But now the righteousness of God
apart from the law is revealed,
being witnessed by the Law
and the prophets, 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, being
justified freely by His grace
through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:21-24
Authentic Christianity is simply a belief in the propitiation sacrifice of Jesus Christ who died in our place to pay the debt of sin that man in no way could pay for himself. It by the free grace of God that this event, the crucifixion, was decreed by God through His mercy. God is a just God and justice demanded one of two things in regard to sin. God being Holy, sin cannot be sustained, it had to be removed and this removal could only happen that God would destroy all sin which means to destroy all sinners. Sin having been passed down from Adam to all men then all men are sinners and by the justice of a Holy God they deserve to be destroyed. Thank God for His mercy and grace. By His mercy God gave to man freely righteousness, and by His grace He gave that righteousness which man did not deserve. Man in no way can earn this free gift. Man cannot be good enough or do enough good things to become acceptable to God, righteousness and acceptance by God is not because God is predisposed to do so, it is only by His Mercy and Grace and this is predicated upon the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus Christ was the payment necessary that destroyed sin making the way possible for man to be a child of God. This is done by God seeing man through the Person of Jesus Christ who is sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for us. God was not done with just this intercession for man for He sent to live in man the Holy Spirit to aid and guide man.
To be a child of God a person must believe upon this efficacious work of Jesus Christ. But there is a question that must be answered; if man due to being a sinner, totally depraved, how can he believe. If his fallen nature is truly fallen how can he come to put faith in a Holy God? Paul give us the answer: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). God did not lower His standards to save us and this would have been the case if salvation could in any means by achieved by anything we could do. Yet, many will tell others that this is the message of the Gospel. If this is the message being preached and taught then the results are predictable. Any who operate under this system will fail to come to the true knowledge of their state. They lessen their gratitude for what Jesus Christ has done for them and the fact that Jesus Christ never ceased to do for man so that they might be reconciled to God. So many men have struck a deal with God: "I'll do my part and You accept me."
When men do not adhere to the clear teaching of God then many errors occur and the message is no longer the message of God's word; it is a message of man, one that they can accept on their own terms. There is an abandonment of the true message and their communication is not that of Authentic Biblical Faith, and the requirement to be what God has outlined for His people is somehow changed; they forget that we are ambassadors of Christ. We are to be prepared to give a defense for our faith (1Peter3:15), the faith of Christianity that is written by men of God who were inspired of God to lead the new movement of Christianity. God's people are a new creation, a separate people, called by God to be His people, a people for His name.
It is a matter of the heart. Our lives should reflect what the Bible tells us about who we are and whose we are, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Cultural Christians in so many ways disregard this plain teaching of God's word. As true Authentic Christians we do not boast in ourselves and as Paul stated: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). Authentic Biblical Faith is always evidenced by changed lives, those lives that cast away all falseness and live in abandonment for our Holy God and Savior.
But God, who is rich in mercy,
because of His great love
with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His
grace and His kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-5
We are affronted on all sides: but God is with us
Richard L. Crumb
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