Being dressed in the righteousness of God(EN)
Today we are sharing a translation and summary from the Power City International Church teaching series, "Soteria: Salvation”.
“15 and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
📖2 Timothy 3:15 KJV
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Salvation actually is an idea that deals with your present, your past, and your eternity. Therefore, if you do not understand salvation, you do not understand what your past, present, future is. Only the Bible gives you proof that you have salvation.
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We began this teaching series of "salvation" by looking at what happened in the Garden of Eden in the beginning, and how man rejected God's offer at that time.
Then man was separated from God. God said “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat from it, you will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). The word "die" or "death" refers to separation, "separation from God”.
God also said to the man who hid himself, "Where are you ?“(Genesis 3:9) It is not that God does not know where Adam went, but rather, "Why have you left me?”. And Adam answered, "I heard the sound of your steps in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself" (Genesis 3:10), meaning, "I have sinned" and "I feel guilty”.
Therefore, the separation brings guilt, and God says, "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" (Genesis 3:11). This is the condemnation of the guilt.
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So, there is a sequence of events:
1: separation from God, 2: guilt, and 3: condemnation. And when we come to Genesis 5 after the condemnation, 4: man’s condition was changed.
“3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:”
📖Genesis 5:3 KJV
Man becomes mortal, not immortal. This was not so in the beginning, but it is the result of the fall of man. In other words, man became helpless, man was unable to save himself, and then God offered salvation to man.
“1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
5 even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”
📖Ephesians 2:1, 5 KJV
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We were already dead in trespasses and sins, but God quickened us to life. The reason God made us alive is because of His one-sided grace, His great love and deep mercy. God decided to die for us, quickened us, made us alive, saved us, and to paid the ransom for all our sins. That is God's great love and mercy. Therefore, salvation is of God.
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Now we have seen in the Epistles (letters in the New Testament Bible) the idea of salvation in the Old Testament given by the Holy Spirit in various words.
We began with the word "reconciliation," which deals with the separation and distance from God and to carry people to God Himself, and then we saw the word "redemption" which relates to the payment of the price for that reconciliation. Then we saw the word "substitution," that Jesus died in our place, that is, Christ's death was a substitutionary sacrifice. We also saw the word "regeneration," in which we are saved by the washing of regeneration, and the word "imputation" in which we transfer the righteousness of Christ to us and our guilt to Christ, and by that we are justified, the “justification”.
“25 whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.”
📖Romans 3:25-27 KJV
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Our "deeds/works" are excluded from the law of justification. No human contribution is required. Man is made righteous not by the law of works, but by the law of faith, by putting one's faith in what Christ has done.
Not by the law of our works. Therefore, when you are made righteous, you are treated as if you had never sinned. God treats you as if you are in the place of Christ, the One who has never sinned. The redemption is only in His Son. When you receive what Christ has fulfilled, you are treated as if you are Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was treated as if he was in your place.
“5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
📖Isaiah 53:5 KJV
That is substitution. He took the place of the position you would have taken if just judgement were done. And you took His place. Jesus died and you were made alive. He was condemned and punished; you were made righteous. He was rejected and you were accepted.
Yes, You have been made righteous as a result of the work of Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice. Anyone of you who have believed and accepted the finished work of Christ are called "the righteousness of God”.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
📖2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV
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In the lyrics of a hymn says : "Dressed in His righteousness alone. I dare not trust in my ability, I trust in what He has done. I am not dressed in my qualifications, because I’m dressed in His righteousness alone, and I am faultless before His throne."
(Probably the English lyric of a derivative version of the hymn "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" = "Waga Mi No Nozomi Wa(Japanese hymn)”). God does not treat you as you, but as Jesus.
“24 but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
📖Romans 4:24-25 KJV
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"imputed" in verse 24 (in Japanese “Mitome rareru”=approved) is "Logizomai" in Greek, meaning "to accredit" or "to take into account". Jesus' resurrection is “legality” of our justification.
When he rose from the dead, we rose. He rose sinless, we are sinless. Why? Because we were clothed with his righteousness. Jesus' righteousness is now our righteousness. Salvation is 100% dependent on Jesus' righteousness.
“14 and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”
📖1 Corinthians 15:14 KJV
What gives you the basis of your faith is that Christ has risen and it became your justification. To be a Christian is not to believe in some pretense or fiction, but to walk on the reality. It is the reality of "Christ's death, burial, and resurrection."
I have been made righteous by faith in... the faith in "the work of Christ on the cross, which was fulfilled and finished." That is the foundation and framework of salvation.
And by being justified, by being made "righteous", we have a relationship and fellowship with God that we had been disconnected from, and now we have a genuine life. Everything are the gifts from God.
“20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
📖1 Corinthians 15:20-22 KJV
(From the tract distributed on Apr 22nd, 2023)
