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.

God delights To

“God prescribes individually for each of His patients. God delights to restore each depressed soul to a sphere of increased usefulness,”  J. Oswald Sanders

The Bible and our Sanctification

Almost everything we do daily ultimately involves spiritual warfare. Are we depending on the human weapons, or the spiritual weapons God has provided?

Our battle is not with flesh and blood (Eph. 6:10ff; Matt. 16:18). No battle with the unseen is easy. We cannot fight such a spiritual battle with carnal weapons.

One of the marvelous things the Holy Spirit does in the Christian’s life is to apply the Scriptures to the deep recesses of the mind over a period of time. As we meditate and memorize the Scriptures the Holy Spirit brings them to our conscious mind and we are able to put our confidence and trust in the Lord during trials, temptations, difficulties, and turbulent times. I am convinced the Spirit also uses His Word in that part of our mental life that is not within the immediate presence of our conscious mind and from which we cannot always recall the feelings and thoughts to our conscious mind. The Holy Spirit uses those Scriptures we have studied and memorized to conform even our subconscious mind to the likeness of Christ.

The Psalmist David wrote, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way to me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23-24).

The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:1-7 tells us that we are in a spiritual warfare and the Christian’s weapons are not “according to the flesh” (v. 2). “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” (v. 3). We do not act on purely human, abilities and worldly standards. Flesh is the willing human instrument of sin. We live in this frail, human body of weakness, but our spiritual “weapons of warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (v. 4).

Goodspeed described these “fortresses” or “strongholds entrenchments and fortifications of opinion, in which men strengthen themselves against the gospel.” They belong to the realm of the will and intellect. This metaphor recognizes the defiant and mutinous nature of sin.

The apostle Paul tells us how God destroys or tears down and overpowers these forces that are against the kingdom of God. “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (v. 5). In the next verse Paul tells us to act on what we know to be the truth of God. “And we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete” (v. 6).

What are these “fortifications” against the kingdom of God? They are “speculations,” reasoning, a thought which are the things we reckon or count on. The word suggests the contemplation of actions as a result of the verdict of conscience. Every evil act begins with a desire which was at first only a feeling in the heart, but which, being nourished long enough, became an evil act (James 4:1-3).

The “lofty things” are the metaphor of a summit or mountain, a high thing lifted up as a barrier or in antagonistic exaltation. It is anything that “is raised up against the knowledge of God.”

They are also “every thought” that is opposed to Christ. What are you saying to yourself about Jesus Christ, the LORD God, the Holy Spirit and His will for your life? It is in the realm of the thoughts, cognitions, and intentions of man’s mind, our thinking processes, design, that produces our emotions and behaviors. The apostle admonishes us to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

Are we “ready to punish all disobedience”? That is where the battle is won or lost. We tend to focus on the outward visible works of the flesh, but the battle is spiritual, that which is unseen to the human eyes.

These prisoners the apostle Paul has in mind are the thoughts—the cognitions of man’s mind, and they are everyone led captive into the obedience of Christ.

It is imperative in this spiritual warfare that we submit our minds daily to the Word of God. Our understanding should be brought into captivity, led submissive, as though bound with handcuffs. We take captive every design to make it obedient to Christ. We make them a prisoner of Jesus Christ. As a person thinks in his heart so is he. Our thinking controls our emotions and behavior. “Every thought of whatever kind” refers to the perceptive or intellective center of our being and they must be brought into submission to Christ.

“Once the walls of the mind have been torn down, the door to the heart can be opened,” says Warren Wiersbe. “Paul is the most daring of the thinkers,” says A. T. Robertson, “but he lays all of his thoughts at the feet of Jesus.” The great apostle is academically free in Christ.

It is our responsibility as we abide in the Spirit to take captive in the hidden realms of our personality, which are the imaginations, that can take over and we find ourselves involved in a thousand things that we would be embarrassed for our friends and family to know (Matt. 15:19-20). It is this principle of evil in the heart that must be brought into subjection to Christ. Bring into submission to Christ all that is not holy and all that is not true in your mind and heart. God works in our souls to increasingly take control of our total being. When we acquaint ourselves with God He gives us a deep peace of mind and heart that passes all understanding. Thus He gives us a purity of heart, and that is where the spiritual battle must take place daily. Our whole being can thus be filled with God, even in the hidden areas of our personalities. “Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5, Phillips).

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

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.

Bad News – Good News

 One of the basic principles of sharing Christ with your friends is that you have to present some bad news before you can share the good news.

The Bible contains both bad news and good news. The bad news is that we have a very serious problem. The Bible says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NET).

The word that catches our eye is “sinned.” “All have sinned.” You can ask grammar school students what sin is and they can tell you in the flash of an eye what sin is. We sin when we lie, cheat, steal, lust, hate, gossip, murder, etc. But it is more than that; it is anything that does not glorify a holy and righteous God in our lives.

The “glory of God” is his standard for people. We keep trying to reach His standard and we come up short. A friend of mine said it is like trying to throw stones at the North Pole. No matter how hard you try you could never hit the North Pole with a rock. We always come up short when try to satisfy God’s righteousness. He is perfect, but we are imperfect. We are sinners by our attitudes, and our actions.

Now if that is not bad enough, our problem gets worse. The Bible says there is a penalty attached to our problem with sin. It is bad enough that we are sinners, but the Bible says, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The “payoff” of sin is death. The “wages” or “payoff” was used in reference to the soldier’s pay. “The soul that sins will surely die.” That is the payoff.

There is a big difference between working for a salary and receiving a free gift. If you work for a company your employer pays you a salary for the work you do. The Bible tells us that when we sin we earn a wage and it pays in death. It is a spiritual death that separates us eternally from God. The sad truth is we deserve it because we are sinners.

The barrier between God and us is so great that we cannot overcome it in our own power, good works, religion, philosophy, self-righteousness, etc.

However, there is some good news in God’s Word for us.

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ died for us. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6, 8 NET).

This verse of Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ loved us so much that he was willing to die for us. Let’s suppose that you were guilty of murder, and the capital punishment by lethal injection is the penalty. That penalty is going to be paid. You must die. Out of grace I decide to take your punishment on myself and die in your place. You would then be set free because the penalty had been paid in full on your behalf.

The Bible tells us that is exactly what Christ did for you. Christ took your penalty that you deserve for sin, placed it upon himself, and died in your place (2 Cor. 5:21). There is no greater love than that.

The evidence that God accepted the full payment of your sin debt is that Jesus rose from the dead. The Bible says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation” (Romans 10:9-10 NET).

Salvation is God’s fee gift to everyone who believes on Jesus Christ as their Savior. Again, the Bible says, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NET).

Jesus Christ is the only answer to the problem that separates us from God (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). This is why we must put our faith in Him alone to save us. You must put your trust in him just as you would trust a chair to hold you up and keep you from falling to the floor. You must trust in Jesus Christ to get you to heaven. Trusting in good works, religion, philosophy, keeping the law, going to church, etc. will not help. Salvation is not a wage God pays for your good behavior. It is a gift of His grace, freely given to the sinner who repents and believes on Christ to save him. When you trust in Christ alone, God gives you eternal life as His free gift.

Jesus said, “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24 NET). Ask Jesus Christ to save you right now. Pray something like this if it comes from your heart: “Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, and I deserve to be punished. I believe that you died for me on the cross to pay my penalty. I know that you are alive right now in heaven and that you are listening to my prayer. I trust you alone to forgive me of all my sins and give me everlasting life with you in heaven. Thank you for saving me. Amen.”

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

We are There Now.

Every society that has turned its back on God has self destructed. We are there now. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah