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The Amish Voice 4
ILLUSTRATION:
Many a man has tried to make it over to the other side (from earth to
heaven) without trusting Christ. Every one of them, without excep-
tion, has failed.
The Bible says that we are justified by faith in Christ alone.
Remember, justification means that God counts our faith in Christ as
righteousness, counts us acceptable to Him.
Years ago a strong wire was stretched across Niagara River,
just above the roaring falls. It was announced that a tightrope
walker would walk on that suspended wire from the American to
the Canadian side. The thrilling moment for the death-defying fete
arrived. Great crowds watched with wide-eyed wonderment as the
man performed, with calm deliberateness, the awesome stunt. The
people cheered wildly!
Then the performer did an even more daring thing. He began
to push a wheelbarrow with a grooved wheel across the suspend-
ed wire. At the conclusion of this breath-taking performance,
thunderous applause went up. The performer observed a boy
whose wonderment was clearly discernible on his bright face.
Asked the man, “My boy, do you believe that I could put you in
this wheelbarrow and push you over the falls?” “Oh, yes,” said
the boy quickly. “Then, get in the wheelbarrow,” said the man.
Instantly the boy dashed away! In reality he did not believe that
the tightrope walker could take him safely across the falls. (
Walter
B. Knight.
Knight’s Treasury of 2,000 Illustrations
, p.117.)
Have you come to the place in your life where you trust
Christ enough to get into the wheelbarrow?
A CLOSER LOOK:
(2:16)
Justification
: to count someone righteous. It means to reckon,
to credit, to account, to judge, to treat, to look upon as righteous. It
does not mean to
make
a man righteous. All Greek verbs which end in
“oun” mean not to make someone something, but merely to count, to
judge, to treat someone as something.
There are three major points to note about justification.
1. Why justification is necessary.
a. Justification is necessary because of the sin and alienation of
man. Man has rebelled against God and taken his life into his
own hands. Man lives as he desires…
fulfilling the lust of the eyes and of the flesh
clinging to the pride of life and to the things of the world
Man has become sinful and ungodly, an enemy of God,
pushing God out of his life and wanting little if anything to
do with God. Man has separated and alienated himself
from God.
b. Justification is necessary because of the anger and wrath
of God. “God is angry with the wicked every
day” (Ps.7:11). Sin has aroused God’s anger and wrath.
God is angry over man’s…
Man has turned his back upon God, pushing God away and
having little to do with Him. Man has not made God the
center of his life; man has broken his relationship with God
(discussed later in this study). Therefore, the greatest need
in man’s life is to discover the answer to the question: How
can the relationship between man and God be restored?
2. Why God justifies a man. God justifies a man because of His
Son Jesus Christ. When a man believes in Jesus Christ, God
takes that man’s faith and counts it as righteousness. The man
is not righteous, but God considers and credits the man’s faith
as righteousness. Why is God willing to do this?
a. God is willing to justify man because He loves man that
much. God loves man so much that He sent His Son into
the world to sacrifice Him in order to justify man
(Jn.3:16; Ro.5:8).
b. God is willing to justify man because of what His Son
Jesus Christ has done for man.
Jesus Christ came into the world to secure (or to
become) the Ideal righteousness for man. He came
to earth to live a sinless and perfect life. As Man
He never broke the law of God; He never went
contrary to the will of God, not even once. There-
fore, He stood before God and before the world as
the Ideal Man, the Perfect Man, the Representative
Man, the Perfect Righteousness that could stand
for the righteousness of every man.
Jesus Christ came into the world to die for man. As
the Ideal Man He could take all the sins of the
world upon Himself and die for every man. His
death could stand for every man. He exchanged
places with man by becoming the sinner (2
Co.5:19). He bore the wrath of God against sin,
bearing the condemnation for every man. Again,
He was able to do this because He was the Ideal
Man, and as the Ideal Man His death could stand
for the death of every man.
Jesus Christ came into the world to arise from the
dead and thereby to conquer death for man. As the
Ideal Man His resurrection and exaltation into the
presence of God could stand for every man’s des-
perate need to conquer death and to be acceptable
to God. His resurrected life could stand for the
resurrected life of the believer.
Now, as stated above, when a man believes in Jesus Christ—
really believes—God takes that man’s belief and...
QUESTIONS:
1. What justifies you in the sight of God?
2. Is perfection in your own strength possible? Why or why not?
What does God expect out of you if you cannot perfect your-
self?
3. In what practical ways does God challenge you to trust Him
even when you do not know the outcome?
4. Why is it sometimes hard to trust God?
rebellion
ungodliness
sin
hostility
unrighteousness
desertion