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NASB | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. [Luke 6:47-49] |
Subject: What is perfected for all time? |
Bible Note: Joe, You wrote: "It does sound illogical. Doesn't it make more sense to say that we are in the process of becoming what God has declared us to be IN CHRIST?" Certainly it sounds illogical. It is illogical for me to be born dead in trespasses and sins. It is illogical that Christ would be punished for my sins. It is illogical that I, who deserve nothing but eternal separation from God get eternal life instead. Yet it is grace. This is not sarcasm, bro, but where do you see that we are DECLARED to be anything? Can you show me a verse in the NASB from the NT that says that God DECLARES us as anything? I understand the theological definition of justification to be "declared righteous in God's sight." The problem is that definition isn't found in the scripture is it, not as we interpret it anyway. What do I mean? When we say that God declares us as being righteous, we are saying that although we are truly righteous, God pretends to see us that way. This is a falsehood. Why? Because that would be like a judge having mercy on a criminal, saying to him, "I declare that you are righteous," and then releasing him. The criminal would not be righteous, he would simply be forgiven. Justice was not met in this case. The judge simply declared something that was not true. In our case, the judge (God) declares us righteous because we ARE righteous. Why? Because Christ was made sin on our behalf. When did this happen? At the cross. God does not DECLARE something that is not there. God first GIVES US the righteousness of Jesus Christ. There is an exchange. He took ALL of my sin. I get ALL of His righteousness. Now, at justification, when God declares me righteous, justice has been served. Christ took my death. I get His life. He took my sins. I have His righteousness. Therefore, God DECLARES me righteous because I am. For any just judge to declare a criminal righteous, that criminal must be either truly innocent or someone but bear the punishment. To insist that we are not the righteousness of Christ, insists that He did not take our sins. The problem with typical justification interpretation is that folks say, "God declared me righteous and now I am going to earn what I've been declared." This is backwards from the Christ-life. Grace living says, "God has made me righteous in spirit, I am going to live out what He has made me and let it become my experience. You wrote: "Did my comments on Paul saying you and I WERE justified in Romans 8 (written 1900 years ago) not make sense? I would like to hear your comments on why the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write that God justified us at a point when we hadn't been born yet." Because, as I have already said, in God's realm (not bound by time or space) things just ARE. Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. That's illogical, is it not? We are already seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That's quite illogical because I'm sitting here typing. So we have to decide whether we are going to believe in a God who may seem, from our viewpoint, illogical or whether we will just take Him at His Word. You may not agree with my viewpoint, but as long as you understand it, you can see why I say that many Christians are still wandering in the wilderness. The promised land is a place of rest. It is resting in Christ's finished work. God has already blessed us with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (where we are also seated) in Christ. There is nothing more that we need except to believe it and learn to grow into what we already are. An apple does not become more of an apple as it matures. It simply grows into what it already is. McGracer |