In Christ Ministries

Dulce Tan Hara
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🟠 SAVING FAITH is a mysterious & wonderful thing, & also very rare. While it is true that all religious folks have some kind of faith, & some of them have much faith or great faith,☝️Yet there are very few who have saving faith.
🤔The one who has this precious, saving faith knows that his faith is a gift of God and that it came to him through the hearing of God's Word. He knows that his faith is sustained by the power of God & would wither & die APART from that Divine power & grace [1 Pet.1:5].
🟠 SAVING FAITH does not lead a man to be always looking back to a time in history when he believed,☝️BUT causes him to be concerned with Christ at the present.
📌SAVING FAITH never causes a man to look to his faith,☝️BUT to God, to Christ, the origin & object of his faith, thus he doesn't glory in self☝️BUT in the LORD Jesus Christ.
📌 SAVING FAITH never causes a man to look to his attainments & experiences as a ground or basis of his safety & assurance,☝️BUT to Jesus Christ & HIM crucified & nothing else.
🟠 SAVING FAITH will cause a man to be obedient & submissive to the LORD,☝️BUT will never lead that man to look to his obedience & submission as any part of that righteousness wherein he is accepted of God.
🟠 SAVING FAITH, as a friend & protector of our souls, stands up against that natural self-righteousness which we have & rebukes that hypocrite which dwells within each of us.
🟠 SAVING FAITH will never lead a man to measure & compare himself with other sinners,☝️BUT with the Savior of sinners, so that he may understand what the apostle Paul meant when he said,
📖 "I am the chief of sinners".
🟠 SAVING FAITH will lead a man to say,
📖 "All of my righteousness are as filthy rags, but i am complete in HIM".
🟠 SAVING FAITH will bring a man to say
📖 "i abhor myself, BUT my Savior & LORD is altogether lovely".
🤔 DO YOU HAVE SAVING FAITH❓

God’s Free Gift of Righteousness
Romans 3:21–26
Verse 23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” ---- gives the universal need of every human being ---- verse 24 gives the all-sufficient remedy for that need. They tell us our true condition as human beings. And they tell us what God has done to save those who put their trust in his Son, Jesus.
If the truth of these two verses becomes the foundation of your life — you will be unshakable in a hundred crises. If these verses become the sun in the solar system of your life, all your planets will orbit in harmony around the will of God.
These are truths that are so foundational and so central that you should memorize them, meditate on them, bind them to your mind and heart with chains ---- the way a drowning man takes hold of his rescuer’s arm.. Many professing Christians are very weak, and amble through their days like unbelievers, because they don’t hold on to Biblical Truth.
All of us have sinned; we are falling short of God’s glory, we are lacking the glory of God. In describing those who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18), Paul says in Romans 1:23, “[they] exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image.” And Romans 1:28 says, “They disapproved of having God in their knowledge.” Sin is essentially rejection of God and his glory as the supreme value of our lives. Sin considers God and his glory, and instead of loving God’s glory and treasuring God’s glory, sin exchanges God’s glory for something else.
Sin has to do with God, mainly, it is dishonouring God ---- belittling His glory ---- not trusting him, not treasuring him and not wanting him as the foundation, centre and hub of our lives.
God created the universe to display his glory (Isaiah 43:7). The reason we exist and everything else exists is to display the greatness of the perfections of God. The universe is all about God. The reason there is so much dysfunction and misery in the world is because the world is in rebellion against the purpose of the world. It shouldn’t surprise us that, if the world was designed by God to display his glory, and the human race is intent on glorifying everything but God, there would be great upheaval and malfunction and misery in the world.
We have loved other things more. And so we have treated God and His glory with contempt. The massive problem for every one of us is how to get right with God, and be saved from the consequences of this condition of sin. How shall we ever be accepted in eternity by God when all of us have scorned his infinite worth.
The answer is given in verse 24. What is so great about this verse is that it is all about what God has done to save us, not what we do to save ourselves. Verse 21, “But now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested.” Verse 24 “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” It’s all about what God has done to save us and how he did it.
Consider the four descriptions “being justified. . . .”, “as a gift. . . .”, “by his grace. . . .”, “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
“Being Justified”
The verb is passive: We are not doing this; it is being done to us. Justifying is something that God does. It is finally and decisively the act of God the Father.
Second, notice that in the word “justified” or “just” is essentially the same as “righteous.” In the original language (Greek) “justified” (dikaioumenoi) and “righteousness” (dikaiosune) have the same root (dikai). Justification is the act of God, once for all declaring us just and righteous in his sight ---- the righteousness of God comes to us not as condemnation, but as justification. It comes not as a burden, but as a gift.
The opposite of justify is condemn. When you condemn someone you declare their guilt and assign them their punishment. You don’t make them guilty. And when you justify someone you declare their innocence and assign them their freedom.
So justifying is not making someone just but declaring someone just. In Luke 7:29 “When they heard this all the people and the tax collectors justified God [same word as Romans 3:24] ----.” God is justified by men. It means he is declared to be just.
So in justification God declares us righteous. When verse 22 says that “God’s righteousness is through faith for all who believe,” it means that justification is not in us, but for us. It is not a change of our nature or state, but a change of our standing before him. It is not the same as sanctification, which is done in us, and does change our character. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit of God gradually changing us into the image of his Son.
Space is limiting ---- so we leave here.