[Chapter 10-1] Introduction to Chapter 10
Are
there people who do not, while pursuing their own righteousness,
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? The Scripture says
that such people, by not believing in the righteousness of God and
instead pursuing their own righteousness, are those who turn against
God. What will these people do?
Did
God plan to give all of humanity His salvation, which is the
righteousness of God, and send Jesus Christ through the Israelites? Of
course He did! Jesus so dearly wanted to save every sinner from his/her
sins that He came to this earth, was crucified on the Cross, and was
resurrected from death. He came, in other words, to save all those who
believe in Him.
God
the Father sent Jesus Christ to the Israelites to save them from their
sins, and yet the Israelites did not receive Jesus, the righteousness of
God. Instead, they were obsessed with the pursuits of their own
righteousness. Even still, they are unable to accept Him as the Messiah
of their people and the Savior of their souls.
Paul
said that there are those who are sent by God, and that it is through
them that the beautiful gospel can be heard. The gospel heard from the
servants of God sent by Him is the gospel that has the righteousness of
God. You cannot miss this chance. Only by hearing this gospel of the
water and the Spirit, preached by the servants of God who know and
believe in His righteousness, can you believe that God has given you the
remission of sins and His righteousness.
The
gospel of the water and the Spirit is the best and the most beautiful
news in the world. It is this good and beautiful news that has saved
sinners from their sins. This beautiful news replenishes people’s souls
because the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God is the true
food for souls.
In
the beautiful gospel of redemption provided by God is the power to
forgive everyone’s sins. The gospel of the water and the Spirit has the
power of blessing to give us peace in our minds by the remission of our
sins.
Centered
on the law of God, the Israelites were busy pursuing their own
righteousness. Because they thought that their own righteousness was
abundant with their obedience to the law, they did not receive Jesus as
their Savior. They were so eager in their pursuit of the works of the
law that they could not even tolerate the righteousness of God. They
failed to receive the Lord as their Savior even now, trying to pursue
their own righteousness.
Does
the Scripture tell us that the Israelites turned against the
righteousness of God to establish their own righteousness? Speaking of
the Israelites who were obsessed with the law, Paul rebuked their faiths
by saying, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
who believes” (Romans 10:4).
A
legalistic faith that pursues one’s own righteousness is not the right
faith before God. While the Israelites were preoccupied only with
following the laws of the Old Testament, they failed to realize that
Jesus, who became the righteousness of God, was to be their Savior, and
instead turned against Him. In their zeal to boast that they were the
chosen people to whom the Word of God was given and who were to follow
it, the Israelites ended up as a nation who turned against the
righteousness of God.
Are you obsessed with establishing your own righteousness?
The
problem with the Israelites’ zeal for the law was that their passions
were in establishing their own righteousness. Because of their own
righteousness, the righteousness of God established by our Lord was
utterly ignored.
The
result of the legalistic faith of the Israelites was that they ended up
turning against the righteousness of God; thus, they still have not
realized how irreversibly devastating this result has been. What good or
benefits did their pursuit of the work of the law bring them? Their
passions for following the Word of God only ended up as obstacles to
knowing and believing in the righteousness of God. Once again, we must
realize that the “zeal” of those who do not have the correct
understanding of the law will only lead them to turn against the
righteousness of God in the end.
The
Scripture clearly tells us that, to everyone who believes, Jesus became
the end of the law for righteousness. Our Lord completed the
righteousness of God by taking upon all the sins of the world with His
baptism and bloodshed on the Cross, all to cleanse the sins of both the
Israelites and the Gentiles. As such, the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that contains the righteousness of God, not the law, has become
an oasis in the desert for all sinners. It is the gospel of the water
and the Spirit that has blotted out our sins and provided us with true
sanction. How else but by the gospel of the water and the Spirit could
all the sinners of the world find true sanction in their hearts?
Here
in the Book of Romans, Paul tells us that establishing one’s own
righteousness without believing in the righteousness of God is a grave
sin. What kind of gospel would have been a beautiful gospel to us, the
Gentiles? It is the gospel that has told us that our Lord Jesus took up
all the sins of the world with His baptism.
