God Did It, Not Me

In my series on Romans I preached from 3:21-26 (this week was a small bite, Jon) about the doctrine of justification. One of the things that I want our people to grasp is that they are not Christians because they prayed a prayer, went forward at an evangelistic meeting, asked Jesus into their hearts, etc. They are Christians because they believed (had faith, trusted - those are biblical responses) in the Gospel of Christ's death on their behalf, and as a result God declared that they were right with Him.

Maybe it is judgmental to say this, but we evangelicals are not very deep in our understanding of the Gospel. I pointed out that we need to know what salvation is all about for several reasons, one of them being to understand where our security lies. I've heard too many people question their relationship with God on the basis of either not knowing if they "really believed," were "really sincere," or "really understood" when they prayed a prayer, went forward in an evangelistic meeting, etc. How liberating to realize that our standing before God is not based on what we did, but on God's unchanging declaration that we are righteous in His sight on the basis of the sinless life and substitutionary death of Christ, and our faith in that alone!!

I hope that those of you who ministered God's word today were encouraged in your ministry, and that those of you who sat under the ministry of God's word were likewise blessed!