Commentaries:
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Romans 3:22-28
This does not exclude our responsibility to work for the purpose of sanctification. Works are not for justification but for sanctification. Works do not save us, but they are essential for transformation! To put it bluntly, we have to practice being God; we have to learn to live as God lives. Is that not how one becomes proficient at something?
God shows in many places in the Bible that He is pleased with our obedience. Our works do not save us, but they please Him (see Hebrews 13:16; Colossians 3:20; I John 3:22; etc.). He is so happy when we work at sanctification because they assist in the transformation process.
Parents ought to understand this. We are pleased by the stumbling efforts of our child to please us. So is God! He looks on our motives, intentions, and the principles involved in what His child is doing. He does not just look at the quantity or the quality—He looks at us as His children, who are trying to imitate Him.
Sanctification is absolutely necessary to prove to God our righteous character and belief in Jesus Christ.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Nine)Related Topics: Good Works Necessary for Sanctification | Good Works, Necessity of | Imitating Christ | Imitating God | Personal Responsibility | Responsibility | Responsibility of Keeping God's Law | Responsibility to Obey | Responsibility, Sense of | Sanctification | Sanctification,Our Responsibility in | Works and Faith Complementary | Works as Evidence of Growth
Romans 3:27
Paul further drives home the point that no one can earn justification or boast about having received it through his own effort. "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith." No one can ever brag about having been so obedient or having done so many good works that God just had to grant him eternal life. No one will ever be able to boast that he "earned" his way into the Kingdom of God! All those who enter the Kingdom will have done so solely because God extended His mercy to them and forgave their sins through their faith in the sacrifice of Christ.
Earl L. Henn
Saved By Faith Alone?Related Topics: Boasting | Eternal Life | Faith | Jesus Christ's Sacrifice | Justification | Justification by Faith | Justification by Grace through Faith | Justification by means of Faith in Jesus Christ | Justification by Works | Justification through Christ's Sacrifice | Mercy | Salvation | Salvation and Works | Salvation by Grace through Faith | Salvation By Works
Romans 3:20-31
We are justified through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is the payment for our sins, thus freeing us from sin's penalty, and at the same time, God accounts—or imputes—Christ's righteousness to us. The righteousness that enabled Him to be the perfect sacrifice is accounted as if it is ours! This then makes it possible for us to have access into the presence of the holy God.
But this does not do away with law. It establishes it! It places the law in its rightful position in our understanding of what God is working out in our lives.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Twenty-Nine)Related Topics: Christ's Righteousness | Christ's Sacrifice | Jesus Christ's Righteousness | Jesus Christ's Sacrifice | Justification | Justification by Faith | Justification by Grace through Faith | Justification by means of Faith in Jesus Christ | Justification through Christ's Sacrifice | Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification | Righteousness of Christ | Righteousness of Christ Imputed to Us | Righteousness of FaithOther Forerunner Commentary entries containing Romans 3:27:
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