Participants: Shelley Quinn
Series Code: GPL
Program Code: GPL000008S
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00:01 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:02 Did you know that our loving God 00:04 is willing and able to pardon you of all of your sins? 00:07 Please join us now on "The Grace Pipeline" 00:09 and we will look at what the Bible has to say 00:13 about God's amazing gift of righteousness by faith. 00:40 Welcome to "The Grace Pipeline." 00:42 Today, our hearts will be blessed as we consider 00:45 God's promise of justification by grace 00:49 through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. 00:54 This is the first stage of salvation, justification. 00:58 It is the foundation of our hope for eternal life. 01:02 In this series, we are following a Bible study book 01:05 that I was given the privilege to write. 01:08 And if you're following along in the series companion book, 01:12 "The Grace Pipeline," we are beginning today on chapter 5. 01:16 One thing that we have previously established 01:19 in this series is that Jesus Christ 01:22 is the greatest gift of grace that God 01:25 ever gave to humanity. 01:28 But have you ever wondered how could the Lord 01:33 of glory be nailed to the cross? 01:36 How could the heart of humanity devise an execution 01:40 of such appalling savagery? 01:43 How could the jealousy of religious leaders 01:47 inflict such intense cruelty on the sinless son of God? 01:53 Though we may struggle with these thoughts, 01:55 we must accept what Peter said in 1 Peter 1:20 02:00 and Revelation 13:8 also, reveals that God's eternal 02:05 counsel determined Calvary's event before He established 02:11 the foundations of the world. 02:14 To indict all who are guilty of the death of Christ, 02:18 we must look beyond the Romans 02:20 and the highest Jewish council of the Sanhedrin 02:24 to include you and me. 02:26 The Savior suffered to secure our justification by grace. 02:30 It was the will of God to provide 02:32 the Calvary plan for our salvation. 02:36 God has--in His unique knowledge, 02:39 He has knowledge of the future and tells us 02:43 in Isaiah 46:10 that He declares the end from the beginning. 02:48 Being the very essence of love Himself, 02:51 He knows the power of love is the power of choice. 02:56 And if you think about that for a moment, 02:58 a forced or coerced response cannot be defined as love. 03:05 So by His design, all created beings have free will. 03:11 The Lord declares in Jeremiah 31:3, 03:14 "I have loved you with an everlasting love. 03:18 Therefore with loving kindness, I have drawn you." 03:22 Our creator sought to establish a relationship of trust 03:26 with humanity by wooing us with unfailing love. 03:31 But the all-knowing God had foreseen the future of mankind. 03:35 We would break His gracious commandments of covenant love 03:40 and reject our Lord, the holy one we would reject, 03:44 resolved to be our redeemer before He created us. 03:50 To provide the guilty human race of His forgiveness 03:53 of sin by grace, God initially instituted 03:57 the sacrificial system. 03:58 And that served His purpose well until the fullness of time, 04:02 a perfect time predetermined by the Lord when God Himself 04:07 would step in to save us. 04:09 The willing servant of salvation, Jesus Christ 04:12 could have at any moment called upon His Father 04:16 who would have sent legions of angels 04:19 to save Him from the cruel cross of Calvary, 04:22 but He did not. 04:23 The Son desired to honor His father 04:26 by fulfilling God given promises. 04:29 God had gladdened the heart of the patriarch Abraham 04:33 when he showed him the day of Christ. 04:35 Jesus actually said in John 8:56, 04:38 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. 04:43 He saw it and was glad." 04:47 Abraham, foreseeing the death and resurrection 04:50 of God's sacrificed son, Abraham's faith 04:54 prompted him to obey a very severe test 04:58 of his own willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac 05:02 who was his son of promise. 05:05 Genesis Chapter 22 records the account 05:09 of how the patriarch proved his faith and loyalty. 05:13 God proved His plan, too, of extreme grace. 05:17 What Abraham did, laying the wood 05:20 for the altar of burnt offering on his son's back, 05:23 Abraham took the fire pot and a knife 05:26 and he began the journey to a mountain 05:29 which God had appointed. 