AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH August 8, 2010
A
Presbyterian Church following the Bible without Qualification
and the Lord Jesus Christ without
Compromise by Faith
Sermon Notes
SALVATION IN CHRIST JESUS - Romans 1:16-17
SALVATION IN CHRIST JESUS - Romans 1:16-17
Consider now this grand theme of
SALVATION IN CHRIST JESUS - Romans 1:16-17
Our purpose is to find a certain symmetry amid the substance,
to comprehend a certain biblical perspective
that many things in short form should strike the eye, bring blessing to the mind,
stir chords of memory and show the outline, as when one views many mountains
from a point of advantage, so that one sees how they are mutually moulded.
In this also is understanding, and that, as in all, has a highway that provides
peace for enterprise, progress for living and warning, implicit or explicit,
for what is prohibited.
Salvation is the obverse of dissipation, degradation and distance from duty. Romans 1 shows us that this
salvation is the altogether necessary state for any member of the human race, in order to be equipped in
spirit, sensitised in mind, secured in destiny and aware of the true God. Flummeries and fidget notions are
two a penny; faith finding the power of God is in one place only: it is in Him who made us, acted to save
us, and did so not only personally, but through coming in our format, minus sin (Romans 8:3, I John
4:10,14, I Peter 2:23ff.) That's why even to see Him or hear Him was an experience (John 7:46, 14:9),
and to watch His works was an inspiration (John 7:31, 14:11).
Consider then what was revealed through Paul, the apostle:
"For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God to salvation
to every one who believes;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For in it, the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith to faith:
as it is written, The just shall live by faith."
First, what is meant by the phrase, 'from faith to faith'? It is this. By faith, the apostles and prophets
recorded this Gospel, intimated it, exhibited it, in many ways from early times (starting as shown in
Genesis 3:15, known as "the protevangelion''). By faith believers accept it. In faith, they act on it. Through
faith it acts on them, both to summon and to serve (as in John 6:63,65 and Romans 12:1-2). Thus from
the faith of those who received it, the word of God is available for those who in due time, hearing it,
receive it, and operating through it by faith, these live as through a resource. It is rather like a car, through
which you travel. It is presented as a gift as you enter the house of faith.
There is an additional meaning in this 'from faith to faith', that is apt. AS you work on it, acting by faith in the
God who gives His word, His promises, His partnership in your life's work, SO He acts, and AS He acts,
you are reinforced, moving from faith to faith, as a child who grows (Psalm 84:7, cf. II Peter 3:18). You can
grow in grace and in the knowledge of God.
A third point is this. "The righteousness of God is revealed ..." HOW He desired to act WITH His
righteousness is an entirely personal matter for Himself. It is not only something that is, but an element
which He USES. It is His world, His mercy. In fact, we find that He desired to GIVE to believers the status
of children of His (I John 3:1ff.), and confer on them righteous standing to faith (Romans 5:17ff.), through
His pardon and atoning work on the Cross.
That is HOW His righteousness is shown, both its purity and its pardon as a gift (Romans 5:17ff.).
This means that those now received as just persons because Christ has redeemed them,
are called 'justified by faith' - as in Romans 5:1.
Thus "the Just One" (Acts 3:11)*1, who was denied by His murderers,
receives unjust persons who repent with faith in Him (Romans 5:8-11),
and He grants them HIS righteousness by faith,
affirming them as His children.
Thus they are transported from outside to inside His will and life and
operations, by faith (Colossians 1:13),
and shall receive an inheritance (Ephesians 1:5-11).
Since Israel forfeited its role as a missionary nation (cf. Isaiah 30, 65:13-15), pending their return in heart
as in Romans 11:25, soon to come, and now all must come to the Messiah whose death is available for
righteousness for one as for all, there are personal results. Through this healing of the rift, there is now
through it THE POWER OF GOD, to bring inexorably those who come by faith through His Gospel to
Himself, home at last (Ephesians 1:11, John 10:9,27-28) It is for Jew and Gentile therefore. Who could
possibly then be ashamed of it! When God operates, you do not need a second opinion!
Let us now sum up some of the vast features and functions of the salvation of God in Christ.
1. SEVEN GOOD THINGS
1) Reason requires it (II Corinthians 10:5, Romans 1:17ff.).
2) Faith embraces it (John 3:16).
3) The Gospel articulates it (Galatians 1-3).
4) Repentance forwards it (Acts 11:18).
5) Redemption completes it (Romans 3:25-27, Titus 2:14, 3:3-7, Hebrews 9:12).
6) The Holy Spirit Applies it (John 16:8ff.).
7) Everlasting life exhibits it (I John 1:1-4, 5:11-12).
5. FIVE BAD THINGS
1) This world rejects it (John 14:30).
2) Dis-faith*2 attacks it (II Timothy 4:14-15).
3) Evil tampers with it (II Corinthians 4, 11).
4) The devil abhors it (II Corinthians 2:11, Revelation 12).
5) Reprobates repudiate it (II Timothy 4:10).
3. BASIC THINGS
1) The LORD requires it (Acts 4:12).
2) Ditherers desire options outside it (Galatians 3, 5).
3) Disciples delight in it (Romans 1:16, I Peter 1:3-8).
NOTES
See -
The Just One, which relates closely to our present topic.
This term, disfaith, is defined as follows: a deadly and even devilish dynamic that seeks to delete. It acts as a substitute for faith, its target the things of God.
Just as the antichrist is in effect, though blatantly fraudulent, the devil's 'messiah' (I John 1:18, II Thessalonians 2), the 'man of sin' and not of salvation; so there is this substitute of 'unclean spirits' (Revelation 16:12 cf. II Corinthians 11:4), whose expansive, last day office is simply to deceive, being unholy spirits; for the devil is an imitator of reality, a spiritual seducer, and tries anything, for 'there is no truth in him' and 'when he speaks a lie, he speaks of himself,' John 8:44.