Words of Grace: Righteous & Just
Words Of Grace • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Sermon Scripture
Sermon Scripture
1 For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. 12 We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Dikaios: To make or to declare righteous.
The same root word can be translated “righteous” or “just” or “righteousness” or “justification”.
It seems as though little emphasis is placed upon this aspect of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not uncommon to hear that although we are not righteous, God looks upon us as righteous. This suggest that God is willing just to declare us sinners righteous even though we are not.
However, God has made it clear that it is an abomination to Him to call evil good or good evil.
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous,
Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
That is, he that declares the wicked righteous is an abomination to the Lord.
Thus in order to call us righteous He must first of all make us righteous. This is another wonder of His grace!
19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
It is clear that we were not made sinners by our faith in Adam, or for that matter, not by anything we did, but simply because we were in Adam.
It is also clear that we were not just declared to be sinners but were, in fact, sinners.
In the same way we were not made the righteousness of God by anything we did or by personal faith in Him but solely because we were in Him and our heavenly Father made Him to be sin in our place.
____
Once we have been made righteous we can then be declared to be righteous because, in fact, we are righteous.
To suggest that He did not make us completely righteous is not only unbiblical but belittles the finished work of our Lord and defines the “righteousness of God” to be something less than righteous....(even hypocritical by definition)
This righteous “new creation” does, and only does, righteousness.
15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
To suggest that righteousness can do unrighteousness is to suggest either:
that God did not make us the righteousness of God by the death of Christ in our place, or...
that the righteousness of God can do unrighteousness which He says is impossible.
17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
43 For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.
This truth is pointed out again by the Holy Spirit in
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The “is born” is perfect in the Greek, meaning “completely born in past time with the result that he remains eternally born”
The “cannot sin” is “has no power to sin”.
It is clear that the one made righteous, the new man, no longer has the power to sin for if he did he, of course, would not be righteous.
It should be pointed out again that we are not made the righteousness of God in Him by personal faith in Him but because God mad Him sin in our place.
It is the new man that is righteous not the old man who still sins, and only sins.
---------
Stop for a moment and consider what these words tell us of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ for us.
The price for sin, our sin, and all our sin, has been completely paid, we have been reconciled to God.
He has been propitiated, and we have been made righteous.
All by the finished work of our Lord, absolutely by nothing we have done.
Not by belief, not by sorrow, not by repentance, not by baptism, not by....any work of self, but by Christ and Christ alone.