Gospel e-Letter

Divine justice demands that the righteous person should be justified whereas the wicked should be condemned. It is a miscarriage of justice when lawbreakers are set free and when innocent people are condemned. "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 17:15). We can be sure that God will deal justly with us. Therefore He declares: "I will not justify the wicked" (Exodus 23:7). Since God is absolutely just, He cannot let the sinner go free. Now that is a fearful thought! For we are all sinners; we have broken God's holy Law. In this sense we are all wicked and therefore we do not stand a chance of escape from Divine justice. God will not justify the wicked! That is why, if we had to rely on our obedience to the Law, we can never be justified before God. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin...

In a video  message broadcasted before his recent visit to Egypt, Pope Francis said that he hoped that his visit will be “a message of fraternity and reconciliation to all children of Abraham, particularly in the Islamic world.” Abraham had two children, Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac is the father of the Israelites. Islamic traditions consider Ishmael to be the ancestor of Arab people. But is there any spiritual advantage of being a descendant of Abraham?  John the Baptist rebuked his hearers, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Mt 3:9). Being a descendant of Abraham will not get you an inch closer to heaven. Who then are the real children of Abraham? The Apostle Paul states that it is “those of faith who are the sons of Abraham … those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:7-9). He explains further that no-one is ju...

The Bible answers the vital question:  How can I be right with God? The apostle Paul makes this incredible statement in the epistle to the Romans: "To him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). God justifies the ungodly! He does not say, "God justifies the righteous." That would have been perfectly understandable and just - and it would have spelled despair to all of us sinners. He does not even say, "God justifies the ungodly when he converts and starts doing good works." Paul insists that it is to him "who does not work" but "believes" that God accounts as righteous. God justifies the ungodly by faith alone. Now that is the good news that we need to hear! Click here to download a free copy of the e-book.

This is a summary of the biblical teaching on justification, or how a sinner could become right with God.  The biblical doctrine of justification teaches us how guilty sinners can be declared righteous by God through faith in Christ and be acquitted, that is, freed from condemnation.  We are created moral beings and are accountable to God for our deeds. We ought to obey God’s law whether written in our conscience or in the Holy Scriptures.  All people, Jews and Gentiles, have disobeyed God – first, in our representative head, our father Adam, who disobeyed God’s command and brought condemnation and death on himself and all humanity. We are also responsible for our many personal sins which pile guilt upon guilt upon our heads.  God’s ruling on humanity is fearful and true: all have sinned, all are in peril of eternal condemnation and eternal perdition. For our sins, we merit death and the fire of hell.  We cannot be justified by the works of the law . T...

(Gospel e-Letter - September 2014) Two men went to the temple to pray. When they returned home one of them was ‘justified’ – right with God – while the other remained as guilty as he was before (even though he thought he was just). We must also ask ourselves, ‘Am I justified? Am I right with God? Or am I deceiving myself?’ Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and publican (Luke 18:9-14) for two reasons; firstly that we may avoid the trap that many religious people fall into, and secondly that we may find the way that leads to life. So what was the problem with the Pharisee? He was a religious person, well respected by everyone, he observed the law, he shunned sin, fasted and gave charity. Needless to say all these things are good. Why then did he remain unjustified before God? Pride was his problem. He came up front in God’s presence bragging about himself while belittling other people. He supposedly went up to pray but in fact  he did not ask God for anything. He did no...

(Gospel e-Letter - July 2014) While most Christians would say that faith is necessary for salvation, there is significant disagreement about the place of works. Some would add works to faith as the means of justification. They would not say that they are saved by works alone; they still believe in Christ, and in his death on the cross and resurrection. They would also affirm the necessity of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to perform good works so that, ultimately, they will be judged to have fulfilled the law of God and that they merit eternal life. This is basically the position of faithful Catholics. Others will exclude works completely. Justification is by faith alone, and by that they mean that works have nothing to do with salvation whatsoever. They may encourage and desire believers to live a godly life and do good works, but if such works are absent, they still say that such a person is justified. Indeed if someone has ‘received Christ by faith’ and ...

God has fixed a day when he will judge all people according to their works. Those people who die without a Saviour need not wait till that momentous appointment to know the divine verdict upon them. God warns them in Scripture that ‘whoever does not believe (in the Son) is condemned already’ (John 3:18). They are condemned already because they carry the burden of their sins with them. That Day will simply seal their doom forever and they will be punished according to their evil deeds. Among the damned, there will be those who called Jesus ‘Lord’ but who had continued to live in the filth of sin. These professed ‘Christians’ claimed to believe in Jesus but their life was devoid of good works. ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’ - these will be the last words they ever hear from the mouth of Jesus. (Matthew 7:23). On the other hand, God’s children are recognized by their good works. There will be ‘glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good’ (R...

