I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech.
When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me.
There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored -- Mrs. Leonard by name. She was short, round, happy -- a sparkling lady.
Annually we had a hearing test. ... Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back--things like "The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?" I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper, "I wish you were my little girl."
Mary Ann Bird was looking for something that everybody wants. She was looking for acceptance. A person needs to be – and to feel – accepted. Otherwise she suffers and lacks happiness. No one wants to be rejected. We all fear rejection. We all seek acceptance. We want the acceptance of our parents, of the church, of our classmates, of the basketball or soccer coach, of our teacher, of the bank. I'll never forget the time I dared to ask a pretty red-haired girl for my first date. When she said "Yes," when she accepted me, I was floating for a week or maybe even a month. We all want to be accepted; none of us wants to suffer rejection.
Deep in the gospel is a word for acceptance. That word is "justification." To say that God justifies us is to say that God accept us. God accepts us because of the atoning self-sacrifice of Jesus. God accepts us because He is a loving Father Who is eager to have His children back in His arms.
This is the acceptance that man craves above and beyond all others. The acceptance that man craves above and beyond all other acceptance is the acceptance of God. Why did Cain and Able both offer a sacrifice to God? They craved God's acceptance. Why did the prophets and priests of Baal shout and dance and slash themselves for six or more hours? They wanted Baal's acceptance. Why did Ananias and Sapphira lay the proceeds of a land sale at the feet of the apostles. They wanted God's acceptance.
Man craves God's acceptance because – deep down – he knows he is unacceptable to God. He knows he is unacceptable to God because of the sin he is born with as well as because of the sin he actually commits.
In Christ, God accept us. That is the Good News of the Gospel for today.
Do you know what you and I must now do? We must now accept our acceptance. Deep in the Gospel is a word for accepting our acceptance. That word is "faith."
I Justification: Our Acceptance
A What happens when God accepts us? First of all, something is taken away from us. That something is sin. Our sin is forgiven, it is covered, it is removed from God's sight. The Confession says the benefits of Christ "are more than enough to absolve us of our sins," it tells us that "our blessedness lies in the forgiveness of our sins," it talks of "redemption in Christ," it mentions that the obedience of Christ crucified "is enough to cover all our sins."
Topic: Sin
Subtopic: Forgiven
Index: 3345
Date: 12/1997.1916
Title: The Magical Liquid of Forgiveness
When type-writers were first invented there was no way to correct typing errors. To send a perfect letter it needed to be retyped.
Then correcting fluid or liquid paper was invented. This magical liquid covered over errors, typos, and unfortunate slip-ups. You brushed on the liquid and simply retyped the word or letter that was wrong. Done rightly it removed all traces that a goof happened.
Then came correcting tape. It too covered over errors and typos and slip-ups.
Today we have the Word Processor. You misspell or type a wrong word or sentence or even paragraph and you can remove it or replace it or rearrange it. Again, all traces of mistakes are totally removed.
The way correcting fluid, correcting tape, and Word Processors cover over and remove all traces of error illustrates what happens to our sin. Our sins are covered, they are removed, so that all traces of them are gone. When God forgives us He can accept us because our sin no longer stands between Him and us as a barrier that divides us from Him.
What happens when God accepts us? Secondly, something is given to us. That something is righteousness. We are given the righteousness of Christ. Says the Confession of Faith:
But Jesus Christ is our righteousness
in making available to us all his merits
and all the holy works he has done
for us and in our place
(Article 22)
What can we say about the righteousness of Jesus? He perfectly loved God and man. He perfectly kept God's law. He was tempted but did not fall. He was angry but did not sin. He hated sin and injustice. He showed compassion to the needy and turned no one away. He spent time with the Father in prayer and in worship. His was and is a perfect righteousness. When God accepts us all of this righteousness of Christ is mysteriously transferred to us and somehow becomes ours.
The Chinese character for "righteousness" is most interesting. It is composed of two separate characters -- one standing for a lamb, the other for me. When "lamb" is placed directly above "me," a new character -- "righteousness" is formed.
This picture reminds us that we are considered righteous not on our own – because we have no righteousness of our own – but only because of Christ. We do not claim "a thing for ourselves or our merits." Instead, we "humble ourselves and recognize ourselves as we are" – people who have nothing to offer. Yet, we unrighteous people are considered to be righteous. Think of it this way. If I look through a piece of red glass, everything is red. If I look through a piece of blue glass, everything is blue. If I look through a piece of yellow glass, everything is yellow, and so on. God looks at us through the Lord Jesus Christ. When He does, He sees in us all the white holiness of His Son.
When God accepts us or justifies us our sins are forgiven and we are considered righteous in His sight.
B Why does God do this? On what basis does He do this? God accepts us because of the obedience of Christ. When I say this it is necessary to distinguish between the passive and active obedience of Christ. We see the passive obedience of Christ in the events leading up to the cross and the grave. Jesus did not resist arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus did not answer the charges laid against Him by the High Priest. Jesus did not defend Himself before Pilate. He was like a sheep before its shearers. He allowed God's plan of salvation to go forward. This passive obedience which led Him to the cross and the grave is the basis for the covering or removing of our sin.
We see the active obedience of Christ in His perfect submission to God's will and God's law. Jesus actively pursued a life of holiness. He spent time with the Father in prayer and in worship. He resisted Satan and temptation. He made every thought captive to God. This active obedience is the basis for our righteousness.
