Righteousness through grace

Guest posts-Inspirational Monday

“God is an angry God! He never seems pleased with his people!” That’s the impression I had about God after reading the first four books of the Old Testament. All I read were stories of God giving strict laws to his people and mass killings of all who disobey him. Boy, he must be a destructive force! So the all-knowing God knew that man could not fully obey his law, yet he gave them those laws. Hmmm, this is strange indeed.

Sin separates us from godAfter inspiration from the Holy Ghost my impression changed. In my opinion the laws were not just given; they were given to prove to man that no one in himself and on his own could fully please God, except by the undeserved favor of God.

By this, I’d like to introduce the concept of Grace. Grace is unmerited favor. Righteousness is being right with God. Simply put, righteousness through grace is being right with God as a result of no effort of ours. Let me explain further. The sin of the first man brought separation between God and man. In order to be right with God therefore, God required our obedience of his statues and laws. In the Old Testament therefore, our right standing with God was subject to our obedience to His law. I can prove this with scripture via the words of Moses:

[stextbox id=”custom”]”And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.” Deuteronomy 6:5[/stextbox]

God’s people were inadequate and this often led to disobedience of His laws and subsequent destruction of all who disobeyed them.

God therefore thought about this and said, “There must be a better way”. He therefore provided the atonement sacrifices, which would allow an animal to be sacrificed on behalf of a man, thus atone for his sins. Sadly however, the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement provided a ‘covering over’ of sins and not a taking away of sin. God therefore needed a better way to do this. He therefore sent his son, Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. Our righteousness therefore now does not depend on our strength; rather, it is based on our belief in Jesus Christ. As the bible puts it:
[stextbox id=”custom”] “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” Romans 3:20[/stextbox]

How then are we justified?

[stextbox id=”custom”]“But now a righteousness from God, apart form the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe…” Romans 3: 21-22[/stextbox]

That’s it! The verse above sums it all up! I’m tired of seeing Christians trying hard not to sin to please God! Our righteousness is as a result of our faith! Yes, our faith in Jesus Christ!

Of course, one may ask whether I’m endorsing sin or not. Indeed, should we sin whilst grace abounds? All these are valid questions; I’ll however save those discussions for another day. What do you think?

[stextbox id=”info”]This is a guest post written by Yaw Ansong Jnr. He is a Christian entrepreneur with the personal vision and mission of sharing the gospel via modern technology. He is the founder and CEO of the LoveRealm Ministry which can also be found on Facebook.[/stextbox]

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