Justification is but one aspect of God’s purpose in salvation. In justification, God acquits the believer and frees him from condemnation and the punishment in hell. But that is not all. God also wants to save his people from the filth and practice of sin. The Father wants his children to be holy as He is holy. So then, from the very moment that he justifies them, he also renews their heart and begins a life-long project to shape them in the image of his Son. This aspect of salvation is called sanctification. In other words, justification has to do with legal standing in the divine court. God declares the believer righteous on the basis of Christ's sacrifice. Sanctification has to do with character and behaviour; God wants his people to become righteous, by the power of the Spirit working in them. While justification is based on the work of Christ on the cross on our behalf, and not on the merits of our works, sanctification involves the renewing of our thoughts, desires, spee...

Is faith enough for our justification, that is, to become right with God? Or do we need to add something more - such as the merits of our work? The Bible answers this important question directly: 'To the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness' (Romans 4:4-5). Please read this scripture again and again until it sinks in your heart. What an amazing statement! It is the person ‘who does not work but believes’ who is justified. The Bible does not say that God justifies the man who both works and believes. No! God justifies the one who believes and does not work! Surely the Apostle Paul does not mean that a Christian should not do good works during his life. That would be contradictory to what he himself and the rest of the Bible emphasizes over and over again. But what does he mean? In what sense then are works excluded? Paul leaves out human works as the basis for justification . He does not allow the add...

(Gospel e-Letter - November 2013) We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,  so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ (Galatians 2:16). Food provides nourishment to our bodies but it will not actually do us any good until we take it and eat it. Jesus, the living Bread, gives eternal life and forgiveness, but again, we will not experience any of his saving benefits until and unless we believe in him. The Scriptures repeated say that we are justified by faith. The Bible states that ‘everyone who believes is justified’ (Acts 13:39), the sinner is justified ‘through faith’ (Romans 3:25), ‘justified by faith’ (Romans 3:28), God justifies ‘by faith’ and ‘through faith’ (Romans 3:30), ‘justified by faith’ (Romans 5:1); a man is ‘justified by faith’ (Galatians 2:16), God justifies ‘by faith’ (Galatians 3:8), righteousness is ‘through faith’ and ‘by faith’ (Philippians 3:9). Faith requ...

(Gospel e-Letter - October 2013) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23-24). Grace is beautiful. It captures the goodness and kindness of God’s heart towards his people. What does ‘grace’ really means? The Bible contrasts grace with the wages or payment that a worker receives for his work. ‘Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt’ (Romans 4:4). The worker merits his payment. Grace is the very opposite of merit; it is a gift, an unmerited favour. So when the Bible says that we are justified by grace it means that we do not deserve it. On the contrary, ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ We have not obeyed his law, and as such we deserve to be condemned, but instead God justifies us. Nor do we work, maybe with God’s help, to merit our justification or part of it. If we had to contribute any merit to our justificatio...

(Gospel e-Letter - August 2013) There are some things God cannot do. The all-powerful God cannot lie (Hebews 6:18). He cannot deny himself and act contrary to his holy nature (2 Timothy 2:13). There is no injustice with God (2 Chronicles 19:7). He must therefore be just in the condemnation of the wicked. He must also be just in the salvation of his people. He cannot simply close an eye and pretend to forget all about our sins in order to be good to us. Picture the scene. A criminal is brought before a judge. As the judge examines the evidence, it becomes evident that the accused is guilty of breaking the law and that he deserves punishment.  However in his final ruling, the judge says, ‘I know that you are guilty, I know that you deserve punishment, but I want to be good to you. I don’t care what the law demands; I will let you go free.’ What shall we say about that judge? We may say that he is capricious, incompetent, corrupt and unjust ... but most certainly we cannot say...

(Gospel e-Letter - June 2013) Justice demands that law-breakers should be condemned while the innocent should be acquitted and set free. God underlines this basic principle by instructing judges to ‘justify the righteous and condemn the wicked’ (Deuteronomy 25:1). How then should we understand this scripture, and in particular the statement, ‘justified by his blood’? ‘Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God’ (Romans 5:9). The ‘justified’ are believers in Jesus Christ, but as we all know, Christians are neither innocent nor sinless. Like unbelievers, they too break the Law of God. The most devout Christian humbly confesses with the rest of God’s people, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8). Yet God says that they are justified. The Divine Judge acquits them and sets them free from every penalty. Isn’t that a breach of justice? Shouldn’t they, be...

