A spirit of falsehood pervades Christian thinking. It is time now for the God of Heaven to execute judgment on this error and to remove it from the presence of mankind forever.

Entrance into the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus removes us totally from the authority of the Law of Moses. Then the eternal moral law of God is born in us in the Person of Christ. Command upon command, rule upon rule, a little here and a little there, the law of God replaces the body of sin that resides in our personality. If the process is not aborted by our lack of faith and obedience, the end result will be a person who thinks, speaks, and acts in the eternal law of God.

The new covenant is not a replacement of the law of God. The new covenant is the creation of the law in our personality. This is a completely different concept from the doctrine that new-covenant grace is an alternative to righteous behavior. Apart from righteous, holy, obedient behavior there is no operation of the new covenant, the covenant that is the moral law engraved for eternity in the human personality.

If we Gentiles would understand Divine grace and the new covenant we must consider Paul's thinking, his attitude toward the Christian redemption.

Before we begin to examine Paul's attitude toward the Christian salvation, let us redefine some commonly employed terms, giving them definitions that are in line with their usage in the New Testament.

Definition of Biblical Terms

Righteousness. Righteousness always means that which is acceptable and pleasing to God. God desires that people treat other people as they would be treated themselves, not lying or stealing or causing harm to another. God regards highly a truthful, upright individual who walks in integrity.

But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35)

Christians, in their haste to impress people with the fact there is no salvation other than that found in Christ, have taken a few passages of Scripture in isolation from their contexts and declared that no righteous person has ever lived. The truth is, there have been and yet are numerous righteous people, including Jews, heathen, and Christians.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalms 1:6)

Holiness is closely associated with righteousness, although holiness has more to do with our closeness to God. To be holy is to belong to God for His unique purposes and to be free from unclean spirits. In its purest sense holiness, as is true also of righteousness, is the Presence of God in Christ.

When we first receive Christ we are given His righteousness so that God will be pleased to receive us. This initial righteousness is termed "imputed (ascribed) righteousness" in that it is assigned to us apart from righteous behavior on our part.

Imputed (ascribed) righteousness is the foundation of the Christian redemption and is of the utmost importance. But ascribed righteousness has been carried into the area reserved for righteous behavior, and this is where the problem lies. The bulk of the passages in the books of the New Testament indicate the need for righteous behavior, not ascribed righteousness.

To be continued.