This
gospel is the gospel recorded in Matthew 3:13-17, which bears witness
to Jesus taking up the world’s sins: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to
John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him,
saying, ‘I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?’ But
Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is
fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed Him. When
He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and
behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came
from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.’” This is how Jesus took upon all the sins of the world on
Himself with His baptism by John.
Paul
rebuked the legalists who did not believe in the righteousness of God
by asking, “Who will ascend into heaven? (That is, to bring Christ down
from above).” Put differently, this question asks, “Who can be saved
from his/her sins by only following the law?” The purpose of Paul’s
question was to underscore the point that following the law will never
bring about salvation from sin. He is telling us, in other words, that
there is nothing that we can do to rid ourselves of sin.
Paul
often spoke of God’s righteousness in his epistles. Paul’s answer to
true faith is found in Romans 10:10, where it is said, “For with the
heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.” The gospel preached by Paul was the gospel that
tells us that we can receive God’s righteousness by believing in our
Lord’s baptism and His blood on the Cross, through which this
righteousness of God is revealed. We must believe that the Lord gave us
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and that He allowed those who
believe in this gospel a true peace of mind.
True faith comes from hearing the Word of God
What
does Paul tell us about true faith? Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” True faith, in other
words, comes when we hear the gospel that His servants, through whom God
speaks, preach with His Word.
Our
conviction of true faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and so to be
the people of true faith, we must hear and believe in His Word. Only by
hearing the Word of God can we have true faiths and only by this can
our faiths grow. This is why God has sent us His servants, who preach of
His righteousness.
When
we believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given to mankind
by God, we can receive the remission of sins and be at rest in our
hearts. Deliverance from sin is possible only by believing in the
righteousness of God, from which we will find our peace of mind.
Have
we not been told that the righteousness of our Lord will wipe away our
tears and deliver us from all our aches and pains? Of course we have. By
believing in the righteousness of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit given by God, all our pains will be taken away. The gospel of the
water and the Spirit is the most beautiful news in the world and the
fulfillment of God’s righteousness.
God
sent our Lord, who fulfilled His righteousness, to the Israelites, but
in pursuing their own righteousness, they refused to turn to Him. What,
then, did God do? To provoke the Israelites to jealousy, God gave the
gospel, the fulfillment of His righteousness, to the Gentiles to
believe. Did God, then, allow the Gentiles the chance to believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit? Indeed, He gave them the chance to
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, even when they
neither sought Him, nor called Him, and worshipped Him far less than the
Israelites.
This
is why the Gentiles were able to become God’s children-by believing in
the beautiful news of the fulfillment of His righteousness. This is also
why the Scripture tells us that the righteousness of God was revered
and glorified outside of Israel.
How
many people actually thank the Lord for giving all of us the gospel of
the water and the Spirit that has fulfilled the righteousness of God?
Our Lord has taken away all the sins of the world with the beautiful
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet, there are far too many
Christians who do not believe in this truth. Do we, then, have any
righteousness in us that we can set before God? No, we don’t! Then, why
don’t we believe? Is it because we do not know what the gospel that has
fulfilled the righteousness of God is? But knowing this gospel is
simple!
We,
too, are the kinds of people who would have pursued our own
righteousness, just as the Israelites had done, but God saved us from
all our sins by giving us the beautiful gospel of the water and the
Spirit. We thank the Lord for giving us the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, the fulfillment of the righteousness of God, for us to believe.
Do not say, “Who will ascend into heaven?”
Verse
6 says, “But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, ‘Do not say
in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (That is, to bring
Christ down from above).” Both our redemption and our serving the gospel
of truth are made possible by our faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, not by our works. Were it not for our faith in the truth
that fulfilled the righteousness of God, we would have been nothing but
sinners who, as legalists pursuing their own righteousness, only
bothered God.
Just
as our salvation came by believing in the righteousness of God, we can
also live for our Lord by having faith in this righteousness. The
strength for us to carry on with our lives comes from our faith in God's
righteousness, as our knowledge of this righteousness arose by our
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Is
there any truth other than the faith in the righteousness of God for
those who are to be redeemed? There is none. The essence of Christianity
is centered on faith, and it is no exaggeration to say that the
righteousness of God is all about Christian faith. Those who have become
justified can live and preach the gospel by their faiths in this
righteousness. Do those who believe in God’s righteousness, then, face
troubles as well? They do. But by the faith in God’s righteousness, they
can overcome all troubles, as they believe and trust that God will take
care of their problems. Such beliefs originate from the faith in the
righteousness of God.
