{"id":3950,"date":"2013-01-03T10:54:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T16:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=3950"},"modified":"2013-01-03T11:03:06","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T17:03:06","slug":"our-hope-in-life-and-death-justification-by-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/our-hope-in-life-and-death-justification-by-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Comfort in Life and Death: Justification by Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

The doctrine of justification by faith was the subject of much of Sunday’s sermon, “The Gospel of Abraham<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Paul wrote in Galatians 3:7, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Just as Abraham “believed\u00c2\u00a0God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” so it is with all those who believe. Our salvation is owing to God’s free gift of righteousness and no work of our own. Even our faith is merely a receiving of this gift, and not a work performed in exchange for God’s favor.<\/p>\n

This doctrine is a comfort for us in death, for sure. We will stand before God, “dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before his throne,” as the old hymn goes.<\/p>\n

But the doctrine of\u00c2\u00a0justification\u00c2\u00a0by faith is a comfort in life as well as it makes possible the assurance that we are safe with God. Here’s how Martin Luther put it:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here’s how this doctrine is expressed as our comfort in life in the song, “Before the Throne,” written by\u00c2\u00a0Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863:<\/p>\n

When Satan tempts me to despair
\nand tells me of the guilt within,
\nupward I look and see Him there,
\nwho made an end to all my sin;
\nBecause the sinless Savior died
\nmy sinful soul is counted free,
\nfor God the just is satisfied
\nto look on Him and pardon me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To explore the doctrine of\u00c2\u00a0justification\u00c2\u00a0by faith further, listen to the audio from Clarus ’09,\u00c2\u00a0Galatians and the Problem of Self Justification<\/a><\/em>, and especially D.A. Carson’s talk,\u00c2\u00a0“Justification\/Righteousness and the Cross of Christ<\/a>.” Then, consider reading,\u00c2\u00a0Justified by Faith Alone<\/a><\/em>, by R.C. Sproul, available on\u00c2\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The doctrine of justification by faith was the subject of much of Sunday’s sermon, “The Gospel of Abraham.”… Continue Reading ›<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3950"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3955,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions\/3955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}