Theology

What is atonement and justification...


Atonement...

“We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” – Romans 5:11

The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. Christ is treated as if he were the sinner, and the sinner is treated as if he were the righteous one.

It is a change of persons — Christ becomes the sinner; he stands in the sinner’s place; he was numbered with the transgressors; the sinner becomes righteous; he stands in Christ’s place, and is numbered with the righteous ones. Christ has no sin of his own, but he takes human guilt, and is punished for human folly.

We have no righteousness of our own but we take the divine righteousness; we are rewarded for it, and stand accepted before God as though that righteousness had been earned by ourselves. “In due time Christ died for the ungodly,” (Romans 5:6) that he might take away their sins.

- Charles Spurgeon

Justification...

What Justification Means

To be justified means to be declared not guilty of all sin and penalty of God’s Law. God treats those who are justified as righteous and treats them as if they have kept all of His law.
How We’re Justified

We cannot justify ourselves by any work we do because our works fall short of God’s standard:

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Rom 3:23)

Justification is a gift from God:

“…and are justified by his grace as a gift…” (Rom 3:24)

The gift of justification is Christ taking our place in judgment by paying for our sins on the cross.

“…through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [payment] by his blood, (Rom 3:24-25)

At the cross we gave Christ our sin and He gave us His righteousness:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)

This gift is received by faith alone. This means trusting completely in Christ to pay the penalty of our sin:

“…to be received by faith.” (Rom 3:25)

“Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6) so that he might take away their sins. Christ has no sin of his own, but is punished for human sin. We have no righteousness of our own, but we take the divine righteousness when we come to Christ in faith, and now stand accepted before God.

http://biblestudyplanet.com/christianity-101-justification/

Psalm 40

~King David

Pity Parties

Psalm 139:16

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Nothing in our lives is accidental. Everything has a reason. It serves some purpose and was already preplanned long before we were ever born. That's God's sovereignity. He controls everything and micro manages even the smallest details of His creation

I use to have a lot of pity parties. I was the queen of feeling sorry for myself. Until recently I thought because I felt sorry for myself God must feel sorry for me too. I guess I wanted to be babied. Then I was shocked to learn God actually hates pity parties. Not because He's unfeeling or doesn't care. He just knows better and He knows when we feel sorry for ourselves it hinders progression and we're not trusting and depending on Him. He has plans for us and when we get stuck in a rut with self pity we can't move forward to what He's got ready for us

Some things are really scary. Some things are really confusing. Some things don't make sense and the weak creatures we are we're like deer in the headlights. We just freeze and shut down. When Moses was leaving Egypt with over 3 million Israelite slaves he had witnessed some of the greatest miracles mankind had ever saw in Egypt. After everything he and the 3 million people saw they get to the Red Sea. No one thought to try to get across the sea some how. No one thought to say "hey Moses why don't you go ask God what we should do now? We're kind of at a dead end if you haven't noticed." They just settled down on the shore started cooking and getting comfy

Suddenly the Egyptians are coming and they seem trapped between the sea and an army. The people start to freak and soon everyone's in a panic. After all the plagues they saw God send on Egypt for them, after the miracles and the massive provisions they witnessed and received...they're in absolute meltdown. They're screaming at each other and they're screaming at Moses and Aaron. It's total chaos. They accuse God and Moses of bringing them out from Egypt just to get them killed and they instantly throw the biggest pity party mankind had ever saw at that time minus the DJ

Moses starts yelling trying to encourage the people to be calm and not be afraid. To trust God because He would deliver them as He had been doing up until that moment. He had led them all that way and wasn't going to desert them now. After this stirring speech Moses turned away from the people and toward the sea and starts crying to God begging Him to do something. I love what God says "The LORD said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.' " Exodus 14:15

I can't judge the Israelites though. I would have done the same thing. It wasn't until the people started heading toward the sea that God parted it. He could have easily done it while they were freaking out to calm them down a little but He didn't. He wanted them trusting Him and believing Him up until the very last second
despite their fear and how bad things looked because "The just shall live by faith." Habukkuk 2:4 and "without faith it is impossible to please God." Hebrews 11:6. Like I hear all the time from Sharbel "God gives us everything we need to live a life in obedience to Him but we must put forth the effort"

God doesn't bring any of us into a terrible situation to dump us off and watch the slaughter while He eats popcorn. He does it to teach us about Him and to strengthen our faith when we do see Him act. Once in a while I start throwing a pity party but then I'm reminded that as long as I'm sitting here feeling sorry for myself nothing is getting done and most importantly nothing is happening

Good grief!! Talk about hearing the truth! I can definitely relate to what he's saying especially about the center and citadel of your life and how it gets shattered....totally annihilated. Perfect illustration! Whenever I would try to explain it to someone everything just got confusing

Matthew 5:29-30
"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."




tnx for fixing the vid Sharb :)