Permit me to unload a burden within my heart

What kind of righteousness are we to seek?

What kind of righteousness did Jesus love? – “you loved righteousness and hated lawlessness, because of this God, your God anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.”

What kind of righteousness was Jesus saying we should seek? – Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.”

What kind of righteousness was Jesus saying we must surpass the scribes and Pharisees in? -“If your righteousness does not abound greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no way enter the kingdom of heaven.”

What kind of righteousness was Paul telling Timothy to seek? – “Flee the evils desires of youth, but pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace…”

What kind of righteousness was John saying we should be and do? “Little children let no one deceive you, he who does what is righteous is righteous just as He is righteous.”

What kind of righteousness does the grace of God that has appeared to all men teach us to live? – “For the grace of God, the salvation of all men, has appeared to all men, training us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.”

What kind of righteousness was forsaken by those who had known the way of righteousness and then turned their back on the sacred commandment? “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it to turn their back on the sacred commandment.”

What kind of righteousness was Noah a preacher of? “Noah the preacher of righteousness.”

What kind of righteousness did righteous Lot have? “Lot that righteous man, dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul day by day at their lawless works.”

What kind of righteousness did God find in Noah when the entire world had become corrupt? – “Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation.”

What kind of righteousness was David referring to being recompensed for? “And the Lord shall recompense me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.”

What kind of righteousness was the Lord referring to when describing the righteousness of Noah, Daniel, and Job? - “And if these three men might be in the midst of it, Noah, Daniel, and Job, these shall be saved in their righteousness, says the Lord Almighty.”

What kind of righteousness was Paul indicating did not come about by the Law? - “For if the Law had been able to make alive, then righteousness would have come from the Law.”

What kind of righteousness did Paul express that though the Law was powerless to do, God did through the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? - “For what the Law could not do weak as it was through the flesh, God did, in sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, concerning sin in the flesh, He condemned the sin in the flesh, in order that the righteousness of the Law should be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

What kind of righteousness do we become in Christ? - “For God made Him who knew no sin, to become sin for us, in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

What kind of righteousness are we to be renewed into His image? – “And to put on the new man, the one according to God, being created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

What kind of righteousness did Jesus commend in those He separated to His right from those He places to his left when the Son of Man judges the nations? – “And these (on the left) shall go forth unto eternal punishment, but the righteous unto eternal life.”

What kind of righteousness is produced when God makes men a planting of righteousness? “And they shall be called a generation of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.”

What kind of righteousness would save a man who turned towards it and away from his wickedness? – “And the lawless one, if he should turn from all his lawlessness which he did, and should keep all my commandments and should do equity, righteousness, and mercy, to life he shall live.” “The in turning away from righteousness, should a man do unrighteousness, all the unrighteousness the lawless one did, if he should do thus, he shall not live.” “And the righteousness of the righteous man shall not save him if he shall turn from it.”

What kind of righteousness did the prophet Hosea speak of when telling the nation of Israel to sow to themselves? – “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in the fruit of life; light unto yourselves the light of knowledge, diligently seek the Lord until He comes and generates righteousness unto you.”

If we have an honest heart, and answer these questions according to the righteousness revealed in throughout the entire word of God, and especially all through the book of Proverbs; then we will see the righteousness we receive from God through Christ Jesus. We receive the righteousness of Christ that fulfills God’s own declaration that “I will show myself Holy through them.”

This visible demonstration of the amazing enabling power of the divine nature we become partakers of in Christ Jesus, redeems us from all lawlessness and purifies unto Christ a people who no longer profane His name by our corrupt practices, but allows the incredible power in these earthen vessels to shine unto all men the Excellency of the power of God as they witness God at work in us to will and do His own good pleasure of energizing us unto zealousness for good deeds that men can see and glorify the Father in heaven.

This is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus I rejoice in. Yes, I also rejoice in the forgiveness and washing away of all my former lawlessness! However, I am not ashamed that I rejoice in the EFFECT produced by the CAUSE.

Yes the ONLY cause is CHRIST! And any attempt at righteousness apart from Christ, on our own pitiful strength will fall woefully short. However the righteousness that I have received in Christ Jesus is not the same as the righteousness of Israel.
Their lawlessness and unfaithfulness, having abandoned the Law of the Lord and conforming to the standards of the wicked nations surrounding them caused ALL THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS TO BECOME FILTHY RAGS.

The righteousness that I have received from Christ HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME that I be adorned in FINE LINEN, BRIGHT AND CLEAN that I might be fit and ready to meet my beloved Lord upon His return. This is the righteousness that I have received - THE RIGHTEOUS ACTS OF THE SAINTS.

Those who are clothed with this righteousness will walk with Christ because they are worthy. YES! He is the CAUSE – but the EFFECT produced by HIM does what the LAW could never do – IT MAKES US RIGHTEOUS IN SPIRIT and TRUTH, in WORD and DEED – BEFORE GOD and BEFORE MEN!

I rejoice in the Rigtheousness of God in Christ Jesus!

Permit me to attempt an answer to my own question – “What kind of righteousness have we received?”

We have received a “Constitutional” righteousness! Our very constitution of how we are madeup is dynamically altered by being made partakers of the very “upostasis” the essence or substance of God in Christ Jesus.

Christ Jesus is the very essence/substance (upostasis) of the invisible God. All the divinity of God’s own perfectly pure and powerful nature was and is embodied in fullness in Christ Jesus.

