Tag Archives: righteousness

Imputation

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2 Corinthians 5

My study guide asked me to put the doctrine of imputation in my own words today. Not an easy task. But here goes…

Holy Jesus, who never sinned, became sin. God, who must punish sin, punished Jesus without mercy. The separation (the required consequence of sin) was real, and painful. Jesus paid the debt for sin in full, once and for all. Then he defeated death by living again.

When I repent of sin and accept the grace God offers by virtue of Jesus’ completed work on the cross, I become His righteousness. Just like Jesus became sin even though he didn’t have sin of his own, I become righteous even though I have no righteousness of my own.

“What do you mean,” people might say. “You’re a good person. You’ve done good things.”

That’s not righteousness. God’s righteousness is perfect, holy, sinless. And for the fact that I’ve done even one bad thing, thought even one bad thought, renders me imperfect, unholy, and a sinner. I earned the separation from God because of my sin.

But because of Jesus, God exchanges my sin for His righteousness. The exchange placed my sin on Jesus, and Jesus’ righteousness on me. That’s what the doctrine of imputation is about.

Think about it. I am the righteousness of God! God has entrusted me with His reputation. When people look at my life they ought to recognize the righteousness that is God. I ask myself if I really reflect God’s righteousness, or do I still wear the sin I refuse to confess? What does my life say about the righteousness of God?

I AM THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD!

As I go about my day today, may I keep that truth at the forefront of everything I do and say. May God give me the desire and the strength to show the world what He has graciously given me… His own righteousness.

Amazing.

What is Good?

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Matthew 5:21-30

Jesus, in verse 20, just got done saying our goodness must exceed that of the Pharisees, those professional do-gooders. They were men who went out of their way to be and do good, and held themselves up as what goodness should look like. Exceed that?

Then, if that’s not impossible enough, Jesus goes on to make it more impossible!

We humans look at a person’s actions and evaluate the level of good or evil. A good man is someone who does NOT murder, does NOT cheat on his wife, does NOT steal or lie or throw tantrums. A good man is someone who DOES value life, fidelity, honesty, and self-control and demonstrates these virtues by his good choices. We see his actions and say, “That is a good man.”

Most of us, if we try, can reach a level of goodness using those indicators. But Jesus reminds us we look on the outside, God looks on the heart. And that’s where the rubber meets the road.

If I have hate in my heart for anyone, if I nurture anger toward someone, if I gossip about someone or reveal things that could ruin a reputation, if I consider myself superior to anyone and treat them like I think they’re unimportant or ignorant, my righteousness does not exceed that of a Pharisee, and Jesus says heaven is closed to me.

Then Jesus throws in lust. Most people don’t literally have sex with their neighbor’s wife. But infidelity extends to our thought life, the choice to look at someone and think about having sex with them, perhaps looking at pornography, or daydreaming about sex.

We can commend the guy who has been a faithful husband for 50 years, but not realize he is addicted to pornography. We can commend a woman for her commitment to her husband and family, and not realize she thinks about leaving them every day. We don’t know what goes on inside a person’s mind. God knows. And God judges what goes on inside a person’s mind as though they were actions.

Thank God for Jesus, who took the punishment for our sins of thought and action. Thank God for the Holy Spirit who changes our hearts so that our thoughts and actions are pure.

Oswald Chambers, in his book on the Sermon on the Mount points out purity is not innocence. “Purity is not a question of doing things right, but of the doer BEING right on the inside.” (p 22). He goes on to say purity isn’t something we’re born with like innocence. Purity comes from conflict. Purity comes from wrestling with sinful thoughts, with ungodly attitudes, and defeating it. Purity is a result of coming through the refiner’s fire.

God doesn’t accept our goodness as a tradeoff for sin. In fact, there is no goodness in us to give. All you and I have is our badness, but when we give God our badness, He gives us the goodness of Jesus! He refines the badness into Jesus’ goodness.

Our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees when we are wearing the righteousness of Jesus. An impossible righteousness to achieve on our own. But wonderfully possible through the blood of Jesus.

Finished

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Galatians 3:1-14

Paul goes on to explain how believers are justified by faith, and continue to live by faith. He wonders how anyone can look at Jesus on the cross and think they could do more.

