You are the righteousness of God

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:21

Paul says in Romans 1:17 that in the gospel a certain righteousness is revealed. It's not man's righteousness. It's God's righteousness. The gospel reveals God's righteousness that is given to man as a gift. Paul spends the rest of Chapter 1, and then Chapter 2 and over half of Chapter 3, making the case for man's unrighteousness. He does this to show how ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Finally near the end of Chapter 3 he gets to what he was really leading up to: "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."

The law and the prophets were witnesses to this righteousness, but it's made clear in the gospel that man's attempts at righteousness, no matter how "good" or how "bad," ended up falling way short. And so: the gift of righteousness.

A little bit later Paul writes, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rom 5:19). You were not declared a sinner because you committed sinful acts. You were made a sinner "by one man's disobedience." Even when you did "good," you were still a sinner.

In the same way, you are not righteous because of any righteous act or acts you have ever done. You are now declared righteous because you've been raised up together with Jesus, through faith. In the same way that you previously inherited sin, you've now inherited righteousness. Even when you do "bad," you are still righteous.

It's been given to you as a gift, and you can't earn gifts! To earn a gift is not only oxymoronic, it's moronic! Many Christians walk in fear of "losing" this righteousness through sinning. But remember, it's a gift.

Also remember:

...When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7

"According to His mercy" He saved us, washed us, regenerated us and renewed us. It's ALL about His kindness, His mercy, His abundant gift of righteousness! If we're mired down with a sin consciousness, worried about every little (or big) sin, worried that we'll somehow cross God (when His cross has taken care of it ALL!), then we're missing the point. A sin consciousness won't cause you to walk according to the gift of righteousness! (Hello?!!).

TRUST what God has done for us, and we won't have to worry about whether or not we're messing up His work. Good news: His work supersedes ours! God has made you RIGHTEOUS!

The Answer is B - 5/10/09 - Tax Collectors and Sinners

Question: What is the correct wording of Luke 15:2-6? (Note: I'm asking about the correct wording of the passage, not about the actual practice in the church today). ;)

A. And the people of the church complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." But then they figured, "Well, He's probably giving them strong lectures and telling them how to get their acts together and live right, so we'll do the same and get out there and clean up our culture!"

B. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." So He spoke this parable to them, saying: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'

C. "He eats tax collectors and sinners!"

Ministry of reconciliation / Have we lost the plot?

Three things:

1) Dogs bark.
2) Ducks quack.
3) Sinners sin.

When dogs bark, we don't say, "that's just not right, dogs just shouldn't do that," because we know it's in the nature of dogs to bark. When ducks quack, we don't think that anything is out of the ordinary, because that's what ducks do. So why do we become so incredulous when sinners, whose nature it is to sin, sin?

In our own culture, we think things are getting worse and worse. And you know what, perhaps it's true that more people are pushing more buttons and are blatantly committing more and more sins. And sometimes I think some of it is a result of Christians laying down the law, trying to get sinners to stop their doggone sinning! See, it really has the opposite effect of what's intended! Law doesn't stop sin. The Apostle Paul called the law "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (see 2 Cor 3:4-11) for good reasons!

Rom 7:8-11
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

When groups of Christians go around raising a fuss about the various sins of the world, it doesn't seem to have a such a redeeming effect upon sinners! Does it? I guess one of my questions that I keep asking is... is there not yet enough evidence out there that shows that our holier than thou stance against the virus of sin only serves to strengthen the virus, rather than kill it? Whether it comes in the form of politics, or from the pulpit, or in one-on-one relationships with unredeemed people, do our rules, laws and policies really help out when it comes to redeeming the culture?

And I don't mean conforming the people of our culture into moral behavior. I mean redeeming the people of our culture. I mean bringing people into a true, living relationship with God through Jesus. I mean, if we stick up our noses at the bad things people do, does that really help out in the matter of people coming to know God?

Have we (the church) lost the plot? When Jesus redeemed us individually, was it His plan for us to then get on out there and make a big fuss about all the sin that's in the world? Is it His purpose for us to be worried about the state of our culture, and to therefore go out and protest all the barking dogs and quacking ducks? (the sinning sinners). Is JESUS running around worried about all the sin that's going on in the world?

Or is our mission and ministry towards sinners of a different nature?

