Part 3 Righteousness

1 )Intro to Righteousness 2/5

Intro: This is the third reason we have blessings.1) Life 2) Abraham’s blessing and 3) Righteousness. These are not the only reasons we have blessings but these are the first 3. We have more right to the blessing for we know we have a covenant with God because of Abraham then those that don’t, but we also know that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Once you know about how you are made righteous it will give you a new mindset and enable you to walk in the life of God in a way others cannot. It removes the obstacles from life so you can walk free. So the word we use today for our introduction to righteousness is LIFE to remind us that when we talk about righteousness we are not just talking about in Heaven but also now and to help us walk in the LIFE of God in the here and now!

Light of God - 2 Cor 4:4-6 1 Jn 1:5, Rev 21:11.23- What is the light and glory of God and how does it relate to righteousness? See the righteousness of God is ours because of who we are in Jesus. The glory of God is given to us because of Jesus Christ and we have Him living in us and he works in us through us to reach the lives of others.  Our relationship with Jesus Christ enables us to have a relationship with God; otherwise we could not have a right relationship with Him at all. The light of God is so important for in Him we live and move and have our being. We live with Him

   2 Cor 4:4-6- the light reveals the gospel, illuminating to us who God is so we can see Him as he really is. The gospel opens to us God and lets us see the full glory of his presence, but we could not have that without the revelation of his righteousness in our life. The greater the revelation we have of righteousness, than the greater the revelation of this light will be in our life. This gives the light of the knowledge of the glory that shines in the face of Jesus Christ.  Let the glory walk be revealed to you by learning how to walk in Gods righteousness. Only by revelation can you understand the truth of what we have in Jesus Christ. Only by revelation can you know his righteousness

  1 Jn 1:5- this is the message that we have that it is light and not darkness. God has a kingdom of light and not of darkness, for light is represented of God and the devil is represented by darkness as in the passage we read in 2 Corinthians. This verse leads us into v9-10 and the discussion of sin. This passage is the only one in the NT that talks about confession in relation with sin. So many interpret this to mean that you have to confess every sin, The rest of the NT talks about sin as having been crucified on the cross of Jesus Christ where He was made sin and I was made his eternal righteousness. I died on the cross and was crucified with him before man even was created according to the word of God. God saw me in light of what Jesus did. I confess that I was a sinner but am now saved by grace and am no longer a sinner but am the righteousness of God. IF I say I have no sin that means that if I say I have no need of a Savior then I lie for without sin there was no need for me to need redemption or a mediator on my behalf. I needed a redeemer and thank God He sent on in the person of Jesus Christ. This first chapter is written to unbelievers for it in chapter 2 it begins the revelation to believers.

  Rev 21:11,23- the glory of God is compared to a precious stone that is like a crystal. The stones on earth do not reflect light in the same way that is mentioned here. The precious stones are worth a lot but they are not crystal like. They are refined but they are not able to have this level of quality, The level of purification for precious stones is nowhere near this level of beauty and cannot reflect this amount of light. The glory of God beautifies the stone as well as showing the glory of God and how great God is. V23 says that they do not need a temple because of the glory of God that is there.  God is so great and glorious that no temple is needed. God is good and great. We need to focus on how great God is and see how God is and we cannot see that without his righteousness, for sin consciousness reveals to us who we are, but righteousness reveals to us who God is.

In Him there is no sin 2 Cor 5:21, 1 Jn 3:6-9 Heb 13:20-21- God says that we were in Him when he died and that in him there is no sin for He was made sin. He had to be made our sin so that we can be made his righteousness. He had an exchange that was made. We had to have what He had so He could take on all the things that separated us from God. Acts 13:39 says that we were justified from all the things that we could not be justified by the law of Moses. God said you do not sin for you were made a sinner but made his righteousness. You were born a sinner but reborn as his righteousness. You were made truly holy so God is now pleased with you.  Before when you were a sinner God was mad at you but now God was at peace with you so he can pronounce good things too, He said peace and good will to men for the Savior was born and now God wants to give peace to you. Peace is the result of righteousness. We are to go forth as an ambassador of righteousness. Go forth and share with men his righteousness and tell them what Jesus did for us. God is now pleased with you so walk in that and tell others of this glory and the grace He gave to you.

