If you need us to agree with you
in prayer for anything please email us at
rev.bobbyshutt@yahoo.com
Just put in the body of the email
the nature of your request and how we can contact you if necessary. We stand
ready and willing to pray with you concerning all your needs which we
believe the Lord will truly meet according to His riches in glory and grace!
The Shutts
God's
Way Of Salvation:
"We are justified, when we repent of our
sins and believe in Jesus Christ. (Mark 1:5, Acts 13:38-39; Romans 5:1).
I. Whole World Guilty (Romans, Chapter 3)
Adam broke a direct transgression of God's law when he sinned. Although he
was created to be immortal, his sin separated him from God, bringing him to
a spiritual death. Because Adam was the federal head of mankind, this
spiritual death was passed to the unborn generations that followed. Romans
5:12-14, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until
the law sin
was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to
come."
Our problem is, we are all sinners. Our predicament is, we cannot save
ourselves. So, we need a Redeemer, someone to satisfy God's justice by
paying the penalty for our sins. The believer's justification is obtained by
satisfaction of God's standard. Christ did not cancel the Law, but He
fulfilled it. Man is justified without the deeds of the Law. The Law
condemns, or gives knowledge of sin, but it does not have the power to save.
Christ's atoning sacrifice satisfied God's holy law, thus making it possible
for God to forgive sinners and remain just Himself. Thus, Jesus Christ
became our Redeemer, to give us deliverance from sin and its penalties.
Galatians 4:4-5, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his Son, made of woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
II. Justification by Faith (Romans, 3-4)
The scripture teaches us, that the Just shall live by Faith (Galatians
3:11). Only faith in Christ will pardon and cancel the death penalty on our
lives inherited through Adam's sin. God cannot declare one righteous or
remit one's sin without faith in the atonement. Therefore, we are justified
(just as if I had never sinned) by faith not works. Abraham was justified by
faith, 430 years before the Law, without the deeds of the law. David was
justified by faith, while under the Law. Therefore, Abraham and David were
justified, by faith, apart from the Law (Romans 4:2-6).
We call Abraham the Father of all believers, not in connection with law or
circumcision, but by Grace. He was the physical Father of the Jews, but he
is also the Father to all who follow his steps of faith. True faith is
counting things that are not as though they were. Paul describes Abraham's
faith to give an example of what gospel faith is like. Abraham and Sarah
were well past childbearing age, but God had promised a child.
Abraham was fully persuaded that what God had promised, He could do. He,
against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many
nations. Therefore, it was imputed to him for righteous (Romans 4:16-22).
God has declared us righteous through Jesus Christ. His righteousness can
now be imparted, by faith, to penitents, and they are justified purely based
on His grace. Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected for our
justification.
III. Peace With God (Romans, 5)
Therefore, being justified by faith, we now enjoy the blessings of peace
with God. The atoning blood of Jesus Christ has settled our account in full
on the cross. We now have access to God, through Jesus Christ, our High
Priest. Our hope is in the atoning blood of Christ, not in our works, good
intentions, gifts, or prayers. God's love has been proven to us at the
cross. When we were weak, enslaved by sin, always missing the mark of
perfection, haters of God, Christ died for us. How much more will God do for
us, since His blood has justified and reconciled us as His children. If His
death has saved us, how much more can He save us by His life? The basis of
our justification is found on level ground at the cross. Through Adam's sin,
a sentence of death without a promise of resurrection, was passed upon all
human flesh. However, by the obedience and willingness of Christ to take
man's place, the sentence of death was completely eradicated, and complete
reconciliation was restored. We were made sinners through Adam. We are made
righteous through Christ!
Having the blood applied, we can point to the cross and say, "He died for
me!" Christ's own words are, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14, 15).
This is the exact parallel of justification by faith. Just as the simple act
of turning their eyes toward that brazen serpent restored the dying Hebrew
in the wilderness, so it is still possible for all of us, even while in the
trespasses of sin, to look with eyes of faith toward Calvary and say, "Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died." By His death He paid our
debt. "He was slain for our offences." This is our justification.