05:31 As the old father and his son Isaac 05:34 made the trek to Mount Moriah, 05:36 the strapping young man asked, 05:38 "Father, where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 05:43 And Abraham spoke prophetically 05:45 when he answered in Genesis 22:8, he said, 05:49 "My son, God will provide for Himself 05:53 the lamb for a burnt offering." 05:56 That very day, God supernaturally provided 05:59 the ram caught in a thicket as the pledge 06:03 of his promised son Jesus Christ. 06:06 And nearly 2,000 years later, Roman soldiers laid 06:10 the wood of the offering on Christ's back. 06:14 Carrying his cross, they led the supernaturally 06:17 provided Lamb of God outside the gates of Jerusalem 06:21 to a little knoll, the Hil of Calvary, 06:24 the appointed place near Mount Moriah. 06:28 Abraham as a prophet and all the prophets of God 06:33 throughout ancient history knew this day was coming. 06:37 It is written in 1 Peter 1:10, 11, 06:41 "Of this salvation the prophets have inquired 06:44 and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace 06:48 that would come to you, searching what, or what 06:52 manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them 06:56 was indicating when He testified beforehand 07:00 the sufferings of Christ 07:02 and the glories that would follow." 07:06 Isaiah prophesied of Christ's death 07:08 and the unsearchable riches of his sacrifice in chapter 53 07:12 of the Old Testament book identified by his name. 07:15 And the prophet compared humanity 07:18 to dumb, straying sheep. 07:21 A people prone to wander from a loving shepherd 07:24 and inclined to transgress his holy laws. 07:28 It paints a pretty fitting picture, don't you think? 07:32 Well, in verse 5, he says that he saw that 07:35 "Christ was wounded for our transgressions." 07:39 And then in verse 12, he saw that 07:41 "Christ poured out His soul unto death." 07:45 The God of heaven would descend to become flesh 07:49 and stand in as the suffering servant of humanity. 07:53 In an act of lavish love, the Messiah would offer His life 07:58 as a ransom for everyone who calls 08:01 on His name for salvation. 08:04 Let's look at what the prophet recorded in Isaiah 53:10 and 11. 08:10 And he says, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, 08:15 He has put Him to grief. 08:17 When You make His soul an offering for sin, 08:20 He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, 08:24 and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 08:28 He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied. 08:32 By His knowledge my righteous servant shall justify many, 08:37 for He shall bear their iniquities." 08:43 The heavenly Father revealed to Isaiah, 08:46 He would lay all of our sins on His Son at the cross 08:51 and be pleased that justice would be served. 08:54 Divine mercy would be multiplied to miserable mankind, 08:59 the sacrifice would not be in vain. 09:02 Perhaps one of the most glorious scriptures in the Bible 09:05 is that found in 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says, 09:12 "He made him, speaking of Jesus, who knew no sin 09:17 to be sin for us, that we might become 09:21 the righteousness of God in Him." 09:25 In the covenant transaction of the cross, 09:29 God reckoned our sins to Christ to count that he could reckon 09:34 or impute Christ's righteousness to us through faith. 09:38 This exchange puts repentant sinners 09:41 in right standing with God. 09:44 Isaiah saw God's Calvary plan in vision 09:48 and joyfully proclaimed in Isaiah 61:10, 09:53 "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, 09:56 my soul shall be joyful in my God, 10:00 for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, 10:04 He has covered me with the robe of righteousness." 10:09 Are you wearing that blessed robe of righteousness? 10:13 To be made righteous involves 10:14 the whole proceeding of God's justice. 10:17 And let me tell you, nothing you can do 10:19 will satisfy that process. 10:22 He brings you into a right relationship with Himself 10:26 by causing you to be everything He calls you to be. 10:30 In other words, your maker makes you all that He requires 10:34 you to be through your relationship with Jesus Christ. 10:39 Righteousness by faith is the only way 10:42 that unholy humanity can acquire 10:45 right standing before a holy God. 10:47 That which we vainly consider our own righteous acts, 10:51 maybe it's our best human efforts 10:53 to decontaminate ourselves from sin is revealed 10:57 by Isaiah 64:6, to be nothing more 11:02 than polluted filthy rag in the brilliant light 11:06 of God's Shekinah glory. 11:08 Only Christ's spotless robe will suffice. 