, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Therefore, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is very important.
Becoming one with Jesus Christ and believing that I am sitting together where Jesus Christ sits is the faith that believes in the promise of the Bible.
We did not enter into it by believing, but by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, no, as was already predestined in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world, we who were born in Adam in trespasses and sins and had no choice but to die were transferred from death to life through the death and resurrection of the Lord, he testified to the word of truth and let the light shine so that people could understand and believe, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 1:13)
So, we have faith in Christ through the prevenient work of the Holy Spirit and the accompanying work of Holy Spirit.
Q. By what kind of faith are we justified?
“Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that past, through the forbearance of God.” (Romans 3:25)
A. It is ‘faith in his blood.’ (KJV)
Did Jesus say to to drink this cup? He said to drink this blood?
He says it's a cup. As the covenant, the cup means that the Lord and us have become one.
When God say that he is the a propitiation offering , it means the cup of propitiation.
God gave us the cup of propitiation through Jesus Christ, and we drank from the cup with faith in his blood, and the life of Jesus became one with us.
This is the cup of the covenant. It is the cup of promise.
The Spirit, the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (1 John 5:8)
Being born again of the Spirit and the water, and becoming one with the Lord in the cup of the life, that is, in the cup of the blood of Jesus Christ, this is eternal life.
By drinking this cup of the life, we obtain the image of God by the life.
So, it is said that He made the cup of propitiation through faith in his blood.
There is life in the blood. (Lev 17:11)
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have become one body with the risen Christ through participation in his blood.
He overlooks the sins committed through faith in this and gains righteousness.
However, there are many people who think of the blood of Christ in a fragmentary or two-dimensional way.
They are saying they believe in the blood of the prophet shed on the cross.
But we have not seen the blood shed on the cross, and it does not exist now.
However, true faith is to believe and participate in what Jesus Christ did.
We does not look at him from a distance.
We not only believes in the grace of redemption he accomplished for us, but also hears it, believes it, and follows it, so we participates in him.
The Bible sets our place, and the Holy Spirit, according to our faith, unites us into the place the Bible says.
“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believe in Jesus.” (Romans 3:26)
That is, at this time, at the time when he worked in earnest after clearing away the previous sins, in other words, in the dark night when all Israel who followed the law were destroyed.
Those who believe in Jesus, who have received the resurrection and life in Jesus Christ, are justified.
Look carefully at Acts 16:31.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house.”
Is it important to believe in Jesus? Is it important to believe in Jesus as Lord?
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The version of the King James Bible is Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you tell me to believe in Jesus, just believe that he is the Son of God and the savior, but to believe in Jesus as my Lord, we absolutely need the procedures, methods, and processes that Peter preached.
Without the process of repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sins, and receiving the Holy Spirit as a gift (Acts 2:38), no one can believe in Jesus as Lord. (1 Corinthians 12:3)
Q. Why can't we boast of our deeds?
“Therefore, where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works?, but by the law of faith” (Romans 3:27)
A. Faith in Romans is the opposite of works.
Therefore, boasting about being justified must be cast out.
Because it is not works that make you righteous, but the law of faith.
The law here refers to the principle that becomes so.
It's like adults saying 'that's how it works'.
Apart from the law of faith, there is no principle to be justified, and no works are necessary.
He says that it is the law of faith because faith is the opposite concept of works in the sense of accepting the word that you will be justified if you believe only by hearing the word of promise fulfilled by God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28)
It means that a person is justified by faith.
Then we will be asked if it is okay to do nothing.
For example, just as all machines turn on when an electric switch is turned on in a factory, people with life cannot stand still in response to that belief.
If you become a branch attached to the vine, you will inevitably bear fruit. (John 15)
If there is no fruit on the branch attached to the vine, that branch has a problem.
The ability to share life with others by being connected to God through Christ. This ability must first be enriched by oneself.
However, as long as we are connected to Christ, we can bring others to life because faith leads to faith and the fullness of the One who fills all things works in us. Hallelujah!
