David Westerfield

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
> Romans 3:20

What a remarkable verse this is. It sums up so much thought on religion, moralism, and every other way, besides the gospel of Jesus Christ, of entering the Kingdom of Heaven. If the scriptures are the inerrant Word of God, given to us as God’s words Himself, then this verse is saying what God states concerning works of the law. And what He says, through the apostle Paul, is that by works of of the law, by your own moral toiling and by the sweat of your brow, you cannot present yourself clean, without impurity before the God of the universe. It is not possible. In fact, just to go a step further, Paul didn’t just leave it there, but he then adds, “Since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” But what does that have to do with anything in this context? We go from speaking of justification to talking about the knowledge of sin coming through the law.

So what’s the point? He’s saying that you cannot be justified by works of the law because through them comes the knowledge of sin, and through the knowledge of sin you then, because of your sinful nature begin to do the very things the law tells us not to do. And in reading further on in Romans 7:7-8, Paul qualifies this by saying, “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.” And so we see that the law cannot justify us because we are that desperately wicked.

So many Christians out there will say, “God helps those who help themselves.” But the Biblical response to people who think this, is that God helps those who can’t help themselves and give up on their own righteousness and trying to please God on their own moral strength (Isaiah 65:1-2). What’s the answer though if we’re helpless to help ourselves? Faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Belive in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Justification before the Father, being presented clean without spot or blemish, cannot be accomplished of your own moral working, but can only become yours through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, through Christ, we can be presented clean because He was clean and yet still went to the cross for us who believe, taking on our filth called sin and its deserved penalty, that we might be clean before Him forever. It’s called the Great Exchange.

By faith in Christ, He being perfect, takes on our sin and its penalty, and then in exchange gives us His very righteousness. Or to put in theological terms, by faith in Christ, our sin and the deserved wrath of God as a result is imputed to Him on the cross, and in return, He imputes His righteousness to us. This is the only way we can be presented perfect and righteous before God almighty. Nothing else will do. Christianity is the only religion with a suffering deity, where God actually humbles Himself and becomes one of His own creation, uniting His deity to humanity. His name is Christ. He was fully man and fully God at the same time. Two natures consisting in one Messiah.

Many people think of God as being angry and furious and asking, “How can He allow such awful things to happen in the world? If He only knew what it was like.” Well, actually, He does. Christ experienced more pain and torment than we can possibly imagine. And I’m not talking about the physical pain He experienced on the cross. I’m talking about the pain deep within His soul as He experienced the full fury and wrath of God for sinners. God knows what pain is and has Himself experienced it. And we cannot even begin to compare our pain and misery to His. And it is through this pain and suffering that christ has purchased pardon for any who would believe in Him. Believe in Jesus and you will be saved. There is salvation in no one else. Acts 4:12 confirms this, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

I was reading in Zechariah today and it has made me so excited about the day of the Lord, where He will destroy the wicked and all wickedness, and bring perfect restoration and fullness to His people. Man, how I yearn for that day! I started reading from ch. 9 to the end, and it just makes me so hopeful in the perfect promise God has made to bring eternal renewal to those who believe in His Son for salvation, where He cleanse us once and for all from all sin, that will be rid of that which temporarily bears down on us now. We will be free sin! After reading Zechariah, I then flipped over to Revelation 22 where the river of the water of life is coming out of the new Jerusalem and how all things will be perfect! What an amazing hope we have in Christ, that one day He make all things new, where there will be no more destruction, war, death, suffering, famine, chaos, drout, financial woes, pain, strife, tears, persecution, corruption, futility! It just makes me want to push on to know Christ more and make Him known to everyone I know that we might all be saved from His wrath. On that day, all the things wrong with this world will be wiped away and all things will be made new; a place where there will be no more need for the light of the sun and stars, but God Himself will be our light, and so much more infinitely beautiful and glorious! How I love You, great and mighty King, You are faithful through the ages, You never change!

As believers in the Son of God, who purchased us with His own precious blood on the cross, who are we to become proud or boastful in anything we ever do? “All things are from Him and to Him and for Him,” to His glory. “What have you that you did not receive?” The point of the Christian life is not so much that we merely get blessed by God and then move on with our lives, that we just store up and receive blessings. No, the point of the Christian life is that we are so caught up in God, who He is, what He’s done in Christ, and giving glory to Him for all of it, that our lives are radically changed to love Him more, in word and deed, to the point of selflessly pouring ourselves out for others to bring them into the kingdom of God.

The Christian life is forgetting about yourself, being so caught up in and awestruck by the power, might, love, justice, and mercy of God toward you and I, wicked sinners, and by the power of the Spirit in the regeneration of our souls, living a life that reflects the work He’s done in us to give us the knowledge of Himself and His worth. The Christian life is about finding your ultimate joy, ultimate satisfaction, finding your reason for being, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, every single day. And in finding all of these things in Christ, we can’t help but want others to know of His value, telling them about what we’ve “seen and heard,” so much to the point that we should be willing to give our lives to that end!

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is the Christian life. It is by God’s power through the cross that we come to Him, are changed by Him; then we see that we are nothing, that even the best of us (like Isaiah 6) are morally bankrupt compared to Him; and that He is everything, gave up everything on our behalf in order that He should be our portion forever. It is about getting out of the way of God’s glory, participating in giving it to Him, and spreading the knowledge of His glory to all people, by preaching the Gospel loud and clear, without fear. The Christian life is about loving God, not just in theory, but in reality, because we’ve been so radically changed by the work of Christ.

How can we not love Him with our lives, self-sacrificially, and fall on our faces with tears of joy at the work Christ did on our behalf on the cross? What kind of mercy is this, that God Himself would take upon flesh and purchase people for Himself from every tribe, tongue, and nation? It’s simply astonishing. The Christians’ delight is not in the blessings He gives to His people, or merely the fact that He’s rescued from His fury against sinners, but our delight is in God Himself, the ultimate blessing. There is no joy or blessing greater, because He’s the highest of all, the one from which all joys and satisfactions were thought up!