Kingdom of God

Justification

“and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
Romans 3:24

From this verse, we see that Justification is achieved through the Redemption of God. In
the last chapter we have seen how God redeemed His chosen people using the Passover
lamb. This was but a picture of Jesus Christ by whom all the Elect of God would be
justified. Just what is justification and why do we need it?

According to Wayne Grudem, “Justification is an immediate legal work of God in which he

forgives our sins, counts Christ’s righteousness as our own, and declares us righteous in his
sight.”34

In its simplest form, justification is the declaration that somebody is in the right. It is more
than acquittal, which is a judgment that a person is not guilty of the crime as accused. It is
not forgiveness, but the declaration concerning one who has received forgiveness. It is a
declaration made by God that someone is RIGHTEOUS.

This leads us to the next question: “Why do we need to be declared Righteous?” To answer
this, we will need to go back to the beginning, Genesis 1.

In Genesis 1:28, we are told that God created Man in His image; meaning, according to
Paul, “in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). An image, as you know, is not the
real thing but a semblance of it. God is INHERENTLY righteous (and holy), and as such
God cannot sin or do anything evil. But Adam’s righteousness was not inherent but

34
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan,
1994), 723.

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IMPARTED. Thus, Adam had the propensity to sin. In any case, God needed to create
Adam righteous so that he could be in God’s presence.

So Adam was righteous at the time of his creation. But since, by definition, righteousness is
moral purity and a righteous man is one who makes the right moral choices, Adam’s
righteousness would mean nothing if he did not have a moral choice to make. He would be
like a man who prides himself to be the greatest warrior but has never fought and won a
single battle in his life; or a man who claims to be the greatest footballer in the world but
has yet to kick a ball. For this reason, I believe, God planted the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil in the Garden and commanded the Man and the Woman not to eat of it.
You can say that they were given a Torah that consisted of only one law, and they could
not wait to break it.

In doing so, was God tempting the Man and the Woman? James states categorically that
God tempts no one (James 1:13). In the first place, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil was not evil for nothing God creates is evil. Adam and Eve will die when they ate
of it not because there was something inherently bad about its fruit, but because they had
disobeyed the Lord. He would be tempting them if He encouraged them to eat from it, but
God did nothing of the sort. So let’s be clear: God was not tempting them as much as He
was giving them an opportunity to make a moral choice.

As the story goes, Adam and Eve made a moral choice, but the wrong one. They ate from
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil…and died. The Biblical definition of death is
eternal separation from God. And, in order that they will not eat from the Tree of Life and
live forever in their current state of unrighteousness and unholiness, God drove them out of
the Garden.

Adam’s disobedience would have long-term effects on Mankind. Paul wrote about it in his
epistle to the Romans. He said, “by the one man's disobedience the many were made
sinners” (Rom 5:19). As a result, since Adam till now, “none is righteous; no not one”
(Rom 3:10).

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But if this is truly the case, why then do we read in the Bible about individuals, in the likes
of Abel, Noah, and Job, who were called “righteous”?

Abel and Cain were both sons of Adam and Eve. Abel was the younger and more righteous
of the two. The offering he brought to the Lord – “of the firstborn of his flock and of their
fat” – was respected by God. The same cannot be said of Cain’s offering. Now, though we
are not told that any law or command about what is an acceptable offering to God, we
must assume that there was one since God used the word ‘sin’ when speaking to Cain about
his offering, and sin is the trespass of a command from God. The Lord said to Cain, “Why
are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And
if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule
over it” (Gen 4:6, 7).

Noah “was a righteous man, blameless in his generation” (Gen 6:9). But Noah was not
righteous just because of the good works he might have done; but rather he was righteous
because he “walked with God”. And “can two walk together, except they be agreed?”
(Amos 3:3 KJV). So, Noah was righteous because he was obedient to God.

Of all the children of Israel, David was one of the most righteous. This was what he said
about himself:

“The LORD dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of

my hands he rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not
wickedly departed from my God. For all his rules were before me, and his statutes I did
not put away from me. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from my guilt. So
the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness
of my hands in his sight.” (Psalm 18:20-24)

In Luke 1:6, we are also told that Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous before God
because they walked “blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord”. And

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finally, Paul also asserts that he was blameless “touching the righteousness which is in the
law” (Phil 3:6).

