Category: God’s righteousness

Heart Service #10

Monday, May 5, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

One of the earliest (if not the first) divinely-inspired epistles Paul wrote is the book of Galatians. Galatians 2:20,21 encapsulate the epistle’s theme: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

Although our physical bodies are living, breathing, and moving, we Christians are technically dead before God (Romans 6:6,7). Hence, we cannot stay in these physical, sin-riddled bodies forever: they, unlike our redeemed souls and spirits, cannot enter heaven (1 Corinthians 15:50). Thus, these flesh-and-blood bodies must be redeemed from sin, death, and corruption (Romans 8:23; 1 Corinthians 15:42-58; Philippians 3:20,21). God left us in these mortal bodies so we could temporarily function on earth (until He comes to get us at the rapture). While these flesh-and-blood bodies are aging and perishing, we have in us “the life of Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10,11). Positionally, our souls have never been more alive! Practically, we need to, by faith in God’s Word to us, apply that life! Again, we must think the way God designed Christians to think (Romans 12:1,2).

Galatians says we do not “frustrate [hinder] the grace of God.” Our positional righteousness (eternal view) had nothing to do with our performance but rather everything God could do for us through Jesus Christ (grace). Likewise, our practical righteousness (daily view) has nothing to do with our performance (inhibitions, restraints, self-reformation) either. If we must keep rules and regulations in religion for us to live the Christian life, then God’s Word says, “Christ is [present tense!] dead in vain [for nothing!].”

Again, our practical righteousness depends solely on God’s grace, everything He can do for us through Jesus Christ….

Heart Service #6

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

When he wrote Romans (circa Acts chapter 20), Paul had never visited the saints in Rome (he was imprisoned there years later in Acts chapter 28). One or more of his ministry coworkers, perhaps Aquila and his wife Priscilla (Acts 18:2; cf. Romans 16:3-5), had shared the Gospel of the Grace of God with these pagan Romans.

Paul rejoiced when he heard about the Romans’ salvation, their trusting in the finished crosswork of Jesus Christ as sufficient payment for their sins, their forsaking of worthless idols and vain religion. He yearned to visit them but was hindered; he was forced to write this epistle to them instead (Romans 1:8-15). Thank God He had Paul write to the Romans instead, or we would not have this wonderful, simple book of grace doctrine to study today!

After discussing our new identity in Christ (Romans chapters 1-5), Paul proceeded to ask in Romans 6:1,2: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Our position in Christ has permanently made us dead to sin, that nature we inherited from Adam. Saints, sin is not who we are anymore. “Likewise reckon [conclude] ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (verse 11).

In today’s Scripture, Paul reminded the Romans how they were saved unto eternal life, received forgiveness of sins, had a home reserved in heaven. They heard some sound Bible doctrine—the Gospel of God’s Grace, everything that God did for them in Christ at Calvary’s cross—and they believed it in their hearts. The Apostle made it clear that their salvation from daily sins (the context of Romans chapters 6-8) would operate in the same manner. It would be Jesus Christ’s resurrection life, His power, His righteousness, His strength, His faith, His work. Him, Him, Him, not them, them, them!

NOTE: We will briefly suspend this devotionals arc. Stay turned!

Two Sons and Two Fathers

Monday, April 14, 2014

“And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:” (Luke 23:18 KJV).

One son will be liberated to live, and the other Son will be sentenced to die!

At the time of Christ’s trial, Barabbas is a prisoner (Matthew 27:16). Barabbas is a murderer, a robber, and guilty of “insurrection,” or rebelling against the government (Mark 15:7; Luke 23:18,19; John 18:40).

It is Passover. Roman governor Pontius Pilate has a custom that, at the feast, he releases a prisoner, whomever the people desire (Matthew 27:15; Mark 15:6). “But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified” (Matthew 27:20-22).

Israel’s chief priests, rulers, and common people all demand Christ’s crucifixion and Barabbas’ release, so Pilate gives the sentence (Luke 23:23-25). Guilty Barabbas is set free to live, and innocent Jesus Christ is condemned to be crucified. While Barabbas’ involvement in the matter seems insignificant upon first glance, God included it in His written Word because to provide us with an amazing illustration!

“Barabbas” means “son of the father.” Barabbas is a criminal, and he represents sinful, rebellious mankind who is worthy of death. He is bound by sin, and faces eternal death. Spiritually, sinful mankind is the son of Satan—man is of his father the devil (John 8:44). Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, God, “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), but took upon Himself our sins and was punished in our place.

