ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS

ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS

¹⁴ In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. {Isaiah 54:14} 

God in His word promised long ago that He Himself shall establish us in righteousness. His own righteousness. Not our self-short lasting righteousness that we struggle to get by keeping laws and lose when we fault the laws. God Himself would lay the foundation and make it solid so that we can be established in righteousness. A deep rooted kind of righteousness planted by God himself. A well-fortified kind of righteousness. One that wavers not. I love the way the message bible described it.

You’ll be built solid, grounded in righteousness,
    far from any trouble—nothing to fear!
    far from terror—it won’t even come close!{Isaiah 54:14}

Listen church, we have been grounded in righteousness. This is the building of God Himself and it is solid. The foundation of this righteousness building is Christ Himself. He is the centre and He holds the whole building together. We are God’s building of righteousness established upon the foundation of Christ.

 ⁹ For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.

You are also God's building. ¹⁰ Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build. ¹¹ For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid. {1 Corinthians 3:9-11 GNT}

There is no other foundation that we can lay except Christ who is already laid for us. We must not try to lay our own foundation of righteousness by depending on the law. No one can lay any other foundation no matter how hard they try. Every building of righteousness collapses once Christ is taken from its foundation.

^15-18 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. {Colossians 1:15-18 MSG}

You see, everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He holds everything together. We must allow Him hold us together as our foundation of righteousness. He is the one who holds the church together as God’s building of righteousness. We would always fall short if we remove Him as the foundation and begin to depend on our works of righteousness. Now we are God’s building established in righteousness and it is for ever. This is God’s handiwork and it is eternal.

²⁰ What a foundation you stand on now: the apostles and the prophets; and the cornerstone of the building is Jesus Christ himself! ²¹ We who believe are carefully joined together with Christ as parts of a beautiful, constantly growing temple for God. ²² And you also are joined with him and with each other by the Spirit and are part of this dwelling place of God. {Ephesians 2:20-22 TLB}

¹⁴ I know that everything God does will last forever. You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him. {Ecclesiastes 3:14 GNT}

We can’t add to or subtract from what God has done. He has established us in righteousness and that is final. Anyone who goes about trying to be righteous by himself is only wasting time and energy in ignorance. We must note that we can’t even subtract from this righteousness by our short falls, neither can our rule keeping add to it. It is an everlasting righteousness. It is the very righteousness of God Himself hence it can’t be diminished by us. It is an everlasting righteousness.

¹⁴² Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth. {Psalms 119:142}

Some of you may want to ask questions like “do you mean my righteousness doesn’t reduce when I sin” Well, if you mean your self-righteousness, then Yes it diminishes when you sin. But if you mean God’s righteousness in you then No it doesn’t diminish. It is everlasting. Again, I must state that no Christian intentionally commits sin. We can fall into sin out of the weakness of the flesh but God’s righteousness in us is stable and unwavering because we are built upon a solid foundation Christ Jesus. I will like to render the message bible translation of Ecclesiastes 3:14

 ¹⁴ I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God’s done it and that’s it. That’s so we’ll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear.

Someone may still be wondering why we are established in righteousness and it is final. You must understand that this righteousness is Christ’s righteousness and not ours. Christ cannot become unrighteous and so are we. We live, move and have our being in Him. We are the righteousness of God IN Christ. We are in Him and He is in us. In fact He is our life. His righteousness is our righteousness. If He is 100% righteous, then we also are 100% righteous. God has made Him righteousness for us.

³⁰ But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

³¹ That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.{1Corinthians 1:30-31}

You see, Christ is our righteousness and if Christ is eternal then we also have an eternal righteousness. He also is our wisdom, sanctification and redemption. When we fall, He sanctifies us, purifies us so that we will be spotless without wrinkles or blemish. Our righteousness in Christ is sure and steadfast. No wonder the bible said the righteous falls seven times and rises again. Even at the seventh fall, we are still called “the righteous”. Men will condemn you at your first fall but the bible says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This means that our righteousness in Christ doesn’t waver. No matter how many times you fall, you will rise again with your righteousness intact. That is the reason why we can’t be condemned. To condemn us will be to condemn Christ and that is impossible.

²¹ For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. {2Corinthians 5:21} 

He made us God’s righteousness, we didn’t make ourselves. He established us not we ourselves. What most Christians are doing today is trying to make themselves righteous. No! It won’t work. We don’t try to become righteous, we are already God’s righteousness. How come many people are trying to become what they already are? Ignorance I will say.

with a view to demonstrating, at the present time, His righteousness, that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus.{Romans 3:26 Weymouth New Testament}

He has given us righteousness and now we are righteousness. Not just that we are

 righteous, we are God’s righteousness. Just the way the sin of the first Adam made all

 men sinners even if they didn’t commit sin, so the obedience of the last Adam made us righteous even if we fall into sin.

