The Gift of God's Righteousness

Anyway, brethren, humanity has a great purpose. God's purpose for us is to be his sons and daughters in his kingdom. That is a huge, amazing purpose that many of us don't fully grasp it. It's just so big. It's beyond any physical imagination that we may even start to think. But to achieve that great purpose, God gave us the most precious gift that he could give. And that is the life of his own only begotten son.

And we are going to be remembering that, and we heard through some of the announcements soon at the Passover. So today, brethren, I want to talk to you about a very special benefit, which is an outcome of that greatest gift God has given us. And this very special benefit is often little understood. And so to start, I'd like you to turn with me, please, to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2.

And we're going to start in verse 6. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 6. Because, yeah, we see the amazing fact that God is creating many sons. Hebrews 2 verse 6.

He says, but one testified in a certain place, saying, What is man that you're mindful of him? What are we? We're nothing. We're a piece of dust. And you know, when we are ill, we really can feel it. That we're nothing. You know, it's just, at times we feel so bad, so frail, so weak. We are nothing.

And then he says, You may him a little lower than angels. You crown him of glory and honor. Obviously, it is a duality. Because it's talking about Christ, but it's talking about us as well. There's a duality.

You've set him over the works of your hands. You put all things in subjection under his feet. So that obviously is Christ.

But, and then he says, for in that, he put everything in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put under him. But now, we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus. And he says, we do not yet see all things put under him. Now he has a duality, because it's us, mankind. Not all things are under us as well. Also, not all things are under Christ yet as well. Because this world, God is allowing temporarily Satan to run wild. And we know things are just going wrong at a higher and higher speed every day. But verse 9, he says, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might face death for everyone. By the grace of God. By the grace of God towards us. As we are in the sermon, sometimes we go through trials for others. Verse 10, for it was fitting for him, that's the Father, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. It was fitting to God the Father to make the captain of our salvation, that's Christ, perfect through suffering. But the purpose, the ultimate outcome, is to bring many sons to glory. To be and to have the glory of a God being in the form of God, as a son of God, is something that we can barely think and understand and comprehend. And so, God the Father was prepared to give us the greatest gift that he could have ever given, by giving his only son, son's life. So that we would be redeemed, so that we would be brought back from death, so that mankind, all people, good and bad, would resurrect. And indeed, all will resurrect, good and bad. He's brought us all back to life. And we all die. We all know that. Sooner or later. And this is because we sin. The wages of sin is death. Who has not sinned? Tell me who has not died? Well, we all die. Our antecedents, great-great-grandfathers, grandparents, great-grandtails, etc. They all die. So, the wages of sin is death. And we know in Romans 6.23 says, but the gift of God is eternal life. The gift. It's a gift. So, God has a plan, has a purpose, a pre-defined, pre-determined, pre-destined purpose to bring all of us to salvation. All mankind, all! Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 8 and 9. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 8 and 9. But let us, the war of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, of faith and love, to such important points. And we're going to talk a lot more about faith today and love. And as a helmet, the hope of salvation, you know, there's these three. Faith, love and hope. The hope of salvation, the hope, this knowledge that God wants us to be saved is a hope, a hope that should, that we need to keep well in our minds. That's why it's a helmet, and to put it in our minds, to be so clear in our minds that whenever our trials come, remember, God wants you. Regardless of how big your trials and my trials are, God wants you there. And He wants it so much that He gave His own Son to die and suffer for you.

Would you give your own Son, if it was your only Son, and allow your Son to be died, if someone was dead, to be somebody else?

But not Him.

For God did not appoint us to wrath. God did not appoint us to punish us.