What
about other faiths that don’t include God’s righteousness? Are they all
the wrong kinds of faiths, based on human deeds? Indeed, they are. The
faiths of those who believe in Jesus, without believing in the
righteousness of God, are not true faiths.
Could
you and I be redeemed from our sins without first believing in God’s
righteousness? Could we live by our faiths in God without having faith
in His righteousness? Neither would be possible. The strength of the
righteous to serve the Lord comes from the power of the Holy Spirit,
given to them as a gift for their faith in God’s righteousness. Can you
live in this world with only your own strengths or your earthly
possessions? Can you really find a peace of mind with these things?
We
can serve the gospel in peace by believing in the righteousness of God.
Those who serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit have faith,
courage, strength and peace. The righteous people who do not serve the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, the fulfillment of the righteousness
of God, have neither peace nor courage. Do the minds of the righteous
need peace? They do. They need peace not only to spread the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, but also to live their lives to the fullest
extent.
Is
your mind at peace? If you were to live only for yourself, there would
be no reason for the peace in your mind to grow. Why would you need any
more peace or faith when you only need to meet the needs of the flesh to
live in the flesh? But if you are to serve God, the peace in your mind
also needs to grow. To serve the gospel that has fulfilled the
righteousness of God, your faith and peace must and will grow.
Those
who believe in the gospel of God’s righteousness are responsible for
spreading their peace all around the world. Because this is not an issue
of just individual concerns, but of the need to spread the peace of
mind given by Jesus Christ to everyone, we need to preach the gospel of
God’s righteousness to the entire world. God’s peace is still needed for
others, as well as for us. We need more requests from God in trying to
spread this peace to others. When we live to spread God’s righteousness,
our peace of mind will only grow, and we will find the clear and
precious goal of our lives.
If
you want to learn the true peace given by God, you need to know and
believe in the gospel that has fulfilled His righteousness. You need to
experience for yourself the peace of mind that God has prepared for you.
You
have served the Lord well so far, but you need to continue to serve Him
well, until you are called to His presence, so that others may share in
your peace. When you reach for peace with your faith in the
righteousness of God, those believers who are following in your
footsteps to redemption can also live for the peace of others.
Those
who are young in their faiths are novices in the realm of faith and are
limited in their abilities to understand it. But when we live by our
faiths, those behind us will, though it may take some time, eventually
come to an understanding of how the redeemed live their lives in peace,
by following in our footsteps of faith.
Do
you find it difficult to teach those who are following your lead how to
live by faith? Such a life of teaching is not reached overnight. It
might even take a very long time before you can lead them to the kind of
faith needed for living in peace. But in time, those who have been
redeemed by believing in God’s righteousness will eventually learn to
live in peace as the people of faith, just as the earlier believers
serving God found their peace of minds from Him, by learning from those
of us who are ahead.
You
and I, we must all live by faith in the righteousness of God. The
righteous must live by their faiths in the Word. Both our present and
future lives must be determined by faith. The Scripture asks us, “And
how shall they hear without a preacher?” Because we believe in the
righteousness of God, we must preach the gospel to the world. By faith,
we can meet all the challenges that we may face while spreading the
gospel.
The
lives of the righteous that are not lived by faith are those who have
lost their peace of minds. Believing in God’s righteousness allows
people to attain their peace of minds. When we believe in the Word of
God and His righteousness for all things, we will be given our peace.
You
must stand firmly in your peace and faith by believing in the
righteousness of God. You must also praise God, for the Lord has allowed
you to live by the deliverance of His righteousness and peace. May you
live your life by preaching the gospel, with faith in God, from whom you
have received your peace.
Have
we been able to learn from the Book of Romans how perfect the
righteousness of God is? Romans explains in detail what this
righteousness of God is. The righteousness of God that we speak of is
not that of man-made righteousness, but of God, Himself alone.
