The “Harvest” Mentality – Part 1

There seems to be a “harvest” mentality amongst many Christians, even grace Christians: this is based around various Bible verses that promise wealth, particularly Galatians 6:9.

⁷ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸ For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. ⁹ And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Galatians 6:7-9

During the Word of Faith stage I went through for several years, I got caught-up in a “harvest” mentality: I became convinced that I would reap a harvest of wealth, power and miracles – if I developed a certain level of faith and adhered to certain principles and formulas. I was told that faith came by the Word of God, which is based on Romans 10:17. So I assumed that the Bible was the Word of God and I had to understand it and study it in order to have faith. I was told that faith and conviction was the same thing, so I needed to know what was right in scripture, I had to rightly divide the Word, so that I could have faith. After all, how could I be sure of something that I did not even know what right or wrong or did not even understand?

So I thought that I had to have answers for everything and that I needed to persuade other people to see things from my perspective. However, this caused me to be overbearing and highly opinionated at times and to desire after control and influence. If I could have this type of “faith”, I assumed, and then I would be able to reap a “harvest”. Can you see how the wrong concept of faith as portrayed by the institutional church, enmeshes with the neurotic temperament, and thus, compounds it? No wonder the world tends to look upon Christians as being unpleasant and opinionated people.

The church, of course, was also quick to seize upon the concept of tithing as a means of reaping a harvest. This “harvest” mentality stirs-up the fantasies that people have as they feel encouraged to think about all the things that they will reap from God for their obedience and faith. It sort of makes it all worth it because they are also upholding a vision of God that is angry, demanding and judgemental.

When You Fail to Reap…

All the while, when you do not reap your “harvest” you are told to persevere and to have faith and not to lose heart (as Galatians 6:9 seems to encourage). It is little wonder that a large component of the preaching we hear in church is what I call pep-talks. It really boggles my mind how Christians will allow preachers to intimidate and patronise them – all because they believe that the person on stage behind the pulpit is closer to God than they are; that the pastor knows more than them and that they hold all the answers to an abundant life. I used to love listening to Joyce Meyer, but now; I wince when I hear the way in which she patronises people. I think she means well and she does teach some true and amazing things – but in amongst all the good stuff is an awful lot of intimidation.

I think you can reach a point when you suddenly realise that you are not going to be the next Billie Graham or Benny Hinn, you’re not going to have your own intercontinental jet plane, performing miracles before a huge audience of adoring fans. I think you come to a place in which you get the feeling that it would really be good for your mental and emotional health if you were to climb down from your cloud and embrace real life. I think this reality-check can be too much to bear for some Christians. We would rather hold onto the fantasy rather than to come to terms with the fact that the institutional church has fed us unrealistic expectations, or even lies, all of this time.

The Lust of Sensationalism

Darin Hufford of the Free Believers Network discusses the subject of over-sensationalism in the church in the podcast episode entitled podcast The Lust of Sensationalism. This is a wonderful, long awaited podcast that I feel picks-up from Darin's blog on Spiritual Porn Addiction. This podcast has helped me to come to terms with the sheer wackiness that we simply accept without question in Pentecostal circles. It is sad but true that sensationalism is like a drug to the frustrated, insecure and gullible Christian who is seeking more in life.

Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 6

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.

Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 5

Be Led By the Spirit

I think the major problem in the area of righteousness is a startling lack of sensitivity to the direction of the Holy Spirit. This is a believer’s true nakedness and hence the Adam-and-Eve-like tendency to want to hide from God and cover himself with something that he does rather than what God does. This lack of sensitivity leads to believers anxiously asking God what He wants them to do. This attitude assumes that the only thing a believer needs in order to please God, is a list of easy-to-understand instructions. Man needs a new nature to be able to do the will of God. Israel’s failure to obey the Law was evidence of that.

Being led by the Spirit necessitates a heart that is submitted to the will of God with nothing held back. It is only by receiving the love of God that we can be truly be led by the Spirit of God in order to do His will. God could tell a person to do something, but if he has fear, pride or a hidden agenda in his heart that opposes it - he is likely to shy away from such a request.

