The Gospel Is About the Righteousness of God, Not About Man's Sin

For in (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." (Rom 1:17)

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. (Rom 3:21-22)

In the above two passages, Paul tells us that something is revealed in the gospel: The righteousness of God.

God's righteousness is what the gospel is about.  The gospel isn't about the attempts of people to earn or maintain righteousness through the things they do.  It's about the gift of God's very righteousness.  This gift is given freely to all who believe.

As you look in your Bible, you'll see that in between the two passages above, there are sixty-four verses that essentially tell us about the unrighteousness of man.  These verses are not what the gospel is about!  These sixty-four verses, from Romans 1:18 all the way to Romans 3:20, were written to show us the reason the gospel was needed.  That is, they were written to show us the reason the righteousness of God needed to be given to us as a gift, by grace through faith.  Paul writes about how the wrath of God was "revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men..."  He lists all kinds of ways in which the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men has been demonstrated.

As all of this continues into Chapter 2, Paul makes the case to his fellow Jews that it's not only the Gentiles (non-Jews) who have missed the mark, but they themselves are also transgressors of the very law of God that they make their boast in!  In other words, Paul points out that we're all in the same boat in regards to "the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," so there's no room for anyone to judge or condemn anyone else!  All (both groups: Jews and Gentiles) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  "For we have previously charged that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin." (Romans 3:9).  "There is no one righteous, not even one." (Romans 3:10).

The only thing the law of God had done was to reveal sin.  "BUT NOW," Paul writes in Romans 3:21, "the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed... even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe."  The law revealed sin, but could do nothing about it.  The gospel revealed God's righteousness, which we receive as a gift.

Can you see what Paul was doing, by first telling us in Romans 1:17 that the gospel revealed God's righteousness, and then spending quite a bit of time (64 verses) telling us about man's unrighteousness?  Sadly, many in the church have used a portion of those 64 verses to pronounce guilt, judgment and condemnation upon not only unbelievers, but also upon their fellow believers!  But that was never the reason those verses were written.  The reason Paul built this lengthy case for the unrighteousness of man was to show why righteousness could never be earned or attained by our performance.  Only God's perfect righteousness would ever do, and the only way anyone can attain it is to receive it freely as a gift!

The Gift of Life

Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors. (Romans 2:1, MSG).

The Bible verse above is right in the middle of a larger point the Apostle Paul is making. He makes a great point here, but it's not his final point. He's laying the foundation for something much bigger, which I'll get into below.

I've noticed that many people seem to pick out pieces of Romans 1 without continuing on in Romans 2 and 3. Romans 1 mentions various sinful deeds, and I've seen people choosing a handful of those sins and going around judging the people of the world for those sins. But that's not why Paul wrote Romans 1. It's not a list of sins for Christians to watch out for or to judge one another for, or to judge to world for. His point in this first chapter leads up to Romans 2 (including the above verse)... which then leads up to Romans 3! (Again, I'll get to that in a minute).

Paul says in essence, "Who do you think you are, going around judging others? You are no different! Who do you think you are, teaching the law and rules, and trying to get people to live by them, but yet you fall short in keeping them yourself! I just got done listing a bunch of 'things which are not fitting,' and people who are 'filled with all unrighteousness' (see Rom 1:28-29). Don't you get it, that if you're going to point out and judge others for their behavior, you're right there on the list too!!! So quit your judging and quit trying to get others to keep the rules!"

Sadly, many people have used Romans 1 to go out and protest the sins that the people of the world commit. And many have made Romans 2 out to be a harsh word to those who aren't keeping the rules. But if you look at the whole thing from start to finish, Paul is being harsh toward legalists! He's being tough on those who think they actually make the grade and/or who think they're better than others. And again, he's leading up to something even greater!

The GOOD NEWS in all of this - which is what Paul is leading up to the whole time - is that even though all have fallen short, there is this thing called a gift through which people are freely justified (see Romans 3 - "to all and on all who believe"). Read the whole thing all the way through and see that it's not about sin and it's not about judging others... it's about the gift of life!