The
righteousness of God is perfect and more than sufficient to save us
from all our sins. By taking upon all the sins of the world through His
baptism, Jesus took care of them all, in perfection. That we can believe
in Jesus Christ is due to the fact that the righteousness of God is
perfect. Since this righteousness of God wholly saved us from all our
sins, it is absolutely necessary for us to believe in the gospel that
has fulfilled His righteousness.
By
believing in God’s righteousness, we can live our lives admiring,
thanking, and praising it. People can dwell in the holiness of God only
by believing in His righteousness. By believing in this righteousness,
our minds are cleansed, we can praise God, and our lives can be lived
for His glory.
Had
the righteousness of God not been perfect, we would not have been able
to be delivered from our sins. Though our original sin may have been
forgiven by believing in Jesus, every sin committed daily on our own
thereafter would have required daily prayers of repentance.
But
after we were redeemed by believing in the righteousness of God,
revealed in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we could then
realize that this righteousness of God was absolute. This is why I came
to be infinitely grateful for the fact that the righteousness of God is
believable and perfect for eternity. Because God's righteousness has
delivered us from all the possible sins that we could commit in our
lifetimes, we can be saved from sin by believing in His righteousness.
Those
who do not compare the righteousness of God with our human filth cannot
believe in His righteousness because they simply don’t realize just how
big it is. Even the most perfect person is nothing when compared to the
righteousness of God, and this is why we believe in His righteousness,
and are thereby allowed to dwell in His holiness. We become, in other
words, those who glorify God by believing and dwelling in His
righteousness.
We
need to have a correct understanding of the righteousness of God in our
hearts-that is, we must realize that the righteousness of God has
wholly and completely delivered us from our sins. Do we not commit
innumerable sins throughout our lives? How, then, did God carry out the
righteous act that has delivered us from such countless sins? He
accomplished it by coming to this earth in the likeness of our flesh,
taking up all our sins by being baptized by John, dying on the Cross,
and resurrecting from death–by fulfilling, in short, all the
righteousness of God.
Everyone,
young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak, commit sins. Who, then,
saved us from all these sins of the world? It was Jesus Christ who, by
fulfilling the righteousness of God, delivered us from all our sins.
That God sent Jesus to wholly take upon all our sins and to completely
eliminate them is the very righteousness of God.
Nothing
other than this is precisely the righteousness of God that has saved us
from all our sins. God’s righteousness has delivered us from all the
sins of the world at once. Is not His righteousness utterly and
completely perfect? We call this love that God has given us, which will
last not only for our lifetime but also throughout eternity, the
righteousness of God.
As
John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus the day after baptizing
Him, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” As
Jesus told John when he first refused to baptize Him, “Permit it to be
so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”
(Matthew 3:15). What do these passages mean? They mean no less than the
truth that Jesus’ baptism and His death on the Cross are the very
righteousness of God. This righteousness of God does not abandon us when
we are weak and come short of His glory.
We
can only praise God and glorify Him for this abundant love that has
saved us and allowed us to dwell in His righteousness. Those who believe
in the righteousness of God come to live for His righteousness for the
rest of their lives. It is much better for us to trust in God than in
human beings or the world. A beautiful life is a life that preaches this
gospel of complete deliverance from sin. This is why we absolutely must
know and believe in the righteousness of God.
Those
who have received the remission of sins would testify, “Jesus has taken
away all my sins by being baptized by John! And He was judged in my
place for all the sins of the world!” When we believe in God’s
righteousness, we can only thank Him for such blessings.
When
you stumble because of your weaknesses, fall into sin because of the
flesh, or when you are discouraged and embarrassed because of your sins,
look toward the righteousness of God that has made you whole. Did not
the righteousness of God also make us righteous? Did not Jesus
completely take away our sins through His baptism? Did not His
redemption save us from all our sins, including those sins we’ll commit
in the future?
Only
when we believe that Jesus Christ has saved us completely and wholly do
we believe in the righteousness of God. Only when we believe in the
righteousness of God do we become justified. Those who believe in God’s
righteousness can become the instruments for His righteousness. The
perfection of God’s righteousness is complete. Those who pursue their
own righteousness, while being ignorant of the righteousness of God, are
only fools sitting on their own destruction, to be accursed by God.
