No one can save themselves. No one can make themselves happy on their own. There is no human way or human means that can make a mortal man worthy of the everlasting gift of heaven. Man can find salvation only through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. Only through the exceedingly precious and most glorious promises of the Word of God, we become “partakers of the divine nature” and we are enabled to shun the allurements of the world and by the mercy of God and to “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:20-24).
We shall be blessed through his life.
“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” Rom. 5:10.
How touching, astonishing, amazing and significant is the death of Christ on Calvary! This is the evidence for us of the fact that there is a blessing for us wrought up in his life.
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:11-12.
The world was marred because of the disobedience of one man. Rom. 5:12. But as verily that through the disobedience of Adam, all men were made sinners and guilty before God, so true it is that “by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). Therefore, for the Everlasting God to view a man as righteous, this can be made possible only through his faith in the only sinless life that was ever led on earth – the life of the Son of God.
Without the merit of Jesus, our good works are of no avail
No man can become blessed if he puts his trust in his obedience to any kind of religious observance. His own deeds cannot work out for him any justification. His submission to the law cannot save him. Even his faith cannot do this. But it is written: “We shall be saved by his life.”
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3, 4.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Eph. 2:8, 9.
Cf. Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16; Titus 3:5-7.
Our obedience, accomplished through grace
The gift of God’s mercy is very precious. Without it, man is left helpless and lost. It was by God’s mercy that man is given power and my this means he becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Through faith, we receive the grace of God. But it is not our faith that is our savior, neither is mercy in and of itself, but through faith in God’s grace, we can attain the perfect life and submission of the Son of God, in exchange for our sinful and polluted life. If we truly and ardently believe in Christ as our personal and only Savior, then we have life in his name, as he fulfilled the sacred requirements of God’s law in his life.
The measure of the requirements of the holy law of God is perfect life and faultless obedience. Though he was the Son of God, “yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; earned obedience by the things that he suffered” (Heb. 5:8, 9).
The law uplifted through Christ’s death
Not a few people claim that through the death of Christ, the law was abolished. This is impossible since such a notion is directly opposed to the unequivocal expression of the Lord in Matt. 5:17, 18, and many other statements of the Holy Writ. Let us turn our eyes to the harrowing scene of Calvary. There the love of God was manifested in the fact that he gave his only-begotten Son to provide a means of our redemption from the punishment that we deserve because of our disobedience to his holy commandments. If the law could be abolished or even modified, there would be no need for Christ to die. Through his life, Christ uplifted the law of God and made it honorable.
“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40:7-9. See also, Heb. 10:7.
By his death, Christ lifted up the law as the unalterable moral standard for all mankind.
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31.
Therefore everyone who wants to be saved through the life of Christ must imitate his life of self-sacrifice and obedience. 1 John 2:6; 1 Peter 2:21-22. It is of no avail to us if we only praise the abundant mercy of God and at the same time deny the holy law of God as being of little consequence. Do we have anything of value to offer as a recommendation for our souls? At the most, we can only present the faulty offering of self-righteousness of man’s devising which is a shame given the high and holy standard of the moral law of the Ten Commandments. The perfect righteousness of Christ does not cover conscious, unbridled, and cherished sins. And the definition of sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3:4.
Christ’s righteousness – his complete obedience to the law of Jehovah, – through which man is freed from his sin by faith, becomes our righteousness. Only through the righteousness of Christ can our lives become sanctified and we can be prepared for the everlasting life of joy. Verily, his righteousness is the only thing that can help us on the last day. The obedience, holiness, and faultlessness of Christ’s life that are being offered in such an abundant measure to the repentant sinner (if he accepts them fully) make him right in the sight of God and entitle him to come and sit together with his Lord in his kingdom. Rev. 22:12-14.
What Does It Mean for Us to Live in the Name of Jesus?
