ALL INCLUDED

Can this be attained by any human being on earth? Is it possible for you and me to ever reach this point that is a requirement of God? Of course we know the answer to that is absolutely not. That’s why we have seen that it is done through the faith OF Christ and not ours. If we are to be as righteous and holy as He is then it is a futile attempt on our part to ever try and reach this through our own faith. That is clearly living a self righteous life which can never achieve the requirements of God as set forth in the Bible.

Paul received a true conversion on the road to Damascus and we have also seen this conversion was not a turning away from his actions and deeds. He received revelation of Christ in Him and saw his own righteousness and his works through the law to achieve this were as dung. Once he realized his righteousness had to be out of the picture, the process of salvation of his soul began. It began to renew his mind and he saw things totally in a different light. True conversion is when we see it is not our faith but the faith of Christ that has made all this possible. The only true conversion in the Bible is a conversion from self righteousness.

This is what happens in our own lives as well. When we see our righteousness for what it is and realize it is His righteousness we have instead of ours, everything takes on a whole new light. It is no longer a continuous striving and wondering if we measure up or not, but an assurance deep down inside that knows it is not about what we do.

Jesus and John the Baptist came and preached repentance. Both were preaching it to the Jews that were under law. They were preaching to show them the concept they had of being able to be righteous through the law was not correct. Repentance occurs as we see Jesus for Who He is and for what He did. The word repentance does not mean turning away from your deeds and actions. It simply means changing your mind. Change your mind about where your righteousness comes from and you then have experienced a conversion and repentance has occurred. Change your mind about where your holiness and perfection comes from.

In verse 6 he quotes David as saying that blessed is the man unto whom the Lord calls righteous that hasn’t done anything right. And also blessed is the man, who when he sins, God doesn’t count it against him (v8). This is a revelation David had and Paul used it from the Old Testament scriptures to tell the people he was talking to, that this is exactly what happened at the cross. Why could he say that nothing would ever be held against them? He could say that because Paul had a revelation of righteousness apart from any of his works which were by the law.

Is this what we have heard for years and years in church? Is this what we hear when we turn on Christian TV and listen to what is being preached? If that is what you hear then you must be attending different churches than I did and watching different channels than I used to watch. Who are these people that David foretold they would be blessed? It is those that would be brought into Jesus at the cross. Who did He bring into Himself at the cross? Read John 12:32 and you will see that he drew all mankind into Himself and all judgment as well. The word all does not leave any out.

David saw that there would come a time that God would not hold anything against anyone regardless of their deeds. He also saw that another thing that would happen was that righteousness would be imputed to mankind without any of their works being involved. I never heard that preached in all the years I was in church. I heard I had to work to become righteous and keep on working to stay righteous. Is that anywhere in the OT scriptures or in the NT verses of the Bible? I cannot find that anywhere.

The entire gospel is based on the revelation that David had and on the revelation Paul had. The blessedness of man does not come by our works or by keeping the law or church rules and regulations. The blessedness of man comes from knowing the time David said would come has already come. It came at the cross when Jesus drew all men unto Himself. From that point on there were no longer any sins held against anyone in God’s sight and righteousness was passed on to all and both of these freely. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy.

This righteousness is not even found in our ability to believe. This was done before we ever had a chance to believe anything. He brought all under unbelief so he could have mercy on all. Your belief that this actually happened is the salvation of your souls and not your redemption. Everyone is redeemed and everyone is being saved like I have mentioned before. You cannot believe or work for your redemption. The only thing believing will do is bring salvation to your souls. (mind, will, emotions and intellect) When you see and believe you are already redeemed, the process of salvation will begin.

He was saying to them that he now knew this fact that a man is not justified by the works of the law. They were preaching you had to keep the law in order to be redeemed. He tells them plainly that when he believed was when he saw he was already redeemed, and not by his faith but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

I remember the joy I felt when I came to knowledge of the Lord, almost 30 years ago and going down an aisle in a tent meeting while they were singing Just As I Am. I had just heard a sermon that said He wanted me just as I was and it had everything to do with Him and nothing to do with me. The spotlight was on Jesus that night and I walked away from there feeling a huge burden had been lifted off me and I knew something had happened in me. I knew I would never be the same but at the same time I had no idea what had happened except I was told my sins had been forgiven and Jesus had done the work.

Then I began attending several different churches and also received many visits from local Pastors as they had heard almost 30 of us in the area had “been saved”. When I look back now and remember what I heard in those first few years, I now realize the spotlight that had been on Jesus was now turned on me.

I was told everywhere I went that I had to be faithful in church attendance, tithing and all the rest of the law they placed right back on me. When I would run into problems they were very quick to tell me why I wasn’t being blessed, why I had struggles, and the list could go on and on. This freedom I had been told was mine freely was now going to begin to cost me something. The spotlight had changed.

As I look at so many of the verses I had heard quoted from the Bible over the years, I now so clearly see that what they told me is actually the opposite of what Paul said to the people he approached. The people Paul confronted had believed that Jesus had died for their sins and they were forgiven and now they had turned the spotlight back unto the people and said, now here is what you have to do to stay redeemed. Is this not what is still being preached today?

