Church thoughts to chew on for February 7th, 2010: Jesus Died to Make us Righteous

Posted By Steph | February 7, 2010

thoughtstochewon Hey guys! It’s Steph writing our church thoughts for this week. Ryan has some two cents to add in reflection to the sermon this morning, which you can read over here in his post. This week was all about righteousness. Righteousness is another big church word that could use a good definition to truly understand what it means, so here you go: Righteousness- to be accepted because you live according to God’s standards; comes from a root word that means “straightness”.

Wow, how can you be ‘righteous’ in the eyes of God? What kind of good works can I do that will be worthy of His approval? This concept of righteousness needs to be pulled apart and examined closely because in today’s culture, we so often believe that in order to gain something, we must buy it. Can we buy God’s favor through our good moral standpoint and religion?

A deep conversation revolving around our future typically goes a little something like this…

person 1: “Hey, so do you think you’re going to heaven?”

person2: ” I think so, I’m a good person. I do a lot of really nice things like drive hybrid cars, send friends nice cards , and give money to charities at Christmas.”

So, how good is good enough? What can I possibly do to be good enough for God? Can I give enough money? Enough time? Enough warm and fuzzies? The answer simply put is no. The reason that we can do nothing to earn God’s favor is because we are all born with a sinful nature. We can not be acceptable to a just and holy God when we are identified by sin. According to Genesis 3, the fall of man happened when Adam and Eve went against God’s commands and sin was brought into the world. Why is it though, that we must suffer the consequences of something that Adam and Eve did? I didn’t eat the apple, why should I have to be born with sin? Here’s a shot at an explanation: Do we not suffer the consequences of choices made before us in our very own day to day life? We’re in an economic downturn, did something YOU do directly effect this? No, but the choices made of those before us in government did. What if your company goes bankrupt and you lose your job. Did something that YOU did directly effect that situation? No, but the decisions and actions of the collective employees and superiors did. We are faced with the ramifications of situations that we did not have a direct part in on a daily basis. And so it is with sin, we are born into this world with sin, and there is nothing great and wonderful enough that we could possibly do to make up for it in God’s eyes.

There are two specific ways that people mistakenly try to be good enough for God.

1. MORALITY

“For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.” - Romans 10:3

Myth: if you live good, you’re righteous. This is the classic example of how we feel we need to do enough good things to earn God’s favor. It doesn’t just happen to non-Christians, either. Christians can be guilty as well of trying to ‘add’ to the cross by tacking on our good works and morals. You can’t add anything to the cross. It’s because of the cross and only the cross that we have righteousness.

2. RELIGION

In Mark chapter 5, Jesus talks about the Pharisees incessant religious checklist of tasks and laws that they were to abide by in order to be ‘religious’. Jesus used them as an example that even their obsessiveness over laws could never allow them access to Heaven. Your works without the cross are meaningless.

In Philippians, Paul writes -

“Yes everything is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.” -Phil 3:8

All of our works, good deeds, self-esteem, and religiousness is simply nothing in comparison to the undeserving gift God gave us through the death of His Son on the cross. We need to stop searching for our own identity and self-worth, and instead trade it in for an identity in God.

When we seek God’s provision for our righteousness through admitting our sin and unworthiness He both transfers and transmits righteousness upon us. It soon becomes apparent that we don’t need religioun, we need Jesus!

Here are some verses to look up describing how Christ died for our sins to bring us to God - 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:18, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Once we have been made righteous through salvation we have a power source to be moral and begin good works through faith in Christ knowing that our good works are not the earning of forgiveness, but a fruit of our faith.

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If you’ve read through this and you’re questioning how exactly you accept God’s free gift of grace and forgiveness and are ready to make that commitment, then please read on! There is no “magic prayer” or exact wording that you need to pray. It’s as simple as admitting to God that you are a sinner, and there is nothing that you will ever be able to do to merit forgiveness. Believe that Christ, God’s son, came to earth to die on the cross and take our sin upon Himself. Believe that He rose again on the 3rd day, and is alive today. Dedicate your life to God and invite His spirit into your life.

If you have dedicated your life to Christ after reading this, then please don’t stay silent. Contact us or someone that you feel comfortable with and tell them! It’s a long road ahead but it’s a wonderful one, filled with hope, love, and new beginnings.

Also, each of these weekly messages can be streamed/downloaded on iTunes for free. Click here to open up the podcast in iTunes now!

Filed Under thoughts to chew on, you gotta have faith