    1 Jn 3:6-9- whoever abides in him sins not. I abide in him therefore I do not sin and this not only says I do not sin but says it even stronger for it says I cannot sin for I abide in him. Abiding in him is the issue in this section for when you abide in him sin cannot abide in you. You abide in him for his seed abides in you. YOU are sin free because of who abides in you, Sin has no dominion over for you are not under the law but under grace. You are under the goodness of God and He says that you cannot sin for Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil and the devil brought sin to the world. He destroyed sin in us and made us right in the sight of God. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. I do not commit sin for I am born of God. I cannot sin because I am born of God. To me this is clear, if you are born again then God says sin cannot be in you for are born of God and whatever is born of God is unable to sin. When we realize who we are in Jesus and can walk in the righteousness Consciousness we have been given then it says we are manifested and that is what it means to do righteousness- to manifest the righteousness consciousness of Jesus in our lives.

Favor of God is on you- Pr 3:4; Lk 2:52 Acts 7:46- the favor of God is manifested to you because Jesus is in you. The favor of God is not in you because of your finances or health. It is because of who lives in you. We need to see things based on Jesus and trust that God will perform his word to us once we begin to allow God to love us so HE can show his power to us. God does not begin to show his power to us when good things start to happen to us.

  Pr 3:4- when mercy and truth is around you then the favor of God will be with you. God wants us to be led forth with truth and mercy. Truth is what leads us for Jesus is truth and he is the one who provides mercy which comes from the throne of his grace. Favor comes when we focus on Jesus and let Jesus lead us to his the kindness and love of God. Favor is the result of focusing on what HE did, than you can have good understanding and know how to trust in the Lord with all your understanding so you can really know how to acknowledge him. Too often we read verses and not realize what the context is. We know verse 5,6 but do not realize that to have that we have to focus on mercy. Mercy is what enables us to have the favor of God work in our life.

 Lk 2:52- This verse is about Jesus and it says that He grew in favor with God and man. He needed favor to walk in this realm, so how much more do we?  We need to have that favor in our life but the favor causes us to not only have favor with man but also with God. You cannot have favor with man without having favor with God. God gives us favor with men but you cannot have that favor without apart from the gift of God. This gift can only come from God once you have that relationship with God.  You have this relationship because you were made the righteousness of God and that favor is only experienced when you have consciousness of who you are in Him. Those that focus on the law do not understand how they can walk in the favor as much as the ones who walk in His righteousness of God. There was a glory under the law but that glory has faded and the glory of righteousness, or grace  The new covenant has a greater glory then the old testament. The new covenant has a greater presence of God then the Old. You have favor when you walk in the true relationship in the new covenant and not in a mixture of the old and new. You cannot mix the two and expect God to bless you for God only blesses us when we honor what his Word really says. Men honor tradition and not the true covenant of Mt Calvary. Let us honor the glory that comes from the resurrection.

Acts 7:46- David found out that he had favor with God, but David  could not build the temple for him, only Solomon could do that.  God gave favor to   both David and Solomon, but they had different functions with the favor of God on them. Favor was something that enabled people to be blessed and came from the type  of love that came from the relationship with God. The more you believe God for something then God’s favor will guide you with peace and give you assurance in your heart, and men will pronounce it on you

Effect of Righteousness Isa 32:17, 28:17 41:10 45:23- 50 times the word righteousness is mentioned in Isaiah. So Isaiah had a revelation of righteousness and this was in the OT. He spoke often of the righteousness of God. So what did Isaiah say about it.  The effect of righteousness will be peace and quietness. You have peace in your life because of having a right relationship with God. The word for peace is shalom. This same word Jesus spoke to the storm and it quieted a raging storm. The storms in your life will be quiet when you have peace because of the relationship you have with God.

  28:17- the covenant with death will be disannulled. You no longer will have a covenant that will produce a curse and cause death in your life. Righteousness will cause you to have a life where hell will not be able to overcome you anymore. God will defend you and his power will work in your life because of his righteousness. That is a great promise

  41:10- the seed of Abraham my friend will cause me to hold you up by the right hand of my righteousness. – I will strengthen you and give you the assurance of my righteousness. When you need assurance and strength, I am there to be with you and keep you. I will never leave you or forsake you. This promise is for those who are my righteousness. You are his righteousness for those who are in his seed are part of his righteousness.

   45:23- my word is spoken in righteousness and because of my word I will justify my people. I will show my power by my righteousness and justify many. The glory of God is shown by my righteousness. This is my righteousness and this is the effect of my righteousness of my people

Conclusion: Righteousness enables the life of God to be felt in our human vessels. It lets us be spiritually minded and to live in peace so we can know that God is for us and to walk in the newness that we really have. We need to have this consciousness and walk in it. There is more to righteousness then just the Scriptures that mention that word. I hope in this study our mind can be opened to the reality of what we really have in Jesus because of His righteousness and the standing we truly have. 

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