One of my favorite subjects is Righteousness. It is not a word that is used by many people, most people would be able to give a definition or attempt a definition for Grace, but not many people would be able to define Righteousness.
Righteousness is the Gospel, not grace or love as many believe, but Righteousness. Rom 1:16 .. the gospel… is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes … for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Mat 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness…We are as believers on our way to Heaven not because of grace but because we are righteous and if you are not righteous then you are unrighteous. 2 Pet 2:9 the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith… we have access by faith ..into this grace in which we stand.
We first have to be Righteous before we have access to the grace which we STAND.
Now, where does Grace fit in? It is by grace we are saved Eff 2:5 we were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which we used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.. [but now HE]… made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
So the purpose of grace is for us to be transformed from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. Now the grace is also there to keep in in the Kingdom of Light. If we falter we know there is grace for us. 1 John 2
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
This is what it means to live by faith. The grace is not a license to sin but on the contrary to free us from the bondage of sin. In order to live a life like “the Righteousness of God” which we are.
I want to jump to the rebellion in the desert described in Num13/14,
Heb 3:13 “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
This Scripture refers to an event that we can read in Num 13/14. After the people rebelled against Moses God stated: Num 14:11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they.”
Moses then pleaded with the Lord for grace.
In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”
The Lord replied, “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless ….not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors.
So who entered into the promised land, was it not them that believed and whose bodies are still in the desert? Is it not those who have received grace?
I don’t want to take anything away from the grace of God, it is astonishing how full of grace God is, but as believers, we believe in the Righteousness of God. God grace has appeared to all men to bring them into his wonderful Light.
Rom 3
His righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his Grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus…. so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Therefore we have moved from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light,
God’s Grace allows us to run towards God when we sin.
If you sin, or before you sin evil thoughts enter in your mind, you should move closer to God because He has the solution for sin. This is the simplest form of repentance since its stop what you are doing and turn to God. If you run from God then you don’t understand the Grace of God.
Gods holiness can cause us to run from Him when we sin or even having the wrong thoughts. If you continue in your sin then you don’t understand the Holiness of God.
Gods blood is the solution to sin. This is one of the achievements of the cross. The cross will cause sin to be removed from your members. if you don’t change in your walk with God then you don’t understand the redemption and salvation of God.