And, finally (I have saved the best for last), every Christian would know that Abraham was
counted righteous because he believed God. For this, his name was entered into the
Hebrews Chapter Eleven Hall of Faith. But what most do not know is that Abraham was
also righteous for another reason. God said that, “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my
charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws” (Gen 26:5).

What I hope you are beginning to see is that there are two kinds of righteousness in the
Bible. One is the Righteousness of Man, and the other is God’s Righteousness. Although it
was not impossible for a man to wholly keep the laws of God, as is proven by Abel, Noah,
and Abraham, those who succeed in doing so are very few and very far in between. Take
the children of Israel for example. Of the two or three million Israelites, how many actually
kept all of God’s commandments? Hardly any. Even Moses and Aaron, who were generally
obedient to God all the time, failed in the end because they trespassed in one point of the
law. For this reason, Paul concluded that,

“by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through
the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been
manifested apart from the law” (Rom 3:20, 21a).

So, instead of waiting and hoping that men to become righteous by keeping the law, God
decided to impute righteous on them. Yet, not to all but to those who have faith.

“for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Through Christ, God graciously imputes (meaning to count or to account) righteousness

to believing sinners through faith. This imputing of righteousness on believers is called
JUSTIFICATION.

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Basis of Justification

“and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”
Romans 3:24

According to this verse, a sinner is justified by the grace of God. And the grace of God
presupposes that there is sin. Hence, Justification presupposes two things: sin and grace.
No sin, no need for justification; no grace, no possibility of it. And God showed the
immeasurable riches of His grace by redeeming us through the blood of His Son (Eph
1:7).

Justification is possible because Jesus was the propitiation for sins. Since the days of Noah
when God destroyed all of mankind because of their gross sinfulness God, Paul tells us, had
been forbearing the sins of the world. It would have been much easier for God to destroy
mankind and start all over again, but He didn’t because He wanted to be “just and the
justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:25, 26). And “when the fullness of time
had come, God sent forth his Son” to be a propitiation…for the remission of sins that are
past” (Gal 4:4 and Rom 3:25).

Propitiation, put simply, is the act by Jesus Christ that satisfies and pleases God. It does not
procure or make God love; rather, it gives God the reason to continue to exercise His love
to sinners. The goal of propitiation is God’s PLEASURE. This is key, and I would like you
to bear this word in mind as I bring you back to the Old Testament and the book of
Leviticus.

The first three offerings in Leviticus are the Olah (poorly translated as the Burnt Offering),
the Minchah (the Grain Offering), and the Zevah (the Peace Offering). Most people do not
know this, but these three offerings are not for the atoning of sins; they are given not as a

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means to REPAIR a broken relationship with God but to MAINTAIN it. They are
brought voluntarily. The main purpose of these three offerings is to lift up a sweet smelling
aroma so that God would be pleased (Lev 1:9, 13, 17; 2:9, 12; 3:5, 16). The roles these
offerings play are as follows:

1. The Olah...the burnt offering

The Olah first gets God's attention and then provides a means for God to view the
worshipper favorably. The worshipper is made acceptable by means of the Olah. The
worshipper is allowed to "come near" to the Lord...to approach the Lord.

2. The Minchah...the grain offering

The Minchah builds on what was accomplished by the Olah. The Olah made the
worshipper approachable and acceptable, then the worshipper may offer a gift to God. By
doing so the worshipper thereby expresses his dedication to God and a desire to be
obedient.

3. The Zevah...the peace offering

The Peace Offering establishes a fellowship, a peace between the worshipper and God.

Together, the three offerings establishes and maintains peace and fellowship between God
and the worshipper despite his inherent sinful nature. The goal of these three offerings was
accomplished by Christ who “loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:2). As a result, men no longer need to bring an offering when
they want to approach God but they can come boldly through faith in Christ.

Justification is possible because sin was dealt with in Christ. Jesus’ sacrifice did not only
please God, it also satisfied God’s righteousness that requires all sin to be paid for. Paul says
that not only are we redeemed through the blood of Christ, we also received “forgiveness
of sins” (Eph 1:7).

