Do Acts of Righteousness Make One Righteous?

[J. Magee]

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

2 Corinthians 5:21
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.

Not what we do, but what Jesus did.

Much love!
mark

We should try to be righteous.

 

[charity]

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

2 Corinthians 5:21
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.

Not what we do, but what Jesus did.

Much love!
mark

' ... that I may win Christ,
And be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith: ... '
(Philippians 3:8b-9)

Hello @marks,

Paul's words (above) should be the echo of all our hearts.

Thank you.
In Christ Jesus
Chris

 

[charity]

'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.'
(Rom 10:1-4)

* This is a warning in itself, isn't it?! Israel failed to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God, but sought rather to establish their own righteousness, so failed of the grace of God.

In Christ Jesus
Chris

 

[marks]

This is a good Scripture - I had read it a long time ago but haven't read it lately. I strive to be holy as God tells us: "Be ye therefore holy as I am holy." So I think that God expects certain behavior from us. Of course we miss the mark but keep trying.

I love the way you end your posts with "Much Love!" It's very encouraging!

The glory of it is that we can be holy as God is holy.

At the end of the day, I believe that episkopos and I preach the same message, and that is it. We can share in God's holiness.

I'll let him agree or disagree. I think we just have different things to say on how we get there.

I believe as Peter wrote that God has already given us all we need to live this life. I believe that everyone can prove this to themself in five minutes time. It could be the next five minutes, or another five minutes later in the day.

It's just about temptation. Temptation is God allowing an opportunity to either sin or do righteousness, with the intent that when we endure, and choose rightly, that a certain thing is accomplished in our lives, rendering us better able to serve, and receiving more of the abundance.

Know this, that you can refuse to sin, and that's it, end of story. Sin has no power over you. You are dead to sin. You are not under law but under grace, and therefore, sin's power is gone.

Prove it with 5 minutes of denial of the flesh. Tempted to worry? Sing praise, read Scripture, pray, talk to someone about God, about Jesus, about The Way.

Tempted more heavily? Grab your Bible, and make yourself read for 5 minutes, looking for the Holy Spirit inside to deal with that flesh drive. Stand resolute for 5 minutes, trusting in the mighty hand of God to deliver from the storm. It is what He intends to do. Wants to do. Don't get ahead of Him, don't look to your own strength.

Focus on Him, He will deliver.

We all know this is true, right?

So, 5 minutes, then repeat. 10 minutes, then repeat. And so on.

I think that because we don't always remember to do this, that we all need to have for each other very much love!

Mark

 

[marks]

' ... that I may win Christ,
And be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith: ... '
(Philippians 3:8b-9)

Hello @marks,

Paul's words (above) should be the echo of all our hearts.

Thank you.
In Christ Jesus
Chris

Hi Chris,

Yes. To want what He wants for us, Christ's righteousness.

I believe that God wants to give to us great and wonderful things, and wants for us glory and riches beyond any of our imaginings. And how better to do that, not with any supposed righteousness from me? Instead, rewarded for Jesus' righteousness, and then adding on to that!

How wonderful is our God!

Much love!
Mark

 

[marks]

It appears you are trying to negate the need for being righteous mark.
When the scripture exhorts us to put away sin it is saying, be righteous. It does not tell us to resist the devil and from the other side of its mouth say, ha ha, all your efforts are worthless.

Your opposition to having righteous behaviour and quoting Isa 64.6 to imply it is futile to be righteous because God views it as filthy rags is a misunderstanding and a serious misrepresentation of its intent.

Hi quietthinker,

Please don't misunderstand. I by no means oppose having righteous behavior. I believe that is why God made us in the beginning, and why God redeemed. He wants for us to live in righteousness with Him and with each other.

Please keep my OP in mind as I'm posting, Do acts of righteousness make one righteous?

While God made us for righteousness, to live righteously, our doing so does not make us righteous. Without Jesus giving us His righteousness, we could attempt to do righteous acts all our lives long, but they would be, well, you know.

Having received righteousness from God, we can then go on to live in true righteousness. And there is no other right choice to make.

I don't think you have any idea of the heinous nature of sin therefore you can dismiss personal righteousness with a wave of your hand.

Does the above help?

Would it benefit you to give detail on what I think of sin? I don't think you have actually any idea of what I think, or why I hold such strong and deep views of the, well, you put it just fine, the "heinous nature of sin". But to be fair, I think there are many people who may not have been impacted by sin quite so much, and may think of others as having views more like their own.

