In our last Blog we saw that every Christian needs a revelation of the righteousness (right standing) of God by faith. As we meditate on the truths of righteousness, God gives us the revelation of it and releases faith in our hearts to believe that revelation and put it into practice in our lives.

Example: We still carry the guilt of mistakes we made in our former life of sin. Satan reminds us constantly with his accusations and condemnation. But our revelation of right standing with God causes us to see that all our sin past, present and future was forgiven, washed away and cleansed from all unrighteousness.

Armed with these truths we can now exercise our faith by standing on God’s Word and throwing off all guilt and condemnation and silencing the voice of satan; And because we’ve stood in righteousness, our hearts experience peace and joy. Rom 14:17  for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (NKJV).

By exercising our faith it has now grown and become a living faith, a fluid faith, not a stagnant faith; and the growth in our faith equips us to to believe God for bigger issues in our life so that we grow from faith to faith.

Rom 1:17 For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.    (AMP)

This is what it means to, ‘live by faith’, so that daily we are able to put this revelation into practice and in doing so experience the life of God pulsating through our whole being, releasing motivation for today and expectancy for tomorrow.

Meditation point: As I feed this revelation of righteousness it will grow bigger and bigger till it touches every area of my life.

Right Standing (Justified)

Rom 8:29,30,33.  For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son. And having chosen them, he gave them right standing (Justified) with himself. And having given them right standing (Justified), he gave them his glory. Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing (Justified) with himself.

When we became born again God imputed (gave) His righteousness to us. He nailed our old sinful nature to the cross and took it away. In it’s place He gave us a new righteous nature which is His righteousness; And this righteousness means we can stand before God in justification, that is, just as if we have never sinned.

This righteousness is a free gift. Rom 5:17 How much more will those who receive God’s gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. It can never be taken away from us. Rom 11:29 For God’s gifts can never be withdrawn; And the wonderful thing about this gift is that whenever we sin, because Christ’s blood constantly flows to cleanse us from all sin, it means we always have right standing with God.

Having right standing gives us total acceptance with God and brings deliverance from fear, shame, rejection, guilt and condemnation etc; but as a Christian, how do I come into the experience of having right standing with God; I come into it by revelation.

Rom 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Paul is here saying that there is a revelation of righteousness (right standing) that has been hidden from our eyes but is now revealed to us in the Gospel; And we are to receive this revelation by faith. In our next blog we will look at how to access this revelation by faith.

Meditation point: Rom 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith,  just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

Martin Luther 1483 - 1546

Rom 1:16-17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall ‘LIVE’ by faith.”  (NKJV)

600 yrs ago a man by the name of Martin Luther came to the fore in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). Luther was a priest and theologian practicing within the RCC. He became disillusioned by the fact that the Church was preaching a Gospel of works and self righteousness in order to obtain salvation from God.

Luther had recently come to faith in Christ and God had opened the scriptures to him revealing that salvation was by faith in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. He soon realised his conscience would not allow him to idly stand by and watch people go to an after life without Christ because their thinking and faith was misplaced.

History now shows that in 1517AD Luther went to the Castle Church in Wittenburg and nailed to the front door his 95 thesis, that is 95 issues regarding the life and practises of the RCC that he beleived were unbiblical. Nailing a thesis to the door of a Church was recognised as a means of calling the general public to debate that thesis.

God used this means of debate as a catalyst to spread Luther’s teachings like a forest fire all over Europe and thus kick-start the Reformation and Protestant Church; The watchword of the Reformation became Rom 1:17 The just shall live by faith.

Christians today owe their existence to Luther’s ministry and Rom 1:17. Sadly, the revelation of this scripture has been lost to many in the Church in the sense that we came to Christ by faith but we don’t know how to ‘LIVE’ by faith; subsequently we have adopted other means to enable us to live the Christian life. Paul the Apostle addressed this very issue with the Galatian Church:

Gal 3:1-4 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.  Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.  How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?  Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?  (NLT)

In future Blogs we will look at what it means to be justified and how to ‘LIVE’ by faith.

Meditation point: Is my Christian life beset by guilt, condemnation, shame, rejection and fear etc. If so have I failed to grasp the salvation of Christ that enables me to ‘LIVE’ in victory over such things.