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Earlier, we have seen how Jesus fulfilled the first three offerings of Leviticus: the Olah, the
Minchah, and the Zevah. Now I will show you how Jesus also fulfilled the Hatta’at, or the
Sin Offering, the fourth type of offering instructed by God in the book of Leviticus. The
Hatta'at is concerned with purifying the worshipper from unintentional sins. Hatta'at is
really a purification offering. The uniqueness of the Hatta’at and the way it differs from the
Olah, the Minchah, and the Zevah is that it was burned with fire “outside the camp” (Lev
4:12, 21). This was because the offering, the animal, is now unclean since it bore the sins of
the person who offered it; and being unclean it could not be burned within the camp and
risk defiling the land. Jesus was crucified on Calvary, which is outside of the city of
Jerusalem.

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high
priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside
the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. (Heb 13:11, 12)

It is crucial to note that the substitute takes not only the PUNISHMENT of the sin but
also the GUILT of the sinner. Therefore, it is written, “For he hath made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor
5:21). The wrath is now transferred from the sinner to the substitute.

The substitute is then slain and consumed. In the fire we see the holy wrath of the Judge
consuming the representative in the sinner’s place. The ashes that remain after the sacrifice
has been consumed is proof that the wrath had been spent, the penalty has been paid. If the
ashes could speak, it would say, “It is finished.” At this point of time, God may rightly
declare the sinner as righteous for he has been justified. The only thing left for God to do
now is to pour out His love upon the sinner (Rom 5:5).

Results of Justification

Now, having been justified by faith…

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The one passage of Scripture that most comprehensively and exhaustively lists the results of
Justification is found in Romans 5, which we will examine now.

“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We have been reconciled. We are no longer at enmity with God. But note the words of
James, who said, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God”
(James 4:4). And also of John: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—
the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the
Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:15, 16).

“through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand”
The word “also” sets this blessing apart as distinct from and additional to that of “peace
with God”.

“Access to this grace” is access to God, for the grace of God is not apart from God.

Prosagoge, the Greek word for ‘access’ (sometimes translated as ‘introduction’), was the
word used for the right granted someone to enter into the King's presence. The story of
Esther in the Old Testament contains a beautiful illustration of this idea. Esther desires to
plead with King Ahasuerus for the safety of her Jewish countrymen. But she knows what
can happen if she goes into his presence without an introduction (Esther 4:11). Esther
risked her life by doing this, not knowing beforehand whether Ahasuerus would grant her
an "introduction." Fortunately for her, he granted her grace.

It probably took three days and three nights to get ready! Then we are told that she
dressed herself in robes of beauty and glory. When she was all ready, she stepped into
the audience hall of the king, appearing all alone before him. The king was so smitten
with her beauty that his heart went out to her. He stretched forth his scepter and

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accepted her. She had access to the king. Dressed in robes of beauty and glory that do
not belong to us -- for they are the garments of Jesus -- we have access to the King, to
receive from him all that we need to handle any threat that has come into our lives. We
have continual acceptance before him. (Ray Stedman. Rejoicing in Hope)

Indeed, we are told by Isaiah 61:10, that, “He has clothed me with the garments of
salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness”. And it is with the robes of
righteousness that we can come boldly to the throne of grace to “obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). And having come to the throne of grace, there
we stand…and remain. The problem with many is that they leave after a while. Inward
doubt and outward condemnation have caused them to waver in their faith causing them to
be “double-minded”. The double-minded, James says, “must not suppose that he will
receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7).

Harry Ironside explains that there is a difference between state and standing, and the
difference is this:

Standing refers to the new place in which I am put by grace as justified before the
throne of God and risen in Christ forever beyond the reach of judgment. State is
condition of soul. It is experience. Standing never varies. State is fluctuating, and
depends on the measure in which I walk with God.

It would not take much for me to convince you that our feelings are desperately
untrustworthy, and should not be depended on as a gauge of our acceptable-ness by God.
Our standing, Ironside says, “is always perfect because it is measured by Christ’s
acceptance, and I am accepted in Him.”

“rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”

Exult (2744) (kauchaomai akin to aucheo = boast + euchomai = to pray to God) means
to boast over a privilege or possession. It means to rejoice and so to feel joy or great
delight, combining ideas of jubilation and confidence into one word which we might

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describe as "joyful confidence". Note: present tense implies this should be every saved
person's lifestyle! This exulting is an exulting in the confident expectation of the glory of
God.

Hope is defined as a desire for some future good with the expectation of obtaining it.