The promise is to those who overcome. It is talking about overcoming that which is offensive to God, it is talking about walking a narrow trail that sits in opposition to the carnal nature, it is not turning the scripture into a tool to dishonour God by misrepresentation.

Your position is more dangerous than you realise.

The promise is to the overcomer, and we overcome by faith.

How is it that we oppose the carnal nature?

Much love!
Mark

 

[marks]

We should try to be righteous.

Hi J. Magee,

Absolutely! And, we should try to be righteous all the while knowing that we are able to be by believing that as we do the things God tells us to do, He will fill in where we lack, to empower our lives to be all about Him, all about others, and all about love.

And that is an abundant life!

Much love!
Mark

 

[marks]

'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.'
(Rom 10:1-4)

* This is a warning in itself, isn't it?! Israel failed to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God, but sought rather to establish their own righteousness, so failed of the grace of God.

In Christ Jesus
Chris

Hi Chris,

For all the progress we think we should be able to make by pursuing good behavior as an end unto itself, it will always, in my understanding, fall so far short of what God works in us as we simply remain in Him, trusting Him.

To remember that we are righteous, and that we are in the presence of our Creator, who considers not the works of our flesh, but only the righteousness of His Son in us, and the righteous deeds worked through us by His Spirit, why would we ever want to fall short of that?

Much love!
Mark

 

[farouk]

'Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.'
(Rom 10:1-4)

* This is a warning in itself, isn't it?! Israel failed to submit themselves unto the righteousness of God, but sought rather to establish their own righteousness, so failed of the grace of God.

In Christ Jesus
Chris

Paul indeed had such a burden for his compatriots; always longing that they would humble themselves and see the need for the righteousness of God imputed by faith.

 

[CoreIssue]

Is it just me or do someone this thread have a very legalistic definition of righteous?

Isn't even a small thing righteous or not?

 

[marks]

How does that go? A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not extinguish.

Romans 7 gives a great explanation of how it is that Law empowers sin. The more someone tries to live by Law, the stronger sin will be against them.

When we rest in the righteousness of Christ, we can also trust that He will carry us through.

Much love!
mark

 

[Soverign Grace]

The glory of it is that we can be holy as God is holy.

At the end of the day, I believe that episkopos and I preach the same message, and that is it. We can share in God's holiness.

I'll let him agree or disagree. I think we just have different things to say on how we get there.

I believe as Peter wrote that God has already given us all we need to live this life. I believe that everyone can prove this to themself in five minutes time. It could be the next five minutes, or another five minutes later in the day.

It's just about temptation. Temptation is God allowing an opportunity to either sin or do righteousness, with the intent that when we endure, and choose rightly, that a certain thing is accomplished in our lives, rendering us better able to serve, and receiving more of the abundance.

Know this, that you can refuse to sin, and that's it, end of story. Sin has no power over you. You are dead to sin. You are not under law but under grace, and therefore, sin's power is gone.

Prove it with 5 minutes of denial of the flesh. Tempted to worry? Sing praise, read Scripture, pray, talk to someone about God, about Jesus, about The Way.

Tempted more heavily? Grab your Bible, and make yourself read for 5 minutes, looking for the Holy Spirit inside to deal with that flesh drive. Stand resolute for 5 minutes, trusting in the mighty hand of God to deliver from the storm. It is what He intends to do. Wants to do. Don't get ahead of Him, don't look to your own strength.

Focus on Him, He will deliver.

We all know this is true, right?

So, 5 minutes, then repeat. 10 minutes, then repeat. And so on.

I think that because we don't always remember to do this, that we all need to have for each other very much love!

Mark

I can tell that you and Episkopos have a gentle spirit. You get to know what a person is about by their posts. This was very well said. It's hard to do God's will at times - I think we've all experienced that.

 

[marks]

It's hard to do God's will at times - I think we've all experienced that.

Hi Soverign Grace,

I'd say it's not just hard, it's impossible for the flesh. But the permanent state of the new creation.

Paul wrote, "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

The flesh always rebels against God. The new creation always serves God.

Any time we find ourselves reluctant to trust . . . that is the mind of the flesh. Reluctant to yield in the ways we should, that is the flesh. The spirit wants to serve, wants to trust, wants to love, that's what we are made for.

We don't love because we don't trust. We don't serve because we don't trust. When we know God is here, right here with me, with me with plans for my day, works to walk in, God to shepherd me into and through them, the just, by His Faith, they live!