Pay attention to Paul’s saying, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”
How
can we live a life of faith, be redeemed, and become God’s people if we
remain ignorant of His righteousness? Those who follow the law must
know that their sins will lead to their destruction and be thankful that
the righteousness of God has saved them completely. That Jesus has
become our Savior, that we believe in Him, and that we glorify Him are
because we know and believe in the righteousness of God. Only by
believing in His righteousness do we become His children, sinless, and
receive eternal lives. Those who profess to believe in Jesus and live
faithful lives yet remain ignorant of the righteousness of God are to be
accursed.
Paul
bore witness in Romans that the Israelites, while being ignorant of the
righteousness of God, sought to establish their own righteousness, and
by doing so, disobeyed God’s righteousness. They too must believe in the
righteousness of God.
We
must believe that God has delivered us from the sins of the world. All
our sins are included in these sins of the world. All of them have
disappeared with the fulfillment of the righteousness of God. Do you
believe in this truth?
“For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes”
The righteousness of God is the end of the law. The reason is because Jesus Christ answered all the requirements of the law by taking upon all the sins of the world with His baptism and crucifixion.
The righteousness of God is the end of the law. The reason is because Jesus Christ answered all the requirements of the law by taking upon all the sins of the world with His baptism and crucifixion.
Surely
the result of sin is death, yet it is written that the righteousness of
God is the end of the law. Why? This is because God the Father has
saved us wholly by sending His only begotten Son to the earth to be
baptized to take up all the sins of mankind, die on the Cross, and be
raised from death.
Believing
in the righteousness of God with your heart and following the
righteousness of the law are two different things. Did you receive the
remission of sins by your deeds? Did you receive your salvation by your
own good deeds? All other religions in this world teach that the way to
deal with your sins is by doing good deeds. The Buddhist understanding
of sin, for instance, teaches that you can redeem the sins of your past
life by doing good deeds in your present life. Does this make any sense
to you?
A
person is born only once and dies only once, and judgment will come
afterward. Because everyone is born in this world only once and returns
to God thereafter, no one can return to the earth in another cycle of
life. This is why people must be redeemed by believing in God’s
righteousness while on this earth. What kind of nonsense is this
Buddhist teaching of karma?
Believing
that we are redeemed from our sins is to believe in the righteousness
of God. Believing in the righteousness of God is to believe only in His
righteousness alone, not in our own acts. How, then, does God’s
righteousness of faith speak? As is recorded in the Book of Romans, it
speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into
heaven?” This is because the righteousness of God is found by believing
in one’s heart, not by some kind of physical strength.
We
become God’s children and sinless people who receive eternal lives by
believing in the righteousness of God. Because we cannot resolve our
sins by ourselves, no matter how many good deeds we do, our efforts only
end up as more sins before God. This is why we should abandon such
faiths in ourselves and believe instead in the righteous God to pursue
His righteousness. Some people ask, “Can we not be saved just by
believing in Jesus even if we are ignorant of God’s righteousness? Is it
not written that whosoever called the name of the Lord will be saved?”
But salvation does not come just by calling on the name of Jesus, but by
knowing and completely believing in the righteousness of God.
Whoever believes in the righteousness of God has no shame
Verse
11 says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” What is
the meaning of this passage? Whoever believes on Him is not put to shame
because he/she believes in the righteousness of God. “Whoever believes
on Him” refers to the believer in His righteousness.
What
about the passage, “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be
saved”? This means that those who know and believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit call on Jesus, as they believe in Him as the Savior
God. As we received our salvation through God’s righteousness, we
believe that our redemption is given by believing in this truth.
Without
this faith, in other words, no matter how many times we call the name
of Jesus in vain, we will not be saved from our sins. Because the
Scripture as a whole speaks of the righteousness of God in Jesus,
calling on the name of the Lord alone will not give us our redemption.
The
Bible tells us of the righteousness of God from the very beginning. As
is written in the Book of Genesis, God put the tree of life and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden and told Adam
and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge. What God did was to
demand from them their faith in His Word. God, to put it differently,
told them to eat from the tree of life for obtaining eternal lives.
