Wednesday, January 13, 2016
We would have been destroyed as they were under the laws of divine discipline --- Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire from heaven.
The Jews could not understand how the group that pursued after the righteousness of God {Jews) could not attain it, while those who did not pursue after the righteousness of God {gentiles} attained it.
A song of Ascents was a song consisting of bass, tenor, alto, soprano or variations of others, with a doctrinal message within it.
"A song of Ascents" was basically used for a description of the Levitical tribe or choir used to worship God in the ancient world.
In the Jewish Holy Temple courtyard, there was an elegant wide stairway that consisted of fifteen large, semi-circular steps that "ascended" into the inner section of the courtyard.
These psalms or literally songs were sung starting off in a low tone of voice and steadily ascending to a higher one where the message or the song would reach its peak.
The lyrics in the songs were considered to be sacred and doctrinal not the music or the beat but the lyrics, which is why they are considered to be a part of the Word of God which lives and abides forever; 1PE 1:25.
MAT 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
ZEC 4:6 'It's not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts.'
JOH 1:12 That as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name or His person
JOH 1:13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Paul has called the Gentiles by a lot of different titles. one of them is the phrase "vessels of mercy."
ROM 9:30 "What shall we say then?" means that after everything that the apostle Paul has said up to now in Rom 9 forces us to some conclusions.
The phrase "What shall we say then?" can be translated "What conclusions are we forced to?"
1. ROM 9:25 The Lord calls us - 'My people,'
2. ROM 9:25 - He calls us 'beloved.'
3. ROM 9:26 He calls us "sons of the living God."
We are now called "vessels of mercy" because God can bless the regenerate or born-again gentiles because we have received the imputation of divine righteousness (+R) at salvation.
God can only condemn the unsaved Jews because they have rejected TLJC and therefore they have rejected His righteousness, and accepted or trusted in their own righteousness by trying to keep the Law.
+R = salvation righteousness; experiential righteousness; positional righteousness; and ultimate righteousness; the passage will determine what I am referring to.
I ask you for your patience and tolerance concerning hearing the matter or the doctrinal conclusions before you make your judgments and evaluation as to what is being taught.
EPH 4:1-3 "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
EPH 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Although you may have heard and studied what is being taught that some believers are hearing it for the first time....... so be patient with repetition.
As we enter into our study on the righteousness of God, remember that the Jews were guilty of the big blot-out concerning God's righteousness verses their righteousness.
JOH 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
Because of this they built up scar tissue of the soul which resulted in the hardness of their heart.
The gentiles from their own self-determination have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore they have received the imputation of divine righteousness (+R).
They developed the potential for blessing in time which is parlayed into potential for blessing in eternity.
The title for the gentiles as "vessels of mercy" tells us that God treats them not with conditions attached but in an unconditional way.
Salvation was a gift from God and God is not like some who give gifts and then takes them back; EPH 2:8; ROM 11:29.
EPH 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
ROM 11:29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable [irreversible unchangeable].
NUM 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"
God is immutable and immutability implies that does not and cannot change meaning that God is faithful and He can only be faithful.
MAL 3:6 "For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed."
Do you think that God is suddenly going to become a little petty and vindictive tyrant and say I want my gifts back and drop you from the rolls and say you're no longer saved, you've lost your salvation?
1SA 15:29 "The Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind."
ECC 3:14 I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has {so} worked that men should respect Him.
The word for righteousness is the Greek noun dikaiosune which means that which pertains to the integrity of God, His righteousness or justice.
When it used for man receiving righteousness from God it refers to imputed righteousness.
By imputed righteousness I mean that which the character and the integrity God gives to man as a gift.
The key to understanding the righteousness of God which is given to man is the word imputed.
Once man has God's perfect righteousness (+R), he now has something that becomes the potential to be the recipient for many blessings designed by God to give the individual a fantastic life.
All blessing from God comes from His justice and God has provided a way to not only save us but to give us all the blessings we need to have a wonderful and fantastic and meaningful life.
When you understand that God blesses you NOT from His love but from his justice and righteousness, then you'll understand how to receive and take advantage of the gift of divine righteousness which was given to you as gift at the moment of your salvation.
When we refer to God's imputed righteousness many times as +R that +R = perfect divine righteousness.
For at the moment of salvation, the justice of God sets up a direct channel or a pipeline from His justice to His righteousness in us for the purpose of bestowing upon us fantastic magnificent divine blessings.
JOH 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son," 2PE 3:9 He is not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
Eeven though He loves the world and He is not willing for any to perish, people still do. Because His justice needs to be satisfied.
It is only +R - perfect righteousness or those who are perfectly righteous that can satisfy the justice of God.
Before God can deal with us as our Father, He must be satisfied with us as a Judge.
As a father, He can love and forgive and treat us in grace and mercy, but as a judge, His just and righteous demands must be satisfied.
God blesses us from His justice.
When His justice says, they can NOW handle some of your blessings, they will not be distracted by them; they will continue to live the spiritual life; then, and only then, God blesses us.
We must satisfy the justice of God before we can be blessed by the love of God.
Justice is only satisfied with us when it sees us as being perfectly holy and perfectly righteous.
2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1PE 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
When righteousness refers to God or the essence of God, we call it God's holiness or His justice.
When God's righteousness is imputed to us and we are the recipients of God's righteousness, we call it justification.
This all means qualification for blessing or potential for blessing.
We need to note the origin of perfect righteousness and how we received it.
ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death [spiritual death] through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned‑‑[all sinned when Adam sinned].
ROM 5:13 for until the Law [that is until the Mosaic Law, the 10 commandments etc.] sin [the sin nature] was in the world; but sin [or the sin nature and the sins it produced] is not imputed when there is no law.
God did not and could not condemn us, that is mankind, for our sins because He had not yet given us a set of rules or do's and don'ts to follow before He gave the Law to Moses.
ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death [spiritual death-separation from God] still] reigned from Adam until Moses, [Or from the creation of man Adam until Moses, when the Law or the commandments of God was given].
ROM 5:14 even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Just like Adam sinned even though God gave him no commandments so did mankind sin in the same way.
ROM 5:15 But the free gift [salvation] is not like the transgression [Adam]. For if by the transgression of the one [Adam] the many died [hoi polloi = altogether, the entire, or simply all referring to every member of the human race]
ROM 5:15 much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many - the human race with emphasis on the unlimited atonement.
ROM 5:16 And the gift [salvation] is not like that which came through the one who sinned [our Lord's gift is different then what Adam gave us]; for on the one hand the judgment [of Adam's original sin] arose from one transgression [Adam partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil] resulting in condemnation [that is condemnation of the entire human race],
but on the other hand the free gift [salvation] arose from many transgressions [Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world] resulting in justification [anyone who believes in TLJC receives +R and is justified before God].
ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one [Adam, spiritual] death reigned through the one [Adam], much more [a fortiori - even greater than that]
those who receive the abundance of grace [salvation, they are now saved] and of the gift of righteousness [+R] will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
ROM 5:18 So then as through one transgression [Adam] there resulted condemnation to all men [the entire human race], even so through one act of righteousness [TLJC dying for us on the cross] there resulted justification of life to all men.
ROM 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience [Adam] the many [the entire human race] were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One [TLJC] the many [those who believe in TLJC] will be made righteous.
ROM 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
ROM 5:21 that, as sin or the sin nature reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.