Week 5 – Righteousness

Jul 18
3 min read

Together, we’ve been on the Roman journey. This week, we continue our exploration in Romans, where I’ll discuss how God views us as righteous through what I call the "Jesus Filter." The beauty in a fresh perspective is that there are God-ordained pre-requisites to carry us on the path toward righteousness, which often go unnoticed.

Below the video is an outline of what I’ll discuss this week. Take a moment to gather your Bible, journal, and pen before you begin. Take notes where something hits just right or in places you would like more information. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. I’ll be happy to respond.

Righteous = Right in us (through our faith in Jesus Christ) “Jesus Filter”

= Right standing with God

Unrighteous/Righteous:

· Unrighteous: (laundry list)

o Romans 1:29-32; Romans 3:10-17

· Righteous given through faith:

o Romans 3:21-26

o Romans 4:16

Personal Story:

Bad with money. Got into terrible debt. Credit was super bad. Someone came along and helped me clean it up. After several years, new creditors viewed me as a good investment rather than a high-risk prospect.

· Difference here is that through faith in Jesus Christ, Righteousness comes instantly and automatically as a gift

o Romans 5:17 – “gift of righteousness”

o Jeremiah 23:6 - “the Lord our Righteousness”

· God instantly sees you differently – he sees you as the good investment he created.

· God sees believers as if they never sinned.

· Jesus’ blood covers your sin with his Robes of Righteousness

o Cloak of invisibility

o Isaiah 61:10 - I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed (or displayed) me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

o Romans 13:14 - Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

Remember: Receive – believe – live out.

The problem with what you received and believed has caused you to live out the belief that you have no right standing with God:

· The devil uses these three tools to oppress you:

o Guilt – the internal spiral of thoughts confessing you are not truly forgiven

o Condemnation – the internal spiral of thoughts about daily judgment from God for sins

o Shame – the internal spiral of thoughts confessing you deserve all the bad things that happen to you because of sin

o Keeps you sin-conscious instead of Son-conscious (Romans 7:25b)

o Romans 8:1-2 covers all three tools:

· I hear the “yeah, but you don’t know my life…”

o You measure your life by what you know

§ God measures you by the life for which he created you to become

o You interpret your identity through your performance rather than right-standing

§ God interprets your identity through Jesus Christ (remember Jesus Filter!)

o Remember mercy, grace, and faith two weeks ago?

§ Mercy – Not receiving what we deserve

§ Grace – receiving what we did not deserve

§ Faith and Grace created a marriage of continual transformation into Christ's likeness

Conclusion

The blood of Jesus Christ covers you in what I call an indivisibility cloak. He is the avenue through which God sees us, the Jesus Filter. Because he is righteous, you are righteous!

You must stop living the belief that you received that says you are not forgiven, an angry God continually judges you, and you deserve the bad things that happen to you.

· This is NOT the good news of Jesus Christ.

· The Bible does not play out that line of thinking.

· The gospel of Jesus Christ says you are a saint, according to Romans 8:27, which says

o “And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the SAINTS in accordance with the will of God.”

§ Not talking about Catholic saints, but of every Christian then and now.

§ Talking about YOU!

These past 5 weeks have only been the partial gospel:

· Focused on what God did for us (received)

· Focused on our response to God’s invitation (believed)

· In the next three weeks, we will focus on what it means to embrace the entire Gospel by how we live out our lives.

Next week we’ll look at how we are to be

· Instruments of righteousness