Tuesday, October 5, 2021

General Conference 1891 Study of Romans SERIES: 4

 GENERAL CONFERENCE.

BATTLE CREEK, MICH.,  1891.

BIBLE STUDY.

LETTER TO THE ROMANS

BY ELDER E. J.  WAGGONER

The basis of the lesson of the evening is the latter half of the third chapter of Romans, beginning with the 19th verse"Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."


Verses 21-23 contain in condensed form all that is treated of in the remaining verses of the chapter. The remainder of the chapter is an amplification of that which has gone before. In this chapter also occurs the climax of the thought of the epistle. ...Again: the just shall live by faith. 
Q: How much of a man's life must be just?
A: All, every moment; for the just shall live by faith. 
 
"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." It is well understood that no act of ours can make right that which is past, but it is just as true that we cannot be justified in any present act any more than we can render the past perfect. We need the righteousness of Christ to justify the present just as much as to make perfect the imperfect deeds of the past.
 
The heart unrenewed is desperately wicked
Only evil can come from a wicked heart.  
To bring forth good deeds there must be a good heart, and only a good man can have a good heart. 
---But, as all have sinned and come short, therefore all the deeds of humanity are vitiated.
 
"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."  
Q: What is "redemption"? 
A: It is repurchasing. Righteousness is an infinite gift, and bought with an infinite price. It is a free gift to us, but it has been paid for. The blood of Christ has paid for it.
 
"To declare His righteousness" for the putting away of our sins. It is
He that puts away our sins, and if we but yield ourselves to Him, they will be remitted utterly. Christ grants no indulgences, but His righteousness remits the sins that are past, keeps the heart free from sin in the present, so long as his righteousness fills that heart.
 
-*-I love to think that He is the Creator of all things, 
for He who created the worlds out of nothing, 
and who upholds all things by the word of His power, 
-*-can by that same word create in me a clean heart
and preserve that which He has created. 
To Him is all power, and also all glory.
 
When a man seeks to justify himself by his deeds, he only heaps imperfection upon imperfection, until, like Paul, he counts them all as loss, knowing that there is no righteousness but that which is of Christ by faith.