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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Three Steps Toward Righteousness
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (II Corinthians 5:17,28—NIV)
There are three forms of Divinely produced righteousness. The first is the familiar imputed righteousness. The second is the not so familiar joint venture of the adamic nature and the Spirit of God. The third is hardly known. It is the righteous nature of the Lord Jesus Christ formed in every part of our personality, plus the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell in us forever, plus the making alive of our mortal body and the clothing of it with the robe from Heaven. This third form is the fullness of God and of righteousness. The third form of righteousness is the purpose for the first two and is the mark toward which we are to be pressing.
Imputed Righteousness.
Imputed or ascribed righteousness is well known to Evangelical believers. However, in our day ascribed righteousness has been distorted from that taught by the Apostle Paul.
Paul's main argument concerning imputed righteousness is found in Chapters Three through Five of the Book of Romans. A careful examination of the text will reveal that Paul was seeking to convince the Jews they could turn away from the Law of Moses and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and still be accounted righteous by the Lord. Paul was not stating they could turn away from righteous behavior and put their trust in Christ.
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20—NIV)
Can you see from the above verse, characteristic of several in the early chapters of Romans, that Paul is speaking about the Law of Moses, not about doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God?
When Paul contrasted faith and works he was contrasting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the works of the Law of Moses, not faith in Christ and works of righteousness. We are to trust Christ for righteousness instead of obtaining righteousness through the many statutes of the Law of Moses. Paul is not arguing that we should trust Christ instead of doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.
While we cannot reject the salvation that is in Christ and save ourselves by doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God; faith in the Lord Jesus Christ always results in our doing good, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. When it does not, we do not have true faith in Christ.
Right here is the mammoth error of our day. We are viewing the grace of God in Jesus Christ as a new way of relating to God, meaning that no matter how we behave we are without condemnation in the sight of God. The hastiest perusal of the New Testament reveals that the grace of God in Jesus Christ is intended to produce people who do good, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. But we are using God's grace and imputed righteousness as a means of evading the eternal moral law of God. It is a horrific error in understanding and practice!
To be continued.