How can anyone look at the Mona Lisa and think they could take a paintbrush and add a little color around the eyes. To do so would cheapen the finished work – or worse – reduce its value to $0.

Jesus’ work on the cross is enough. He said, “It is finished,” not “I’ve done my part so now it’s your turn.” Our good deeds are unable to change our sin to righteousness. A sinner can’t just one day declare himself not a sinner.

The curators at the Louvre in Paris care for Da Vinci’s finished work. They protect it, treat it with utmost respect and honor, they share its beauty with the world. But none of those deeds painted the picture or add to its worth.

I was at the hairdresser’s yesterday and, you know how those women can talk! They were speaking about the wife of a man who had just left, how kind and sweet and good this woman is. One of the ladies said, “If Sue ain’t gonna go to heaven ain’t no body gonna go.”

What a tragic belief. When Sue faces God she will be judged exactly the same way the rest of us will be judged. Did she live by works, or by faith in Jesus for her righteousness? Sadly, if she is counting on her own goodness instead of wearing the righteousness of Jesus, she ain’t gonna go to heaven.

We who have been entrusted with the Gospel are like the curators of the Mona Lisa. We love the Gospel, protect it, share it. But those deeds add nothing to the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

It is finished. And it is enough.

Righteousness

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Genesis 6

Warren Wiersbe (Be Basic; David C Cook publisher; 2010; p 105ff) challenges us to be men and women who have the same attributes as Noah. Genesis 6:9 gives us four traits to emulate. Noah was righteous, blameless, and he walked with God. Verse 22 tells us Noah was obedient.

I’m going to consider each characteristic separately for the next four days. So today the question is: what is righteousness?

Is righteousness the same as religious? Is it something I can aspire to achieve? The Apostle Paul has quite a bit to say about that.

In Galatians 2:21 he says that if we could be righteous through the law, meaning being good and following the rules, then Christ died for nothing. So, no, we can’t be good enough to call ourselves righteous. If we could, Jesus sure went through a lot of grief for nothing. And we know He didn’t die for nothing.

Religion doesn’t save, nor does God accept our good deeds as a trade-off for sin.

Again in Titus 3:5 Paul says:

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness comes from God, from his own mercy, and not from anything we do. Righteousness, or being right before God, isn’t something to be bartered.

And in 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul explains:

For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might becomes the righteousness of God.

Did you catch that? In Jesus we BECOME the righteousness of God. We don’t earn it. We become it through faith in the risen Savior. Paul emphasizes our need of God’s righteousness when he quotes an Old Testament passage:

There is none righteous, no, not one. (Romans 3:10)

The precious truth is that even though we can’t hope to be right in God’s eyes because of our sin, Jesus – who IS righteous – places His own righteousness on anyone who believes. We become the righteousness of God Himself!

Proverbs 21:21 says:

Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.

Pursuing righteousness doesn’t mean trying harder to be good or acceptable to God. It has nothing to do with how “good” we are. Pursuing righteousness means pursuing Jesus.

Commit your way to the Lord, trust him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (Proverbs 14:34)

The Lord’s righteousness, His perfect standing before God, becomes mine and He who IS light will shine through me as bright as broad daylight.

When you consider Noah, God’s light shown through him all those years he was hammering on that big boat and preaching the need for repentance. He stood out like a sore thumb in a world of sin and rejection of God. So should we.

Are you pursuing Jesus? Have you submitted to Him and allowed Him to dress you in His righteousness for all the world to see? This is my prayer for us all.

Quit Trying So Hard

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Ephesians 1-5

I don’t know how anyone, after reading Paul’s words, wouldn’t want what God has to offer:

Grace, mercy, love, acceptance, strength, purpose, family, identity, redemption, wisdom, enlightenment, peace, being rooted and established in love, goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Who doesn’t want those things? People try so hard to find them in so many places and in so many ways. Yet here they are, offered as gifts to anyone who believes in Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of souls.

If you are one who is searching, search no more! Quit trying so hard to find what is right in front of you. Surrender to Jesus and I know all these things will be yours.

