1. Free to Change
2. Freedom and Responsibility
3. My Kind of People
4. "Come Out And Be Separate"
5. Private Intepretation
6. A "Monkey-Wrench" Scripture
7. The Truth That Frees
8. Literary Devices
9. Fear of God
10. A Love Story
11. The Three Trees In Eden
12. Imputed Righteousness
13. Different Essentials For Different People
14. God's Sons In All Ages
15. Looking To Lust
16. Divorce Her!
17. "While Her Husband Is Alive"
18. "They Won't Let Me Preach!"
19. God's Perplexing Prophets
20. Religous Titles
21. Who Sinned?
22. "I'll Join Your Church"
23. The Church As The Route To Heaven
24. One Hundred Years Old
25. Can Our Churches Unite?
26. Can The Cause Of Sickness Be The Cure?
27. When Life Begins
28. Abortion: Law Or Principle?
29. Human Chattel
30. The Hope of Israel
31. The Great Temptation of Jesus
32. The Rich Man And Lazarus
33. My Hermeneutic
34. Is Immersion Proved By Example?
35. Who Gets The Credit?
36. Hook's Points
37. Heresy
38. I Am A Debtor

Other Books at Freedom's Ring

A lady once quipped to me that she had heard so many sermons about the Ethiopian eunuch that she felt personally acquainted with him. Perhaps, you feel the same way about the Rich Young Ruler. But have you heard the revised version of the account about him? Let me tell you about it.

He was such an admirable person who seemed to have everything going in his favor, for he was young, wealthy, a ruler, upright, sincere, God-fearing, respectful, and eager for self-improvement. He must have been handsome, too! Have you ever known a nicer person? Without regard for the dignity of his position, he ran to Jesus and knelt before him inquiring, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"

You may remember that Jesus was disappointed with the response of this loveable inquirer. At what point in the interview was Jesus disappointed? My revised version may offer you something different to consider.

That sincere young man was not asking Jesus for eternal life, but he was wanting to know what good deed he could do to gain that life. Jesus recognized in him the heart of the achiever___the do-it-yourself religion of the Pharisee. Jesus' answer should have brought him to a proper sense of perspective: "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." But, as Jesus began to enumerate the Ten Commandments, the young man interrupted, "Teacher, all these have I observed from my youth; what do I still lack?"

Generally, we have praised the young man for his keeping of all the commandments and for his desire to go beyond perfect law-keeping into meritorious philanthropy. Jesus' answer should have broken through the youth's facade of achieved righteousness so that he would have responded despairingly, "But, Teacher, you know that I cannot keep all the commandments perfectly! Besides, you know that law cannot give life!" Then Jesus could have reassured him with, "Believe on me and I will give you eternal life!" Or, as he offered to the Samaritan woman, "Ask me for living water; the water that I shall give you will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

"Now that I am such an exemplary law-keeper," the young man seems to be saying, "what good deed of achievement do I lack?" So, Jesus seems to be answering him, "All right, since you are going the route of achievement, I am challenging you to go all the way: sell all that you have and give it to the poor and follow me as an itinerant preacher!" Instead of the young man recognizing the futility of his effort toward achieved righteousness, he only saw that he was beaten in his own game. So, he walked away in sadness. He failed his own challenge which Jesus threw back to him. We, like Jesus, love him for his goodness and are saddened to see him leave, being so rich, yet so poor.

While our attention is given to Jesus' teaching concerning the peril in the acquiring of riches in this text, it must not be diverted from the real lesson about justification (or righteousness) which the Rich Young Ruler inquired about.

When the disciples inquired in puzzlement, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus replied, "With men this is impossible." This nobleman, this most nearly perfect of human beings could not save himself through his sincerest effort of good works and obedience of law, and he lost the joy of his religion when he realized that he could not. He walked away with saddened countenance instead of waiting to hear the good news of grace that "with God all things are possible!" God can save the imperfect man, knowing that he will always be imperfect and undeserving.

In our sermonizing on this narrative, we have generally emphasized our disappointment that this young man was unwilling to give all that he had to the poor; yet, we do not make that a requirement for the rest of us. Jesus never set the impoverishing of ourselves as a prerequisite of salvation, but he was trying to make this works-oriented man see the folly of depending upon what he could accomplish. With man___even this most nearly perfect man with much wealth___it is impossible. Jesus probed, "What could a man offer to buy back his soul once he had lost it?" (Matt. 16:26; J. B. Phillips). If a person owned the whole world, he could not redeem his soul with its treasures or by the use of them. After receiving the gift of life from Jesus, however, the rich man would still have had his riches to use in expressing his love and gratitude to both God and man.