But He appointed us, He predestined us, to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus the Christ. God has predestined us to salvation through Jesus Christ. Everything is through Christ. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 8 through 10. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 8 through 10. Remember that Jesus Christ, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings of the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with the Holy Call. I mean, ultimately we're not fully saved yet, but He has rescued us out of the muck of this world so that we understand the truth. So we are in one way safe from this mess, but we're still going through a life of our coming to ultimately be saved. Right? With a Holy Call. In other words, He gave us a calling to get out of the world, not according to our words. You know, God called us when we cared less about Him. He stretched out His hand first and He called us. Not us, not me. He called us. Not according to our words, but according to His own purpose. And what's His purpose? To make us His children in the kingdom of God and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus. In other words, He has purposed us and He has decided to do this graciously, kindly. His generosity to us, decides to do to us before time began. That is, before the heavens were created, because you get time from the movement of the sun and the moon and all that and the rotation of the earth. So that's when time began as we understand it. So that's when it began. So it's before time began, He had already decided, the Father and the Son, God and the Word, had decided, that's what He's going to do. And to achieve success in this, they had decided that Christ would have to die. God's determination, it was God's purpose, and graciousness, kindness and mercy and loving grace, through Christ, was given to us before the creation.

Look at verse 10. But it has now been revealed, in other words, it has only now with Christ coming, first coming, that we understand that this is the purpose. We fully understand it. It has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death.

Well, we're still dying, but it's as good as God, because He will resurrect us. He has abolished death for all mankind, and brought life, and the possibility of us having eternal life and immortality, and not die again, to life through this outstanding, exciting, wonderful, good news message. Brethren, this is big. This is big. Now look at John chapter 3, verse 13.

This is after the story about Nicodemus, and then he says, Yeah, no one has ascended to heaven. That's very clear. Nobody's in heaven. They're not out there looking down at you today. That's very clear. And now everybody says, Oh, well, you know, but, you know, He's looking at you, or she's looking at you. Now He's not. They're dead.

Except He who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man. The human beings, the only one that has gone out back to heaven is Jesus the Christ, who is in heaven now, of course. And continuing in verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Remember the story? You know, they were doing things wrong, and then they were dying left, right, and center by this plague of being bitten by serpents, and then put up a pole, and then put a serpent there, and then whoever looked at that serpent, then they would be healed.

As Moses lifted up the serpent, even so, the Son of Man, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. You know, Christ was also crucified, and as we look to Christ crucified, our sins are passed over, because His blood washes us. Verse 15, That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. So Christ was crucified on a pole, and He gave His life for us.

And provided we believe in Him.

What do we mean, believe in Him? Because it says here, He says, we gotta believe who Christ is. Believe in Him. We're gonna believe who He is. That depth of the sacrifice He's done. Yeah, because He was lifted up on that pole, and He died for us. And we're gonna believe His message, what He told us to do.

Now, do we understand the depth of that sacrifice?

Do we understand the actual cost and the benefit of that sacrifice? The benefit to us? We saw that that sacrifice was decided before the world was created. And you know what? God is faithful, and He committed to do it, and He did it, and He paid the price. His yes is yes, and His no is no. And then, when our time comes that God calls us to leave our ways and follow that way, that great purpose, and understand that purpose. And when it opens our minds to see this, how do we respond?

What is our responsibility?

And yeah, it is. How do we need to respond? It's to believe.

That's what it is. He says, yeah, in verse 15, whoever believes in Him, that's our responsibility, to believe.

Believe what? That He will achieve it, that He will complete it, that He will make you and I a Son of God. He has committed, He has invested, He has invested His life, and He will do it.

He will give us eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

That's what we're going to do. We're going to just believe. Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, we don't have to do anything. Wait. We do have to do something. We have to respond correctly. But the starting point is we need to believe.

Our part is to believe that He's able to perform and follow by trusting Him.

We've got to trust Him. To do what? To achieve that purpose that God is giving us through His Son's life.

Then, in the end, we're going to have the hope of eternal life as a gift.

But, this gift of Christ's life to us has a much misunderstood additional benefit. As I mentioned in my introduction, there is a very special benefit, which is an outcome a little understood that I want to address today. Continuing in verse 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whomever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

So, the gift of His life is the greatest gift that you and I could have.

God, by still, gave His whole.