Innocent Jesus Christ took the place of guilty Barabbas, which actually represented Christ taking the place of the whole world, suffering God’s wrath on our behalf! “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust…” (1 Peter 3:18). Thus, through Christ’s finished crosswork, we sinful sons of Adam (and Satan) can be freed from sin, and we can become the righteous sons of God.

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Is ‘Easter’ a mistranslation in the King James Bible in Acts 12:4?”

A Heart Transplant for Israel #6

Thursday, March 27, 2014

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 KJV).

The Great Physician must perform this surgery if His beloved patient is to live!

In Genesis 17:10-14, where physical circumcision first appears in Scripture, God promised Abraham: “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you…. and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.”

The Apostle Paul explained the significance of Israel’s physical circumcision by explaining what Abraham’s physical circumcision meant before God: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted [imputed, credited] unto him for righteousness…. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:” (Romans 4:3,9-11).

Abraham believed God’s promise to him, and although Abraham was a sinner, God looked at Abraham’s faith in His Word to him and He considered Abraham righteous (right standing before God). Paul is quoting Genesis 15:6. Sometime later, in Genesis chapter 17, God instituted physical circumcision for Abraham and his seed. According to Romans 4:11 (bolded above), that physical circumcision symbolized the righteousness God offered to Abraham and his seed….

On Jesus Christ

Thursday, February 27, 2014

“For there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:5,6 KJV).

If you are seeking soul salvation today, you can find it today!

Whether Christian, Muslim, Jew, agnostic, skeptic, or atheist, we all know that sin exists. We each have a conscience, a system of standards and norms that govern our behavior, values, and beliefs. There are many times when we know to do right (our conscience), and we do not do it—that is what sin is. Some ignore or deny their sin; others attempt to cover it up with “good” deeds, prayers, ceremonies, rites, and rituals; still others suffer self-inflicted punishment to (hopefully) pay for their sins. Despite all that activity, very few ever actually get those sins paid for because of the confusion as to how to get them paid and because nearly all of the ways that are presumed to lead to forgiveness lead to everything but it!

In today’s Scripture, we learn about the only solution to man’s sin problem. What makes Christianity unique is that it alone teaches that God Himself took upon human flesh to pay for man’s sins! Every world religion is weak and beggarly because we sinners can never measure up to God in our own efforts. Thus, God the Son did for us what we could never do: He became one of us to then mediate between God the Father and us. Every instance where man had stumbled in sin, Jesus Christ triumphed. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, can take Father God and mankind and reunite them.

The price to pay for our sins was certainly not cheap: Jesus Christ is the only Man in all of human history who died for mankind’s sins, who offered Himself and His precious, sinless blood as the fully satisfying payment for sins, and who was raised again to give us eternal life. We simply come by faith (trust) in Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork alone, and then enjoy the same righteous standing He has before God the Father!

A Holy Nation #12

Friday, January 31, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

Rather than futilely attempting to obey legalistic Bible passages (such as today’s Scripture), we rest in God’s grace. Israel could no more become God’s people in her own strength, than we can in ours. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The Old Covenant was harsh, but the New Covenant will save Israel via God’s grace. Christ’s shed blood, which will instate the New Covenant at His Second Coming (Acts 3:19), will cleanse Israel’s sins and make her righteous before God (Jesus’ shed blood can be our means for salvation unto eternal life, although apart from any covenants).

JEHOVAH was the laughingstock of the nations when they saw “His” people Israel living just as bad—if not worse—than they did (Romans 2:17-24). Yet, the Gentiles will again see an amazing sight in Israel. Messiah Jesus will return to the nation that so hated Him, betrayed Him, and even crucified Him, He will purge it of unbelievers, and He will ratify that New Covenant with His own blood that they shed, pay off the Old Covenant sin debt, save Israel’s believing remnant, and make it His holy nation (Hebrews 10:1-39).

Isaiah 64:6,9 quote Israel’s believing remnant’s submission to JEHOVAH’S righteousness: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away… O LORD… Behold, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.” Isaiah 60:1-3 is Israel’s kingdom hope: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

Rest assured, JEHOVAH will make Israel a “holy nation.” 🙂

A Holy Nation #11

Thursday, January 30, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

When resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ returns to earth (His Second Coming), to Israel, the people who killed Him 2,000 years ago, He will forgive them and make them a “holy nation,” a nation they could never be in their own strength (today’s Scripture).

