Remember God gets glory from only one person His Son so if we have not the Spirit of His Son in us we're none of His! Let's look at Romans chapter 3 verse 23.
Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
To the unsaved person only? NO, but to the pretender as well does it state, "all are ungodly" whether they're well behaved or not. God sees everyone potentially as fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and we're children of wrath like everybody else regardless of how we have been inhibited in our training. Just as with our illustration of the quarter [show] horse who for years only showed it's good side, but on one occasion something unusual happened and it's hidden nature was exposed and it went wild on its trainer, remember that? So let's look at Romans 4:5 again.
Romans 4:5
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
As soon as someone says, "I've got to do this or that", then that cancels the work of the cross. But if you just believe then God will justify the ungodly. God doesn't justify Godly people. You remember in His earthly ministry, what did Jesus say? "Who needs the physician?"
Romans 4:5
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
And we could just go on and on, come back a page to Romans chapter 3 for another one, and let's just drop down to verse 24. The language throughout all of Paul's writings is the same. It's not by works, but rather by way of revelation and it's by faith in that finished work of the cross, Christ's resurrection and ascension. Which He spoke into being through His promises, Covenants and Prophets long before He came as the Son of man.
Romans 3:24
"Being justified (made just as if we've never sinned. That's what God does when we become a believer) freely (without any works) by his grace (remember that Grace is Christ as John stated in chapter 1 verses 14 and 17 so Grace is actually a person, as is Truth and how does He justify us?) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:”
Then come on down to verse 26.
Romans 3:26
"To declare, I say, at this time his (Christ) righteousness: that he (God) might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
Do you see how simple all of this is? And oh my goodness, the world of religion is just putting people under all kinds of pressure and superstition. They look for this and they look for that, and all they'd have to do is just say, "But God did it all." It's finished, and we are expected to believe it. And then say, "God does it All, through Christ". Now go back to Ephesians chapter 2.
So like Abraham he couldn't be saved by works or he would have boasted, and you've heard us use this before. "Can you imagine what a horrible place heaven would be if everybody could boast of how they got there. Why we'd cross one side of that golden strand to the other rather than listen to someone tell it again, and again how they got there." But it's not going to be that way. Not a single person in glory is going to be able to boast or glory in anything of what they did to get there. No not a one. For just like the men who the Lord hired to work His fields the first and then the last all received the same wages as agreed upon with the first hired at the end of the day (Matthew 20). And we're all going to sing the same song, "Nothing but the blood Christ!" That's the only way. People think that we're kind of a know-it-all when we say, "I know I'm going to go to heaven when I die," and they say, "Who do you think you are anyway?" "Well I'm a nobody, but the One I'm trusting is Somebody! He's the Creator of the universe, He did it all." Now verse 10.
Ephesians 2:10a
"For we (who have been made alive out of deadness in trespasses and sin) are his workmanship,..."
Now that doesn't sound like much in the English, but do you know what that is in the Greek? It's the same word from which we get the word poem, and you know what a beautiful work of art a poem can be. Do you know how our English has come down through centuries from various Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Hebrew and a host of other languages to make our words and do you know what word we use commonly that comes from this same Greek word translated "workmanship?" Symphony.
Maybe some of you don't like symphony music, but that's beside the point. What makes a symphonic rendition of music? A putting together of all the various instruments. The bigger the orchestra the better it sounds. But what did it take to get the trumpets to play that note, and the French horn this one, and the violin that one, and the drums this one? Just what did it take? It took the fantastic mind of these composers, and do you know what blows our mind? A lot of those composers back in the 1800's wrote those scores of music for every individual instrument in that symphony without ever touching one themselves. Now think about that. Think of a man with the wherewithal of music that he could write the score of every instrument in that huge orchestra without playing one of them himself. Now that's what this word says that we have become in God's hand as believers. We are like a grand symphony, and God has put everyone of us in exactly the right place, and we are to strike exactly the right sound if we may use that expression. Why? Because of His Sovereign way of putting us all together. Now let us show another verse we like to use here.
I Corinthians 3:9a
"For we are labourers together with God:..."
Do you see what a royal vineyard we are working in? We're all working for the same cause. We've told everyone that's been part of our ministry. When we come up before the Bema Judgment Seat for rewards, it's not going to stop with us. It's going to be funneled out to everybody who's been a part of this ministry, because we're all laborers together with God. So again:
I Corinthians 3:9
"For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."
Then he goes on as we've studied before, how God will reward us for all of our laboring. Remember not for salvation, but as a result of salvation. Now back to Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians 2:10a
"For we are his workmanship, (God has intrinsically in His Sovereign Grace brought every believer into his place in the Body of Christ. Whether we're rich or poor, black or white, or regardless what country we live in. We're all working together to bring about the fruition of the completion of the Body of Christ. So we're His workmanship, we're like a poem, we're like a symphony. Now what's the next word?) created in Christ Jesus unto good works,..."
We were first created in Christ in the vary beginning, just as we've attempted to reveal in our feebleness and limited vocabulary. Now another verse just comes to mind in II Corinthians chapter 5. You know too many people think salvation is just a fire escape to keep them from going to Hell. Oh listen, that's just a small portion of it. But God has created us to be something in His vineyard. We are to be something in that great symphony that He has constructed and created. Let's start with verse 14.
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