As I already noted (and have noted lots of times in the past and will continue to note in the future), the ministry of death and condemnation (the law) has never done one thing to redeem a human being. Never! It can't! "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law" (Gal 3:21). The law condemns. The 'Letter' kills.

But the Spirit gives life, and it's solely because we're "in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God - and righteousness and sanctification and redemption..." that we can even begin to walk in the fullness of the life and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that we've been given!

And it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). Jesus, "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:6-8).

Do we understand all that God did in order to redeem us? I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg here! And yet somehow we think our laws and protests and avoidance of sinners is going to be what saves our culture?

I think Rom 5:8 must have been rewritten in some people's Bibles to say, "while we were still sinners, Christ avoided us and wrote protest letters to us about our behavior and made a big stink of our sins."

Instead, Jesus came to meet us where we were at. His big stink was with the holier-than-thou's, as far as I can see it. But to the sinners, to those dogs who barked and to those ducks who quacked, he didn't place a muzzle on them to try to get them to conform. Rather, He touched them and came to live in them and gave them a brand new nature! He did all of this as a gift of grace.

What I really want to get at here is that His ministry toward us carries on through us towards others. Not that we're going to go through a physical death, burial and resurrection as Jesus did in order to meet others where they're at, but spiritually speaking, with His life and grace in us, we can look at sinners in the same way He does. We can bring to them this message of God's peace and goodwill toward mankind.

Instead of rehashing the ministry of death and condemnation, we have a different ministry. The ministry of reconciliation.

2 Cor 5:18-21
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

What do you think? Has the church lost the plot? If God's good and holy law has this effect on people: "sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire" and "when the commandment came, sin revived and I died," then do we really expect man-made laws and 'moral standards' to have any more desirous of an effect on unredeemed people?

Underneath the blood?

This morning, while searching through some of Steve McVey's video series "101 Lies Taught In Church Every Sunday" to send some links to someone in an email, I came across the video below, "Lie #5 Our Sins Are Under The Blood Of Jesus." I thought the timing in 'rediscovering' this video was neat, since I think it goes along well with my post from yesterday, "Big Difference 6 - Sin Atoned vs. Sin Taken Away," as well as the comments there from Aida.

It's possible that it might seem to some that I'm just being picky about the use of words and phrases such as "atonement," "reconciled," "sins taken away," etc, but understanding the words makes all the difference when it comes to understanding all that Christ has done for us as well as who we really are in Him.

I used to think that when I sinned, I would have to get back "under the blood" of Jesus in order to have my sins atoned for. A song by Petra called "Underneath the Blood," which was overall a great song, had one not-so-minor detail wrong, and it added to my wrong thinking.

It went:
Where do I go when I miss the mark
And my heart starts feeling like it's stained and dark?
Only know one way to go -
Take it to the crimson flow.

It might sound good that we should take our sins to Jesus so that we could be washed and cleansed again by His atoning blood ("the crimson flow"). But it's just not sound doctrine!

In Christ, we don't keep going back to Jesus to get cleansed over and over again, or to have our sins atoned for over and over again.

We are in Him and He is in us. We have been washed. We have been cleansed. We have been justified. We have been made right with God. Note the tense of 1 Cor. 6:11. By His blood sacrifice, Jesus has put away sin. He has taken away our sin.

In Christ, we are not "sinners" who keep going back to Him for more forgiveness and more cleansing, so that we can be made righteous again and again. We are saints who have been justified (made righteous) and have become the righteousness of God in Christ. When we were sinful sinners, we did some righteous things but that never made us righteous. Now that we are righteous saints, we sometimes sin, but that doesn't make us sinners!

Our identity is solidified, and we can't receive from God what He has already given us. We simply walk in it with trustful confidence! This makes all the difference in how we view God and how we view the truth of who we are in Him.

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.

Jesus: The Friend of Sinners

Came across these words on a blog post the other day.

You know, I got to thinking about how some Christians are so ridiculous when it comes to dealing with unbelievers. And I thought about it this way: Would unbelievers call Christians the friends of sinners? Hardly. The sad fact is that Christians today see unbelievers as the enemy and not the precious lost sheep that Christ came to find... (more)

Take a couple of minutes to read the entire post. I think it's right on. And my question is (one question of many)... why does the church shrink back from unbelievers rather than embracing them?