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SALVATION: THE WORK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS “I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God unto
salvation... for
in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” -
Romans 1:16:17 "…Until the Spirit is
poured out on us from on High…then righteousness will dwell… and the work of righteousness shall
be peace and its effect quietness
and confidence forever." - Isaiah 32:17 THE
PROCESS OF SALVATION
In looking at our
salvation, let us begin by establishing a good understanding of what
salvation is. Both in the Old and New Testaments, the
word translated as "salvation" has a wide range of definition,
including deliverance, protection, freedom, preservation, reconciliation,
healing, restoration, safety, soundness, peace, victory, and prosperity. Consequently, the word salvation is used
throughout scripture in a wide variety of applications - accommodating any
one or more of all the above listed meanings. Still, in all of its many uses throughout The Bible, the root
concept of salvation remains intact.
It could be defined, in short as: "the act or process of being
delivered from a dangerous, tormenting, painful, unhealthy, imprisoning, or
otherwise undesirable situation and/or the result of that act or process." (To obtain a very full understanding of the concept behind the
word - or any other word/concept in the Bible - it is very helpful to use a
concordance and examine a wide range of scriptures where the word is used.) We could therefore, sum up
the "salvation" God has provided in and through the New Testament
by saying it is the deliverance of mankind from the presence and effects of
sin in our lives and the result of that deliverance. It is understood that to be
saved/delivered from something is
to be saved/delivered to something
else - as from sickness to health, or from danger to safety,
etc. We find, therefore, that we were
delivered not only from the
kingdom/authority of Satan/darkness, but to
the kingdom/authority of God/Light. (Acts 26:18; Colossians 1:13). Therefore, we should understand our
salvation as being not only deliverance from
sin and its fruits, but also our deliverance to righteousness and its
fruits (Philipians 1:11). (The
fruits of righteousness are all the blessings of the Kingdom of God -
including peace, joy, health, abundance and, best of all, eternal life /
Fellowship with God.) Let us here again point
out that our salvation is a process,
not an instantaneous transformation. Even though it was an instant
transformation that took place in us at the moment of our new birth, it was
only the beginning of the process – just as conception is only
the beginning of the process that results in a mature man
or woman. Jesus said the entire Kingdom of God works “like a seed” planted which, with
time will grow to maturity – “first the blade, then the ear, then the full (mature) corn in the
ear” (Mark 4:26-28, 30-31). In
this same way, the Kingdom of God is “like leaven, which a woman took and
hid in three measures of meal, until
the whole [all three measures] was leavened.” (Matthew 13:33; Luke
13:21). We can see then, that
Jesus was speaking of this very process of our salvation when He referred to
the "seed" or "leaven" of His Word/Truth/Spirit (John
6:63; Luke 8:11-15; John 17:17; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 John 5:6; 2
Thessalonians 2:13). For it is His
Word and His Spirit, “hidden” in our spirit at the moment of our new birth
that will eventually "leaven" (make blameless, righteous, and holy
- Luke 1:75; Ephesians 1:4; Colossians 1:22) are entire being [“all three
measures” – “spirit, soul and body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)]. (This is not a definitive work on the
intangible anatomy of man. In using
Paul's term “spirit, soul, and body”,
we are only trying to convey, as was he, that it is the whole of man that we are speaking of – including his
personality, his individuality, his desires,
his emotions, his will, his mind/thoughts, and his body.) It is in this process that
we see the “hope of the gospel”
(Colossians 1:23; Romans 8:24; 1 Peter 1:3).
This is our earnest expectation that, on account of what God has done
through Jesus (the gospel), we can and will experience complete
salvation - absolute freedom from
sin and its fruits and enjoyment of
righteousness and it's fruits. It is a salvation that reaches to every
area of entire being - spirit (Romans 8:10; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 1
Peter 1:23) soul (Hebrews 10:39; James 1:21; 1 Peter 1:9) and body
(Romans 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53-55; 2 Corinthians 5:4). This is the salvation we have been called
to obtain (1 Thessalonians 5:9) through the "leaven" of His
Spirit/Truth/Word within us (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Inseparable from this hope
of our complete salvation, is our “hope
of glory” (Colossians 1:27) - our hope of being glorified as Jesus has
been. In being "glorified"
Jesus was not simply endowed with
glory (the light, brilliance, and splendor, emanating from the presence of
God because of who He is). Rather, Jesus returned to His original
state of oneness with the Father (John 10:30; 17:5),
and this oneness simply resulted in
the glory of God emanating from Him as well. In this same way our glorification is simply the end result of
our salvation (Psalms 85:9; Romans 8:30). We have been called and predestined
to obtain this glory. (1 Thessalonians 2:12;
2 Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Timothy 2:10;
Hebrews 2:10) Having looked briefly at
the "salvation" of the New Testament, as well as our hope of obtaining that salvation and “the glory to follow” (1 Peter
1:9-11), let us now look in some depth at the process by which we are to realize this Hope (Hebrews 6:11). Just as we have seen glorification to be the
result of our complete salvation,
salvation itself is the result of righteousness
(Isaiah 45:8; Romans 1:16-17). Said
differently, salvation is the "fruit" of righteousness - for God's
kingdom works “like a seed…” and
the fruit of a tree is determined
by what type of seed was
planted. Just as there is no way to
make an apple except by planting an apple seed, so also there is no way to
experience the salvation of God, without planting the seed of His righteousness. (Proverbs 11:18; Isaiah 45:8; 61:11;
62:1; Hosea 10:12) Therefore, in
looking at the process of our
salvation, we shall really be looking at the “work of righteousness.”
(Isaiah 32:17) OVERVIEW OF RIGHTEOUSNESS Before discussing the
actual work of righteousness, let
us first establish a working understanding of what biblical righteousness is.
