May 16
29
Eternal life is to know the living God and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. It is to have the LIFE of Christ, the PRESENCE of Christ, the SPIRIT and MIND of Christ, and the very GLORY of Christ begotten, created, and formed in us. CHRIST IN YOU is the hope of glory. Until the miracle of grace is performed, our religion is but a form of godliness.
Henry Mahan
The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. ~James 1.20
The Word of truth works the Righteousness of God in a sinner causing us to look nowhere else but to the Lord Jesus Christ our Righteousness. The natural man, in the filthiness and naughtiness of the flesh, never has, nor ever will, produce the Righteousness of God.
By the Word of truth the believer knows that even though we were elected unto salvation in Christ before the world began, we were born into bondage to our own spiritually dead flesh and spirit. The Word of truth will not let the believer forget, that in the deadness of our flesh all our righteous works were only dead fruit (Ro 7: 4-6.) Sin, having dominion over us, would not allow us to deny the flesh by looking to Christ alone but made us constantly defend the flesh–dead fruit. By the dominion of sin, all we could do was think evil, say evil and do evil by thinking, saying and doing everything for the cause of our dead flesh–dead fruit. In this dead state, when our guilty conscious got the best of us, the dominion of sin caused us to look to that same dead flesh in an attempt to make self more acceptable to God–dead fruit. We attempted to clean a dirty floor with a dirty mop. The dominion of sin would not allow us to look to the Lord our Righteousness and confess that in our flesh is no good thing (Ro 8: 5-14.)
Through the Spirit of God, the Word was engrafted within us and gave us spiritual life (v18, 21.) By the Word of truth, God’s holy law threw a spotlight on our persons (our old man–our flesh and our old dead spirit) and said, “Behold, sin!” (Ro 7: 7-13.) In the new spirit of meekness given by God, we put our hands over our mouths and became swift to hear. Christ our King entered in shedding his love abroad in our hearts so that the hatred for God in our old man no longer reigns within (Ro 8: 1-4; Col 1: 11-14.) With new eyes we discovered that when Christ was made sin and died in the flesh, we died in the flesh. Our body of sin was buried in the ground. The Holy Law of God released all claim on us. Therefore, being raised to newness of life with Christ, we regard our old man as dead and buried. We no longer worship God in the flesh but in spirit and in truth (Jn 4: 23, 24; Col 1: 21, 22; 2: 8-14; 3: 1-4.) We are still in this dead flesh, (and too often still look to it) but sin has no more dominion over us to keep us from trusting Christ our all. Before the all-seeing eye of God, our life is hid in Christ. Therefore we no longer look to our dead body for proof of righteousness or for proof of liberty as do the legalist, the antinomian and all dead religionists tittering somewhere between the two. Instead, BELIEVERS LOOK TO CHRIST FOR ALL.
Clay Curtis.
Except your Righteousness…
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)
The Scribes and Pharisees were the most righteous men, outwardly, who ever lived. They lived by the ten commandments. According to the letter of the law, they were blameless. They paid tithes of all they possessed, fasted twice a week, and prayed three times a day. Yet, our Lord tells us that we must be more righteous than them, or we “shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The fact is that without perfect righteousness no one can ever enter into heaven (Rev. 21:27; 22:11-14). The righteousness required by God is a perfect righteousness, a righteousness which no mere man can produce. In order to enter that perfect kingdom we must be made perfectly righteous by the righteousness of Christ (Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21). All who believe are made the righteousness of God in Christ by two distinct acts of grace.
l. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us in justification (Romans 4:3-8). — Our sin was imputed to Christ at Calvary. Though he never committed sin, he was made to be sin, and became responsible under the law for our sins, as our Substitute. In exactly the same way, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us, though we never have performed a righteous deed. Just as the law punished Christ for our sin, which was legally imputed to him, the law of God rewards every believer for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.
2. The righteousness of Christ is imparted to us in regeneration (2 Peter 1:2-4; 1 John 3:4-9). — “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If I am born again by the Spirit of God, I have a new nature created in my soul, a righteous nature is imparted to me, by which I reign as a king over the lusts and passions of my flesh. Yes, God’s people do sin. Sin is mixed with all we do, so long as we live in this body of flesh. But sin no longer reigns over us. We are no longer under the dominion of sin (Romans 6:14-16; Galatians 5:22-23). The believer’s life is a life of faith, godliness and uprightness.
No Personal Righteousness
Every heaven born soul readily acknowledges that he has no personal righteousness, honestly confessing that even his best deeds are filthy rags before God. Believers are no more able of themselves to think a good thought, form a good desire, speak a good word, or do a good work than unbelievers. Yet, it is written, “he that doeth righteousness is righteous.” All believers do righteousness. However, the righteousness they do is not theirs. It is the righteousness of Christ, that new man in them “created in righteousness and true holiness.” As Paul puts it, “Christ liveth in me.” Don Fortner.
Is there hope
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, our hope” 1Timothy 1:1
Almost everyone has a hope. Some hope there is no God. Some hope physical death is the end. Some hope in Buda. Some hope in Mohammad. Some hope in the pope. A vast multitude of Calvinists, Arminians, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals, etc hope in themselves. Their hope is their works and intellect. However, those who hope in any one or any thing other than the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness really have no hope.
The Hope of the child of God is more than an anticipation of heaven and the avoidance of hell. Our Hope is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ – “Looking for that blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” Titus 2:13.
The Hope of the believer is a present hope … That is to say, not just wishing that something might transpire in the future, “Which Hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” Heb 6:19. The hope of the child of God is a living hope … Not just a documented creed or contract but a Hope that ever lives within the veil to make intercession for us. Better it would be if we were drowning to be in the arms of a lifeguard than just knowing there was a wooden throne on the beach with a sign that says “Lifeguard”.
Where THIS HOPE is there is no danger or despair, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:35-39 Tommy Robbins.
The continued teachings of the Spirit
When once, by the operation of the Spirit on our conscience, we have been stripped of formality, superstition, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, presumption, and the other delusions of the flesh that hide themselves under the mask of religion—we have felt the difference between having a name to live while dead, and the power of vital godliness. And as a measure of divine life has flowed into the heart out of the fullness of the Son of God, we desire no other religion but that which stands in the power of God—by that alone can we live, and by that alone we feel that we can die.
And, at last, we are brought to this conviction and solemn conclusion—that there is no other true religion but that which consists in the continued teachings of the Spirit, and the communications of the life of God to the soul. And with the Spirit’s teachings are connected all the actings of faith in the soul—all the anchorings of hope in the heart—all the flowings forth of love—every tear of genuine contrition that flows down the cheeks—every sigh of godly sorrow that heaves from the bosom—every cry and groan because of the body of sin—every breath of spiritual prayer that comes from the heart—every casting of our souls upon Christ—all submission to Him—all communion with Him—all enjoyment of Him—and all the inward embracements of Him in His suitability and preciousness.
J.C. Philpot