Jesus became a curse for us and Jesus became sin for us

Abraham believed God and God accounted that to him as righteousness. That is the blessing of Abraham. Christ became a curse for us so that we might receive the blessing of Abraham. Also, Christ became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! It's through nothing we've done... It's all what He has done! Your sins are not counted against you. You are not cursed. By faith, you are counted as righteous.

2 Cor 5:21
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Gal 3:5-14
5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? — 6 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

What's right with you

Why is the focus in the church seemingly always "what's wrong with you?" So many things in Christianity seem to be focused on trying to fix what's wrong with people.

How about teaching the finished work of Jesus and what's right with people for a change!

No struggle

As a sinner, I didn't have to struggle and strive to maintain my standing as a sinner. I was in Adam, and even when I did "good" things, my standing in Adam was maintained.

As a saint, I now don't have to struggle and strive to maintain my standing as a saint. I am in Christ, and even when I do "bad" things, my standing in Christ is maintained!

I was born in Adam.
Alive to sin, dead to God.
My very identity was a matter of sin and death.

I've been born again in Jesus.
Dead to sin, alive to God.
My very identity is a matter of righteousness and life!


Life in Christ isn't a matter of a bad person becoming a good person. It's a matter of a dead person becoming alive!

Faith - What You Trust, Not What You Do

Latest GIGCast is up! Looking into Hebrews 11, often called the "Hall of Faith," we look at what the "faith" means. It was "by faith" that the people listed in this chapter did the things they did, but it wasn't "what they did" that gave them their testimony of righteousness. Rather, it was their Trust in God - their faith. We've got to keep in mind that faith shows itself by what we do, but what we do is not what makes us righteous! If what we do is what makes us righteous, and we call that "faith," then faith is nothing more than self-righteousness! Faith is trusting in God, not in ourselves or our works.

gigcast.graceroots.org

Doing Doesn't Make Us Who We Are - It Flows From Who We Are

Latest Growing in Grace program is ready for downloading/listening. The good works we do - the "doing" of the Christian life - are not done to score points with God or to maintain our good standing with God. Our good works don't make us who we are (and they don't disqualify us from who we are). Rather, in Christ we are a new creation - righteous and holy - and as we become more and more established in this truth, our "doing" becomes the natural outflow of who we are.

gigcast.graceroots.org

More on the Exchanged Life

Latest Growing in Grace program is available for download. Our life exchanged for His life. Our sin exchanged for His righteousness. Christ in you, the hope of glory!

gigcast.graceroots.org

Exchanged Life - Christ's Life In Us

Latest Growing in Grace program is available for download. Our life exchanged for His life. Our sin exchanged for His righteousness. Christ in you, the hope of glory!

gigcast.graceroots.org

Works - Part 2 of 4

I don't believe that God created Adam and Eve (the first humans) and the rest of the human race for the purpose of living by instructions. In fact, wasn't it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God told Adam not to eat from? We all know what happened (sin entered the world, and death through sin), but as we fast-forward to the Cross, and the Resurrection of Jesus we see that Christ came to take away sin, and through faith in Christ, man can be restored to LIFE. Through faith, man now has righteousness, holiness, completeness, goodness. God has taken away the sinful spirit that we were born with in Adam and has given us a new spirit that is alive together with Christ. By faith, we can walk according to this newness of life.

Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The "baptism" above isn't water baptism, but it's a death and burial of our old sinful nature - the spiritual person we were in Adam. It's now dead and gone, and we've been raised together with Christ into new life! The natural result of growing and maturing in who we now are in this new life is a life of goodness. And the growing process is lifelong. It's by no means instantaneous.

This new life - which is nothing less (or more) than the very life of Christ in us - is where holiness and goodness and righteousness and good works flow from. This new life - Christ-in-me - is the foundation of the Christian life.

Keep all the rules, still lose

Gal 3:19-25
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Imagine a person was able to keep all the rules - to follow God's laws fully and completely - always, without failing once. A perfect law-keeping record. That's impossible, of course, but even it really did happen this person would still be far, far away from God because there is no Life in the law. In fact, in order to have Life, we had to die to the law. Unless a person dies to the law, he or she cannot be raised to Life with Christ.

Rom 8:2-3
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [true Life] has made me free from the law of sin and death [God's laws]. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin...

