Colossians 2:6
As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
This section of teaching looks at The Grace of our Saviour and God Christ Jesus and the good works He has called us to walk in because He has given us the Free Gift of Life.
We are continually saddened by "church leaders" who have not been able to grasp this basic Truth and have not realized that Everlasting Life is The Gift of God bought by the precious blood of The Savior. They do not acknowledge that if we stumble and fall in our Christian walk with Him, our Everlasting Life is never in jeopardy, for we have been forgiven all trespasses past, present, and future by our all-knowing Father. Some "teachers" present their non-scriptual views with "authority" in the face of many clear Scriptures that reveal how the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Rom. 11:29).
We never use terms like "Once Saved, Always Saved" as we believe Scripture is the best Teacher and that Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by The Word of God (Rom. 10:17).
We do believe all who have called upon The Name of The Lord have already been given The Gift of Life Everlasting and that this Free Gift cannot be lost, forsaken, or forfeited in any way because God's gifts are age-abiding.
Why we believe this is:
The word translated "freely" in the New Testament is dorean, and like dorea, dorema, and doron is derived from didomi, "to give." We cannot stress too strongly the blessed fact that justification is an act of Grace, a gift undeserved and unmerited. The word "freely" occurs in The Gospels, the Epistles and Revelation:
"Freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8).
"They hated Me without a cause" (John 15:25).
"I have preached to you the gospel of God freely" (2 Corinthians 11:7).
"If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Galatians 2:21).
"Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought" (2 Thessalonians 3:8).
"The water of life freely" (Revelation 21:6, Revelation 22:17).
The English language will not allow John 15:25 to be translated as "They hated Me freely," but we can say: "They hated Me gratuitously." So in Galatians 2:21, "Christ is dead in vain" (or gratuitously). Romans Chapter 5 places great emphasis on this gratuitous act of God:
"But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification". (Romans 5:15-16).
Here, God uses not only dorea in Rom. 5:15 and dorema in Rom. 5:16 but also charisma, a gift in grace (or gracious gift), translated in both verses as "free gift." We doubt whether any definition of Grace is complete that does not include this element of a gift that is the antithesis of "wages" (Romans 6:23), a gift that is without repentance on the part of The Giver (Rom. 11:29). The "grace-by-faith-salvation" of Ephesians 2:8 "is not of works, but is The Gift of God."
It is the very essence of love to give. Even sinful men and women manifest their mutual love by the exchange of gifts. Children, parents, and friends seize upon birthdays, weddings, and almost any festive season as opportunities to manifest their love through gifts. The Love of God has been shown forever in The Gift of His Son (John 3:16), and it is a repeated characteristic of The Love of Christ that gives and gives freely gifts and Life to all who will accept That Gift (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2 and Eph. 5:25).
We have been "justified freely," gratuitously, without a cause, "by His Grace." Here, we need to pause so that we may receive the double emphasis upon the "Grace" element of The Gift. Grace is of such a nature that it is entirely made imperfect by the intrusion of "works" or "wages."
"And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Romans 11:6).
"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5).
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal (aionion) life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).
"For by grace are ye saved . . . it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).
Let not our own crude sense of right and wrong rob us of The Truth of this wonderful Gift of Grace. Romans 3:24 states we are "being justified freely by His Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." What it does not say is that this freely given justification is because the Lord Jesus earned a legal righteousness for us by His obedience to the law of Moses. Such an idea robs the Grace Gift of its Glory and brings God down to the level of a bargainer with His Son, whereas it is God Himself Who loved the world, God Who sent His Son, God Who justifies us freely, God Who provided the ransom which is payment in full for all sin, past, present and future.
Justification Through Redemption
Where some schools of theology teach justification through "imputed obedience" under the law, God declared that it is through the "redemption" that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24). The same truth appears in Romans 5:8-9 where we read: "Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood", and again in Romans 4:25: "Who was delivered up because of our offenses, and raised again for our justification." Christ's death dealt with our sin. His blood at once redeems, atones, and makes us near. Redemption sets us free, and long before The Dispensation of Grace dawned, David realized that God would reckon righteousness where He forgave sin.
"Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Rom. 4:6-8).
It was necessary that sin should be righteously dealt with, and that has been done, but it is The Glory of The Gospel that the same Love that prompted our redemption and our deliverance can provide gratuitously, freely, and without cause (except in the Great Love of GodWho Loves us.) "a righteousness of God apart from the law."
Shall we reject this Loving Gift because we do not see just how God could give it to us freely and without some external moving cause on our part? We undervalue far too much the initial movement of God in our Salvation. Who constrained God in the first place to provide a ransom? What works of righteousness were accomplished, and by whom, before He would send His Gift of Love down to die? And all that to a world that rejected Him and was dead in trespasses and sin.
If we take God at His Word and do not add to it or remove it from its context, do we not begin to experience a knowledge of Love that surpasses understanding? Then Scriptures in this Pure Light impart much fuller enlightenment, for example, the words of Romans 8:32:
"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
Here is God's own argument. The "Free Gift" of righteousness to the believer in the Lord Jesus is freely covered and provided for in the one Greatest Gift of all, His Own Son. Let no believer ever think that their righteousness is not resting upon a firm enough foundation. All our Everlasting Lives rest on the uninfluenced Grace of God. Its bedrock is The Love of God that changes not and The Truth of The Precious Gift from God, Who is Christ Jesus Himself. The Father gave The Perfect Gift to fallen mankind, and having given His Son, God will freely give with Him, not grudgingly give or have to be persuaded to give, all things that are necessary for the believer's life and glory. This does not refer only to the act of justification but covers all our needs and our eternal blessings.
Justification has altogether a legal signification and has respect, not to what the man is in actual character, but to what the man is held to be in juridical estimation. It is not that change found in a believer, by which he is made a just person, but it is that change in his relation to the law and the Lawgiver. The believers are then reckoned a just person. It describes not the individual's moral rightness but his legal right, and however inseparably the two may be conjoined, in fact, they ought not on that account to be confounded in the idea.
It has been said that the doctrine of justification by faith is held by both Protestant and Roman schools of thought, everything depending, of course, upon exactly what is meant by "faith." It is good, therefore, to be able to express what we mean concerning the freeness of this Gift, and the fact that faith has no merit in it by quoting, insistently, the language of Titus 3:7: "Being justified by His Grace." Justification by Grace is what we believe and what we intend when using the more common expression "justification by faith" as "it is the gift of God".
"Now if you doubt that I am Christ's
If one suspicion lurks
I'll show by deeds that I am His
I'm justified by works.
"I praise the Lord 'tis all of Him
The grace (Romans 3:24), the faith (Romans 5:1), the blood (Romans 5:9).
The resurrection power (Romans 4:25), the works (James 2:18-24),
I'm justified by God".
(With acknowledgments to the unknown author).
