14 April 2008  8AM

Apostle Aje Pelser

Rom 14:17 – For the kingdom of God is not food and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Often, in Christianity, we get to a place where we think we are okay with God and then we start judging others. We forget that we have all been forgiven.

We have all been called with a high calling, but sometimes we do not feel worthy of that calling. How does one then feel worthy without getting proud about it? 

There are 2 kinds of righteousness: self righteousness, and the righteousness that is of faith.

When we are self-righteous, we are judgmental. And that is the trap of religion – thinking that we can earn the righteousness and salvation of God through works.

We are the righteousness of God IN CHRIST. If you are IN Christ, you are right with God. It is not because of what we do, it's because we believe in what Jesus did for us on the cross. That is what makes us right – Believing in Jesus.

Gal 3:5-8 – He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

Our account in heaven is activated by faith. We have a heavenly account of righteousness. And God checks our account, just like the bank manager checks our account. We activate that account by faith. If you don't have faith in Jesus and you are trying to activate your account of righteousness before God, it won't work. If you do it by works, and if you are trying to earn it, it is what the Word calls dead works. God wants us to repent of dead works. How do you get right with God according to Scripture? By having faith in Jesus' work on the cross. You must believe God, and it will be accounted to you for righteousness.

Was Abraham a Jew? No.

How then, did he get saved? He believed God.

Did Abraham have the law? No, because the law came with Moses.

How then, did he stay right with God? He believed God. He had a personal relationship with God. That is why we call him the father of our faith. So yes, the Jewish nation came from him, but so did many other nations, and so did all those who believe. So now, even the Jews can only really be called sons of Abraham if they believe. But the Jews felt that they were superior to other nations because of works: the law.

Whereas the law was only a teacher to tell us that we need a Saviour. The law teaches us that we cannot live right in our own strength. We all have an inbred flaw inside of us – when Adam sinned, sin entered into the world and into mankind. So all of us will keep only 80% of the law and fail in some other 20%.

Jesus had to come and redeem us from indwelling sin. That is why we needed Him to die in our form to condemn sin in the flesh.

God planned from the beginning to send Jesus. He gave us the law through Moses, to show us that we can't do it!

This is then how we realize that the only way we can be holy, pure and right with God is the same way that Abraham became right with God  – BY BELIEVING.

As we believe in God, He accounts it to us for righteousness and then the force of righteousness starts making you right. That is how we become right.

What religion does is, it says, “one day when you keep all the laws you will be right”. It dangles a carrot in front of your nose that you can never get to.

We are not preachers of condemnation, we are preachers of righteousness.

If you understand righteousness, you'll be established in righteousness.

The wonderful thing about righteousness is that it is a force that works from the inside out – not form the outside in. Religion gives you external laws, and they think that will change you. It doesn't! It's not the laws of a Church that make you right before God, it's your relationship with Him, it's your belief in Jesus Christ on the cross.

What is the origin of your righteousness?  That will determine whether righteousness has an effect in your life.

The 2 types of righteousness are quite different from one another. Self righteousness and the righteousness by faith. Isn't it good news that the God you believe in for righteousness is also the God that makes you right? He is at work in you to correct things, and to bring your life into alignment with His word. It is wonderful that it is not up to you. This should be a load off your shoulders. Isn't it wonderful to know that the things that you are struggling with and crying out to God for help with, that He is helping you with them? His righteousness is a force at work in you if you understand it. Sometimes you need to back off and stop trying to be perfect so that righteousness can come through. You have to die to your own efforts and let Christ live through you. You have to come to a place where you can say, “it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me”.

It is very important that when you think you have arrived (at being right with God) that you go back to God and humble yourself before Him. Remember that we all stand by grace. It's not our performance. It's His performance on the cross. His performance cannot be topped! We need to remember that we all need to believe God for our salvation and righteousness.

Christ is our righteousness. He is the embodiment of righteousness. The more we get to know Him, the more that force works through our lives.

When Paul wrote these words to the Galatians, people wanted to stone him for it. When the Jews read it they were not happy. All of a sudden they were not the chosen nation anymore, they now had to accept brothers and sisters from other nations. The Jews would also realize that they had stopped believing God, that they had started to rely on works of the law for their salvation. They denied Jesus Christ as the Son of God who bought their salvation and paid for their righteousness.

Jesus became a stumbling block to the Jews. When Paul preached Christ, like he did in Galatians, the Jews hated him. They persecuted him from city to city. Paul put his body on the line for this revelation. And Jesus put His body on the line for us so that we can understand and receive righteousness. All of Jesus' disciples did the same. They not only preached the Gospel, they also faced all the persecution that came with it. We can only stand in His righteousness by faith. The origins of our righteousness is not us.

Abraham wasn't perfect. He made mistakes and also lied sometimes: about his wife that the Pharaoh wanted to marry. Then the Lord appeared to Pharaoh in a dream and told him that He would kill him if he takes Sarah to be his wife.

God promised Abraham a son. Then he waits 20 years and tried to make the promise come to pass by begetting Ishmael, the son of Hagar, in his own strength. It turned out that Ishmael persecuted Isaac the son of promise. It is the same to this day. The Ishmaelites persecutes the Isaacs. The Muslims are at enmity with the Christians. The son of the bond woman persecutes the son of the promise.

How did  God bless all the nations through Abraham? One of Abraham's descendants was Jesus. And in believing in Jesus, people get saved. And in believing in Jesus, all the nations can come to salvation. That is how God blessed all the nations through Abraham.