Justification | Romans Ch 4| Women's Rightly Divided Bible Study

Father God, thank you so much for teaching us in today's Bible study about justification, and that when we believe the gospel we are forgiven all past, present and future sin. We are so thankful. In Jesus's name we pray amen. 

JUSTIFICATION

In Romans chapter 4, we will learn more about JUSTIFICATION. 

Justification means that as believers we are completely forgiven of ALL past, present and future sin because of the faith of Christ. We are justified when we place our faith in Christ's faithfulness to go to the cross, and he was buried and he rose again. As believers, we are not just pardoned. Rather, every sin from our past, present and future was dealt with at the cross and we are forgiven completely from the moment we believed the gospel. We are also now completely righteous in God's eyes, and we have been placed into Christ. We are identified with Christ. We are now considered just as righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, now and for all of eternity, from the moment we believed the Gospel. THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS.

Most of Christendom does not believe that a believer is completely righteous and justified from the very moment that they believe the gospel. They either teach works for salvation or they might believe that you are saved when you believe but then that you have to do works to maintain your salvation- whether that's continual confession of sins or something like praying a rosary (they call it penance). But if we had to rely upon our own works for salvation, NONE of us would be saved nor remain saved! Only a self-righteous person believes that they are capable of saving themselves or of maintaining their own salvation. 

If you believe that we are saved by grace through faith alone but that we then need to do works in order to maintain our salvation after we have believed the gospel, then you are actually doing works of the flesh which will equal LOSS of rewards at the believers judgment seat of Christ. 

Romans 4:4-5 KJB

4 Now to him that worketh (this includes any effort to try to save yourself) is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Next week we will dive right into a verse by verse study of Romans chapter 4.

Homework: Read over Romans chapter 4 again. Find any repetitive words in this chapter and define them. 

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