Righteousness: the Stone Tablets of the Testimony
Righteousness: the Stone Tablets of the Testimony
We overcome the Accuser of the brothers by the word of our testimony. The stone tablets placed in the Ark were referred to as the "Testimony." Of what or whom were the Ten Commandments the Testimony? They were the testimony of the righteous Nature of God.
We cannot overcome the Accuser of the brothers unless our thinking, speaking, and behaving reflect the righteous Nature of God.
They triumphed over him . . .by the word of their testimony; . . . (Revelation 12:11)
Christ must become our Life if we are to be truly holy and possess true righteousness of behavior.
God will not do anything where there is unrighteousness. God Himself is absolutely and wholly righteous. It is God's desire that everyone in whom He dwells is absolutely and wholly righteous.
Perhaps the principal lie of Satan is that it is impossible for the believer in Christ to be absolutely and wholly righteous. Satan claims that any effort we make to be righteous is as filthy rags (taking an Old Testament expression out of context).
Satan has invented a "grace" that makes us righteous because we are identified with Christ. We never can actually be righteous, Satan and his prophets and teachers will claim. We always will be unrighteous in deed, at least partly. We never can be totally in God's image—no, not for eternity.
God always will have to be forgiving our antics. We always will be fighting among ourselves. This is Satan's hope and prayer. Perhaps God in this case will not send Satan to the Lake of Fire, since all of God's children are unrighteous and self-willed.
Would you send your eight-year-old little girl out to adjust the timing chain on your automobile engine. She would not know where to begin!
She would exclaim, "I don't know what you are talking about, Daddy!"
So you would say to her, "Honey, I know you cannot adjust the timing chain in our car. But to disobey me would mean that I have to punish you severely.
"So I am giving you a forgiveness called 'grace.' This means that although you cannot obey what I tell you, I forgive you and you will not be punished."
What effect would this foolishness have on little Betsy? She would never obey what her father told her to do if it did not please her. She would think to herself, "My Dad will give me grace, whatever that is, and not punish me even though I do not do what he says."
Can you see from what I have written how wretched the current doctrine of "lawless grace" actually is? It is illogical, foolish, and certainly unscriptural. It has produced generations of immature, willful, immoral Christians.
God is not a foolish father. He does not command us to do anything that He will not make it possible for us to do. His commands are not grievous. God's will is the heartfelt rejoicing of the obedient believer. "Grace" is a suspension of the Law of Moses while we are being created in the image of God.
Away with the nonsense that God makes impossible demands on us and then forgives us by "grace" when we are not able to perform the impossible. What a foolish mockery of common sense this is!
It may be noted that acts of unrighteousness we perform can be traced to the desires of an unclean spirit. Therefore our behavior is not only unrighteous but unclean as well. God is absolutely holy, meaning He is completely free from unclean spirits.
Therefore, "Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." And, "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (II Corinthians 6:17,18-7:1)
Fortunately for God and us, the current preaching and assumptions are not of the truth. God has said man (and woman) shall be in His image. Therefore man and woman shall be in God's image, behaving as God behaves. When the plan of redemption has been brought to the full, God's people shall be free from all sin and rebellion for eternity.
Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever. they are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor. (Isaiah 60:21)
Let us say a believer is a thief and a liar, which some of the believers are. The individual claims to be righteous because God sees him through Christ. The unsaved people with whom he comes in contact with observe that he is a thief and a liar.
Will this man serve to display God's splendor? No? Why not? Because most people know God is neither a thief nor a liar.
We understand, therefore, that when Isaiah states that "all your people will be righteous" he does not mean by imputed righteousness. Neither does he mean they in their adamic nature have somehow disciplined themselves until they act like God.
Lasting compassion, kindness, mercy, love, patience, self-control, moral purity, joy, peace, will never grow from the adamic nature. A disciplined believer might demonstrate some of these traits to a limited extent, but never of the quality and strength of God.
"All your people will be righteous" means every individual in the Kingdom of God will be in the image of God in behavior.
It absolutely is true that Divine grace, being an alternative to the Law of Moses, protects us while the Spirit of God is leading us to confess and turn away from our sins. But we of today have made grace a permanent alternative to a change in our behavior.
This is to say that the Divine redemption can do no more than forgive us. It cannot transform us. This, however, is a total misunderstanding of what the Apostle Paul meant by "grace."
Satan has lied so successfully that believers who read my words may not believe it is possible for a human being to behave like God. They are not considering the Word or power of God.
Are they saying that God can speak into existence a million galaxies of stars, but He cannot create a righteous person. Do you truly believe that? I do not.
There is a new covenant. We Gentiles have created our own new covenant. We have named it "The Four Steps of Salvation." The covenant we have created does not make people righteous, although it is for that purpose God created a new covenant.
But God found fault with the people and said: "The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them," declares the Lord. (Hebrews 8:8,9)
Why has God made a new covenant? It is because the people did not remain faithful to the ordinances of the Law of Moses.
If such is the case, would God's new covenant be one in which God overlooked, through grace, the behavior of His people; or would it be one in which people were able to keep God's righteous commands? What do you think about this?
Our manmade covenant of today (The Four Steps of Salvation) maintains that if we believe in Jesus we will go to Heaven by "grace" no matter how unlawful we are.
Pardon my saying so, but that is a miserable excuse for a covenant that is supposed to be better than the Law of Moses because people now are able to obey God!
If "The Four Steps of Salvation" is not God's new covenant, what, then, is?
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Hebrews 8:10)
Remember, when we become one with Christ we are of Israel and the true Seed of Abraham.
Is putting God's laws in the minds of the believers and writing them on their hearts the same thing as excusing their behavior through grace?
Now, underline where the new covenant speaks of imputed righteousness.
Underline where it speaks of our going to Heaven.
