In My Darkest Moments That

It was in my darkest moments that Gods love shone the brightest in my heart. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Christ Our Righteousness

Christ Our Righteousness

One of the great majestic names of the LORD God is “The LORD Our Righteousness” (Jer. 33:16).

Jesus Christ is our righteousness (1Corinthians 1:30).  We do not and cannot attain a right relationship with God in our own righteousness because our self-righteousness is as filthy rags.  We are guilty sinners in the need of a perfect righteousness (Rom. 3:23; Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:20-23).

When we speak of Christ our righteousness, we are using a great forensic term referring to our acquittal by God.  All that we have as Christians we have received as a free gift of God through Jesus Christ.  We are justified once and for all by grace through faith in Christ.  It never has to be repeated because it is a non-repeatable event.  When we are united to Christ, we have a righteous and holy standing before God.  We are “in Christ.”  We have a vital union in Him.  We enjoy a right relationship with God because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.  Christ is the basis of our perfect acceptance with God (2 Cor. 5:21).

God has robed us with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.  He is the basis of our acceptance with God.

Godet said, “It is the act of grace whereby God removes the condemnation pronounced on the sinner, and places him relatively to Himself, as a believer, in the position of a righteous man. The possibility of such a Divine act is due to the death and resurrection of Christ.”  His death is the foundation of everything God does for the sinner.

The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:12 that we are through the atoning death of Christ declared righteous before God.  This “righteousness” of God in Christ is that quality, which is ours when God acquits the believer, based upon the finished all-sufficient death of Christ (Rom.4: 22-25). God acquits the believer for Christ’s sake, not ours.

This righteousness, like justification, is always forensic.  God is Judge, and we must stand before Him.  We can only plead guilty because we are guilty.  God treated Jesus Christ as if He were the guilty sinner, and deals with the believing sinner as though he or she were righteous.  Christ did not deserve the curse; we did.  The imputed righteousness of Christ to the sinner is a demonstration of the wisdom of God. It is a display of His justice, mercy, grace, love, and power as would never enter into the mind of men.  It is a manifestation, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (I Cor. 1:25).

The cross and the resurrection is the power of God unto salvation. Let us glory in the cross of Jesus Christ and God’s saving grace.

Because our right standing with God is His work, He alone can get all the glory.  God pronounces the verdict based upon whether we have accepted or denied Jesus Christ as our Savior.  Man cannot satisfy the Judge unless he is righteous.  There is no denying of the fact that no man is righteous before God.  No man can produce the righteousness God requires.  It has to be given to him if the sinner gets it.  Under these circumstances, his faith is counted to him as righteousness (Rom. 3:23; Gal. 3:26).  Christ Himself becomes the righteousness we need (2 Cor. 5:21).  God the Righteous Judge views us not as we are in our sinfulness, but in Christ.  He is our perfect standing before God.  It is only the righteousness of Christ that can possibly satisfy the perfect demand of the law of God.

Christ is our righteousness; none other will satisfy God.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

A Life Transformed By

Faith in Jesus leads to a life transformed by Jesus. Melissa Kruger

Christ Our Redemption

In the wisdom of God, the plan of salvation was fully accomplished by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.   Such wisdom is hidden from the wise and learned of the world, but it revealed to the humble believer of Christ.

Christ alone personified the wisdom of God. “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’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31, NASB 1995).

Christ is our redemption.  From the moment we put out faith in Jesus Christ alone to save us, we were “Sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). We already have the “first fruits of the Spirit” as we wait the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23).

The wisdom puts to shame the high and mighty people of the world.  The wise men of the world cannot understand how God’s grace in Jesus Christ changes sinners into saints. The mighty men of the world see the grace of God as foolishness and weakness (I Cor. 1:25-29).

God in His grace changes lives when they accept His wisdom and believe on Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Salvation must be all of grace so that He alone gets all the glory. “We are made righteous, holy, and redeemed in Christ Jesus.  Redemption comes here last for emphasis through the very foundation of righteousness and sanctification,” notes A. T. Roberson.  We are “Justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).  God has ransomed setting free the person enslaved in sin.

There is a sense in which the believer is redeemed the very moment he believes on Christ as his Savior.  But there is also the greater expectation that our redemption will not be complete in its fullest sense until the work of God is perfected in him or her.

We are now hidden with Christ in God, and our redemption will come to consummation when Christ returns in glory (I Thess. 4:17).  At that time “We shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (I Cor. 15:49).  We shall be glorified with Him.

Yes, our redemption is our present possession (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14).  We enjoy forgiveness of all our sins, and we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the first fruits and down payment of greater things to come. The full renewal and reward of our redemption is yet to come at the last day.

The foundation and basis for these great events is the death of Jesus Christ as our ransom (Mark 10:45). Christ came “To give His life as a ransom for many.”  The meaning is Jesus paid the price for a slave who is then set free by the one who bought him.  Jesus gave His own life as the price to purchase our freedom from the slaves of sin.

Jesus vicariously suffered death on behalf of the many who have fallen victim to death.  His death was the ransom payment to redeem us (I Pet. 1:18-19).  Christ “Gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity” (Titus 2:14).

The word “redemption” here probably embraces the totality of Christ’s work of salvation of the sinner. It embraces rescuing men from sin and Satan by the payment of Christ, and it extends to the believer’s final resurrection and glorification.  It looks back upon the cross to the blood that bought our freedom, justification (Rom. 3:24), sanctification (Heb. 10:10), and forward to our resurrection and glorification (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14; 4:30).

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

The Gift of His

Christians should be grateful to God for the gift of his written Word, and conscientious in basing their faith and life entirely and exclusively on it.
J. I. Packer

Is Very Scary at First

Faith is very scary at first and is still challenging all of our lives. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Shone the Brightest In

It was in my darkest moments that Gods love shone the brightest in my heart. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Has All He Needs.

He who has the Holy Spirit in his heart and the Scriptures in his hands has all he needs. Alexander Maclaren

Like a Banquet Feast

For me, opening up God’s Word [is] like a banquet feast…. Nourishment for my soul.
Charles Swindoll

Contentment is An

Contentment is an embracing of the providence of God. George Seevers