SAVED BY GRACE - APPENDIX #3

 SAVED BY GRACE - APPENDIX #3

THE DOCTRINE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS I will again use the comments of Dr. Lockyer for our understanding of this subject. ".... Doctrinal and practical righteousness meet us on almost every page. Such an important truth has been treated as if it is most difficult. Theologians may have made it so, but the Word of God is simple and clear in its teaching on this doctrine of grace. Is it not tragic that a theme so beautifully and blessedly simple has been muddled, confused, tortured, twisted and disputed over through centuries of wrangle and strife.....         The simple idea resident within the word is that of  'doing what is right.' While there may be shades of meaning associated with the word, the root idea wherever it is used is a state of RIGHTNESS whether towards God or man.......         It may make for clarity if we summarize this theme of tremendous importance in the following ways: 1.  God is righteous, and as such, demands righteousness, for without it there can be no possible fellowship between the Creator and His creatures. The consistent testimony of Scripture is that two cannot walk together except they be agreed. Righteousness cannot have fellowship with unrighteousness (Deut.25:16; Ps.1:5,6; 2 Cor.6:14; Rom.1:18; 2:8-9). But what do we mean by 'the righteous act of God'? This phrase, peculiar to and characteristic of Paul's epistles, signifies God's consistency (with His own nature and character) in freely and perfectly JUSTIFYING a sinner believing on Jesus. It is the revelation of the righteous ground on which God can and does freely justify a guilty sinner.......                2. Man has no righteousness of his own with which he may meet the righteous and inexorable demands of God. It cuts clean across our fancied greatness and goodness to be told that all our righteousness is but as filthy rags in God's sight. All we pride ourselves upon is rejected by God. Ignorant of divine righteousness, we try to establish our own ( Rom.10:3; Ecc.7:20; Isa.64:6 ). How futile is our effort to work out, even under the Law, a character which God can approve! The human heart is corrupt, deceitful above all things, and ['can be' - as it should read - Keith Hunt] desperately wicked ( Jer.17:9), and cannot therefore out of rottenness  produce righteousness acceptable to God. If personal and vicarious  righteousness by] Law-keeping or obedience in life could be ours,  justification by blood is a nullity..... By human righteousness no man can be justified (Ps.143:2; Rom.1:17; 3:20). The mind of the flesh, even good flesh, is enmity against God (Rom.8:7)....... If the sinner is to have a righteousness acceptable to God, it must be divinely provided. His eyes must turn away from his own ruin and self-righteousness to Christ.. 3. The sinner, through believing, is constituted the righteousness of God in Christ, the sinless, righteous One. Christ, on the CROSS, was made sin for us, Now on the THRONE He is the righteousness of God, that is, the perfect expression of it. The phrase, 'the righteousness of Christ' is not to be found in Scripture. The substitution of this for  'the righteousness of God' has created much misunderstanding.......       The kernel of the Gospel is that Christ died for our sins and was raised again, manifesting thereby God's work in love and righteousness for sinners Rom.4:25; 1 Cor. 15:3,4 ).......         Our righteousness, then, is not something but SOMEONE, even Him who possessed Lordship( Mark 12:36,37; John 13:13). At this juncture it might be well to consider the whole matter of IMPUTATION with which Paul deals in his epistle to the Romans. To IMPUTE means to reckon or count to one something which he, himself, is destitute of....... With God, imputation is His gracious act whereby He accounts righteousness to the believer in Christ, who has borne the believer's sins in vindication of the Law.......  'Imputed righteousness' is not Biblical Language, for divine righteousness is not imputable, neither is the law-keeping of Jesus.......  righteousness imputed or reckoned is what the Word teaches.......          As a sinner has no righteousness of his own, he must have a righteousness without works. Thus the only righteousness for him is the imputed one of God's in Christ. God alone is able to justify a guilty sinner, and He alone can impute righteousness to one who is destitute of it. BUT this divine action is not the placing of a quantity of righteousness IN man.  It is simply holding, or regarding as righteous or just, one who is not so either in nature or practice, as Romans 4 clearly shows. Righteousness imputed supposes that one is destitute of it....... Pardon accompanies justification before God's bar.......       The sinner, however, pardoned before, and by God, is always justified also...... Christ bore the judgment of God upon our offenses, but was raised again for our justification (Rom.4:25 ). In this great chapter, 'righteousness' occurs eight times, but the words  'of God' are not added. 'The righteousness of God' is nowhere said to be imputed or reckoned unto us, but  'righteousness' that is, all Christ accomplished in our stead and behalf is put to our account through acceptance of Him as Saviour. 