Justified in Christ

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to his death, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:7-11

As we continued through Philippians in Christian education Sunday, Mike focused on Paul's personal account of his justification in Christ described in these verses. How we are justified before God is probably the most important doctrine in Christianity, and there is certainly much confusion and false-teaching about justifying faith, even among "evangelicals". Mike provided this definition from the Westminster Confession: "Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby he, being convinced of this sin and misery, and of the inability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assents to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receives and rests upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation." To clarify this confession, Mike identified the following truths of every Christian:

1. A Christian realizes that he can do nothing to earn or merit his salvation - a person's upbringing, church membership, baptism, good works, etc. have no part in salvation.

2. A Christian comes to the place where he is convicted of sin, sorrows over sin, and repents of his sin.

3. A Christian realizes that salvation can only be found in Christ alone.

4. By faith, a Christian calls upon the Lord and looks to Christ alone for salvation and receives Christ as his Lord and Savior.

5. A Christian is immediately forgiven, reconciled to God, and becomes part of the family of God.

6. Out of gratitude and love, a Christian obeys the Lord and grows in knowledge of Him.

To conclude the lesson, Mike made the very important point that it is not the strength of our faith that saves us from our sin; Christ saves us. Faith is the gift of grace given to us by God so that we are able to receive Christ as He is offered in the gospel. Faith itself has no merit for salvation; all merit is in Christ alone.