In our generation, many disciples have turned away with saddened countenances because they have felt that they could never measure up. Many others have continued to bear the burden of a "demand" religion as they doggedly try to perform all the good works. They, like the young ruler, are never sure that they are doing enough. They lose the joy of their relationship with Christ.

But, praise the Lord, others of us are accepting imputed righteousness as a gift. Being free of the oppressive yoke of legal demands, they no longer feel compelled to prove themselves to be good enough to be saved or to do deeds of philanthropy sufficient to gain his favor. In their sanctified lives, they use his gifts to show their love and gratitude by serving God and their fellow man. It is a life of security, joy, and happiness.

The old version pictures efforts of achieved righteousness; the revised version illustrates the good news of the grace of God. While our disappointment has focused on the man's unwillingness to sell his possessions for the poor, surely Jesus must have been disappointed with the very first words of the Rich Young Ruler when he asked, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Compare: Matt. 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27; Luke 18:18-17.)

The inability of this most nearly perfect of men to merit eternal life through his good deeds and law-keeping emphasizes the plight of all mankind. We have used this account to introduce a study which is intended to reveal that our only claim to righteousness is through a gift rather than through any hope based on infused, achieved, or accomplished righteousness.

Key Words

Our desire is to treat this subject as simply and understandably as we can while making no claim of an exhaustive coverage of it. Since it is being written for the ordinary learner rather than the critical scholar, we hope to avoid boggling technicalities (as though I were capable of such). We must have some common understanding of a few key words which will be used.

That which is just, or that person who is just, conforms to a standard of correctness, is morally right or good, or is legally right. Although a person may develop these qualities to such a degree as to be called a just man, he cannot be totally just and must account for what he lacks. He violates the bounds of rightness and is in need of justification. To justify is to establish as just by acquittal from guilt. Justification is that state of acquittal which declares one as being right. Some have simplified the meaning of justification to be "just-as-if-I'd-never-sinned."

A person who is right, or just, is righteous, whose state is righteousness. The original spelling of rightwiseness illuminates the meaning. Some persons have been described as righteous (just), and all disciples are called upon to be righteous, but human imperfection is always considered in so doing. The purpose of this writing is to show how that a person who has failed to be perfectly righteous (which includes all of us) can be set right with God while it is impossible for him ever to be totally right of himself.

Although forgiveness, remission of sins, salvation, redemption, and eternal life are not synonyms of justification and righteousness, we closely relate the terms. We are justified and considered righteous because of Christ's redeeming us, forgiving us, and remitting our sins, thus saving us to eternal life.

To impute is to reckon, to count, to account, to credit to the account, or to credit by transferal. Imputed righteousness is in contrast to the thought of accomplished, merited, or infused righteousness. To infuse implies a pouring in of something that gives new life or significance.

None Is Righteous

In the first five chapters of his letter to the Romans, Paul deals with the matter of justification. You are urged to read those chapters. All quotations in this study will be from Romans unless otherwise noted, and they will be from the Revised Standard Version unless specified differently.

Paul expressed his eagerness to proclaim the gospel among the Romans and to the rest of the Gentiles (all non-Jews) for "it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, 'He who through faith is righteous shall live'" (1:15-17). God's dealing with man in Old Testament times in his effort to save men from their own evils and the evils around them was spoken of as the righteousness of God. Paul is saying that the righteousness of God is now revealed in the gospel. From this point Paul explains how a righteous God can forgive unrighteous man without compromising his integrity or demanding impossible perfection of man.

It is a dark picture that Paul begins to paint (1:18f). Although all men should have recognized enough of the nature of God to cause them to honor him, they had refused to have him in their knowledge or had disgraced his divinity by pagan concepts of God. Abandoning all inherent morality, they had degraded themselves. They were of such moral perversity that a written code of law would have been ineffective; so, God gave them up to follow their course of abandoned living. Man was without excuse, for he refused to recognize the Creator revealed through the created world. Even though man might have no written code of law from God, he shows through his conscience that what the law requires is written in his heart (2:15). Since no one could claim a clear conscience either in giving due reverence to God or in all his dealings with his fellowman, none could have a claim to righteousness.

