righteousness

Divine righteousness is a lamb anticipating dying for sinners

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YESHUA HAMMASHIACH – whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; (Romans 3:25)

JESUS THE CHRIST – for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:26) 3:25)

What righteousness looks like: rejoicing, enduring, sitting

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

The most famous rabbit has a hole

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When we speak of the sinless, flawless, ineffable, holy and awesome God we realize that he has attributes that are uniquely his. 

Blameless and beyond indictment

Since the elect of God are declared to be beyond being indicted, it must bring to mind the question “Who dares to bring a charge against God?” The picture of David eating the Bread of the Presence is not so eye-popping. The idea that God can sin is ridiculous.

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; (Romans 8:33, NASB) who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. (Romans 8:34, NASB)

What is going to do? Can he have another god, can he bear false witness, can he violate the sabbath, can he take somebody’s wife, can he steal a loaf of bread, or covet a donkey?  There are people who affirm that God’s standard for human beings is the law, applicable to him as to them.  You see the folly that swirls around the spiritual galaxy!

God’s people: lawless and rebellious

… realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers (1 Timothy 1:9, NASB). and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, (1 Timothy 1:10, NASB)

Law is not for God or holy people. Go down that rabbit hole, say that God and his people are to be defined by law, and you have sealed your destiny as a mere proverb and abomination.

Morality without the cross

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Knowing what we have discovered about secular religious power in religious hands we ought to be far more cautious about reinventing the wheel.  The trial of Jesus by a religious court provides convincing evidence that injustice can acquire the label and reputation of justice.  We can add nothing to the doctrines of Moses or Jesus and mixing the two is bound to result in wasting the two.

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. Deut. 4:2,

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, (Rev. 22:18)  and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (Rev. 22:19)

Rev. 22:18-19

Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Matthew 9:17

The persecution of the church

In John 5:16 we see the Jews persecuting Jesus, because He was doing good things on the Sabbath.  In Acts we see the persecution of Jesus’s disciples continues the church for calling on and preaching Jesus’s name.   Perhaps it is James and the Pharisees who are the persecutors of the church.  Judaism has never sustained a sense of morality.  It only knew how to engage in power plays: prosecuting violators of the law, keeping aliens as second class citizens, and discriminating against women.  Perfection and maturity are not the outcomes of law; law lets people know what sin they have committed, it condemns everyone without exception and predicts it’s own demise.

The way and the life

Since Christ personally takes the reins of God’s kingdom from the levitical system complete with a change of law, how can life of the redeemed (the converted) ever be shaped by dead works?   Death and condemnation are not affirmed by the ritual law…  Death sentences appear all over the law: for incest, sorcery, gluttony, rebellious children and many prohibitions (“you shall not…”) regarding festivals, and food and drink.   We could believe that the law has nothing to do with moral behaviour or lifesaving obligations, but how can the cross not be elevated above the hills because of the freedom from death it brings?  How can the cross not be the spice that flavors the life it brings if we believe that it does something the law could never do? Where is “what he’s done for others he’ll do for you” when you need one?

The evangelical world rejects the idea that the Law is perfect by rejecting the Sabbath and the rituals for sacrifice and festivals.   If the law needs an improvement for the protection of women’s inheritance rights it is neither whole nor perfect.  A Jew will rightly not accept the unraveling of the law into moral and ritual.  Christians know that defining sin is not what Christ came to do.  He came to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel. If you think that the gospel is inadequate as a moral standard you will remain excited about pig’s mud, dog’s vomit, and give the nod to oppression of the poor and needy.