The Gospel
A proper understanding of “the
gospel” is essential when launching a discussion of God, Jesus Christ, salvation,
justification, forgiveness, and other theological topics. The best overall description of the
gospel I have found to date is in Jerry Bridges’ The Discipline of Grace,
at Chapter 3, entitled “Preach the Gospel to Yourself”. You may ask, “why a description of the
gospel? Isn’t it merely the fact
that Jesus paid the penalty for sin for those who would believe?” Of course, that is true, but it is much
more than that. “The Gospel”
includes God’s complete plan of redemption from
the beginning.
Bridges refers to Romans 3:19-26 as “the single passage in all of the
Bible that most clearly and completely explains the gospel...”[1] There, Paul wrote:
19Now we
know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so
that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to
God. 20For by works of the law no human being will be justified in
his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21But now
the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the
Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—22the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and
are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be
received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his
righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus.
(Romans 3:19-26 ESV)
Bridges then does an excellent exposition of the passage, identifying “seven
truths that we need to clearly understand”.[2]
Those seven truths are:
1.
No One Is Declared Righteous Before God by
Observing the Law (v.19-21)
2.
There is a Righteousness from God That Is Apart From
the Law (v.21)
3.
This Righteousness From God Is Received Through
Faith in Jesus Christ (v.22)
4.
This Righteousness Is Available to Everyone on
the Same Basis, Because All Have Sinned and Fall Short of the Glory of God
(v.22-23)
5.
All Who Put Their Faith in Jesus Christ Are
Justified Freely by God’s Grace (v.24)
6.
This Justification Is “Through the Redemption
That Came by Christ Jesus” (v.24)
7.
“God Presented [Jesus] as a Sacrifice of
Atonement, Through Faith in His Blood” (v.25)[3]
While it might appear to the casual reader that Farley is making much the
same argument as does Bridges, the fact of the matter is that Bridges provides
an exegetical explanation of the text, whereas Farley provides an eisegetical
explanation. In so doing, Farley
winds up missing the mark.
Bridges’ exposition will be referred to briefly here. The reader is heartily encouraged to
procure a copy of Bridges’ book to read his description/explanation in its
entirety.
No One Is Declared Righteous Before
God by Observing the Law (v.19-21)
“The word righteous means exact and perfect conformity to the
law of God…(the law refers) to the transcript of God’s nature and the rule of
obedience that He requires of all human beings. It includes all of the ethical commands scattered throughout
the Bible…the standard of obedience required by the law is absolute
perfection…” (Bridges, p. 47-48).
“…in our everyday relationship with God, most of us are no
different in our thinking than the unbelievers who think they will go to heaven
because they’ve been good enough.
To live by grace, we must rid ourselves of such thinking” (Bridges, p.
48-49).
There is a Righteousness from God
That Is Apart From the Law (v.21)
God
provided for us, argued Bridges, a perfect righteousness, that of Jesus Christ
who perfectly fulfilled the law of God (Bridges, p. 49). God, said Bridges, has declared “us
righteous on the basis of the real, accomplished righteousness of Jesus Christ,
which is imputed or credited to us through faith” (Bridges, p. 50).
“This standing in Christ’s righteousness is never affected to
any degree by our good-day or bad-day performance. Unless we learn to live daily by faith in (that is, by
reliance on) His righteousness, however, our perception of our standing before God will vary depending on our good
or bad performance” (Bridges, p. 50, emphasis in original).
This Righteousness From God Is
Received Through Faith in Jesus Christ (v.22)
“Faith is the hand by which the righteousness of Christ is
received. Faith itself has no merit;
in fact, by its nature it is self-emptying. It involves our complete renunciation of any confidence in
our own righteousness and a relying entirely on the perfect righteousness and
death of Jesus Christ…faith in Christ and a reliance on ourselves, even to the
smallest degree, are mutually exclusive” (Bridges, p. 50-51).
“Jesus himself is always to be the object of our faith. We sometimes say we are saved by faith
alone, meaning apart from any works.
That expression, however, can be somewhat misleading, as though faith
itself has some virtue that God respects.
It is more accurate to say we are saved by God’s grace through
faith. Faith, again, is merely the
hand that receives the gift of God, and God through his Spirit even opens our
hand to receive the gift. This
doctrine of trusting in Jesus Christ alone for one’s salvation is a basic truth
of the gospel. Without acceptance
of it there is no salvation” (Bridges, p. 51).
“…we were not only saved by faith at a particular point in
time, but we are to live by faith in Christ every day of our lives…I must
continue to renounce any confidence in my own goodness and place my confidence
solely in Christ every day of my life, not only for my eternal salvation, but
for my daily acceptance before a holy God” (Bridges, p. 52).
