Essay Three: Two ways to Heaven.
The following is written for those who would consider themselves Christians. Man’s salvation can be divided into three distinct parts: a beginning, middle, and end. The theological term most often used in scripture to describe the beginning part is “justify,” literally meaning to set right according to a standard. Biblically speaking, when man is justified he is set right to God’s standard. Righteousness is also a term frequently used to describe the beginning part of man’s salvation and it is no mere coincidence that in Greek, the language the New Testament was originally written in, the same word for justify is the same word for righteousness- the only distinction is in how the word used (as a verb, noun, adjective, etc.) How does one attain this facet of salvation? One of two ways.
The first way is to live up to God’s moral standard throughout our lives. What is God’s moral standard? Perfection, God’s standard for everyone is to live a morally perfect life. Before we begin to write this off as ridiculously rigorous, stop and think. If God was less than perfect would He really be God? Would it be right to call something that is bad, good? Not something arbitrarily bad or even something that is bad from a merely human perspective, but something that is objectively and absolutely not good? Trying to live up to God’s moral standard for our justification is absurdly difficult; in fact it is impossible, as Romans 3:10-11, 20 say, “There is none righteous, no not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seek after God… Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight…” What does this mean for us individually, if we can not live morally perfect lives? First it means that we can not justify (or save) ourselves. Secondly, it means that we are guilty before God’s standard of righteousness and in danger of facing its penalty. What is its penalty? Hell. A place of eternal torment separated from God forever. So how the hell do we get out of hell if it is impossible to justify ourselves according to God’s standard of righteousness?
God’s grace. We can not attain God’s moral standard of righteousness but we can be gifted it through faith. There are many numerous statements in the Bible that teach this all important truth, but few are as clear as Paul’s remarks in Romans 3:21-24. “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe…for all have sinned and are falling short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” Meditate for a moment on the truth “we are justified freely by His grace.” What does this mean? Is there anything that we must do aside from trust him for our justification? Is the onus on our efforts at all? No! We are not made righteous on behalf of our own imperfect works, but on behalf of the perfect and finished work of Christ Jesus. This is where our justification lies.
How does this work? It is all God and a little faith. God fulfilled His own standard for righteousness when He came to earth and assumed a human body. Jesus of Nazareth was fully God, morally perfect, and fully man, able to die. Romans 3:25-6 tells us that “God set (Jesus) forth as a propitiation (a payment or substitute) by His blood (on the cross), through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins previously committed (ours) to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be the just (God is the one who is perfect) and the justifier (God is the one who makes us perfect) of the one who has faith in Jesus.” In other words, when we trust God for our salvation[1] He exchanges all of our works of unrighteousness and swaps them for the perfect righteousness of Christ. As a result we become guiltless for all of our transgressions and the punishment for our sins is paid for in full in Christ’s death on the cross.
How is this fair? It isn’t, but Jesus willingly took on our sins on his behalf when He submitted His will to His Father’s in Gethsemane. His death, the death of the infinite being of God, is sufficient for every one of everyone’s sins throughout the history of time. God gifts us His righteousness when we trust in Jesus for our salvation. There is nothing left to be done for us to be made or to remain righteous because of the finished work of Christ. But there are still two more aspects of salvation remaining.
[1] In the Justification sense
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