Underline where it speaks of "grace."
Underline where it says God sees us through Christ.
Underline where it says there are no righteous people in the world.
Underline where it says our attempts to be righteous are as filthy rags.
If the new covenant does not mention any of these things, on which we are hanging our hope of future bliss, perhaps our "Four Steps of Salvation" is a manmade covenant and therefore of little worth.
What new covenant has God made with those who have put their faith in Christ?
"I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts."
Notice the following verse:
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)
The passage above applies as God is transforming our inner nature by writing His righteousness in our mind and heart. The misunderstanding of our day is that God forgives our wickedness and sins apart from any change in our heart or behavior. This concept may be the most destructive of all the errors that have sought admittance to Christian thinking.
It is true that a wicked individual may come to Christ for forgiveness and then die, without there having been any change in his or her nature.
But if Jesus brought the Gospel to those who were disobedient in the days of Noah and then were in the spirit world, and if the thief on the cross was invited to enter Paradise with Jesus, then it must be true that the required character transformation can be experienced after death.
For it remains eternally true that there is no sin or disobedience in the Kingdom of God.
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
Every individual must receive Christ and obey Him when God brings Christ to him or her, whether that person is on earth or in the spirit world. For those who refuse to obey Christ, whether here or in the spirit world, there remains only Hell and the Lake of Fire.
Christ must be obeyed at all times, once we know His will. To refuse to obey the Lord Jesus Christ means we must take our place with Satan and those who love and obey him.
May I venture that by "My laws" God is not speaking of the Law of Moses but of God's eternal moral law, of which the Law of Moses is an abridged version. God's law is what God is in Character, the motivation for and guide of God's behavior. Such is God's image. Such is true and eternal righteousness.
We can observe God's eternal moral law in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the moral law, the Word of God, made flesh. It is our divinely ordained destiny to be conformed to that very image. Here is actual righteousness of behavior, not imputed righteousness.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:20)
"Conformed to the image of His Son." Isn't this the same as saying they behave as the Son behaves? Or is it stating that if they "believe" in the Son they share in His righteousness? Is it a matter of transformation or of identification?
The first and most important characteristic of those who are qualified to be the house, rest, and throne of God is behavior that is in the image of God.
"I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts."
God wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. God wrote them with His finger. We can imagine the sparks flying as the moral law, the Covenant, was inscribed in the granite slabs.
Sometimes when God is writing His eternal moral Law in our mind and heart the sparks are flying, aren't they!
But that first covenant did not work the way God intended. The people, for the most part, were not able to obey the holy commandments. Their sinful, rebellious nature, the same as ours, warred against their desire to be obedient to God.
In fact, the Law of Moses served as a place-holder until the Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, should come. Also it brings us to Christ by making us aware of the sin in our conduct and of the need for deliverance that is found in Christ.
So God decided to make a covenant that would overcome the sinful, rebellious nature, of the believers.
We humans have concocted a covenant in which our sinful, rebellious behavior is overlooked rather than overcome It is sort of a spiritual schizophrenia. Neither we nor God are to be concerned about our behavior. "Grace" screens from God's eyes, and from our own eyes, our actual behavior.
What kind of a covenant is that, especially if we are to be the light of the world?
God's new covenant is not like that. God's new covenant inscribes His eternal moral laws, those laws which are of His own behavior, His image, in our mind and heart: in our mind so we understand them; in our heart so we rejoice in His commands.
I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart. (Psalms 40:8)
Let us say we are tempted to fornicate. We know this is not pleasing to God. We pray to Christ until He gives us victory over this temptation and we turn away from it.
Or perhaps we succumb to it. In this case we have to confess our sin to Christ and determine through the Lord to never, never, never again do such a thing from now through eternity.
Now what happens. Because we have been faithful in confessing this sin and turning away from it, the Spirit of God writes this victory in our mind and heart, using the body and blood of Christ. We press onward as a victorious saint, living by the Life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:57)
The one who feeds on Me! On My body and blood!
If we fail again, God may have to use stern measures, chastising us until we realize such behavior is forbidden to us.
If we then do not change our behavior, do not sincerely repent, we may be lost to Christ for eternity. This does happen, you know!
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:6)
But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (Hebrews 6:8)
If we trudge on after Christ, getting back up on our feet when we stumble, the Spirit of God writes every victory in our mind and heart, using the body and blood of Christ, for they are our eternal life.
The result of the program of redemption is a believer who has overcome sin and self-will. Christ has enough power to accomplish this work in you and me. Keep your eyes on Jesus and bear your cross after Him. He will bring you to perfect righteousness. He will conform you to His image, which is God's image.
Christ will bring you to perfect righteousness of behavior if you do not quit. Do not focus on yourself, focus on Christ. Keep your eyes on Him when you think you are going to sink, like the Apostle Peter.
Satan and all his prophets and teachers will tell you that you have to sin while you are in the world. But the Bible does not say that, rather it states the opposite. The Bible says we are not a debtor to our sinful nature, that we have to live according to it.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. (Romans 8:12)
Keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus, and He will lift you out of the swamp of sin. It will not happen all at once, but it surely shall happen!
God has decreed that you shall be in His image. He will not fail you. He shall make your behavior like His. He stretched out the heavens. He most certainly can make changes in the dust that you and I are.
We Christians understand that Jesus Christ is totally, completely righteous. Christ always does God's will. Christ is all that is meant by righteousness and holiness.
Therefore, the way in which we are made perfect in righteousness and holiness is by setting aside our own life and living by the Life of the Righteous One. The more we bring Christ into our life, the more actually righteous and holy we become.
Christ in us is the Light that shines more and more to the perfect day!
The only true righteousness and holiness occur when we have set aside our own life and Christ is living in us. This is the rest of God, the new covenant.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
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