Abraham had faith and it was accounted to him as righteousness, this is the righteousness of faith, an accredited righteousness, an imputed righteousness. That is what reckons us as just before God, the righteousness accredited to us because Christ is righteous; He has made satisfaction.
There's more to it than that because there's more to faith than simply believing in faith
, itself, to save us and there's more to justification than forgiveness of sin.
Faith implies-faith
means- union, solidarity, oneness with God. It's to become "My people", Jer 31:33, and to receive righteousness from on high as we're made new creations. The letter to the Romans screams that this righteousness is freely
given to us, not only declared or imputed, and that were responsible for cooperating in remaining and growing in it as we remain in Him. And this reconciles the rest of the new testament where we're shown and told over and over again what types of
behavior are necessary in order to be and remain
just in the eyes of God and therefore to obtain eternal life. Not "works of the law" but obedience, overcoming sin, and doing good nonetheless, by the power of the Spirit now. Faith is the gateway to this life of grace as it's the gateway to God.
Faith is the first right step for man, placing us in right order with God and creation, and that's why it pleases God so greatly; it's the basis of justice for man and, as such, is the beginning and foundation of our salvation. From the point of God justifying the ungodly, we must persevere in walking in that newfound justice that comes only from God, and grow in it.
It's interesting, if not unfortunate, that this thread demonstrates at least three different views on what it takes to satisfy God's requirement for justice.
We all agree that Jesus paid the price but we disagree on what, exactly, He gained for us and what
our role must be, if anything. At one extreme is an idea that man now can and must have perfect sinlessness in this life, and there is scripture that seems to support that position all right. But the church rejected this idea centuries ago.
At the other extreme is the notion that sin doesn't really matter for a believer
. Or, better than this, perhaps, that the issue will somehow resolve itself, that as long as we
believe we'll become sufficiently sinless, apparently, even though no righteousness has been added to the justified person in that understanding of Sola Fide, and even though, as they insist, sanctification has nothing to do with our state of justice before God.
In the historical teachings of the churches along with the early fathers, the truth is somewhere in between. Again, it's understood that perfect sinlessness is unattainable in this life and yet that there are sins that inevitably lead to death, that
mean death as they're so overtly opposed to love of God and neighbor and destroy love in us. Righteousness is said to be given to us at justification but that we must make the effort to remain in and grow in it, that we participate in God's work.
And while scripture supports this position too, it also makes too much sense. If the requirement for obedience was going to be done away with in the future anyway, then God could have just forgone it's requirement in Eden and placed Adam and the rest of us in heaven so that all the evil and sin and darkness and ugliness experienced since the Fall would've been precluded. Instead He allowed man to fall into and experience a godless world and has been patiently preparing man, calling him back to his senses ever since so, like prodigals who've experienced the pigsty, we might now say "yes" instead of "no" to a Father we now finally acknowledge and recognize as having a wisdom and goodness far superior to our own. Faith is that first "yes" that makes us His children. From there we must continue to say yes daily as we pick up our cross and follow. We must persevere, we must act as children of His should. It's not guaranteed; grace is resistible.
God covets our willingness, however weakly it may be mustered and expressed by us at first, no matter how much it must be drawn and aided and cultivated by His grace. He doesn't just suddenly overwhelm us with his grace, compelling us to believe in any absolute sense, or compelling us to remain in Him afterwards. Sorry if I've been a bit wordy here. But I could've gone on....LOL.