The Jews felt that they had a better claim to righteousness because God had made a special covenant with them and had given them a code of law by which to measure their conduct. Because of God's special provision for them, the Jews were inclined to trust that this made them right before God. They looked upon themselves as the spiritual leaders of the world while they also dishonored God and broke his laws; however, the law-breaking Jew was in no favored position over the Gentile who failed to keep the law written on his heart (2:17-29).

Paul paints with a broad brush in dark colors as he reveals his shocking conclusion (3:9-18): "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written:
'None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands, no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside, together they have
gone wrong;
no one does good, not even one.'
'Their throat is an open grave,
they use their tongues to deceive.'
'The venom of asps is under their lips.'
'Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.'
'Their feet are swift to shed blood,
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace thy do not know.'
'There is no fear of God before their eyes.'"

Unbelievable! None is righteous, no, not one! But do not despair: "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested" (3:21). God has made it possible for sinful man to be set right with him!

Good News!

This is good news for all mankind. Tell us about it, Paul. With eagerness we read his announcement (3:21-16): "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus."

How may we gain this justification? If it is to be attained through the keeping of law, then we are still hopeless, for the Jew could not keep his written law nor the Gentile his unwritten law. And what could a new law achieve that those laws failed to accomplish? Nothing, for man cannot keep law perfectly, and besides, law can neither make one righteous nor give life. If a person should keep law perfectly, he would only be maintaining original innocence by avoiding infraction rather than producing righteousness within by his law-keerping. Law offers no remedy for infraction, neither can it give life.

Law has no power to save. John assures us that all of us sin (1 John 1:8f). James adds, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10). If we keep 99% of the law but fail in the remaining one percent, we are back to zero! So it is all by grace! If one is to be saved, it must be totally by grace. One cannot be saved partly by law-keeping and partly by grace. If grace saves only to the extent that one is able to keep law, then none can be saved! If one could keep all the law, he would need no grace. To the one who fails in his efforts to keep perfectly a supposed legal system, the traditional exhortation of the legalist is for him to try harder. While giving lip-service to grace, the legalist frustrates disciples by urging that they must attain it by keeping all of what they interpret as a code of law, or by making some sort of a passing score, indefinite as that may be. Claim of justification by law-keeping was "another gospel" of Galatians 1:6-9. Any effort to be justified by legal means is a falling away from grace (Gal. 5:4). Grace is not a quality of law.

Let us examine this text further to find exciting answers to our needs. How can God overlook my sins without compromising his divine holiness by sanctioning sin? It is "through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood..." (3:24f). In another place Paul explains, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). It was the substitution of a sinless One for the sinner. He took the place of the sinner, bearing the sentence of death for us. The law and the prophets bore witness of this in that the animal offered under that system was a substitute for the guilty person, bearing his sin, and foreshadowing the true substitute and sin-bearer, Jesus.

How is that benefit appropriated to me, a sinner? I have already failed the achievement test. He gives me that benefit freely! "They are justified by his grace as a gift!" (3:24). Grace is unmerited favor, a gift. It is by grace. It is "the free gift of righteousness" (5:17).

On what basis is the gift distributed? The gift is not given on the condition of keeping law: "For no human being will be justified in his sight by works of the law, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law.." (3:20f). "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of works? No, but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (3:27f).

Is the gift received because of our works? If so, our cause would be hopeless still, for "None is righteous, not even one" (3:10). It is "to be received by faith" (3:25). Both the law and the prophets bear witness to "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe" (3:22). In another setting, Paul declares emphatically, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God___not because of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8f).

Justification is not dependent upon the correct understanding of all the doctrinal matters relating to it. No one can boast of having acquired full understanding. Grace is received through faith, and one may know enough to produce faith in Jesus while having limited knowledge of the Scriptures.

Imputed Righteousness

Paul explains to us how faith appropriates the grace of God without our working for it. Unworthy as we are, "since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (4:23-25). To expiate is to atone for, to pay the penalty for, or to cover, as propitiate would also express. Justice would demand that we redeem ourselves, to expiate our guilt, or make propitiation. God knows that we cannot do that; so he gave his son in our place. He will accept our faith in his son as though it were a sufficient expiation. He reckons, accounts, credits, or imputes Christ's expiation to us on the basis of our faith. This faith is more than mental assent to stated facts. Belief involves choice and action. It motivates a person to decide to devote his life to Christ.

