Tag: Righteousness

The Righteousness of God…

November 29th, 2022

Romans 3 is a very well-known passage and verse 23 one of the most quoted in scripture. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Yep, we know it and quote it, and I’m not going to write anything here that most don’t know, but… I’m going to write anyway. Yesterday, I read v22 which begins, The Righteousness of God…

Growing up in the church, in a pastor’s home, doing “right” was drummed into me from the beginning. And when I came up short, it was often drummed in with the drum of discipline, often administered with wood or leather. I know that’s not politically correct, but discipline IS important for good development. I’m not saying that I believe in abuse, but I do believe in correction. Yet, even good correction doesn’t bring about God’s Righteousness.

Scripture is clear that ALL of our righteous acts are comparatively “filthy rags”. (Isaiah 64.6) polluted garments (CSB) and the literal meaning of the word is worse than that, something we wouldn’t want to talk about but a regular reality of life. So, Paul makes it clear v22 the righteousness of God is THROUGH (because of, by) faith IN Jesus Christ – Not just ANY faith, not just sincerity, but by belief IN Jesus – And not just anyone named Jesus, but Jesus, born in Bethlehem, the promised Christ / Messiah, the previously existent, only, Son of God, faith in that Jesus is the vehicle to the righteousness of God

To ALL who believe (verb, present, active tense = believe, entrust, actively now)

Why? Because we all fall short. I said a few minutes ago, I often came up short, and I still do. And discipline was drummed into me. But verse 22 says there is no distinction. Colossians 3:11 says there is no distinction, not Greek or Jew… Barbarian or Scythian slave or free” … WE are the one who make distinctions, well if you come from this family, or are in this position, or are only THIS “bad”. But without distinction, we ALL come up short. “Well, my sin isn’t as bad as theirs.” NO DIFFERENCE, no table of reference – Short is Short = unrighteous. The “bar” of measure is the glory (weight, reputation) of God. ALL SHORT

But v22 also says to all who believe… that is also without distinction. ALL… v24 they… oh here’s the good news – just like there is no distinction / difference in our sin, there is not distinction in the OPPORTUNITY

– SAVE ONE – to all WHO BELIEVE – IF they have faith in Jesus, THEN, they are Justified Freely by his grace.

Now stop and look at that backwards – charis – grace = that’s receiving something good that I do not deserve. It comes freely – dorean = a gift, no charge, not earned. Grace, freely given… they – those who believe – they are justified – dikaioo = declared righteous. A verdict is rendered in the courts of Heaven. This is not earned on the battlefield, it is not earned in a contest, it is not earned by inheritance or family position. This word is in the present tense, is passive, and plural. This isn’t only for ONE, but for ALL WHO, and I can’t DO anything for it, but it is being done, remains done, for all who believe – Our position / standing is changed from the state of short of God’s Glory / righteousness, to being declared righteous!

Whew hands up somebody celebrate

We are, in the declaration of Heaven, moved from one position to another; from short of, to positioned in

By Grace… through the redemption that is IN Christ Jesus

Yes, God IS Love, but he is also JUST. So, forgiveness is available, but is borne by the work of Christ at the cross, and only received as we believe and receive that provision. I owed a debt beyond my ability to pay, and he had paid a debt he did not owe on my behalf. And when I believe and receive, everything CHANGES!

Oh, I know we know this, or do we? do you? Just an important reminder today, and if you have not, you can right now. Stop trying and start trusting, stop wondering and believe, and find the change of God. There is a great chasm between us and God, but faith in the work of Christ, bridges the gap
When You Offer …

March 14th, 2017

Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leds to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

“I am not anyone’s slave!” Really? That’s what we say, what we think. But we are all slave to something / someone.

Slaves – doulos = servant, slave – (Lexham Theological Wordbook) a doulos is someone who is a slave and obeys the commands of his or her master. Like Matthew 8:9 “I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’, and he goes, and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this’ and he does it.”

The one to whom we respond when they say ‘go’, ‘do’, ‘come’ that is the one to whom we are a slave.

Lexham says the idea of a slave carries the sense of belonging. For Paul “Christ has bought him and owns him”.

so, this doesn’t happen by accident v16 says “when we offer”. – Then we find ourselves slaves to a master we don’t want, perhaps we even loathe, and we ask, “how did this happen?” It happened at a moment in time, a moment when …. “when we offer”. Paristemi = to make available, to provide, to present to (Greek English Lexicon) without necessarily involving actual change of ownership. Oh sometimes we have offered ourselves to one to whom we don’t even belong. Oh somebody …

And there it is. It is when we make ourselves available, when we come near, we offer, yield, say “here I am”, when we offer ourselves to someone to obey – hypakoe = to obey, listen to, to heed, to obey

Then you are a slave / servant

Regardless of the master, good or bad. Regardless of the outcome, holy or sinful. Regardless of the timetable, eternal or temporal. In that instant we are slaves to a master.