We sin because we don't trust. We don't believe His way is the Good way. So we feel we have to find another way.

God told His people through the prophet to "stands at the ways, and look, and ask of the Lord what is the good way, the eternal path".

We have that eternal pathway built into us, and we can follow it right up to the stars!

God's will for us is to be holy, and loving. We want to be holy and loving. Being holy and loving is a good good life. All that's missing . . . do you believe?

Much love!
Mark

 

[farouk]

How does that go? A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not extinguish.

Romans 7 gives a great explanation of how it is that Law empowers sin. The more someone tries to live by Law, the stronger sin will be against them.

When we rest in the righteousness of Christ, we can also trust that He will carry us through.

Much love!
mark

Galatians makes it clear that the law is our schoolmaster, or pedagogue, which leads us to Christ. (No point in spending the day in the school bus, once we have arrived at school, right?)

 

[marks]

Galatians makes it clear that the law is our schoolmaster, or pedagogue, which leads us to Christ. (No point in spending the day in the school bus, once we have arrived at school, right?)

I've long thought about why it is that people are afraid to get off the bus?

I think some want to hold on to Law thinking that they can add righteousness somehow. As if their own brand of righteousness is worth anything at all!

I wonder, if some think that without a written law to follow, how can they be sure? Can I really trust that God will bring spiritual self control into my life, and that He will keep me where I need to be?

I think sometimes people may be afraid, and not trusting, and are afraid that unless they are trying to keep the Sinai covenant, then they are in danger of doing wrong. So there is this idea that somehow I can do a better job of fixing myself than God can.

Or there is the idea that I can't be so miserable as all that, surely there is something I can add to my righteousness! Some believe that by keeping a Law they can point to that as showing them better than others.

And there is the idea that, OK, someone will say, keeping the Law doesn't make me righteous, but it shows that I am righteous.

But that's the whole point. It doesn't.

Pharisees had acts of righteousness under the Law. But they were not righteous.

Doing acts of "righteousness" does not make one righteous.

The sinner who beat his chest, and wouldn't even look to heaven, that one went home justified.

How righteous did he look to others? To the Pharisee?

What we think we add to righteousness is not.

When the Lawgiver tells me that I am dead to the Law, then to insist otherwise, well, wouldn't that be going against the Lawgiver?

Much love!
Mark

 

[farouk]

I've long thought about why it is that people are afraid to get off the bus?

I think some want to hold on to Law thinking that they can add righteousness somehow. As if their own brand of righteousness is worth anything at all!

I wonder, if some think that without a written law to follow, how can they be sure? Can I really trust that God will bring spiritual self control into my life, and that He will keep me where I need to be?

I think sometimes people may be afraid, and not trusting, and are afraid that unless they are trying to keep the Sinai covenant, then they are in danger of doing wrong. So there is this idea that somehow I can do a better job of fixing myself than God can.

Or there is the idea that I can't be so miserable as all that, surely there is something I can add to my righteousness! Some believe that by keeping a Law they can point to that as showing them better than others.

And there is the idea that, OK, someone will say, keeping the Law doesn't make me righteous, but it shows that I am righteous.

But that's the whole point. It doesn't.

Pharisees had acts of righteousness under the Law. But they were not righteous.

Doing acts of "righteousness" does not make one righteous.

The sinner who beat his chest, and wouldn't even look to heaven, that one went home justified.

How righteous did he look to others? To the Pharisee?

What we think we add to righteousness is not.

When the Lawgiver tells me that I am dead to the Law, then to insist otherwise, well, wouldn't that be going against the Lawgiver?

Much love!
Mark

Yes, we need to get off the bus.

 

[marks]

Once I realized that I am righteous both by God's declaration, and by God's act of creation, everything changed.

How to get off that bus?

Much love!

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

2 Corinthians 5:21
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.

Not what we do, but what Jesus did.

Much love!
mark

Deuteronomy 9:3-5
[3] Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said unto thee. [4] Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. [5] Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Hebrews 12:29
[29] For our God is a consuming fire.

 

[marks]

Hebrews 12:29
[29] For our God is a consuming fire.

One of the greatest truths in the Bible! He's going to burn away everything bad!

Much love!
Mark

 

[VictoryinJesus]

One of the greatest truths in the Bible! He's going to burn away everything bad!

Much love!
Mark

Consider:
...He already is.