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Grace Blog:
"The Gift of Righteousness"
The Apostle Paul felt it was important to continually remind people to be careful not to fall back into the works and performance mentality where they were trying to earn their peace with God by their works. The tendency is for a person to be exposed to enough of the law, whether it be seeing the 10 Commandments posted on a courtroom wall or a TV show they see where the righteous demands of our Holy God are expressed or possibly even from seeing the life of a true believer living a Godly life and they come to the point in their life where they know they need a savior. That moment when a person comes to the end of themselves, they know they have failed and fallen short of God's absolute expectations and realize that they cannot obtain the holiness and righteousness of God through any amount of their own efforts, then they give their life to Jesus and trust in His completed works for their salvation. It is so unfortunate that our society so strongly promotes guilt, shame and a performance based maintenance of our salvation that many, if not most, tend to lose sight of that fact that they could not save themselves and they begin to work to repay a debt to God that they recall acquiring in their old life. The Apostle Paul refers to id as "Falling from Grace." Galatians 5:1-4 "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. 3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." To be "fallen from Grace" is the word "ekpipto" in the Greek and it means to "drop away, especially to be driven out or off of one's course." In other words, that drive that compels people to perform for God to pay back a debt they owe to Him is actually doing just the opposite. It is driving them off the course of grace that God has intended for them. After all, if you are going to try to obtain or maintain your holiness and righteousness with God by keeping the demands of the law, you better be pretty good at it, because to miss the mark in one single point of it means that you are just as guilty before God as if you had missed it on every one. James said, James 2:10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Now I like to balance out a radical message about the true grace of God with a reminder that being free from performance based Christianity by no means allows for or promotes sin or ungodly living as being acceptable. We still serve the same Holy, perfect and pure God that has always been, we just understand our inability to continue in holy living and righteousness apart from Him. Some of you however, are still living the same way you did when you were in a fallen state. You live just like you did before you supposedly gave your life to Christ. It may even be hard to tell if you are Christian or not just by watching your life cause you are still drinking like a fish, cussing like a sailor, lying like a rug, cheating like a card shark and stealing like a guy on second base! That same term used for "fallen" in this scrip we just read is only used in that sense one other place in the Bible and it is when Jesus is addressing the Church of Ephesus and He commends them for being able to recognize and not put up with evil and false teaching and hypocritical Christians that were among them, yet he says they had fallen because they had left their first love. Revelation 2:4-5 "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." He exhorts them to remember true grace and recall the love and passion they once had toward Him and turn back unto Him. In your walk there should be a continual repentance, or adjusting of your course to make sure your life is lining up with the ways and will of God. Seek to avoid trying to establish your own ways of trying to please God that were never God's intentions. Romans 10:1-4 "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." You can see how Paul is saying that his prayer is that these people, many of whom consider themselves to be the chosen people of God, will be saved. He is praying that they will be delivered from the lie of works based faith, which is reality there is no such thing. You either believe and are saved by grace through faith, or you do not believe and are not saved. Paul points out the two types of righteousness: Your own righteousness, or the righteousness of God. Which one do you think is going to be acceptable to God? God is not interested in your labor as a form of payment to pay off a sin debt. That was under the old covenant, the old Testament where they brought offerings to God as a sort of payment for their wrong doings. It is very deeply engrained into our society that if and when you do wrong, you have to pay for it. If you get a speeding ticket, you have to pay a fine right? Well, God's plan is to put it into your heart to do right from the beginning so that you will not speed and therefore never get the ticket to need to be paid off! The natural world still works that way, but in God's kingdom the debt for sin, has already been paid. There will be a natural consequence for sin, but God's ways are now written on our heart so they can be obeyed from the inside out, from the beginning, so those sins never even occur. Finally, we get to the central passage for this entire message. Rm 4:1-7 The summary of that passage is this: "Grace is no longer Grace if you are working for it." When you are earning your righteousness, you are fallen from Grace and are now expressing doubt in the plan and will of God. The scriptures are talking about how God imputed or imparted righteousness on Abraham simply because he believed God by faith. Grace is clearly described as a gift in the Bible. Righteousness is clearly described as a gift in the Bible, and so it therefore must be seen as a gift and not something that we labor to obtain or that is owed to us because of our labors or works. Romans 4:4-5 "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Romans 4:4-5 (Amplified Bible) "Now to a laborer, his wages are not counted as a favor or a gift, but as an obligation (something owed to him). 5 But to one who, not working [by the Law], trusts (believes fully) in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited to him as righteousness (the standing acceptable to God)." Romans 4:4-6 (Good News Bible) "A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. 5 But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself." God is the one who paid the wages, to us, not because of our labor, but because of the labors of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel. That is the good news that Jesus Christ came to share with us. Believe that by faith and see how it changes your life. You are receiving something you didn’t earn. Jesus earned it for you. It's like you needed open heart surgery and you could not operate on yourself and were going to die, but then Jesus steps in and does the surgery and then tells them to pay you and give you his wages. You should be forever grateful and in the deepest sense of the work you are "much obliged" or feel a sense of lifelong obligation to Him for it. You now lay down your life and say, whatever you need, whatever you want, I will be there for you.
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AuthorGary Gilbert has been serving in the ministry of Christ since 1995 and is the author of "The Narrow Road- What it takes (and doesn't take) to go to Heaven" and "The Covenant of Grace.". He is currently a loving husband, father of 2 wonderful sons and a full time Pastor. Archives
December 2018
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