Righteousness in the Bible can be understood in two different
ways. First, it is the very standard
of what is right - as defined by
the nature of God Himself. He Alone
is absolute righteousness. In light
of this, righteousness could be defined as “the state of being in perfect
conformity to the nature of
God.” To whatever extent any person,
thing, word, thought, or act deviates from God's own standard of what is
right, to that extent it is unrighteous. Secondly, righteousness is the nature of
the relationship between God and anything or anyone who measures up to His
standard of what is right. From this second definition comes the concept behind
the relational expression “to be in
good or right standing with” someone. In the Garden of Eden
everything was right with God. Adam
and Eve and all the creation around them were in right standing with Him,
because that is how He made them – they were righteous. Then came sin. With one act of
unrighteousness, they plunged themselves and the entire human race that would
come from them into a state of unrighteousness with God. They were no longer
righteous, for they had done something which, by God's standard was
unrighteous. Consequently, their
relationship to Him was now one of unrighteousness and, therefore, they no
longer had access to the blessings which were theirs when they were
righteous. As a result, they were removed
from God's presence, losing the intimate fellowship with Him that they had
enjoyed in the garden. Instead, they
were now afraid of God, and ashamed to stand before Him (Genesis 3:10; Ezra 9:6). Furthermore, they were now doomed to bear
the fruit of unrighteousness (Galatians 6:7,8) - including fear, pain,
sickness, corruption and death. Furthermore, when Adam and
Eve sinned, they yielded the authority that God had given them over “all the earth…over every living thing.”
( Genesis 1:26-27) into the hands of Satan (Luke 4:6). Through this act, man became servants
(Romans 6:16) and even children (Matthew 13:38, John 8:38-44) of Satan. As a result, they opened the door for
Satan and his “kingdom of darkness” (with all it's fear, pain, disease, poverty
and other perversions/opposites of
the blessings of God's kingdom) to enter their lives. In John 5:14, we see Jesus
verify this link between sin and Satan's "kingdom of
darkness". Having healed a man
who had for many years suffered with an infirmity, Jesus instructs him, “you have been made whole, go and sin
no more, lest something worse come upon
you”. Not only does sin open the door to “something worse,” it subjects
mankind to the kingdom, authority, and rule of Satan - In the previous paragraph
we see the essence of “the gospel of the kingdom of God” which
Jesus began proclaiming at the beginning of His ministry (Mark 1:14-15). This was the good news that the kingdom of
God “had come…” (Matthew 12:28)
and that mankind could return to it (from their exile and captivity in the
kingdom of darkness). It was “the acceptable year of the Lord”
(Luke 4:18) – known as the year of
jubilee and the year of liberty
(Ezekiel 46:17). It was the year when all slaves and
property returned to their original owners, and all debts were canceled
(Leviticus 25:10, Deuteronomy 15:1,2,12)! It is important to notice
how mankind lost his right standing with God, so as to understand God's
method of bringing man back to a state of right standing with Him. Obviously
the "sin" of eating the forbidden fruit was the cause of man's fall. But we must look closer yet, not at the “outward appearance but at the heart.” Why
did man (both Adam and Eve) eat the forbidden fruit? In Genesis 2:17 God tells man, “Do not eat from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, for in the day you eat from it, you will surely
die.” In Genesis 3:4, Satan tells Eve
“You will not die.” 2 Corinthians 11:3 says the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness. 1Timothy 2:14 also says Eve was deceived into
eating the fruit. God had clearly
said they would die in the day they
ate the fruit from that tree, but Satan told her they would not die, and she believed the word of
Satan over the word of God. We can see, then, that the
root cause of man's eating the forbidden fruit was unbelief in God's
word. Not only did they not believe God’s word, they believed
the lie of the enemy. In John 8:44,
Jesus called Satan “The father of
lies.” Satan’s chief weapon
against God’s people is, and has always been, to tell them something other
than what God has told them. Notice in
the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness that Satan was trying to
gain authority over Jesus in the same manner as he had over Adam and Eve - by
getting him to doubt The Word of God.
When Jesus came out of the Jordan River after His baptism, He heard
the father say, “This is my beloved
son…” (Matthew 3:17). And the
first thing Satan said to Him in the wilderness was, “If you are the Son of
God...” (Matthew 4:3) Since a lack of faith in
the fulfillment of God's word was at the root of mankind's fall, then there
must also be, at the root of mankind's redemption and restoration to
righteousness with God, a genuine faith
in God's word. And so it was for a person with this kind of faith that
God searched. He found this faith in
Abraham. To establish that Abraham was indeed a man with this necessary
faith, God made him a promise, which, outside of God performing it, was an
absolute impossibility. At age 75, with 65-year-old barren wife, God promised
him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Genesis 15:6 says
that Abraham “believed in the Lord and
He (God) counted it to him as righteousness.” God accepted Abraham's Faith in Him and His word as the
equivalence of having lived in complete righteousness all his days. As a result, Abraham became an heir to the
blessings of righteousness. It was
through this act of faith, later brought to fullness in his offering of
Isaac, that Abraham became “the father
of those who believe” [in the Lord for righteousness]. Romans 4:11; Galatians 3:7. But man's redemption was
not complete. Even though Abraham
(and, through him, eventually the entire nation of Israel) enjoyed the
outward status and privileges of righteousness, their hearts were
still corrupted by sin. Consequently, even those who were
descendants of Abraham still regularly committed acts that were
unrighteous. It was for this reason
God established the law (Galatians 3:19) - to serve as a constant written
reminder of His righteous ways, so that men would have a standard of
righteousness to live by. Unfortunately, they were unable to measure up to
the righteousness of the law and, therefore, rather than bringing them to
righteousness, the law instead became a constant reminder of their sinfulness
and kept them "yoked" to a guilty conscience. (Acts 15:10) This guilty conscience, which was
symbolized by the veil that separated the holy place from the most holy
place, kept man out of God’s presence, as well as subject to reap the fruit
of their sin and its consequent guilt.