4. Divine righteousness can only become ours by faith. .......Righteousness must be accepted as a divine gift ( Rom.4:5; 9:30-32; 10:4 ). Paul cast to the dogs the righteousness of which he was once so proud. Those things he counted gain were willingly reckoned loss that he might be found clothed in his Lord's righteousness (Rom.1:16,17; Gal.2:16; Phil.3:6-9 )...... This is that which is called 'the righteousness of God by faith' (Rom.3:26; 4:6; 2 Cor.5:21 ). 5. It is essential to exhibit practical righteousness in everyday life. We deceive ourselves if we deem ourselves righteous yet fail to manifest righteousness in life. 'Doing' righteousness is the sure fruit and proof of  'being' righteous, that is, of having the only principle of true righteousness within and the only means of justification, namely, faith(Rom.4:3-8; Eph.2:5,8-10). Noah, the preacher of righteousness, was just or righteous in life (Gen.6:9) ....... Right with God, we shall live right before men ....... When John urged the saints to do righteousness (1 John 3:7), he meant them to live that righteous life ever resulting from salvation....... To be righteous is simply to BE right and to DO right toward God and man .......                 How can God supply us with MOTIVE and POWER to act rightly in all things, at all times and in all relations? In these matters, as in all others, we must turn to Scripture for satisfactory answers....... we are always directed to Christ as the grand and constraining MOTIVE. How righteous He was in all His ways. As  to the POWER by which practical righteousness can be effected, we know that the Holy Spirit alone can transform position into PRACTICE. Satan, the enemy of the Righteous ONE and of righteousness, is determined and wily and an everwatchful foe (Eph.6:14). He knows that if practical righteousness is lacking in a saint, he is exposed to satanic attacks. Lack of consistency in any realm of life leaves one weak, powerless and unfruitful in service. PRACTICAL righteousness is the keynote of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat.5:6). It is ever the ground of our appeal in prayer (Ps. 23)....... One must have the determination to  'follow righteousness' (2 Tim.2:22), in all things, in all places, in all relationships.......                            6. The manifold blessings resulting from the acceptance of a divinely provided righteousness. The righteous are blessed with PROSPERITY ( Isa.3:10). The righteous are surrounded with divine FAVOR ( Ps.5:12 ). The righteous enjoy peace,quietness and ASSURANCE  (Isa.32:17). The righteous experience deliverance from affliction ( Ps.34:19). The righteous have enlightened minds and glad hearts ( Ps. 97:11 ). The righteous are NEVER FORGOTTEN (Ps.112:6; 1 Pet.3:12)          THE ULTIMATE BLESSING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH IS ETERNITY WITH HIM WHO IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.................. "                         (From the book "All the Doctrines of the Bible" by Dr.H.Lockyer - emphasis ours and his). The Father and Christ IN us [John 14: 23], the MIND of Christ IN us [Phil. 2:5], the FAITH of Christ IN us [Gal.2: 20], the Holy Spirit - God's divine nature IN us [2 Pet. 1:4], gives us the WILL, the  POWER [2 Pet. 1:3] to LIVE according to the  RIGHTEOUSNESS of God [which is keeping His commandments - Ps. 119: 172]. Our ability to do as Jesus said in Mat.4: 4--- living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, is NOT through our own ability, but through the POWER of the DIVINE NATURE IN US. As some have said, we are not saved by the law, we are saved to fulfil and set our minds to obey the law, and the power and strength to do that also comes from God, as both the Father and Son live in us. THE  CHRISTIAN'S  DESTINY THE HOLY SPIRIT - A PERSON ? Growing up in a Church of England school called "The Holy Trinity School" I was well aware of such language as "God the Holy Ghost" -  "Three in One" etc. Though subjected to such terminology on a daily basis I also read my Bible very frequently. Through those young years of my life I could never understand what these adults meant by "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit" and no one ever sat me down to clearly explain this phrase to me. I had seen from my own Bible reading that God the Father was described by Jesus as like Himself - a person then with form and shape as like a man - I had seen where the book of Revelation showed Jesus to be sitting in heaven on the Father's right hand. I had read that there was indeed a Holy Spirit, but it could be IN all Christians, poured out, look like a dove, be divided up and appear as tongues of fire as on the day of Pentecost. It never entered my young mind that the Holy Spirit was a PERSON with body and shape as to look like a man. I was 19 when first plainly told that the Spirit was a bodily person - the third member of a three person Godhead. I was somewhat shocked to hear this as my previous personal Bible reading had never led me to this conclusion. Since that time, over many years now, I have read numerous writings by various Theologians (including Finis Dake and Herbert Lockyer) giving what they consider the proofs as to why the Holy Spirit is a person. None of them have convinced me to change my boyhood understanding. This is not the place to answer these men and their so-called proofs. We have a 15 page article that does that called "The Holy Spirit - Is it a Person?"  TO BE A SON OF GOD - OR AN ANGEL? A critic has written: "This idea of BEING God strikes a responsive chord in many who like the thought of somehow being equated with God ....... Such a teaching is entirely contrary to the Scriptures. It is true that in this coming Kingdom, Christ will be seated HIGH ABOVE THE ANGELS. The author of Hebrews was most specific on this point. He wrote: 'When he (Christ) had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as MUCH SUPERIOR TO ANGELS as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs' (Heb. 1:3-4 RSV). This, then, is Christ's exalted place in the kingdom. What,  according to the Bible, will be ours? Will we....... also be superior to the angels and have a place above them? No. Christ Himself explained our place in His reply to the Sadducees as they questioned Him sharply on the subject of marriage in the kingdom age. He said, 'The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they can not die anymore, because they are EQUAL TO ANGELS and are sons of God ...... ' (Lk.20:34-36 RSV)....... Christians therefore will not be HIGH ABOVE the angels, but their EQUAL......."   ( emphasis his ). My reply is: FIRST.  (a)  What GLORY will Christians inherit, that of angels or that of Christ? The answer is found in 1 John 3:1-3. (b)  Will Christians inherit equal or more AUTHORITY than angels? Christians will inherit MORE authority because they shall JUDGE angels (1 Cor.6:3). (c)  Who will judge the world?  Angels - Angels and Christians together as equals - Jesus only ? The answer is found in John 5:22; Acts 17:31; 1 Cor.6:2; Heb.2:5. SECOND. Two other gospel writers recorded the same incident as Luke, notice how Mark wrote it,  "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are they given in marriage - but are AS the angels which are in heaven" (chap. 12, verse 25 KJV or "but are LIKE angels in heaven"(RSV). Matthew wrote,  "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are LIKE angels in heaven" (chap. 22:30 RSV). Now what is the CONTEXT - what is being DISCUSSED - what was the specific question Jesus was answering? Was it a question of how much authority angels had over the saints in the Kingdom - which class of beings would have more glory, power or authority than the other? Were they discussing the LEVEL of existence Christians would have when they inherited the Kingdom?  NO!  Jesus was answering the Sadducees trick question on MARRIAGE in the Kingdom (please read verses 27-38) and if there would BE a resurrection (the Pharisees taught there would be - the Sadducees taught otherwise). Concerning a woman who had had 7 husbands in this physical life, the Sadducees said, "Now this is our question - Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all of them were married to her." Jesus went on to answer THAT specific question. The writer of the LIVING BIBLE translates Luke 20:34,35 as,  "Jesus replied, Marriage is for people here on earth,but....... those who are counted worthy of being raised from the dead       do NOT MARRY. And they never die again - in THESE RESPECTS they are LIKE angels" (emphasis ours). The angels in heaven do not DIE, and they do not MARRY! The children of the resurrection will not MARRY or DIE - in these areas of eternal existence they will be AS, LIKE, EQUAL, similar to the angels. The Sadducees well understood that angels do not die or marry. Jesus was giving them an easily understood figure to show them that their question was invalid, as children of God, like angels, they will not marry in the resurrection. In this respect, not marrying, (in the human sense) BOTH groups are equal. Both the angelic beings and the resurrected children of the Father DO NOT MARRY, neither do they die. THIRD. Luke makes it quite clear what Jesus CALLED those who would be worthy to attain the resurrection. Christ did not call them, "children of angels" -  "beings of the angelic realm" - "a new form of angel" or any such language. It would have been very simple to have used such terminology IF Christians were to become a type of angel. Jesus called the children of the resurrection  -   SONS of GOD! As I have shown in other writings of mine, there is a VAST difference between being a type of angel and a SON (or daughter) of God. Oh, how slow is the heart of man to believe ALL that is written in the Scriptures, all that the Eternal Father has prepared for them that LOVE Him and will DO His will. How many today call themselves a son or daughter of God, and they do not UNDERSTAND what it MEANS .  The Pharisees well understood what it meant to call yourself a SON of God (John 5:18). And they accused Jesus of blasphemy and tried to kill Him. "But Jesus answered them, My Father works and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he....... said also that God was his FATHER, making himself EQUAL with God." ( John 5:18 ). I have shown you in other articles what being "equal with God"  means. What a shame that the phrase "I am a child of God" has become so easy and common place for so many to use today, that very few fully realize what those words mean or imply for those who will indeed become a born child in the Kingdom of God. "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being....... For we are also His OFFSPRING. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device" ( Acts 17:28,29). "He that overcometh shall inherit all things - and I will be his God, and he shall be MY SON" (Rev.21:7). EPILOG ARE  THERE  FEW  THAT BE  SAVED ? It has become popular in the last forty years, for many fundamental preachers and churches to proclaim very vociferously to the unconverted the scripture of Acts 16:31  "BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall BE SAVED."  This is a very true statement. But it would seem in many cases, because the unconverted are shown no other verses, that too large a group of new Christians have come to understand this as only having to believe the fact that Jesus did become human - that He did die for sinners and that He is alive today. It should be obvious to anyone who has spent any time at all reading the NT, that the apostle James showed that having a belief on Jesus that was ONLY based upon certain facts of who He is, what He became and what He did, CANNOT SAVE ANYONE! "You BELIEVE that there is one God; you do well: the demons also BELIEVE, and TREMBLE. But will you know, 0 vain man, that FAITH (belief) without works is dead!" (James 2:19,20). Yes, the demons believe the FACTS that Jesus is the Christ, that He became human, that He died to save sinners, that He arose and lives forever - BUT they still TREMBLE - they are NOT SAVED ! The BELIEF that the NT and the whole Bible proclaims, is a belief that leads to ACTION - a belief that leads to a CHANGE of life. A belief that not only believes certain FACTS about Jesus, but a believing on what Jesus SAID and TAUGHT - a LIVING, a DOING belief. "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith (belief), and has not works (actions), can (this kind of belief) faith save him?.......  For as the body without the spirit (breath) is dead, so faith (belief) without works is dead also" (James 2:14, 26, amplification ours). Factual knowledge is a PART of belief, and it must be the RIGHT facts, as we shall see. The other part of belief is ACTING on those facts. "Not EVERY ONE that says to me, Lord, Lord (calling themselves Christians and believing Jesus is the Christ), shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven - but he that DOES (action) the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many (not a few) will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied (spoken and preached) in your name (believing Christ to be the Messiah), and in your name have cast out demons, and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU - depart from me, you that WORK (whose actions are) iniquity (Lawlessness - practicing sin as a way of life). Therefore he that hears these sayings of mine and DOES them, I will liken  him unto a wise man, that built his house upon a ROCK.......  And every one that hears these saying of mine, and does not DO them, shall be like the man who foolishly built his house upon the SAND. And the rain descended, and the floods came.... and great was the fall of it" (Mat.7:21-27 amplification ours). Is Salvation - being SAVED, as easy as "falling off a log"? Will it be the MAJORITY of those who call themselves  "Christian"  that will be in the FIRST resurrection (Rev.20:1-4)? Or will it be only the FEW ? Let Jesus answer!  Will you believe Him ? "Then someone asked Him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And He said to them, 'STRIVE( Gr.means, to agonize, to contend; to strive as in a contest for a prize; to put forth every effort) to enter in at the STRAIGHT (Gr. means, narrow) gate: for many, I say to you, will SEEK to enter in, and shall not be able. When the master of the house has risen, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open to us, he shall answer and say, I do not know where you are from, I do not recognize you as one of mine. Then shall you say, We have eaten and drunk where you were being talked about, and we heard you being preached and read your words. But he shall say, I know you not as one of my followers, go away from me all of you who WORK (practice as a way of life) INIQUITY (Gr. means, unrighteousness, lawlessness)" (Luke 13:23 - 27, paraphrased and amplification ours). Here are some individuals who are seeking to enter in - they would call themselves Christian, they have "gone to church " and  heard Jesus being taught on the Radio, T.V. or in local Revivals. Here are people that have some TRUE facts, but obviously some FALSE facts that they have lived by or facts they have chosen to ignore, and in doing so were guilty of practicing things contrary to the will of God. Jesus says to them, "...... depart from me, all you workers of UNrighteousness"  They never fully had the BELIEF that lead them to.... righteousness - to DO the sayings of Jesus and the commandments of the Father. "Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Mat.7:21). "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter 4:18). For those who have truly come to the factual knowledge that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, that He is SAVIOUR, that He is alive in heaven making intercession for the saints. For those who have truly come to understand what SIN is, what REAL repentance is, what GRACE is, what having the FAITH of Jesus is, and what having and following RIGHTEOUSNESS is - those who have surrendered all to God as a humble LIVING sacrifice - to those who have true factual belief coupled with true action belief, making a complete belief - SALVATION is simple and assured! "BELIEVE  ON  THE  LORD  JESUS   CHRIST   AND  YOU  SHALL  BE SAVED!" NOW  YOU  KNOW  WHAT  KIND  OF  BELIEF  IS  REQUIRED  TO  BE  SAVED!                             ................... This Appendix to the article SAVED BY GRACE was compiled in 1985 NOW  HOW  MUCH  OF  ALL  THIS  BIBLE  TRUTH  DO  YHOU  HEAR BEING  PREACHED  TODAY?  JUST  ABOUT  NONE  OF  IT!