Two systems of righteousness

Two systems of righteousness

Rom 4:4-5  Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.  5  But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

This verse highlights two systems of righteousness. One where a person can work for righteousness, and where righteousness is later indebted to that one. The second is where one does not work for it, but it is accounted to them freely because they choose to believe that God will keep His word and justify them.

Most of the religious world is under the system where they are trying to earn righteousness by their works. The world’s major religions of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and even most denominations of Christianity are entrapped in a works system that is trying to indebt God into paying them with righteousness for their works. What separates true believers from religion is that they have placed their trust in Christ and believe that God will justify them for their faith and not their works.

Paul teaches us that salvation is not works-based, nor can a person earn any type of favour with God through their own merits. It's completely by grace. From the opposite view, David also sums up this truth perfectly in the following verse,

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Ps 130:3

Now what about those who choose the system of the law?

Gal 5:1-4  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.  2  Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.  3  For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.  4  Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

It is important to note what Paul says in verse 3. “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”

If you put yourself under just one point of the law for justification and salvation, you're in debt to do it all. If you violate just one point of all the law, you are guilty of it all and you forfeit salvation. Paul says it plainly, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace”. The law was never intended to save you. Its purpose was to condemn. The law was given to demonstrate one’s guilt and prove the need of a Saviour.

It bewilders me why people do not want to receive salvation when it is offered for free. If some fancy store has a huge discount and some of their stock was being given out for free, one will have hordes of people queueing up to get some bargain, but when it comes to salvation, they want to work for it! Why? Is it because they are afraid to be indebted to God? Don’t they realize that it is a gift and that it is given freely? Noone is indebted by accepting a gift. If that were the case, it was not truly a free gift then!

There are two things that lead one to doubt. Ignorance and unbelief. One is either ignorant of what God said, or one knows what God said, yet chooses not to believe it. Not accepting God’s free gift of salvation is the result of ignorance because one does not have the correct information, and this causes doubts. On the other side of the coin, there are those who know the truth, but choose not to believe it. These are the ones who skew the truth and make up false doctrines based on their lack of proper bible study or their wild imaginations, Rom.1:21-22, 25.

What are these false doctrines? Let me give a few examples of the people who promote these biblical errors that I encounter over and over in social media sites. People who reject the truth of Israel as a physical nation of God, who now say that Israel is dead and that they are the new spiritual Israel. People who reject the command to separate Israel from the Gentiles, who do not recognise Paul’s unique ministry and dismiss his teachings for foolishness, because they contradict the teachings of Christ. People who refuse to accept that there are dispensations in the Word that have specific instructions that differ from others. These are people who know the truth but choose to make a mockery of the Word and lead others astray by their disbelief. Others, (who are not Israeli), put on a show and puff themselves up by using Hebrew words in their posts, thinking it makes them more spiritual or devout than their peers. They couldn’t speak Hebrew if they had to, but they think it makes them more pious and more religious.

All their pride and self-confidence only show me how little they really know about the law and the repercussions of it. Do they REALLY know what burden the law was on Israel and what it required! Three times in a year all the males over the age of twenty were supposed to go to Jerusalem and keep the feast of Passover, the feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Are these pious law abiders, who choose the law above God’s grace, doing this today? How many women today go and sacrifice a turtledove after giving birth, on the eighth day of purification? Does anyone do that today? No, they cannot, since sacrifice is not even instituted today without a temple. All this is just a show of religion. They are the modern Pharisees of this age who are blinded to the harshness and truth of the requirements of God’s law. In Act 15:10, Peter said the following at the Jerusalem counsel, “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” We must understand that the law is no joke. Do you realize that Christ had to die to get us out from under it. Paul writes the following about it,

Rom 7:9  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10  And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. … 13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. 

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?  2  This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Gal 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage [under the law]. 

There are two systems of righteousness. One where a person can work for righteousness and one where a person does not work for it, but righteousness is accounted to them freely because they choose to believe that God will keep His word and justify them.

Christ died to free us from the law and God provides us the gift of justification through the death and resurrection of His Son. These are not light words. God has done all He can to provide us a way out from the law, yet, the world, and all its religions, are dead set on earning righteousness by their works. What a sad state of affairs! Let us understand that this is not the will of God for us. The way of our salvation is justification through faith in His Son alone. Study the book of Romans and you will discover this within the first few chapters.

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.