The heart of it all

So I'm in the heart of Paul's word on justification before God by faith as opposed to works. And I thought I'd share some of Mr. Murray's words again this morning that proved to be incredibly encouraging to me.

In making his point from the Old Testament that justification has ALWAYS been by faith, not works, Paul recalls both Abraham and David. After quoting Genesis 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" Paul proves that "to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."

And it keeps getting better.

Paul continues, "just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: (citing David in Psalm 32 now) 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.'"

And now John Murray's thoughts:
"What David spoke of in terms of the non-imputation and forgiveness of sin Paul interprets (in the preceding verse, verse 6) more positively as the imputation of righteousness."

"(Paul) is dealing with justification by faith in opposition to works. Nothing could be more illustrative of this than the pronouncement that the blessed man is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and to whom the Lord does not impute sin. For what is contemplated in this pronouncement is not good works but the opposite, iniquities and sin. And the blessed man is not the man who has good works laid to his account but whose sins are not laid to his account. David's religion, therefore, was not one determined by the concept of good works but by that of gracious remission of sin, and the blessedness, regarded as the epitome of divine favour, had no affinity with that secured by works of merit."

In the gospel of God's grace, the unmistakable indentifying feature for anyone who believes (anyone!) is not that God forgives just his sins. It's not that God just credits him for his own good works and says that's enough. No, it is far better than both. It's that God forgives his sins and gives him all the goodness and reward that deservedly belongs to Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21, "(God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." And in the words of Jonathan Edwards, "What sin was it? Why that sin that was in us. So we are made the righteousness of God. But what righteousness of God is it that we are made? Why that which was in Christ."

And so I hope we say with the father in Mark 9:24, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"