The Gospel According to John: "The Feast Days of God"

The Gospel According to John: John 7a:1-13: “The Feast Days of God.” by Romans

We are continuing in our review and examination of the Gospel According to John. Tonight we will be looking at the first 13 verses of Chapter 7:

John 7:1: “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.
2  Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.
3  His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
4  For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.
5  For neither did his brethren believe in him.
6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.
7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
8  Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
9  When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.
10  But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
11  Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?
12  And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.
13  Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.”

The first thing that catches our attention, here, is that we are specifically told that Jesus' half-brothers did not believe in Him.” That can almost be understood. What kid growing up is willing to believe that his older brother is the actual promised Messiah, and Savior of the World? But the New Testament records for us that after the resurrection, there was an apparent turnaround in the beliefs of Jesus' half-brothers. We read in Acts 1:14: “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” It was this same group, apparently, who was gathered on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, and Scripture tells us they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. We know for certain that James, Jesus brother, became a Christian, He also became the Bishop of the the Jerusalem Church, and is seen clearly in control of the proceedings of the first Church Council recorded in Acts 15. And He is the author of the Epistle of James. But, during His earthly ministry, Jesus brothers were neither followers nor believers in Him.

Now let's back up a tad and take a look at Verse 2: “Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.”

There were a number of Feast Days that God ordained to be observed by Israel as proscribed in the terms of the Old Covenant.: The Passover; the Days of Unleavened Bread; the lesser known Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; The Feast of Tabernacles; and The Last Great Day.

I would like to take a sizable chunk of my time tonight to review and explain these days. They are almost all completely overlooked in Christian circles. Since they are so rarely taught, it follows that they are not so well understood. Let's see if we can resolve that situation, tonight. I will be frequently using a book called, “The Feasts of the Lord” by Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal. This book helps us to understand how these Feast Days were observed by ancient Israel. I have made every effort to put quotation marks around direct quotations from this book. Any omissions of quotation marks are inadvertent. I here give full credit to “The Feasts of the Lord,” for those occasions where I paraphrased its descriptions without due credit.

A Study of the Holy Days of the Old Testament is a fascinating Study to undertake, with deep Spiritual rewards.
Much can be learned from such a Study, and I would like to share with you what I have learned about them.
We will take them in the order they were observed, then we'll do a review flyover, and then go back for one last pass and zero in on one that is, perhaps, the least familiar of them, but one which, nevertheless, also has great significance and application to us, today: The Feast of Firstfruits.

The Passover has an obvious, great spiritual significance. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus, he declared, in John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” But there are also many subtle, spiritually significant details about the Passover Lamb that are not part of our normal teaching. The Passover lamb was to be a perfect lamb without defect, spot or blemish, chosen from the flock, in its prime. It was to be chosen on the 10th day of the Month of Nisan, and killed on the 14th day of the month at even. It would come to live with a family where they could personally observe its fitness. In their time together, the family could come to fully appreciate its innocence, and unworthiness to die. The Passover lamb was to be killed in the middle of its fourth day by the whole assembly. All of the people would be responsible for its death. No bones of the lamb were to be broken.  Christ's was in the middle of His fourth year of ministry when a whole assembly demanded his death. None of His bones were broken. As the original Passover lamb enabled the Lord's Judgment to pass over the people, all who were under its blood were passed over by the Angel of Death. As Paul wrote in
1 Corinthians 5:7: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” This literal realization of this event, with all of its symbolic demands fully met, took place at the very time the Jewish Community was shedding the blood of the traditional Passover lambs, in preparation of their upcoming Feast Days.

The Days of Unleavened Bread: 1 Corinthians 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1 Corinthians 5:7  ¶Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
1 Corinthians 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Pentecost: “The early or Spring Harvest.” and the Birthday of the Christian Church occurred ON this Feast Day.
Jesus used the analogy of a Harvest on several occasions:
Matthew 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Matthew 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

In the city of Sychar in Samaria, Jesus told His disciples in John 4:35, “I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

Pentecost is the only  Feast Day from the Old Testament that is observed on the Christian calendar, but many Christians have no clue regarding its Old Testament roots. Spiritually speaking, this early Harvest refers to the gathering of those who are being called into the Church. On the Christian Calendar it is the Birthday of the Church.

The Feast of Trumpets (plural): Christ returns and the Resurrection takes place at the blowing of the seventh Trump. So here we see a progression of at six preceding trumpets (plural) being blown signifying End Time Events.  Regarding Christ's return to rule as King from Jerusalem, we read in Revelation 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Regarding the Resurrection, we read in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The Seventh Trump is the same last trump that announces Jesus' Return to the earth.

