An Unshakable Othodoxy: A Theology of the Cross (pt. 5)...the righteousness of God (Romans 3:25b-26a)

“This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time” (Romans 3:25b-26a).


6. The Cross Demonstrates the Righteousness of God
- substitution/imputation

This is the great and magnificent theme of the book of Romans: the righteousness of God. From the prophet Jeremiah where he says, "...the Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6); to that which is punctuated by Paul himself in 1 Cor. 1:30, "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." The full orb of Scripture represents the One Triune God as being righteous--free from sin and its stain. He is perfect, holy, righteous and true.

And the miracle of miracles is this: that perfect righteousness; HIS righteousness; the righteousness of Jesus is imputed, or credited, to us. It is not an infused righteousness as the Romanists teach; but an imputed righteousness, given to us by faith in Jesus Christ the Lord that is essential in our justification.

My Own Righteousness... Nothing But Filthy Rags
Contrarily, the prophet Isaiah describes mans' own righteousness by these vivid words: "...And all our righteous deeds are like dirty, filthy rags." Man's inherent righteousness is worth the status of dirty menstrual rags.

As stated in a previous post, man is totally depraved; unable to save himself; merit anything as being holy before a righteous God in and of his own good works; is conceived in sin; and by nature a child of wrath. Seeing that man's condition cannot be changed or altered by his own philanthropic religious works, the eternal question then surfaces: if no sinful creature can find acceptance in the presence of a holy God, then what kind of righteousness does God accept to allow sinful people into His presence?

The answer? A perfect righteousness.

It alone must be accomplished and applied to man in order for man to enter heaven and have eternal communion with an infinitely holy God. As even David has said, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity," (Psalm 32:1-2). Here is the beatitude of forgiveness and salvation. Transgressions forgiven; sins atoned for; iniquity not imputed. This is the triumvirate of spiritual blessing we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And how is this spiritual blessing obtained? By grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Look briefly at our text above:

"This was to demonstrate" or to declare. God made His eternal declaration of redemption through Christ Jesus. As Barnes's so rightly says, "The meaning is, that the plan was adopted; the Saviour was given; he suffered and died; and the scheme is proposed to men, for the purpose of making a full manifestation of his plan, in contradistinction from all the plans of men."

"His righteousness," - justification. This is the gospel. God through Christ saved us from Himself (His wrath, His justice and the just do for violating His holy law). Here, His saving righteousness is made available to sinners.

"because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;" - the sins of the elect that is. God did not ignore their sins, but passed over them - patiently, for that glorious day, the day 'in due time' where He provided forgiveness of sins through His Son--the Son of His love (cp, Col. 1:12-14). This righteousness here is not being referred to as an attribute of God, but of His plan of justifying sinners. He has adopted and proposed a plan by which men may become just by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by their own works.

"for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time," - This is the declaration for the first time under the gospel. This is the joy of deliverance. God had appointed a day in eternity past in which Jesus was manifested in the flesh to satisfy God and redeem His elect. No wonder Paul may boldly say, "who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2 Tim. 1:9).

God put on public display His perfect righteousness. God showed forbearance in order for us to be given His grace in salvation. Do you want to behold the perfect righteousness of God? Do you want to have a glimpse of the holy standard that God requires of all in order to have eternal life and to stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy? Then look unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2) on the cross--for HE is our righteousness; HE is God incarnate: HE is our perfection; HE is the spotless Lamb of God, the sinless High Priest, the perfect Son of Man. And in God the Son alone, plus or minus nothing, we have obtained a righteousness that pleases God the Father alone.

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less...
Many of us have sung several times these embonpoint theological words from the great hymn, The Solid Rock: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness…” and, again from that fourth stanza: “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before His throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand…”

How glorious and true are those words.

The quintessential verse in all the NT on this important truth is found in 2 Cor. 5:21, “He who knew no sin, became sin for us; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus Christ became our sin-bearer, though without sin and sinless, so that we might become the righteousness of God IN HIM. All of our righteousness is imputed to us. It is the perfect, complete, lack nothing - righteousness of Christ. Can we grasp this reality today beloved? We only have a right standing before God, because Jesus as our Divine Substitute stood before God in our place. And therefore, all who are IN Christ are clothed with His perfect righteousness for eternity.

This righteousness of God in Christ is comprised of two very important things: the active and passive obedience of Christ. His active obedience in fulfilling the demands of the Law through His sinless life; and His passive obedience through satisfying the penalty of the Law through His perfect, once for all sacrifice on the cross for our sins. In life and in death, Jesus Christ perfectly as our merciful and faithful High Priest has completely fulfilled all righteousness and by faith, imputes that righteousness to every believer so that we may forever have a just standing before God.

