Twisting The Scriptures to their own Destruction
Laurie Says,
Justification represents
the righteousness God has "placed in our account".
The word "justified" also means "to put to one's account." When God justifies a
person, He does so by placing all of the righteousness of Christ to that
individual's credit. Philippians 3:9 explains: ". . . and be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which is from God by faith."
Imagine that you were in debt for ten million dollars. Creditors kept appearing
at the door. You had no hope of ever repaying this enormous debt yourself. Then
someone came along and paid the debt for you. You were happy to simply no longer
be in debt "but then the person told you to check the balance in your account.
When you did, you found a balance of twenty-million dollars! While the idea of
such a thing happening to you may seem incredible, what God has done for you and
me through salvation is even more incredible, but it is no fantasy. The moment
we gave our lives to Christ, our meager balance of righteousness was replaced
with all of Christ's righteousness.
A Lesson from the Prodigal . . .
This concept of removing sin and replacing it with righteousness is found in the
story of the Prodigal Son (see Luke 15:11 -32). The Prodigal Son returned to his
father's house an acknowledged sinner, simply hoping to be allowed to stay on
his father's estate as a hired hand. Yet, the father did much more than simply
welcome his son home. He commanded his servants, "Bring out the best robe and
put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the
fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry" (Luke 1 5:22-23).
This father's actions toward the Prodigal Son raised the fire of the older
brother. He was jealous because, in his mind, he felt that he deserved what his
prodigal brother had been given: "Look! All these years I've been slaving for
you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so
I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered
your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him"
(Luke 15:29-30, NIV). This son thought that these things should be given to him
for what he had done. But what God gives us has absolutely nothing to do with
that.
The Bible Word for 'Justification' has NOTHING to do with placing something on someone's account. No Greek Lexicon defines the word in this manner. (check it out for yourself!) The English definition would be 'acquittal' or 'Pardon' it has NOTHING to do with 'paying' off our account. We come before God GUILTY as charged, he pronounced us 'non-guilty' by virtue of our faith in His Son Jesus Christ and our willingness to adhere to His Commands the remainder of our lives. This the parable of 'un-forgiving servant' (Matt 18:22-35) perfectly illustrates. The Servant was forgiven a debt he could never repay by the Master, (it wasn't paid for him) but he then refused to extend the same mercy to his fellow servants and thereby forfeited the Master's generous gift and was thrown immediately into prison to 'pay' off his debt! The Wolves will deny this because it destroys their favorite false doctrine.....eternal security! They will tell you all manner of LIES to cover their tracks and confuse the issue, including the LIE shown above, Knowing that most of you will probably NOT check out his research to find it in error.
Using the
Prodigal Son story here is ludicrous. The Point Christ was making with the
Prodigal is the possibility of Losing your inheritance and then 'regaining' it
through repentance and forgiveness. Stated twice in the Parable is the moral to
the story: "My Son was dead and is ALIVE AGAIN! he was LOST and is Found!"
Lk15:24, 32. Compare this to Rom11:22-23.