Author	Thread: The True Foundation (Romans 3:28)
Admin	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 13 Mar, 2011 08:16 PM Before man can be reconciled to God, before man can know God, this sin of his must be removed. God has said that He will punish sin, and that the punishment of sin is death and banishment from the face of God. This has to be dealt with. And what has happened? Well, says Paul, God has set Him forth as a propitiation. That is the means which God has employed. His being the propitiation for our sins means that God has made Him responsible for our sins. They have been placed upon Him and God has dealt with them and punished them there, and therefore because He has punished our sins in Christ, in His body upon the Cross, He can justly forgive us. You see this is high doctrine. It is a daring thing for the Apostle to say, but it has to be said and I repeat it. God, because he is righteous and holy and eternal, could not forgive the sin of man without punishing it. He said He would punish it, so He must punish it, and, blessed be His name, He has punished it. He is just, therefore, and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus. The sin has been punished, so God, Who is just and righteous, can forgive sin. How then does it work? It works like this. God accepts this righteousness of Christ, this perfect righteousness face to face with the Law which He honoured in every respect. He has kept it and given obedience to it, He has borne its penalty. The Law is fully satisfied. God's way of salvation. says Paul, is that He gives to us the righteousness of Christ. If we have seen our need and go to God and confess it, God will give us His own Son's righteousness. He imputes Christ's righteousness to us who believe in Him, and regards us as righteous, and declares and pronounces us to be righteous in Him. THAT, is the way of salvation, the Christian way of salvation, the way of salvation through justification by faith. So that it comes to this. That I see and I believe and I look to nothing and to no one except to the Lord Jesus Christ. I like Paul's way of putting it. He asks: 'Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith'. You foolish Jews, says Paul, you are boasting about the fact that you have been circumcised, that you have the oracles of God and that you are God's people. You must cease to do that. You must not rest upon the fact that you have this tradition and that you are children of your forefathers. There is no boasting, you have to rest exclusively upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work. The Jew is not superior to the Gentile in this respect. 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.' We look to Christ, and to Christ alone, and not to ourselves in any respect whatsoever. To make it quite practical let me say that there is a very simple way of testing yourself to know whether you believe that. We betray ourselves by what we say. The Lord Himself said we should be justified by our words, and how true it is. I have often had to deal with this point with people, and I have explained the way of justification by faith and told them how it is all in Christ, and that God puts His righteousness upon us. I have explained it all to them, and then I have said: 'Well, now are you quite happy about it, do you believe that? And they say, 'Yes'. Then I say: 'Well then, you are now ready to say that you are a Christian'. And they hesitate. ANd I know thay have not understood. Then I say: 'What is the matter, why are you hesitating?' And they say: 'I do not feel good enough'. At once I know that in a sense I have been wasting my breath. They are still thinking in terms of themselves; their idea still is that they have to make themselves good enough to be a Christian, good enough to be accepted with Christ. They have to do it! 'I am not good enough.' It sounds very modest, but it is the lie of the devil, it is a denial of the faith. You think that you are being humble. But you will never be good enough; nobody has ever been good enough. The essence of the Christian salvation is to say that HE is good enough, and that I am in Him! As long as you go on thinking about yourself and saying: 'Ah, Yes, I would like to, but I qm not good enough; I am a sinner, a great sinner,' you are denying God and you will never be happy. You will continue to be cast down and disquieted in your soul. You will think you are better at times and then again you will find that you are not as good as you thought you were. You read the lives of the saints and you realize that you are nowhere. So you keep on asking: 'What can I do? I still fell that I am not good enough'. Forget yourself, forget all about yourself. Of course you are not good enough, you never will be good enough. The Christian way of salvation tells you this, that it does not matter what you have been, it does not matter what you have done. How can I put this plainly? I try to say it from the pulpit every Sunday because I think it is the thing that is robbing most people fo the joy of the Lord. It does not matter if you have almost entered the depths of Hell, if you are guilty of murder as well as every other vile sin, it does not matter from the standpoint of being justified with God. You are no more hopeless than the most respectable self-righteous person in the world. Do you believe that? There is another good way of testing yourself. Do