THE DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION. Pt.8

Recently, my mind has been flooded with the wonders of our precious salvation. Everyday, I place more value on it than I did before. The more I see people struggling to "earn" what we have freely, I thank God. In some faith, they don't believe God can forgive completely. They may have to make forgiveness chant 100s of time before they get some temporal relief from guilt. Some believers are also like that. Whenever guilt overwhelms them, they'll give their life to Christ over again. They're not always sure they're saved despite their years of being in Church. I once heard a pastor say that every night, he always give his life to Christ again. I don't know how long he has to do that but it is a sign that something is faulty with his knowledge of salvation and the things that Christ made available for us in His finished work. Some of us were like that too. Those days, I responded to every altar calls because I was not sure if the salvation, forgiveness of yesterday would suffice. Some of us were like that. I didn't read in my bible where it was commanded that I must give my life to Christ everyday by praying the sinners prayer. If you know the scripture where it is written, kindly show me. For me, it became worse when I get into circle of those who told us to ask God for forgiveness of all our sins from birth. It became a repeated prayer point in some meetings. Then, I asked, "how many times do I have to ask for the forgiveness of my childhood sins"? My liberation came when I understood fully that once sin is confessed and forgiven by God, I don't need to ask for forgiveness for the same sin again: "And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins”(Hebrews 8:12 NLT). Then i found another scripture even in the old testament: “I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again" (Isaiah 43:25 NLT). When these scriptures and others registered in my mind, I stopped asking for forgiveness of forgiven sins. Once God forgives a sin, it is forgiven already. The burden of guilt is the reason some believers keep asking for forgiveness of the sin God has already forgiven in decades past. The devil loves when we do that because he takes our eyes off the provision of the cross and points us to our inadequacies. Some think it to be a sign of piety to do that all the time. They're never sure their sins are forgiven and forgotten. If that's the case with Christianity, then it is no different from other religions because none of them promises complete forgiveness neither do they have provision for it like we do in Christ. In the sight of God, we are stripped off our filthy garment like it happened to Joshua the high priest: "So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”(Zechariah 3:4 NLT). Through justification, you're now clothed with the robe of righteousness. What happened when you came to the Lord is akin to what the father of the prodigal son did to him when he returned: “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet" (Luke 15:22 NLT). This is the message of the Gospel, God's love story. That hymn writer says, "Wonderful story of love, tell it to me again". We shouldn't be tired of hearing it over and over till we are full of what Christ wrought for us in His finished work. Also, this is the message we should preach to sinners persuading them that if they accept Christ, they'll be justified. They've tried religion but now they need to key into eternal life. Don't promise them wealth and riches, it is not written in Scriptures that salvation is the key or passport to wealth. Some of them have it already. Eternal life is the promise we have. That's what they don't have. Don't let the enemy preach a different gospel to you neither should you preach his gospel.