And, quite often, we think of His life. He died, He gave His life, and He enhanced it. But, I want to emphasize that when He gives His life, He includes in that act of giving the benefit of giving His justice in us. In other words, His righteousness in us imputes in us God's righteousness.

What do I mean? Because to have eternal life, you and I need to be righteous because the wages of sin is death, right? So, we've got to be righteous. But no one is righteous. So, checkmate, right? So, how do you get out of the checkmate?

You see, our righteousness is filthy rats. You know that. You can read that in Isaiah 64 verse 6. We all like an unclean thing, and all our righteous like filthy rats. We all fight as a thief, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. So, our works are a piece of junk. Or useless. Or useless. They only have one wage, death, because sooner or later we're going to do something wrong. We're going to sell. And so, Yah is the benefit of God's greatest gift. He gave his life for us, and he imputes God's righteousness on us. Imputes means accounts, credits, attributes as being done. He credits God's righteousness upon us.

Let's get back to the Jews. The problem with the Jews, of the Judaism, let's call Judaism in general. The Jews, particularly around Christ's start. They didn't believe in what? Number one, that Jesus Christ's words were true. You know, that he's the bread of life, that he's eternal life, that we receive that bread through Christ, Christ in us. And two, they didn't believe that he was the Messiah. And even the apostles said, you read that in John 6, run about 58 through 69, that he said, We believe that you are, after the words of life, the words of truth, and that you, we also come to believe and to know that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

But the Jews didn't believe that.

Now, a very enlightening scripture is Romans chapter 10. So let's go to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. We're going to start reading in verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, it was, in general speaking, the Jewish community, Judaism and whatever, but it's more than just the Jews, it's the whole heart of Israel. But, okay, my, my heart's desire and prayer for them is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. And so, like today, I could say, being of a gentile descent, I could say, a lot of people, for instance, in Brazil, are very committed to God. I mean, the current stress that in Brazil, I was hearing from people in Uberlandia, saying that people are kneeling in front of the hospitals crying and kneeling and praying because they got no hope. Many of them are crying, they got no food. It really is bad. One of the, a Reverend told me that the door, the roads are closed at 8 o'clock p.m. And anybody on the street after 8 o'clock p.m. goes to jail for three months. From 7 o'clock p.m., everybody starts driving like mad, missing robots, missing, I think, about traffic lights, going through red lights, etc. And there's been accidents because they want to be home by 8 o'clock.

Another lady that I was going to visit said, don't come now because the city where the airport is and the city where she is, they've blocked the road and nobody's allowed to go from the airport to the city where she is. And they've started that the day before yesterday. So, this just grew up in the last two or three days to measures beyond. But, I can say a lot of those people are zealots for God.

They're very religious.

But not according to knowledge. But Paul says, yeah, in verse 2, not according to knowledge.

Verse 3, take note of verse 3. For they be ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, their own self-righteousness through the law. They have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

It's easy to read over this and not get it.

But those people are ignorant of God's righteousness.

How can you and I trust in our own righteousness? One time I was talking to somebody else and he said, oh, the important thing is righteousness. We got to be righteous. Yes, we have to be righteous, but it's not our own self-righteousness. Oh, wake up!

How can you and I trust in our own righteousness if it's a filthy rag?

No one is righteousness. We cannot trust in our own self-righteousness. And then look at verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And what people say, oh, therefore we don't have to obey the law. You see, Christ is the end of the law. Goodbye law. That's not what it's saying. That is not what it's saying.

Let's get it clear.

How is Christ the fulfillment of the law? Yeah, because end of the law is the fulfillment of the law. He's actually accomplished fulfilling the law.

Even now, for instance, in Matthew 5, 17 and 18 says, I have not come to destroy the law, but I've come to fulfill it. He's the fulfillment of the law. How is he fulfilling the law and the prophets? I'm going to give you a simple example. We're coming to the Passover. What happened in Exodus 12 on the first Passover?