The Day of Atonement, or At-One-Ment, as presented in The Feasts of the Lord: On this Feast Day, two identical goats were chosen to take part in the observance. Two lots were placed inside a golden vessel and shaken. One lot was labeled for Jehovah. The other “for azazel.” (This English meaning of this Hebrew term is not fully understood.) The High Priest shook the vessel and drew the lots, one for each goat. The goat which drew the lot marked for Jehovah would be sacrificed as a sin offering. This sin offering was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. Scripture tells us the fate of the azazel or scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21, “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22  And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” I have heard some say that the scapegoat or azazel was also fulfilled by Jesus, but I am not sure I can agree. Yes, it had all the sins placed on his head, and took them away out into the wilderness, but the first goat accomplished taking away our sins by paying the death penalty for sin. We know that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan early in His ministry. But over three years later, Jesus died, and was raised to Life, but not to be led into any wilderness. No... the scapegoat goat is led, alive, and out into the wilderness. I agree with those who say that this goat represents Satan. Another clue that this goat represents Satan can be found where Jesus includes information about angels, at the end of an answer on another subject. We read  in Luke 20:35: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: 36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels.” Satan is an angel, and cannot die. So this live goat is lead into the wilderness alive. This is the Atonement: Jesus dying that we might live. And Satan bearing not the penalty, but bearing the responsibility for our sins, as temptor and enemy of our souls.” This is the Atonement: God and man, at Jesus' return are atoned, or, set at one.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the great Fall Harvest, also called Ingathering.
In His parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus said in Matthew 13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest:” and in verse 39, “The enemy that sowed them (the tares) is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” On a Spiritual level we can see it as the gathering in of all of the godly living and dead at the End of the Age to be together at last for all Eternity.

The Last Great Day is seen by some as representing the White Throne Judgment, but I cannot be more specific than that. There are a variety of interpretations, each of which have their own valid claims. But the jury is still out on that, and I won't present it until I can do so with a clearer understanding of it, that I can defend from the Word of God.

So there is a physical / spiritual flow of events taking place in which all of God's Holy Days, that He had the Jews' observe for centuries, individually and as a whole had the same deep and profound spiritual significance as most people recognize in the Passover observance. All the Holy Days as they transpired during the year were previews and forecasts of God's Great Plan of Salvation that He was working out. The Jews were as oblivious to it as they were when they had Christ nailed to a cross while Passover lambs were being killed for that night's meal. Here is a verse that proves that the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover. Notice John 18:28: “Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover.” The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” So while Jesus endured the brutal scourging in silence, and then as He died on the cross, as a lamb to the slaughter, all of the rest of Judea was busy slaughtering the Passover lambs that had pre-envisioned Jesus' sacrifice for centuries. And they were all completely blind to
the incredible significance of the events happening right in front of their eyes!

I do want to do one more flyover of the the Old Testament Holy Days and zero in on a seeming minor footnote to them , but which has great significance for us. And most Christians completely miss it due to their unfamiliarity with Old Testament Feast Days and observances.

The Passover is probably the most well-known and familiar Old Testament Festivals to us today. But there is a significant thing that took place right after the Passover that was also a spiritual forecast of Jesus Christ.

Leviticus 23:5  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover.
6  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
7  In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
8  But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
9  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11  And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

From a book called the Feasts of the Lord, we read, “Firstfruits marked the beginning of the cereal grain harvests in Israel. Barley was the first grain to ripen. For Firstfruits, a sheaf of barley was harvested and brought to the Temple as a Thanksgiving Offering to the Lord for the Harvest. It was representative of the barley harvest as a whole, and it served as a pledge, or a guarantee that the remainder of the Harvest would be realized in the days that followed.” Now... when do you suppose this presented?

Listen carefully...

On the morrow after the sabbath that follows the Passover the priest shall wave it. So following the Passover, and on the next day following the weekly Seventh Day Sabbath which is what? the first day of the week, on that day, the firstfruit of the Harvest is presented to God. And that is exactly when Christ presented Himself to God. He told Mary Magdelene, on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath, after the Passover in John 20:17: “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” Jesus was the firstfruit of the Harvest, or as the Apostle Paul phrased it in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” Jesus was not the first person raised from the dead. There was Lazarus, the 12 year old daughter of Jairus, and several others that we can name. But when they came back from the dead, they were raised to a renewed physical life and they died a second time. Jesus was the firstfruits from the dead, or as Paul phrased it another time in Colossians 1:18, he called Chrsit “... the firstborn from the dead.” Unlike Lazarus, and Jairus' daughter and Dorcas and Eutychus, Jesus was raised from the dead and He is alive forevermore. But there are several other things I want you to see about the Feast of Firstfruits. It is not one of the more familiar Old Testament feasts, and, as the Feast of the Lord book says, it was “not as strongly emphasized in the Hebrew Scriptures as the other Levitical feasts, (it) forms an important backdrop to New Testament teaching.”

“Paul spoke of Epeanatus as 'the firstfruits of Achaia (Romans 16:5),” or the first of the converts from Achaia. “Paul again used this imagery when he spoke of salvation as the 'firstfruits of the Spirit.'”

James also applied this Feast to fellow-Christians. “Speaking of believers as set apart to the Lord,
James taught (in James 1:18) “Of His own Will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

And lastly, the Apostle John, much later, in the Book of Revelation “describes a special group of 144,000... who will be sealed just prior to the opening of the seventh seal... John describes these 144,000 as 'redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”

It can be argued that all of these Feast Days, including the lesser known and seemingly less significant Feast of Firstfruits, and see that God unveiled, chronologically, using agrarian parables, or farming symbolism, His Plan of Salvation. And, significantly, each of the Spiritual events in His Plan, that have already taken place, occurred on the actual days that God ordained them to be celebrated!!

