52. The Gift of God's Righteousness

This time I'm doing a teaching that's a bit longer than normal for the Grace Roots podcast, although it's a very simple teaching. The Apostle Paul reveals to us that the righteousness of God is something that we can never earn or maintain through keeping God's law or through our good works. The good news is that while we were sinners, and had never done anything good, and had never done anything right, God made us right by giving us His very own righteousness. This could never be accomplished through the law. It's something that can only come from God. He gives it to us freely, by His grace, through faith, not our works.


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48. I'm Not Ashamed That I'm Righteous Apart from What I Do

Paul boldly declares in Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ..." Why is he not ashamed?  What is this gospel (good news) that he is not ashamed of?  Many people don't know what he is truly talking about, because they quote Romans 1:16 without quoting the next verse along with it.  To many believers, being "not ashamed of the gospel" means "not ashamed to stand up for righteous, godly living.  While there's nothing wrong with that, that's not the gospel!  Paul explains in Romans 1:17, "For in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith..."  He goes on to explain in Romans 3:21-22 that this righteousness of God comes apart from the works of the law.  It comes "through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe."

This is the gospel (good news) that Paul is not ashamed of.  He had formerly been quite proud of his own righteous performance, but then when the revelation of Jesus and the gospel came to him, he counted his own righteous performance as dung and rubbish so that he could be found in Christ alone.  He had formerly persecuted the church for saying that righteousness came from God apart from the works of the law, and now he himself was being persecuted for preaching that.  Paul was preaching the gospel - God's righteousness given freely as a gift to all who believe - and he was making a bold, unashamed stand for it.


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39. We're Righteous Through Christ's Performance, Not Ours

On a recent Growing in Grace podcast (#603) we talked about how believers are identified as righteous apart from their behavior. Faith-based righteousness isn't a matter of pursuing righteousness through what we do, but simply through believing what Christ has done.  Here I share a snippet from that podcast in which I talk about this.  We've been justified, cleansed, made righteous and made holy (sanctified) through the blood of Jesus, not through our own performance.  Do yourself a favor, and spare yourself the anxiety, depression and fear that can result from thinking that it's up to you to gain or maintain a certain level of righteousness.  Believe instead in the finished work of Christ.


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38. What an Exchange! Jesus Became Sin - You Became Righteous

On this week's Growing in Grace podcast (#587) we talked about how Jesus Became Sin and You Became Righteous. Jesus didn't become sin through His own sinful behavior.  As completely righteous as He was, He became sin.  In the same way, you didn't become righteous through your own righteous behavior.  Even with all the sinful behavior you've ever done, you became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!  Here's a short snippet from the podcast.


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37. To Attempt to Be Righteous Is to Be Ignorant of God's Righteousness

On this week's Growing in Grace podcast (#586) we talked about How to Be Righteous.  Hint: It's not about what you do!  Here's a snippet from the podcast in which I brought up how Paul talked about those who were ignorant of God's righteousness.  How were they ignorant of God's righteousness? They attempted to be righteous by their own works, as opposed to receiving God's free gift of His own righteousness.


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33. The Gift of His Grace

Everything that we have in Christ is the result of the gift of God's grace. Apart from Christ we were all sinners, and even our righteous deeds counted as filthy rags to God. But God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. God Himself has justified us by the gift of His grace.


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