Whether slaves to sin or slaves to obedience. It is an interesting choice of words that the Holy Spirit inspires in Paul, the one we obey is either sin or obedience.

Wait, I thought who I obey is what determines. Yes … but if we obey sin, then we are in actuality slaves to DISobedience. We are obeying disobedience. “Sin” is the word hamartia which means to “miss the mark” like an arrow missing a target. So, when we become slaves to sin, we are committed to disobedience, we are committed to missing the target. And Romans 6:23 says that the wage of missing the target is death. So here it says sin “leads” – eis = markers of a change of state.

“Don’t you know” v 16 begins … this is not inconsequential. When we offer ourselves to someone it is a marker leading to a change of state from … to … to … for .

Sin will seek to lead us from freedom to bondage, and from bondage to death. James says that temptation leads to sin, and sin when fully grown gives birth to death.

Oh but Jesus says “But I came (Hallelujah) that you might have LIFE”!

WOW, let me stop and shout for a moment! YES LORD!

But if we reject the master that leads us to miss the mark. If we commit to obedience, to hitting the mark, which is only found in surrender to the justification of Jesus (Rom 3:24) Then Obedience, hearing, listening, taking captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ (2Cor 10:5-6), then we CAN demolish ever pretense, every argument that comes against the knowledge of truth. Oh satan is a conman. He will lie to you, offer you 1000s of arguments, and alternate realities, counterfeits, but they are all ways that are committed to missing the target, and they lead to death!

But in Him, Christ, is life and that life is the light of the world. Walk not in darkness and death. Walk in the light as he is in the light and we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son, purifies us from all sin … if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:7,9)

So vv17-18 “But thanks be to God that, though we used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

When we offer … this moment … “Here I am Lord, reveal the righteousness that you have placed within me.”
That We Might Become …

October 8th, 2013

One of the most quoted verses about salvation is 2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away, behold new things have come” (NASB) … When we come to Christ, when we are IN Christ, we don’t “turn over a new leaf”. Jesus doesn’t reform us, rework us? No, we become a NEW Creation. YAY! I like New Things. But what does that mean? How could that even BE?

How can I become new and what is that anyway?

A few verses down, verse 21, clues us in to such a beautiful truth. “He made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”
God made Him, Jesus, who knew no, or had no sin to become sin FOR us, SO THAT … we in him might become the Righteousness of God

Think with me for a minute. Jesus Christ was eternally perfect, eternally in perfection and holiness. Eternally he was pure and worshiped in the splendor of holiness, never knowing the dirtiness of sin. He then was thrust into the dirtiness of our sinful world. Have you ever come into a really dirty place, I mean where you didn’t even want to touch anything? You ever gotten that feeling, where you just about freaked out at the dirt? How about Jesus Christ, from the Holiness of Heaven to the sinfulness of earth?
Jesus Christ knew no sin, and he came to us and became sin FOR us. He came into our sin soaked world, wow what a creepy crawly, holy germophobic experience that must have been. Yet he was still sinless walking purely in an impure world.

Then, on the cross, he became our atoning sacrifice, our propitiation. At that moment there on the cross, God turned his back, the sun stopped shining, the earth shook, Jesus Cried Out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” As God forsook Christ he was reaching out to us. Why? “SO THAT” … God always has a purpose. “So That” WE … who knew no righteousness, WE who only knew self-righteousness, we who have righteousness that is like filthy rags … We knew we were in a mess, and we try to clean it up, but have you tried to clean something with a stained or oily rag? Won’t work. So we who knew nothing but a swirly sin stained mess … needed something.

And so WE, though we knew no righteousness, … find that in the combination of the moment that he became sin for us and the moment that we receive it as our atoning sacrifice, we became something NEW, RIGHTEOUS. And not just any righteousness. Jesus Christ didn’t die on the cross to make me the best version of myself. No, In Christ, we become The Righteousness of God!

I can’t even wrap my feeble mind around that blessed truth. But IN Christ, I become like Christ, that I might, as 2 Peter 1:3-4 says we can participate in the divine nature.

Oh Blessed Grace … The Righteousness of God IN ME as I am IN Christ, and so, I am a NEW Thing, the past is gone, everything New. Christ in me, the Hope of Glory! Hallelujah!

Tag: Righteousness

The Righteousness of God…

When You Offer …

That We Might Become …