Thursday, April 21, 2005

Our Righteousness Is Of God

"Even David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Romans 4:6-8

You ever want to know what a powerhouse of faith from the Old Testament thought about us; well these verses in Romans 6 give us great insight. The man that was called the friend of our Father, the man who slew the giant Goliath and saved all of Israel, and when he was only sixteen, the man who pleased God so greatly with His faith, that our Father promised him Jesus would be one of His descendents, says that we are blessed. Actually the Amplified Bible translates this verse by saying we should be envied because God will give us righteousness apart from our works! Think of what God showed David about salvation and then think of David’s life. When he messed up, there were sacrifices, shed this animal’s blood, offer this grain offering, and then wear sackcloth and throw some ashes on your head to show that you was sorrowful for what you had done. Then after you did all of these physical acts of repentance, you still were separated from God. This is the life of an Old Testament believer, the power and sole responsibility of faith and righteousness was based on their ability to keep a set of rules called the Law, which included the Ten Commandments. The people had absolutely no ability to succeed, it was up to their own human strength, which was weak because of their flesh; they were continually living this vicious cycle! Even the very best under the Old Covenant, never enjoyed unity with God!

David came to God with a pure heart, and he dearly loved the Lord. So our Father showed him how it would be with us and God showed David that He was going to use one of his descendents to accomplish it! David saw what we would be and he glorified God for it, writing that we are blessed, and praise God we are blessed, blessed beyond expression! Our Father has made us righteous, we didn’t make ourselves righteous, it is a gift of Father! Think of the freedom that David saw for us through Christ! Our sins are forgiven and covered by the Blood of Jesus and our Father will never count them against us. David saw that through Jesus we would be righteous. He saw that our sins would be buried and completely covered up, and he wrote that we are to be envied because of the freedom that we now enjoy in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior! David saw that through Christ the continual process of messing up and then coming back was going to be done away with. He saw that once a person said yes because they were empowered by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus as their Lord, it was finished. He saw that the called and chosen would be forever righteous through salvation! David saw that we would actually be united with God through Christ and would never be left alone or forsaken! “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” John 14:20 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

The Greek word that we translate saved from: sozo, means to be free from the power, the presence, the penalty, and the pleasure of sin; saved means being righteous. This is what David saw and envied, this is what our Father has provided for us through Jesus, eternal righteousness because of His grace! “For I will be merciful and gracious towards their sins and I will remember their deeds of unrighteousness no more.” Hebrews 8:12 Amplified Bible. Under the Old Covenant God was unable to allow people to be free from sin, but now He is able too, the Blood of Jesus has enabled Him to completely wipe out our sins and remember them no more. The Blood of Christ has allowed our Father to free us from the power of sin, the presence of sin, the penalty of sin and the pleasure of sin! The sacrifice of Jesus enabled God to bring in the New Covenant, a covenant that allowed Him to show the full extent of His mercy and grace towards us! Our Father's desire was to be one with us and He knew how to accomplish it, so He did!

The Old Covenant was about works; the New Covenant is about grace! “When God speaks of a new [covenant or agreement], He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use and annulled because of age) is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether.” Hebrews 8:13 Amplified Bible. Serving God by being good enough has been done away with. If you are all upset that the Ten Commandments have been removed from some building, stop it; man without Jesus was never able to keep them anyway. So unless there was an inscription talking about the power of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ along with them, they were useless, that Covenant has been done away with! We no longer glorify God by trying to keep a set of rules; we now glorify God by allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us to believe that Jesus is our Lord. Who came and died for us, so that we could be set free from sin and ever live to serve God in true righteousness and holiness!

“For by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19 This is really what the whole New Testament is about, taking the focus away from man and placing it on Jesus. We are righteous solely because of Jesus; there is no work that we could do to earn this glorified state. We are now free from the power, the presence, the pleasure, and the penalty of sin solely because of Jesus and what He has accomplished! “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in One; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” John 17:22-23

Our Father knew our weaknesses, and He knew what was needed to overcome them. So He sent Jesus to accomplish it, and it has been accomplished. We are now one with God through Jesus and we have His glory, we have His righteousness, and we have it apart from any of our own works. And as King David said, we are blessed because of it. Jesus is not continually being sacrificed, He was offered once, and the power of His sacrifice is eternal! And we are eternally blessed because of it, and our sins are eternally covered by it, and God will never count them against us! Through Christ we have eternal forgiveness of sins, and through Christ we are eternally righteous!

“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: That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4

Notice where God said that He condemned sin, in our flesh, not in our spirits. Our Father deprived sin of its power; He subdued it, and overcame it in our flesh. We don’t have to wait until we get to Heaven to be free from sin; Jesus has freed us from it right now. Jesus came so that all of the righteousness of the Law would be fulfilled within us, and thus all of the blessings associated with it would be ours as well! Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

What do you think the thief, who is satan, stole? He stole Adams righteousness, and all of his descendents righteousness as well, and he caused Adam and everyone after him to sin. Our Father knew this, so He sent Jesus and Jesus came and gave righteousness back to us, and not just any righteousness, He gave us His Own righteousness, so that we might live abundantly. Jesus came so that all of the benefits of righteousness might be lived and enjoyed by those who would accept Him. Salvation goes so much deeper than what was ever available under the Old Covenant. The righteousness of the Law under the Old Covenant gave the Israelites earthly benefits: prosperity, health, peace, and so forth. But Jesus came so that we actually could become one with God, through the power of His shed Blood. Flesh is weak, but God isn’t, the Blood of Christ isn’t, and the Holy Spirit isn’t, they are strong and powerful, and they are the One’s keeping us. The Blood is always and forever working to keep us righteous, it will never fail and there is nothing that can penetrate or end its power!

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