Call on Christ

All men believe a god. But the God you believe will determine whether or not you are saved. All men call, but it is the One on whom you call in faith that will determine if you are heard and your cry is answered. If you trust and call on Jehovah-Jesus, the LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, then you will be saved (Rom. 10:13; Jer. 23:5-6). But if you trust and call on any but Christ crucified, risen and reigning, you will be lost (Isa. 45:20-25; 1 Cor. 15:1-4).

You may believe there is one God. So do the devils, but they are damned. You may believe God requires many things of you. And you may sincerely set about to do what He requires to be accepted and to live. But such faith will not save you. Jesus said there will be many who say to Him “Lord, Lord” and mention all they did in His name (Matt. 7:21-23). But He said He never knew them. They all will be lost!

The prophets of Baal called on Baal. But Baal could not save them, because he was an idol (Isa. 45:20). The Jews were zealous for the law. But God who gave the law did not save them because they used the law unlawfully: they went about to establish their own righteousness to earn life by the law. They refused God’s righteousness. They rejected Christ and Him crucified and relied on their own worth and works to fulfill what God required, but which only Christ could give and did (Gal. 2:21; 3:21).

Most today expect salvation because they meet the condition of believing Jesus. But faith is not a condition God requires us to meet. Faith is the gift of God and work of God that enables us to see and rely on Christ who met all conditions. Faith is not us doing our part so God will save us. Faith is seeing that Christ did our part, all God required of us. Faith is the God-given sight that looks to Christ alone and relies on Him alone as the One who did all in honor and satisfaction to God for His people.

To call on the LORD is to call on Christ as the Lord of all and as the One in whose righteousness alone I may appear before God and be accepted by Him. I must call on Him for righteousness. I must call on Him for life. I must call on Him for faith. I do not bring any of these to Him. I look to Him and call on Him for all. To call on the LORD is to call on Him to find me in Christ, to give every blessing of grace that Christ earned for His people (Eph. 1:21-23).

We often think if we call on the LORD it will result in a change of our circumstances. Or we think if we call on the LORD we will experience something unusual. We think if we call on the LORD we will be able to avoid this or that sin. Let me ask you this question: If the LORD saves you, what will it look like? How will you know He answered your prayer?

The answer of scripture is, if the Lord saves you, it will be seen in this: you call on Him for all grace and look to Him as all of your cleansing for sin and your only covering for righteousness (Rom. 10:4-13). You will see and be persuaded that you are nothing and that He is all (Php. 3:3-9). You will unconditionally and gladly abandon all of your own righteousness and submit to His. You will surrender to Him as the Lord of all. You will know and embrace Him as “the Lord of me and the God of me” (John 20:28).

None call but those who believe (Rom.10:14). All who believe have life (John 5:24; Rom. 8:10). Righteousness is not the result of life; life is the result of righteousness (Rom. 5:17-18, 21; 8:10). Therefore, it you call, you believe. If you believe, you live. If you live, you are justified. But God’s work is in the reverse order: you are justified by the redeeming blood of Christ (Rom. 3:24-25; 5:9). You live because of Christ’s righteousness (Rom. 8:10). And you believe because you have been sanctified by the Spirit of God (John 6:63; 1 John 1:12-13; 3:14-15; Acts 5:31; 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:21-22). You call because you heard the Gospel and in His grace by that hearing, He gave you the sight of faith in Christ to believe Him (Rom. 10:14-17).

Neither your call nor your faith justify you. Christ’s blood and righteousness alone can do that (Rom. 5:9, 17-19). It is God that justifies. He justifies the ungodly (Rom. 4:5). Since they are ungodly when He justifies them, He does not justify them for what they are or for what they do, but only for what Christ did. Neither does He justify them because of what they will do after they believe (Titus 3:5-7), for all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6; Rom. 7:24).

​Faith does not induce God to justify us. Faith does not influence God. Faith is God’s gift to us to stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, that is is in Christ alone. God justifies sinners by the influence of His own grace on the meritorious ground of Christ’s successful, redeeming work (Rom. 3:24). The righteousness by which God justifies us is not our faith as an act of dependence or trust. Nor is the righteousness by which God justifies the act of our will. Nor is it what we are or do, or anything that may be called mine. But God justifies us by the LORD Jesus Christ who is the righteousness of God (Jer. 23:5-6). He is the righteousness of God because He fulfilled God’s law by His obedience of love that led Him to own our sins and lay down His life in death under the wrath of God to satisfy God and redeem us from our sins. In this He fulfilled God’s law (Rom. 13:9; 10:4). He put away our sins by making satisfaction to God’s justice in the sacrifice of Himself (Rom. 3:25). He fulfilled God’s law by His obedience and death. His work to redeem is our righteousness (Rom. 3:24). That righteousness is ours by God’s gift (Rom. 5:17). We see and know Him by the God-given sight of faith, by which we are persuaded and embrace Him with gladness of heart (Heb. 11:13).

Rick Warta