Righteousness Brings Grace
They which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one
Jesus Christ… The Apostle Paul
When we are born again, the light of God comes
into our hearts to create righteousness. This
righteousness gives us the grace [ability] to
bring forth the fruit of righteous-ness from the
heart. The Apostle Paul instructs us to, "…be
renewed in the spirit [attitude] of your mind…
put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteous-ness and true holiness"
(Ephesians 4:23,24, emphasis added).
WHAT IS GRACE?
Grace is God's willingness to use His power and
ability on our behalf, making us able to do what
we cannot do in our own ability. We walk in the
Spirit when we rely on God's grace, but when we
trust in our own ability, we are walking in the
flesh. We did nothing to inherit the sin nature,
and neither can we do anything to inherit the
divine nature, but trust in Christ.
Grace is not solely, "God's unmerited favor,
that which we do not deserve." This is a
definition more in line with the Old Testament,
before the Spirit of grace came through Jesus
Christ and the finished work of the cross. This
definition is true but in the New Testament, grace
became the ability to reign righteously in life.
"…That as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord"
(Romans 5:21).
Paul's revelation of grace is stated, when he
says, "For if by one man's [Adam's] offense
death reigned by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ"
(Romans 5:17, emphasis added). He knew more than
anyone that we must have God's grace at work in
us to live in the Spirit!
In Paul's letters to the early church, he says
that grace is based on faith and makes sinful
men righteous. Grace begins and ends with Jesus
Christ and is the way of the Spirit. It is a blessing
and God's desired end for His people. Grace results
in intimacy with Christ and makes one a son of
God and an heir with Christ. It brings liberty
and is dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit.
Grace is motivated by love and centers on the
cross of Christ.
The definition that comes from the acrostic,
"GRACE: God's Riches At Christ's Expense,"
tells us more of what grace means today. At the
cross, we received all of God's riches through
the work of Jesus to rule, not only over the devil,
but over our thoughts, emotions and actions. The
Lord empowers us with an abundance of grace by
giving us His righteousness. The difference in
us and the children of Israel is that we have
the Holy Spirit living in us, whereas they only
had Him upon them, as in an anointing of oil (John
14:17).
Jesus Christ not only provides us with the ability
to reign in abundance, but He is our example of
a man walking in grace. Jesus depended upon the
ability of His Father through the power of the
Holy Spirit to carry out His ministry. He was
"…full of grace and truth"
(John 1:14). He was "…filled with
wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him"
(Luke 2:40b). We rely on this same grace to reign
in life. "And of his fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace" (John
1:16). Just as Jesus con-quered sin by grace,
we do the same!
THE SPIRIT OF GRACE
As a new man in Christ, we are a three-part being:
spir-it, soul and body. Our spirit is recreated
righteous and true, when we are born again of
an incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1:23). Our soul
is made up of the mind, the will and the emotions
which are in need of renewal. What we choose to
think affects our emotions. The will determines
our actions. Our body reaps the benefit of the
light and life of God, enjoying strength, health
and glory. These three, spirit, soul and body,
make us into the temple of God. His light becomes
our righteousness (See Diagram #5).
This renewing of the mind is not anything you
do in the flesh. It is also a work of grace. We
are renewed in our mind as we grow in the spiritual
understanding of our new identity in Christ. The
attitude of our mind is renewed as we begin to
trust God and to see things as He sees things.
He sees us through the finished work of the cross,
and we are to see ourselves the same way. We find
God's view of us in the Holy Scriptures.
The Spirit of grace, that Jesus promised to send
to help us, gives us the ability to reign over
sin. Paul says, "…But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20).
Sin loses its power after we are saved, because
we have God's ability [grace] available to overcome.
Sin is only conquered by grace. We have God's
ability to conquer sin, but sin is so fulfilling
to some, that they refuse to walk by grace. James
tells us, "…But he [God] giveth more
grace [ability], Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace [ability] unto the
humble" James 4:6, emphasis added).
Since the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2,
this grace has empowered us to reign over the
world, the flesh and the devil. The world will
try to weigh us down with heavy burdens, confusion
and deception, but "…the yoke shall
be destroyed because of the anointing"
(Isaiah 10:27). As we stay built up in the most
holy faith, praying and keeping in the love of
God, He reigns in us (Jude 20,21). When the enemy
comes, we are empowered to cast down his imaginations
(2 Corinthians 10:5), and "…abstain
from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul"
(1 Peter 2:11b). The battle is with our flesh,
more than with the devil, who is a defeated foe.
We have the truth to defeat his every turn. God's
ability is stronger than Satan's.
