October 28th
Justification by faith
For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10.
I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I understand what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to emphasize the effect instead of on the cause—It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because, before all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can get, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God, and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace, I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how that I am saved.
The salvation of God does not stand on human logic; it stands on the sacrificial death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures - not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus, which is before all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement: The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done—“It is finished.”
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
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