It is not that we can have mental energy of faith sufficient to save ourselves, but it is having faith that causes us to identify with him. Jesus identified himself with all sinners when he was baptized in a baptism intended "for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4-11), when he paid the penalty for all sinners on the cross, when he was buried, and when he arose from the dead. Our faith leads us to identify with him who took our place: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life?" (6:3f)

From my human viewpoint, justification by faith is the recognition of my true self in Christ and my identification with him in both will and relationship. "For me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). I am relieved of facing the penalty for my own sins. "And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him" (Heb. 9:27f). Jesus, identifying with sinful man, met our appointment of death and judgment and will return to receive those who have identified with him through faith.

In Chapter 4, Paul uses the Jewish forefather, Abraham, as an example of imputed righteousness on the basis of faith. Eleven times in the Revised Standard Version he uses the word reckoned in this chapter. Please read the entire chapter to see the emphasis that Paul makes concerning imputed, or reckoned, righteousness. "For if Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness'" (4:2f). This has universal application. Since God cannot exact wages or atonement from man by which he would earn the benefit, he justifies the guilty by accepting his faith as though it were meritorious. David also pronounces a blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works (4:6).

The Jews might object that Abraham, the father of their race, was righteous because he was in covenant relationship with God, but Paul affirms that righteousness was imputed to him because of his faith before his circumcision and covenant relationship. His circumcision was a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised (4:9-12). His righteousness was not attained through keeping of the law for Abraham lived long before the law was given. The promise to Abraham and his descendents did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith (4:13). "But the words, 'it was reckoned to him,' were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (4:23-25). That is good news for us today! God will impute justification, or righteousness, to the believing sinner, accounting him as though he were without sin!

In order to better understand the difference between imputed, infused, and accomplished righteousness, please consider these questions very carefully. Does God justify a man by accounting him as innocent, or by making him innocent? Is a man justified by the crediting of his account with Christ's perfection, or by having Christ's perfection put into his heart? Does God account us as regenerated because of our faith and commitment, or are we justified by a renovation of the heart produced by an act of God? Does God accept us while we are sinners by accounting Jesus' goodness to us, or must he pour, or infuse, Christ's goodness into us to change us into persons pleasing to him before he accepts us?

The choice of the latter part of each of those questions attributes a sacramental element to the conversion process, including baptism through which as person, supposedly, is made clean, holy, and regenerated. It calls for justification by God's work of grace in man rather than justification by God's work of grace in Christ. This choice calls for infused righteousness through which righteousness is actually accomplished, or achieved, in the individual rather than imputed righteousness where the sinner is accounted as though he were sinless. This is a part of the concept of works salvation in which a person must cease being a sinner before he is justified, instead of the sinner being justified by faith. Belief in infused and accomplished righteousness has fostered erroneous concepts concerning the new birth and baptismal regeneration.

In the new birth, does a person actually become a new being, or is the concept of a new birth a literary device describing the change affected in the life of a convert to Christ? Metaphors are only one of the many literary devices used in Scripture. A metaphor is a figure of speech where a word literally denoting one idea is used in place of another to suggest likeness or analogy between them, like Jesus saying that he was a door, a vine, or a shepherd. So, an abrupt, sanctifying change of life is spoken of as a new birth. The change initiated by faith is like a person putting off one life and putting on another. An old identity is repudiated, and a new one is established with Christ___involving new desires, aims, goals, and purposes.

Failure to recognize this may allow our inherited sacramental concepts to mix with thoughts of achieved righteousness to cloud our vision. According to the system of the sacraments, when certain prescribed rites or ceremonies are performed, grace is infused into the soul and, by this means, God makes us pure and righteous and the kind of person he wants us to be. This calls for infused and achieved, or accomplished, righteousness rather than the sinner being accounted as righteous when he can never be anything but a sinner. The one concept is that of baptismal regeneration___a change worked in the individual through a sacramental ritual to make him acceptable. The other concept is that of justification on the basis of faith, in which imputed justification is metaphorically termed as a regeneration or new birth. This subject is dealt with more fully in Chapter 3 of my third book, Free As Sons. Various segments of this essay are copied from my other book.

Righteous Living

Are morality, good works, and rituals of worship necessary for justification? No, for they have no merit to justify, but these are fruits of sanctification in a response to our justification. We are justified, then sanctified. Sanctification is our separation to God and the life of holiness in relationship with him. This separation is attributed to the agency of God (1 Thes. 5:23), the Spirit (Rom. 15:16), Christ (Eph. 5:26), the truth (John 17:17), the blood of the covenant (Heb. 12:14), and the will of God (Heb. 10:10; yet, sanctification, or holiness, cannot be transferred or imputed. Holy living is the obligation of the one who is separated in Christ; yet, the saint will never attain sinless perfection. Many references call for us to be righteous, but no one can live so as to deserve forgiveness or to rise above the need of it.

