SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS

"And be completely united with him, no longer having a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the law. But a righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith" ( Phil. 3: 9).

In our last topic it appeared like I talked more on the sword( God's word) and Shield (faith) leaving out helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth and your boots/ shoes of readiness to preach the gospel. The reason is that these other ones can only be explained and understood when you come to understand and believe in the righteousness of God rather than your own righteousness. Hence, today's topic "Self righteousness and God's righteousness". 

  Between self righteousness and God's righteousness which must we believe to become righteous, justified or have a right standing with God? We must know and accept only The righteousness of God. Self righteousness simply put is the righteousness we achieve on our own by good works in obedience to the law(commandments). God's righteousness on the other hand is the righteousness established by God himself out of his own efforts and good works. It is the righteousness established by God through his son Jesus Christ which he gives to a person who has faith in Jesus. This is the type each and every one of us need to receive from God to be born again, put right with him or become righteous before him.

  Self righteousness is obtained when you try to live according to the ten commandments. When you do this it is accounted to you as Works not Faith. It is written that by obeying the law shall no man be justified before God (Rom.3:20). Why is it so? This is because for anyone to become righteous through the law, he must have kept all the commandments till his last breath without even for a single second broken one. If by virtue of anything you break any, there is no forgiveness. That is to say, the commandments does not condone or accommodate forgiveness when it is broken. When you break one, the rest nine are broken and it is recorded for you waiting the judgment day. No prayer of repentance or confession can bring FORGIVENESS under the law but only the wrath of God. However, you can escape from the trap of the commandments. You can escape from its impossibility and harsh demands. How? By choosing to accept the righteousness of God over that of your own (self righteousness).

    What then is this God's own Righteousness? The righteousness of God is that God himself gave us Jesus to take away our sins from us by carrying them on himself through his baptism, be judged for those sins through his death and shedding of blood on the cross using his blood to remit those sins of ours to present us as new beings who are sinless before him through his resurrection and to give us eternal life. This is the righteousness of God He demonstrated using His son. So instead of your own self righteousness, trying to obtain salvation by keeping the commandments which can only make you boastful before God, God established His own Righteousness through Jesus so we can believe in Jesus and praise Him all the rest of our lives having nothing to boast about before him.

    When you believe in God's righteousness, it is accounted to you as faith not works. His righteousness demands we believe in all that Jesus did to save us ; baptism, death and resurrection. These three processes Jesus went through must be believed by all who wants to be saved you can't choose to believe in one or two leaving the other. Each of them are as important as the others. That is the faith that saves a soul. God's righteousness condones and accommodates forgiveness not wrath of God. It is only God's Mercy, Love and Grace that are found in his righteousness. There's nothing like unpardonable or recording of sin awaiting judgment rather a sinless and clean slate awaiting no judgment is provided for all who believe in his righteousness. 

   Now, you can choose for yourself which of the road you wish to follow; either of works by deeds of the law whose end is destruction and wrath of God or of Faith in His righteousness whose end is only Mercy and Forgiveness of sin. However I admonish you to forsake your piety of works and choose to believe that Jesus has taken away all your sins, judged them and forgiven you indeed. This kind of faith does for you exactly as you believe; FORGIVEN! That is why Jesus usually said to those who came to him by faith "go your faith has made you well". In that same way, if you believe you have been forgiven of all your sins not because of anything you do or fail to do but because Jesus did that for you, you receive the same words from him "go your faith has made you well" that is you have been forgiven just as you believed.

    Beloved, if you now believe His righteousness, then it's time to put on your belt of truth, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness and shoes of readiness to share this good news about Jesus with others. Belt of truth in that you now know you have been set free from being a sinner, your helmet of salvation in that by reason you know you have been saved with the hope of resurrection, your breastplates of righteousness in that in your heart you are aware you have been made righteous in him, your shoes of readiness to spread the gospel in that you will start sharing this good news of salvation with others who are yet to discover it. But woe to you man who despite having heard of this good news still rejects the truth about our Lord, who holds God's righteousness in unbelief but stick to your dogma of self righteousness. You have no right and cannot put on our armour of redemption for how can you when you reject the belt of truth which says your sins are forgiven, the helmet of being saved, the breastplate of being righteous and your shoes of telling it to others when you don't believe. There is no escape but eternal judgment and condemnation waiting for you. He did not die for nothing but for something and that which he died for constitutes the armour we who believe are wearing. Choose His righteousness that you may live. SEE YOU SOON! LOVE YOU DEEPLY.