They had to kill a lamb, and they had to put the blood on the dog-pals and on the lentil.

And that was the Passover lamb, right?

Isn't that in the law? Right!

So Christ fulfilled that meaning by being our Passover lamb. He fulfilled the law. The law pointed to Christ. He fulfilled the law. He is our Passover lamb. He is the lamb that died on the 14th of Nisan, the 14th of the Hebrew calendar as we have it today. I'll give you another example. In Leviticus chapter 1 through chapter 5, there are five sets of sacrifices, you know, like the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. What do those offerings in the law point to?

Christ's sacrifice. So Christ fulfilled the law.

Also many prophets told, well, there's going to be a, you know, you read in Isaiah 53 and things like that, prophecies about Christ coming. He fulfilled those prophecies. So when it says, I did fulfill the law and the prophets, that's what it is.

And furthermore, it also means that He obeyed the Lord to the full.

He filled it up the way He obeyed it. He set an example. And don't we have to imitate Christ?

Of course, yes. In fact, in Matthew 5, 19, it says, our righteousness has to exceed the righteousness of the Sadducees and the Thevices.

And you can read that and say, wow, those guys were so quote-unquote righteous. Look at the things they did, you know. And you say, well, I don't do that. But you see, that was self-righteousness. As we read in verse 3 of Romans 10.

They'd be ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness. Have not submitted to the righteousness of God. You see, that was just self-righteousness. And that's filthy rags before God. That's why our righteousness has to exceed greatly over theirs. How can our righteousness exceed greatly? Only if it's God's righteousness. And how can we have God's righteousness? Because He imputes it on us.

He gives us freely.

Or does it mean therefore we don't have to obey the Lord? No!

Because we must believe, of course, that God will do what He said He will do. And then He will impute on us His righteousness.

And that's how the righteousness that we have, because He's imputed on us, is for exceeds the Pharisees and the Septuases.

Let me give you an explanation, in a slightly different way, of how I usually explain it to people when I go through baptism counseling.

I give an example, and I say, imagine you. And so I'm counseling with a person individually, and I say, imagine you. So put your own name in there, and imagine yourself. Imagine that you have been some type of criminal that you've made a crime, which is basically went to court, and basically you've been sentenced to death, or at least to life in prison. In some countries there's no death sentence, but there is maybe life in prison. I know many of them go to life in prison, and then after a few years they're getting free for no reason, and they don't know why. But that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, let's imagine that you're in jail, and you know you're going to see the sunny little squares till the day that they pull the button and say goodbye.

And you're there. And what's more, you know you've done wrong. You know you're guilty. And there's no way of you getting out of it. You're condemned.

And then one day, the jail man comes there and opens the door with another person next to him.

Let's say it's Kirby. Sorry, Kirby. I hope he don't mind. He does, you know. So he comes there with another person, and he says, Listen, put your name there. He says you can get out. You're free.

What are you going to think? For the matter? I'm condemned? I've got the electric chair waiting for me, or whatever. I'm waiting for this date where they're going to pull the button, or they're going to poison me, and whatever put me to sleep. Why I'm free? Well, because this man Kirby believes that he can go in jail for you, and he'll give his life for you. And he believes that you, once you're free, you're not going to do it again, and you're going to become a better person. And he said, really? Yeah. And you're free. He's not free. What did you do to deserve that? Zero. Did you believe that that was going to happen before? No. You didn't even believe in that. And you did zero works to deserve it. It's just that somebody came and said, let him free. You know what? That's what God's doing to you and I through Christ.

He said, put your name there. You can get out, scot-free. You've done nothing to get out scot-free. Nothing. You didn't even believe in it. But God put out his hand first, he's called you and pulled you out and gave his son, and you now scot-free.

What's your reaction? What is your response? Are you going to go back and commit the same mistake? So that you go back into jail and then Kirby's going to say, I did it all the way. Of course not. You're now going to try your best not to do it again.

But you were saved out of jail freely, but now that you are free, you better do your best to stay clean.

