Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness. This is spiritually healthy just as when the body hungers and thirsts for food and water this is physically healthy.
Romans 3:21
Romans 3:22
John 5:39
Jesus the Son is the righteousness of God. (Romans 3:21, John 5:39)
We become righteous with God’s righteousness. We don’t have our own righteousness (Romans 3:21).
Romans 3:10
No human descended from Adam is righteous before God.
But the one and only begotten Son of God who came from the Father and entered the world, died on the cross for our sins, was raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven is the righteous one and is the righteousness of God (John 1:18, John 16:28, John 1:14, 1 John 2:1, Romans 3:21).
John 2:1 The only begotten Son is righteous.
God’s righteousness comes to dwell within us when we believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God-our Lord and Savior and through whom we can be connected to the Father and the Holy Spirit and become parts of the body of Christ. There is only One Christ who comes to dwell within us when we believe.
We do not deserve grace or righteousness and we don’t earn it. It’s given to us as a gift from God. When we have faith in the Son God’s words dwell within our souls and His name Jesus dwells within our souls and this makes us righteous before God. We become righteous with God’s righteousness. We don’t have our own righteousness, God gives us His and Jesus had to pay a very high price to save us and give us God’s righteousness.
God will not destroy His righteousness, but will eventually destroy sinners who don’t have any righteousness. This is why we must be in Jesus through faith in Jesus in order to avoid destruction. It may not seem like it to us, but we actually deserve to be destroyed. Yet, God gave us a way out of destruction, a way to become His beloved children.
John 15:3
John 5:38
2 Corinthians 13:5
1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV or NJKV)
The Son is at the right hand of God exalted to the highest place and was given the name above every other name. That’s where He is now, but 2 Cor. 13:5 says Jesus Christ is in us because His name is in us and His words are in us and in that way He is in us and we are connected to Him. During Old Testament times God said that His name will be in His temple (1 Kings 18:19. In this New Testament period, we who have believed in the Son are God’s temple that His name and words dwell in by the Holy Spirit. God’s name is honored and Holy and this is why we must live for God and live a holy life and repent if we didn’t and do whatever it takes to live in a way that honors God. Holiness and victory honor God. God is merciful and loves us and can help us live this way, but He will also punish sin if we don’t start living right.
A side note here…Some might ask, ‘do Christians in the New Covenant need to obey God’s commands in the Old Testament?’ And they might ask, ‘Which commands in the Old Testament are we Christians supposed to obey and which ones are fulfilled in Christ and no longer need to be practiced in an Old Testament way?’ I think the simple answer to this question is, ‘do your best to obey all the commands God gave us in the New Testament and this includes the Old Testament verses that God said in the New Testament that we should obey.
We don’t earn our salvation, we aren’t saved by works or good deeds; righteousness comes to dwell within us by faith in Jesus Christ. But as children of God we should live according to God’s commands to be effective, to be more blessed, to receive a greater reward in heaven, to show our love for God and for people… ”
Those God worked though to write the New Testament books told us by the Holy Spirit how to live according to God’s will after having been saved by grace and having repented. They mentioned a lot of Old Testament verses and commands and they explained how we should understand them now and how they are relevant for our lives as Christians. So the simple answer is to use the New Testament as a guide for understanding the Old Testament and to everything commanded to us in the New Testament (which includes many verses from the Old Testament that are mentioned in the New Testament).
Someone that typically has more advanced knowledge of the whole Bible and is inspired by the Holy Spirit may be able to get treasures out of the Old Testament more easily by relating it to how we should live as Christians today with the help of the Holy Spirit. But others who try to do this get confused and try to keep following the Old Testament ordinances that are actually fulfilled in Christ.