For if by the transgression of the one,
death reigned through the one,
much more those who receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness
will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
-Romans 5:17

The great Puritan divine, John Owens, so profoundly says,

"That which we plead is, that the Lord Christ fulfilled the whole law for us; he did not only undergo the penalty of it due unto our sins, but also yielded that perfect obedience which it did require. And herein I shall not immix myself in the debate of the distinction between the active and passive obedience of Christ; for he exercised the highest active obedience in his suffering, when he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit. And all his obedience, considering his person, was mixed with suffering, as a part of his exinanition and humiliation; whence it is said, that "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."

And however doing and suffering are in various categories of things, yet Scripture testimonies are not to be regulated by philosophical artifices and terms. And it must needs be said, that the sufferings of Christ, as they were purely penal, are imperfectly called his passive righteousness; for all righteousness is either in habit or in action, whereof suffering is neither; nor is any man righteous, or so esteemed, from what he suffers. Neither do sufferings give satisfaction unto the commands of the law, which require only obedience. And hence it will unavoidably follow, that we have need of more than the mere sufferings of Christ, whereby we may be justified before God, if so be that any righteousness be required thereunto; but the whole of what I intend is, that Christ's fulfilling of the law, in obedience unto its commands, is no less imputed unto us for our justification than his undergoing the penalty of it is."

As a Reformed Baptist, I affirm on this blog, the biblically rich 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith which says on this issue of justification, substitution and imputation of the complete righteousness of Christ:

Chapter 11: Of Justification
1. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ's sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God. (Romans 3:24; Romans 8:30; Romans 4:5-8; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31; Romans 5:17-19; Philippians 3:8, 9; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12; Romans 5:17 )

2. Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. (Romans 3:28; Galatians 5:6; James 2:17, 22, 26 )

3. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf; yet, inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. (Hebrews 10:14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; Isaiah 53:5, 6; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:26; Ephesians 1:6,7; Ephesians 2:7 ) (emphasis mine)

Could it be any more clear beloved?

that, as sin reigned in death,
even so grace might reign through righteousness
to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Romans 5:21

Based on the requirements of the Law, it is not enough that Christ dies for the sins of His people. To die and cleanse sinners from their sin is to set them at ground zero. At that point redeemed sinners still continue to sin. As Luther said, "they are piles of dung covered in gold." The remnants of remaining sin and the filthiness of the flesh still war with the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). They must also have a covering that continues to infinitely expiate their sin before the holy justice of God; otherwise, justification becomes analytic and not synthetic.

Dr. C. Matthew McMahon helps tremendously in defining these biblical truths for us:

Analytic justification is the Roman Catholic belief where God looks both at the sinner and the Savior and justifies them based on what Christ did and what the sinner continues to do.

Synthetic justification is the biblical formulation where God recognizes Christ’s work, both the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva, and declares the sinner just as a result of them both. The sinner, in the ordo salutis, has been regenerated, acts with a fides reflexa (a reflex act of faith) springing from regeneration, is declared righteous by God on account of Christ’s iustitia imputata, but is then continued to be viewed in this credited manner because of the perfect obedentia of Christ’s work.

Jesus perfectly fulfilled the iustitia Dei where men cannot. It is this active obedience that continues to justify them, and it is passive obedience that continues to save them before the wrath of God’s justice. Kline rightly comments, “For Christ himself enters upon the inheritance as the forerunner, surety, and head of the many only when by his active and passive obedience he has fulfilled the constant Hauptgebot of the covenant and submitted to the demand of the curse sanction voiced in the covenant from the beginning.”

and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own
derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God
on the basis of faith,
-Philippians 3:9

The Belgic Confession states that understanding the justification of the sinner, “embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits…imputing to us all His merits, and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead.”

The Heidelberg Catechism defines this righteousness which Christians receive, “as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me.”

The Second Helvetic Confession echoes this, “Therefore, solely on account of Christ's sufferings and resurrection God is propitious with respect to our sins and does not impute them to us, but imputes Christ's righteousness to us as our own (2 Cor. 5:19 ff.; Rom. 4:25), so that now we are not only cleansed and purged from sins or are holy, but also, granted the righteousness of Christ, and so absolved from sin, death and condemnation, are at last righteous and heirs of eternal life. Properly speaking, therefore, God alone justifies us, and justifies only on account of Christ, not imputing sins to us but imputing his righteousness to us.”