Through the law, God provided a method for His people to find
forgiveness for their sins - through the sacrificing of animals. But this cleansing of their guilty
conscience was only temporary, and every time it was necessary, it was yet
another reminder of their sinfulness (Hebrews 10:1 & 3). Consequently,
such a system could never actually take away their sin. (Hebrews 10:4 & 11). Then came Jesus! Even
before his death John the Baptist summed up what He would accomplish on the
cross when he said: “Behold the lamb of
God, who Takes Away the Sin of the world.” (John
1:29) Through Jesus God did what law
could never do, He took away
all sin, for all time. (Hebrews 9:26, 10:12, 1 John 3:5). Finally the perfection (maturity) which
the law could never bring (Hebrews 7:19, 9:9, & 10:1) and which was
necessary for man to again be able to fellowship face-to-face with God as
they once had in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8, 1 Corinthians 13:10-12) was
attainable. For finally the yoke of
the law - and with it the bondage to sin - was broken! The veil was torn apart (Matthew 27:50,
51) showing that the sin of mankind which had for so long separated him from
God (Isaiah 59:2) and kept him out of intimate fellowship with Him, no longer
existed in Gods sight. He had laid it
all on His Son – nailing it to the cross.
As a result, a new era and a new race were about to begin. Through Jesus, the
conscience of man, which had been defiled with sin and guilt from the moment
they ate the fruit that gave it to them, had hope of being cleansed. As He had done with Abraham so long ago,
God was again granting perfect righteousness to those who would put their
trust in Him as their source of righteousness. (Luke 1:75, & Romans 3:21-24 & 4:22-25). And, as it had with Abraham, this Gift of
righteousness entitled man to be the recipient of all the blessings of
righteousness. (Isaiah 51:1-3 & Malachi 4:2,3). Only now, as the foundation of a better covenant than Abraham had, God has forever taken away the sin of the world (1
John 3:5). Because Jesus had no
sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), Satan had no claim whatsoever upon Him. Jesus pointed this fact out when He said, “The prince of this world is coming, and
he has nothing in me.” (John 14:30)
It is in Jesus' victory over Satan, both in the wilderness and at the cross, that we see the
basis for our deliverance from Satan and his kingdom. Because Jesus has made us righteous with His own sinless righteousness, Satan now has no
grounds on which to accuse us (Revelation 12:10) - and therefore has no valid
claim of authority over us! Now, through the offering
of Jesus, we who believe in Him can enjoy the privilege of having our
conscience made perfect – cleansed from dead works (sin) forever! (Hebrews
9:9, 14 & 10:14). Whereas the old testament offerings had to be repeated
each time there was another transgression, the offering of Jesus took away
all sin, for all time (Hebrews 10:10).
Now we have the privilege of having no more conscience of sin ever!
(Hebrews 10:2) For now, in exchange
for our faith in Jesus, God has given us His very own righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21). And, with this gift of righteousness, we
have a right to a new conscience – one cleansed from all sin. It is with this clean conscience that we
can come boldly before his presence (Ephesians 3:12, Hebrews 10:19 & 22)
for all our days, without fear or condemnation ever again (Luke 1:74-75; John
5:24; Romans 8:1 & 15)! Not only has God’s gift of
the righteousness set us free from the work of trying to earn righteousness, but also from having to maintain righteousness (Romans 3:21-5:21; Galatians 2:16-19;
Philippians 3:9). Paul made it clear
that the law was the very thing that gave sin its power (1 Corinthians 15:56,
Romans 7:8-11; 1 John 3:4) - just as it was sin that gave death its power
over man (Genesis 2:17; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:56; James 1:15). Through His shed blood, Jesus has freed us
forever from a law consciousness (Galatians 2:19; Romans 6:14; Hebrews
10:20), from sin itself (Romans 6:2-7, John 8:31-36), and from death (John
8:51, 11:26, & 1 Corinthians 15:56; 2 Timothy 1:10)! Along with freedom from
the law came freedom from all the curses of the law. (Deuteronomy 28:15-68,
Galatians 3:13). Now, having been redeemed from all that sin brought, and
having been restored to an eternal state of righteousness with God (Isaiah
51:8, Daniel 9:24, Romans 3:21,22) we again have confident access to the
presence and fellowship of God (Ephesians 2:18, 3:12 & 1 John 1:3). Furthermore, all of the covenant promises
and blessings of God’s love and His have become our inheritance. (Colossians
1:12, 1 Peter 1:4, Hebrews 9:15, Galatians 4:17, Romans 8:17). THE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS We have just seen a brief
summary of the history of man's relationship to his creator – first in righteousness
in the Garden of Eden, then in unrighteousness in sin and finally in
righteousness again through the blood of Jesus. Now let us take a closer, more in-depth look at what God
accomplished for mankind through Jesus –
“The Lord Our Righteousness,”
and how we are to appropriate (receive
so as to enjoy the benefits of) this awesome gift. Romans 5:17 says that “those who receive the abundance
of grace and the gift of
righteousness” shall “reign in
life” through Jesus. Knowing that
“reigning in life” is God's
intention for us, its easy to see how it must grieve Him to see so many of
His children still living, to various degrees, under the dictates of the
kingdom of darkness, simply because they have not fully received His gift of
righteousness! We must first establish
that receiving anything from God requires believing - and therefore acting on His word (James
1:6,7; 2:15-26). This is because it
is through faith that we receive from God.
Notice this truth expressed in John 1:12, where “those who received Him” are defined as “those who believe on His name.” We see this again in John 7:39 and
Galatians 3:2, where those who “received the spirit” are those who believed. The Word of God is full of God’s
promises. It is these very promises
which God has made to His people, that are our spiritual inheritance (Acts
20:32, Hebrews 8:6; 2 Peter 1:4).