We all sin. Look at Romans chapter 3 verse 9. Romans chapter 3 verse 9. Romans chapter 3 verse 9.

What then? Are we better than they? Are we better than the Jews or something like that? No! For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they all understand. As it's written, none is righteous, no, no one. We all sin.

And look at verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Lord.

A man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Lord.

Oh! I've got so much faith that I'm justified. No! No!

You see that example, that guy that was in jail, yourself, you had no faith that you're going to get out. It was somebody else that believed that had faith in you and gave his life for you and got you out.

God has a plan for you and I, and God believes and trusts, and that's his oath, of course, that once he gives you the sacrifice, you will respond in a positive way.

So it's the faith of Christ, the faith of God towards us.

Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, by... there's a trust, there's a mutual trust that is going to be developed. We have to know that God has shown us this great promise. We've got to believe that he can do it. But on the other side, he also believes in us that we're going to respond positively. Otherwise why would he do it? Imagine if all of mankind would reject God after giving Christ's sacrifice and nobody would ever have eternal life. Would have God done and given his only begotten Son for us? He believed that after this great sacrifice, we would respond, at least the great majority of us. It's the faith of Christ. We're justified by the faith of Christ, not by my faith, because my faith is useless. Imagine all. I have to have more faith so that I can be justified. And then it's my works. I don't have faith. I don't have faith. Enough for that. I'm grown in faith, but I don't have enough. It's the faith of Christ that opened the door for us, the faith of God in us. They opened up, they extended first their hand, and they called us, and we had this opportunity. Apart from my deeds of the law, what I've done is nothing like that man in the jail, but nothing. He didn't even expect to be freed. And suddenly came upon him and he's out on the road.

Look at Romans 2, Romans 2, verse 13. Romans 2, verse 13. It's just a chapter before, in the same book, the same writer talking to the same people, and look in verse 13, he says, For not the years of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. In other words, after you get out of jail, and you know this, you can now continue breaking the law, otherwise you're going to go back to jail. You now have to do your part, so that ultimately, at the end, you will indeed be justified. It's as if you're being justified temporarily, conditionally, but now you've got to do your part, you've got to respond, so that in the end, ultimately, you will be finally justified.

This is the law that's not done away. We must do our part. We're going to try our best. But you know what? We still talk in rags. We still fail. We're still not good enough. And unless God's righteousness is imputed upon us, we are useless. And that's an amazing benefit from this gift that Christ gives us, that God's gives us.

Look at chapter 2, Romans 2, verse 29. But He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit. So what it means is that once we recognize this, and once we start seeing what God is doing for us, our heart and our mind, our attitude changes. We start comprehending ever, even just faintly. We start comprehending this greatest gift, and we want to change.

And then, this very special benefit is given upon us. This very special benefit is given upon us, which is, Christ in us, the bread of life, imputes upon us God's righteousness in us.

And God's righteousness exceeds greatly that of the scribes and pharisees.

Look at Romans 3, verse 9 and 10. We read that. It says, we all have sinned since. So we go back to that, and then let's just jump a little bit forwards to verse 20. So that's the context. We'll have sinned. And then in verse 20 it says, Therefore, by the deeds of the flesh, no one will be justified. We are not getting out of jail because of what we did.

For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Yeah. You're not breaking the traffic law and saying, Well, I'm not going to break this traffic law. I'm not going to break the traffic law. I'm not going to pay the traffic law. It's not going to pay your fine. You're going to go and say, Well, yes, you're fine because of previous times you've crossed the traffic light in red. Yes, you're fine. Oh, but over the last six months I have not crossed. Therefore, does that pay the fine for you? No. The law only tells you what is right and wrong. It doesn't pay the fine for you. It doesn't justify you.

It's two different things. The law only identifies what's right and wrong. It doesn't pay the fine. Christ, Christ's love bought us back from death, life for life. He gave his life for our life.

