Good News for the Ungodly

A. M. Overton

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

As long as one is living a clean, upright, honest, and truthful life, the average person thinks he "has a pretty good chance for heaven.”  But, the man who is a liar, cheat, dishonest, unclean in his life and unquestionably ungodly in every way is not considered to have bright prospects for the future beyond the grave.

Is there no good news for such an ungodly person?

There certainly is!

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5).

This great truth from the Word of God concerns the one who is not trying to do anything to save himself.  He is one "who worketh not.”  The religious world would likely say that there isn't any "chance" for a man who won't try to help himself to heaven.  It would doubtless consign such a man to the realms of the hopeless.  But, God says differently.

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

Well, if he isn't to work for his salvation, what about it?

"Him that justifieth the ungodly!"

What a strange title for God!  Most of us have always been told that God saves "good people".  But, here He is declared to be One Who justifies or makes right in His sight, "ungodly" people.

How can such be?  How can a just and holy God give perfect standing to an ungodly sinner who rightly deserves to spend eternity in hell?

"For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3).

"Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (I Pet. 3:18).

In order for God to be able to justly and righteously give ungodly sinners a right standing before Him, He sent His eternal, perfect Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, into the world.  He came; kept the law perfectly in every respect; gave Himself for a sin-offering for us; died on the cross under our sin-load; suffered our hell-death for us; and fully paid the debt we were due to pay.

They buried Him and He stayed in the grave three days and three nights. But on the third day He arose from the dead, and forty days later went back to the Father in heaven, where He now ever lives and makes intercession for those who believe in Him.

Since the debt has been paid by One who is fully acceptable to God, and on terms that honor and exalt God and His righteousness, God can be just and the justifier of every lost sinner who believes in Jesus the Christ (Rom. 3:26).

When we hear this gracious truth and believe it, we see Jesus as the Christ (Anointed One) of God, our Savior.  We see that salvation is in Him and in Him alone.  He is the One in Whom we believe.  He is the One Whom we believe.  He is our faith.  Therefore, He is counted to us for righteousness, and we stand before God in our perfect Substitute, “wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6).

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

Thank the Lord for the wonderfully good news that He can and does justify, or make right in His sight, ungodly, undeserving sinners, when they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior from sin.

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