The law is kept in this way: first, God loves us. Then, while we are still ignorant of his love, our disobedience to God begins to unsettle and even frighten the conscience.
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People cannot keep the law of God as long as they have bad hearts—while they operate in their original, sinful nature. They may undertake to practice the law but these will only be lifeless, cold actions.
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Why did the Father send his Son to earth? He did this so that humanity would be redeemed. In other words, Jesus, the long-awaited Savior, came to save us from sin and death...
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“The greatest of these is love.” Therefore, we must keep the whole law, the first commandments as well as the latter. We must not only honor our parents...
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“Let me know how that works out for you,” some friends of mine remark whenever people say they are going to do something considered unlikely or even impossible. It is a sarcastic reply...
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Yes! We ought to keep the commandments. Our hearts urge us to do so, as do the Scriptures. The law is written upon our hearts and should be lived out. As Christians, we ought to be doing a much better job of keeping the law...
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Justification is no idle dream among Christians. The Church stands upon the promise of God in Christ Jesus. Otherwise, we have built the Church on sand. But the Church has built its house on the Rock.
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Faith happens when the heart is prompted by the Holy Spirit to believe that the promise of God is true. By faith, we take hold of the gospel with confident hope, becoming certain that Jesus died for the sin of the world.
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The idea that faith only comes into existence when it is formed by love is contrary to Scripture. Faith comes first, as a free gift of God. Only then do virtues like love begin to develop.
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We often think of Paul’s mysterious “thorn” as a physical affliction. However, if we consider it a spiritual thorn, we may find some profit.
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The bill is overdue. Ignoring it does not help a bit. It looms over you and you know that your service is about to be cut off. In the same way, our sin has put us in debt.
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Jesus was pierced for our “transgressions.” He bore the discipline that was our due, eternal death. Though we strayed, he went willingly to slaughter, knowing that his death would mean our life...
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William Temple said, “If we are traveling heavenward, we are already in heaven.” Our lives have already been transformed in a heavenly way. More than that, we are so assured of eternity...
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The Rymans are a pretty decent bunch of folks. You should have met my grandfather. He was a great man in my book. But salvation is not available to me in the name of Fred Ryman, nor in the name of Ryman—the whole of my lineage.
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Verse 39 of today’s Scripture reads in the English as either justified” or “freed.” The older the translation, the more chance there is that it will read “justified.” It is a legal term...
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If God expected us to save ourselves, we would be condemned before we begin. Even if we were capable of doing enough good moral, civil, and religious works to cancel out our sins, we would still be sinners.
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Having been a devout Jew, a Hebrew among Hebrews and as to the law, a Pharisee (Phil 3:5), the Apostle Paul would never have let a phrase like “faith justifies” slip out unwittingly.
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The key phraseology of Paul is “through faith” or “by faith.” He mentions it 31 times. Not only Paul though, since James and Peter each use the phrase once, and the writer of Hebrews uses it 24 times.
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Our lives come from God. Every good and perfect gift comes to us through the Father. (James 1:17) Well, except salvation and righteousness; we must work for those. No! Heaven forbid!
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Even if you had to do some things in order for the promise of forgiveness to apply to you, how would you know when you had done enough good? At any rate, merit has been taken away from us...
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Melancthon may as well have said that he could quote Paul, Augustine, and the Fathers all day long, but see here! Peter too, and the prophets also, lend support for justification by faith.
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Only the high priest could represent the people before God in the temple. But Jesus, the “great high priest,” represents us before the Father in heaven. We cannot represent ourselves.
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Some people rely on religion as a way to gain peace or go to heaven—or rather, not go to hell. This puts the cart before the horse. Instead, they should be interested in being with God.
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Søren Kierkegaard wrote in Sickness Unto Death that we acquire a new appreciation of ourselves when the self is viewed “directly in the sight of God.” When we see ourselves as God sees us, everything changes.
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It is easy to admit that everyone is a sinner, since we see the evidence in the news, in the lives of those we love, and certainly in our own lives. Scripture also plainly states...
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Imagine a man condemned to spend the rest of his life in prison. One day, the word comes from the jailer that the president has pardoned his offense. It is too good to be true.
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What else do I need to do? Nothing. Christ has done it all. He he has taken unrighteous sinners and assigned his own righteousness to their account.
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Even our currency proclaims Christ alone. “In God we trust.” What is unwritten is that we do not trust in money or what it buys—or who does the buying. Yet when it comes to religion, we want to trust in the things we do, as though they can buy salvation.
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Faith is not ineffectual—or as some insinuate, “pie in the sky.” Faith is a light, life, and force in a person as to renew the heart, mind, and spirit. Faith makes new people of those who believe in Christ
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Saving faith does not happen because one performs the right deeds or recites the correct formula or prayer. Nor does it come about all at once.
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