We all know that it is sin that blocks the love of God, but it is not so much what we do or don’t do which conflicts with God. Galatians 5:17 says, For the flesh lusts against the Spirit. The Greek word used for “lust” here means to desire and to long for. It is our desires more than our actions that conflict against the leading of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, Galatians 5:17 might read, For the flesh acts against the Spirit. Desires arise out of a person’s beliefs, which in turn, are established through their thoughts. It is the way we think and believe that gets in God’s way; this is what sin truly is. The wrong actions that a person commits to are the expressions of his wrong beliefs, thoughts and desires.

Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 4

Adam and Eve’s Nakedness

The trouble is we often see righteousness as something that we work towards rather than something that we have now. We assume that we have righteousness now, but we believe it is something that we receive in instalments, rather than all at once. With this approach, we never become righteous enough for God. Then, with only a partial confidence towards God and our right-standing with Him, we then seek to cover our sinfulness with something that we do.

This is what Adam did when he fell from grace and came to the realisation that his righteousness was in God and not in his own ability. Adam and Eve gained the knowledge of what was good and what was evil. This led to them coming to the realisation that they were naked. They then sought to cover their nakedness with fig leaves.

⁶ When the Woman saw that the tree looked like good eating and realized what she would get out of it - she'd know everything! - she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

⁷ Immediately the two of them did "see what's really going on" - saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.

⁸ When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.

⁹ God called to the Man: "Where are you?"

¹⁰ He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid."

¹¹ God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"

Genesis 3:6-11 msg

Adam and Eve’s nakedness was not so much due to their lack of clothing - it was due to the fact that they had forfeited their true covering which was holiness and purity. Without this covering, people still seek to cover their sinfulness from the sight of God.

The wonderful thing about righteousness by faith is that a person no longer feels naked and unacceptable in the sight of God. This means that they no longer have to find something else to cover their sinfulness, because they no longer live according to that old nature. When a person lacks the assurance that they have right standing with God, they do what Adam and Eve did and try to cover their nakedness with fig leaves by trying to cover their inadequacies with their own works.

The Galatian church also had the same idea when they sought to substantiate their right-standing with God through reverting back to following the law. This is an approach that we still see in the church today. Paul’s letter to the Galatians stands as a warning to believers today so that they do not fall into the same trap.

If believers have real confidence towards God through the knowledge and assurance of righteousness in His sight, they would not need to revert back to following a set of rules as a means of pleasing God and meriting His favour. This means that if God does not prompt a believer to commit to a certain obligation in the church by His love, then they will not feel pressured into doing something that they are not sure about.

It is difficult when the church makes an appeal for volunteers to do some charitable act. Such appeals play on the conscience and are often hard to resist without feeling guilty. Right standing with God gives a believer the power to say “no” to good things. We should say “yes” to God and the plans He has for us.

Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 3

Righteousness is a Gift

Righteousness is a gift; gifts ought to be accepted. If a gift has to be worked towards and merited according to good conduct, then it is not a gift, but it is a wage.

¹ So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our first father in the faith, into this new way of looking at things?

² If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story.

³ What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own."

⁴ If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift.

⁵ But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it - you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked - well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.

⁶ David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

⁷ Fortunate those whose crimes are carted off, whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.

⁸ Fortunate the person against whom the Lord does not keep score.

Romans 4:1-8 MSG

The strange thing about faith is that it loses its power once a timeframe has been placed on it. As soon as we deliberate a time-limit or delivery date on faith, we nullify its effects because we never believe that we have it now. Faith is always now; if faith is attributed to a future date then it no longer remains faith, it becomes hope.

Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 2

Right Living is the Result of Right Believing

Right living comes as a result of right believing. When we accept righteousness as a gift by faith, we no longer need to impose rules on ourselves; we no longer have to try to be good according to what we do or don’t do. The brand of righteousness that most people live out of is the righteousness that they had before they came to faith in Christ. They then make an effort of the will to fix-up a few bad habits that they can give the heave-ho without too much effort. They then expect other people to follow suit, in the belief that there are no sins that cannot be averted purely through an effort of the will. With this attitude towards righteousness, the method of instilling righteousness in other people seems to always be the intimidating practice of trying to shame people into not sinning by establishing taboos. Then, when people do go ahead and sin after being told not to, it is taken to be an act of ignorance and disobedience against the pastor. This approach simply does not work.

