Sons of Abraham

Part 12

Text: Galatians 3:10-14

May 9, 2010

Review/Introduction:

I.       The OT Scriptures teach that the Law issues a sentence of cursing rather than blessing (3:10).

II.       The OT Scriptures clearly reveal that no one is justified by works of the Law (v. 11).

“Why do so many believers, including those deeply serious about their Christian commitment, live lives of quiet desperation? One answer is that we have a truncated view of the gospel, tending to see it only as a door we walk through to become a Christian. In this view, the gospel is only for unbelievers. Once you become a Christian, you don’t need it anymore except to share with people who are still outside the door. What you need to hear instead are the challenges and how-tos of discipleship,” (Jerry Bridges, The Gospel for Real Life, pp. 12-13).

Is justification the source of our obedience or the result?

Conclusion:

“Unfortunately, many believers do not live as if justification is a permanent, abiding state. They have divorced their hope of eternal life in heaven from their relationship with God today. They think as if they will ‘put on’ Christ’s robe of righteousness at death. Meanwhile, in this life they draw their sense of God’s acceptance from their most recent performance of Christian duties or their avoidance of certain sins. Their ‘robe of righteousness’ for daily living is not that which they have from Christ, but one that they have stitched together by their own performance. They do not live in the here and now as if they are righteous in the sight of God solely because they have the righteousness of Christ,” (Jerry Bridges, The Gospel For Real Life, p. 110).

© John Fonville

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