Before we get back to the main text for today, let me just say, so that there is no confusion as to what I am saying, or where I am going with this. We read in Leviticus 23:4: “These are the feasts of the LORD , even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” As a direct command of the Old Covenant, the Children of Israel were required to observe these days. They were celebrated in Israel as “annual Sabbath Days.” God said to Moses in Exodus 31:13: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.”
 When Gentiles became members of the Church, there were Jewish Christians who understood that these days should continue to be kept by them, and all Gentile converts. It seemed pretty open and shut: “These days were to be observed throughout your generations...” But other Jewish Christians disagreed.

There were other things God said His people would observe “throughout their generations” that we, as Christians no longer observe: For example,
Exodus 29:42  This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations...

Do we offer, or should we offer burnt offerings, today, as Christians. No.

Exodus 30:8  And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.

Do we burn, or should we burn perpetual incense, today, as Christians? No.

Exodus 30:10  And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.”

Do we, or should we offer the blood of sin offerings, today, as Christians? No. We read in Hebrews 10:4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

In order to be preaching a unified Gospel, and in order to address the division that was taking place in the Church, a decision had to be made in the early days of the Church, as to whether or which Old Testament Laws such as circumcision or these Feast Days should be required to be kept, in order for Gentiles should  become Christians. And we read of that decision when it was made, beginning in
Acts 15:14  Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15  And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16  After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17  That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
18  Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
19  Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood...

Skipping to Verse 23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment... :
Skipping to Verse 28: “For it seem good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”

The Holy Days that ancient Israel observed have great spiritual significance. There is much that we can learn from them, and we would do well to study them and be blessed by what they impart to us. But there is no New Testament indication let alone Command, that we are required to observe them to be saved.
Yes... it is true that  Leviticus 23:4: tells us, “These are the feasts of the LORD...” But they were Feasts observed as part of a Covenant that had been ratified between Israel and the Lord. Jesus was that Lord who mediated the Covenant, as I conclusively proven in several past Discussions. When He died, the Covenant was terminated. We read in 15: “And for this cause he (Jesus) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16  For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.” In the same way that the terms of a will are not activated until the person who wrote the will dies, so the New Covenant was activated when Jesus died, and the terms and conditions and requirements of the Old Covenant were terminated.”

But the Jews who killed Jesus did not see Him as the Lord, or the Creator God, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was just a blasphemer who claimed to be equal to God by calling Himself the Son of God. When He died, they did not see a cessation of the terms of the Old Covenant. They still regarded these Feast Days as the “Feasts of the Lord.” But the Apostle John know the reality. The ratifier of the Old Covenant and the testator of the New Covenant was dead, disabling the Old, and Enacting the New. So in each of the occasions he refers to these Feast Days, John never calls them a Feast Day of the Lord. On two occasions, one in John 5, and the second, here, he calls them a “feast of the Jews.” The phrase “feast of the Lord, or “Feast of the Lord” do not occur anywhere in the New Testament! As far as the Jews were concerned, the Old Covenant was still in force, and they were still keeping these days, even though they completely missed their spiritual significance, NOT TO MENTION their literal fulfillment which happened right before their eyes!!!

Now I know that was a major digression from the flow of events here in John's Gospel, but I hope you can agree that it was a profitable digression, made in an effort to shed light on things that seem to be rarely discussed from many pulpits these days.

But let's get back to John 7: Read John MacArthur 7:1-13, and then individual verses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee,.... That is, after he had fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, near Bethsaida; and had had that long discourse with the Jews at Capernaum, concerning himself, as the bread of life, and about eating his flesh, and drinking his blood; and had been up to the feast of the passover at Jerusalem, said to be nigh, when he went over the sea of Galilee, John 6:4; otherwise the above places were in Galilee: but the case seems to be this, that after he had been at Capernaum, he went to Jerusalem, to keep the passover; and finding that the Jews still sought to take away his life, he returned to Galilee, and "walked" there; he did not sit still, or lie at home, and live an inactive indolent life, but went about from place to place, preaching the Gospel, and healing diseases; he walked, and walked about; but not as the enemy of souls, seeking to do all mischief, but to do all good, to the bodies and souls of men:

for he would not walk in Jewry; in the land of Judea, where he had been, and tarried, and made disciples; but being rejected and ill treated, he left them; which was a prelude of the Gospel being taken from them, and carried to another people; which afterwards took place, in the times of the apostles: his reason for it was,

because the Jews sought to kill him; for healing a man on the sabbath day, and for asserting his equality with God: not that he was afraid to die, but his time was not come; and he had work to do for the glory of God, and the good of men; and therefore it was both just and prudent to withdraw and preserve his life; for like reasons he advised his disciples, when persecuted in one city, to flee to another: and very lawful and advisable it is for good men, when their lives are in danger, to make use of proper means to preserve them, for further usefulness in the cause of God, and for the benefit of men.