We are engrafted into this very essence or substance. Through becoming one spirit with Him when we are joined together, our very constitution is changed. The once corrupt constitution effected by the substance of indwelling Sin, was circumcised through the work of the Spirit and replaced by the essence/substance of God’s own divine nature. It is as if God placed His own divine stem cells into us and regenerated Himself in us.

This is how Paul is to be understood in Romans 5:19 – “For in the very same way that through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted as sinners, so also in the very same way through the obedience of the one man the many will be re-constituted as righteous.” Through the sin of Adam our constitution was warped towards a bent unto evil. We were not merely regarded as evil, we were evil by nature. In the same way, through the obedience of Christ we are re-constituted in the center of our being so that we are not merely regarded as righteous, but are transformed into righteousness from the inside through the infusion of the life of God by the Holy Spirit bringing the very upostasis of God into our inner man.

Not only are we judicially pardoned, we are dynamically changed constitutionally into a new creation. The old man, the old heart, the old dead spirit, the old corrupt mind, were all surgically incapacitated and the very life of God through the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus quickened us through the very essence/substance of the Life of God – His life is the source of His righteousness.

Where Sin once reigned in death by corrupting us constitutionally so that we acted corrupt through its base nature; even so now grace infused into our inner most being dynamically alters our constitution at the center core of our being.

This is the quality of the righteousness we have received from God in Christ Jesus.

makrothumia

I think your mixing Justification up with Sanctification..
Quote: The old man, the old heart, the old dead spirit, the old corrupt mind, were all surgically incapacitated and the very life of God through the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus quickened us through the very essence/substance of the Life of God.
We don’t get it all at conversion…Look at what says to the brethren his brothers and sisters in Christ.
Roms 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1.\toffer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God
So after conversion you have to surrender you have to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice.
2.\tbut be transformed by the renewing of your mind
Transformation from what if you got it all at conversion then why do you need transformed? That word transformed come from the greek word metamorphoō which means change into another form. If we were completely changed at conversion then why do we need completely changed again.

You mention the “the old heart, the old corrupt mind, were all surgically incapacitated” but if you study the word heart in scripture you’ll find it relates to the mind will and emotion. So when Paul says “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” it relates to the mind which is part of the heart.

After conversion there is a deeper work of the spirit which transforms us so the very nature of Christ is evident to those around.

Thank you dear brother for the opportunity to clarify.

"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, so that we are to no longer be slaves of sin."

The dominion of indwelling Sin was rendered powerless by Christ on the cross. As we become fully united with Him in the likeness of His death, our comprehension of what has already taken places has its dynamic effect in us.

Through the renewing of our mind, our thought process catches up to what has already taken place in the Spirit. We are renewed unto greater and greater comprehension of all that we have already been given.

The more we continue in the word, the fuller we begin to grasp the truth of what has already taken place and this truth sets us free as we apprehend it more and more.

The spiritual work in the inner man then works its way through the renewing of our soul. However, Sin in its ability to dominate is dethroned by Christ on the cross. When we are baptized into Christ into the likeness of His death, we receive the dynamic effect of this liberating work of the cross.

makrothumia

All sounds good so what wrong then with the Church where is the "dynamic effect of this liberating work of the cross" evident in the church today?

The reality found will always be rare but real, just like Mary and the virgin birth, like Job, like Noah, like Samuel, like David etc.

The quality in the few rare are proof enough. :-)

Narrow is the way and small is the gate that leads to life and FEW there be that find it.

makrothumia

a very good and honest question by the way

Permit me to unload a burden within my heart

Thank you for this, it is a burden that I share. If we say we abide in Him we ought to walk as He walked. How did He walk? In righteousness, always doing those things that pleased the Father.

If I am to walk as he walked I must be filled with His love, without Him I can do nothing, if I have not love I am nothing.

I think your mixing Justification up with Sanctification.

Brother, I don't think he is mixing them up. We just hardly dare to believe all that is written and have not yet attained to it, but God is patient until His word will bear its intended fruit in the earth and Christ will come for a Bride that is pure and without blemish.

It's funny, I don't doubt the power of the law of sin and death that I inherited from Adam. I know its power all to well, that kingdom of death has reigned over me. But now the Second Man is come and there is the power of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Paul wrote "much more" five times in Romans 5 to describe this grace and power that causes us to reign in life. Do we dare to believe God? So much defeat and failure, but God will perform it; not just in the sweet by-and-by, but here and now in His people. There will be much brokenness but He has promised to do it.

In Christ,

Ron

I received this reply from a dear friend and I thought the expression of his heart towards the righteousness God has given us in Christ is precious and worth sharing.

To me this is inarguable. (though I could be wrong) The only argument against this understanding is the evidence within & without that men are not holy and do not exhibit Christ's righteousness. If I foolishly measure myself by another man, I may think myself righteous because of Christ work in me. Yet even here I fall short of many men I know. But when I compare myself to Christ Himself, I am pitiful and needy. I feel always loved but never worthy.
However, if there is only one man or one church in the entire world living this holy, righteous, victorious life in Christ, then it is testimony enough that none of us should settle for any less. In other words, we should not look on all the unholy professors of religion as the evidence on the matter, but on the ones here and there that prove what is possible in Christ. I am blessed to have several friends who set that bar very high, and I love them very much.
Blessings!