Derek Prince - In What Way We Are Delivered From Guilt
This is an excerpt from: The Cross At The Center - Part 2
God did two things through the death of Jesus to deliver us from guilt. Number one, He made provision for the past. So, it says in verse 13 at the end: He forgave us all our trespasses All our acts of disobedience were punished in Jesus. So, God, without compromising His justice, can forgive us. The past is clear. And if you are really a believer in Jesus and you've accepted His provision there's nothing against you from the past in the records of heaven. Every evil deed you've ever done has been blotted out, God has cast them into the sea of His forgetfulness, and He has said He will remember them no more. You may remember what Corrie ten Boom used to say, He's put up a sign that says 'No Fishing'!
That's what God has done with our past. And every one of you here this evening that is a believer in Jesus should have a confident assurance that all your past sins are totally forgiven, never to be remembered again. Of course, if you've committed sins which you haven't confessed, that isn't necessarily true. So, the remedy is to confess them. If we confess our sins, what happens? God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But God still has to make provision for the future because otherwise we go back, and start sinning all over again. God's provision for the future is more complicated to understand. He has removed the law of Moses as the requirement for achieving righteousness with God.
The writer says God nailed the law with its commandments and ordinances to the cross. There is a hymn that says our sins are nailed to the cross. I'm not sure about that. What I do know is the law was nailed to the cross. Once we come to the cross and go beyond it we're outside the territory of the law. We're no longer under the law, we're free from its requirements. We'll be dealing with that later in another session. So, what is the requirement now for righteousness? We're not required to observe the law of Moses. Thank God, because none of us would observe it in all its details, it's very complicated. It's a lot of demands.
So, what in one word believing, yes, I was going to say faith but that's perfectly right. That's all that's needed is faith. You understand? Not keeping a set of rules but faith. Let me turn you to Romans 4, which takes the example of Abraham. It says in Genesis 15:6: Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. What was counted to him for righteousness? His faith, that's right. And Paul says here at the end of Romans 4:22 and following: And therefore, IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM [Abraham] FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed [or counted to him], but also, for us it shall be imputed to us, who believe in Him who raised us Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
So, we are in the same category with Abraham if we believe the record of what Jesus did on the cross. He was delivered to death because of our offenses. He paid the penalty and He was raised up from the dead for our justification that righteousness might be imputed to us. Then righteousness is imputed to us on the basis of our faith just as it was to Abraham. Abraham didn't earn righteousness by keeping the works of the law, he wasn't even under the law. It will not be imputed to us because of what we do but because of what we believe.
Faith is the only basis for righteousness that's accepted by God. As I understand it, God does not permit us to add anything whatever to that requirement. It's not faith plus something, not faith plus the law, faith plus the church, faith plus baptism, faith plus good works; it's faith. And as they used to say, sola fide. Do you know what that means? By faith alone. That's really the great recovered truth of the Reformation. I don't think the Reformation recovered everything but it did lay hold of that one fact. It's only by faith that we can be counted righteous with God because God has abrogated the law of Moses as a requirement for achieving righteousness. And He's not substituted any other law, praise God.
I know that I've taught this so many times and I've seen Christians with their mouths open, gaping at me in astonishment. I've got used to that. And yet really, this is the central truth of the gospel. The amazing thing is how many people say they believe the gospel and don't understand this. Let me give you just one other scripture in Ephesians 2, beginning at verse 14. Speaking again about what Jesus did for us on the cross: For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one Both who? Jew and Gentile. and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. And I think we'll leave it there. He abolished in His flesh by His death the law of commandments contained in ordinances and thereby abolished the enmity.
You see, the law doesn't bring peace, it brings enmity. First of all, it brings enmity between Jew and non Jew. It has for something like 4,000 years or 3,500 years. Here are the Jews doing this and saying this is what makes us righteous. Here are the rest of us not doing it and saying we're just as good as you are, maybe better. And then the law also brings enmity between God and man. Because, when we come under the law and break it we become enemies of God. So, in order for us to achieve righteousness, God had to set aside the requirements of the law of Moses. And it says here the law of commandments contained in ordinances. If you want to look at another translation which is very specific, look at the New International Version, it says it extremely clearly.
You see, most of us feel like a drowning man who's holding onto a plank, which is the law. If we let go of the plank we're going to drown. Well, the truth of the matter is we have to drown and come up again because the plank won't do it. So, what's the key to being righteous in one word? Faith. Listen, there's a wonderful instance of this in Luke 22 at the last supper. Jesus is warning Peter that he's going to deny Him three times that night. And He says this to Peter in verses 31 and 32: 'Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you' What did He pray? That he wouldn't deny Him? No. 'that your faith would not fail.' Peter, you're going to do a lot of bad things but if you keep on believing, I'll see you through, Peter.
That's good news, isn't it? If we can just keep believing, God will bring us through. We may have our problems, we may have our defeats but our faith is continually reckoned to us for righteousness. If you go back to the story of Abraham, it's very interesting. Abraham did quite a number of wrong things after that. He let his wife be taken into a Gentile harem. Well, that's not a good thing to do. God didn't approve of that but all the same, even while he was doing it his faith was still being accounted to him for righteousness.
You see, if you could only grasp this you'd heave a sigh of relief. I don't mean that God encourages us to do bad things but if we're sincerely seeking to do what He wants, even if we do some bad things, our faith is still counted to us for righteousness. Relax. You don't have to hold on. Just keep believing, that's it. And by that provision God has enabled us to be free from guilt. Satan has nothing more that he can accuse us of because of the cross.