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Justified - "Just As If I'd Always Obeyed"
"For He has made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor 5:21
Picture a moral ledger sheet with every word, thought, deed and motive of yours entered on that sheet. Most hope the good will outweigh the bad. The problem is that all of our deeds are stained, all are unclean and impure. There is no such thing as a positive ledger sheet - except in the case of Christ. His ledger sheet was perfect. So at the cross, our ledger sheet was charged to Christ, all our sin; and so His ledger sheet is credited to us.
"Justified" is not "Just as if I'd never sinned." That is a great truth. But it is actually better than that: "Just as if I'd always obeyed." God has credited the very righteousness of Jesus Christ to every believer. - Jerry Bridges (from a recent message at PCRT 2009 Sacramento)
Comments
This Gospel truth was THE most difficult doctrine to trust in by faith for me personally. I am thankful that God granted me that grace and faith to believe it in full. Thanks for your work. Keep it up!
th
Posted by: Todd | March 16, 2009 02:36 PM
I raised the point this morning that the 'Just as if I'd never sinned' is a pastorism that isn't theologically accurate enough. Someone who believed in infused righteousness could use the same aphorism. The only way to make it more accurate is to add the word 'legally' to make it refer to imputed righteousness. By itself it could be interpreted that you are actually made as innocent of guilt as Jesus, instead of just reckoned as not guilty because of Jesus' righteousness. Therefore, I recommend not using this pastorism just because it is a great homophone.
Posted by: Greg | October 18, 2009 02:52 PM