Read all of page 81 in the Smart Guide.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Spake openly of him - The word translated "openly," here, is commonly rendered "boldly." This refers doubtless, to those who really believed on him. His enemies were not silent; but his friends had not confidence to speak of him openly or boldly that is, to speak what they really thought. Many supposed that he was the Messiah, yet even this they did not dare to profess. All that they could say in his favor was that he was a good man. There are always many such friends of Jesus in the world who are desirous of saying something good about him, but who, from fear or shame, refuse to make a full acknowledgment of him. Many will praise his morals, his precepts, and his holy life, while they are ashamed to speak of his divinity or his atonement, and still more to acknowledge that they are dependent on him for salvation.

This section of John 7 closes with the words in verse 13:
13 “Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.”

But it can be a fear of many things that cause Christians to remain silent about the belief in God and/or Scripture, and/or Faith in Christ. No matter what is behind a person's reluctance to unashamedly declare his being a Christian,  I am reminded of these sobering words of Jesus: We read in Mark 8:38: “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

But I want to close this evening on a positive note:

Jesus also said in Revelation 3:5: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Of this we read in Gill's Exposition of the entire Bible:

“But I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels; which shows that Christ has an exact and perfect knowledge of all the chosen ones, he knows them by name; and that he has a strong and affectionate love for them, and is not ashamed of them, of their cause, of their persons, and of their relation to him; and that he does and will own, acknowledge, and approve of them, both here and hereafter: and the confession he will make of them will be in their praise; in praise of their persons and the comeliness of them, which he has put upon them; and of their graces, though they are his own; and of their good works as the fruits of grace: and this will be made before his Father, who chose these persons, and gave them to him to preserve and save; and before the angels, who rejoice at their salvation and happiness; and this will be at the last day.”

This concludes this Evening's Bible Study: The Gospel According to John: Chapter 7: Verses 1-13: “The Feast Days of God.” This Discussion originally delivered “live,” on Thursday, April 16th, 2015

The Trinity

The Trinity (my understanding)

I wanted to share with you guys my understanding of the Trinity of God.

The Trinity of God is much more than like an egg that has 3 parts, (white yoke, and shell) or the 3 states of water, (liquid, solid, and vapor). The Trinity is all about the image of God that we were created in.

Some may say the trinity of man is body, soul, and spirit. This may be true but it is not the “image” that the Word is talking about in Genesis.

Gen_1:26  Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;…

There are three things and only three things that describe the full capabilities of mankind. These three abilities are; thought, words, and deeds. These three abilities are what separate us from ever other living thing. This is the “image” that we share with our Lord. Of course we cannot separate these three abilities into three persons, we are not gods. The Father is the ‘thought” behind everything, the Son is the Word that calls it forth, the Spirit is what makes it a reality.

This Trinity of God is seen working together throughout scripture.

In creation – the Father thought of what to create and when,  the Son called it forth, and the Spirit, (hovering over the face of the waters) made it a reality.

Jesus raising Lazarus – Jesus called him from the grave, but it was the Holy Spirit that filled his rotting corpse and brought him out of the tomb.

In revelation (man’s trinity) - Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. When all three capabilities of a man are of the flesh and this world, he is surely doomed.

Only the Father knows - Mat_24:36  "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. Jesus is God, so why doesn't He also know the day and hour. It is because that is the part of the Trinity that is the Father.

I could go on, but I think you get my drift.

God bless

The Bait of Satan

I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist

Psalms (Dramatic Audio Theater)

Audio by Word of Promise

God’s love is:  Self starting: 
It originates with God

1 John 4:10 NKJV, God’s Word tells us:  “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

In the NLT version, it reads:  “This is real love--not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

So if the love God has for us, comes from God…. can we make it go away?

We can choose not to accept it.  We can choose not to walk in it.

But can make it null and void?  Or is it forever?  

[strong]God’s love is:  Indestructible [/strong].

Romans 8:38-39 KJV reads:  “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The NLT reads:  “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Have you ever considered that word “nothing”?  And then looked at the long list of what nothing includes?

not death… not life… not angels… not demons…. not our own FEARS….not our own worry…. not any power of hell… no power in the sky or user the earth …in fact NOTHING not ONE THING can destroy God’s love for YOU.

How does that make you feel?  Can YOU destroy His love for you?  Can what others think or do or say?

[strong]God’s love is:  Undeserved[/strong]

Romans 3:23 KJV reads: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

The NLT reads: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.”

See?  We ALL sin.  All of us mess us.  Most likely every single day.  If we don’t mess up (sin) in actions, we sure do in our thought life.  Like when we are really hurt or angry.

But God already knew that about us.  He LOVES us with a love that is UNDESERVED.  Yes, even when you sin, he LOVES you.  Even when “they” sin he loves them too.

[strong]God’s love is:  Compassionate[/strong]

Isaiah 49:15-16 KJV reads:  “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

NLT reads "Never!  Can a mother forget her nursing child?  Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?  But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!  See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.  Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem's walls in ruins.”