"Weak through the flesh" doesn't mean that we were weak because of all our bad deeds. It means that even in the best of the best of our own righteousness (the ability of our flesh), we were still dead. We were weak and fell short of God's glory (and Life).

What we needed was the gift of Life, not law.

Be strong in the Lord

Eph 6:10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

How do we take our stand against the devil's schemes (or "wiles of the devil" - KJV)?

13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

All of this is worth spending some time with and meditating upon. Not religiously, of course, but as part of our full-on relationship with the one who supplies us with the power in all this! Some people call this "spiritual warfare," I think mostly because of the imagery of armor and battle gear that Paul uses. But when it's all boiled down, it's simply a matter of a few basic truths that will help us overcome the evil one - who, as Peter says, is an adversary "who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Peter goes on to say "resist him, steadfast in the faith..." And the "armor" Paul talks about in verses 14-17 of the above passage includes:

• Truth
• Righteousness
• The Gospel of Peace
• Faith
• Salvation
• The Word of God

Earlier this year, I broke some of this down in three separate posts, if you're interested in checking any of it out.

The Full Armor of God
God's armor 1-3
God's armor 4-6

And don't forget that in our relationship with God we have the wonderful privilege to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" and we can "be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." :)

Righteousness apart from law

Rom 3:19-26

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It's a Sin

I barely remembered this song from the 80's. I liked the music of the Pet Shop Boys and I mostly remember their bigger hits such as Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money), West End Girls, and their popular version of Always On My Mind (see below). As I listened to It's a Sin today, the music and the lyrics came back to me, and I can say that I was much more struck by the lyrics today than I was back then!

One example of a verse that really stuck out to me was:

At school they taught me how to be
So pure in thought and word and deed
They didn't quite succeed...

(That's just one small part. See all the lyrics here.)

Judging from the video, the lyrics appear to be referring to a Catholic school experience, but I suppose it could refer to any type of private (or public) school experience in which morals were legalistically taught/stressed/enforced... and of course my mind quickly made the legalistic church connection in regards to this terrible obsession with SIN!

It's sad, but I think it's true that this song probably represents the mindset of many people in the world today in regards to their understanding of how God sees them. I pray for the truth of the righteousness that comes by faith, not our own efforts at righteousness, and the truth of the new life and the new identity that God gives us in Christ in which we don't live with a sin consciousness but with a righteousness consciousness and with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, to continue to be spread all around the world and to FREE people instead of keeping them in the bondage of a focus on sin!

Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin


For Aida... Pet Shop Boys' version of Always On My Mind :)

"I'm a bilingual illiterate. I can't read in two languages." LOL :)

Convicted of Righteousness

I'm hoping that many of you are keeping up with Steve McVey's video blog series, "101 Lies Taught in Church Every Sunday." I'm always tempted to post the videos here, and maybe I should do more of that, but for now I'm just hoping you're keeping up with them on Steve's blog. In the case of "Lie #63 The Holy Spirit Convicts Us Of Our Sin," I just couldn't pass it up! This message has been on my heart for a long time, and I don't share it enough. A few years back I was reading from the passage from John that Steve brings up here, and it HIT me in a huge way that unbelievers are convicted of sin, and believers are convicted of righteousness! (See links below for a little more on this).

While I've shared some practical applications of this truth at times in the past, I've probably spent more time discussing it from a doctrinal standpoint. I think you will find some very practical advice and applications in this video. Since this subject may not necessarily sit well with some, I invite you to also see Steve's original post in which he briefly writes about this as well. He makes some very good points!



Some past posts of mine that I think go along with this include the two below.
What's right with you (12/28/07)
Convicted of Righteousness (1/16/07)

What makes a person righteous

I was digging through some of my past notes and I came across this note from 5/20/01.

The law led people to Christ, but not by works of the law. The works of the Law never benefited anyone as far as righteousness is concerned. When a person sins after coming to Christ, they don’t go back to the law to lead them back to Christ. Sin doesn’t mean that you have left Christ (and therefore need to get back). Coming to Christ is a one time event. The law leads you to faith. You become “in Christ” by faith. Sin doesn’t get you “out” of Christ. It wasn’t your good works that got you “in Christ” in the first place.

