July 2009

Righteousness Offered

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Romans 10:4

Jesus Christ said “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill”, Matthew 5:17. Jesus is the only person ever to live who completely adhered to the law of God. Jesus Christ never sinned, not one time! He lived a perfect life. Jesus lived holy and upright in accordance to God’s standard. This is the reason the Bible says “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness”. The Psalmist wrote “He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation”, Psalm 24:5. God the Father offers the righteousness needed to enter into a relationship with Him and that which is required to enter into heaven. This righteousness comes through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The righteousness is imputed to those who, through faith, believe in the person, Jesus Christ. The Bible says “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”, Romans 10:9-10. Jesus vicariously suffered the horrific death on the cross, shedding His sinless blood to pay for the sin of all mankind on the cross. On the third day after Jesus Christ died and was buried, He arose from the dead. This validated His statement of Him being the resurrection and the life, John 11:25. His resurrection also declared Him to be the Son of God, Romans 1:4. Therefore, when any person repents of their sin, believes Jesus died and rose again to pay for their sin, by faith trusts Jesus completely calling on Him for forgiveness, the Bible says they shall be saved, Romans 10:13. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”, 2 Corinthians 5:21. God the Father is just in forgiving the repentant sinner because the debt of sin has been paid in full by His Son, Jesus Christ. The repentant sinner who trusts in Jesus Christ will stand before Holy God righteous and justified! Trust Him today!

July is the month Americans remember and celebrate the birth of this great nation. Christian Americans need to unite their prayers and efforts to bring this nation back to being “one nation under God”. In the Bible one reads, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”, Proverbs 14:34. For America to be a righteous nation, her people must be righteous! The only way for this to be is through the Lord Jesus Christ!

Lord, we repent of our sin as a nation. We confess we have pushed you out of our lives and society. The only time we call upon You is in a time of crisis. Help us come back to You as a people, Your people. America needs to be healed. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”, 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Learning to serve,

Robert Finley