But it is only through faith that we can receive His
promises into our lives (Hebrews 4:2, 6;12; 11:33 ). In Romans 1:17 Paul said that the reason
the gospel of Christ is “the power of
God unto salvation,” is because “in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith.” This, as we have
already said, is because salvation is a result of righteousness. Therefore, we can see that the process of
our complete salvation depends upon
our receiving, by faith, God's gift
of righteousness. GROWING LIKE A SEED We have established that,
as of the moment we are born-again, we are granted a status of perfect
righteousness before God. However,
just as natural birth is, this is only the beginning of our spiritual
growth. Jesus said God’s entire
kingdom works as a seed planted, which, with time grows to maturity (Mark
4:3-32). In this same way, the
"seed" which was planted at our new birth (1 Peter 1:23) must also
grow to maturity. Therefore, even
though certain things belong to us from the moment of our new birth - because
of our new status as “heirs of God” (Romans
8:17) - we are still, at that time only "babes in Christ (1 Corinthians
3:1). And as is the case with all child heirs, it will
still be some time before we come to realize
all the blessings that belong to us. (Galatians 4:1-3). At this early
"infant" stage of our spiritual growth, we are admonished, “as newborn babes” to “long for the sincere milk of the word,
that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1). However, as we “grow up
into Him” (Ephesians 4:15), we
must eventually be weaned from this "milk" (Just as the original
“son of promise” was - Genesis 22:8), and begin to eat the “meat” of The
Word. If we do not, we will never
reach the maturity that God intends for us to. (Matthew 5:48; 1 Corinthians
3:2; Colossians 1:28; Hebrews 5:12- 6:1) What we are seeing is,
that the process of our maturing from the “milk” to the “meat” of The Word,
requires our being “skillful in the word of righteousness” [God's
revealed word concerning the gift of His righteousness] (Hebrews 5:13). Notice in John 8:31-32 that Jesus is
speaking to “those who had believed in Him” when He
says, “If you continue in my word... you shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free.” They
had already believed in Him, and now He was telling them that they needed to
“continue” (to live, abide, dwell, stay) in His Word, in order experience the
fullness of the freedom He had come to bring them (Galatians 2:4 & 5:1). FREE INDEED
It is very important to
understand what freedom Jesus was
speaking about. He makes this clear
as He continues speaking, “Truly, truly I tell you, whoever commits
sin is the slave of sin. And the
slave does not remain in the house forever, but the son abides forever. If the son, therefore shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:34-36) So we see that it is freedom from sin that “continuing
in His Word” will bring to those who believe in Him. And since, as we saw earlier, it is the
law that gives sin its power (Romans
6:14, 7:8-11; 1 Corinthians 15:56), we can see that this freedom from sin
must first be a freedom from the
law. And this is the “stone” over which so many Christians
stumble. (Matthew 11:6; Romans 9:30- 10:10) THE STUMBLING STONE In Galatians 2:4 Paul said
that false brethren had infiltrated their ranks, “to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage [to
law again].” In reality, it was
Satan, working through these
"false brethren" who was
trying to bring them back into bondage to law. For Satan knew, then and now, that if he could keep men under a
law-consciousness, they would never be completely free from sin - and therefore
he would still have grounds on which to accuse them (Revelation 12:10).
Furthermore, the "door" which sin gave him into their life,
would never be completely closed. Our understanding this
point is vitally important. Even
though Jesus has taken away our sin, if we are still conscious of our sin in our day-to-day life, then our conscience
has not truly been cleansed (Hebrews 9:9 & 10:2). And, if our conscience is not cleansed, it
will condemn us of sin, even though God has declared us just (Romans 8:30,
33), and freed us from condemnation (John 5:24; Romans 8:1.) Paul referred to this as “building again that which I have
destroyed” (a law consciousness)
- Galatians 2:18. Paul went on to say that if he were to
rebuild this law-consciousness (the law-based consciousness within us, that
judges and condemns us whenever we step outside of its bounds) that he would “prove himself a transgressor”.
This is because the law-consciousness will again provoke the
sin-nature, and transgression (which is sin - 1 John 3:4) will be the
inevitable result (Romans 7:5, 8–11; 1 Corinthians 15:56). Through the cross, Jesus
destroyed the laws claim upon us (Ephesians 2:15,16) and removed the veil
(representing sin). (Matthew 27:51; 2 Corinthians 3:14). If we, as believers build, or allow
someone else to build again a law-consciousness within us, we are
actually putting the veil back “upon our heart” (2 Corinthians 3:15). When we do this, we are also subjecting
ourselves to the very thing that will empower sin to operate in our
life. What makes this difficult for
us to let go of is the fact that having a law consciousness is profitable in
our spiritual youth - for our safety (Galatians 3:23, 24). However, it was not intended to remain
with us forever, for it can never bring us to maturity (Hebrews 7:19;
10:1). In this sense, the law
consciousness is part of the “milk” of the word – it is good for a season in
our infancy, but we eventually must be weaned from if we are to grow up into
full spiritual maturity. (Hebrews 5:12 - 6:1). Having looked at the
potential “stumbling stone” of a law consciousness, let us now look at how
God intended for us to keep from stumbling over it. In Romans 6:14 we read,
“Sin shall not have dominion over you, for
you are not under law.” And
again in Romans 7:6 we read, “we
are delivered from the law... that
we should serve in newness of spirit and
not the letter [law].” James referred to freedom from the law as living by “the perfect [fully-matured] law of liberty” (Complete freedom from bondage to law) - James
1:25. In Galatians 5:18, Paul stated
clearly why a believer can live in this liberty: "If you are led by The
Spirit, you are not under law.”