To be sanctified is to be separated, set apart, made holy. Without this holiness, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Peter emphasizes this saintliness in us, exhorting, "..as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (1 Peter 1:15f). Many other references call for us to lead saintly lives; yet, we cannot be holy enough to merit justification. That can only be accounted to us.

Our sanctification is the committing of our lives in an effort to conform to the will of God. It begins when we obey the gospel. One is as justified as he will ever be at that time, but he should grow in sanctification toward more maturity in knowledge, understanding, and conduct. One can never reach perfection, but he is perfected in his justification while walking in the light. If spiritual immaturity necessarily prevents our salvation, then none can be saved. None can merit such an award.

Is this a once-for-all-time justification? Yes, it is provided; we only have to claim it. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). This is not supporting the teaching of the impossibility of apostasy nor giving license to sin. Those who are sanctified are perfected as far as the guilt of sin is concerned for they are walking in the light, sanctified in fellowship with Christ. In 1 John 1:7f-2:2, John assures us that "if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." The one sacrifice is still effective, cleansing our sins of weakness and ignorance. This perfection is not in us, for "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." By this means God can be faithful to his promises, to his covenant, and to his nature of justice and holiness while accounting us sinners as righteous. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Then, John urges us not to sin, but he assures us that, if we do sin, we still have the one who stands in our place and that his expiation of our sins is still effective. This is a great consolation; it allows us to realize that the perfection is in the sacrifice instead of ourselves.

God imputes perfection to those who are sanctified and gives us many encouraging promises. He will not let Satan overpower us. He urges us to exercise ourselves in activities which will give spiritual strength. Through his teachings, commands, exhortations, and promises, he urges our continued consecration. He cherishes our fellowship and wants to glorify us with himself.

The blood continues to cleanse the ignorant and stumbling disciple as he walks in the light, but he can abandon that walk and renounce the source of justification. If unbelief rules his heart, it cannot be reckoned for righteousness, nor can he be justified by faith. "Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:12f). The believer can change his mind, become an unbeliever, and harden himself against any further positive response.

If a person renounces Christ and hardens himself beyond any approach, then he is no longer saved. "For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt" (Heb. 6:4-6). This is not being said of the sincere disciple who is wrestling with doubts and weaknesses, but it is speaking of one who has known and experienced what Christ has to give and then knowingly and willingly renounces it.

That same thought prevails in these words: "For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. A man who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the man who has spurned the Son of God, and profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:26-29). The basis for justification and sanctification is rejected; there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. This apostate must pay his own debt for his sins in hell. For this person, it will be "a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (v.31) who must exact the penalty for sin in order to remain holy.

This fear does not rule in the heart of one who is walking in the light, however, for his heart is ruled by the peace and comfort of fellowship with God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and all other believers. "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God" (5:1f).

The service of our dedicated life is in loving God and man. Assemblies and the activities in them are for our upbuilding so that we will continue in faith. There are no rituals to sanctify us, no quotas to prove our consecration, no level of Bible knowledge to make our grade of holiness, and no program of work through which to achieve worthiness. Our love for one another will lead us to conduct ourselves in moral uprightness, and our love for God will constrain us to make him Lord of our lives. None of this sanctification, however, will be an effort to gain justification. That was reckoned to our account as a gift because of our faith. We are first justified, then sanctified. Sanctification simply keeps us walking in the light so that we will not forfeit our justification.

Cause For Endless Praise

Belief in achieved or accomplished righteousness put the rich young ruler under pressure and uncertainty. He could not bring himself to admit that he was failing to keep all laws perfectly, yet he was fearful that he lacked something still. Such a belief makes us reluctant to admit that we are sinners.

Paul, like the young man, had accomplished much that gave him cause to feel confident (Phil. 3:4-12): "Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless."

Paul gave up all claims that gave him self-confidence so that he might claim his confidence in Christ. Counting all fleshly accomplishment and status as garbage, he no longer claimed a righteousness of his own. He continues: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection of the dead."

Trusting now in imputed righteousness, he could say, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus made me his own." No longer protecting a facade of accomplished righteousness, he could write, "..Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners.." (1 Tim. 1:15). This saintly man could admit that he was still an undeserving sinner whom God reckoned as sinless because of his faith in Christ. "And I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life."

In grateful appreciation for God's wonderful provision, we may all join Paul in his doxology: "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."