C According to the Confession of Faith our justification, our acceptance, is a single, legal act of God. God accepts us once and it is irreversible, good for all times. It is an unconditional, eternal acceptance. It does not have to happen over and over again every time we sin. Justification covers over all past sins, all present sins, and all future sins as well. The work of Christ "is enough to cover all our sins and to make us confident" in the presence of God. Some maintain that we must be re-justified, we must be reaccepted, after every sin we commit. As Scripture makes clear, justification is a once for all time act, never to be repeated. It is not a continuing process.
(Rom 6:10) The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
(1 Pet 3:18) For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
(Cf Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26; 10:2, 10)
Lots of people don't like asparagus but there is something about asparagus that I consider to be amazing.
Topic: Justification
Subtopic:
Index:
Date: 11/1998.101
Title: Like Asparagus
My father-in-law grows asparagus as a vegetable. He plants it once, and it is good for twenty or thirty years. Every Spring time without fail his asparagus comes up.
Justification is like asparagus-planting. It is done only once.
This does not mean, of course, that we can become careless about sin. Because we cannot. Rather, the person who is justified or accepted because of the obedience of Christ, strives to his or her utmost to lead a life that is pleasing to God.
II Faith: Accepting Our Acceptance
A God accepts us. As I mentioned before, we must now accept our acceptance. The word for accepting our acceptance is "faith." We must accept with a believing heart all what God has done for us in Christ.
Faith, my brothers and sisters, is necessary. It is vitally necessary. Yes, it is God in Christ Who justifies or accepts us. But, unless we believe, unless we have faith, unless we accept our acceptance, we cannot please God. That is the whole point of our Scripture reading from Galatians – that we are justified by faith. I think also of what we read in the book of Hebrews:
(Heb 11:6) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Or, as the Confession of Faith puts it,
We believe that
for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery
the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith
B We have to be careful that we do not misunderstand faith here. In spite of how our English translations of the Bible may read in a number of places, we are not justified by faith but through faith. Faith never justifies us. Only God does.
The Confession of Faith makes the same point. Quoting from the Apostle Paul it reminds us that "we are justified 'by faith alone' or by faith 'apart from works.'" And then it hastens to add this:
However,
we do not mean,
properly speaking,
that it is faith itself that justifies us–
for faith is only the instrument ...
In the same way as a carpenter's tools are a hammer and a saw, and a farmer's tools are a tractor and a plow, so the Christian's tool is faith. Faith is the tool, the instrument, that God uses to bring us to Himself.
Many people misunderstand faith. They think of faith as some kind of good work which God admires and rewards with salvation. If you only have faith, or enough faith, then you will be accepted and glorified. But faith is not some do-it-yourself proposition. It is an instrument, a tool, used by God for us to accept our acceptance. Think of it this way:
Topic: Faith
Subtopic: In Christ
Index: 1206
Date: 1/1996.18
Title:
You drive your car over the Golden Gate Bridge with perfect faith that it will hold you, and you arrive safely on the other side.
With just as good faith you may drive onto some wooden bridge over a country stream, but if the boards are decayed you will crash through and fall into the stream.
It is not your faith or the sincerity of your faith that keeps you safe. Rather, it is what you have faith in that keeps you safe.
Likewise, it is not your faith or the sincerity of your faith that keeps you safe eternally. Rather, it is Jesus that keep you safe.
C As an instrument or tool what faith does is unite us with Christ so that He, His work, and His blessings become ours. It is only by faith that we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection so that we die to sin and are raised to new life. It is only by faith that the atoning work of Christ is applied to us. It is only by faith that the passive and active obedience of Christ are applied to our account. Says the Confession of Faith:
faith is ... the instrument
by which we embrace Christ,
our righteousness
... that keeps us in communion with him
and with all his benefits.
III Christ Alone and Faith Alone
In 1547 the Council of Trent stated the Roman Catholic view of justification. The Council said that the work of Christ needs to be completed by our obedience and our faith.
Do you see what this Roman Catholic teaching does to faith and to obedience? Faith is no longer an instrument or a tool of justification; rather it is the means of justification. And obedience is no longer the believing response to justification; rather it too is the means of justification.
In response to this Roman Catholic teaching the Belgic Confession of Faith wants to affirm what the Scriptures teach – that we are justified by Christ alone and through faith alone. The Confession says:
Therefore,
to say that Christ is not enough
but that something else is needed as well
is a most enormous blasphemy against God–
for then it would follow
that Jesus Christ is but half a Savior.
And therefore we justly say with Paul
that we are justified "by faith alone"
or by faith "apart from works."
The Confession continues by saying we lean and rest "on the sole obedience of Christ crucified, which is ours when we believe in him."
Our Scripture reading from Galatians 2 tells us of the time Peter was adding things to the Gospel. He was adding circumcision and observance of the Law. The Apostle Paul had to publicly rebuke Peter for this and had to remind him that we are justified or accepted by Christ alone and through faith alone.
Conclusion
In Christ God accepts us. And in faith we accept our acceptance. This is enough "to make us confident." We can be sure about salvation and eternal life and we can be bold about entering into the very presence of God.
Why? Because we are depending on Christ rather than ourselves. Whenever we depend on ourselves, our works, our faith, our efforts, our goodness, then we are on sinking sand. In fact, if we relied – no matter how little – on ourselves, "we would be swallowed up." But when we rely on Christ, then we are on rock.