Glorified (1392) (doxazo from dóxa = glory) means to render glorious, to cause to have
splendid greatness, to clothe in splendor, to invest with dignity, to give anyone esteem or
honor by putting him into an honorable position. The aorist tense of glorified speaks of
God Who sees the end from the beginning and in whose decree and purpose all future
events are comprehended and fixed. Once God's marvelous sequence begins with His
foreknowledge of those He would call, it is carried through so inevitably that Paul in this
verse speaks of us as "glorified" in the past tense (Romans 8:30). It is already an
accomplished fact in the mind and purpose of God.

In Christ, "the best is yet to be." —David C. McCasland (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC
Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI.)

For Paul, transformation into the glory of the Lord Jesus has already begun: “And we all,
who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image
with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18).

There is freedom in the glory that we will have. For the creation waits with eager longing
for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not
willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God”
(Rom 8:19-21). What will we be freed from? If redemption means being freed from the
penalty of sin, if justification means being freed from the guilt of sin, and if regeneration
means being freed from the power of sin, then glorification means to be freed from the
presence of sin.

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“we also glory in tribulations”

Note that peace with God does not necessarily bring peace with man. The actual conditions
of life, especially for believers in the midst of a hostile society, are not necessarily easy or
pleasant, yet we have cause to rejoice in these hostile conditions as explained below. Job
seems to have understood the value of this "process" to a some degree declaring that God

knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)

Paul says he exults, rejoices, even boasts in them, instead of murmuring and complaining
about them. So as we look at the role of afflictions in the Christian life, keep in mind that
they are any tests to your faith. Anything that makes life harder and threatens your faith in
the goodness and power and wisdom of God is tribulation. These are normal, not
abnormal. It would be abnormal for a Christian not to have them, as Paul taught the
churches [Acts 14:22 1Thes 1:5, 3:2 cp Jn 16:33 Heb 10:32,33]. Now, do you rejoice in
trials (NOT because of them!)? Have you learned to live on this level yet? Do you rejoice in
sufferings? Now, this is being ready for life.

“we shall be saved from wrath through Him”

Although God's wrath is continually being revealed (see Ro 1:18), this wrath is future.
Paul's point is that if you have been justified by faith (if you are a genuine believer), there is
no wrath to come for the child of God. The future wrath, in case you do not know, refers
generally to the Seven Bowl Judgments that will be poured out on the earth (according to
Revelation 16). It is my belief that Christians will still be on the earth during this time but
will be taken away (by the Rapture) just before the last Bowl of judgment is poured out.
This is the worst of them all.

Once more, Justification is the declaration that someone is Righteousness. Therefore, it is

appropriate that we now study the benefits of Righteousness.

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Benefits of Righteousness

Matthew 3:13-17 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized
of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest
thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto
him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And
lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Jesus had reached the age of thirty and was ready to begin His ministry on earth. But
before He launched His ministry, Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized. Now,
certainly, Jesus did not need to be baptized in John’s baptism (which was a baptism of
repentance since Jesus had no sin to repent from). For this reason, I believe, John was
initially reluctant to baptize Jesus but said that he ought to be baptized by Him instead.
Nevertheless, Jesus managed to convince John to do it by saying, “It is fitting for us to
fulfill all righteousness”.

What does “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” mean? Many say that Jesus was
reminding John about the many prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures about Him including
one that said that Jesus would be baptized in the river Jordan. So by John baptizing Jesus,
all the prophecies would be fulfilled, thus proving Jesus to be the Messiah. This point of
view sounds logical but it does not explain why ‘righteousness’ was mentioned. If Jesus had
the prophecies of old in mind, then why did He not just say, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all
prophecies”. But He said ‘righteousness’.

Righteousness is what someone has when he is in right standing with God; and it is usually
accomplished through total obedience to God’s commands. So far, Jesus had fulfilled
everything the law had required of him. Among other things, He was circumcised on the
eighth day of his birth, and He celebrated his first Passover at the age of 12. In short, Jesus
had kept every point of the law. With regards to the law, He was blameless. But here we

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have a prophet sent of God to preach and baptize people with the baptism of repentance.
Jesus, as part of recognizing the ministry of John, also viewed John’s baptism as a new
ordinance from God, and so wanted to participate in it. In this light, Jesus persuaded John
to baptize Him so that they could fulfill all righteousness.