The
Word of God says, “The just shall live by faith.” We, too, live by our
faith in the righteousness of God throughout our lifetime—from when we
first believed in Him to be saved to when we receive our salvation, and
finally, until we reach the Kingdom of God.
Many
Christians in this world say that salvation from sin is given by
believing in Jesus, but in reality, too many of them are not delivered
from their sins because they remain ignorant of the righteousness of
God. What will result when people believe in Jesus without knowing the
righteousness of God? Such people may show outward indications that they
are devout believers through their worships and prayers. But because
they are ignorant of God’s righteousness, they will remain only as
practitioners of religion, as well as undelivered sinners.
Many
from both the Christian community and the Israelis remain ignorant of
the righteousness of God and are thus not obeying His righteousness.
Those who believe in Jesus, yet do not believe in God’s righteousness,
stamp on this very righteousness. It is not by doing good deeds, giving
large offerings, or other acts of their own before God that the
believers in Jesus, so long as they remain ignorant of the righteousness
of God, receive this righteousness.
Those
who believe in the righteousness of God believe in it, regardless of
what circumstances they find themselves in, and thus live lives of
praise and thanks for God’s glory. To those of us who believe in God’s
righteousness, the more our shortcomings are revealed, the more His
righteousness brilliantly shines before our souls. I pray that you too
can have such an awakening.
Can
we receive the righteousness of God because we somehow had some
justness in our flesh? Of course not! There is nothing that is just in
us, other than the righteousness of God. Because God has completely
saved us from our sins with His righteousness, we believe and praise in
this righteousness. His righteousness has saved us wholly from our sins.
Do
not fall into the deed-oriented faith when you are facing dark corners
in your life, but always believe in the righteousness of God, regardless
of your circumstances. God’s righteousness is perfect for eternity.
Everyone in this world must know His righteousness, and they must
believe in it by obeying the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Since
many who profess to have faith in Jesus still live only by the
righteousness of the law, they must make sure that they know the
righteousness of God.
Paul
concludes by saying that the gospel of God fulfills His righteousness.
Without the knowledge in the true gospel of God, no one can explain what
His righteousness is. Such people might say, when asked to discuss what
the meaning of the righteousness of God is, “Jesus is my Savior who
died on the Cross, was raised from death, and saved me from my sins.”
But they will add that they must offer prayers of repentance for their
everyday sins, and that to become perfect, they must be sanctified
incrementally.
You
must know yourself first to know the righteousness of God. If you know
both yourself and the righteousness of God, you will have no choice but
to believe in His righteousness, because you would realize how high,
big, and expansive the righteousness of God is when compared to
yourself. But if you do not know His righteousness, you would be
obsessed with pursuing your own righteousness. Those who are obsessed
with their own righteousness do not obey the righteousness of God, as
they only wish to pursue their own justifications.
We
must know God’s righteousness before we can believe in it and give
thanks for it. By knowing the righteousness of God, we can believe that
Jesus took away all the sins of the world by taking them up on Himself
with His baptism and dying on the Cross. If we can be justified by our
own good deeds, we wouldn’t need salvation by the righteousness of God.
But when we realize that this is not possible, we can appreciate His
righteousness even more because God saved us, who could not live our
lives based on good deeds.
Are
your thoughts and deeds all good? Of course not. It is because we have
many shortcomings that God has saved us wholly by His righteousness.
Since believing in the righteousness of God saved us, we desire to
preach His righteousness to all those in this world who do not know it.
One
who does not know oneself finds faults with others and speaks ill of
them. But if he/she were a believer in the righteousness of God, he/she
must proudly proclaim this righteousness, and must not boast of his/her
own righteousness. But those who do not believe in God’s righteousness
commit the sin of slandering His righteousness. God will judge them for
their sins.
God
sent His Son to this earth and has given you His righteousness. As we
approach the last day, we should not be arguing with each other over
whose righteousness of the law is better or worse. Those who believe in
the righteousness of God should not concern themselves with their flesh
but should only be thankful to God by believing in His righteousness.
Let
us thank our God who has wholly saved us by His righteousness. Because
the righteousness of God has forgiven all your sins, you must not become
like those who turn against God by pursuing their own righteousness.
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