Question 72. What is justifying faith?

 

Question 72. What is justifying faith?

Answer. Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God. By faith he is convinced of his sin and misery, and of the power of neither himself nor any other creature to restore him from his lost condition; and he acknowledges the truth of the promises of the gospel, and by receiving and resting upon Christ and his righteousness, he receives forgiveness of sins, and is accepted and acknowledged as righteous in the sight of God, and is saved.

 

In the doctrine, it is said that faith is realized in the heart of a sinner through the Holy Spirit and the Word. However, the heart of a sinner is a fleshly heart that cannot follow the law of God and is an enemy of God. How can faith from heaven come about? This faith is a faith of the fleshly heart that tries to achieve righteousness through the law. Only when the fleshly heart (the fleshly body) dies can one have faith from heaven.

The fact is that the fleshly heart must die for the Spirit of God to come. People cannot attain righteousness by keeping the law. Through the law, they come to realize their sins and that they cannot help but die to God. This is not realized through faith, but through the law. Therefore, sinners realize that they cannot attain righteousness without a sacrifice. First, sinners must die with the sacrifice. Only then will they receive forgiveness of sins. After receiving forgiveness of sins, God will send the light of the Holy Spirit and give them faith, and this faith will become a resurrection life from heaven.

As you can see in the question and answer, it does not say that the sinner's body of sin must die. According to the doctrine, repentance, faith, righteousness, and forgiveness of sins are realized in the heart of the sinner. However, just as the tabernacle was divided, if the identity of the believer's fleshly heart and the spiritual heart cannot be distinguished, he is still a sinner under the law. Therefore, believers believe that they must confess their sins and receive forgiveness every day.

"We believe that they will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as we are." The grace of Jesus is the atoning death and resurrection, and sin is not eliminated by the sinner being forgiven of his sins every day, but by the sinner's death in union with Jesus, who died the atoning death, so that sin is eliminated.

God's justice is that God does not forgive sin, and must pay the price for sin. God made his Son die on the cross in the form of sin so that the repentant sinner would be considered dead on the cross. Although Jesus died on the cross, believers must know that the sinner who looks at him also died. In other words, the sinner's body of sin died, and so the dead person receives forgiveness of sin. Then, God shines the light of the Holy Spirit to revive the dead spirit, and this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit of resurrection.

Baptism is a ritual of being born again through water and the Holy Spirit. The old self dies in water and is reborn into life through the Holy Spirit. Baptism means circumcision of the heart. Circumcision signifies death to the flesh and signifies one who has a covenant, but the promise of circumcision was fulfilled through the death of Jesus Christ, so it is no longer necessary. Nevertheless, there were Jews in Paul's time who said that the ritual of circumcision must be performed. Circumcision is a part of the law, but the Jews who insisted that circumcision was necessary argued that one must keep the law while saying that one is saved by the gospel.

How many people in today's church community say they believe in the gospel but try to keep the law? This is because they are bound by false doctrines. They should have enlightenment in the word of God, but they try to understand through doctrines. And in the process, they say they have received the Holy Spirit.

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