Many were parables of the reality of Christ. Now that the reality is here, it’s no longer the time for parables (Matthew 13:52, 1 Timothy 1:7, 1 Timothy 6:4, Colossians 2:7, Acts 10:14-15). By all means, Christians should read the Old Testament, for these scriptures are helpful for various reasons, but they should be careful to avoid getting confused between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We read in the Old Covenant about how God helped His people and we think about how He can help us. We learn about the history of the world, the history of Israel, we learn about God, humans, and angels, and we learn other others. God related to the people during Old Testament times differently than He relates to us now, because this the time of the New Covenant. Animals were sacrificed in the Old Testament Temple, but when Jesus came to the temple he drove the people selling animals out and said, “destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). I believe this wasn’t just about them turning His Father’s house into a market, but also showing that the time for animal sacrifices and temple worship is ending because the real sacrifice is going to happen and the real temple has come (Psalm 40:6, John 1:29). When the reality shows up, the ordinances that were parables of the reality need no longer be practiced. The reality is better than the parables and the reality is not contrary to the parables.
People won’t understand things like this without the help of the Holy Spirit no matter how smart they are. You can study theology and commentaries if you want to, but only the theology and commentaries that teach in a way that truly lines up with scripture and was truly revealed by the Holy Spirit is helpful. This is also why whenever possible, try to find as many other verses as you can to try to relate the verse you are studying as more evidence of a certain ‘theological’ point of view. I don’t care about theological tradition unless the tradition is accurate in God’s sight. I don’t want to be either traditional or rebellious-I want to be accurate. I’m a human being and capable of making a mistake (unlike God), but I strive to get it right (Acts 17:11).
Okay. Back to the main point. About righteousness.
John 6:63 (ESV, NKJV) God made us as spiritual and physical beings that are capable of receiving God’s spiritual words and having them dwell within our souls for God’s glory and our salvation. This is possible because Jesus the Son took our sins away. Though God is so very holy, He is comfortable with this situation when we live according to His will and He wanted this situation. No matter what you have done, God still loves us and wants to help us live a holy life.
The Law that God gave people through Moses, and that was given before the Son came to the earth, this Law is also righteous, but it reveals God’s righteousness and our unrighteousness. It can’t impart righteousness to us the way the gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Testament period can. We can’t be forgiven or saved through this Law, but the Law is a shadow of (and a testimony to) the saving grace God would give to the world freely in the future through His Son Jesus Christ. The Law let us know that we are all condemned before God as sinners (the less moral people as well the more moral people who are still guilty of some things before the God that is so holy). God’s creation and humanity had been ruined through sin and corruption, but God had mercy on humanity and left us with a future hope.
Most of us didn’t see things this way, but this is what God could see very well and what He revealed to us. That after the Law was given which reveals clearly what sin is and reveals clearly God’s righteousness and our unrighteousness, a future hope is given to us in the Son. A hope for humans to be holy and righteous before God again and fully accepted by God who is so holy.
The Law of Moses (which consisted of the 10 commandments and other God given commands and instructions) could not impart eternal life (Romans 3:21), but it gave the descendants of Abraham (and some people of other nations who also came to believe in God) the privilege to be in this Old Covenant with God. It was part of God’s plan to give the Old Covenant first before giving people the New Covenant. This makes sense because for one thing the Old Covenant let people know clearly that they are sinners and need to be saved. The Old Covenant prepared the way for the New Covenant and doesn’t contradict it. The Old Covenant gave people a God-given system to practice until the time for the Messiah to come with the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The Old Covenant (system) allowed the people to be outwardly clean (not inwardly clean). The Law itself is righteous and good, but it could not impart righteousness, rather the Law revealed what sin is and it showed that people are all sinners. But it also allowed people to sin less during their lives by obeying the God-given commands and ordinances so that they could live better lives before God as the people of God. But since they were all descendants of Adam, were all born with a sinful nature, were stumbling in various ways, what Jesus pointed out more clearly later is that no human being is completely without sin (only Jesus the Son who is both God and man is without sin which part of the reason why He’s the perfect atoning sacrifice for sin).
I think they Law brought greater condemnation because those who knew the Law and sinned anyway were more guilty than those who didn’t know the Law and sinned. But everyone was guilty of sin either way and everyone needed forgiveness and needed righteousness.