11:13 My Heavenly Father knows how I struggled to be right 11:17 with Him during my earlier experience 11:19 and how utterly discouraged I became. 11:23 No one ever told me that He never intended 11:26 his commandments to serve as a precondition of salvation. 11:30 My family and my church instructed me, 11:33 I had to be perfect before God for Him to love me. 11:37 And perfection was beyond my grasp 11:40 but I continuously strained to reach it. 11:44 At times I felt so defeated, I simply quit trying. 11:48 And I couldn't measure up to God's standards, 11:50 so I quit trying and I walked away from Him. 11:54 Rules without relationship most frequently result in rebellion. 11:59 You know, God taught me finally, 12:02 that righteousness was mine for the asking. 12:05 A gift he offered freely and as I tapped into 12:09 the grace pipeline, His flow of virtue flooded 12:14 and relaxed my anxious heart. 12:16 God accepted me in his beloved son. 12:19 Drawing near, I allowed him to embrace me 12:22 and I learned to respond to my Father with respect 12:27 for our covenant relationship of love. 12:29 And obedience became an expression 12:33 of my appreciation for salvation. 12:36 Justified by His grace, 12:38 I learned to live in His power by faith. 12:42 I finally learnt what the Apostle Paul 12:44 had learned and stated so eloquently in Romans 1:16, 17. 12:51 Paul writes, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, 12:56 for it is the power of God to salvation 13:00 for everyone who believes. 13:02 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed 13:06 from faith to faith, as it is written, 13:10 'the just shall live by faith.'" 13:16 These words written by God's most ardent ambassador 13:20 for righteousness by faith resulted from Paul's personal 13:24 encounter with the Shekinah glory of Jesus 13:28 on the road to Damascus. 13:30 The religious zealot formerly called by the name Saul 13:34 had been vainly striving to serve God. 13:38 Instead, in his educated egotistical efforts, 13:42 he persecuted God's cause until he met the Lord of glory. 13:46 Paul immediately, when he met Jesus, 13:50 he immediately surrendered his will to the perfect will of God 13:54 and recognizing that no one can be justified 13:58 by the works of God's law but only by faith in Jesus. 14:03 He dropped his filthy rag endeavors and received 14:06 the robe of Christ's righteousness. 14:09 In Philippians 3:9, Paul later described righteousness 14:14 as coming by faith from God through faith in Christ. 14:20 How many people are there today who call themselves Christians 14:24 yet spoil the Lord's plan of salvation with dependence 14:28 upon their own filthy rag efforts? 14:31 Miserable in life, their actions are absolute nonsense to God 14:36 and often a nuisance to their neighbor. 14:39 The Bible warns those who attempt to earn salvation 14:43 by works and who attempt to be justified by keeping the law, 14:48 that they have become separated from grace, 14:52 separated from Christ and fallen from grace. 14:56 Look at Paul's warning found in Galatians 5:4, 15:01 "You have become estranged from Christ, 15:06 you who attempt to be justified by law, 15:10 you have fallen from grace." 15:13 Paul told the Galatians in Chapter 2:21, 15:16 he said, "I do not set aside the grace of God, 15:19 for if righteousness comes through the law, 15:22 then Christ died in vain." 15:24 If we want to take Paul's thought a step further, 15:27 if God can make us righteous by forgiving our sins 15:31 simply because He loved us, by necessity, 15:34 we must count the cross of Christ a mockery. 15:39 God's great moral law, the Ten Commandments, 15:41 are the foundation of His government 15:44 which He cannot simply ignore. 15:46 He spoke and wrote them in words laced with echoes of His grace. 15:51 Even the preamble to his law of love 15:53 which began in Exodus 20:2, it starts with these words. 16:00 "I am the Lord your God who brought you out 16:03 of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." 16:06 Do you see what God did? 16:08 He first established the fact 16:10 that He was their loving redeemer. 16:12 And then in Exodus 19:4-6, God told his people, 16:20 "You have seen how I bore you on eagle wings 16:24 and brought you to myself. 16:26 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice 16:30 and keep my covenant, 16:32 then you shall be a special treasure to me 16:35 above all people and you shall be to me 16:39 a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." 