This is the highest form of “law” that exists – “The law of the Spirit of
Life in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:2)
The fruit of The Spirit,
manifest in a spirit-led believer's life, will be his or her “law”. For this reason, after listing the fruits of the Spirit in
Galatians 5:22-23, Paul said, “Above
such [fruits] there is no law.” This then, is how the God intended for
the mature believer to live. Just as
His own Holy Spirit governs God Himself, He expects His mature sons also to
be governed by His Holy Spirit within
them. THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
In Matthew 21:32 Jesus
said, “John [the Baptist] came to you
in the way of righteousness.” In Luke 1:77, John's father
prophesied over John saying, “you
shall give God's people knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.”
And, in Mark 1:4, we read,
“John did preach the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” From these passages, we can see that forgiveness/ remission of
sins is the “way of righteousness.” This
is because forgiveness is the removal of that which makes men unrighteous (sin), and is therefore
the method of providing restoration to righteousness. The entire sacrificial
system of the Old Testament was based on this principle. With the death of the sacrificial animal,
atonement was made for the worshipper’s sin, and forgiveness granted to him
or her (Leviticus 4:20,26; 5:10,16).
As a result, they were restored to righteousness with God. (which they
had lost temporarily due to their sin).
This was the method for obtaining and maintaining “the righteousness of the law” (Philipians 3:6). In the New Testament, the parallel is
almost exact. Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who provided
the atonement/propitiation for the sin of all mankind (John 1:29, 1 John
2:2). He is, therefore, the source of
man's forgiveness of sin and subsequent restoration to righteousness with
God. (Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:47; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1
John 2:12) The undisputed superiority
of the New Testament sacrificial
system over the Old Testament is
due to several truths, as we have already seen. First, Jesus' offering for sin was final and eternal - for all
time. (Hebrews 7:27; 10:12) Secondly,
the forgiveness and righteousness available through his offering (which are eternal as well, because of the
eternal nature of the offering through which they are provided - Isaiah
51:6,8; Daniel 9:24; Hebrews 9:12) are received, or appropriated, not by works of law, but by faith in Him. (Acts
10:43; Romans 3:21-22; 5:1) In Hebrews 5-7, Jesus is
portrayed as our perfect high
priest. He is not however, a priest according to law (that is, he did/does not mediate forgiveness and
righteousness based on our works of
law), because he is of a different priestly line than the Old Testament
priests. (Hebrews 7) Rather than the
Levitical order, Jesus is a priest “after
the order of Melchizidek.” The
name Melchizidek means “King of Righteousness” and “King of Peace” (Hebrews 5:6,10). The significance of this connection between Melchizidek and
Jesus is twofold. First, Melchizidek
lived in the time of Abraham, when righteousness was based on faith, not on works of law. (Genesis 15:6; Romans
4). Second, Melchizidek was not only
a priest, but also a king. As a king
also, Jesus holds a scepter which, when extended to us gives us access to His
presence. This scepter is righteousness (Hebrews 1:8; Psalms
45:6) - and it is extended only to those who come to Him in faith (Romans 3:22; 4:22-24). Like Esther, we have come to Him “not according to the law” (Esther
4:16; Galatians 2:16), but by faith in
Him. (Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 10:19-22).
The moment we came before Him by faith, He held out to us His scepter
(Esther 4:11; 5:2) - granting us a new eternal status of righteousness with
Him. We now, like Esther, need only
to reach and take hold of the scepter that He is offering us. (Esther 5:2) Colossians 2:6 says, “as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Our
receiving Him was accomplished, as
we have already established, by faith. It is by this same faith that we are to “walk” (2 Corinthians 5:7) –
believing That He is the one who has washed us from all sin and become our righteousness and holiness.
(Revelation 1:5; Jeremiah 23:6; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Hebrews 13:12) This is because it is only
“...if we continue in [this]
faith, not moved away from the hope of the gospel,” that we will be “holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in
His sight.” (Colossians 1:22-23). In Luke 17:12-19, we see a
beautiful illustration of how this process of faith works. Having been asked for mercy by ten men
with leprosy (a symbol of sin), He told them, “go show yourselves to the priests.” According to Levitical law, this is what they were to do “in the day of their cleansing”
(Leviticus 14:2, Matthew 8:3-4). In
other words, Jesus was telling them that they were cleansed. However,
it was not until they went in
faith, believing that they were
cleansed, that their cleansing was manifested
(brought from the realm of faith
into the realm of experience). True
faith will always act on what it
professes to believe - otherwise is “dead”
(James 2:17, 20, 26). This is
because faith gives assurance of something hoped for, but not yet seen. (Hebrews 11:1). As the lepers went on their way, believing they were cleansed, before seeing
their cleansing, so also must
we. For, it is only as we go, in
faith that we are cleansed,
righteous and holy by the blood of Jesus, that the manifestation of our cleansing, righteousness and holiness will
come. This is in direct opposition to
our natural tendency to want to see
something before believing
it (Mark 15:32; John 20:29). We have seen how, In the
Old Testament, the priests served as mediators between God and man (offering
the people's sacrifices to God to atone for their sin and thereby provide for their forgiveness and
reconciliation to righteousness). In
this same way, Jesus is now our
high priest and mediator before God. (Hebrews 4:14; 1 Timothy 2:5) He cannot, however, continually offer up
our sacrifices for sin, as did the priests of the Old Testament, for He
Himself is our final and eternal sacrifice, as we have
seen. For this reason He is called “the high priest of our confession”
[of faith in Him as our righteousness - Romans 10:9,10]
(Hebrews 3:1). In other words, as
the priests of the Old Testament offered the peoples sacrifices to God - in order to restore/maintain their
righteousness with Him, so also our
high priest, Jesus, offers up our confession
of faith in Him - the one who is are atoning sacrifice.