Those who served God faithfully under the Law would later be “made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40) by their Messiah. I think when their faith would be made complete through Christ they will have God’s righteousness in heaven and be justified before God. Since God certainly keeps His promises, the fact that the Messiah would be sent and die for sins and raised from the dead and would be revealed to be Lord of all was 100% certain so the hope of the people of the Old Testament was not in vain (Acts 28:20, Acts 26:6-7). They will be saved as God’s servants and we will be saved as God’s children (Luke 7:28, Galatians 4:21-31). Those who believed in God through the Old Covenant (which had within it the hope of the future coming of Jesus Christ) will be saved as God’s servants. They are saved with a different status. They may have been greater than us in terms of their deeds or the hardships they endured for God, but our status as God’s children is greater (Luke 10:24). We received a greater gift that we didn’t deserve. All of us who believe in Jesus through the New Covenant get to enjoy our status as God’s children, enjoy better promises, have a closer relationship with God-in terms of having a relationship with God through the New Covenant which gives us grace.
We don’t deserve it. God gives us the gift of His Son crucified on the cross for us, His grace that we didn’t earn and don’t deserve. God is truly good. He can give as of a great of a gift as He wants to-to whomever He wants to. Though we are sinners Christ died for us all (Romans 5:8). God gave this gift to us all. It’s not God’s will for anyone to perish. God has not predestined anyone of us for hell (1 Timothy 2:4).
Romans 7:12 The Law is righteous, but can’t impart righteousness to us. It made the people of the Old Testament times outwardly clean and allowed them to participate in the future coming of their Messiah (Christ) by practicing and participating in a God given system that testified to the coming of their God. And God kept His promise and came.
Isaiah 35:4-6 “…your God will come…”
Galatians 3:24
Hebrews 10:1
Hebrews 11:39-40
2 Corinthians 3:9 The Law revealed God’s righteousness and our unrighteousness. but testified that the savior would come. Now that He has come, we can be righteous before God with God’s righteousness. We who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. It is through His blood and death on the cross that we are forgiven of all our sins, made holy, and are able to have God’s righteousness dwell within us forever. No amount of money could every buy this! Even a poor villager can rejoice about his or her eternal inheritance in heaven which will not fade away. The glory that awaits them in heaven is far greater than than any worldly splendor the wealthiest people enjoy here on earth.
Romans 4:24 We have this assurance of faith and forgiveness. And with that, we can go before God with confidence when asking for things in prayer.
Romans 8:1
Hebrews 4:16
Romans 8:2 The Law can’t condemn us anymore. Can’t put our souls to death because of sin.
In the Bible, “the second death” means people are bound for hell like a train whose passengers can have complete assurance of a horrible death soon enough. Those who know about it on the train will be scared and those who don’t know will be at ease. Once people go to hell they remain separate from God forever. Those who are currently separated from God and living without God’s righteousness are like branches that have been cut from a vine and are withered, without God’s spiritual life, and will be thrown into the fire. This is not a ‘scare tactic’ it’s a warning that Jesus Himself gave us. Jesus could see and can see clearly into the spiritual world and into our spiritual situation. He is the one that we must trust if we want to avoid this horrible fate and live forever.
Revelations 20:14
John 15:6
But take heart, we can freely receive God’s grace by accepting Jesus Christ. We accept Him by getting to know Him through His words and believing in Him and asking God to forgive all our sins (if you haven’t done this yet, you can do it right now).
By believing He already took our sins away when He died for them and showed how much He loves us by paying such a high price for us to be with Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit forever in heaven. We can just believe in Jesus and what He has done for us.
John 5:24
Romans 10:9
Ephesians 2:4-5
What a precious gift! The most precious gift humanity has ever received. Yet, many don’t even realize it’s there for us to receive so we should tell them, pray to learn how to tell them skillfully with God’s help, and keep learning more and more and being more and more like Jesus, and keep seeking to experience the power of the Holy Spirit more and more. In this way, we can be more effective in helping people get connected to God and helping them receive all the benefits of being connected to God. We get connected to God by faith in Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). This also pleases God a lot. So do it for God and for people.
We who believe have eternal life with God forever!
His righteousness is imparted to us when we have faith in Jesus Christ and we become completely righteous before God with God’s righteousness.
And when this happens we should naturally continue to believe and we absolutely become His temple(s), and His righteousness dwells within our souls forever because His name Jesus, His words, and the Holy Spirit dwell within us forever.
All thanks and glory to Jesus and not to us. Thank you Jesus.
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