His Righteousness

[Sue J Love]

Tuesday, August 1, 2017, 3:17 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Praise Be Told!” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read various scriptures (in the NASB) on the subject of God’s righteousness.

Righteousness - divine approval; God's judicial approval; “refers to what is deemed right by the Lord (after His examination), i.e. what is approved in His eyes” (1). It is also morality, justice, decency, uprightness and honesty.

By God’s Doing (1 Co. 1:30-31; 2 Co. 5:21)

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.​

When we are born into this world, we are born with sin natures. We all come up short of attaining God’s divine approval (See: Ro. 3:23). We are destined for hell without hope of heaven or God. And, we can do nothing to earn or to deserve our own salvation. We can never be good enough. No amount of good works will ever earn us our own salvation from sin or eternal life with God in heaven. Our own righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s sight. Only by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, can any of us be made righteous in God’s sight, and only in the power of God’s Spirit now living within us can we live righteously, too.

So, God sent his only begotten Son Jesus Christ to the earth to die on a cross for our sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus Christ took the punishment of our sin on himself so that, through faith in him, we might be delivered both from the penalty of sin (death) and from slavery to sin. Not only that, but he died for us so that we might live new lives in him to his righteousness. For, his purpose in dying for us was not just to free us from hell and to promise us heaven when we die, but he died in order that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his life up for us (2 Co. 5:15).

Death to Sin; Alive to God (1 Pet. 2:24; Ephesians 4:17-24)

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.​

When Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on a cross, it wasn’t just so we could become the righteousness of God positionally. What I mean by that is that it wasn’t just to forgive us our sins and to remove the punishment of sin from us. It was that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. If we keep on sinning (making a practice of sin) after we have received the knowledge of the truth, it is not heaven we have as our destination, but the fires of hell, even if we make a confession of Christ as Savior of our lives (See: Ro. 8:1-14; Lu. 9:23-25; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-6; 1 Jn. 1:5-9).

When we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, the Holy Spirit of God transforms our hearts away from living for sin and self to walking in Christ’s righteousness and holiness. We should no longer live to gratify the evil desires of our flesh, but we should now live to please God in everything we do and say. Our new lives in Christ Jesus should not look just like our old lives, only just slightly cleaned up for all appearances. For us to be born again (or born from above) of the Spirit of God, we must have first of all put our old lives (our former manner of life) to death by the Spirit of God. And, the new self that we should put on is the one created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, not the slightly cleaned up old self.

Flee and Pursue (1 Tim. 6:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:22)

But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.​

Not only are we made righteous in God’s sight, by God’s grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, but we must live righteously if we want to have the hope of eternal life with God in heaven. We must flee from false doctrines which give free license to continue in sin, and which do not conform to godliness. And, we must flee all sinful acts, attitudes and practices such as immorality, adultery, envy, impurity, lust, idolatry, outbursts of anger, drunkenness, and the like. And, instead, we need to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, peace and gentleness. And, we must walk (in lifestyle) in integrity, honesty, purity, decency, uprightness and morality.

Daily we die to sin and self, and we put off (put to death) the deeds of the flesh, by the Spirit of God (Lu. 9:23-25; Ro. 8:1-14). We put on the armor of God with which to fight off all of Satan’s evil attacks and schemes against us (Eph. 6:10-20). And, we throw off every weight which hinders our walks of faith, and every sin which entangles, so that we can run the race God has marked out for us with perseverance (See: Heb. 12:1-2). And, then we walk (conduct our lives) according to the Spirit, and no longer according to our sinful flesh. For, if we walk according to our flesh we will die in our sins, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live with Christ for eternity, and all because of God’s grace to us in saving us.

Praise Be Told! / An Original Work
Based off Various Scriptures / December 28, 2013

He was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for all our sin.
Our chastisement was upon Him.
By His stripes, we now are healed.

He has witnessed all our trials,
And the sins we choose to wear.
Yet, while we were dead in our sin,
Jesus died, our sins to bear.

He himself bore all of our sins
In His body on a cross,
So that we might die to our sin,
And live for His righteousness.

By faith in the pow’r of Jesus
And His blood shed for our sins,
We can be forgiven our sin,
And have life with God in heav’n.

He will lead us and He’ll guide us
In the way that we should go.
He will comfort and protect us,
Because Jesus, we do know.

Though He disciplines for our good,
He will heal us – Praise be told!
Do not fear, your Lord is with you.
Just have faith in Christ your Lord.