In
discussing justification, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian church, “I
have been crucified with Christ. It
is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Here, Paul was identifying the
importance of “…a dependence on Him for his righteous standing before God on a
day-to-day basis” (Bridges, p. 52).
This Righteousness Is Available to Everyone on
the Same Basis, Because All Have Sinned and Fall Short of the Glory of God (v.22-23)
“…any sin, however small and insignificant it may seem to us,
is a violation of God’s holy law and subjects us to the penalty of death…the
first purpose of God’s method of salvation through Christ’s death is to deliver
us from guilt, and though all people are not equally guilty, all are guilty…if we are to live by the
gospel every day, all tendency to compare ourselves with other believers, not
to mention unbelievers, must be put away.
Rather we must measure ourselves against God’s perfect standard and
daily confess that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”
(Bridges, p. 52-53).
All Who Put Their Faith in Jesus
Christ Are Justified Freely by God’s Grace (v.24)
“To be justified is to be absolved from any charge of guilt
and to be declared absolutely righteous…we are counted in God’s sight as having
perfectly obeyed the law of God” (Bridges, p. 53).
“We must keep in mind that our justification by God is based
solely on the meritorious work of Christ and our union with him…Christ stood in
our place as our representative, both in his sinless life and his sin-bearing
death” (Bridges, p. 53).
“To live by the gospel, then, means that we firmly grasp the
fact that Christ’s life and death are ours by virtue of our union with
him. What he did, we did. This is the only sense in which we can
understand Paul’s bold statements in Romans 8: ‘There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (v.1); ‘If God is for us, who
can be against us?’ (v.31b); ‘Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies’ (v.33). These statements by Paul are objective
truths; that is, they are true whether we grasp them or not…often…we find it
difficult to believe them. Because
of our frequent failures before God, we do feel under condemnation, we do not
feel God is for us but rather must surely be against us, we do think he is
bringing charges against us. At such times we must preach the gospel to
ourselves. We must review what God
has declared to be true about our justification in Christ” (Bridges, p. 54,
emphasis added).
“When we trust in Christ for salvation, God’s court is
forever satisfied. Never again
will a charge of guilt be brought against us in Heaven. Our consciences, however, are
continually pronouncing us guilty.
That is the function of conscience. Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience
into line with the verdict of Heaven.
We do this by agreeing with our conscience about our guilt, but then
reminding it that our guilt has already been borne by Christ” (Bridges, p. 54).
This Justification Is “Through
the Redemption That Came by Christ Jesus” (v.24)
We
as believers have been redeemed from the wrath of God which was rightfully ours
to suffer because of our sin.
Jesus Christ paid the price for that redemption with his blood. Our justification “…was in fact
‘purchased’ by Christ with his blood.
Christ paid the ransom that redeemed us from God’s just and holy wrath” (Bridges, p. 55).
“In God’s plan of justification…justice is not violated by a
gratuitous pardon of the convicted sinner. Rather, justice has been satisfied; the penalty has been
fully paid by the Lord Jesus Christ…to justify is to declare that the claims of
justice have been fully met”
(Bridges, p. 56).
“…the death of Christ…completely satisfied the justice of God”
(Bridges, p. 56).
“God Presented [Jesus] as a Sacrifice of Atonement,
Through Faith in His Blood” (v.25)
“The atonement…assumes the wrath of God against sin, and our
consequent liability to his holy and just wrath.” D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones described God’s wrath as “His settled
opposition to all that is evil, arising out of his very nature…his nature is
such that he abhors evil, he hates evil, his holiness of necessity leads to
that” (Bridges, p. 56-57).
“Propitiation in the context of salvation means
that which appeases the wrath of God against sin…God presented him (Jesus) or
set him forth as an atoning sacrifice.
It is God the Father who initiated the whole plan of salvation. It is God the Father who provided the
sacrifice of his Son to satisfy his justice and appease his own wrath…his
propitiation is appropriated by us as sinners through faith in his blood…it is
the blood of Christ that cleanses our consciences from the defilement of sin…it
is the blood of Christ that purifies us from all sin…it is by the blood of
Christ that we have confidence to enter into the Most Holy Place—the very
presence of an infinitely holy God…it is the blood of Christ…that turns the
holy and just wrath of God away from us…It is the blood of Christ, shed once
for all on Calvary two thousand years ago, but appropriated daily or even many
times a day, that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of
peace with God” (Bridges, p.
57-58).NEXT: FARLEY Part IV: “RELIGION IS A HEADACHE” OR “THE LAW IS BAD AND HAS NO PLACE IN THE LIFE OF THE BELIEVER” AND “ADAM AND EVE DID NOT SIN”
No comments:
Post a Comment