As of Dec 6th, 2009 the invitation to the gospel meetings below are now over. Over the six weeks (4) souls professed faith in Christ. To God be the glory! May their lives prove they are indeed possessors of Eternal life.
Our regular Sunday night gospel meeting will continue every Sunday night at 7pM.
To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Romans 3:26
There is a legal procedure that Canadian judges can exercise in special cases where a person is convicted of a crime, but where the judge feels the charge was unfair or where the judge feels the person is highly unlikely to ever commit that crime again. The procedure is called an unconditional discharge. When the judge issues an unconditional discharge, the condemned person is deemed not to have any criminal record. The slate is wiped clean. On a much more grand and glorious scale, Paul is telling about a similar type of unconditional discharge for those of us who are guilty before God but who have come to the Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing.
Just as an unconditional discharge is only for those who have admitted their guilt, so too the righteousness of Christ is only available for those of us who have acknowledged to God that we are helpless and hopeless sinners. But while unconditional discharges are usually only for those who commit less serious crimes, the righteousness of Christ is available to all sinners without exception. By imputing Christ’s righteousness to us, God can give the guilty a perfect standing before Himself. But did you notice the lovely title that is included in this verse? The Saviour is the Justifier.
Those of us who have believed in Jesus have received our salvation from the Justifier. No one else can declare us just, regardless of what the Romish priest tells the conscience-ridden people who come to his confessional. The only man who can forgive sins is the Justifier. Nobody else paid the price for our sins. A priest might assign pennance to a confessor, but that will never pay for sins. Anyone who thinks otherwise has no understanding of God’s holiness and of sin’s awfulness. Only the blood of the Lord Jesus can take away sin. So only He can tell us we are just before God.
Do you appreciate your righteousness before God today? You owe it all to the Justifier! To Him be all the glory. -Jim MacIntosh
Which devour widow’s houses, and for a shew make long prayers; the same shall receive greater damnation. Luke 20:47
Many years ago, a teenage friend of mine and I were sitting on our bicycles, watching the local minister of the little United church has he turned onto the road leading to his home. It was a gravel road, and the man of the cloth had a heavy foot, spinning his tires as he made the turn. Gravel stones flew and the rear end of the car fish-tailed as it approached the narrow bridge, avoiding the guardrails of the bridge by only a few inches (this was in pre-metric days). We shook our heads at such a display of reckless driving, and my friend made the observation, ‘It’s a good thing he’s got a sure ticket to heaven, ’cause he’s going to get there quick’. For some reason, he thought that the minister of a church would be automatically assured of Heaven. Actually, there are many people who think that. The scribes and the Pharisees of whom Jesus was speaking in today’s text apparently thought that. What a rude awakening they have had!
There was an old law, long since repealed, that enabled people to escape the consequences of serious crimes if they could read a portion of the Bible in court. Called ‘benefit of clergy’, this law existed during a time when few people could read or write. Some people actually escaped the gallows by using this loophole. The scribes and Pharisees appeared to think that their knowledge and still in Scriptures was enough to assure them of escaping damnation. So they were unkind to those they considered less than themselves, and were heartless toward the poor. Jesus warned them to search the scriptures because in them they thought they had eternal life, but in reality the Scriptures spoke of Christ. They failed to recognize the One of Whom Scripture spoke, and are now in hell. All about us are religious people who are relying on their religion, not on the Lord Jesus. Tragic is their end!
It would be good if all of us had the same knowledge of Scripture that the scribes and Pharisees had. It would be good if we spent as much time in prayer as they did, although we should do our praying in the closet, not in the market.
Have we escaped damnation? Not by our prayers or our Bible reading, we haven’t. Not by being more pious than others, we haven’t. By the blood of our Saviour, we have. In deep humility, let us give thanks to the Lord Jesus today. Not of ourselves… all of Himself. -Jim MacIntosh
