“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:1
Brothers and sisters,
It’s been a while since I wrote to you. A lot of things of have happened since then. First of all, we have demolished our old church building. Secondly, my wife was very unwell a few months ago. So many of you have prayed for my wife. I want to thank you all. She is doing very well now. It just reminds me of the number of brothers and sisters who are united through the blood of Christ and who deeply care for each other.
It was so good to see Brother J.S. after nearly three years in Vinuokonda. On December 5th through the 7th, he taught pastors and Christians ‘How can man be justified in the sight of a Holy God?” I was personally edified through this conference. It’s helped me to love Christ more for all that he has done for me, a worthless worm. A brother from Hyderabad who attended the conference told me that he learnt so many things in this conference that his total understanding of the gospel has changed. He said “he was quite ashamed of the way he evangelized people earlier on.”
The reason why we asked Brother J.S. to deal with this subject is because there is a huge lack of assurance on part of Christians and church leaders. Everybody knows that our sins are forgiven when we put our trust in the finished work of Christ, but nobody has a clue about what will happen to them after they die. The typical answer would be, “well, it’s up to God if He will accept us into heaven or not.” We see that many have a genuine concern that they do not want to abuse God’s grace and forgiveness. But sadly, on the other side, this belief made them into legalists. The gospel is replaced by moral living, and conversion is replaced by “holy living” (giving up smoking, alcohol, lots of fastings, miraculous gifts, and leading respectable lifestyle in the society). We thank the Lord we have had an opportunity to share the good news of the Bible.
Brother J.S., before, he spoke about the doctrine of ‘Justification by Faith Alone’, he took quite a bit of time explaining to people the holiness and righteousness of God. He then explained the doctrine of ‘total depravity’ of mankind. He reminded us very solemnly that biblical (an exalted) view of God leads to accept the proper view of man. A low view of God, will produce an unbiblical and high view of man. He then explained imputation; the imputation of Adam’s sin to man, the imputation of the sinner’s sin to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ to the sinner. Therefore, the sinner can stand justified before God. Justification doesn’t mean that the person has become a righteous person, but he is declared as a righteous person. Brother J.S. also dealt with the subject how justification is different from regeneration and sanctification.
After several sessions, we divided the whole groups into 5 smaller groups and made sure everybody understood what was being taught. As I was explaining in my group, I saw the light being dawned on a few pastors. This conference was worth all the trouble it took to arrange it. We also published workbooks for the pastors for future use.
Would you please pray that the Lord may bless the seed we have sown, and especially pray for me, as I do the follow up work?
We thank the donors immensely for helping us put on this conference. We thank brother J.S. who left his family behind for a couple of weeks to serve us, both in the church, and also in the conference. Wishing you all season’s greetings.
In Christ, In His Grace,
Sandeep