Simon Peter, a bond-servant
and apostle of Jesus Christ,
to those who have received a faith
of the same kind as ours,
by the righteousness of our
God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
-2 Peter 1:1

John Calvin states the same, “the obedience of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us saves sinners."

The Westminster Confession makes this distinction when it says that justification is through “imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ” to elect sinners.

John Gill states “not only the active obedience of Christ, with his sufferings and death, but also that the holiness of his human nature is imputed to us for justification.”

John Owen speaks thoroughly about this throughout His works:

“First, By the obedience of the life of Christ you see what is intended, —his willing submission unto, and perfect, complete fulfilling of, every law of God, that any of the saints of God were obliged unto. It is true, every act almost of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was attended with suffering, so that his whole life might, in that regard, be called a death; but yet, looking upon his willingness and obedience in it, it is distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called, and termed his active righteousness. This is, then, I say, as was showed, that complete, absolutely perfect accomplishment of the whole law of God by Christ, our mediator; whereby he not only “did no sin, neither was there guile fold in his mouth,” but also most perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, as he affirmed it became him to do. Secondly, That this obedience was performed by Christ not for himself, but for us, and in our stead.”

“with respect unto the imputation of the active obedience or righteousness of Christ unto us [is] an essential part of that righteousness whereon we are justified before God... That which Christ, the mediator and surety of the covenant, did do in obedience unto God, in the discharge and performance of his office, that he did for us; and that is imputed unto us.”

I do not nullify the grace of God;
for if righteousness comes through the Law,
then Christ died needlessly.
-Galatians 2:21

Charles Hodge states, “The righteousness of Christ is commonly represented as including his active and passive obedience. This distinction is, as to the idea, Scriptural.”

According to William Ames, in differentiation from the works of Adam which brought condemnation, Christ’s works, all of them, are imputed to the Christian for justification, “The obedience of Christ is that righteousness (Romans 5:16) in the name of which the grace of God justifies us, just as the disobedience of Adam was that offense (Romans 5:16) for which God’s justice condemns us. Therefore the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers in justification.”

Francis Turretin explains the difference between the active and passive righteousness of Christ and its importance,

“the two things are not to be separated from each other. We are not to say as some do that the “satisfaction” is by the passive work of Christ alone and the “merit” is by the active work alone. The satisfaction and the merit are not to be thus viewed in isolation, each by itself, because the benefit in each depends upon the total work of Christ. For sin cannot be expiated until the law as precept has been perfectly fulfilled; nor can a title to eternal life be merited before the guilt of sin has been atoned for.”

He continues, “the obedience of Christ rendered in our name to God the Father is so given to us by God that it is reckoned to be truly ours and that it is the sole and only righteousness on account of and by the merit of which we are absolved from the guilt of our sins and obtain a right to life; and that there is in us no righteousness or good works by which we can deserve such great benefits which can bear the server examination of the divine court, if God willed to deal with us according to the rigor of his law."

Jonathan Edwards explains why Christ’s active obedience is so vital in respect to covenant work and fulfillment:

"The first distribution of the acts of Christ’s righteousness is with respect to the laws which Christ obeyed in that righteousness which he performed. But here it must be observed in general, that all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one law, and that is that which the apostle calls the law of works, Rom. 3:27. Every command that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right which God had established between himself and mankind. Christ came into the world to fulfill and answer the covenant of works, that is, the covenant that is to stand forever as a rule of judgment. And that is the covenant that we had broken, and that was the covenant that must be fulfilled."

W.G.T. Shedd says the same more succinctly, “Christ’s active obedience is his perfect performance of the requirements of the moral law.”

having been filled with
the fruit of righteousness
which comes through Jesus Christ,
to the glory and praise of God.
-Philippians 1:11

Jesus Christ - our Yom Kippur
Christ is our righteousness beloved; and without His active and passive obedience in satisfying the requirements and the demands of the Law, the fullness of that righteousness would be incomplete. It would be a righteousness of our own doing--not His. But the good news of the gospel is, by grace through faith in Christ alone He has imputed to sinful man His perfect righteousess so that we as His elect may have a right standing before a holy God. We can never be justified in the sight of God and obtain a true righteousness that does not fail by ourselves.

Today is Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement in the Jewish calendar. It is the one day out of the year that the high priest could go into the holy of holies and offer a sacrifice for the sins of himself and for the sins of the people. It was a shadow of things to come. BUT NOW, the substance has come and the shadow has been done away with. Jesus Christ is our High Priest who once for all, for all time, for every time entered the Holy of Holies on the cross (Heb. 2:17; 7:26; 9:14ff; 6:19f); shed His own blood as a sacrifice for the sins of His chosen ones, redeemed us and has brought us into intimacy with God forever. The Apostle Paul even says that "He was raised for our justification" (Roms. 4:25).