We have the ability to get through pain without
yielding to temptation. Instead of medicating
our emotional pain with alcohol, sex, drugs and
the like, we can humble ourselves before God and
find the ability to resist. Yielding to sin only
causes more pain in our lives and increases temptation.
Remember, sin always brings death, and it is not
God causing it. He has given us the ability to
live free.
GROWING IN GRACE
The Apostle Peter tells us that we are "…partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust" (2
Peter 1:4). This is the nature of God consisting
of light, life and love, which not only recreated
us in righteousness, but in the image of God when
we were born again, bringing forth a lifestyle
of righteousness. Peter tells us to "…grow
in grace [ability], and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter
3:18, emphasis added).
Peter gives us the steps of growth in Christian
character, beginning with faith. He says to be
diligent in adding to our faith: virtue or excellence,
then knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly
kindness and charity. This is God's kind of love:
unconditional. This is the character of God, which
comes forth as a result of our righteousness in
Christ. We have the ability to walk in charity
and unity because we share of the same Sprit.
God promises that if these abilities "…be
in you and abound… ye shall neither be barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge our Lord Jesus
Christ" (2 Peter 1:5-8).
Our spiritual growth is hindered by the world,
the flesh and the devil. Our flesh is our own
worst enemy. If we trust in ourselves for righteousness,
instead of God's ability; then the works of the
flesh; adultery, fornication, lust, idolatry,
strife and many more, which are contrary to the
Spirit, are at work in us. These are free to work
because we trust in the flesh, not allowing the
Spirit of grace to reign in our lives.
Jesus says, "Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for
I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
We are to cease from our works and rest.
Jesus is our example of total dependency on His
Father. He spoke and did the will of His Father,
and in His loving relationship, He found rest
(John 5:17,30; 8:28,29,38). Jesus is God, but
He emptied Himself in humility (Philippians 2:5-8).
He is the Son of God, but in His earthly ministry
He became a man of flesh and blood, Who acted
due to being filled with God's grace and truth,
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Growing in Christ consists of humbling ourselves
to believe what His Word says and doing it. This
is obedience, being a hearer and a doer of God's
Word. The children of Israel "…could
not enter in [into rest] because of unbelief"
(Hebrews 3:19, emphasis added). Like us, the children
of Israel were reaping what they had sown because
of unbelief. As we labor in the presence of God
through a life of meditative study, prayer, fellowship
and worship, we will find our lives continually
filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), being
transformed and filled with God's light.
Righteousness is the ability to stand in the
presence of God without the sense of sin, guilt,
fear or inferiority. Therefore, with these inabilities
removed, we are free to walk in greater ability
as the Spirit of grace flows forth from our heart.
Remember, the spirit part of our heart is perfect
because of righteousness, but the soul [the mind,
the will and the emotions] is what's growing in
the spiri-tual knowledge and revelation of the
finished work of the cross.
WHO IS GOD?
God is Spirit and Truth. God has no body, no
physical or measurable form. Thus, God is invisible.
He became visible in human form in the person
of Jesus Christ, but His essence is invisible.
As Paul wrote to Timothy: "Now unto the
King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen"
(1 Timothy 1:17).
As such, we are to worship Him in spirit and
truth. Jesus said to the woman at the well, "…God
is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).
We are the body of Christ. We are His hands and
feet. Jesus Christ represented God on earth, and
Jesus promised, "He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do: because
I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). This
is hard to imagine, but the Spirit of grace gives
us the power to do greater works as the complete
body of Christ.
In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God occasionally
came upon people to give them power to do God's
will or to enable them to serve God in a special
way. In the New Testament, our God of Spirit and
Truth lives inside of us, making us righteous,
pure and holy. He guides and directs us in His
greater works here on earth. What a privilege
we have to serve the living God.
God's Spirit gave the law (Romans 7:14) and supplied
Israel with water and food (1 Corinthians 10:3,4).
Our every blessing is from the Spirit (Ephesians
1:3), as is our understanding of truth (1 Corinthians
2:13-15; Colossians 1:9). Our songs are to be
sung in the Spirit (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians
3:16), and our ability to understand Scripture
correctly is given by the Spirit (John 16:13).
We are to be dominated by the Spirit as Jesus
was, "For in him we live, and move, and
have our being… for we are also his offspring"
(Acts 17:28).
Truly, as the psalmist sang, "Mercy and
truth are met together; righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out
of the earth; and righteousness shall look down
from heaven….Righteous-ness shall go before
him; and shall set us in the way of his steps"
(Psalm 85:10,11,13).
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