But look at here, verse 21. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets. God's righteousness is revealed. How? Because what Christ had to do and fulfill, and he had to die for us, and that was witnessed by the law. The law that means, for instance, like I gave the example of Exodus 12 and Leviticus 1 through 5. It pointed to Christ and the prophets, you see. So that, but now we understand what that sacrifice is, what the law was trying to say. Verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ. Read it in the King James Version. Through the faith of Jesus Christ. It's not the faith in Christ. It's the faith of Jesus Christ.

To all and on all who believe. For there's no difference. For all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. We all fall short of God's great glory of his righteousness. We all fall short of it. Being justified freely by his grace. By his loving kindness. By what he's done for us. It's him, it's Christ. Through the root of redemption that is in Christ. It's Christ faith, it's Christ sacrifice. It's what Christ giving us that's making us scot-free.

It's not that you and I can say, oh well, I feel guilty. I've got, I don't have enough faith. Before I don't know if I'm going to be saved because I don't have enough faith. I have a little faith. We all have little faith. None of us can move a mountain. If you can, come and tell me.

So, we have little faith. But it's Christ faith. So, and this is also because of Christ's blood that clears our previous sins. And then it gets down to the point that it says, does this do away with the law? Look at verse 31. No! Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law.

Because now that we have been justified by Christ's faith, and we respond by trying our best to be more obedient and grow in that obedience. As we grow in that, we are establishing the law. We are proving that we got to keep the law. You know, brethren, you know the story of Abraham. Abraham. Let me just quickly go through it as a synopsis.

When he was 75 years old, you remember, he was called to leave the land where his father's were, and says, go to this land, leave the land. That's Genesis 12. Who initiated it? God. God said, you leave the land. Did he think of leaving the land? No. God said, hey, Abraham, leave the land.

And what did he do? Yes, sir. Your bike wasn't saying that he was not maybe doing some other things. He's just saying that he trusted in God and he followed those instructions. You see, that's the form of belief that he had. He believed that God was able to do and make things right somehow, and he left the land and he trusted God. Not saying that they have imperfections. You know the story of those patriarchs.

Plenty of imperfections. Plenty. And then, about 10 years later, you know the story, right? When he started to understand God's love and care, we get to Genesis 15. And in Genesis 15, God promised to him, I'll give you your own child. Well, because they were, his wife was barren, so they didn't have their own children. I'll give his own child and I'll bless you greatly and you will inherit everything that you can see. Did he doubt? Did he doubt God? No. He believed in God. Was his belief perfect? No. But he believed that God was able to do it.

Okay, maybe he said, well, maybe it's this way and then he had to realize, well, it wasn't that way. But anyway, he believed that God would do it. He trusted in God's promise. It doesn't say that he was keeping the Ten Commandments perfectly and whatever it is, probably was doing his part. As the years went on, we know that Abram kept God's laws and commandments, but initially he had faults like us. He had faults. And what happened? What happened? God counted his trust in God as righteousness. Right? God counted Abram's trust in God as righteousness.

Read in Romans chapter 4. We're going to read in verse 3. Romans chapter 4 verse 3. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He trusted God, he believed in God and therefore that belief that God was able to do what he promised, then God imputed on him, charged to his account as righteousness.

Look at verse 5. But to him who does not work but believes on him, who justifies them broadly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. So if we trust God that he is able to do what he says he is going to do, that trust is accounted to us as righteousness. Look at verse 6. For just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.

Blessed is the man who imputes righteousness, makes you righteous apart from works. That's what the Bible says. You see, that's why people get sidetracked because they start thinking, oh well, therefore we don't have to obey the law. But that's not saying that. It's showing this great benefit of Christ, in God's gift, Christ's gift of his life, that he gives us righteousness.

He declares us righteous even though we're not yet righteous. But we've got to work on it now. That he can't accept it. Up front, puts it in our bank account. Bang! You've got it. Wow, that's a gift. And I believe this is a gift we often don't think about.

Let's continue reading in verse 7 and 8. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.