May you rejoice today beloved that all has been accomplished in and through the sinless life and perfect death and bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that is needed for our salvation. Do you know Him as your Lord today? Then take hope in this: you are clothed with the perfect rightouesness of Christ and therefore you will never face judgment or eternal wrath. What confidence we may have to approach the throne of grace to find help in time of need.

Amen?
Solus Christos

A Triumphant Orthodoxy: A Theology of the Cross (pt. 6)...joy and humility (Romans 3:26b-31)

"...that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:26b)

7. The Cross Delights in the Person of God
-coronation

Sin can never merit anything but punishment, and repentance is no atonement for sin. The sinner is hopelessly and helplessly lost to sin, conceived in sin; a slave to sin; sinful and a sinner; bound to its sinfulness and its inheritance. No amount of optimism, no amount of love or grace or mercy can put sin aside and stop requiring its penalty. A holy God could never bypass sin and be complacent about evil. And even though He loved the sinner deeply, He cannot forgive the sinner unless His justice is satisfied. God did not set aside His justice in our salvation. He did not abandon Himself—“He is just.”

The word “just” here (as most commentators agree) does not only mean sometimes benevolent, or merciful; but more importantly refers to the fact that God had retained the integrity of his character as “a moral Governor”; that He had shown a right regard to His law, and to the penalty of the law, in His plan of salvation. Should he forgive sinners without atonement, justice would be sacrificed and abandoned. The law would cease to have any terrors for the guilty, and its penalty would be a nullity. In the plan of salvation, therefore, he has shown a regard to the law by appointing his Son to be a substitute in the place of sinners. And accordingly, He secured the proper honor to His holy character as a lover of His law, a hater of sin and the sinner, and a just God. For “the wages of sin is death…” “Sin is the transgression of the Law…” “The thought of foolishness is sin.” “The law has shut us up in sin…” We are “dead in trespasses and sin…”

Therefore, no principle of justice has been abandoned; no warning against sin has been tailored; no standard of His law has been lowered; no disposition has been:

“evinced to do injustice to the universe by suffering the guilty to escape. He is in all this great transaction, as just to His law, to Himself, to his Son, to the universe, when He pardons, as he is when he sends the incorrigible sinner down to hell. A full compensation, an equivalent, has been provided by the sufferings of the Saviour in the sinner’s stead, and the sinner may be pardoned” (A. Barnes).

But here is the good news, the joyous news of the cross: God's justice is satisfied in Christ and He has become the sinners friend. For where the gospel is simply preached it is never preached in vain. Amen?

But when the kindness of God
our Savior and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us, -Titus 3:4-5a

How great is the gospel to redeem sinners like me, like you? How great is the justice of God in the just condemnation of sinners; but how blessed is the justice of God in the salvation of sinners! We never speak of God’s justice as being a blessed ting… something to celebrate; something to delight in; something that brings joy. But the cross delights in the person of God… Why? Because “He is just and the justifier of all who believe in Jesus…”

Spurgeon unfolds this truth for us when saying:

“And am I not content, too? Guilty though I am and vile, can I not plead that this bloody sacrifice is enough to satisfy God's demands against me? Oh, yes, I trust I can,

"My faith doth lay its hand,
On that dear head of thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And here confess my sin."

Jesus, I believe that they sufferings were for me; and I believe that they are more than enough to satisfy for all my sins. By faith I cast myself at the foot of thy cross and cling to it. This is my only hope, my shelter, and my shield. It cannot be, that God can smite me now. Justice itself prevents, for when Justice once is satisfied it were injustice if it should ask for more. Now, is it not clear enough to the eye of every one, whose soul has been aroused, that Justice stands no longer in the way of the sinner's pardon? God can be just, and yet the justifier.

He has punished Christ, why should he punish twice for one offence? Christ has died for all his people's sins, and if thou art in the covenant, thou art one of Christ's people. Damned thou canst not be. Suffer for thy sins thou canst not. Until God can be unjust, and demand two payments for one debt, he cannot destroy the soul for whom Jesus died. "Away goes universal redemption," says one. Yes, away it goes, indeed. I am sure there is nothing about that in the Word of God. A redemption that does not redeem is not worth my preaching, or your hearing, Christ redeemed every soul that is saved; no more, and no less. Every spirit that shall be seen in heaven Christ bought. If he had redeemed those in hell, they never could have come there. He has bought his people with his blood, and they alone shall he bring with him.

