What is justification? It is the declared purpose of God to regard and treat sinners who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as if they had not sinned, on the ground of the merits of the Saviour.
It is not mere pardon. Pardon is a free forgiveness of past offenses. The offenses are still on your record … just pardoned.
Justification needs pardon first but also respects the sinner in regard to his past conduct and to God’s future dealings with him … as though he had never sinned. God now looks at the believer through the filter of Jesus.
A Saviour was provided … before sin was committed … and the method of man's redemption was settled even before his creation without any regard to any works or merits of men. Man's redemption is wholly owing to the sovereign will and grace of God.
God alone has saved us. God all by Himself took on the responsibility of man's salvation.
None has said it better than the writer of The Book of Hebrews when he wrote about the finished work of Jesus as our High Priest …
Hebrews 9:26 … "But as it now is, He has once for all … appeared to put away and abolish sin by His sacrifice of Himself. And having been offered … once and once for all …" (Amplified Bible)
Never again will another offering, sacrifice or even "good works" be needed or accepted by God. "It is finished."
Do you know … you displease God … if you are trying to make your salvation more secure by good works?
An example is given in the O.T. to show the importance of the completed work of Christ on the cross. Moses when bringing forth water in the wilderness was unaware of what his actions meant but he had to pay just the same.
In Exodus 17:6, God told Moses to strike this one rock with his rod and water would flow freely out of it.
Paul stated in 1st Corinthians 10:4 … "The Rock was Christ" … meaning the rock that followed Israel through the desert for forty years and gave all of Israel water to drink.
After traveling to another camp, the rock that followed them needed its water to start flowing again for the people. God gives Moses a new command …
Numbers 20:8 … "Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock …"
Numbers 20:11-12 … "And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them."
Why wasn't Moses allowed to enter the Promised Land with Israel?
The Rock … Christ … once smitten did not need to be struck again, meaning to be crucified again. Moses was just to speak to the rock and it, Christ, would give His life giving water.
To smite the rock twice was to imply that Christ's death on the cross… was not effectual or sufficient … more had to be done.
Even though Moses was not aware of the significance of what he had been ordered to do, nevertheless God held him responsible for not obeying His command. Because of striking the rock twice, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land with the rest of his people.
Obedience to God's will is important and must be followed, whether or not we understand His purpose.
I would be doing the Word of God injustice, if I were to conclude from both Paul's teaching as well as this lesson with Moses, that Christ's death on the cross was not sufficient; that God the Father sent Jesus to only go part of the way; that Jesus didn't pay the full price for sin; that just a little more is required; that we must somehow work, earn or add to whatever is needed to complete our salvation.
When believers in Christ somehow feel the need to do something more than just simply believe that Jesus paid the price … they are doing exactly what Moses did; and that is … to imply that Christ's death on the cross … was not effectual or sufficient … more has to be done.
That action kept Moses from the Promised Land. Remember, the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 5:4 that believers can … "fall from grace" by going back under "the covenant of works."
I guess my question would be … "If you are fallen from grace, will that keep you out of our promised land, Heaven?"
Jesus said … "It is finished." Nothing more can be added or should be added to what Jesus did on the cross. God wouldn't accept it anyway.
It has never been about us, what we do … it's always been about "Jesus" and what He has already done.
Hebrews 8:6-8 … "He (Jesus) is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second … "
All believers should have "good works" in their lives. But these actions or works, should be "automatic" … they should just happen; the love of God in us should birth them in our lives.
Do we do them automatically out of love; or do we do them … "to make our salvation more secure?"
Nicholas Herman, the seventeenth century Carmelite monk from French Lorraine, known as Brother Lawrence once said … "God judges not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed."
Finally … all of us need to judge the "motive" behind why we work for the Lord.