This may be difficult for some to read.  Your mom may have deserted you or been emotionally distant or worse. However, even then God know, he cares, he understands and RIGHT THIS MINUTE offers you HIS compassionate healing and tender love.

Know this: GOD is your heart healer. 

[strong]God’s love is:  Constant![/strong]

Jer. 31:3 KJV reads:  “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”

The NLT reads:  “Long ago the LORD said to Israel:  "I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.  With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.”

EVERLASTING LOVE…UNFAILING LOVE, LOVINGKINDNESS sort of love.  PTL!

[strong]God’s love is:  Immeasurable[/strong]

Eph. 3:18-19 KJV reads:  “May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The NLT reads:  “And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.  Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Love without measure.  Love so big, we cannot begin to truly understand it.

How are you all feeling about now?  Is your heart full?

[strong]God’s love is:  Voluntary[/strong]

Romans 5:18 KJV reads: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life”.

NLT reads:  “Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.”

God chooses to LOVE you.  Yes, you and me too.  And that is why JESUS had to die on the cross.

[strong]God’s love is:  A Gift[/strong]

John 3:16 JKV reads:  "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

The NLT reads:  "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

God so loved… loved you and me so much that he GAVE his son, his very life so that we could be with him and KNOW his love.

[strong]God’s love is:  Made Possible By Jesus[/strong]

John 1:14-18 KJV reads:  “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.  John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.  And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

The NLT reads:  “So the Word became human and made his home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.  John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.  From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God.   But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart.  He has revealed God to us.”

God’s love is:  Made Possible By Jesus

John 1:14-18 KJV reads:  “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.  John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.  And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

The NLT reads:  “So the Word became human and made his home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.  John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.  From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God.   But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart.  He has revealed God to us.”

Psalm 84 sums it up for us. Let’s read it out loud (if you can) together as our closing prayer.

PSALM 84

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

I long, yes, I faint with longing

to enter the courts of the LORD.

With my whole being, body and soul,

I will shout joyfully to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and raises her young at a place near your altar,

O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!

What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.

What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD,

who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,

it will become a place of refreshing springs.

The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.

They will continue to grow stronger,

and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.

LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer.

Listen, O God of Jacob.

God, look with favor upon the king, our shield!

Show favor to the one you have anointed.

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!

I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God

than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.

For the LORD God is our sun and our shield.

He gives us grace and glory.

The LORD will withhold no good thing

from those who do what is right.

O LORD of Heaven’s Armies,

Blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

I want to thank each one of you for coming and I pray you have a wonderful and blessed day basking in God’s love!

The Righteousness of God

The Righteousness of God





Introduction

The righteousness of God, one of the most prominent attributes of God in the Scriptures, is also one of the most elusive. Initially, distinguishing the righteousness of God from His holiness or His goodness seems difficult. In addition, the righteousness of God is virtually synonymous with His justice:

While the most common Old Testament word for just means ‘straight,’ and the New Testament word means ‘equal,’ in a moral sense they both mean ‘right.’ When we say that God is just, we are saying that He always does what is right, what should be done, and that He does it consistently, without partiality or prejudice. The word just and the word righteous are identical in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Sometimes the translators render the original word ‘just’ and other times ‘righteous’ with no apparent reason (cf. Nehemiah 9:8 and 9:33 where the same word is used). But whichever word they use, it means essentially the same thing. It has to do with God’s actions. They are always right and fair.

God’s righteousness (or justice) is the natural expression of His holiness. If He is infinitely pure, then He must be opposed to all sin, and that opposition to sin must be demonstrated in His treatment of His creatures. When we read that God is righteous or just, we are being assured that His actions toward us are in perfect agreement with His holy nature.30

These words by Richard Strauss bring us very close to a concise definition of righteousness. Righteousness, in relation to men, is their conformity to a standard. Unlike men, God is not subject to anything outside of Himself. No one states this better than A.W. Tozer:

It is sometimes said, ‘Justice requires God to do this,’ referring to some act we know He will perform. This is an error of thinking as well as of speaking, for it postulates a principle of justice outside of God which compels Him to act in a certain way. Of course there is no such principle. If there were it would be superior to God, for only a superior power can compel obedience. The truth is that there is not and can never be anything outside of the nature of God which can move Him in the least degree. All God’s reasons come from within His uncreated being. Nothing has entered the being of God from eternity, nothing has been removed, and nothing has been changed.

Justice, when used of God, is a name we give to the way God is, nothing more; and when God acts justly He is not doing so to conform to an independent criterion, but simply acting like Himself in a given situation. . . God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.” 31

We must then say the righteousness of God is evident in the way He consistently acts in accord with His own character. God always acts righteously; His every action is consistent with His character. God is always consistently “Godly.” God is not defined by the term “righteous,” as much as the term “righteous” is defined by God. God is not measured by the standard of righteousness; God sets the standard of righteousness.

Abraham and the Righteousness of God
(Genesis 18:16-33)

23 And Abraham came near and said, “Wilt Thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; wilt Thou indeed sweep [it] away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from Thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are [treated] alike. Far be it from Thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” 26 So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.” 27 And Abraham answered and said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am [but] dust and ashes. 28 Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, wilt Thou destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy [it] if I find forty-five there” (Genesis 18:23-28).