It is for this reason that we are admonished to “hold fast our confession”
[of faith in Jesus] (Hebrews 4:14, 10:23).
For it is only “if
we hold fast” our
confession of faith in Him “unto the end” [the
goal, completion] that we are truly “made
partakers of Christ.” (Hebrews
3:6,14.) NOT OF THOSE WHO DRAW BACK
In light of these things,
we must be ever watchful not to “draw
back” (Hebrews 10:38) - to shrink away from our profession/confession of
faith - in fear that we are not
cleansed, righteous and holy in His sight.
This happens when we take our eyes off of Jesus (who, as we
have established, is our
righteousness and holiness) and start looking again at ourselves and what we do for our
righteousness. (For a visual aid of
this, see Peter in Matthew 14:30.)
When we do this, we are reverting to a law/works righteousness (Romans
10:5), which can never bring us to full maturity. (Hebrews 7:19;
10:1) In doing this, we are actually
taking off our “wedding garment” (the "garment
of salvation"/"robe of righteousness" we were clothed with
when we returned to God through faith in Jesus - Isaiah 61:10; Zechariah
3:4,5; Luke 15:22; Romans 3:22).
Rather than be found naked, we are then forced to put back on the “filthy rags” of our own righteousness (Isaiah 64:6). God has already made it clear that any
clothing other than the robe of His own righteousness is “strange [foreign, profane] apparel”
(Zephaniah 1:8). Jesus also addressed this
tendency men have to want to hold on to and/or revert to the old way of righteousness - a
law/works-based system, rather than accept God's new way of grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). In Luke 5:36-39, He accused the Pharisees of not wanting the “new
wine” (the "good wine” of the eternal life He came to give) because
they were accustomed to the “old wine” (the relatively small
measure of His blessings they enjoyed through their law/works-based
righteousness). He also told them
that no one is foolish enough to put new wine into old wineskins (which become rigid and inflexible with time)
knowing that doing so would result in both the wineskins being broken and the
precious new wine being spilled out and wasted. Jesus further told the
Pharisees that trying to mix the new
way with the old was like cutting a
piece out of a new garment (God's gift to us of a “garment of salvation")
and using it to patch a tear in an old garment. (the "filthy
rags" of law/works-based righteousness) He warned them that doing this would actually result in making
the separation worse (Mark 2:21), because the new does not “agree with” the old. (Luke
5:36; Hebrews 8:8-9) The word
translated “tear” in this passage is, literally, “a separation” - the same
meaning as the Old Testament word for the veil in the temple - which
represented man's separation from God due to their sin - Isaiah 59:2). It was this very doctrine - preferring the
old way of law/works to the new way of grace/faith - that was the “leaven” Jesus sternly warned His
disciples to beware of in Matthew 16:6,12.
And it was this same leaven that would later infiltrate the early
church “in order to bring them into
bondage” [to law and to sin.] (Galatians 2:4-5; 11-21; Acts 11:2; 15:5;
21:20) In reverting to a
law/works-based righteousness, we are turning from the only way of
righteousness God now accepts - through faith
in His son (John 6:29, 8:24, 14:6;
Romans 10:3-10; Galatians 2:16), back to the “vomit” and “mud” of
our own works-based righteousness (2 Peter 2:21-22). When we do this, we
re-expose the “shame of our nakedness”
(our awareness of our unrighteousness with God - brought upon us through our
sin - Genesis 3:10; Revelation 3:18).
In Revelation 16:15, Jesus referred to this as not “keeping our garments” [the robe of
His righteousness]. As a further
caution against “drawing back” to a law/works-based righteousness, we are in
several places warned that to do so leads only to destruction (Hebrews 10:39;
Jude 5; Matthew 7:13-14). This is
because “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) and “law is not of faith, but of works.”
(Galatians 3:12). THE LAW OF FAITH
For those who might still
be struggling to understand or accept God's rejection of a law/works-based
system for both obtaining and maintaining righteousness in His
sight, it may help to think of it differently. He actually is still
honoring a law/works system of righteousness. However, because of the change of priesthood effected when
Jesus took over the High Priesthood, there was a need to change the law (through which the priest ministered)
as well (Hebrews 7:11-12). So this is
precisely what God did. He did away
with the law as it was - a list of numerous commandments and ordinances, and
established what Paul referred to as “the
law of faith [in Jesus]” (Romans 3:27). The law of faith is also based on works -
the only “work” that is acceptable
to God - the “work of faith.” (John 6:29; 1 Thessalonians 1:3) Therefore, it is obedience
to the law of faith (in Jesus) that
God is now expecting from man.
(Romans 1:5, 16:26; Acts 6:7)
Consequently, He has conditioned all of the promises of the New
Testament upon obedience to this law, just as the promises of the Old
Testament were conditioned upon keeping the law of Moses (Deuteronomy
7:12-15, 28:1; Jeremiah 11:4-5).
Keeping the law of the Old Testament was not a one-time event, but a
lifetime commitment, if one wanted to maintain their righteousness with God (Deuteronomy
6:25; Luke 1:6). In this same way, it
is by “keeping” the law of faith from day to day, that we remain in our
position of righteousness with God, and therefore can come to enjoy all the blessings of His salvation. Consider this also, if any
doubt remains in you of God's will and Word concerning law and the
law-consciousness it produces in man.
