Concerning this central purpose of Christ’s atonement – “that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness” – we may make two statements which can scarcely be challenged:

There is no truth of greater practical importance in the whole New Testament.
There is no truth about which greater ignorance, indifference or unbelief prevail among professing Christians.

The root of this miserable condition lies in the word ‘ignorance’. With good reason we may apply to this situation the words of the Lord in Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

The primary requirement stated by Paul for entering into the central purpose of Christ’s atonement is “knowing this.” If God’s people do not know this truth, they cannot believe it; if they do not believe it, they cannot experience it. Therefore, the first great need is to bring this truth before the Church and to keep it continually before the Church in the clearest and most emphatic way.

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A man went to the doctor complaining of a pain in his stomach. After an examination the doctor diagnosed the man’s trouble as appendicitis.

“Appendicitis!” said the man. “What’s that?”

“Appendicitis,” explained the doctor, “is a condition of irritation or inflammation of the appendix.”

“Well,” the man confessed, “until now I never even knew that I had an appendix to be inflamed!”

In a similar way, many professing Christians are conscious of some deep-seated trouble in their spiritual experience – trouble that finds expression in such symptoms as instability, inconsistency, lack of assurance, lack of peace. If such Christians were to be informed that the root cause of their trouble lay in the failure to understand such basic New Testament teachings as the relationship between faith and works, or between law and grace, these Christians would have to confess, just like the man with appendicitis, “Well, until now we never even knew that the New Testament had anything to say about such things as that!”

Let us briefly outline the conclusions we have reached on these two related topics thus far.

The whole New Testament teaches emphatically that salvation is received through faith alone – faith in Christ’s finished work of atonement – without human works of any kind.
The faith that brings salvation is always expressed thereafter in appropriate works – in corresponding actions.
The works by which faith for salvation is expressed are not the works of the law. The righteousness which God requires cannot be achieved by observing the law of Moses.

These conclusions concerning the nature and purpose of the law of Moses naturally lead us on to one further question: If saving faith is not expressed by the observance of the law, then what are the works by which saving faith is expressed? What are the appropriate actions we should expect to see in the life of every person who professes saving faith in Christ?

Foundations

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