The righteousness of God is introduced very early in the Bible in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. This attribute is the basis for Abraham’s appeal to God for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God is described anthropomorphically (in human-like terms) here as having heard the “great outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah” (verse 20). I wonder from whom this outcry came. One likely possibility is “righteous Lot, whose righteous soul was vexed by the wickedness of these cities” (see 2 Peter 2:6-8).

In the judicial terminology of our day, God was unwilling to act solely on the basis of hearsay. It was His intention to “go down” to this place and find out for Himself whether these allegations were true. Now of course we know God is omniscient. He knows all. He did not need to “take a trip to Sodom and Gomorrah” to see if these cities were really wicked. He knew they were wicked. But, from our point of view, God wants us to know He acts justly. He acts on the basis of information of which He has personal knowledge. Thus, when God judges these cities, He does so justly for they were truly wicked.

I find it interesting that verses 17-21 precede the account of Abraham’s intercession for these cities. God knew what He was going to do. What He purposed to do was righteous and just. But God wanted Abraham to be a part of what He was doing. If God was to act justly, He was simply acting consistently with His character. But involving Abraham was also consistent with His covenant with him and the goal of this covenant. God’s purpose for calling Abraham and making a covenant with him is spelled out in verses 17-19:

17 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed? 19 For I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him” (Genesis 18:17-19, emphasis mine).

God’s purpose for calling Abraham and making a covenant with him was for Abraham to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice and to teach his offspring to do likewise. Righteousness is the divine goal for Abraham and his offspring.

When God informed Abraham He was about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham began to intercede for them. His concern was for the righteous in those cities. How could God possibly destroy these cities if there were righteous men and women living in them? If God destroyed both the wicked and the righteous without distinguishing them, then God would not be acting righteously or justly. And surely God, as “the Judge of all the earth,” must act justly (verse 25).

Abraham proceeds to intercede with God on behalf of the righteous. Beginning with 50 righteous, Abraham petitioned God not to destroy these cities if 50 righteous could be found. Eventually, Abraham was able (so it seemed) to lower the required number of the righteous to as few as ten (verse 32). But there simply were not ten righteous in these cities. There were but four (if one includes Lot’s wife). But God, in His justice, would not deal with the wicked in a way that punished the righteous as well. He did not spare the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but He did spare Lot and his family by rescuing them from the city of Sodom before the angels destroyed them.

We see here in the Book of Genesis God’s purpose in calling Abraham and his offspring: to raise up a people characterized by righteousness and justice. God not only showed himself to be righteous and just, He also worked in Abraham’s life to show he was a man who loved righteousness and justice.

God’s Righteousness and the Nation Israel

God’s righteousness was to be seen in His every dealing with the nation Israel:

6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt. 7 So now, take your stand, that I may plead with you before the LORD concerning all the righteous acts of the LORD which He did for you and your fathers” (2 Samuel 12:6-7).

God’s righteousness in His dealings with the nation Israel has various manifestations.

(1) God reveals His righteousness by revealing His will and His word to the world through the nation Israel.

5 “See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. 6 So keep and do [them], for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him? 8 Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:5-8; see also Psalm 33:4).

God deals with men on the basis of what He has revealed to them. He often tells men what He will do well in advance of the event so they will know God is God and that He has accomplished what He promised:

21 “Declare and set forth [your case;]. Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me” (Isaiah 45:21).

What God has not revealed does not need to be known (see Deuteronomy 29:29). All that is necessary for “life and godliness” has been revealed to us (see 2 Peter 1:4) so that we are fully equipped (2 Timothy 3:14-17).

(2) God reveals His righteousness by instructing men in His word.

8 Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way (Psalm 25:8).

Often this instruction came through the levitical priests (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 24:8; Nehemiah 8:9; 2 Chronicles 17:7-9) or through the prophets like Moses (Deuteronomy 4:1, 5, 14; Exodus 18:20).

(3) God reveals His righteousness by fulfilling His promises.

8 “And Thou didst find his heart faithful before Thee, and didst make a covenant with him to give [him] the land of the Canaanite, of the Hittite and the Amorite, of the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite—to give [it] to his descendants. And Thou hast fulfilled Thy promise, for Thou art righteous” (Nehemiah 9:7-8, emphasis mine).

(4) God reveals His righteousness by judging the enemies of Israel.

27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time; the LORD is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked ones” (Exodus 9:27).

13 Before the LORD, for He is coming; For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, And the peoples in His faithfulness (Psalm 96:13).

God likewise shows Himself to be righteous when He judges the nation Israel for their sin and disobedience:

1 It took place when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong that he and all Israel with him forsook the law of the LORD. 2 And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the LORD, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem 3 with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were without number: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. 4 And he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. 5 Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, ‘You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you to Shishak.’” 6 So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous” (2 Chronicles 12:1-6).

15 “O LORD God of Israel, Thou art righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as [it is] this day; behold, we are before Thee in our guilt, for no one can stand before Thee because of this” (Ezra 9:15).