Q. Are we, Gentiles without the law, also justified by faith?
“Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” (Romans 3:29)
A. If the law and the temple are the conditions for justification, we, the Gentiles, have nothing to do with salvation.
However, since the new covenant, in which we are justified by faith other than the law, which is a cup in the blood of Jesus Christ and gain eternal life, has entered into force, we, the Gentiles, are justified by faith, regardless of the Jews who are in charge of the law and the temple.
Now, rather, the Jews have become an unreached people, standing at the back of the Gentiles' salvation and waiting for their salvation.
They still cover up the redemption of Jesus Christ and the role of the high priest who reconciles with God to the extent that they consider Isaiah 53 as a forbidden book in the Bible.
Of course, God is not only the God of the Jews, but also the God of all nations, peoples, and tribes.
Nevertheless, seeing that there are still preachers who are trying to learn something from the Jews by talking about the Tabernacle or the Talmud, I can't help but sigh.
Of course, like Hebrews, it is natural to explain the function of the tabernacle to explain Christ who became the reality as a shadow, but we should not say that we can meet God through the tabernacle.
As the Lord said, 'Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days' (John 2:19), the effect of the temple has expired and is only displayed in the Bible as the shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the reality. Therefore, those who refer to the building as a temple are a bit serious.
Q. Is there no advantage to the circumcision?
“Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcison by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.” (Romans 3:30)
A. Circumcision or uncircumcision has nothing to do with being justified by faith.
In faith, all flesh is equalized.
70 people went down to Egypt with Jacob.
The Israelites immigrated to Egypt, but all of them are beggars.
Only the Israelites became beggars, and all the Egyptians gained weight.
So God gave them a seven-year drought, and Egypt and Israel became the same beggars.
They sold all of their paddy fields and fields to Pharaoh and became a complete slave.
Not only the Israelites were slaves, but the Egyptians also became slaves.
Circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile, the same condition.
Faith has nothing to do with knowledge, class, or behavior.
Even if these things are a little helpful in testifying the gospel, they are absolutely not helpful in being justified by faith.
Those who are in Adam have no discrimination at all, regardless of East and West, rich and poor. Because they are all the same sinner.
Q. If we are justified by faith, is the law abolished?
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”(Romans 3:31)
A. No. After faith comes in, the law becomes complete.
The fulfillment of the law is love.
We died to the law and went to a new husband, Jesus Christ, and became a new spirit with a new life. (Rom. 7:4)
So, since the law could not hold us back, we were set free from the law.
It's not 'I'm still, but the law is dead'.
The law never passes away (Matthew 5:18)
The law did not pass away, but to the law we died with Christ.
Therefore, if I think of my relationship with God according to the promise made with Christ and me through faith in the Word, his life is supplied and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, strongly holds onto my heart and mind.
This is the life of God in Christ.
After the word comes in, if the word becomes the mix of faith, a spiritual formula like this continues to be established within us.
The works of the law must try to establish itself.
However, faith makes us a temple where the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
For example, the Ark of the Covenant works by itself.
If Jesus Christ is in us, it will be easy to understand if we think that the ark of the Old Testament lives in us.
So the Lord said, 'He that has my commandments, and keep them, he it is that love me: and he that love me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.' (John 14:21)
If you must know the new covenant and keep this new commandment that you are in Christ and Christ is in you and taste the love of the Father and the appearance of the Lord, then you will understand and know the puzzling function of faith and works.
To summarize, faith is not an act, but accepting the word of God.
Then, the word enters into me and becomes a belief, that is, it is embodied, and it is expressed outwardly.
This is what works by living faith.
Those who are under the works of the law have many self-conflicts, but those who are in faith have no self-conflicts.
As much as you believe, you just have to endure it according to the measure of your faith.
You just need to move as much as you can realize and know.
And you can believe and follow as much as you show.
So even though faith cannot be established by the works of the law, the law can be established by faith.
This is because faith fulfills the requirements of the law by allowing us, who cannot walk according to the law due to the weakness of the flesh, to live according to the spirit through the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 8:4)
Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.
Translated by Nancy Chung
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