¹⁷ For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

¹⁸ Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

¹⁹ For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. {Romans 5:17-19}

We have been made righteous by Christ’s obedience. It is not by our obedience that we will be made righteous. We are already made righteous because Christ already obeyed long ago. It is not something that is going to happen but something that has already happened and will last forever. We therefore must walk around with this righteousness consciousness making our boast in Christ. This righteousness consciousness must now replace the sin consciousness we inherited from Adam. Confess it daily with your mouth, speak it repeatedly until it sinks in. I have been established in righteousness and it is forever!

NOTE:Just incase you read this article and you are not born again,I encourage you to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour today.It takes just a simple prayer of faith to be established in righteousness.
Pray this with me:LORD JESUS,I SURRENDER MY LIFE TO YOU TODAY,FORGIVE ME ALL MY SINS AND ESTABLISH ME IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.AMEN! AMEN!

Congratulations to you if you just prayed that prayer. I will be delighted to speak with you personally.You can call me on +380639373433
GOD BLESS YOU!

OUR STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS

It is no news that many churches today are in a struggle for righteousness. Everybody is trying to keep rules and regulations just to appear righteous before God. They think that by keeping the laws of Moses, they will be declared righteous by God. Some unbelievers and atheist think that if they are able to do a lot of good works then they will appear good enough before God. You would probably have heard someone say stuffs like “I am not a bad person. I don’t drink, I don’t steal, I don’t fornicate, I help people all the time, I even visit the orphanage often, and so on and so forth. I don’t think I need your Jesus. I am already a good person” You see when unbelievers make such statements, they are simply thinking that one can become righteous by struggling to do many good things. They don’t know that such righteousness they get by their efforts is not regarded by God. They are pure only in their own eyes even though in God’s eyes they are still filthy.

                           

¹² There is a class of people who are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not washed from their own filth. {Proverbs 30:12 AMP}

Again you see people who claim to be believers boasting in their credentials. You hear them make statements like “ I am righteous because I paid my tithes complete, I fast and pray three times every week, I was born in church, got baptized at age six, I started singing in the choir at a very tender age, I don’t fornicate, I don’t commit adultery, I’ve been a prayer warrior from my youth, the list goes on and on” When people boast like this before me, the first thing that comes to my mind is that “this one doesn’t know what God’s righteousness is”  He is simply ignorant of God’s righteousness and therefore confuses self- righteousness for God’s righteousness. All such boastings have led to the “holier than thou” attitudes making some Christians look down on others.

Yet they say to each other, ‘Don’t come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away. {Isaiah 65:5 NLT}

 They go as far as grading righteousness and saying this person is more righteous than that person. What an ignorance! No Christian can be more righteous than another Christian since God’s righteousness is not earned by our abilities. And the truth is that a greater percentage of today’s Christians think they can earn God’s righteousness and so labour so hard in trying to look righteous before God. They are all in a struggle for righteousness. Until they realize the truth they will keep struggling in vain. This is what God’s word says about all those who are in a struggle for righteousness:

 ²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. {Romans 3:20 NIV}

To attempt to become righteous by struggling to keep the law is to be cut off from Christ. You fall away from grace when you think you can become righteous by your own religious plans and projects. You think you are trying to please God not knowing you are cutting yourself off from Christ and rejecting His grace. Christ therefore will profit you nothing if you depend on your labour to become righteous.

^2-3 I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. {Galatians 5:2-3 MSG}

^4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. {Galatians 5:4-6 MSG}

²¹ I refuse to reject the grace of God. But if a person is put right with God through the Law, it means that Christ died for nothing! {Galatians 2:21 GNT}

There is enough evidence in the bible to show that all such struggles for righteousness by works will amount to nothing. Nobody can ever be put right with God via the works of law. This is how Paul puts it:

¹¹ But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. {Galatians 3:11}

³⁰ Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this, that God has given the Gentiles the opportunity to be acquitted by faith, even though they had not been really seeking God. ³¹ But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping his laws, never succeeded. ³² Why not? Because they were trying to be saved by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They have stumbled over the great stumbling stone. ³³ God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I have put a Rock in the path of the Jews, and many will stumble over him (Jesus). Those who believe in him will never be disappointed.”{Romans 9:30-33 TLB}

We must learn a lesson from the nation Israel, God’s chosen people. They went about struggling to be righteous by themselves but never attained it. They thought that meticulous adherence to religious rituals and the laws of Moses could make them righteous. They were just as ignorant as many Christians today. Let’s see what happened to them despite all their efforts.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

² For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

³ For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. {Romans 10:1-4}

You see, Israel did not submit to God’s righteousness because they thought they could be righteous by themselves. They were trying to make themselves good enough to gain God’s favour by keeping the Jewish laws and customs. They didn’t know that that is not God’s way of salvation. They refused God’s way of putting people right with Himself and cling to their own way of keeping laws, thinking that was going to work. They didn’t understand God’s ways of accepting people as righteous.