"But who are they?" says one. Thou art one, if thou believe. Thou art one if thou repent of thy sin. If thou wilt now take Christ to be thy all in all, then thou art one of his; for the covenant must prove a lie, and God must be unjust, and justice must become unrighteousness, and love must become cruelty, and the cross must become a fiction, ere thou canst be condemned if thou trust in Jesus.

This is the way in which Justice ceases to be the enemy of souls.”

not on the basis of deeds
which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy,
by the washing of regeneration
and renewing by the Holy Spirit, -Titus 3:5b

"Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law" (Romans 3:27-31).

8. The Cross Divests Man of all Boasting Before God
-divestation

"Where then is boasting? It is excluded."

As the capstone to this wonderful text Paul ends with humility in regards to orthodoxy. “Where then is boasting? It is excluded.”

• Where is the ground for man’s pride and self-reliance in salvation?
• Where is his right to claim anything before the Dread Sovereign of Heaven as to his regeneration?
• Where is his confidence in moral superiority that brings him into eternal favor with God?
• Where is his self-achieved perfect obedience to the Law that affords him entrance in glory?

It is excluded!

Literally—utterly forbidden. It is as Paul has stated earlier: “All have sinned and continually fall short of God’s holy appraisal of them.”

So the cross exalts God’s grace in the salvation of His own. It exalts Christ as the Lamb, the High Priest, the Son of Man and Son of God; it exalts the once for all propitiatory sacrifice for our sins; it exalts God’s Word in fulfilling the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms in regard to the coming Messiah; it exalts the law of faith for the Law can never justify anyone before God; and it exalts the perfect righteousness of God.

whom He poured out upon us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, -Titus 3:6

Paul further drives home the great truth that the law of works cannot bring man into relationship with God when saying: “A man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.” Did you hear that Romanist friend? No work of any Pope, of the Treasury of Merit, of Penance, of Purgatory, of the Mass, of Mary or the saints, etc. can justify you before God. No religious enterprise can make you holy, righteous, forgiven or cleanse you from the depth of your sins. It is the triumph of Christ alone over sin, death, the grave and Satan that we find our greatest joy and delight.

The cross brings God delight and therefore is the hightest form of adoration for His people.

God is the God of both Jew and Gentile. Both the uncircumcised and the circumcised are justified by faith in God. And thus, they are one. But let us be careful here to be clear. God’s covenant people of Israel merits them nothing in regards to salvation. “All who are Israel are not Israel…” Meaning, all who make up the nation of Israel are not the true “Israel of God.” Only those who are circumcised heart are His true covenant people… amen?

Rom. 3:31 ¶ Do we then nullify the Law through faith?
May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
Here the Apostle absolves all doubt in the futility of placing ones trust in law-keeping for ones redemption. Christ has completely fulfilled the Law and brings salvation by grace through faith alone in Himself alone for all who believe. The Law is established through faith. How could this be? Because its demands are fully satisfied, its penalty totally paid for, its sting absolved, and its curse removed. Jesus Christ is the end of the Law in regards to righteousness; and this is our eternal hope!

The Law now bears no offense against those for whom Jesus died and redeemed. It is no longer our judge, our tutor, our condemnation. The Law is holy, just, pure, and good for it has been completely fulfilled in Jesus. He did not come to abolish the Law... but to fulfill it.
Therefore, a theology of the cross delights in God for all that He has done AND divests man of all boasting before Him. We are left in humility boasting of only what Christ has accomplished. Our tongues are silent and dumb to sing of our own ability and works, but our tongues are loosened as we offer praise to Him and worship to Him and glory to Him for all that He has done to secure our redemption.

that being justified by His grace
we might be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. -Titus 3:7

Rejoice this day beloved for your salvation is complete lacking nothing. This is cause for celebration and rejoicing with humility in a triumphant orthodoxy.

I conclude with these powerful Trinitarian words from the Apostle himself from the storehouse of God's grace--Eph. 1:4-14. We are chosen by God the Father; redeemed by God the Son; regenerated and sealed by God the Holy Spirit to the praise of the riches of the glory of His grace. Here is your triumph, your humility, your rejoicing, and your delight.

Worship God and God Alone!

Eph. 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love Eph. 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, Eph. 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Eph. 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, Eph. 1:8 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight Eph. 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him Eph. 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him Eph. 1:11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, Eph. 1:12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. Eph. 1:13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, Eph. 1:14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.