Justified & Preserved by the Faith of Christ - Part 2
So, do we place our faith in “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” [
Romans 3:24] … or by our performance and best efforts?… the answer appears to be very obvious. If this be true, why would anyone suppose that they continue in a justified position on the ground of self performance [best efforts]?
Some claim that a genuine believer may fall from, or forfeit, their justified position by failing to continue placing their faith in Christ. However, a believer’s faith was never, at any time, the ground of their justification, it was the only appointed means to receive the free gift of salvation …”lest any man should boast.”[
Eph.2:9]. Once a person commits to placing their sole confidence in Christ’s atoning work for their salvation, their nature will undergo a radical transformation at the point of regeneration, resulting in a trusting, or faith, that will never totally or ultimately be extinguished.
2 Timothy 1:12,”For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Philippians 1:6,”Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”
To read the expression ‘pistis Christou’ as a reference to Christ’s faith[fulness] does not detract from the essentialness of the believer’s faith; for everywhere Paul uses the phrase he juxtaposes another expression which unambiguously denotes a human response. However, to read it as the Christian’s belief in Christ [faith in Christ] neglects important Pauline instruction concerning Christ’s redemptive work.
Summary/Key Points :
(1) God’s grace as the source of the believer’s justification.
(2) The nature of justification as a judicial verdict, by which God grants to sinners a new righteous status, on the basis of Christ’s death.
(3) Faith, trust in Christ, as the sole instrument through which God’s grace of justification is received.
I agree with Murray Smith’s [following] perspective on this issue :
“[The points listed above] are all clearly evident in
Romans 3:21-26 [but most certainly not limited to those verses]. Nevertheless, the apostle’s emphasis in this crucial paragraph is first theological and Christo-centric : he affirms, first and foremost, that the gospel reveals and vindicates God’s own righteousness, manifested in Christ’s trusting obedience to the Father, even to the point of death, and that this work of Christ provides the only ground for the justification of all who believe.
Indeed, far from posing a threat to the long-cherished Reformed doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, this understanding of Paul’s argument in Romans 3 provides it with deeper roots. For if the gospel reveals God’s own righteousness, it reveals nothing less than God’s commitment to act in accordance with his own name, the name which declares that he is ‘the Lord, the Lord, gracious and compassionate, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’. On this reading, Paul’s affirmation that justification comes from God’s free grace is not limited to the brief statement in
Romans 3:24 [‘by his grace as a gift’], but deeply anchored in the very name of God.
In the same way, if the gospel reveals that God’s righteousness has been manifested in Christ’s faith/fulness, ‘the blood’ which provides the ground for the sinner’s justification is no arbitrary sacrifice, but the culmination of the perfect trusting obedience of the true Adam, the son of David, whose sacrifice of himself fully satisfies God’s justice precisely because it was the one and only sacrifice offered in perfect faith.”
Read my previous post!