7 “Righteousness belongs to Thee, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are near by and those who are far away in all the countries to which Thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against Thee. 8 Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee” (Daniel 9:7-8).

(5) God reveals His righteousness in the way He rules.

6 Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom (Psalm 45:6).14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Thy throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before Thee (Psalm 89:14, see also Psalm 97:2).

(6) God reveals His righteousness in His hatred and in His anger.

5 The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates (Psalm 11:5).311 God is a righteous judge; And a God who has indignation every day (Psalm 7:11).32

(7) God reveals His righteousness in His protection of the poor and the afflicted.

12 I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, And justice for the poor (Psalm 140:12; see also Psalm 12:5; 82; 116:6 below).

(8) God reveals His righteousness when He shows mercy and compassion.

5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate; 6 The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me (Psalm 116:5-6).

18 Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. The LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are those who long for Him (Isaiah 30:18).

(9) God reveals His righteousness in saving sinners.

2 The LORD has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3 He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God (Psalm 98:2-3). 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).

I believe this to be a very significant aspect of God’s righteousness. God is righteous in saving sinners. So often we think God’s righteousness is revealed in His judgment of sinners and His mercy by His salvation of sinners. The Scriptures teach that God’s righteousness is the cause of both condemnation and justification. He is righteous in saving sinners, as well as merciful and compassionate. God is righteous in all His dealings with men, indeed in all His dealings.

The righteousness of God and the justice of God are not secondary matters; they are primary. The righteousness or justice of God is to be the guiding principle for the people of God. When the Old Testament prophets sought to sum up the essence of the Old Testament teaching regarding man’s conduct, it was that men practice righteousness or justice:

21 “I hate, I reject your festival, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. 24 But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21-24).

6 With what shall I come to the LORD And bow myself before the God on high? Shall I come to Him with burnt offerings, With yearling calves? 7 Does the LORD take delight in thousands of rams, In ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my first-born for my rebellious acts, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8).

When summarizing the very essence of what the Old Testament Law was about, Amos and Micah both spoke first of justice and righteousness. God is not interested in a legalistic keeping of the Law, as though one might make himself righteous by so doing. God is interested in men seeking to know the heart of God and pleasing Him by doing that in which He delights and that which He does.

The Righteousness of
God in the New Testament

If righteousness and justice are the heart of the Old Testament Law, they are also at the heart of the dispute between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees.33 At the very outset of His earthly ministry, Jesus set out to contrast His interpretation of the Old Testament teaching on righteousness with that of the scribes and Pharisees. In reality, Jesus did not offer a “new” interpretation of righteousness or of the Law; rather He sought to reestablish the proper understanding of righteousness as taught in the Law and the Prophets. Thus, Jesus repeatedly used the formula, “You have heard it said. . .” (“This is what the scribes and Pharisees teach.…”), “But I say to you.…” (“But the Old Testament was meant to be understood this way.…”).

The scribes and Pharisees thought of themselves as setting the standard for righteousness. They felt that they, of all men, were righteous. Jesus shocked all when He said,

20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).

It was clear that if the scribes and Pharisees could not produce enough righteousness on their own, no one could. The standard of righteousness the Law held forth was even higher than that of the scribes and Pharisees. No one was righteous enough to get into heaven. What a shock to the self-righteous who thought they had box office seats in the kingdom.

If Jesus shocked His audience when He said those who appeared to be the most righteous would not make it into the kingdom on their kind of righteousness, He also shocked them as to who would be “blessed” by entrance into the kingdom: those the scribes and Pharisees thought unworthy of the kingdom. Those blessed were not the scribes and Pharisees, but the “poor in spirit,” those who “mourn,” the “gentle,” those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” the “merciful,” the “pure in heart,” the “peacemakers,” and those who are “persecuted” on account of their relationship with Jesus (Matthew 5:3-12).

Jesus taught that true righteousness is not that which men regard as righteous based upon external appearances, but that so judged by God based upon His assessment of the heart:

15 And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).

The Scribes and Pharisees, who thought themselves so righteous because of their rigorous attention to external matters, proved to be just the opposite when judged by our Lord:

28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Consequently you bear witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? 34 Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:28-35).

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned against externalism and ceremonialism.

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).

According to Jesus, true righteousness is vastly different from the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. False righteousness is measured by men on the basis of externalism. True righteousness is judged such by God, in accordance with His Word. Because of this, men need to beware of attempting to judge the righteousness of others (see Matthew 7:1). Those whose deeds seemed to indicate they were righteous were those whom God denied ever having known as His children (Matthew 7: 15-23). Those who appeared to be righteous were not, and those who appeared unrighteous by the Judaism of that day may well have been righteous.

It is no wonder then that Jesus was not regarded as righteous by many of the Jews but was considered a sinner:

16 Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, “This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.… 24 So a second time they called the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He therefore answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (John 9:16, 24-25).

The great division which arose among the Jews was over the issue of whether Jesus was a righteous man or a sinner (see John 10:19-21).