When you read Galatians 2:16 it is not difficult to see what Paul was trying to say. He was saying to them that it had nothing to do with their faith but it had been done for them by the faith OF Jesus. Righteousness is revealed and not earned. If you are trying to earn your own righteousness then you are living in defeat and frustration. Most people don’t recognize they are in defeat because they have been told if they are faithful in church attendance and tithing especially, then they are fulfilling their duty to the Lord and they should be ok.

If any of us are to pattern our testimony on the way Paul patterned his we have to see how he presented his to the people he preached to. Paul did not go about saying he had been converted from running around with women, drinking, smoking, going to bars and dances etc. That is not what he was telling the people he spoke to and we see he spoke to a lot of people because he wrote a lot of the New Testament.

His conversion was from his own righteousness. He didn’t say he became righteous when he believed. You will not find Paul saying that anywhere in all his writings. He said he was able to understand the righteousness of God that came through the faith of Christ when he finally believed in Him. He never says anywhere that believing in Christ made him righteous. Paul was righteous long before he got to the road to Damascus. He was also holy before he got to the road to Damascus. So why was he living like he was living and doing the things he was doing prior to this experience on the road to Damascus?

His self righteousness which came by keeping the law was blinding him to it. Paul’s’ conversion was not because the Lord revealed how wicked he was and unholy he was. No, his conversion came when the Lord revealed Himself to him and he saw he had been living by his own righteousness and works under the law. Let’s say Paul was told by the Lord that he was already holy and righteous before God the Father. (I am only speculating as this is not stated in the word) I think the first thing Paul would have wanted to know is how he got that way without him knowing anything about it.

If we were to tell people out there, whether they be prostitutes or faithful church goers, that they are already holy and perfect in God’s sight, the prostitute would likely say “but you don’t know the things that I am doing and I am wicked” and the church goer would likely say “but you don’t know what I am doing to get holy”. Both of these people and everyone in between as well, have to be told they don’t need to qualify for this. They already have been qualified 2000 years ago by the faith of Jesus Christ.

Jesus took everyone into His body at the cross and when He died you died. And when He rose you rose as well. We were all in His body when He rose from the dead. We were all raised righteous when He rose from the dead. There is no prayer or work or lack of it that can make you unrighteous because it is not your righteousness or your faith that does it. It is His faith and His righteousness that was freely given to all apart from our works. People have to know that righteousness is already there and they don’t have to work at getting righteous.

The verse says it is the righteousness of God by faith that is here now and was brought to all mankind at the cross. Now we know it is His righteousness and if we look back at the words just before this statement it tells us by whose faith it came by. It is clear it was by the faith OF Christ. So the righteousness was by faith and it got here through the faith of Jesus Christ. Paul was giving up his own righteousness that was by the law and he says why he is doing that.

The beginning of verse 10 says he was giving up his self righteousness so that he may know Him. We have all been told that in order to know Him we had to pray more, give more, go to church more, and whatever other rule and law they could come up with, but Paul is clear and never mentions any of these things he was giving up or doing more of in order to know Him. No, all he says is he was giving up his own righteous acts, which was keeping the law and seeing and accepting the fact it was God’s righteousness that had come through His faith and had nothing to do with Paul.

I know I am spending a lot of time on this point but I think it is of extreme importance that we understand what Paul was saying regarding his own works and what they accomplished. One thing they did not do and that was making Him know Christ better. It actually had the opposite effect and it still has the same effect today. It cannot do anything else. That is how it is intended to work and it never fails to accomplish that very purpose.

When we can see it has nothing to do with our faith or works then we have come into something that can cause us to do nothing except rejoice in what He has done on our behalf and as us. Your “doing” will draw you away from knowledge of Him because you will have to concentrate more and more on what you are doing and not on what He has already done. It frustrates His grace.

If you have to concentrate on your works to attain right standing with God then you have a lot of work to do and not only that, you have embarked on an impossible task. Your concentration will have to be constantly on yourself and that will smell worse and worse of self righteousness as the time goes by. You will be trying to accomplish something Jesus has already accomplished. How can that be anything but frustrating?

I remember talking to the Lord a number of years ago now and asking Him to show me Truth regardless of what it looked like. I was no longer interested in knowing anything else. I was just plain sick and tired of what was getting to be boredom by the rules and regulations I heard preached and saw that Christ was not in it at all but it was all man’s doings. Little did I know it would take on this form at the time, but I am so thankful He has and still is answering that prayer because I now see the awesome Truth of the gospel of grace and peace?

He wanted to be found in Him. Now “in Him” there is none of “in me”. In me I could say I have stopped this and I am no longer doing that etc., but that does not and cannot exist in Him. Paul said he had to be completely devoid of his own righteousness to be found in Christ. He says he gave up his own righteousness to be found in Him.