Sin doesn’t mean rejection of faith or Christ. So you don’t need the Law to get you back to Christ. Once you’ve come to Christ, the law’s purpose is done and is never needed again. It led you to Christ. It doesn’t sustain you in Christ.

The law surely can show us what sin is (therefore it shows sinners, who haven't come to Christ, their need for righteousness). But the law doesn’t do anything to fix the problem.

In Christ, the problem is done away with. We have become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Even when we sin, we are still the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! Again, when we were sinners, our good works didn't make us righteous, and now that we're in Christ - and therefore no longer a sinner but rather a righteous person - our sin doesn't make us unrighteous.

God's armor 1-3

2 Chron 20:14-17 14 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. 15 And he said, "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you:'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you."

I realize that I'm ripping this passage right out of a larger story and out of larger context, and my purpose isn't to misuse scripture but I simply wanted to point out that this passage, to me, is essentially a good illustration of the "spiritual warfare" that we fight as Christians. The battle is not ours. It's God's! In my post from a couple of days ago called "The Full Armor of God," I mentioned the six elements of battle gear that Paul writes about in Ephesians 6: Truth, Righteousness, The Gospel of Peace, Faith, Salvation, The Word of God. In that post I left off with the idea that all of this is a matter of God's gifts to us and His working in and through us, and I want to continue with those thoughts here. I should mention that I believe the whole of our life in Christ is a matter of God's gifts to us and His working in and through us, and so these six things should seem no more spooky or spiritual than anything else in our lives!

I'm purposely being brief here, and I'll start with the first three. Perhaps someday I'll look at each element more closely and in depth. 

• Truth - Jesus Christ is the truth. And along with that, His word is truth. So many of the battles we face are a matter of truth vs. lies. The point is, it's the truth of God. We can't conjure up our own 'truth,' but rather we rest in the truth of God. There is a direct correlation between truth and victory/freedom. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." If you, or someone else, is in bondage, the battle is fought and won with truth. 

• Righteousness - One of my 'favorite verses' is Romans 1:17. In the previous verse, Paul says that the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. In verse 17, he goes on to say that something is revealed in the gospel: God's righteousness. This is not man's righteousness. It's nothing that man can conjure up on his own. Our righteousness is a gift from God. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor 5:21). Even walking according to this righteous nature that we now have is a matter of trusting in God's working in and through us rather than trying to muster it up in the strength of our flesh or willpower. 

• The Gospel of Peace - As the above paragraph mentions, the gospel of peace (the good news) is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. The angels declared the gospel of peace at Jesus' birth as they praised God and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" (Luke 2:13-14). The gospel is a mighty weapon! How do we use this weapon? We simply declare the gospel. We simply declare the good news. Note, in the use of these weapons, we're not responsible for the outcome. The battle is the Lord's. We simply bear the weapons, by faith, and the Lord fights the battles. 

To apply some of this practically, some real life situations may include dealing with another person who is habitually angry or downhearted, and perhaps the lies of the enemy have caused this. Perhaps you're dealing with a troublemaker. Perhaps you're even dealing with a very good person who doesn't think he or she needs Christ. Perhaps any of these scenarios could have to do with yourself. If the lies of the enemy have gotten a hold of someone, and brought them into bondage, even if they don't know they're in bondage, the truth holds the power to set them free! Again, we're not responsible for the outcome, but we can speak the truth to others (or to ourselves) as a "weapon" to help dispel the lies, and we can let the Lord engage in the "battle." 

Can you think of any other ways (the ways are endless I think) in which these three things (truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace) can be put on and applied practically in our daily lives? I'll talk a little about faith, salvation and the Word of God when I get back to this.

What's right with you

This is the third time I've used the title "What's right with you" for a post here on Grace Roots (See the other two: 6/26/06 and 8/24/07. See also a similar post called Convicted of Righteousness).

