Daniel 2:21 He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

Now being justified by faith in Jesus Christ we enter into a new season of our lives. We have entered into the Kingdom of God where Jesus is on the Throne and in charge of our lives.

I must admit when I accepted His offer of salvation that His Sovereign reign was not at the forefront of my mind. I just wanted a different life but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just wanted to understand what was happening to me in this newness of life that was promised.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

What I was doesn’t matter, but who am I now?

I made wrong decisions in my past life, so I don’t trust myself. Since Jesus is seated on the Throne and all things are in His hands, then He gets to make all the decisions for this life of faith. How do I receive my orders?

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Learning to hear by faith cannot be done by human will. We need to hear the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things and hopefully teach us who we are to become and what to do by faith.

Isaiah 32:1-4 English Standard Version

A King Will Reign in Righteousness

1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.
2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm,
like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
4 The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

This is a promise in prophecy in which we cannot make it happen, by faith it just happens. If I read this right, and I hope I do, then the hasty heart will be overwhelmed. That was my first lesson in discovering I was no longer in charge of my life of faith.

Hear, believe, obey, yes but we still have to choose to obey.

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

I have been reading volumes on justification and it seems right to me to put this important issue in the simplest of terms. In the war over the soul of mankind Jesus Crhist won the war.

Do you want to be on the winning side? It is as simple as that.

Romans 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Propitiation boils down to God’s acceptable substitute to set aside the death penalty for sin. The Old Testament vision of that substitution is viewed in the blood of the sacrifice being sprinkled on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. The Mercy Seat in place keeps the wrath of God from being exacted in the world.

Receiving Christ’s atoning work on the Cross by faith places us in a state of grace where our sins are passed over without being seen.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

The essence of this verse is that come judgment day God will see that we have been covered by the Blood of Jesus and sees that His Son has died for us.

I like simple terms for understanding. Are we guilty of His blood or are we covered by His blood?

There is a myriad of teachings about how and why God justifies His decision to set aside our sins come judgment day.

Romans 3:26 It was to show his (Jesus Christ) righteousness at the present time, so that he (God the Father) might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

If we are justified by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, we are now on the winning side.

Now we live by faith and that is a whole new set of teachings to discuss.

Class is not dismissed.