God presently sees us “in Christ”. Once we believe in Christ for salvation then we are considered justified to God. “Justification is an instantaneous, past act of God by which one is saved from the guilt of sin-his record is cleared and he is guiltless before the Judge (Rom 8:1).”[1]
To help us understand this we must consider Romans 3:23-26. Justification is a judicial act where by God, on the basis of the finished work of Christ, declares us not guilty. Because of this declaration God is able to place us in Christ and begin to work on us in order to conform us to the image of Christ. This allows God to maintain His perfect justice, and righteousness while still being able to deal with us as sons.
God is able to do this because Christ functioned as a propitiation for sin. This means that the sacrifice that Christ made was acceptable to God; because it was acceptable God is able to impute our sins to Christ and impute Christ’s righteousness to us. This imputation allows all of the legal charges against us to be cleared and in the court of heaven we are moved from the docket of the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11-15) to the docket of the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). The difference between these two judgments are that those at the Great White Throne will have their deeds examined in order to prove that they were not effective to save them; whereas at the Judgment Seat of Christ the motives behind the deeds will be used to assign rewards.
At no time throughout this processes does who we are or what we have done count for anything. (Isaiah 64:6) We have no standing before God apart from Christ. In Christ, however, by yielding to the Holy Spirit we can let God accomplish much (Philippians 4:13).
[1] Systematic Theology Volume Three, p 235, Dr. Norman Geisler.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Churches
Last week I wrote about the altar call my thoughts on it were sparked by a song by Casting Crowns. Today I have read an article on the AIG web site titled “Today’s Youth—Walking Away from Truth”. It chronicles how young people today are abandoning Christianity once they enter college. It makes the point the young adults have not been given a basis for their belief.
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church; I went to church each Sunday morning and some Sunday and Wednesday nights. Every Sunday morning and most Sunday nights the pastor would spend 30 to 40 minutes explaining to a group of Christians how to get saved. This came after about 20 minutes of singing with some prayer thrown in for good measure.
Sunday school was for bible stories until we became high school aged then it turned to dealing with the issues that we faced daily. Wednesday night usually had more in depth teaching.
The main emphasis of this church was getting people saved.
After I got married I was introduced to what are called Doctrinal churches. These are independent churches that teach the bible, usually one or two books at a time verse by verse and dealing with subjects as they come up. For example the church that I attend now finished the book of 1st Corinthians with a total of 693 hours of teaching.
The main emphasis of this church is equipping believers to function in their Christian life.
In the church that I grew up in I learned how to get saved and that once I was saved I would always be saved. At the church that I attend now I have learned that there is a Christian life after salvation and before glorification.
I had a few friends while I was in college who were pastors. Some had gone to seminary some had not. Of the ones who went to seminary they all told me how they had taken classes on preaching in which they were told to keep their messages simple, “three points and a poem” so to speak. They had classes on church history and doctrine but were encouraged not to teach that once they had their own church because the common people would be board and would not understand. I think that this attitude comes from wanting to draw in and keep the largest number of people that one can. Looking back now I cannot remember any Baptist preacher who was satisfied with the number of people in his church. They were always setting numeric goals or having a high attendance Sunday. I wonder what would have happened if they would have just Sheppard the flock of God among you and let God give the increase.
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church; I went to church each Sunday morning and some Sunday and Wednesday nights. Every Sunday morning and most Sunday nights the pastor would spend 30 to 40 minutes explaining to a group of Christians how to get saved. This came after about 20 minutes of singing with some prayer thrown in for good measure.
Sunday school was for bible stories until we became high school aged then it turned to dealing with the issues that we faced daily. Wednesday night usually had more in depth teaching.
The main emphasis of this church was getting people saved.
After I got married I was introduced to what are called Doctrinal churches. These are independent churches that teach the bible, usually one or two books at a time verse by verse and dealing with subjects as they come up. For example the church that I attend now finished the book of 1st Corinthians with a total of 693 hours of teaching.
The main emphasis of this church is equipping believers to function in their Christian life.
In the church that I grew up in I learned how to get saved and that once I was saved I would always be saved. At the church that I attend now I have learned that there is a Christian life after salvation and before glorification.
I had a few friends while I was in college who were pastors. Some had gone to seminary some had not. Of the ones who went to seminary they all told me how they had taken classes on preaching in which they were told to keep their messages simple, “three points and a poem” so to speak. They had classes on church history and doctrine but were encouraged not to teach that once they had their own church because the common people would be board and would not understand. I think that this attitude comes from wanting to draw in and keep the largest number of people that one can. Looking back now I cannot remember any Baptist preacher who was satisfied with the number of people in his church. They were always setting numeric goals or having a high attendance Sunday. I wonder what would have happened if they would have just Sheppard the flock of God among you and let God give the increase.
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