Sermon Shorts from Spurgeon — Sermon 23: Thoughts on the Last Battle

If ye would be saved by works, men and brethren, ye must be as holy as the angels, ye must be as pure and as immaculate as Jesus; for the law requires perfection, and nothing short of it; and God, with unflinching vengeance, will smite every man low who cannot bring him a perfect obedience. If I cannot, when I come before his throne, plead a perfect righteousness as being mine, God will say, “you have not fulfilled the demands of my law; depart, accursed one! You have sinned, and you must die.” “Ah,” says one, “can we ever have a perfect righteousness, then? Yes, I will tell you of that … thanks be unto Christ, who giveth us the victory through his blood and through his righteousness, who adorns us as a bride in her jewels as a husband arrays his wife with ornaments.

From the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volume 1, Sermon 23 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

How God Justifies Sinners

Justification is a key doctrine in Christianity.  The basic problem is: (1) all human beings are sinners and (2) God is holy and must judge sin.  Justification has to do with how God justifies sinners (declares them to be righteous) so that they can be accepted by Him.  The following is one of many verses that address this doctrine.

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Continue reading

Dead to the Law: Studies in Galatians – Lesson 8 (2:17-21)

Galatians 2:17-21

17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.  19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.  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.  21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Continue reading