It is not About Works…It’s About Restoration
Just because we are Christians it does not mean that we are obliged to say “yes” to each and every request that is made on us to do works. We must understand that God has a plan for every church and every believer. This means that it is perfectly possible that a pastor could be creating his own plans in order to substantiate his position in ministry. I believe a lot of time and effort is wasted by pastors and church members by just “playing church” rather than getting serious with God.
The kind of righteousness that God is seeking to bring to the awareness of His people is that of complete restoration. If the church had this type of righteousness to offer through its teachings, then believers would have complete confidence in their ability to be able to welcome broken, needy and sinful people to church, knowing that it was just a matter of time before they would be made whole again, right in the sight of God and free of the sin-miserable life that used to control them.
This means that a person’s Christian lifestyle would not be dictated by, and predicted by, their pre-Christian existence. It would mean that even people who had committed the most heinous crimes could come to the church, be taught the Gospel, and be gloriously set free to live a life of service unto God.
So far, the church-world lacks this kind of confidence when it comes to faith-for-righteousness. Instead of accepting righteousness as a free gift, they still try to earn it or prove it according to what they do or don’t do. Even if a person acts in a kind manner and performs a charitable act, it does not necessarily mean that are righteous. Just because someone acts friendly it does not mean that it is an expression of the goodness of their heart, they could be acting like that according with an ulterior motive or just to gain God’s approval.
If righteousness is according to our works and our conduct, then it becomes an exclusive kind of righteousness that will only be attainable, and maintainable, by a certain niche of society. Obviously, this niche of society will be those who have been fortunate enough to be raised by kind, caring and well-to-do parents.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to reconcile the world to Himself. The only requirement that Jesus places on mankind is that they accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. Nowhere in the Bible does God demand that a person is required to clean-up their life before they accept Christ.
Jesus accepted the thief on the cross into paradise, without the thief having to change his lifestyle and prove himself to God in any way - which was fortunate for the thief because he was hardly in a position to be bale to undo the wrong he had done through doing good unto others. The thief just asked Jesus to remember Him when He entered His kingdom. In other words, the thief acknowledged who Jesus was at that moment and accepted His righteousness as his own.
God never changes and His requirements of us, as believers in His Son, still have not changed. Jesus Christ accepts us as we are. God does not demand that we fix-up our bad habits and modify our behaviour as a requirement of righteousness. It is God who fixes-us-up and presents us spotless in His sight through Christ. Proper teaching on the subject of righteousness is vital in these last days if souls are going to be won in this great End Time harvest.
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