Christ Our Ransom and Our Faith Is In His Life

Seek the LORD while He May

be found,

Call upon Him 

While He He is near.

Let the wicked

forsake his wary,

and the unrighteous man

his thoughts;

Let him return to the LORD,

And He will have 

Mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will

Abundantly pardon.

Isaiah 55:6-7

     Justification as it is taught in the Bible is by faith in Christ. This was and is the teachings of the Apostles. What exactly is being said in regards to this faith? First, it is not a pious dutiful spirit of reverence for God which is a disposition of the mind. Second, it is not faith as a general revelation, much less to be faith in eternal verities or as a principle of belief, even general principles of truth and duty. It is has faith which has as its object; Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul writes: "...even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:22-23). It is not by works: "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law no flesh shall be justified" (Galatians 2:16).  So why the Law? "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24). Paul in speaking to the Churches in particular states further: "for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). The law teaches us and we become children of God and that newness of life is demonstrated in the way we live: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).  Now, if Christ did not die and our righteousness comes in another manner, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21).

     It is this sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ to God that is our ransom, a ransom for many, (notice this it is not for all as it is taught in so many churches); the Greek word "pleion" denotes a great many, not just many so that as Revelation speaks a number so great that it cannot be numbers, it is the grains of sand.  For all, the many, the merit of Christ, His righteousness is the propitiation for sins, offered to God in sacrifice according to the justice and the forensic requirement for the sins of man. All the Scriptures necessarily assume that the faith which secures salvation is in reference to Jesus Christ. Now, if we are to have Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, then, we must receive Him and truth Him. If Jesus Christ is our propitiation for our sins then, it can only be so by our faith in His blood that we can be reconciled to God. This is the whole plan of God, to bring to Himself that which was purposed from the beginning, a people who are committed to Him, enjoying all that God has determined for man.  But, to be a child of God then one must receive Jesus Christ and place Him as their object of faith upon which is the ground for their/our confidence. 

     We have a special relation to Jesus Christ, we are in Him by faith. Jesus Christ dwells in us and is the head of us in whom we derive our life. As the parable of Jesus Christ so aptly does as it applies the illustration of the vine and branches whereby He is the vine, we are the branches as the branches live because of their connection to the vine so it is with Christians, we live because He lives within us. If Christ does not dwell in us then we are dead in our sins, there is no hope, and there is no life, now or after death. This faith is not a general faith, a faith as described as secure in Scripture, that which secures our salvation for it is faith that has as its termination in Christ and in Him alone. It is He that is the object of our faith, it is He that is our life. Many place their faith in the Scriptures, and some sense they are justified in so doing, but when our faith is secure in Scripture then we have deviated from what is true.  The truth is that by the will of God, Jesus Christ incarnated in human flesh, being both Man and God, doing and revealing the will of God, dying for our sins and rising again for our justification; this is where our faith is grounded.  When Jesus Christ dwells in us all the fulness of the Godhead fills us and He is then our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It is to those who receive Jesus Christ into their souls, not just their minds, placing their lives into His hands to be used in His service and to be saved into His glory are then believers.  Christ as our object of faith is also our termination of our faith for it terminates in Him. Nothing as taught by other Churches, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church as founded upon modernistic and post-modernistic philosophies as any foundation in Scripture.  It is those false teachings that we have been warned about that turn us away from the historical Jesus and making Him the object of our faith. When that happens, no matter how philanthropically one is, it is only the work we do that is fueled and led by Jesus Christ as our object of faith can this have any true value.  We are to love and truth, even in our miserable hearts, Jesus Christ.

But that no one

     is justified

by the law

     in the sight 

of God

     is evident,

for the just shall 

    live by faith.

                Galatians 3:11

May Today Be Blessed As 

You Put Your Faith Into Action

Richard L. Crumb