God is all about righteousness. Two paths to righteousness have been laid out. One is righteousness through God’s Law as explained in Romans 2:13, and the other is righteousness through faith, spelled out in Romans 3:21–22.
Righteousness through the Law is a little harder. Romans 9:30–33 describes abiding by the Law as a stumbling stone. How much easier, then, to manifest one’s righteousness through his faith in the Lord. That faith involves belief, trust and loyalty to God. On that point we are warned in the Old Testament that God is jealous. God, in Exodus 34:14, explains Himself as being a jealous God, as if, by use of a self-imposed indefinite article such as “a,” there are other gods. Whether God in this passage is trying to feign modesty, who knows? But the Command is given among the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” So, God demands our loyalty to him in Exodus 34:14, and he commands it in Exodus 20:3.
Those who are totally beholden to Him will find He may respond to what you ask Him, along with Jesus who does His Will. Jesus in John 15:7 says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
Given we live in a world of sin, complements of Satan, there will be times in our lives when we stumble whether we know it or not, whether we pursue righteousness through faith as well as through the Law. Forgiveness acts as a mechanism to give us hope that the Lord will forgive us for the sins we committed. But to expect to be forgiven, it is necessary that we confess our sins. I tell you even if you don’t know the sins you may have committed, you may get by in the confession booth by saying ‘Forgive me father for I may have sinned.’ If the receiver of your confession asks you what sin you may have committed, you may get by with saying, ‘For all the sins I’ve committed this past year, including the ones I don’t know of that are sins.’
At least it works for the Jews, who once a year on the Day of Atonement,’ the last stop before God closes the ledger on a person for the past year, express their sins in the plural through a prayer. The prayer is called Al Chet(“for the sin”), in which the person’s sin is not expressly identified but it is expressed as a litany of phrases that start with ‘For the sin which we have committed before You…’ One such phrase is, “For the sin which we have committed before You intentionally or unintentionally.” A related phrase is “For the sin which we have committed before You knowingly or unknowingly.”
And if your faith in God is genuine, and you ask something of him, He will respond. But as pointed out in the Second Book of James, your faith in God must be backed by your works. On the other hand, as pointed out in Romans 9:32, your works are worthless in terms of a path to righteousness if you have no faith in God; that Verse expressly says that to just pursue abiding by God’s Law, without also having faith in God Himself, would not put you on the path to righteousness.
Righteousness through the Law is a little harder. Romans 9:30–33 describes abiding by the Law as a stumbling stone. How much easier, then, to manifest one’s righteousness through his faith in the Lord. That faith involves belief, trust and loyalty to God. On that point we are warned in the Old Testament that God is jealous. God, in Exodus 34:14, explains Himself as being a jealous God, as if, by use of a self-imposed indefinite article such as “a,” there are other gods. Whether God in this passage is trying to feign modesty, who knows? But the Command is given among the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” So, God demands our loyalty to him in Exodus 34:14, and he commands it in Exodus 20:3.
Those who are totally beholden to Him will find He may respond to what you ask Him, along with Jesus who does His Will. Jesus in John 15:7 says, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
Given we live in a world of sin, complements of Satan, there will be times in our lives when we stumble whether we know it or not, whether we pursue righteousness through faith as well as through the Law. Forgiveness acts as a mechanism to give us hope that the Lord will forgive us for the sins we committed. But to expect to be forgiven, it is necessary that we confess our sins. I tell you even if you don’t know the sins you may have committed, you may get by in the confession booth by saying ‘Forgive me father for I may have sinned.’ If the receiver of your confession asks you what sin you may have committed, you may get by with saying, ‘For all the sins I’ve committed this past year, including the ones I don’t know of that are sins.’
At least it works for the Jews, who once a year on the Day of Atonement,’ the last stop before God closes the ledger on a person for the past year, express their sins in the plural through a prayer. The prayer is called Al Chet(“for the sin”), in which the person’s sin is not expressly identified but it is expressed as a litany of phrases that start with ‘For the sin which we have committed before You…’ One such phrase is, “For the sin which we have committed before You intentionally or unintentionally.” A related phrase is “For the sin which we have committed before You knowingly or unknowingly.”
And if your faith in God is genuine, and you ask something of him, He will respond. But as pointed out in the Second Book of James, your faith in God must be backed by your works. On the other hand, as pointed out in Romans 9:32, your works are worthless in terms of a path to righteousness if you have no faith in God; that Verse expressly says that to just pursue abiding by God’s Law, without also having faith in God Himself, would not put you on the path to righteousness.