The first commandment ever given to man was, “eat freely of all the trees of the garden except the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Do
not eat from that tree, for in the day you do, you will surely die.” (Genesis
2:16-17). The fruit on the tree of
knowledge of good and evil actually gave the knowledge of good and evil to
Adam and Eve. And this, Paul said,
was the very function of the law. (Romans 3:20, 7:7) It is easy, then, to see why law can never bring righteousness, life or perfection - because to “eat”
from it is to continue eating from the tree which God has already declared
will only bring death. (through the sin which it empowers - Romans 7:8–13; 1
Corinthians 15:56). It is for this
reason that Paul referred to the ministry of the law as the “ministry of death.” (2 Corinthians
3:6) In the law is only the form of truth (Romans 2:20 ) and so from the law can only come the form of Life. But in the
Word and Spirit of Jesus Christ is truth and life itself. (John 6:63, 14:6;
Galatians 4:6; 1 John 5:6). FAITH
AND LOVE
The ultimate goal of law
is to govern our actions, thoughts, and behavior so as to cause us to live
rightly. For this reason, Paul
pointed out that the law was not made for righteous
men, but for the unrighteous (1
Timothy 1:9,10). Jesus said that the whole sum and intent of the law was
that men should “love God with all
their heart and soul, and strength, and their fellowman as themselves”
(Matthew 7:12, 22:37-40). To walk in
love is to do what is right,
because God is Love (1 John
4:8,16). For this reason Paul wrote
that “love is the fulfillment of all
the law” (Romans 13:10,
Galatians 5:14). James too, referred
to love as “the royal law” (James 2:8).
This is why Jesus could sum up His commandments to His followers in one statement: “Love one another just as I
have loved you.” (John
13:34; 15:12) - for He loved
them, “As the father loved Him”
(John 15 9). It was this same command
to love that Paul referred to as “the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2,
Romans 1:1-3). In 1 John 3:23, the whole of God's commandment for His
children is summed up in two things: “Believe
on the name of His son Jesus
Christ” ["The Lord our righteousness"
- Jeremiah 23:6], and “Love one another, as He gave commandment” (as He
loved us). By no coincidence, there
are two recorded examples of Jesus
acting out His High Priestly role (of granting forgiveness of sins to those
who come to Him) before ever going
to the cross. On each of these two
occasions, He said to an individual (whom, it is important to notice, had
neither confessed their sins to Him, nor undergone any ceremonial cleansing
act) “your sins are forgiven you.”
In Luke 5, after a paralyzed man had been lowered from a roof to
the feet of Jesus, we read, “Seeing
their faith, He said, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’ ” And in Luke 7:47-48, after a woman had washed and anointed His feet, He
said, “Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven her, for she loved much.” Also, in John 16:27, Jesus stated that the
father loved His disciples because
they loved and believed. John also made it clear that both every one who loves
is born of God (1 John 4:7) and everyone who believes
(that Jesus is the Messiah) is born of God (1 John 5:1). Furthermore, our assurance before God (our
confidence that we are righteous in His sight, and therefore have access with
boldness to His presence) is attributed to both our faith (Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 10:22) and love (1 John 3:18-19,
4:16-17). Surely, by now, it is easy
to see how the fruit of The Spirit
is the most perfect and highest law that exists. Because it is God's own nature living in and through us! It is His
love, His joy, His
peace, His patience,
goodness, His faith(fullness), His gentleness,
and His temperance. Through God’s own nature in us, we are
filled with “all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” (Ephesians
5:9-10) This is what God had in mind
when He promised to make a New Covenant with His people not like the old one -
based our own works determining
whether or not we were right with
Him. (Jeremiah 31:31, Hebrews 8:6-12)
In the New Covenant, God
promised that He would “write His laws
in our hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33, Hebrews 8:10; 10:16). By “writing
his laws in our hearts,” He was referring to making it part of our new
nature to keep His law. And this is
the very thing that the presence and fruit of His spirit in us accomplishes in our lives. (Ezekiel 11:19-20; 36:
26-27). His Holy Spirit in us is His divine nature in us (2
Peter 1:4), “working in us to both to
will and do His good pleasure.” (Philipians 2:13, Hebrews 13:21) It is easy now to see how we are able to live by the “perfect law of liberty,” because
the law of liberty is itself resting upon the “law of faith” [God's
commandment that we believe on the name of His son]. And, if we obey the law of faith we are
made righteous with God's own righteousness, and filled with His spirit (John 7:37-39). He (The Spirit of God ) then produces in and through us “the fruit
of the Spirit” – “the fruit of
righteousness” which is something that the law could never
accomplish. RIGHTEOUSNESS AND GOD'S REST It is at this point that
we begin to see the “Sabbath” (rest from works - Genesis 2:2,3) that God was
speaking of in Isaiah 56. In this
passage, to “take hold of His
covenant” (verse 6), is to put our faith
in the New Covenant, made in the blood of Jesus. (Luke 22:20) This means not merely believing that Jesus
exists, but believing that He is the one took away all sin (John 1:29; 1 John
3:5) for all time (Hebrews 10:10,12) and reconciled us to God (Romans 5:10; 2
Corinthians 5:18-19) forever in His own eternal righteousness. (Isaiah 51:6,8; Daniel
9:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21) By
contrast, not believing that the offering of Jesus has forever taken away all
our sin, will “pollute” the
Sabbath (Isaiah 52:2,6). This is
because it will lead to a reversion to a law/works-based method of trying to maintain our righteousness, and the Sabbath was and is for resting from our works (Exodus
20:10). God also speaks of this
“rest” in Jeremiah 17:21-22, where the “burden” symbolizes our sin, which
Jesus carried for us. (Isaiah 53:6,11,12)
Jesus severely rebuked the Pharisees for placing such “burdens” upon
His people (Luke 11:46), making it clear that He came to remove them (Matthew 11:28-30; Isaiah 58:6; Acts 15:10). In Isaiah 28:12, we again
see God offer this rest to His people.
He told them about a precious cornerstone He would “Lay in Zion” (Jesus Himself - their
righteousness - Jeremiah 23:6, 33:16) – saying that whoever would believe in
Him would not be disappointed. When
they refused His gracious offer, He told them that this stone would be a “stumbling stone” to them because
they would not put their faith in Him.
