How Can God Accept Me? – by Desmond Ford

• Bible
• Christian Evidences
• Christian Living
• Dr Desmond Ford
• Faith
• Gospel
• Jesus
• Righteousness
• Salvation

Oct 15, 2015 2150

I am not ashamed of the Gospel; it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. – Romans 1:16,17.

In the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith,” or as some translations give it more accurately, “He through faith is righteous, shall live.”

The first five chapters use the those words “faith” and “righteous” over and over but not ‘live.’ The reason why is because they are talking about Christ for us, they are talking about Calvary, about justification, about forgiveness of sins.

But when you move into sanctification, that is talking about living. There is no good talking about living until you have been forgiven. “He who is righteous by faith shall live.”

Luther said, “I hate that verse; how can God expect me to be righteous when I am a sinner, born crooked, in total depravity?” This is true of all of us which does not mean that we are as bad as bad can be, it means that we are bad in every area of the being.

The Bible says we are born blind spiritually. All the characters for whom Christ worked miracles on represented me and you – the paralyzed, the lepers, the blind, the deaf, the dumb. That is us spiritually – depraved.

Luther said, “How can God accept me a depraved creature who only lives for myself!” Then one day he saw it. He said, “I found the key to the Bible.” He said, “Heaven flew open; paradise was mine!”

The righteousness spoken of in this verse is a righteousness that comes only from God; it is God’s gift to whoever believes the good news.

It is a righteousness that is given to the empty hand of faith and, dear friends, don’t misunderstand faith. It is not something you work up. Faith is God’s gift to anyone that hears the good news as long as they do not resist it. Do you see it? Only God has given away, only heaven can be had for the asking.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32. Adapted from “The News That Shook The World – Part 1.”