Benefits of meditating on Justification?

Friends,

Please share the spiritual benefits you have received from meditating on justification, or Christ's finished, atoning work.

Meditating on this often motivates me to more holiness and godliness of life. His grace leads to gratitude. I often find meditating on Christ's atonement much more motivating to vital holiness than trying to "force" myself into a rigid holiness. Do you know what I mean? I would love to hear your thoughts, brothers and sisters!

With care in Christ...

I have been considering this question for the last two hours while I am working and have realized there are so many things I could share on this topic...as it has been the fight of my life. If you don't mind a lengthy post I will prayerfully consider my words and respond later when I have a lot of time to write.

Oh, how we struggle with flesh and wrestle
against sin until we understand that " It
was finished!!" at Calvary. There is nothing
to be done with flesh or against sin except
to take it to the cross, see it crucified
with Christ; and put to death there on Calvary.
Not I, but Christ; gives me victory !!

GEORGE WHITEFIELD

I have been considering this question for the last two hours while I am working and have realized there are so many things I could share on this topic...as it has been the fight of my life. If you don't mind a lengthy post I will prayerfully consider my words and respond later when I have a lot of time to write.

Taylor, I agree with alreadymind. I could write paragraphs, but I think I will try to condense it down to what I believe to be the most profound impact this meditation has had on my walk.

When I say what I am about to say, I am NOT talking about psychology or self-perception / self-improvement, but I am not sure that I have the words to convey it without possibly leaving that impression.

When a man hears the word and does not understand it, the enemy comes and steals that word away. But when a man understands the word, when the word is digested, processed, and assimilated, when it becomes revelation to the degree that I become that word, then there is nothing that can steal it away or cause me to back down on it. That is when the written word becomes spirit and life to me. That is when the word can begin to bear fruit in my life.

As I have meditated on the atonement, justification, salvation, righteousness by faith, rebirth, I have come to the place where I no longer question who or what I am. I now know who and what I am. It has changed my perception of me. I now see myself the way God sees me through the blood of Christ. This realization of who I am in Christ has given my far greater power over sin. It has worked out in me a far greater work of holiness than could ever have happened had I seen myself as a struggling sinner or even a "get in by the skin of your teeth sinner saved by grace" if you know what I mean. When I am faced with temptation what now rises up in me is, "No, I am the righteousness of God in Christ. Christ does not live that way. I am in Him and I do not live that way." Now, I don't use that as the mode of my resistance. I cannot defeat sin through myself, but realizing what God has done in me and who He has made me to be causes me to rise up and deal with the situation through the authority of the word of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit, knowing full well that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.

Travis

Please share the spiritual benefits you have received from meditating on justification, or Christ's finished, atoning work.

There are great benefits from this meditation not the least of which is that because I have been justified freely by His grace I can now go on serving the Lord Jesus Christ without constantly worrying whether I am doing it adequately or not. It is tremendously liberating in the sense that I am freed from all self effort and every notion that I have, or ever will, find favor with God on the basis of my endeavor.

Yes, the Spirit is working in me every day and in every way to walk as my Lord walked, but right now He wants me to know that I am right in His sight because of what Another has done.

In Christ,

Ron

When God revealed His Son in me, as He did in Paul, it took all my effort and made it not worth a penny. It is the Christ in me that makes the difference, even when I fall, I am lifted up again and repentance and confession, follows. I truly have a heart to be like Christ and the Holy Spirit reveals this to me every day. Christ in me the Hope of Glory, what a scripture. The mystery Paul reveals in the Word as it was revealed to him by the Son of God Himself, that is why Paul can now say, "My Gospel". The Christ in Paul is the living Word and the completion of the Gospel of God for all who are called into the absolutely greatest and most wonderful Christ statement of all time, "I go to prepare a place for you". Even greater, "if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come and get you and give you unto the Father". A son of God, by rebirth, dead to sin on the Cross with Christ.

Colossians 1:26-28 Even the (((((mystery))))) which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; (((((which is Christ in you,))))) the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Who is the living Word and the Incorruptable Seed in me?

John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

He that is in me is the Light, and the Light of all that are in Christ.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

My life is now by the Faith of the Son of God in me. It is no longer I who live But Christ who lives in me. That is what this revelations have meant to me.

1 Corinthians 1:30-31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Truly we can glory in the Lord. Amen

In Christ: Phillip

Taylor, I think I am liking this thread!!!! I am blessed as I read these posts.

Travis

God has been reminding of this much lately; of the need to look to Christ, rather than to myself. In line with this, I came across a sermon of Spurgeon's recently titled, 'Looking unto Jesus'.

