Righteousness by Faith – 1
Righteousness by faith is so important under the New Covenant! It’s the good news of the Gospel! And it’s the key to living the blessed life! It is the key to Right Believing! Romans 8:3 tells us that God took care of the sin issue that separated us from Him! How? By sending His own Son! Jesus paid the debt we owed! Wow! A debt we could never pay ourselves! This was an act of grace! God’s grace! His amazing grace! The next verse, Romans 8:4 tells us why Jesus did this: So that now we have the righteousness of the Law given to us as a gift!
The righteousness that comes by faith is mentioned far more in the New Testament than salvation that comes by faith. Yes, salvation is important, but when we focus on faith righteousness, salvation comes. When we teach about righteousness as a gift and how we blessed we already are to be included in the seed of Abraham and heirs of the world (Rom. 4:13) people will run to get saved! They will get excited about salvation! Galatians 3:29 tells us that we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise!
Since the strength of sin is the Law let’s start seeing God’s grace as ALWAYS pouring out into our lives! Believe, declare and confess: “I’m the Righteousness of God in Christ!”
Romans 4:3-5;13-14 – God accounted righteousness to Abraham because Abraham believed God! This is an example of amazing grace! God’s goodness! Wow! And anyone who believes in Jesus as their Lord and Savior is included in Abraham’s seed! Thank You, Jesus! Look at the blessing of Abraham. He’s the only one in the Bible God called His friend. He believed that what God had promised, He was able to perform!
Abraham believed the LORD and the LORD accounted it to him as righteousness! This is without keeping any of the 10 Commandments which came over 400 years later. It was without the Law. Today it’s not about getting SAVED and then keeping the 10 commandments either! The Law is holy and just but can never make anyone holy or justified! It’s about faith righteousness that comes as soon as you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior!
So what is the key to living a blessed life? It’s the Gospel of Grace! The good news! We’ve been justified without any reason; any cause; FREELY by His grace! How? Through receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior!
Romans 10:8-10 Everything we receive from the Lord comes this same way (Colossians 2:6). We received it by putting faith in Jesus as our Savior (Ephesians 2:8). Likewise, we receive everything else in the Christian life the same way. It’s not by our hard work and effort. Jesus purchased for us everything we will ever need. All we have to do is believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. It’s that simple and easy. When we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are made righteous immediately by believing in our heart!
Right now, declare “Jesus is my Righteousness!”
The prophet Isaiah, so many years ago, in Isaiah 45:24 prophesied of today: “In the Lord we have righteousness and strength!” This is a clear reference to the New Covenant reality of Christ becoming our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30 and 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Heb. 3:1 Consider Jesus the High Priest of our confession! The word “consider” means to ponder, deliberate, study, examine, or meditate on. Those of us who have experienced the saving power of Christ should consider Him much more than we do. And we need to provoke others to consider Jesus too. Our confession (or profession) needs to be “I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ!”
Heb. 4:14 Hold fast to our confession of Righteousness! Since Jesus has overcome all opposition and is now enthroned on high, we need not waiver in our confession!
2 Cor. 3:7-9 – v 9 tell us that if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. In fact, the ministry of righteousness by faith far surpasses the glory of the Old Testament as much as the brightness of the sun surpasses the brightness of the moon!
With all this amazing good news of the Gospel of grace, we can have confidence and expect for even better greater things in our lives! For we are no longer sinners in God’s eyes. We are the Righteousness of God in Jesus Christ! Wow! And guess what! The path of the righteous shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Prov. 4:18)!