In other words, the person is a sinner, we all are sinners, and does not impute sin. His trust in God is accounted, is imputed, is believed in God, is imputed as righteousness. Look at verse 11. Verse 10, we haven't read verse 10. 9 and 10, sorry. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? In other words, is this only for the Jews, or is that for the Gentiles? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. When did he do that? When we saw in Genesis 15, and he says it was accounted to him as righteousness because he believed, but he was not yet circumcised. He was only circumcised some 14 years later, when he was 99 years old. So he was still uncircumcised, quote unquote, the Gentile, and was ready imputed to him as righteousness. So that's why it says, does this blessedness then is only for the circumcised? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted, verse 10, while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? No, not while he was circumcised, but while he was uncircumcised. Verse 11, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith. Do we get it? Do we get it? Circumcision is a seal, is a sign that we have upon us, that's been imputed upon us, God's righteousness. The righteousness of the faith, which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might build the father of all those who believed. So, our true circumcision, which is of the heart, is a seal. Is a seal of what? Is a seal of God's righteousness in us.

You see, what did Abraham do? To deserve this? Nothing. You see, God called him and he trusted God, and then he was fully convicted. He was fully convinced. Look at verse 20 and 22. Look at verse 20 and 22 of still Romans 4. He did not waver that the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. Was he absolutely trust God? And being fully convinced, he was convicted. He was fully convinced that he who had promised was also able to perform. And therefore, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Because he trusted God, he believed in God, it was imputed upon him as righteous.

Verse 23. Now, it was not written for his cycle now. It was imputed to him, that it was imputed to him, but for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. In other words, this is for us, brethren. It wasn't just for Abraham. It's for us. God is imputing on you and I freely by his gracious kindness and love, his righteousness upon you, provided trust in him. And if you trust in him, you're now going to respond and do what he tells you to do. And you're going to try your best to please him and do the things that are pleasing him inside. And therefore, you're going to try your best to obey his law. But you're still imperfect, but you're trying. And therefore, we're establishing the law. You see, God initiates the call. God first stretches out his heart. Then initially believing in him, trusting in God, is all we have. Initially, just believing in him and trusting in God is all we have. Later, when he understands that his love and his care for us, through his word and through his spirit, we're starting to understand his purpose and his promise to us to be in the kingdom. Then we are fully convinced and convicted like Abraham was. And then God's righteousness is imputed upon us, is created upon us. And then we act, we respond by loving faith, we obey, and we do what is pleasing to God, because we believe and trust in him. And therefore, that is living faith. That's why it says from faith to faith. You see how it builds up one or another. Yes, Abraham obeyed, but he was justified because he believed in God. And that promise is also for us. Do we grasp the special benefit of the gift of Christ's life, which is God's righteousness being imputed, accounted freely to us? Through the gift of Jesus Christ's life, he sacrificed. You and I are justified freely. And we are being given God's righteousness, if we believe and trust in him. You and I are not perfect, nor will we ever be in this physical life. Sure, we can be doing better and better, but we're not perfect, nor will we ever be. Then, because of that, because of what he's done for us, because we understand his love and care, because we're trying to respond, we will not want to go back to the way of sin. We will want to obey God, because he just defined us freely. And therefore we must not be just hearers of the law, but do us till the end. He says, he that overcomes till the end. Be in the end, truly justified. Do we grasp the special benefit of this, of God's righteousness in us, through the greatest gift of Christ's life? Indeed, God's righteousness is imputed, accounted freely to us, if we grasp and we respond in gratitude by imitating Him. By putting on the new man, to be loved like He is, to be loving, to love your fellow man as He says. This is what He says. That's why, this is how you know that you might have sampled, that you love one another, like I have loved you. In other words, for us to be developing God's holy righteous character. And therefore, this graciousness of God, this grace of God does not abolish the law, establishes the law. Do you and I fully understand the special gift of God's righteousness in us, through the greatest gift of Christ's life in us?