I liked the sermon and especially loved the following quote that was in it :

"Remember what that eminent Scotch divine said, when he was dying. Some one said to him, "What, are you dying now?" Said he, "I am just gathering all my good works up together, and I am throwing them all overboard; and I am lashing myself to the plank of free grace, and I hope to swim to glory on it." "

In Jesus,
John

live4jc,

Amazing quote! Oh, to cast our souls on Christ alone. What a blessing it is.

With care in Christ...

For years I experienced little to no true victory, I believed in Jesus, had even confessed Him as "Lord," yet often found myself falling dramatically short. I had been both mildly deceived, and heavily self-deceived. I had been lead to the conclusion that all I needed to recognize was that I had been forgiven and declared righteous "in" Christ. After a few years it started to dawn on me that something was dramatically wrong with my life, and my perception of the faith was severely lacking.

I remember about 5-6 years ago telling God that I had absolutely no thirst for His word, no thirst for righteousness, and that I was an utter failure, I simply asked Him to grant me the thirst for His word because I knew that faith came by the hearing of it. It was a simple, honest prayer, with no pretension that I can think of.

Slowly I began to thirst...it would wax and wane, but eventually I became parched for the things of God, and since then it has only continued to grow, gratefully my thirst has been quenched in many ways but most significantly in the way that you posed your question Taylor.

The heavy meditation on the nature of Justification came after Jude 4 and Jude 10 punctured my soul and spilled it all over the ground. After this, what remained was a real big question… “How do I not turn the grace of God into lasciviousness such that I become spiritual rather than remaining acerbically natural?”

Thus entered the reading of Galatians over and over and over and over dozens of times praying through it focusing on responding to Galatians 3:1-3, “O Foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith. Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”

The flashpoint of the question raised forces one to consider a couple things, 1.) The process of perfection is expected to be performed, yet Paul spends the book of Galatians proving that perfection does not occur by the works of flesh, a.k.a circumcision. 2.) These people had received the Spirit, but had fallen back on beggarly elements. 3.) Paul calls the Galatians foolish people because they are not obeying the truth. 4.) The works of flesh are “bewitching.” The word for bewitching is synonymous with becoming insane. 5.) There was a beginning, in the Spirit. 6.) The conclusion one draws from this series of questions must be something along these lines, “You will be perfected, your perfection is being prevented by your own fleshly pride, the indication of perfection is obedience, yet should you lose that “beginning” relationship, you will be driven to insanity. Therefore you must continue how you begun.” At least that was somewhat the conclusion I drew from the line of reasoning.

This lead me back to one thing…how it all begun. Justification is the legal term to describe what happened to us because of what our King did for us on Calvary. Therefore our justification is the result of the cross, so for me justification is almost never contemplated apart from the cross. This is the point that Galatians hits home so hard. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” This was probably one of Paul’s greatest statements, and, in my opinion, the centrifuge of all of his motivation in life. How did he maintain this? Galatians 5:5 Paul wraps up the center of the epistle by saying, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” It gets us back to answering his rhetorical question. Because he had quoted Habakkuk and stated that of course, “the just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11. If the original language had had italics, I think that Galatians would have put live in them.

So the way I then live as a Christian is in faith, the same faith that delivered me at first, the same faith I received when the humility of God, collided with the humility of man. The Spirit through conviction brings us to a place of total humility and we see ourselves for what we are…the trash, the garbage, the filth that Christ became for us. When I reckon this faith daily, I see what my King had to do, and I understand because of His resurrection that I have the power to live as he did, that humility is maintained. The flesh cowers and hides while the life of Christ begins to “perfect” my life. When I reckon this flesh dead on the cross, I stop lusting, I stop hating, my vain imaginations cease, my mind begins to be cleansed. My anger dissipates, and I am motivated more and more for the holiness of God because I see sin for what it really is, It is my God on a cross. There because of what my sin did to him. Yet I understand that he did it, willingly. He did not have to do it. So I understand then why James and Peter said that God gives grace to the humble. Humility is the only way grace can have an outworking toward Holiness through my justification. Maintain the humility to see ourselves as Garbage, and Christ as everything through Calvary, and somehow it just starts to work out. I begin to love righteousness, and hate sin. Whereas before I was walking in the Spirit in this fashion, I rather hated righteousness by nature, and loved my sin. As I grow in this area, gladness begins to crowd out the darkness of my heart. And I too can be anointed with this oil just as our Lord was. Though I confess I still have a great great deal to go. Christ’s justification for me, eventuates obedience and an expanding faith. I now see grace for what it really is…I used to think it was just forgiveness so I could go to heaven, what a deception, what a limited view of grace…what a tragedy that this is how most people see it. Grace forgives me that I may be transformed by it through the Spirit via humility to be more like Christ as I die, and he lives through me.