But in reality (and this is partly speculative) what Jesus was doing was to partake in the Old
Testament commissioning ritual of a priest. According to the law, a priest had to undergo a
ritual cleansing (with water) and be anointed with oil before he could begin to serve as a
priest. This baptism was Jesus’ commissioning ritual. He was cleansed as He went into the
waters of the river Jordan, and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as He emerged from it.

Just as Jesus emerged from the river Jordan after He had been baptized by John, three
things happened. These three things are the benefits, if you will, or results of righteousness.
Because Jesus fulfilled all that the law required of Him, He was totally righteousness. No
fault could be found in Him.

1. Open Heavens

The first thing that happened, according to Matthew’s account of the event, was that the
heavens opened above Jesus. This implies that the heavens were closed before this time. But
now that Jesus was fully righteous, the heavens were open to Him.

Now that the heavens are opened above Jesus, Jesus could look into heaven and see what
the Father was doing. This is the reason Jesus said that He can do nothing of Himself but
does only what He sees His Father doing (John 5:19). In that sense, Jesus always knew the
Will of the Father because He is always looking and watching to see what the Father was
doing.

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2. Anointing of the Holy Spirit

When the heavens opened over Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon Him.
This is significant because although the Holy Spirit had been released to anoint men before
this, the Holy Spirit had never rested upon anyone. As soon as the task which required the
anointing of the Holy Spirit was done, the Holy Spirit returned to heaven. Jesus was the
first man on whom the Holy Spirit rested.

This explains why Jesus was always full of the Spirit, and had all power over demons and
evil spirits. Whenever He needed to heal someone, He had the ability to do so. He did not
have to fast and pray for a certain number of days just to muster the power He needs before
doing it. He just spoke the word, and it was done.

3. Pleasure of God

Finally, as the heavens were opened, a voice came forth. It was the voice of the Father. The
Father expressed His deep pleasure in Jesus saying, “In Him I am well pleased”. It is
important to note that up till this point of time, Jesus had not healed a single sick person,
He had not cast out a single demon, He also had not preached a single sermon, or raised a
single dead man. What reason did the Father have for being pleased with Jesus?

The Father was pleased with Jesus because He (Jesus) had been totally obedient to the
Father.

Now, before you think that, likewise, the Father will only be pleased with us when we
succeed in being totally obedient to Him let me say that it isn’t the case. Jesus had to be
totally obedient to God’s commandments and laws in order that He could be the acceptable
sacrifice: without blemish or fault. He must be innocent with regards to the law in order
that He could take upon Himself the sins of the world. And having accomplished all that,
Jesus is able to share His righteousness with those who trusts in Him. Concerning us, God
is pleased, the author of Hebrews tells us, when we have faith (Heb 11:6).

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Robe of Righteousness

You might be thinking right now “That’s all good. But Jesus is Jesus. What has that got to
do with me?” Well, it has everything to do with you because by your faith you have been
justified: declared righteous by God. And, in the same manner that the father placed the
best robe on the Prodigal Son when he returned, God also covered you with the “robe of
righteousness” (Isa 61:10). With this robe, you may stand in the presence of God without
fear of judgment or wrath.

Be clear, however, that the robe of righteousness only changes your standing before God
and not your state in the eyes of God. Your state remains sinful though your standing is
now changed from unacceptable to acceptable by God. God had deliberately made this
provision for us so that we could come COME HOME FIRST.

That’s right. God does not expect us to clean ourselves up before accepting us. He has a
better way: He makes us acceptable first by covering us with the ‘robe of righteousness’,
then cleans us up while we stand in His presence.

“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

Picture this: My ten year old son has gone out to play soccer with his friends. While he is
gone, I make the house spick and span. But to my horror, my son is covered with mud
when he came home. Should I allow him into the house that I had painstakingly cleaned?
Or should I tell him to go clean himself first before coming home? Any loving father would
know that the right thing to do is to let the boy in and help make him clean again. If that is
what an earthly father would do, would our loving heavenly Father not do the same for His
children? He knows that the only way that we will be truly transformed into His image (or
the image of His Son as He has predestined) is by standing in His presence and beholding

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His glory; not by standing afar off. The Robe of Righteousness allows us to stand in God’s
presence while we are being transformed.