Then, when Christ dwells in your heart through faith, “…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know the love that surpasses knowledge -then you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (3:17-19)

I’m praying for you.

December 30; What Not To Wear

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Revelation 15-18

So often we can become impatient for God to give our enemies what we think they deserve. But as I read John’s vision in the book of Revelation, I realize God is not out to avenge our enemies. But He will certainly deal with His.

His final judgment will be unimaginably awful for anyone who rejected Him during their lifetime on Earth. It is a truly frightening account of their future.

Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments. (16:7)

God isn’t going to arbitrarily torture someone just because He didn’t like them, or because of the color of their hair. But a painful existence is ahead for anyone who has ignored God’s wooing, His hand of correction, His conviction over sin, His constant attempts at winning the world. His judgments are true and just.

Jesus says, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” (16:7)

So let me ask us this: What are we wearing? What clothes are we hanging onto? Good deeds? Charity? Church attendance? Morality? Good luck with that.

Those are exactly the things NOT to wear. When those filthy rags disintegrate, and they will, you’ll be standing there as naked as the day you were born.

For me, I want to be awake, wearing the righteousness Jesus bought for me on the cross. I want to keep that robe close to me because it is the only ticket into heaven anyone has.

I want that for you, too.

 

December 1; References

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2 Corinthians 2:5-6:18

I imagine most of us have had to supply references at one time or another. Job applications, college admission forms, rental agreements. I’m in the process of joining a gun club and need three people who will vouch for me.

Maybe you’ve agreed to be a reference for someone. On what did you base your recommendation? You probably had to say how long you’ve known the person, and in what capacity. As someone close enough to know that person, you might have had to give your opinion on his or her character.

Paul, in chapter 3 is talking about letters of recommendation, and he said the Corinthians themselves were his letter. Look at verses 2-3:

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that also convicting?

When people are considering what you have to offer them in Jesus, who is it they look to for a recommendation? What does your relationship with your spouse say about your relationship with the Savior?

How do the people at work see the Holy Spirit lived out in the way you do your job, the way you treat your co-workers? Can they say you are honest, hard working, kind, generous, loving? Or do they see you as miserable as they?

How about your neighbors? Can they recommend your witness as a believer based on who they know you to be at home?

Maybe more importantly, are there eternal souls who have been saved because of your ministry and witness to them? Are there people who can give first hand recommendations based on their own encounter with the Savior through you?

God is speaking to me today about my witness. Will people be open to hearing what I have to say, based on the testimony of others I have touched for Jesus’ sake?

The Corinthians were Paul’s letters of recommendation. God is asking me to think about mine.

November 19; Faith

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Galatians 1:1-4:7

Does reading Paul’s letter to the Galatians thrill you as much as it does me? Salvation comes from placing my faith in Jesus.

I can’t be good enough, generous enough, even religious enough to earn what Jesus freely gives to those who come to Him. He bought the right to forgive all who believe. That in itself thrills my soul.

Receiving forgiveness is the same for you as it is for me, as it is for that murderer on death row or that sweet little old lady down the street. We all must be born again by placing our faith in Jesus, the One who loves us and gave Himself for us.

Consider Abraham; “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then that those who believe are children of Abraham. (3:6-7)

Abraham believed. Do you?

But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised (righteousness), being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. (verse 22)

Isn’t that thrilling? Believe, and receive. Then this:

So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. (4:7)

Oh, dear one, I pray that you have placed your faith in Jesus. There is no joy greater than having your sins forgiven, no blessing better than being a child of God, nothing more thrilling than knowing you are going to heaven.

I am praying for you.

May 29; The Wisdom Cycle

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Proverbs 8-10

Solomon seems to talk a lot about the relationship between wisdom and righteousness. First of all, he says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not the love of the Lord. Not doing things for the Lord. Not a cleaned up life. And not the philosophy of today which tells us love of self is the beginning of wisdom.

Fear of God.

For those people who don’t know Him, that fear ought to look like the cowering, petrified, scared to death kind of fear that ends up in the attempt to escape Him. He is THAT God.

For those who recognize that, who realize the fearfulness of God, PLUS His great sacrificial love, their’s is a fear that looks more like obedience, respect, and awe. Now that’s the beginning of wisdom!

