FAITH RIGHTEOUSNESS PART TWO

Yesterday we begun discussing the righteousness of God also known as faith righteousness and we were using Rom3:21-28 as our focus. However we were only able to get as far as verse 24. Let us now continue from where we stopped. 

So far we have seen that the righteousness of God belongs to God and comes from God. We have also seen that it is revealed to us and received by faith, not worked for and earned through performance of any law. We have also seen that this righteousness is a gift that God has given to the whole world. To all of mankind. Now let us proceed;

“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” Rom3:25

Paul now goes to the sins that were committed under the old covenant, before the sacrifice of Jesus was made and makes this amazing statement. He says that those sins were also paid for by the blood of Jesus.

You may be wondering how possible that is yet they didn't believe in Jesus. Actually they did, but in types and shadows. The sacrifices that God commanded them to make for the forgiveness of their sins were a picture and a type of the perfect sacrifice Jesus who was to come. Even they had to have faith in the sacrifices they were offering to God so that they would be forgiven. That is why they laid their hands on the head of the sacrifice, confessed all their sins and then slaughtered it. It was an act of faith that their sins were being transferred into this innocent, sinless sacrifice and the innocence and righteousness of that sacrifice was being transferred into them. God was showing a picture of what He would do in Christ.

Hebrews 10:4 tells us that the Old Testament sacrifices were only types and shadows of the true sin offering that Jesus would make later. It was impossible for the blood of bulls and of goats to ever take away sins. ‘For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.’

So if the sacrifices they were making weren’t taking away their sins, then how was God dealing with them? Was He just ignoring their sins? Was He just pretending that He had taken away their sins and forgiven them? How was God reconciling this if their sacrifices weren’t really taking away their sins? We know that God is a holy God, He cannot just ignore sin. Look at what the prophet Nahum said;

“God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” Nah1:2-3

He tells us that God reserves (keeps, stores) His wrath for His enemies. He will not at all acquit the wicked. Payment has got to be made for their sins. So how did He do this?

The answer to all this is one word; ‘through the forbearance of God’

The word forbearance means self-restraint or tolerance. A delay in enforcing rights or claims or privileges. Refraining from acting or doing something.

God dealt with sins under the Old Testament through His forbearance. The Old Testament sacrifices were like a bank cheque, or a promise that all those sins committed would be paid for at some point in the future. The animal sacrifices that He commanded the people to offer represented the perfect sacrifice of Christ that they would offer later at the Cross. Another common term used was 'slow to anger'. 

He postponed the payment for their sins so that He would have mercy upon them and not consume them with His wrath and judgment. This is how David said it;

“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.’ Psa103:8-13

When Jesus came, the payment was made, the cheque was cashed in, the promise was fulfilled, the perfect sacrifice was made, and the debt was settled. Jesus paid for the sins of all people past, present and future, including those that had died even before he came. This is an amazing truth.

There is no sin that escaped the judgment of God on the Cross. None whatsoever. No past sin, no present sin, no future sin escaped God’s wrath. At the Cross God gathered every sin and punished Jesus for it all. One sacrifice was made for all sins for all time. Look at this passage in Hebrews 10;

“ For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: " Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come ---  In the volume of the book it is written of Me ---  To do Your will, O God.' " ... By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Heb10:4-14

Jesus was that one sacrifice that was offered for all sins for all people for all time. God has forever dealt with sin.

“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom3:26

Note1: The sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross declared, manifested, revealed the righteousness of God not only for the sins that were committed in the past. It also declared, proclaimed, revealed the righteousness of God for us now, ‘at this time’.

God has given us ‘his righteousness’ now. At this time. Not sometime in the future when we die and go to heaven. Right now, at this time. We have it. It is finished.

Note2: ‘…that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’

God is a holy God, a just God. His holiness would not allow Him to ignore sins and let them go unpunished. Sin has got to be paid for. On the Cross He declared that He was a holy God. He punished all sins including past sins that He had not yet punished. Jesus was His eternal sacrifice. This is what it means when it says ‘that he might be just’.

In the same way, He is now the justifier of whosoever believes in Jesus. His holiness now demands justification for us. Because He has punished Jesus for our sins already. His holiness demands that we be made righteous. Because Jesus took on our unrighteousness and sin. God’s holiness is now on your side, not against you.

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” Rom3:27

Note1: Boasting is excluded, it is useless. We cannot boast when there is nothing we do. We just believe. All the work is God’s. Only God can boast about what He has done. Only God can brag about His work.

