Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Faith Justifies Us

“He staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that what He had promised, He was also able 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.” Romans 4:20-25

Abraham was a hundred years old and his wife Sarah was about ninety years old when they were promised a son. Our Father not only promised them a son, He promised Abraham that He would establish His Covenant through that son. Abraham staggered not at what our Father had promised him. Abraham believed God was willing and he believed that God was able to do what He had promised them. Abraham believed that our Father would reward him for it to and since Abraham did believe, our Father justified him with His covenant!

There is another important Truth here and it is this: our Father did what it would take for Abraham to believe. Our Father actually came down and ate with Abraham. He didn't just show Abraham a dream, He came and allowed Abraham to see His power and our Father exerted His influence on Abraham. Our Father gave Abraham His grace so that he could believe.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” Romans 5:1

We are now justified by Christ and we are now empowered by the Holy Spirit to believe in God. We now have Jesus Authoring and Finishing our Faith, Hebrews 12:2, so that we may be justified in believing that we will be rewarded for doing so. We are rewarded just as Abraham was justified and counted as righteous for believing in the promises of God.

So when will we receive our reward and justification from God? Is our reward reserved for us in Heaven, waiting on us for when we arrive there, or is our reward to be enjoyed right now, on this earth, or is it both?

“(For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2

Our Father proclaims that now is the time of our reward and justification, as well as in the future! Once we are chosen by our Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit to say yes to Jesus, we have peace with God. We are rewarded from that point on, right now and forever more! Abraham had Isaac, the son that God had promised him while on the earth; the Covenant that God created with Abraham came into existence on this earth. Abraham didn’t have to wait until Heaven to receive these rewards and we don’t have to wait for the promises of God to be realized and lived. Heaven will be great, it will be better than the earth, and our eternity with God in the New Heaven and new Earth will be stunning! But we have great and precious promises for our lives right now and to please our Father we have been empowered to believe that we have both! What faith Authored and Finished by Jesus really allows us to believe is that our Father is every bit as much a force in our lives right now as He will be in Eternity! This Truth is what Jesus now Authors and Finishes within us, because this is the Truth that He lives in, and we are now one with Him! We enjoy the blessings of God that Jesus enjoys!

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