Solomon says that kind of wisdom leads to righteous living. Righteous living is blessed by God. One of those blessings is more wisdom which leads to more righteous living, then blessings, and wisdom, etc.

The “wisdom cycle.”

It’s the never ending cycle of the sanctified life, growing  in grace and knowledge of Jesus. It’s the yieldedness that produces a vital, productive life blessed by God, and used by Him to share the wisdom with others.

Do you fear God? You should. That fear should make you want to resist Satan in every way like I talked about yesterday. Living a righteous life is blessed by God, draws us closer to Him. Living a righteous life is wisdom – with benefits.

Jumping on the “wisdom cycle” is the wise thing to do.

 

January 9; Is There A Target On My Back?

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Job: 15-19

Job brings up a hard truth about God that we often try to ignore. We can talk all day about God’s love, His grace, His forgiveness, kindness, acceptance. But we don’t like to even think about His wrath.

Now, to be perfectly clear, chapter 1 tells us Job’s suffering is not a direct result of sin. God is not punishing him. In fact, Job is an upright citizen. God even calls him “righteous.” Yet awful things are happening to Job.

In chapter 16, Job says he feels like God has placed a target on his back. Job feels God’s anger as though God were ripping him to shreds with gnashing teeth. Job says he’s tried to bind his wounds himself, he’s cried endless tears. But Job realizes his helplessness to combat God and win.

It’s easy to say Job didn’t deserve this. But here is what God impressed on me: if Job, described by God Himself as a “righteous man,” has no defense against God, I’m in serious trouble.

Paul, in Romans 3:23 tells me everybody has sinned. Romans 3:10 actually quotes some Old Testament verses that tell me there isn’t a righteous man or woman anywhere. Not even one.

(I have no problem hearing God call Job “righteous,” then reading more than one Scripture that says no one is righteous. Job never lived like he was sinless. He continued to offer sacrifices for his sins and for those of his children. “Righteous” described Job because he had dealt with his sin.)

Scripture repeats these words, or words like them: Every sin is punished. Every sin deserves death. Every. Sin.

That’s why I think we should probably remove the word “deserve” from our vocabulary when talking about circumstances of life. We are all sinners, and God hates sin. Hates it. It’s hard to hear, but God considers sinners his enemies. (Romans 5:10; Philippians 3:18; James 4:4; I Samuel 12:14; and others)

Being sinners, we “deserve” God’s wrath. And, friend, you can’t handle God’s wrath.

As I look at the theme of worship in the book of Job, I am blown away that this man who is so lost, so grieved and alone, still looks to God. He begs God for an audience, not to give God a piece of his mind, but to present his case before God. Job longs for an advocate from heaven. Listen to this:

Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. (17:19-21)

Read that again and let God speak to your heart. Hear Job’s confidence that there is Someone who is on his side, someone who pleads with God on his behalf like a man pleads for his friend. And Job had never even heard the name of Jesus. My soul is overwhelmed at the beauty of this truth. I love it so much.

Here’s something about God’s wrath: It’s real. And it’s frightening. It’s harsh and relentless. And we are absolutely, totally powerless against it.

But Jesus!

Jesus took God’s wrath directed at you and me. He faced God’s fierce anger – AND IT KILLED HIM.

But He didn’t stay dead! He defeated the last enemy – death. Now, by His grace, I can stand before God – not an enemy – but as His precious child. Not because of my own righteousness (which is non-existent) but because I’m wearing Jesus’ righteousness through the blood He shed on the cross.

God is no longer my enemy. He’s my Father. He calls me His friend!

Please understand that unless you have accepted what Jesus did for you on the cross, you are an enemy of God. You can try to bandage your own wounds, you can try to stand before Him in your own strength. But you don’t have any hope of winning that battle. No hope.

I don’t know what the circumstances of your life are like right now. But I know if you are blessed, you don’t deserve it. If you are suffering, you deserve much worse. You might feel like there is a target on your back, and you might be right.

But read again what Job said in the quote above. And know there is Someone in heaven who would love to be your advocate. Someone who would love to cover that target on your back with His own blood. Someone who wants to turn you from being an enemy of God, to being His most precious child.