The truth is that just like most of us, they were sincerely in search of righteousness. They had a genuine zeal to be righteous but it was not according to knowledge.  They were so enthusiastic and desired to honour God but their zeal was misdirected. Similarly most Christians today, out of zeal and a desire to please God, are in a struggle for righteousness by trying so hard to keep the laws of Moses. They love God, yes! But they are ignorant of God’s way of making people righteous. How then does God declare people righteous?

 ²¹ But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses^[i] and the prophets long ago. ²² We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. {Romans 3:21-22 NLT}

Dearly beloved, I want you to understand that the way to pleasing God has been revealed. It is by faith in Christ alone. It is not by being good enough and trying to keep His laws but by trusting Christ to take away our sins and show us the way to heaven. He is the way to heaven. No man will ever get to heaven without passing through Christ. It is by our faith in Him that we are declared righteous. To struggle to be righteous by ourselves is to attempt to enter heaven through a window. Only a thief passes through the window. If you are a legitimate Christian then you must pass through Christ. He is the Door.

All your zeal that was misdirected to struggling to keep laws must now be properly channelled to trusting in Christ by faith. Only then can you become righteous in God’s sight. Your desire should be to know Him more and come into true fellowship, born out of a sincere relationship with Him. Love Him more and have faith in Him, because the righteousness you are struggling to get has already been freely given by God to those who have faith in Christ Jesus. He has fulfilled the law’s requirements for us so that we can stop struggling. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.

³ What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin. ⁴ God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.{Romans 8:3-4 GNT}

The Spirit of God in us now helps us to live righteously as we put our faith in Christ. We no longer struggle, flexing our muscles trying to keep God’s laws. We focus on Christ now not on ourselves. We therefore no longer get obsessed with self since it’s no more about what we can do but what Christ has done for us already. No more struggling to be righteous. Let’s drop all our credentials and lean on Christ just like Paul the apostle did.

In conclusion, my friends, be joyful in your union with the Lord. I don't mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer if I do so. ² Watch out for those who do evil things, those dogs, those who insist on cutting the body. ³ It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. ⁴ I could, of course, put my trust in such things. If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more reason to feel that way.




 ⁵ I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, ⁶ and I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law, I was without fault. {Philippians 3:1-6 GNT}

^7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, first hand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.{Philippians 3:7-9 MSG}

I don’t know how else to convince you that God is no longer interested in your keeping of rules and regulations. The Jewish laws have long been done away with. They were never for us gentiles but for the Jews. Even the Jews who had the laws struggled and couldn’t keep them. They had to abandon the laws after Christ came to help them fulfil the laws. Why are we now struggling with what was never meant for us? Let me shock with what Paul said when he rebuked peter’s pretence.

 ¹⁴ When I saw what was happening and that they weren’t being honest about what they really believed and weren’t following the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Though you are a Jew by birth, you have long since discarded the Jewish laws; so why, all of a sudden, are you trying to make these Gentiles obey them? ¹⁵ You and I are Jews by birth, not mere Gentile sinners, ¹⁶ and yet we Jewish Christians know very well that we cannot become right with God by obeying our Jewish laws but only by faith in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And so we, too, have trusted Jesus Christ, that we might be accepted by God because of faith—and not because we have obeyed the Jewish laws. For no one will ever be saved by obeying them.”{Galatians 2:14-16 TLB}

Did you understand what you just read? The Jews have discarded the laws because their struggle to obey them was all to no avail. Paul said no man can be saved by obeying those laws.

I know some of you are afraid and are saying “what if I just have faith in Christ and discover later that faith alone cannot save us? That means we’ve been deceived”. That’s the fear of most Christians. Well I have an answer for you:

¹⁷ But what if we trust Christ to save us and then find that we are wrong and that we cannot be saved without being circumcised and obeying all the other Jewish laws? Wouldn’t we need to say that faith in Christ had ruined us? God forbid that anyone should dare to think such things about our Lord. ¹⁸ Rather, we are sinners if we start rebuilding the old systems I have been destroying of trying to be saved by keeping Jewish laws, ¹⁹ for it was through reading the Scripture that I came to realize that I could never find God’s favor by trying—and failing—to obey the laws. I came to realize that acceptance with God comes by believing in Christ. {Galatians 2:17-19 TLB}

Did you notice in verse 18 that you only become a sinner if you return to the law system? If you start rebuilding the old Jewish laws system and struggle to obey them, then you become a sinner. It shows that you don’t believe in what Jesus has already done for us and that makes you an unbeliever. Please don’t try to resurrect what Christ already buried.

Dearly beloved, go all out for God and not for religious rules. Do not struggle anymore for righteousness. It never worked for anyone and will also not work for you. No man can prevail by the arms of flesh. Stop being a law man. Start being God’s man.

^19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily. {Galatians 2:19-21 MSG}

Stop struggling, start believing!

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. {John 3:18}

²⁴ “I am telling you the truth: those who hear my words and believe in him who sent me have eternal life. They will not be judged, but have already passed from death to life.{John 5:24 GNT}