16:45 God was saying in essence, I have delivered you because 16:49 I desire a relationship with you. 16:52 If you love Me, you will keep My law of covenant love 16:56 that I give You to provide boundaries 16:59 for the blessed and holy life. 17:02 You know, in the original Hebrew language, 17:05 His Ten Commandments are written 17:07 in positive language not negative. 17:10 God was giving them ten promises that His love 17:14 would empower them to live by. 17:16 The people committed rapidly to a covenant 17:19 relationship with their deliverer. 17:21 Then, in a display of His power and holiness from Mount Sinai, 17:26 God reinforced His eternal moral principles 17:30 and standing at a distance, 17:33 the witnesses of His awesome glory trembled. 17:37 God purposed His commandments to serve as guard rails 17:41 along life's treacherous path 17:43 to protect humanity from falling into sin. 17:47 Those who accept righteousness by faith will receive power 17:52 from a spirit filled life to prove that God's commandments 17:56 circumference the abundant life of righteousness. 18:00 Although the cross of Christ became Paul's great boast, 18:04 he clearly pointed out faith does not nullify 18:08 or make void the law, but rather established it. 18:14 Scripture describes two types of righteousness 18:17 God pours out by grace. 18:19 Let's look at those. 18:21 First, there is the imputed righteousness of Christ 18:25 that's the record of His perfect moral character 18:28 and His complete conformity to God's commandments 18:31 that's credited to us and this reconciles us to God. 18:36 And then second, there is the imparted righteousness 18:40 of Christ which empowers us to live a holy life. 18:45 We will consider imputed righteousness now. 18:49 If this is your first time to examine the process, 18:53 you are heading toward a discovery 18:56 that will delight your heart. 18:58 If this is only something that serves as a review for you, 19:03 it is something maybe you previously studied, 19:06 may the reminder of God's promises revive you. 19:10 To impute means to reckon or take into account. 19:16 As a figure of speech, it means to credit to a person's account. 19:21 To help explain imputed righteousness, 19:24 let me first offer an illustration. 19:27 Here is my related but certainly imperfect concept. 19:33 Let's say through foolish and deceptive practices 19:36 you have amassed a bank debt of $10 billion. 19:41 Although you are now remorseful and desire to make things right, 19:46 the fact is, you could work overtime 19:48 for the rest of your life 19:50 and never earn enough to pay off your load. 19:53 The legal action that you now face just grips 19:57 your heart with anxiety. 19:59 Will the judge sentence you to perish in prison? 20:02 Aware of your pitiful plight, 20:04 the CEO of the world banking organization 20:08 steps forward to be your benefactor. 20:11 International law prevents him simply from erasing 20:15 the records of your account. 20:17 Rather with mystifying mercy and generosity, 20:21 he covers your debt by assuming it. 20:25 He hands you a legal draft to transfer your debt 20:28 to his personal account and his good credit to yours. 20:32 You don't know him, why is he being so generous? 20:37 Still, in faith of his honorable reputation, 20:40 you rush the document to the bank to execute 20:43 the transaction and see if it's real. 20:46 And your bank ledger is changed, your debt is canceled 20:51 and the account is reconciled. 20:53 Now the banking institution looks on you 20:56 with favor prepared to do business with you again. 21:00 Can you imagine the feelings of new found loyalty 21:03 you would have for your gracious benefactor? 21:07 Well, as imperfect as that illustration may be, 21:10 it gives you an idea of the incredible heavenly 21:14 transaction that imputes Christ's righteousness 21:18 to repentant sinners. 21:19 All the natural descendants of Adam, including you and me, 21:23 are born with a propensity to break God's holy laws. 21:28 Our fallen nature is not in right standing 21:31 with a righteous God. 21:33 We owe a sin debt, 21:35 we could never repay since penalty is death. 21:39 A lifetime of good works could not earn eternal life. 21:44 Now we understand the problem our loving 21:47 and just heavenly Father faced. 21:50 Justice demanded that he take--not take an indifferent 21:55 approach to his laws of love set in stone. 21:59 Justice must be served. 22:01 To remain the just one, He became the justifier 22:05 demonstrating His unfailing love toward us 22:08 in sending His son to assume our debt 22:11 by standing in as our substitute in death. 