Word of Salvation – Vol.41 No.01 – January 1996

 

Right By Faith

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord’s Day 23

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Which do you think is more important?
What you do OR what God does.
What do you live by, what do you pin your hopes on?
What you do for God OR what God does for you?

The glorious message which I may proclaim to you today is that we can and must live by what God does for us.  To live by faith in God is to live by what God does and by what God provides.  To live by faith is to know that all the initiative and effort for our good comes from the Lord God.

All that is necessary to be right with God and to have eternal life is provided by God Himself.  Everything we need for peace with God and for self-respect is given to us in Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News indeed!  Listen to how it is put in Question & Answer 60:
“How are you right with God?
Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.”

That means, only by believing and trusting in what Jesus, in the name of God, has done for us.  There is no other way to be right with God.

The Catechism clearly shows us why this is so.  Listen, it guides us to say:

“Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments, and of never having kept any of them; and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, GOD GRANTS AND CREDITS to me THE PERFECT SATISFACTION, RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS OF CHRIST, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient AS CHRIST WAS OBEDIENT FOR ME.”

Now let me point out to you that it is not easy to make this your own confession, because, quite frankly, it is a pretty painful confession to make.  One which our natural heart and pride rebel against.

Let me put it to you as a question: Is this your conviction?  Does your conscience accuse you?  Are you aware that you are guilty of having sinned against all God’s commandments, and that by your disobedience you have terribly grieved God?  Do you think of yourself as someone who has never really kept any of God’s commandments in the right spirit, in your own strength?  Is it your experience that you are inclined to all evil?

That’s a terrible confession to have to make, isn’t it?  And the fact is that many people can’t honestly make that confession.  They don’t, and they can’t think of themselves as such a sinner.  They can’t admit to their sinfulness – either because they are blinded by pride; they have no honest self-knowledge; they refuse to look at themselves in the mirror of God’s Word.  Oh, they may be able and most willing even to point out the faults of others, but they can’t see their own failures.  And because they will not see their sin, they will not trust in Jesus alone.

Another reason why people can’t see their sinfulness is that they are afraid to do so.  They are afraid to admit that they are not good at heart.  To admit that would mean to admit that they are lost.  And since they do not believe in the Saviour of lost sinners, they can’t afford to admit that they are lost.  So they will try to persuade themselves that there must be some goodness somewhere in their life by which they can make themselves acceptable to God and escape His holy judgement.  There must be something that they can do.

I say it is very difficult to confess that you are a sinner at heart and that what you do, or try to do, you cannot make things right between God and yourself.  The Holy Spirit is needed to bring us to that awful conviction, that humiliating self- knowledge: I am a sinner.  Yes, only God Himself can humble us to the point that we can see, and will admit, that we are lost unless the Lord himself provides the rescue.  And that is what God is prepared to do; to provide the rescue for the lost; to provide the Saviour for sinners.

So the catechism goes on:

“NEVERTHELESS, OUT OF SHEER GRACE, WITHOUT MY DESERVING IT AT ALL, GOD GRANTS AND CREDITS TO ME THE PERFECT SATISFACTION, RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS OF CHRIST.”

Now, is that not an amazing GIFT!

Is that not an overwhelming contrast?

Here I am, a sinner, and there is Christ, the sinless One.

And God takes my sin – all of my sins – and puts them on Jesus.

And God takes all the love and obedience of Jesus and puts that on me.  That’s now yours, says God.

Jesus died for sin – His death is counted as my death.

His righteous obedience and perfect relationship with God is now given to me and counted as my righteous obedience and perfect relationship with God.  That’s why believers in Jesus Christ sing with Paul, “Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.”

You see why I asked at the beginning, what is more important to you?  What you do for God, or what God does for you?  What do you believe in?

What we have done for God, in our own will and strength is nothing – less than nothing.  We have sinned, we have failed, we have made a terrible botch up.  But God has done something which provides us with hope and a genuine future.  God has given us His Son, WHO HAS DONE IT ALL FOR US.

That is wonderful stuff, isn’t it?  Pretty humbling, too.  And that’s the difficult part – to have to admit that you can’t save yourself.  You’ve simply got nothing good to offer to God.  Nothing to boast of.  Nothing to be cocky about.  That is difficult.

We look around us, and before we know it, we are boasting that we are at least better than so-and-so.  We draw attention to ourselves, rather than to Jesus, the Saviour of failures.  Or, we defend ourselves by refusing to admit our failures.  We want to continue to hold our head high in our own right.  Oh, to humble ourselves before God…..!

I once talked to a dying lady about these things.  A friend had asked me to go and see her.  She was worried about her sins.  Worried that she had not done enough for God.  I urged her to put her trust in Jesus.  To believe in Him as the one who has done it all for us.  “That’s too easy,” she said.  Oh, to live only by what God GIVES in Jesus Christ…..!

All I need to do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart.  And maybe you find that difficult, too, because you still can’t accept or believe that you don’t have to deserve the love and grace of God.  Listen, the love of God is already there.  God does not need to be persuaded to love you.  He already does.  There is Jesus, the gift of His love.

Remember the verse, “God so loved the world…”?  Accept the love of God, accept the gift He offers.  Accept Jesus, His gift to a lost world.

I asked, “What do you believe in?”  Lord’s Day 23 of the Catechism is the conclusion to the Catechism’s explanation of the Apostles’ Creed.  It asks, “What good does it do you to believe all this?”

Yes, the Christian faith is the belief in God.  It is faith in the triune God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.

The Christian faith is acceptance of and trust in the grace work of this God.

So, believe in Jesus; believe that He is God’s Son; believe that He was sent to save sinners.

Believe Him, and you will find that all the tensions between you and God disappear.

Accept the gift of God!  Just put your hope on Jesus and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will fill your soul, because by faith in Him you will know that you are right with God.

Amen!