(1) Strong's Greek: 1343. δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosuné) -- righteousness, justice

 

[Lanolin]

A workmate told me he went to a funeral of a family friend who was catholic. He said this man was a very staunch catholic who would go to mass on Friday so he could drink at the pub on .saturday.

I have heard lots of catholics that go to church one day and be all holy and then go to parties and drink the very next day.

It seems to be specific to catholic churches though..I dont know everything they teach there but it just seems odd. I also had a workmate that was catholic and some of her ideas about sin were strange, like with her it seems if the church dont know about it, or you fill up on mass that covers you until you sin again. I once was chatting with her about this principal of a primary school who was caught with porn on his computer and she was like it was ok as long as nobody knew about it. I was really shocked at her attitude.

To me her religion was sin as much as you can get away with and then now youve got something to tell the priest and say a few hail marys, and then youre done till next week.

 

[Hekuran]

It's not just the Catholic Church or even a special problem within catholicism. I've seen something of this in every church culture and tradition I know.

 

[Sue J Love]

It's not just the Catholic Church or even a special problem within catholicism. I've seen something of this in every church culture and tradition I know.

Yes, a lot of people like to call out the Catholic Church while ignoring many of the same patterns, traditions, rituals, and idolatry contained within their own church denominations. Idols are not just statues or dead people. They come in many different forms. And, much of modern "Christianity" is just as idolatrous and follows man-made religion just as much or more than those within the Catholic Church.

 

[Sue J Love]

A workmate told me he went to a funeral of a family friend who was catholic. He said this man was a very staunch catholic who would go to mass on Friday so he could drink at the pub on .saturday.

I have heard lots of catholics that go to church one day and be all holy and then go to parties and drink the very next day.

It seems to be specific to catholic churches though..I dont know everything they teach there but it just seems odd. I also had a workmate that was catholic and some of her ideas about sin were strange, like with her it seems if the church dont know about it, or you fill up on mass that covers you until you sin again. I once was chatting with her about this principal of a primary school who was caught with porn on his computer and she was like it was ok as long as nobody knew about it. I was really shocked at her attitude.

To me her religion was sin as much as you can get away with and then now youve got something to tell the priest and say a few hail marys, and then youre done till next week.

@Lanolin - Sadly, what you describe here is not particular only to the Catholic Church, but to much of today's church across denominations. It didn't use to be this way, not so widespread, anyway, but there has been a gradual spiritual decline taking place within the protestant evangelical church, too, which has resulted in much of what you describe. It used to be that preachers talked more about sin, repentance, judgment, and hell as well as salvation, regeneration, eternal life and forgiveness of sins. Now so many of them are giving feel-good messages intended to appease human flesh, and they are placating sin rather than calling for repentance. And, they are teaching a false grace which leaves people still in bondage to sin.

 

[Lanolin]

Well i dont have a denomination cos I dont belong to them. IM just saying that because thats what I notice but its very pronounced in catholicism, so much so that its very obvious something is not right there.

I think baptists can be very proud too, but in a different way thats not so obvious. While baptists dont smoke or drink so flagrantly, sometimes leaders in the church like to parade their good works in front of everyone and congratulate the themselves instead of being humble!

I would say get over yourselves! You not fooling anyone. But I just dont like the way people categorise churches into catholic and protestant, because thats a false division between those who belong to one instituion and ones who dont. Catholics always go on about being catholic, but other christians dont go on about how they are anglican or presy ot methodist or whatever. Most people just call themselves christian. Except the catholics! Lol

God places you in His church when you believe, not a denomination.

If a feel good message is being preached thats not a church just a platform for a motivational speaker.
Really. Feel free to walk out of those gatherings. It could be a religious version of Amway.

 

[amadeus2]

From age 6 to age 18 I was a devout Roman Catholic working hard to stay where God wanted me to be. There were some good nuns and priests who worked to help me, but none of them had the right answer. Later, I found the same lack in other church groups and/or denominations. The answer is and must be in our own hearts because God has written it in there. He will really do that for whosoever will, but not many are willing to surrender to Him all that He would require of them:

"And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

"Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich." Luke 18:18-23

The one thing that Jesus asked of that man was too important to him for him to give it up. If there is anything too important for us to give it up in order to please God?

As to the Catholic Church, it is certainly no worse than many churches I have encountered but I would always be slow to condemn it as a group, because who am I? Some people I knew when I was in it and some that I know now in that church walked or are walking closer to God than some with supposedly better groups. Let us all lean on Jesus and walk as He directs and pray for those who appear to be farther away. God alone is the final judge according to what I read in the scriptures.