22:14 At the moment that we accept Christ as our Savior 22:17 and the propitiation of our sins, He eliminates our debt 22:22 and becomes the source of our credit. 22:25 His atoning blood covers our sin. 22:28 His perfect character of righteousness and the perfect 22:32 obedience of his record are metaphorically credited 22:37 to our overdrawn spiritual account. 22:40 The books of heaven are reconciled, 22:42 the ledger of our balance sheet is changed 22:46 because of our vital connection to Christ, 22:48 the debt of our past sins is blotted out and a divine quality 22:54 that is not ours is accounted to us. 22:58 God restores us to His holy favor. 23:00 Now our natural response is a surge of loyalty and love 23:06 for the one who loves us and gave Himself for us. 23:12 In Romans 4:11, Paul defines that process 23:16 as imputed righteousness. 23:18 By God's abundant grace given in the person of Jesus Christ, 23:24 he puts us in right standing before Him, 23:27 which makes it possible for him to declare us justified. 23:32 Then Paul wrote these amazing 23:35 words in Romans 5:17-18, 23:41 "For if by Adam's offense death reigned through the one, 23:47 reigned through Adam, much more those who receive 23:51 abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness 23:57 will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 24:01 "Therefore as through one man's offense" 24:05 through Adam's offense, he's speaking of, 24:07 "judgment came to all men, 24:09 resulting in condemnation even so Christ's righteous act 24:15 the free gift came to all men 24:18 resulting in justification of life. 24:21 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, 24:25 so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous." 24:31 Oh, I love that. 24:33 Through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. 24:36 God's gospel of grace is so exciting. 24:40 Everything that we have considered thus far, 24:44 has been leading us up to this climactic moment, 24:48 justification by grace through the imputed 24:51 righteousness of Christ. 24:53 This is the first stage of salvation. 24:57 It is the foundation of our hope for eternal life. 25:01 And at this point, it is our record that is changed, 25:06 not necessarily our character. 25:09 Since God loves us too much to leave us 25:12 in our miserable condition, he affects a change 25:16 of our character in the second stage of salvation, 25:20 labeled sanctification. 25:23 And we will explore that exciting truth 25:26 in our next program as we gradually 25:30 unfold God's marvelous plan of grace. 25:34 Remember, God's love 25:36 is the compelling force behind His grace. 25:40 Grace is the pipeline 25:43 through which all blessings flow from heaven to earth. 25:47 Faith is the faucet, it is the how we tap into God's 25:52 grace pipeline and our faith regulates the release 25:56 of blessings from His great reservoir. 25:59 Now what is prayer? 26:01 It's the handle that opens the faith faucet 26:05 and trust is the foundation for the prayer of faith. 26:10 Now what's a foundation for trust? 26:14 Has to be relationship. 26:15 You don't really trust people you don't know all that well. 26:19 But when we have that relationship 26:22 as the foundation for trust, we have to ask ourselves, 26:26 what is the foundation for relationship? 26:29 Love, love is the foundation for relationship. 26:34 And when we recognize how much our God loves us, 26:40 then we begin to have reciprocal feelings of loving Him. 26:46 So that is what is important to us, 26:48 is to understand God's love. 26:52 For us to learn to love Him 26:54 with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, 26:57 and develop that intimate relationship 27:01 and that would develop our trust. 27:04 And when that trust has been developed, 27:07 we will pray with all of our might and that will help us 27:11 with our actions of faith so that we can 27:14 tap into the grace pipeline. 27:16 Well, our time is fast slipping away today. 27:20 We hope that you would join us again on our next program, 27:24 where we are going to define 27:26 the legal transaction of justification. 27:31 You won't want to miss this upcoming program. 27:34 Because what we will learn is how to live at peace 27:39 with our past when you tap into God's grace pipeline 27:43 and receive the abundance He wants to give you. 27:48 Now don't forget what we just looked at in Romans 5:17, 27:52 that those who receive an abundance of grace 27:55 and the gift of righteousness 27:57 will reign in life through Christ Jesus. |
Revised 2024-07-10