The Bible teaches that man is a fallen being. Man without God can produce no righteousness of his own. Righteousness is imputed to a faithful man through the action of God’s Justification. Within this Divine favor, Justification is granted to man because of man’s belief, trust, and consent of the human will to the person of God. The subject of this discourse focuses primarily on how the believer in God can be made righteous through what the Bible terms as, “Justification by faith”. Justification by faith allows any unjust man to receive God’s righteousness because of the finished work that Christ did at Calvary.
• Isa 53:11…by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
• 1 Peter 3:18… For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
What is Justification? Justification is an act of God that pardons man from all sins of the past. Justification by faith declares man innocent from past sins committed and places this believer into right standing with God. Why? Man believes, trusts, and gives consent to God from the innermost depth of his heart. Justification by the Grace of God removes guilt from the conscience of man and allows fallen man to live and stay right in the sight of God.
• Rom 3:24-25…Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God
Justification by Grace through man’s faith in God has always been the bridge for fallen man to obtain righteousness from God. Justification given to fallen man is and has always been based on the promise of a Savior’s love for humanity.
• 1 Peter 1:19-20…But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
God gave the first prophetic utterance of a Savior to the serpent that deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). During that age according to man’s enlightenment to the revelation of God, the Bible teaches that Abel the son of Adam was a righteous man.
• Heb 11:4…By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
Why was Abel a righteous man? Two reasons: First: he believed from his heart. Second: He obtained from God, a witness in his heart. Abel’s moral righteousness was given through the Divine favor of God. Divine favor was given because of Abel’s faith. Based on the Creator’s prophetic truth of a Savior, man has always been able to receive righteousness from above by faith in God. The revelation of God that enlightened man in the days of Abel was received, passed down, and witnessed through “Creation itself” and “verbal communication between man and God in the Garden”.
From the beginning God audibly revealed himself to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Down through the Ages God continued to reveal Himself through creation itself and the conscience of man. Only people who received God into their hearts were declared righteous through the Divine favor of God’s Justification. Since the fall of Adam through God’s promise of a Savior man has always been able to find right standing with God through faith. The Bible teaches that Noah was a righteous man and also a preacher of righteousness.
• Heb 11:7…By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
• 2 Peter 2:5… And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Faith allowed Noah to hear the voice of God. Obedience to God proved Noah’s faith. Noah experienced and knew about God-given righteousness through faith in his heart. Noah was thus compelled to be a preacher of righteousness so that others also could share the same righteous experience he personally knew with God. The revelation of God from that period of time was thus conveyed to humanity through preaching as well as creation, and the human conscience. From Adam, to Abel, and to Noah’s day…God was thus revealed to the human soul. All writers of the New Testament Epistles looked back to how God was made known in the Old Testament. Preaching stems all the way back to the days of Noah.
• Heb 4:2…For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
• 1 Peter 4:6…For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
After the flood in Noah’s day Divine Judgment and creation was known of men, remembered, and continued to be passed down verbally through the ages. Preaching continued to enlighten men to the truth about God the Creator and the God of Divine Judgment from the days of the flood.
God continued to reveal himself to the conscience of man in the days of Abraham. God promised Abraham that through him all the families on earth would be blessed. The New Testament revealed this blessing was Christ the promised seed. The blessing of this promise is received today in the Church the body of Christ because of Abraham’s righteousness of faith.
• Rom 4:13...For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
• Gal 3:29... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Abraham’s righteousness proves that God justified him through faith. Even today believers in Christ receive the same righteousness from God. Righteousness is only granted to the heart of man through the Justification of God.
• Rom 4:1-5…What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
• Rom 4:20-24… He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
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