October 28

Justification by Faith

By Oswald Chambers

If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10


I am not saved by believing I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with God?

It is never that! I am made right with God because, prior to all of that, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places me into a right relationship with God.

And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, or because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done.

The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don't know how it was accomplished.

The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic, but on the sacrificial death of Jesus.

We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through their repentance or their belief, but through the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus which preceded all of our experience (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We do not have to accomplish these things ourselves they have been accomplished through the atonement of the Cross of Christ.

The supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God, and there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done "It is finished!" (John 19:30).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L

October 29

Substitution

By Oswald Chambers

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21


The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was "madeto be sin."

Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason.

We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take "away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior.
In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father," was spoken to His disciples.

That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that "He died for all" (2 Corinthians 5:15) not, "He died my death" and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me.

The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).


WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest GoodThy Great Redemption, 565 L

Say your special prayers for DiDi and Moon. Basketball is nothing in comparison to to their health bother.

Green&GoldStandard said:

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Say your special prayers for DiDi and Moon. Basketball is nothing in comparison to to their health bother.

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Absolutely will.
If you are free to share any details please send me a PM. Thanks, and God bless.

October 30

Faith

By Oswald Chambers

Without faith it is impossible to please Him Hebrews 11:6


Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship.

Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short.

Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. "We know that all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God's providence transforms perfect faith into reality.

Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first.

The life of faith says, "Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I'm going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word" (for example, see Matthew 6:33).

Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us.

Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can't have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless.

Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.


WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L

October 31

The Trial of Faith

By Oswald Chambers

If you have faith as small as a mustard seednothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20


We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work.

Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings.

The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to "walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5:7).

And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds.

Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive.

Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him a faith that says, "I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do."

The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15).

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L