Righteousness based on Faith! Romans 10:5-10 (part 2)

Romans 10:5-10 (ESV)
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Following on from yesterdays post, we know that no one can ever become righteous by their own effort or obedience – it is simply impossible. So what then? Yesterday we spoke of ‘but’. And that ‘but’ is this – the righteousness based on faith.

Galatians 2:15-16 (ESV)
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

It is through faith that we know that our works are nothing, and we cannot ascend into heaven to reach God on our own effort. It is through faith that we know that we could not descend into the grave and defeat death – we know that through His death and resurrection, Jesus has already defeated death!

It is through faith that we rely on Jesus death to cleanse us of our sin, and through faith that we rely on Jesus perfect life of obedience to fulfill our justification. For Jesus not only died that so that our sins could be forgiven, but He lived a perfect human life, that we can be fully justified before God, having substituted our disobedience for His obedience, and suffering our punishment on the cross.

And finally, it is through faith that we believe that Jesus was resurrected from the grave. It is true we have the written record and testimony of Jesus resurrection, but we haven’t seen it ourselves. We have to rely on our faith in God, His revelation, and the guiding of the Holy Spirit to give us faith that He was truly risen from the dead, ultimately defeating death.

John 20:29 (ESV)
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So it really is as simple as that. First, you believe in your heart the historical facts of Jesus work. Second, you confess this belief with your mouth, by proclaiming that ‘Jesus is Lord’. And you are righteous.

There is an argument that by ‘confessing’ you are actually performing a single, small ‘work’ of your own to gain your salvation. No! You are justified by your belief alone! The confession of your faith is a pure and simple overflow of your heart, for out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34-37). If Jesus is truly your Lord, and you are physically able to speak, then you will confess that Jesus is Lord. This isn’t a ‘good work’, or even a work of salvation – it is the overflow of a heart that is finally right before God, and amazed that something so wondrous would be done for them.

Jesus IS Lord.

Do you believe it?

Lord God, thank you again that we can be declared righteous before you, even though we haven’t lived a wholly righteous life, and we haven’t the ability ourselves to atone for our sins. Give us faith to believe, and strengthen that faith in us through Your Word and the Holy Spirit. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Righteousness in your own strength? Romans 10:5-10 (part 1)

Romans 10:5-10 (ESV)
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Over the next few studies, we will look at these verses in Romans where Paul discusses again our salvation in Jesus! The first part of this discussion is a simple reiteration, almost a summary, of righteousness from the Old Testament law.

If you want to be declared righteous from the law, you must do everything that is in the law, all of the time. You must, in essence, live the law.

Difficult, but achievable? No, it is simply impossible.

Romans 3:9-12 (ESV)
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”

No one, by their own obedience and works, will be justified before God. If we were to go back to our studies in Romans 2 and 3 (This one is a good summary – What use is the Law?), you will see that the law shows us our sin, and our need for a savior. If you go back to Romans 6 (Is the law sin?), you will see that when the law comes it guides and directs, but more than anything it shines the light on the sin that is already is in our lives.

If we were to stop right here, we would think the whole proposition is hopeless. There is no way, on our own, to be righteous. There is simply nothing we can do – nothing we can say – no effort we can make, that will make us righteous on our own effort.

But.

That’s right, the very next word is but. And this ‘but’ leads us to this simple statement – if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

We will spend more time on this over the next few days, but know this. You cannot do it yourself – no way, no how. But God has done it for you, and you just need to take on His righteousness, rather than strive for your own, and you will be saved.

Yes, it really is that easy.

Lord God, thank you that you have made a way for us to be righteous, you have made a way that we can truly overcome sin and death, and be right with you for eternity. Continue to give us revelation into your Word, as we take the time to study It and truly know what it means. Teach us as ever to know You more. In Jesus Name. Amen.

(photo flickr / Barak-Janah)

Is the Bible still relevant today?

It’s been almost 2000 years since many of the books of the Bible were written. Lets say at least 1915 years since the last books were penned. I have seen arguments from 68 to 95AD for Revelation, so lets call it 95, just to be safe.

By almost anyone’s standard, that is a mighty long time.

A lot of things have happened since the year 95AD. In fact, a lot of things have happened since 35AD, which is about the time Jesus was crucified.

Jerusalem has fallen.

The whole Roman empire grew, and then crumbled into dust.

A few hundred years we romantically call ‘the middle ages’ happened. During this time, society started to change from the Roman way of life to others.

Come the 1600′s, global travel really started to take off, well with a few people anyway. The Puritans left England and headed for America. Come the 1700′s people were finding places on the other side of the world, and deciding what a nice place it would be to send English prisoners.

And since then? The industrial and technological revolutions of the last 200 years have been astonishing. Everything (well, almost everything) in our lives has changed. The nature of work, the nature of travel, the nature of relationships even with the advent of ‘wonders’ like facebook.

The world now is almost utterly unrecognisable from the days when the Bible was written. So back to our question.

Is the Bible still relevant for today?

The answer I believe, lies in who you think wrote the Bible.

Was the New Testament written by a motley crew of fishermen, tax collectors, doctors and others from the fringes of first century Judea? Yes? Then certainly some of Jesus words will have some application for us today, but the rest? Well, we need to contextualise it,  examine it against societal norms, and then see what we should apply.

