1Believeonth( ijChrist and ¡ besaved fll
THOUGHTS FOR
LordJesus thou shalt thy house. 16-31 nd
UNSAVED PEOPLE
But there is a righteousness possible for men to obtain that will make them righteous in the sight of God and lift them out of the class of natural men. This righteousness with which men are made righteous is God’s righteous ness. Paul tells of it by inspiration in Romans 1.16,17: “ I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” It is by the Gospel that men are made righteous, and the next verse tells why the Gospel saves. It is because “ therein is the righteousness of God revealed.” By virtue of the righteous life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, a de posit of righteousness has been made with the Father which He bestows upon those individuals who by faith accept the finished work of Jesus Christ as a sub stituted righteousness for theirs, a gra cious provision that the Holy Trinity has devised for the salvation of men by faith, and by faith only. It is this “ righteousness of God.” — Wm. M. Smith. Do and Done. Said an old lady who was a Chris tian to a moralist who was parading in “ good works” before her— “ The differ ence in your theology and mine is that yours has two letters in it and mine has four. You have two letters, D-O. I have four—D-O-N-E.” What a difference be tween do and done. The sinner can do nothing for his salvation—all has been done. Christ did all and there is noth ing left to do. He finishes everything He commences. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to EVERYONE THAT BELIEVETH.
The Only Righteousness. Salvation and all the gracious bless ings that accompany it cannot be ac quired, attained or merited. Adam lost fellowship with God, and neither he nor any of his descendants have been able to pass on to their posterity the bless ings of salvation as an inheritance. No human progress can ever attain to a position where salvation comes by the character building process. No deed that men can do j for God, . however righteous in the sight of man, can pos sibly merit salvation from God as a re ward for well doing. When the Scriptures say of all men, “ There is none righteous, no not one,” it refers to man in his natural state as a result of the fall. No man js inher ently righteous; no man can grow right eous by means of maturity; no man can be educated into righteousness. And yet it is the constant quest of natural man to make himself righteous, to try to get better and to justify him self excusable in whatever in his life is not righteous. All sorts of devices are invented to help a man “ find him self” or be his own saviour. Pledges are signed, organizations joined, resolu tions are made, sacraments are taken, bad habits abstained from, and even eugenic marriages advocated to start the next generation off with a better bent. But all this is in vain when undertaken on human initiative. Whatever success may seem to be attained by the indivi dual using any of these devices only makes him the more completely deceived as to the real nature of what sin really is, and the less likely ever to turn and seek the salvation which is by faith only in the finished work of Another.
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