The Old and New Testament leave no doubt in our minds whether the Lord Jesus was righteous. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah as the “Righteous One” who would “justify the many” (Isaiah 53:11). Jeremiah spoke of Him as the “righteous Branch” (Jeremiah 23:5). When Jesus was baptized, it was to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). Both Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27:19) and the soldier at the foot of the cross (Luke 23:47) acknowledged His righteousness at the very moment when men were condemning Him.

The apostles likewise bear witness to the righteousness of Christ:

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).

29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him (1 John 2:29).

The righteousness of God is particularly important in relation to salvation. In Romans 3, Paul points out God not only justifies sinners (that is, He declares them righteous), but He is also shown to be just (righteous) in the process:

21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law (Romans 3:21-28).

Men have failed to live up to the standard of righteousness laid down by the Law (Romans 3:9-20). God is just in condemning all men to death, for all men without exception have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). All men are worthy of death because the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God is just in condemning the unrighteous.

But God is also just in saving sinners. As Paul puts it, He is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). How can this be? God is just because His righteous anger has been satisfied. Justice was done on the cross of Calvary. God did not reduce the charges against men; He did not change the standard of righteousness. God poured out the full measure of His righteous wrath upon His Son on the cross of Calvary. In Him, justice was meted out. All of those who trust in Him by faith are justified. Their sins are forgiven because Jesus paid the full price; He suffered the full measure of God’s wrath in their place. And for those who reject the goodness and mercy of God at Calvary, they must pay the penalty for their sins because they would not accept the payment Jesus made in their place.

The cross of Calvary accomplished a just salvation, for all who will receive it. But we also know that only those whom God has chosen—the “elect”—will repent and trust in the death of Christ on their behalf. This raises another question related to divine justice. After clearly teaching the doctrine of divine election, Paul asks how election squares with the justice of God, and then gives us the answer:

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 9 For this is a word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? 22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles (Romans 9:6-24).

The question assumes that divine election has been taught by Paul as a biblical fact. If it were not so—as it clearly is—the question would not have been raised by Paul. And if there is no such thing as election, Paul could have simply brushed the question aside as illogical and unreasonable. But Paul assumes the truth of election and the possibility that some might object on the grounds that election would make God unjust. Paul first rebukes the one who dares to judge God and pronounce on His righteousness. How presumptuous can a man be? Should God stand before the bar of human judgment? Of course not!

As seen in chapter 3, God is righteous in that He has condemned all, and in Christ, those who are justified have been punished and then raised to newness of life. God is also righteous for judging all those who refuse to accept His offer of salvation in Christ. God would be unjust only if He set aside justice rather than fulfilling it in Christ, whether by His sacrificial death at His first coming or by His judging the unbelieving world at His second coming.

Divine grace, the grace by which God reaches out to save men from their sins, is meted out not on the basis of men’s merits but in spite of men’s sin. Grace, as we shall later emphasize in another message, is sovereignly bestowed. God would be unjust only if He withheld blessings from men which they deserved. Since God is free to bestow unmerited blessings on any sinner He may choose, God is not unrighteous in saving some of the worst sinners, while choosing not to save other sinners. God does not owe salvation to anyone, and thus He is not unjust in saving some and choosing not to save others.

The good news of the gospel is that salvation by grace is offered to all men, and by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, men may be forgiven of their sins and made righteous:

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

Conclusion

If sin is the manifestation of our unrighteousness and we can be saved only through a righteousness not our own—the righteousness of Christ—then the ultimate sin is self-righteousness. Jesus did not reject sinners who came to Him for mercy and salvation; He rejected those who were too righteous (in their own eyes) to need grace. Jesus came to save sinners and not to save those righteous in their own eyes. No one is too lost to save; there are only those too good to save. In the Gospels, those who thought themselves most righteous were the ones condemned by our Lord as wicked and unrighteous.

If we are among those who have acknowledged our sin and trusted in the righteousness of Christ for our salvation, the righteousness of God is one of the great and comforting truths we should embrace. The justice of God means that when He establishes His kingdom on earth, it will be a kingdom characterized by justice. He will judge men in righteousness, and He will reign in righteousness.

We need not fret over the wicked of our day who seem to be getting away with sin. If we love righteousness, we most certainly dare not envy the wicked, whose day of judgment awaits them (see Psalm 37; 73). Their day of judgment is rapidly coming upon them, and justice will prevail.

If we realize that true righteousness is not to be judged according to external, legalistic standards and that judgment belongs to God, we dare not occupy ourselves in judging others (Matthew 7:1). We should also realize that judgment begins at the house of God, and thus we should be quick to judge ourselves and to avoid those sins which are an offense to the righteousness of God (see 1 Peter 4:17; 1 Corinthians 11:31).

The doctrine of the righteousness of God means that we, as the children of God (if you are a Christian), should seek to imitate our heavenly Father (5:48). We should not seek to find revenge against those who sin against us, but leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:17-21). Rather than seeking to get even, let us suffer the injustice of men, even as our Lord Jesus, that God might even bring our enemies to repentance and salvation (Matthew 5:43-44; 1 Peter 2:18-25). And let us pray, as our Lord instructed us, that the day when righteousness reigns may come:

10 “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

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