Are You Justified?

I found a quote from a well-known person who, with this saying, defied his own religion: "It is a constant torture to me that I am still so far from Him whom I know to be my very life and being. I know it is my own wretchedness and wickedness that keeps me from Him. All works-based religions lead to futility and death. It is only in Jesus Christ that sinners can find forgiveness for their sins and deliverance from death and hell." Who said this, you ask? Mahatma Ghandi, leader of the Hindu religion.

It’s kind of funny that he said this, despite the fact that he taught “good works” and “doing good to fellow man” is salvation. The Bible says in Isaiah 64:6, "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags..." Also, Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” When it comes to the standard that God has, there is no "Yeah, but…" (Romans 3:19)!

I was witnessing to a guy and he said something to me that sparked a thought. When I asked him if he kept the Ten Commandments, he said, "I treat others the way I would want to be treated. Jesus would like that, right?" In reply, I asked him, "Do you look at women to lust?" There was a slight silence and a look of confusion on his face, so I further explained to him that lust is the same as adultery in the eyes of God (Matthew 5:28). I noticed that he first mentioned his own works rather than the work of Christ, assuming he was justified by them (his good deeds). After talking to him more, he thanked me for telling him the truth, because he didn't know.

It’s important to preach the whole counsel of God, in order to push men to a total dependency on Christ. He is the only hope that we have to stand before God totally justified. In no way am I saying that we can sin and still be justified. Read Romans 6. It’s by the grace of God that we are saved, but his grace also teaches us to deny ALL ungodliness and worldly lusts, so that we can live righteously in this world (Titus 2:11-13). I will end with a quote from Charles H. Spurgeon: "We are saved by faith without works, but not by a faith that is without works, for the real faith that saves the soul works by love and purifies the character."