Anybody that boasts about their commitment to God, their performance and their service to God lacks revelation. They have not been established upon the foundation of Christ. They do not know faith righteousness, the righteousness of God.  They are still in works righteousness, self-righteousness. Only God has any accomplishment worthy of boasting. It was the accomplishments of Jesus that saved us, not ours.

Note2: We are no longer under the law of works, so we cannot boast about our works. We are under the law of faith. Now we boast about God’s works. About what He has done, which we have believed. Now what is demanded of us is to believe what God does.

Note3: Laws are constant. As long as you meet their demands and conditions they work exactly the same. The law of gravity is a good example. It doesn’t matter who you are, how educated you are, how beautiful and smart you are, how rich and powerful you are. If you climb on top of a building and jump you will fall. It will always pull you down. That’s what it does. It’s a law.

The law of works demanded that to get results you had to perform, to keep the law. As long as you performed accordingly it always worked. As long as you kept the law perfectly, you got God’s blessings. Unfortunately nobody ever met it's conditions. Nobody ever kept the law. Ever.

The law of faith is the same way. It demands that you believe what God has done through Christ. As long as you believe what God has done through Christ, you will get the results of God. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what you have done, how terrible and wicked you are, how unworthy you are. How uneducated you are. What you are addicted to. As long as your faith is in what God has done you will get the results of God. The grace and blessing of God. All that is required of you is that you believe. 

This is the reason many of us struggle to get the results of God. To enjoy the blessing of God. We don't accept that all that is required of us is to believe. We think this is too simple, there must be something I must do first, some work to perform, something more complicated, something that will make me suffer, I have got to pay the price, I have to live holy, blablabla. We keep breaking the law of faith by refusing to have faith in the work of Christ. This is the mathematical equation for this law;

Jesus + Anything = Nothing. 

Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

In summary, JESUS IS ENOUGH

The Pharisees came to Jesus one time and asked Him what work God wanted them to do so as to be pleasing to Him and get His results. This is what Jesus told them;

“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” Jn6:29

These people must have been shocked. Only that? Surely Jesus is mistaken. No wonder they called Him a false prophet. The pharisees of today call it 'easy-believism, false grace, greasy grace, sloppy agape' and so many other terms of unbelief and pure ignorance. Jesus was clear, this is what God demands from us. This is what the law of faith demands. That we believe on Jesus whom He sent. That our faith be in Christ. This is an awesome truth. We shall look at the law of faith in much more detail later.

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Rom3:28

This is the conclusion of the matter. We are justified (made righteous, declared righteous, made perfectly acceptable and well pleasing to God) by faith in what He has done. By faith in Christ. By the faith of Christ.

Let us look at one more passage in 2Cor5:14-21

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” 2Cor5:14-15

Note1: This is an incredible statement. That the love of God constrains us. It motivates us, it moves us. It controls us. If only we would be filled with the love of God, we would come to the place where we are motivated in all that we do by the love of God and not by fear or legalism. However right now this is not our focus. At a suitable time we shall discuss the love of God in much greater detail.

Note2: There are basically two ways that we can interpret this verse. One, is that Jesus died for everyone, and took into himself the sins of all men for all time. As a result God views that all men died in Him.

Second is that through Christ's death, all those who believe on Jesus die also. That at the point when we believe and become born again we die in Him right there. Both of these views are scriptural. However for this study we shall focus on the first interpretation.

Note3: When Jesus died, all of us died in Him. Everybody died in Him so that everybody would have life in Him. As far as God knows, Jesus died for ALL people. As a result ALL people died in Him. He was the substitute for all mankind. He is the Passover lamb that was slain on behalf of all of us. When the angel of death passed over our houses, the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on our door posts signifying that we had already died. The lamb had died for us. So the wrath of God passes us over. We are already dead in the lamb. The lamb has already experienced wrath and judgment for us.

Christ's death was an all-inclusive death. Within that death all men died. And He died for all men so that all men would now live in Him. The goal was to give them new life. God’s life. This was for all mankind. The issue now is that some have not received this new life in Christ.

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” 2Cor5:16

Now because Jesus died for all mankind and all mankind died in Him we know nobody after the flesh (Christian or non-Christian). Why? Because they all died in Christ and are now risen in Him. We should not regard anybody after the flesh any more. They have all died in Christ. We should regard them in Christ. He is telling us to stop judging people based on their physical appearances and capabilities. Even for those who have not yet received Christ, we have no business judging them after the flesh. God is not judging them after the flesh. Flesh has been taken away from His presence.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2Cor5:17

We don’t know anybody after the flesh because everybody is in Christ and is a new creature. Old things have passed away and everything has become new. And everything is of God. There is too much in this scripture for us to discuss now. We shall be looking at it more closely in the lessons to come.