Any external rule I make to this, or any effort I put into it leads me to beggarly things…
I am caused to loosen my grip on the cross, and the eyes of self lead me to self loathing, yet I must get up and look to Jesus over again, Lord I am weak…help me to be you. I am also staggeringly aware that my grasping of these phenomenal truths are still weak and paltry. I have yet to allow it entirely to become my singular driving philosophy as it did for Paul…I still struggle with absolute surrender…and I hate that.

I still struggle with absolute surrender…and I hate that.

Show me a man who does not, and I will show you a man who has already departed this life. Praise God that a revelation of righteousness makes the surrender so much easier to do.

Travis

What an amazing hymn, thank you for sharing that Gregg.

I also liked this quote, "Our lives depend on His justification. Without this, nothing follows."

wanted to share the ending of Thomas Brooks "nine consolations" , his meditation on this is worth the read...

know for your comfort that imputed righteousness will give you the greatest boldness before God's judgment seat. There is an absolute and indispensable necessity of a perfect righteousness wherewith to appear before God. The holiness of God's nature, the righteousness of His government, the severity of His Law, and the terror of wrath calls aloud upon the sinner for a complete righteousness without which there is no standing in judgment (Psalm 1:5). That righteousness only is able to justify us before God which is perfect, and that hath no defect or blemish in it, such as may abide the trial before His judgment seat, such as may fitly satisfy His justice and make our peace with Him. And consequently, by this the Law of God is fulfilled…such a righteousness as He requires, as will stand before Him, and satisfy His justice (Romans 10:3).

This is the crowning comfort to a sensible and understanding soul, that he stands righteous before a judgment seat in that full, exact, perfect, complete, matchless, spotless, peerless, and most acceptable righteousness of Christ imputed to him.

It is a complete and unspotted righteousness, an unblameable righteousness, and unblemished righteousness. And therefore God can neither in justice except nor object to it. In this righteousness the believer lives, in this righteousness the believer dies, and in this righteousness believers shall arise and appear before the judgment seat of Christ to the deep admiration of all the elect angels, to the transcendent terror and horror of all reprobates, and to the matchless joy and triumph of all on Christ's right hand, who shall then shout and sing, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels" (Isaiah 61:10).

Oh, how Christ in this great day will be admired and glorified in all His saints (2 Thes. 1:10), when every saint, wrapped up in this fine linen, in this white robe of Christ's righteousness, shall shine more gloriously than ten thousand suns! In the great Day of the Lord, when the saints shall stand before the tribunal of God, clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, they shall then stand, they shall then be pronounced righteous even in the court of divine justice, which sentence will fill their souls with comfort and the souls of sinners with astonishment (Revelation 20:12; 12:10).

Suppose we saw the believing sinner holding up his hand at God's bar—the books opened, the accuser of the brethren present, the witnesses ready, and the Judge on the bench thus bespeaking the sinner at the bar (Romans 7:12, 14, 16; Galatians 3:10): "O sinner, sinner, thou standest here indicted before Me for many millions of sins of commission and for many millions of sins of omission. Thou hast broken My holy, just, and righteous Laws beyond all human conception or expression, and hereof thou art proved guilty. What hast thou now to say for thyself why thou shouldst not be eternally cast?" Upon this the sinner pleads guilty. But withal he earnestly desires that he may have time and liberty to plead for himself and to offer his reasons why that dreadful sentence "Go, you cursed…" should not be passed upon him (Matthew 25:41). The liberty desired being granted by the Judge, the sinner pleads that his Surety, Jesus Christ, hath by His blood and sufferings given full and complete satisfaction to divine justice and that He hath paid down upon the nail the whole debt at once, and that it can never stand with the holiness and unspotted justice of God to demand satisfaction twice (Hebrews 10:10, 14).

If the Judge shall further object, "Ay, but sinner, sinner, the Law requireth an exact and perfect righteousness in the personal fulfilling of it. Now, sinner, where is thy exact and perfect righteousness? (Galatians 3:10). Upon which the believing sinner very readily, cheerfully, humbly, and boldly replies, "My righteousness is upon the bench: 'In the Lord have I righteousness' (Isaiah 45:24). Christ, my Surety, hath fulfilled the Law on my behalf."

His obeying the Law to the full, His perfect conforming to its commands, His doing, as well as His dying obedience is by grace made over and reckoned to me in order to my justification and salvation. And this is my plea, by which I will stand before the Judge of all the world. Upon this, the sinner's plea is accepted as good in Law, and accordingly he is pronounced righteous and goes away glorying and rejoicing, triumphing and shouting it out, "Righteous, righteous, righteous, righteous!" "In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory" (Isaiah 45:25). And thus you see that there are nine springs of strong consolation that flow into your souls through the imputation of Christ's righteousness unto you.

Assurance.

Before the Throne of God Above is a great song!

Thanks for posting it.

With care in Christ,
Taylor