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Hebrews 8:13 affirms, “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

We read of Israel’s future in 1 Peter 2:9,10: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

Israel will then be a “holy nation,” not because of her obedience, but only because of JEHOVAH’S grace….

A Holy Nation #10

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

Contrary to religious tradition, the Mosaic Law is not the sinner’s friend. God the Holy Spirit Himself called the Mosaic Law system: “a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1; cf. Acts 15:10), “the ministration of death” (2 Corinthians 3:7), “weak and beggarly” (Galatians 4:9), “the ministration of condemnation” (2 Corinthians 3:9), and “weak through [our] flesh” (Romans 8:3). “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written [Deuteronomy 27:26], Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God…” (Galatians 3:10,11a). JEHOVAH knew that Israel could never keep the Mosaic Law: why did He ever make that agreement with them?

Scripture could not be plainer: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty become God. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:19,20).“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made… But before faith came, we [Israel] were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Galatians 3:19,23-25).

By giving the Law, God proved to the entire world—not just Israel—that no sinner will ever measure up to His righteousness. He showed Israel they could not become His people in their own strength: they needed Him to make them holy. Only by His power and grace would they become a “holy nation….”

A Holy Nation #9

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

When JEHOVAH God first proposed the Mosaic Covenant, Israel declared, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). After that Covenant of Law was delivered and before it was ratified, Israel again affirmed, “All the words which the LORD hath said will we do,” and “All the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:3,7). After the 40-year wilderness wanderings (due to Israel’s disobedience), the new generation of Israelites echoed, “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us” (Deuteronomy 6:25).

The Israelites, like any descendants of Adam (sinners), wrongly believed they could actually do everything that God commanded them, that they could actually be separate from the pagan Gentiles around them. They believed they could be righteous—that they could have a right standing before God—by keeping hundreds upon hundreds of divine laws. Even today, millions of souls in “Christian” churches and groups have “revived” this legalistic system—a system that God has already deemed a failure because man is naturally unrighteous. Religion (even the Mosaic Law) merely reforms the outward activity (behavior), not the inward nature (the root of the behavior). Man’s nature must change if he is to keep God’s laws.

As the centuries passed, Israel’s corrupt religious leaders polluted God’s pure Law system first given through Moses, by inserting their (manmade) rules and regulations. Eventually, it did not involve honoring JEHOVAH and having faith in Him (His original intention): it became a monotonous system of religious busyness that made people appear godly (and yet, God was not in their hearts). This was the vain system that Jesus condemned in His day (Matthew 23:1-36, Mark 7:1-23, et cetera). Israel used the Law, not as a means for proving God’s righteousness, but for demonstrating their self-righteousness (the Pharisees, for example).

Let us learn the lesson that Israel will one day learn….

A Holy Nation #6

Saturday, January 25, 2014

“For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45 KJV).

Today’s Scripture summarizes a book most burdensome to many.

As per the Old Covenant, increasingly sinful Israel would endure five rounds of escalating chastisement from God, many divine attempts to reform the wayward nation (see Leviticus 26:14-39). The last course of judgment (verses 27-39) involved Gentile armies (Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Medes, Persians, and Romans) overrunning and defeating Israel, killing her people, taking off to foreign lands most of the rest of the Jews as prisoners of war. The Promised Land would be desolate of Jews. Israel would lose her Davidic kingdom, and the pagan Gentiles would rule over her instead. God was bound by His Word to weaken and curse His beloved nation!

Just before, during, and after that fifth course of judgment began, God sent His prophets to speak and write to Israel. The “Major Prophets” (Isaiah through Daniel) and the “Minor Prophets” (Hosea through Malachi) concentrate on two general themes: God’s judgment and Israel’s deliverance. These prophets clearly warned that, due to her disobedience, Israel would have many terrible days ahead (and the worst are yet to come!). Yet, these prophets surely comforted that, due to JEHOVAH’S faithfulness, Israel would have many wonderful days ahead (and the best are yet to come!).

Israel had forsaken JEHOVAH and His covenant, worshipped pagan idols, and legally, God declared her as sinful, worthy of His wrath and unworthy of His blessings—she had become Satan’s people. She was everything but the “holy nation” God wanted her to be (see today’s Scripture). The devil surely thought he had JEHOVAH defeated: “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” (Isaiah 49:24,25).

There was hope: JEHOVAH promised that Messiah would come and deliver Israel from Satan….