In my mind I'm brought back to these thoughts quite often because I know that many of my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world seem to deal more with the question, "What's wrong with me?" than with the truth of "What's right with me." Teachers and preachers - even those with great intentions of helping people live better lives - tend to be focused on what's wrong with the people in their congregations and how to "fix" what's wrong. Just as examples, I can't tell you how many "giving" sermons I've heard in my life. Or how many times I've been told to be a better witness for Christ. Or "how to" do this or "steps to take" to do that. Or the five "R's" of relationships. Can I get any witnesses? ;) I've heard countless methods, steps, principles, laws, rules, plans, etc, all with the intention of having the people of the congregation work on these things so they can become more productive Christians. For a while in my walk with Jesus I thought that was the way it's supposed to be. I knew I wasn't performing perfectly for God and I wanted to improve. I wanted to fix what was wrong about me and become more and more acceptable to God.

Of course I came to find out that that way of living the Christian life is foolishness! It seems right in the eyes of man, but it really does only lead to death. I don't mean physical or spiritual death. I mean death of dreams, death of motivation, death of joy... you get the picture. You eventually find that no matter how hard you try, or what steps you take, or what principles you follow... you still always have a long way to go in order to fix what's wrong with you. Or perhaps you have some "victories," but even after your victories you see that there are twenty million other things that are wrong with you that need fixing. And not only that, but those twenty million other things seem magnified like never before. Once you take a look at God's righteousness, and take steps towards trying to live up to it, whether you fail or whether you think you succeed, your own shortcomings begin to appear so much larger than you originally thought of them.

And so I just want to ask you... Do you find yourself somewhere in the two preceding paragraphs? If so, GET OUT, because the two preceding paragraphs are filled with very bad news!!! In fact, I can honestly tell you that I was becoming slightly depressed while writing them and going back and reading them! I considered removing them and coming from a different angle because I just don't want to take the risk of getting myself or anyone else stuck in the mindset that this life in Christ is about fixing what is wrong with us.

My seven year old girl likes to take her time while getting ready for school in the morning. And that's fine. I've learned to wake her up earlier so that she has all the time she needs. But even so, she very often becomes distracted, and every 10 to 15 minutes I need to prompt her to "stay on task." If I don't, we'll be late for school. I smile when I talk to her and I make it a quick reminder, but yet she feels so bad for "getting behind" that she begins to cry and keeps repeating, "sorry daddy, sorry daddy." It makes me so sad to see her feeling so sad and guilty that she's gotten off track, because I'm not angry with her and I don't come across as angry with her! I've had to tell her over and over again that I'm not angry with her. All that I'm doing is making it so she can enjoy taking her time while not dragging her feet. And so what's happened is that I've discovered new ways to talk with her in the morning, which I'll get to in a minute.

But my example here is basically what I mean about preachers and teachers, even with good intentions, focusing on sin and on what's wrong with people. It's of course not just preachers and teachers. It's parents, authority figures, friends, other church people, etc, etc. When we focus on what's "wrong" with us, it generally yields the opposite of what we intend! We hope it will yield changed lives, fruit, righteous living, etc, but in the long run it yields guilt, despondency, fruitlessness, etc.

And of course in a large section of church society, this focus on sin doesn't come out of good intentions. It comes out of self-righteousness, Pharisaical attitudes and a desire to be in control and to keep the people dependent upon their preaching or their so-called "authority." But no matter the motive, a focus on sin will never yield the fruit that a focus on our righteousness in Christ (that we've freely received as a gift) will yield!

Over the course of this school year so far, I've learned some better ways (I think) to talk with my daughter that don't focus on how far behind she is or how late it's getting, but rather that remind her and encourage her in her current "task." For example, if she's supposed to be getting dressed, but she's instead found a Barbie to play with, I tell her something like, "after you get dressed, I'll get you a fresh cup and you can brush your teeth!" She "remembers" that she was getting dressed and she hops right back to it without even giving a thought as to whether or not daddy was angry with her. And all the time, throughout each and every day when I'm near my kids, I'm talking with them and laughing with them and hugging them and kissing them and telling them how much I love them. That's the most important thing. Even if they were to get "off task" and were late to school every day, I can't imagine for a moment that I would ever stop letting them know how much I love them.

Which leads to my next post, which has to do with God's love for us and the righteousness we have received as a gift, and how He encourages us and motivates us based upon love and righteousness rather than through guilt and condemnation.