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Question 62: Why can't we be justified before God through good works, and why are they of no help at all? Answer: Righteousness that can stand before God's judgment must be absolutely perfect and conform to God's law in every way. However, no matter how hard we try, our righteousness is imperfect and still defiled by sin. The way to obtain God's righteousness is to die on the cross with Jesus Christ and believe that you were resurrected with the resurrected Jesus. First, because death, through union with Christ on the cross, fulfills the law. Therefore, God does not hold the dead accountable for their sins according to the law. Because Jesus Christ died on the cross, He became the righteousness of God, and so those who are united with Him also become the righteousness of God. Second, because the saints who died on the cross are united with God and become the righteousness of God, God resurrects them as new creations through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and makes them ...

Question 61: Why do you say that I can be justified before God only by faith? Answer: God does not accept me because of any value in my faith. It is only because of the atonement, righteousness, and holiness of Christ that I am made righteous before God. The only way to make Christ's righteousness mine is through faith. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Philippians 3:7-9 “But whatever things were to my gain, those I counted loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Faith is different from self-confidence. However, the faith of many churchgoers tod...

Question 60: How can I be justified before God? Answer: Only through true faith in Jesus Christ. Although my conscience accuses me of having broken all God's commandments, of having failed to keep any of them, and of still being inclined to sin, yet God, though unworthy of me, through true faith in Christ, treats me as if I had never sinned, and as if I had obeyed the obedience of Christ for me, imputing to me the perfect atoning righteousness and holiness of Christ. All I have to do is receive this gift of God with a believing heart. When a believer becomes righteous before God by believing that his physical body died with Jesus on the cross and was resurrected with Jesus, God gives him a holy spiritual body. It's not that I have faith in Jesus Christ, but I must enter into the faith of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:16 says, "Knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be ju...

Question 58: How do the passages about living forever comfort you? Answer: Just as I already experience eternal joy in my heart, so after death I will enjoy a perfect happiness that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived—the blessedness of praising God forever. Galatians 6:8 says, “For the one who sows to please his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to please the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” The Holy Spirit is the light that gives eternal life and the power of God that revives the dead spirit. Those who receive the Holy Spirit, the light of eternal life given by God through Jesus Christ, possess the life of resurrection. Those who cling to the flesh lack the light of eternal life. In other words, they reject the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:6-8 says, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is hostile toward God; it does not submit to God...

  Question 57: What comfort does the resurrection of the body give you? Answer: Not only will my soul immediately go to Christ, my head, after death, but my body will also be raised by the power of Christ and united with my soul to be made like Christ's glorious body. There is no passage in the Bible that says a dead body is reunited with a soul and brought back to life. 1 Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ suffered once for all for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit." The physical body we received from our parents cannot be resurrected. The resurrection is the spirit imprisoned within the physical body being made alive and given a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:44 says, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual (pneumatiko) body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." Pneumatiko means spirit. Therefore, the spiritual body is a spir...

   (5) Abraham and the Covenant of the Torch Genesis 15:12-17  “ When the sun went down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and great darkness and fear came upon him. Then the LORD said to Abram,  ‘ Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them, and they will oppress them four hundred years. I will punish the nation they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You will be buried in peace with your ancestors at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet come to fruition. ’”  When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking firepot appeared, and a burning torch passed between the pieces. While sunset signifies the end of the day, here it symbolizes the end. The coming of Jesus Christ into the world is said to be the beginning of the end. Therefore, the above words can be considered prophetic words about Jesus Chr...