"The righteousness of God revealed" Romans 1 v 17.
The bible distinguishes between three kinds of " righteousness"
a) INHERENT RIGHTEOUSNESS - which is the standard of God's holy character, which separates Him from all others, not merely the absence of all that is evil, but the presence of all that is good. Scriptures like Psalm 11 v 7; Psalm 119 v 137; Psalm 129 v 4; Psalm 145 v 17; Jeremiah 12 v 1; Lamentations 1 v 18; Psalm 71 v 19; 2 Thessalonians 1 v 6; Revelation 16 v 7, all reveal the perfection of God in His character: but this moral perfection can only condemn us.
b) IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS - which is God's gift to us, which He graciously credits to us, so that we can have fellowship with Him. Scriptures like Genesis 15 v 6; Psalm 22 v 31; Psalm 24 v 5; Isaiah 32 v 17 clearly say this. There is a righteousness which God imputes to certain human beings, and it has nothing to do with creed, colour, or culture. It has everything to do with our attitude to Christ. This is the theme of Romans, this word, meaning God's gift of righteousness, occurring more than 40 times in the letter. This is very important, for it divides Christianity from all other religions and from human-works based churches in Christendom. The "righteousness" Romans is speaking about is given to us as a gift, independently of our works: it will lead to good works but it is not received as such.
The word is " Dikaioo" or a variation of it: it means straight or right with God. Wm. Barclay the prominent Scottish theologian pointed out the following;
"All words ending in "OO" in the Greek, intend to convey the idea of accounting, crediting, treating, reckoning. When God justifies a sinner, declares him to be right in His sight, He does not mean to say that He has found a reason to prove the sinner right-far from it- nor does He mean, that by declaring him righteous He makes him a good person, or changes him morally in any way; it means none of that.
It means that God now looks at the person in different way; He treats him differently, He puts to his account, not the pile of sins accrued from birth but the perfections of Jesus Christ in His perfect life and atoning death."
God now sees us "IN CHRIST" - trace this expression through the New Testament, because it occurs more than 70 times, and describes those who are in biblical terms, saved. The bible is an integral whole, and we need to take account of everything it says. Perhaps the best illustration of this is seen in Luke 23 v 39 - 43 where we have a criminal being executed for his sins having lived a life of evil , was never baptised, was never a church member, had nothing to recommend him, yet Jesus said to him "today you will be with Me in paradise." From a felon's cross to paradise, the holy presence of God in one day. How did he do it? He simply believed God.
c) IMPARTED RIGHTEOUSNESS - This is righteousness which proceeds out of a person's instantaneous salvation, and progressively becomes part of us as we yield ourselves to God. This aspect is discussed more fully in Romans 6 - 8. Other scriptures like - Deuteronomy 6 v 25; 2nd Samuel 22 v 25; Psalm 7 v 8 ; Proverbs 11 v 6; Matthew 5 v 6; Ephesians 4 v 24; Philippians 1 v 11; Revelation 19 v 8. All, clearly, demand that those saved should live different lives.
God's ultimate aim in saving any of us, is to bring us back to His original declaration, before the Fall, that the reason He created us was to bear His image. In Romans 8 v 29 Paul states that this purpose will be fulfilled and all believers will "be conformed to the image of His Son."
It is extremely important to understand the difference between imputed and imparted righteousness. God cannot impart righteousness to us until He has imputed it, i.e. treated us as right with Himself.
HOW IS THIS RECEIVED?
"From faith to faith" The force of this in the Greek is "out of " ek " unto" eis. It originates with faith and it continues in faith. Faith is defined by Paul in Romans 10 v 17 as that which comes from hearing and believing the word of God.
Who are we going to believe? God or man? After all its God who is going to open the door of heaven not man. This is received by believing God, nothing more, nothing less, God says it, I believe it; it cannot be earned, it cannot be bought, it is not deserved, it is the gift of God and we need to grasp it with both hands.
"THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH"
God invites us all, not only to initial faith which saves us but to a life of faith. No wonder Paul is not ashamed of this gospel.
Tomorrow d.v. THE WRATH OF GOD REVEALED FROM HEAVEN.
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