15-06-2025, 01:25 AM
(13-06-2025, 01:09 AM)S I M T A N Wrote: You can express any opinions you want by pulling scriptures out of context, but you couldn't prove your beliefs if you included the preceding and proceeding verses in the context.
"He (violator of the law) shall be called the least in the kingdom" (Matt 5:19). Now the proceeding verse, "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 5:20).
The one occasion where Jesus actually declared someone "justified" provides the best insight into the doctrine (of justification by faith alone) as He taught it. Jesus told the all too familiar parable that shocked His listeners. Their theological heroes were the Pharisees who held the most rigid legalistic standards. They fasted, made a great show of praying and giving alms, and were committed to showing their sincere love for God with their careful observance of God's laws. And like you, they trust in themselves and tend to scorn people who do not abide by the rules.
Jesus astounded His listeners with that parable that seems to place a detestable tax-gatherer in a better position spiritually than a praying Pharisee. He also said, "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48). Clearly, Jesus set a standard that was humanly impossible, for no one could surpass the rigorous living of the scribes and Pharisees. If the standard is divine perfection, how could a traitorous tax-collector ever become just in God's eyes?
The only possible answer is that he received a righteousness that was not his own (Phil 3:9). Righteousness was imputed to him by faith (Rom 4:9-11). Whose righteousness was reckoned to him? It could only be the perfect righteousness of a flawless Substitute who in turn must bear the tax-gatherer's sins and suffer the penalty of God's wrath in his place. And the gospel tells us that is precisely what Jesus did. The tax-gatherer was justified. God declared him righteous, imputing to him the full and perfect righteousness of Christ, forgiving him of all unrighteousness, and delivering him from all condemnation. Forever thereafter he stood before God on the ground of a perfect righteousness that had been reckoned to his account.
That's what justification means. It's the only true gospel. All other points of theology emanate from it. The doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. The difference between sola fide and every other formula for justification is as clear as day. You cannot go wrong on this point without ultimately corrupting every other doctrine as well. And that's why every "different gospel" that you preach is under the eternal curse of God.