(Gospel e-Letter - May 2013) Dreams are fascinating. Sometimes I dream of flying like Peter Pan. On other occasions I feel uncomfortable even in sleep. Have you ever dreamt, for example, of being barefoot or improperly dressed for some formal occasion? In one of his parables (Matthew 22:1-14) our Lord tells the story of a king who organized the wedding feast for his son.  As the king was greeting and meeting the guests, he noticed a man who was not dressed up for the occasion. ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ the king asked him. The poor guy was speechless and he was thrown out. What about us? We must be properly dressed when we come in the presence of God. He is holy and righteous and we must be dressed in righteousness to come before him. There are two dresses hanging in the spiritual wardrobe to choose from. The Bible calls them ‘our righteousness’ and ‘the righteousness of God.’ About our righteousness the Bible is not very flattering: ...

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I wonder what went through the mind of Onesimus, a runaway slave, as he travelled on the way back to his master from Rome to the Greek city of Colosse. ‘Will he receive me gracefully? Or will he punish me as it usually happens when fugitive slaves are caught?’ His only hope was a short letter tucked away somewhere in his cloak. Onesimus had fled from his master, Philemon, after he had possibly stolen money from him. He ended up in Rome where he met the apostle Paul and became a Christian. Paul knew that Onesimus had to go back to his master to settle his wrongdoings. So Paul gave him a letter appealing to Philemon to receive him back. Paul wrote, ‘So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account’ (Philemon 1:17, 18). Paul gives Philemon a double reason why he should f...

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners,  so by the one man’s obedience, the many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19 In 1964 the then Prime Minister, George Borg Olivier, obtained the independence of my country, Malta, from British colonial rule. The action of this man affected the entire nation; he also had an influence on people like me who were not yet born at that time. Because of him, I am a citizen of an independent nation. We can all think of historical people, whom we never met or knew, that have left some sort of impact, whether good or bad, on our present state. More than any other, there were two men who had a profound impact on all the human race. They are Adam, the first man, and Jesus Christ, whom the Bible calls ‘the last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15:45). Adam stands in a representative position as the head of humanity, as the Bible teaches in Romans 5:12-31. All humanity is bound up with Adam’s sin. In Adam all sinned; all stand condem...

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous  are both alike an abomination to the LORD. Proverbs 17:15 We naturally feel outraged in the face of injustice. God, who is perfectly just, detests injustice even more than we do. The judge’s role is simple; he should be fair and impartial. ‘If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked’ (Deut 25:1). After considering the evidence, he should decide if the accused is guilty of violating the law. If so, the judge should pronounce a sentence of guilt. The judge should condemn the wicked. On the other hand, if the accused had abided by the standard of the law, the judge should justify him. He should pronounce him righteous and free him from any penalty. That is justice. On the contrary, it is a blatant injustice when a judge ‘justifies the wicked’ or ‘condemns the righteous’, as often happens in human courts. We can be...

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God,  but the doers of the law who will be justified. Romans 2:13 Let’s say that I’m charged before a magistrate for over-speeding and reckless driving. My defence lawyer argues that I had passed my driving test, I possess a valid driving licence, and I am fully conversant with the traffic code, including the speed limit. Moreover, I do not always drive recklessly, and there are other drivers who are much worse than me. Would that get me off the hook? Hardly! On the contrary, since I know the law so well, I am even more accountable and, having ignored the traffic regulations, I am all the more guilty of breaking the law. We all know the law of God. The moral precepts of the law are written in our conscience. We know that it is wrong to steal because we don’t want anyone to take our possessions. We know it’s wrong to lie because we want others to tell us the truth. Moreover, many of us who were brought up...

I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes - Romans 1:16 Meningitis remains a deadly disease in children. Thankfully the number of cases of meningitis has decreased over the past twenty years ago or so, mostly due to immunisation. However, this dreaded infection is not completely eradicated because we do not yet have vaccines that cover all the different microbes that cause meningitis. Moreover, some parents fail to immunize their children either out of neglect or fear. It is heartbreaking when a child dies of an infection that could have been easily prevented. Spiritually, it is even more tragic when we neglect the gospel message of salvation by faith in Christ Jesus. The consequences in this life and beyond are terrible. Why should we bother about ‘Justification’? – whatever that means. Isn’t that the doctrine that caused so much trouble in Europe during the Protestant Reformation? Why should I care about a doctri...

(Gospel e-Letter - February 2010) It is unthinkable that a Christian would set aside the grace of God or denounce the death of Christ as useless. Yet this sin is as common today among religious people as it used to be among the Jews and some professing Christians in the apostolic era. These people do not reject grace by living in gross immorality, but paradoxically, by their misguided zeal for the Law of God. To be sure, grace is despised by someone claiming to believe in Christ, who turns Christian freedom into libertinism. But it is equally damning to attempt to become right with God by personal efforts and works. ‘I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing’ (Gal 2:21 NAB), or, in another translation, ‘I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain’ (NKJV). The Law Why does the apostle speak like that about the law? Surely the gospel does not nullify God’s Law, ...