(1 Peter 2:6-8) They chose instead to
put their faith in their works
(Romans 9:30-10:5) and, by doing so, they made their “Table” (the platform
from which they partook of God's Word - the law) a “snare” and a “trap”
(Psalms 69:22; Romans 11:9). It was
this very snare and trap that Jesus spoke of when He said, “blessed is he who is not offended [literally “ensnared,
entrapped or caused to stumble”] because of me” (Matthew 11:6; Luke
7:23). It is easy now to see how unbelief will keep us out of God's rest, just as it did
the Israelites (Hebrews 3:18-19; 4:6).
We can also see why we are admonished to “make every effort to enter His rest,” so that we don’t follow
their example of disobedience/unbelief. (Hebrews 4:11). This admonition is not only directed to
non-Christians, but also to those who have
believed in Jesus, and are then tempted to try and attain maturity in Christ
by reverting to a law/works-based righteousness. In Galatians 3:1-3 and 5:8,
Paul referred to this proposition as “foolish”,
“bewitching” and “not of God”. NOT ME, BUT CHRIST IN ME Sadly, the most common
reason why so many of God’s people are not enjoying the freedom found in the
wonderful truth we have been discussing, is that many of us simply never receive the abundance of God's
gracious “gift of righteousness.”
(Romans 5:17) And this is because we
do not fully believe what God has
done for us through Jesus - His salvation. (Matthew 1:21; Luke 2:30) If we truly believed in
and on Jesus, then we would know that He Himself is our righteousness and holiness. (1 Corinthians 1:30).
As a result, we would “have no
more consciousness of sins” (Hebrews 10:2). We would know that our “old
man” - the “body of sins” has been
“put off” (Colossians 2:11), being
“crucified with Christ” (Romans
6:2-6; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 2:20; 5:24; Colossians 3:3). We would know that our new man is free
from sin (Romans 6:7,18,22; John 8:36) - and therefore free from a
consciousness of sin. We would know
that we are born of God (John
1:12-13; 1 John 5:1,4,5) and that, as “sons
of God” we have received, as our new spiritual “genetic code,” the very
image and likeness of our father, God. (Genesis 1:11;,22,26; 5:3) Knowing this, John was able to make the
incredible statement, “whatever is
born of God cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:6, 9;
5:9). This is because “a good tree [the “tree of righteousness” we now are
through Christ – Isaiah 61:3] cannot
bear bad fruit [sin]” (Matthew 7:18; 12:33-35.) Unfortunately, many
Christians are very conscious of
sin in their life. This is because
they are still seeing themselves as the old
man they were. In doing this, we end
up subjecting the new man we now are
in Jesus to the sin-consciousness of a dead man! We have “forgotten that
we were purged” from all sin by
the blood of Jesus (2 Peter 1:9; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 1:5). We have forgotten that we are a new
creation to whom God has made the promise that He will “remember our sins and lawless deeds no more.” (Isaiah 43:25;
Hebrews 10:17). Think about this, for
a moment, from God's perspective. He
has judged, sentenced and crucified us through His own death for us on the
cross, so that we could be born again of Him - filled with His very Spirit in
us crying "Abba" (Galatians 4:6).
Will we then, dare to defile this new creation we are in Him, with the
very same consciousness of sin that belonged to the sinful man we that we
were? Surely this must be dangerously
close to “despising” the work of Christ on the cross. (Hebrews 10:19) When we do this, we subject the new man
He has made us - who is actually no longer us, but “Christ in us” - to the very same endless cycle of
bondage to a law/sin consciousness that He died to deliver us from! By this act of forgetting
who we are in Christ, we prove that we are not "continuing" (John 8:32) in the “perfect law of liberty.”
We have become a “forgetful
hearer” rather than a “doer of the
work” [The work of faith in
Jesus - John 6:29; 1 Thessalonians 1:3] (James 1:25). We have looked into the “mirror” of the law of liberty and
then “gone away” from that mirror,
and “forgotten what manner of man we
were.” If we would continue to
look at ourselves in that mirror, we would continue to see a man made in the
image and likeness of God, and righteous with the very righteousness of God
in Christ. And as we continued to see
ourselves in Him we would know that it is actually Jesus living in and through us (Galatians 2:20; Romans 8:10; Colossians
1:27). Our life is “hid” in Him (Colossians
3:3), for we have “put on Christ”
(Galatians 3:27); we have actually
become “one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). We know that He is NOT sinning. We
should also know that, living in and
through Him as branches in a vine
(John 15:4-5) we receive His Spirit/Life directly in and through us. And “…if the root is holy, so are the
branches.” (Romans 11:16) This
is how we are to continually “eat” and “drink” of His life and nature. (John
4:10,14; 6: 47-48; 7:27-39). CONCLUSION Finally we have come to
the place of action. This is the
place where revealed truth is acted on, and becomes applied to practical
reality. Here is where we must make
our decision to truly believe in and on Jesus as our constant and eternal
source of the very righteousness of God.
We must be resolved to remember that we are “new creatures” and “sons
of God” and that as such, we will never come into judgment for sin (John
3:18). We must be determined to abelieve,
based on the sacrifice of Jesus, that we have passed forever out of judgment
and death and into eternal life. (John 5:24; 8:51, 11:26) We must determine to continue to look to
Jesus (Hebrews 12:1) as our constant source of all we have seen him to be in
the scriptures we have explored in these pages. And we must determine to continue beholding His glory without the veil of a law/sin
consciousness over our heart. (2 Corinthians 3:18) As we do these things, we can and will expect to be transformed
into His glorious image and likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18) in all our being, by the presence of His
life-giving Spirit and Word within us. (Romans 8:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1
Corinthians 6:11; John 6:63; 1
Corinthians 15:45). Yes and amen! |
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