you believe that from the stand point of salvation and justification with God that all our customary distinctions are abolished at a stroke and that what determines whether we are sinners or not is not what we have done, but our relationship to God? I say, therefore, that this is the test, that you acknowledge readily and say clearly that you look to Christ and Christ alone and to nothing and no one else, that you stop looking at particular sins and particular people. Look at nothing and nobody but look entirely to Christ and say: 'My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus' name. ON Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.' You must so believe that as to be able to go further and say with holy boldness: 'The terrors of law and of God With me can have nothing to do, My savior's obedience and blood Hide all of my transgressions from view.' Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past. Realize that is has been covered and blotted out in Christ. Never look back at your sins again. Say: 'It is finished, it is covered by the blood of Christ'. That is your first step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. NO! you just begin to say: 'I rest my faith on Him alone Who died for my transgressions to atone.' Take that first step and you will find that immediately you will begin to experience a joy and a release that you have never known in your life before. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Spiritual Depression its causes and its cure In Christ, James Post Reply
flyby View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 13 Mar, 2011 09:27 PM Q: What possible sin could there have been when leaving the garden? A: Bad doctrine! Believe in Jesus Christ and be washed by the blood. Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 13 Mar, 2011 09:34 PM Flyby, what do you mean by your question? Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 13 Mar, 2011 09:45 PM So true, flyby. There's wonder working POWER in the blood of the Lamb. I KNOW Jesus, but I've never heard of the guy who wrote your post, james. Who is D. Martyn Lloyd Jones? or is this author a lady? Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 13 Mar, 2011 10:06 PM This is a responses to my post a couple post earlier Romans 3:27, as you notice this one is titled the true foundation. Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 13 Mar, 2011 10:14 PM Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones Is an author and preacher, and he wrote some great books. I would recommend him highly. Here is his website: http://www.mlj.org.uk/home Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 14 Mar, 2011 09:12 AM The True Foundation....JESUS....:yay:...xo Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 14 Mar, 2011 08:20 PM "When God calls a man, He does not repent of it. God does not, as many friends do, love one day, and hate another; or as princes, who make their subjects favorites, and afterwards throw them into prison. This is the blessedness of a saint; his condition admits of no alteration. God's call is founded upon His decree, and His decree is immutable. Acts of grace cannot be reversed.God blots out His people's sins, but not their names." �Thomas Watson Post Reply
flyby View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 14 Mar, 2011 09:16 PM James, nothing negative, when reading about the sins of man it makes me wonder, if we didn�t have the blinders on from the first sin (bad doctrine=the apple) what it would be like and what we would see as sin. I thinking some people feel really bad and all along they may not even be sinning, yet shy from the Lord think they are guilty of something they may not be guilty of. I had an encounter, a persons spouse committed suicide and it seemed the only way I could comfort her toward the Lord was to explain that he was probably blinded by the original sin out of the garden, and didn�t understand his situation, finally this she excepted and considered calling on the Lord, and I�m confident she did as soon as I left. Needless to say it was a sensitive situation and getting to the root sin seemed to be beneficial in comforting her and also giving here the idea of need of the Lord. Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 15 Mar, 2011 03:25 PM "The Christian way of salvation tells you this, that it does not matter what you have been, it does not matter what you have done. How can I put this plainly? I try to say it from the pulpit every Sunday because I think it is the thing that is robbing most people fo the joy of the Lord. It does not matter if you have almost entered the depths of Hell, if you are guilty of murder as well as every other vile sin, it does not matter from the standpoint of being justified with God. You are no more hopeless than the most respectable self-righteous person in the world. Do you believe that?" Interesting that you would post an article with the above in it, James, being as it contradicts your beliefs. Post Reply
View Profile History	The True Foundation (Romans 3:28) Posted : 15 Mar, 2011 03:39 PM I think you did good Flyby, and I am glad you were there for her. Anytime there is a death it is a sensitive situation. We can't back down from our beliefs, but we have to realize how much people are hurting at that time. In Christ, James Post Reply

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