As we continue to look at the difference between Grace and Law, let me begin with the last message’s conclusion.
“As human beings, we focus on the act of sin, which is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, but the breaking of the individual commandments reveals a deeper issue… disbelieving God and what He has said! Disbelieving the Lord is unrighteousness or sin.
Words like righteousness, unrighteousness or sin, and justification are words that many use in Christendom without fully understanding what they mean. So, let’s take a moment to look at these terms from the Apostle Paul’s perspective. Jesus uttered these terms, and those in Jesus’ day understood them clearly. Paul explains these terms in the book of Romans to help us understand what they mean. Romans is a doctrinal book and essential for us to understand. Show More
What is Righteousness?
Righteousness is innocence before God. the Lord uses the word holy to describe Himself, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15. Because the Lord is holy we are made holy. The word holy usually means to “be set aside for God’s use or purpose.”
Believing what the Lord has said and doing it is defined as “righteousness” or doing right in God’s eyes. Our walking in righteousness enables the Lord to bless us. Righteousness is for our good! Unrighteousness, on the other hand, is when a person rejects or disbelieves what God has said, and it should be obvious, the Lord can’t bless what He doesn’t approve.
The Bible shows two ways that a person can be righteous in God’s eyes:
- For a Christian, it by Grace– Righteousness is not a result of our own efforts but the fact that the righteousness of Jesus has been imparted to us. I like to look at righteousness imputed to us like this when the Father looks upon me, He sees the blood of Jesus on my life, and He says “he is righteous.
- Living under Grace means that you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You believe that the Helper, the Holy Spirit, lives in you to “help” you become the man or woman that He has created you to be.” The real work is to avoid sin and learn how to hear the “voice” of the Spirit, through the Word of God and through the Spirit of God. Once having heard from the Lord the next thing is to obey! Remember, Trust and Obey! You are a New Creation in Christ. You are not bound or tied to the past all things are new. 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Your sin nature is dead and has been replaced by the spirit of God
- For the Old Testament Jew, it was by the works of the Law– Righteousness under the Law meant that your righteousness before God was based upon your own effort to observe all of the commandments, remember there were 613 commands in the Mosaic Law, (the Ten Commandments + 603 Mitzvot).
- If the Bible tells us anything, it is that man cannot keep the Law of Moses perfectly, and perfection is what is needed. The Lord instituted a sacrificial system to cover the sin with blood, but the Law could not change the sin nature.
The first unrighteous act in the Bible
Before the “Fall” of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they lived in a state of innocence. They had no idea of sin. They were righteous before the Lord. It never occurred to them to disobey God in any way. They were innocent, righteous, and holy.
The Lord provided an opportunity for exercising their free-will by establishing the “Tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and the command that Adam and Eve not eat of it. This choice was an expression of the free-will that the Lord gave human beings to distinguish them from all the other created beings on earth. Until the Fall, Adam and Eve never exercised this free-will to disobey God because they trusted in Him, believed in Him completely.
Then Satan came onto the scene disguised as a serpent. The serpent deceived Eve into thinking that the Lord was with-holding something from her. Something that tasted good, looked good, and would provide her with wisdom to be like God. The moment they ate of the forbidden fruit, they experienced sin or unrighteousness, and all of humankind inherited the sin-nature.
Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Romans 5:18
Living in a State of Conscience; awareness of good and evil.
After the “Fall” or disobeying God’s command to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve became conscious of good and evil. As descendants of Adam and Eve, all of humankind is born with a conscience, all can discern good and evil. Now couple an awareness of good and evil with free-will, you have a sin-nature. All of humankind is born with a sin nature. “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, Romans 3:23. The evidence of a sin nature is that everyone has to die. Death is the seal of sin. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because God has given us free-will, we can choose to do good or evil. No one can make us do evil, not even the Devil. The only thing the Devil can do is to tempt us. To make that which is forbidden look so attractive that we convince ourselves that God did not really mean what He said. Isn’t that what happened to Adam and Eve? This state of being able to make a choice to do evil is the “sin nature.”
All of Romans chapter 4 is about Abraham and how he was found righteous before God even before the Law existed. Abraham is an example of justification by faith. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Romans 4:3 we’ll discuss this the next time.
What is Justification?
Justification means to be found not guilty. Don’t all of us need to be found not guilty. We all have a past, and we are dealing with the present, but keep in mind that although we are not perfect, we stand in a position of righteousness, and we are justified by our faith in Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The word Advocate in this verse refers to Jesus and an Advocate is one who pleads your case before the Father. Another word for Advocate is Counselor, as in a lawyer, your counselor is making intercession on your behalf. Hebrews 7:24 states, But He (Jesus), because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
The Apostle Paul makes a profound statement in Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
Romans 3: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The Sin Nature of Mankind, Romans (Exposit)
Romans 5:12-17 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— 13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift (grace) is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of graceand of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Conclusion
I am born with a sin nature. Even when I try to do the right things, I wind up doing the wrong. I disobey the Lord even when I don’t want to. I am unrighteous no matter how much I try. However, my faith in Jesus and His power and authority has, wiped away my sin and put to death my sin nature making me alive by the Holy Spirit. This is what being born-again really means. The old “man” is dead, and I am alive in Christ. The righteousness of Christ is imputed on me.
Jesus has justified me, in that the Father sees that I belong to Jesus; I’ve have been redeemed by Jesus and because of that, now the Father declares me innocent.
You’ve been forgiven, made righteous, and justified by your faith in Jesus, your savior and your deliverer. Now it is time to say, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
