Brightfame52
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- Dec 14, 2020
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King J, you are hiding behind the phrase "not a deduction" to avoid the explicit, literal words written on the page. You want a modern English cliché, but I am giving you the exact vocabulary of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at a text that explicitly states a person is justified while they are still in a state of absolute unbelief and ungodliness.You're still proving my point.
Titus 3:7 does not say, "people were justified before they believed." Neither does Romans 5:19.
You're drawing a conclusion from those passages and then treating your conclusion as though it were stated fact.
As for Romans 5:19, the parallel with Adam doesn't help you. The passage says many were made sinners through Adam's disobedience and many are made righteous through Christ's obedience. Amen.
What it does not say is when an individual is justified.
You're reading "therefore justified before faith" into the passage. That's your inference, not Paul's words.
So for the fourth or fifth time now:
Can you provide a passage that actually says a person is justified before believing?
Not a deduction.
Not a parallel.
Not a theological conclusion.
A passage that explicitly says it.
Look at Romans 4:5: But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Look at the explicit words on the page. Paul does not say God justifies the believer. He explicitly states that God justifieth the ungodly. What is the explicit definition of an ungodly person? An ungodly person is an unbeliever, a person dead in sins, a person without faith. The verse explicitly states that the object of God's justification is the ungodly man. If God justifies the ungodly, then the justification explicitly precedes the faith. If a man must believe first before he is justified, then God would be justifying the godly believer, which flatly contradicts the exact words of the text.
Look also at Romans 5:10: For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Reconciliation is the restoration of a legal relationship; it is justification viewed from the perspective of peace. Paul explicitly states the timing: when we were enemies. An enemy is an unregenerate unbeliever. Paul does not say we were reconciled after we stopped being enemies and believed. He explicitly states that the legal reconciliation was an accomplished fact while we were enemies.
By your logic, if a law book says "the judge acquitted the defendant," you would claim we don't know when he was acquitted because it doesn't say the exact time of day. Romans 5:19 explicitly states that by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The word "made" is kathistēmi, which means to be legally constituted. The obedience of Christ happened 2,000 years ago. The elect were legally constituted righteous then.
You are denying the explicit words of scripture because your system requires man's faith to act as the final stamp that makes the cross work. You are making faith a meritorious condition. If the ungodly man is not justified until he believes, then his faith is what changes his legal status from condemned to justified, which robs Christ of His exclusive glory as the sole Justifier. Stop running from Romans 4:5: does God justify the ungodly, or does He justify the believer?