Our own righteousness is not found in Him. I know we have all been told we must go to an altar and give up all our sin in order to become righteous but that is not what Paul is saying here at all. He is saying he gave up all his good works (self righteousness) to be found in Him. That is quite a different thing than what I know I have heard over the years. There is no place where Paul says he laid aside his sinful habits to become righteous. I am not saying there are not many things we may do that we should not be doing. I am sure if we examine ourselves we could find things.

But that is not the subject Paul is addressing here. He is addressing how he saw he could be found “in Christ” and that was only when he laid aside his own righteousness. If you are trusting in your own works and actions and deeds to be found in Him, then you are still in your own righteousness and that frustrates the grace of God.

Paul sees that what measured his sin, which was the law, had been taken away. So he wasn’t concerned any longer about the things he had been doing. He was concerned that what would keep Him from seeing what is in Christ, would be hindered greatly by him continuing in his own good works. We are to see that righteousness came totally through Him and His faith and not ours. Our confidence has to be placed in what He did and not in what we can or cannot do.

The law that Paul was keeping to become righteous had now been nailed to the cross and had been totally taken out of the way. He no longer needed to keep any of those laws because they no longer existed. He saw that righteousness was no longer by him striving to keep the law but it was now in Christ. He saw the fullness of the work of the cross and its impact on the entire human race.

The prophets foretold that every human being would have to die for their sins. When Jesus was lifted up on the cross where was the whole human race? The whole human race was in Him because he said “if I be lifted up I will draw all unto me”. Paul saw this when Christ was revealed in Him and that is why he no longer placed his confidence in anything he could do nor did he have confidence in his own works of self righteousness any longer.

The growth that we should have started experiencing because of having come into the knowledge of the Lord and what He did at the cross is stunted and stopped right in its tracks. After you are told your righteousness is attained and kept by the good deeds you perform, it only leaves room for you to work and none to grow in His grace. You cannot grow in Him by continuing to be in a works mode mentality. Your works cancels out His works in your life.

Remember also that according to what Jesus said about the law and its requirements, we fail on every point. Jesus not only said the law had to be perfectly kept under the old covenant but if you even thought of anything it was the same as actually committing the act. Do you realize what that makes us if we try to live by that? It makes us adulterers, murderers to say the least because I am sure some of us must get angry at times. Some of us must have thoughts towards another man or woman at some point when someone attractive walks by. According to Jesus the thought is as bad as the action itself.

So how do we get through this dilemma? Do I have to work at getting away from having these thoughts in my head that come from just out of nowhere? We all know we cannot control too much of what comes in our thoughts. Some will say “well it is only sin if you dwell on them” but that is not what Jesus said. He said if the thought comes to your mind that you are angry with your brother, you are then classed as a murderer. It has nothing to do with dwelling on the thought.

The key to all this is to come to a realization that Jesus took that law He was talking about and nailed it to the tree. Remember His words were spoken to the people before He went to the cross and He was telling them what position they were in under the law. We are no longer under the law because Jesus exercised His faith and brought redemption from all the requirements of the law. He became the law and then He was nailed to the cross.

The law brought all of us guilty before God and no one could be righteous by that law so that through Jesus we could be made righteous. Not because I have kept any law but because of His sacrifice on the cross. The modern day church has taken the law and mixed grace with it and people listening to that type of teaching soon know they have to live as fakes if they are going to look good in man’s eyes. Deep down we all know, regardless of how religious we become, that what the law requires of us is just impossible to achieve.

We were then of course told that from that point on we were to make sure we did everything right in order to keep what we had received. I think at that point is when we started in our journey of being fakes. We were told all the do’s and don’ts there were in this Christian walk and we tried our very best to put up a front so that people would look at us and see how holy we were in our self righteousness. Little did anyone know about the thoughts that were still going on in our minds.

The outward appearance looked fine, especially on Sunday morning with our suits and ties on and looking prim and proper. We loved everyone so much, especially those that gave us praise for all the good works we were now doing and for all those things we used to do but no longer did. However, those groups on the other side of the church that rarely spoke to us or acknowledged our numerous good deeds were only loved in word. Deep down we couldn’t stand to look at them because lets face it, they were nothing but gossips and I even heard from several very reliable sources that some of them even drank the odd beer and watched a few x-rated movies. I think you follow the drift of what I am saying here.

On the surface we were what everyone expected us to be but deep down and hidden from sight, we were thinking and doing worse things than any of those in those groups on “the other side”. We were getting deeper and deeper into becoming professional fakes at this walk we had begun on. Outwardly we were trying to show others just how holy we had become because of our works and we so wanted for people to see all the good deeds we were doing. Deep down we knew we could never live up to what we heard preached Sunday after Sunday but we still put up a brave face so people would not think we were failing in any area but just getting holier and holier.

This scenario I have presented here is where most people are even today. That is a reliance on our own self righteousness to not only be acceptable to others but to God as well. Paul made it clear as we have seen that all his self righteous deeds were dung. When he saw that his redemption had nothing to do with his work he saw all his works as dung. He saw them as totally worthless and could do nothing but hinder him and others as well from coming to an understanding of the cross of Christ and what He did there by His faith.