"To HIM that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Rom. 4:5.
This is the only way that anybody in this
world can ever become righteous. First admit that he is ungodly, then
believe that God justifies, counts righteous, the ungodly, and he is righteous
with the very righteousness of God.
Everybody in the world is ungodly. "Ungodly"
means "unlike God." And it is written, "All have sinned and
come short of the glory [the goodness, the character] of God."
Anybody, therefore, who will admit that he
ever came short of being like God in anything, in that confesses that he is
ungodly.
But the truth is that everybody, in
everything, has come short of being like God. For "they are all gone out
of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one." Rom. 3:9-18.
Then, as
there is not one on earth who is not ungodly, and as God justifies the ungodly,
this on God's part makes justification -- righteousness, salvation -- full,
free, and sure to every soul on earth.
And all that anybody needs to do to make it
all sure to himself on his own part, is to accept it -- to believe that God
does justify, personally and individually, him who is ungodly.
Thus,
strange as it may sound to many, the only qualification, and the only
preparation, for justification is for a person to acknowledge that he is
ungodly.
Then, having such qualification, having made
such preparation, all that is required of him to obtain justification, full, free, and sure, is to believe that God
justifies him, the ungodly one.
It is quite easy for many to believe that
they are ungodly and even to acknowledge it, but for them to believe that
God justifies them -- that is too much.
And the sole reason why they cannot believe
that God justifies them, is that they are ungodly, so ungodly.
If only they
could find some good in themselves or if only they could straighten up and
do better, they might have some courage to hope that God would justify
them. Yes, they would justify
themselves by works and then profess to believe in justification by faith!
But that would be only to take away all
ground for justification, for if a man can find good in himself, he has it
already, and does not need it from anywhere else. If he
can straighten up and do better of himself, he does not need any justification
from anywhere else.
It is, therefore, a contradiction in terms to
say that I am so ungodly that I do not see how the Lord can justify me. For if I
am not ungodly, I do not need to be made righteous; I am righteous. There is no half-way ground between godliness
and ungodliness.
But when a person sees himself so ungodly as
to find there no possible ground of hope for justification, it is just there
that faith comes in; indeed, it is only there that faith can possibly come
in.
For faith is dependence on the word of God
only. So long as there is any dependence on himself, so long
as there is any conceivable ground of hope for any dependence upon anything in
or about himself, there can be no
faith, so long there is no place for
faith, since faith is dependence on "the word only."
But when every conceivable ground of hope of
any dependence on anything in or about himself is gone and is acknowledged to
be gone; when everything that can be seen is against any hope of justification,
then it is that, throwing himself on the promise of God, upon the word only, hoping against hope,
faith enters and by faith he finds justification full and free, all
ungodly though he be.
For forever it stands written, "To him
that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted for righteousness." "Even the righteousness of God which is
by faith of Jesus Christ." "Whom God hath set forth . . . to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past."
This is what
it is to exercise faith. Are
you exercising faith? For
"understanding how to exercise faith: this is the science of the
gospel."
RH Feb. 7, 1899
By A. T.
Jones in the Review and Herald
periodical in 1899.
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#Faith #Believe #God #Justify #Ungodly #Credited #Righteousness #Short #Justification #Reason #No #Good #Hope #Dependence #Word #Only #Promise #Free #Works #Exercise
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