Salvation Assured RIGHTEOUSNESS EQUALS JESUS
There is none righteous, no, not one. Rom. 3:10.
One of the major breakthroughs that come in the theme of salvation by faith is that you don't get righteousness by seeking righteousness. Righteousness comes by seeking Jesus. It is a trap of the devil for us to seek righteousness instead of seeking for Jesus. Righteousness is deeper than external actions.
The equation for righteousness is R = J. Righteousness = Jesus. If we're going to transfer it to our lives, it works like this: Mankind + Jesus = Righteousness. That's the equation for righteousness as far as we're concerned.
One day we were talking about this in class and a math major in the back row with his pocket computer got this terrible look on his face and said, "Wait a minute. We just came to the conclusion that Righteousness = Jesus. Now you say that Mankind + Jesus = Righteousness. But if Jesus = Righteousness, then Mankind = Nothing!"
I was conducting a Week of Prayer at a Christian medical school. That's a terrible experience. The medical students have brains bulging out of the sides of their heads. And you're supposed to try to say something! Part of the way through the week we got a reaction from some because we had talked about the fact that without Jesus we can do nothing. Some had gotten the impression that we were talking about being worthless. You don't tell people who have worked that hard toward their profession that they are worthless without getting some kind of reaction. There are people in the world who can do great things without God as long as God keeps their hearts beating in their chests. But God makes the hearts beat in the chests of those who curse Him.
Even though we are still helpless to produce righteousness, because righteousness is found only in Jesus, Jesus on the cross proved that every human being is worth the entire universe. We need to recognize that there's a big difference between being helpless and being worthless. When we accept the premise that we are nothing, we mean what Jesus said in John 15:5, "Without me ye can do nothing," in producing the fruits of righteousness. But without Him we are worth something; that's why He came--to show us that in Him all things are possible, and to prove the worth of a human soul.
There is none righteous, no, not one. Rom. 3:10.
One of the major breakthroughs that come in the theme of salvation by faith is that you don't get righteousness by seeking righteousness. Righteousness comes by seeking Jesus. It is a trap of the devil for us to seek righteousness instead of seeking for Jesus. Righteousness is deeper than external actions.
The equation for righteousness is R = J. Righteousness = Jesus. If we're going to transfer it to our lives, it works like this: Mankind + Jesus = Righteousness. That's the equation for righteousness as far as we're concerned.
One day we were talking about this in class and a math major in the back row with his pocket computer got this terrible look on his face and said, "Wait a minute. We just came to the conclusion that Righteousness = Jesus. Now you say that Mankind + Jesus = Righteousness. But if Jesus = Righteousness, then Mankind = Nothing!"
I was conducting a Week of Prayer at a Christian medical school. That's a terrible experience. The medical students have brains bulging out of the sides of their heads. And you're supposed to try to say something! Part of the way through the week we got a reaction from some because we had talked about the fact that without Jesus we can do nothing. Some had gotten the impression that we were talking about being worthless. You don't tell people who have worked that hard toward their profession that they are worthless without getting some kind of reaction. There are people in the world who can do great things without God as long as God keeps their hearts beating in their chests. But God makes the hearts beat in the chests of those who curse Him.
Even though we are still helpless to produce righteousness, because righteousness is found only in Jesus, Jesus on the cross proved that every human being is worth the entire universe. We need to recognize that there's a big difference between being helpless and being worthless. When we accept the premise that we are nothing, we mean what Jesus said in John 15:5, "Without me ye can do nothing," in producing the fruits of righteousness. But without Him we are worth something; that's why He came--to show us that in Him all things are possible, and to prove the worth of a human soul.
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