Walking in righteousness

The Robe of Righteousness is not a vest that only partially covers you. It is not a jacket
either. It is more like a trench-coat that covers you, specifically your sinfulness, completely.
Therefore, it is crucial that you do not let it slip off because when that happens you
immediately become unacceptable to God and must be evicted from His presence. There
are a few ways that we may allow the Robe of Righteousness slip off or, more accurately,
strip ourselves of it.

1. Forgetting who we are

James talks in his epistle about a man who looks himself in the mirror, but forgets what he
looks like the moment he walks away (James 1:23-24). We must not be like this man. We
must keep reminding ourselves about who we are in Christ. This is made even more
essential by virtue of the fact that the world is constantly trying to tell us something else.

2. Committing sin

This is self-explanatory. Just as Adam was immediately rendered unrighteous because of his
sin, we too become unrighteous through sin. But be assured that there is still hope because
“if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS” (1 John 1:9).

3. Recalling past sins

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The devil is not called the Accuser for nothing. He is the Accuser because he is constantly
accusing believers about their past sins. A Christian who is not assured of God’s
forgiveness, that once God has forgiven a sin He also remembers it no more, will come
under condemnation.

Having said that, sometimes it is not the devil who is reminding us of our past sins, it is us
who do it. And not only do we remind ourselves of our past sins, we also remind God
about them in our prayers. I hope you are not doing either one of the above because you
will be doing the devil’s job if you are. Leave him do his job while you do yours, which is
to RESIST him. “Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from
you” (James 4:7).

People say that life is lived on a slope. If you are not moving forward, then you are moving
backwards; you cannot be standing still. If this is true for our natural lives, then it must also
be true for our spiritual lives. If you are not growing spiritually, then you must be
backsliding. Those who are not walking in righteousness or walking righteously through
obedience are, in fact, backsliding.

Fruit of Righteousness

John Wesley said, “I believe that God implants righteousness in everyone to whom He has
imputed it. Implanting is a lively horticultural metaphor, as distinguished from a
declarative, juridical metaphor. It requires daily nurturing, not a simple bang of a gavel.”35

The horticultural metaphor John Wesley alludes to can be found in John 15. Let’s read it.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does
not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may
bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

35
Thomas Oden, John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity: A Plain Exposition of His Teaching on Christian
Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 207, 208.

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Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in
the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you
can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and
withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By
this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”
John 15:1-8

The “fruit” here is the “fruit of the Holy Spirit”, which are “love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no
law.” (Gal 5:22, 23). The last part of the verse “against such things there is no law” simply
means that “those, whose lives are adorned by the above virtues, cannot be condemned by
any law, for the whole purpose and design of the moral law of God is fulfilled in those who
have the Spirit of God”36

In other words, those who have the fruit of the Spirit

have already fulfilled the law of God.

Obedience of Faith

Walter Elwell wrote, “Though they could never become righteous before God by their
efforts to conform their lives to his will, out of gratitude and love they are to serve him
because he has given them the gift of salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has pronounced them righteous, he has reconciled them to himself and removed their
alienation, and he has transformed their relation to him into that of friendship. Therefore,

36
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Galatians 5". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=ga&chapter=005>. 1832.

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since God has made them his own and given to them his righteousness, their duty and
privilege is to be righteous in conduct.”37

What does it mean to be “righteous in conduct”? Simply, it means to be obedient to God.

However, we should obey God not as a means to attain righteousness (because we have
already been made righteous) but because it is befitting of a righteous person.

Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as
he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has
been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy
the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed
abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. (1 John
3:7-9)

Obedience, Peter says, is the result of the sanctifying work of the Spirit (1 Peter 1:2). This
means that obedience should be as natural to Christians as calling God “Abba, Father” since
both are due to the Spirit’s empowering (Rom 8:15).

On one hand, the righteous are those who practice righteousness through obedience to
God’s commandments; on the other hand, “the righteous will live by faith” (Habbakkuk
2:4; Romans 1:17). When we put them together we see that our obedience is to be of faith
(Rom 1:5; 16:26). Obedience must be of faith because “anything that is not of faith is sin”
(Rom 14:23).

But faith in what or who? Faith in the Holy Spirit, of course. After all, isn’t the reason God
put His Spirit in us to cause us to walk in His statutes, to keep His judgments, and do
them? (Ezek 36:27)

37
Elwell, Walter A. "Entry for 'Righteousness'". "Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical
Theology". <http://www.studylight.org/dic/bed/view.cgi?number=T614>. 1897.

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