Or was the New Testament (and the Old too) written by God, through direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, to human authors at that time in history?

I believe it was written by God Himself. And if an all knowing, all powerful, good, righteous, holy and just God wrote those words by directing authors to write what He wanted, then I am utterly convinced that God knew where we would be today, and where will be even in 1000 years should Jesus tarry that long. And so since they are the words of God, I need to treat them as such – as words written to all people, in all times, for all occasions, to teach, train, encourage, convict, reproach and equip us.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (ESV)
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So the question is, who do you think wrote The Bible?

Establishing your own? Romans 10:1-4

Romans 10:1-4 (ESV)
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

We live in a success focused and motivationally filled world. Everyone wants and expects success. We get calendars, posters, screensavers and emails telling us daily that ‘you can do it – you just gotta believe!’

There are some great motivational quotes out there to get us going and keep us moving.

• “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napolean Hill
• “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” – Sir Winston Churchill
• “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential, these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” – Confucius
• “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney

But what are all these quotes saying? In effect, that we have the power within us to do whatever we dream, so get up, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get moving.

And so, we come to today’s passage in Romans. Paul here is continuing to speak of the Jews (following on from these verses). What does he say? Because they were ignorant of Gods righteousness, they decided to make up their own. Because they didn’t look at what God wanted, they set their own path. And they were zealous about that path! So zealous in fact that when God’s righteousness in Jesus Christ was revealed, they weren’t interested.

You could easily look and say ‘wow, that’s kind of dumb!’. And yet, so often in our own lives, we get caught up in what we are doing. We stick by our mantra of ‘quitters are losers’, and so persist in doing what we are doing, going down the path we have set for ourselves. But where does that path lead?

Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Wow. There is a reason that the word ‘repentance’ means to ‘turn around’ or ‘change direction’!

What can we learn from this?

Do you have zeal? Is that zeal for the things of God, for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, rather than something of your own creation? From the example in Matthew above, even some who think they are doing the things of God are not – so even when you think you are, it is always good to take some time out to review. Look about, see what the fruit of your zeal really is. See what your heart motivation really is – is it a motivation for the things of God, or a motivation for yourself?

We can easily get caught up in things of the world. Even easier we can get caught up in our own biases, our own programs, our own ‘high horses’, and so leave the path of what God wants in our life and move onto our own. Don’t do that! Instead, pray that God will reveal to you His will. Offer back up to Him even those things you think you are doing in the Name of God, to make sure that it is His will that is being done – and not your own.

Lord God, help us to see when we are zealous for our own things, and not for yours. Especially when we have convinced ourselves that our way is in fact yours, and we blaspheme your name in doing so. Teach us to be humble and submit to you in all things. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Who is God? God is Righteous and Just

Isaiah 45:18-19 (ESV)
For thus says the LORD,
who created the heavens
(he is God!),
who formed the earth and made it
(he established it;
he did not create it empty,
he formed it to be inhabited!):
“I am the LORD, and there is no other.
I did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I the LORD speak the truth;
I declare what is right.

(This is part 16 of our study on ‘Who is God‘)

God is righteous and just. This means that He always does what is right, without partiality or prejudice, to all people. When we talk about God, it is difficult to separate both His righteousness and His justice, so we will treat them together.

God always does what is right. One who is righteous is one who always does what is right. Or in the negative, someone who is righteous never does any wrong. Our God does not do anything the wrong way, or for wrong reasons, or with wrong intentions, or with prejudice which is wrong. (If you think about it, God cannot have prejudice in any case, as the meaning of prejudice is to make a judgment without all the facts, or to make a judgment on limited facts or predispositions, such as racial prejudice. Since God is Omniscient – He knows all – and he is righteous, he cannot have prejudice!).

Deuteronomy 32:4 (ESV)
“The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.

God is always just. That means He administers justice correctly. It means that God always does what is right – which is why righteousness and justice go together.

Romans 3:21-26 (ESV)
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

What does this mean for me?

Combined with God’s love (John 3:16), the righteousness and justice of God means that Jesus came to this world so that you can be right once again with Him, and not suffer eternal punishment as you deserve.

For being righteous and just, God cannot just allow sin to go unpunished. An earthly judge cannot allow a criminal to go free unpunished, lest he cease being a ‘just’ judge. How much more then our just and righteous God let us free, for without payment for sins, there can be no forgiveness. But God, who knew there was no way we could pay our debts, sent Jesus to pay those debts for us, to give full satisfaction for our sins.

Lastly, for us, it means that God will always do what is right. We may not see or understand, but God does – and He will make the right choices. He will make the right choices for our lives, for our direction, for what happens in our lives, without prejudice, without bias, without sin. He will make the right choices, and we can trust Him in that!

Thank you Lord God that you are righteous and just. We know without you, we cannot be righteous or just before you. We know that without the payment for our sins, but the blood of Your Son Jesus, that we could not dare to stand before you. So we come before you humble, and thank you for what has been done for us, in your righteousness and justice, that we can be free of ourselves and made right with you once more. In Jesus Name. Amen.

(photo flickr/al_hikesaz)