But what I want us to see is that when a person is in Christ they are no longer the same. Something life changing happens to them. Old things pass away, the old life passes away and in its place a new life comes. Everything becomes new. Look at what The Living Bible translation says;

“When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same any more. A new life has begun!” 2Cor5:17 TLB

Something significant happens when we come to the Cross. God takes away the old. And gives us the new as the NIV bible says, '...the old has gone, the new is here'

“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” 2Cor5:18-19

Note1: These verses further affirm that on the Cross, God in Christ reconciled the whole world unto Himself. It is done. The world is reconciled unto God. Now we have to break the news to them. That God has made peace with them. That God is no longer angry. That through Jesus God has offered them new life. He has offered them righteousness and justification.

Note2: The word ‘reconciliation’ here is crucial. It means the re-establishing of cordial relations, to re-establish friendship between; to settle or resolve a dispute.

There can be no reconciliation if a dispute hasn’t been solved. To be reconciled fully there has got to be the effective settling of the matter which caused the enmity, hatred and hostility between the warring parties.

The matter or issue that caused enmity between God and man was sin. Man’s sin and transgression of God’s law. Man’s rebellion against God’s righteousness. God took it upon Himself to settle this issue once and for all. Even though He was the aggrieved party. Even though it was man that had caused all this bad blood.

Note3: God sacrificed His only Son Jesus Christ. He offered to punish him for man’s sins. To pour out all His anger and judgment which man deserved upon Jesus His Son.

Once He did this, He declared us righteous before Him. He justified us by the sacrifice of His Son. The enmity was abolished, the dispute was settled, and the conflict was resolved. Now we are friends once again. God is our friend. He is no longer our enemy. We are no longer His enemy.

Note4: And now after making us friends He has given us the work of making friends of enemies. To proclaim this to the whole world. That God has made them friends. That He is no longer angry. That He has justified them. This is the gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ.

Note5: We have now received the ministry of reconciliation. We are in the ministry of reconciling people to God. This ministry is based on the fact that God through Jesus has made peace with all men. He has imputed all their sins upon Jesus and is no longer imputing them to people. Jesus has taken them away as far as the east is from the west. This is the word of reconciliation. 

GOD DIDN’T SEND HIS SON TO COLLECT OUR DEBT, HE SENT HIM TO PAY OUR DEBT. Now He says to us, PAID IN FULL, LET'S BE FRIENDS

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 2Cor5:20

An ambassador is a messenger or a representative. An ambassador represents somebody or a nation and acts on behalf of that person or nation. He does not act on his own authority nor deliver his own message. As ambassadors of God, He is speaking His good news today through us to all men everywhere.

Wherever we go as preachers of the good news, we are representing God. And this is the message we are giving them.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2Cor5:21

At the Cross Jesus became our sin and we became His righteousness. He took it all in His own self.

Note1: Many of us have accepted the first part of this verse, but rejected the second part. We believe Jesus bore our sin for us, but we don’t believe that He actually made us righteous. This is hypocrisy and unbelief. The same God wrote both parts. Why do we choose which one we want to believe and reject the one we find hard to believe? We reject the Word of God just because it doesn’t line up with our theology and doctrines.

If one part is true, then the other part is also true. It's like having a coin. A coin has two sides. You can't have a coin with only "heads," or one with only "tails." That wouldn’t be a valid coin. All coins have both sides.  In the same way, any person who accepts that Jesus paid for their sins must also accept that He made them righteous. That He made them the righteousness of God. Its the same scripture!!

Note2: God made Jesus (who knew no sin) to become my sin. Now He has made me righteous (who knew no righteousness) with Jesus’ own righteousness.

The sin that made Jesus to become sin was my sin, the righteousness that makes me to become righteous is His righteousness.

It was my sin that made Jesus a sinner. It is His righteousness that makes me a righteous saint. 

He became who I was, a filthy sinner; I have become who He was, a righteous saint.

Just as sure as Jesus bore my sin in His own self on the Cross, I bear His righteousness this very moment in myself. I am righteous. This is truth

The righteousness of God that I have been made in Christ has never known sin. Never. This is the gospel. This is what establishes us upon the foundation of Christ. This is faith righteousness.