If church leaders had a proper understanding concerning righteousness, they would see that people cannot stop themselves from sinning without a proper understanding on the subject. Instead of accepting what the Bible says about righteousness by faith, they simply continue as if they are still living according to the Old Testament. The New Testament is a new and better covenant, but it will only work according to your belief. Most people seem to believe that the New Testament just provides a means by which a believers past sins have been forgiven. This is indeed a wonderful promise, but it is still not enough to set people free from their sin.

Thankfully, there is so much more to the Blood of Jesus Christ to him who knows and believes. If church leaders only preach on the subject of forgiveness of past sins, then continue to badger people to conduct their lives in a certain way, the implied meaning is that it is up to believers to impose control over their own lives – what they do and what they don’t do. Again, this continues the idealistic misconception of man possessing a super-willpower that is capable of living a holy life of its own accord.

The Security of a Christian Leader

I believe what is required to empower the church to live victorious lives free from sin and the affliction it brings, is for leaders to emerge from the wreckage of sin-dominated lives. You can tell if a pastor has lived a squeaky-clean pre-Christian life according to his teaching and the demands he places on the congregation.

I have found that many ministers are people who have received a decent upbringing in a Christian family, without any major hiccups. Undoubtedly, such people will have probably done things in their youth that they would feel ashamed of doing now, but on the whole, they are able to live good decent adult lives. It is this experiential righteousness that will give a person the confidence to become a minister.

There seems to be a stigma attached to church leaders having done shameful things in the past. The reason seems to be that the trust people place on a minister is all down to his conduct and lifestyle, both pre and post Christ. It would seem inconceivable to many Christians for an ex-convict to become a pastor of a church (although, it does actually happen).

If a pastor knew the struggles that a person has with addictive sins, he would seek a better means of preaching on the subject of righteousness. As it stands, many pastors remain closed on the subject.

Without proper knowledge on the subject, sin-ruled believers remain ashamed of their past, not because they don’t believe they have been forgiven for past transgressions, but because they fear that they will just keep on making the same mistakes again and again. This leads to a Christian life of endlessly sinning and repenting, never quite having the confident assurance they should have towards God. This way of life can lead to a believer even doubting his own salvation. Clearly, something more is required.

The kind of righteousness by faith that we ought to be seeking to establish is the kind of righteousness that the New Testament so clearly promises. If the Bible says that a believer is made righteous through confession of Christ and acceptance of His righteousness, then we should believe and accept it.

Pre-Christian Judgementalism – Part 1

There are all sorts of problems that we face in the church due to the confusion over righteousness. One of the problems is that we tend to judge people according to their pre-Christian lifestyle. If we really knew what it was to be taken out of darkness and into the light by faith in Jesus Christ, then we would see the potential of righteousness in other people, no matter how they conduct their lives. The church has been robbed of the amazing power of righteousness by faith in Christ to restore, heal and renew a person’s life and character. Instead, we often only see the kind of righteousness that we saw in the Old Testament, which demands righteousness from the bankrupt, fallen nature of man.

Right-living will never come to people as the result of fiery provocation and intimidation, together with a re-iteration of what constitutes right and wrong behaviour. People need to be taught more about the life-transforming power of the Blood of Christ to completely change a person’s life: the way they think, feel and behave.

The church’s inability to deliver a comprehensive and life-changing message on righteousness has turned Christianity into nothing more than a moral code. This moral code demands a sanctified life from believers without properly empowering them. Such preaching will always seek to control and make demands that a person believes he could or should be able to make. This leaves believers living in a kind of dream-world whereby they try to convince themselves that they have what it takes to please God.

Christians become brainwashed into thinking that Christianity is simply an ideal standard that can never be attained or maintained and yet it is accepted because everyone agrees that its demands ought to be met as much as possible. This means that believers will never be completely righteous, as the Bible says we are, but that we can be as righteous as we possibly can. Even if we are as righteous as we can be in our own effort, it is still never enough to meet God’s requirements.

There are many people, including politically correct politicians, who seek to unify all religions based on common moral values. This approach is seen as being good, noble and unifying – but it will never work because no other religion than Christianity looks to faith in the Blood of Jesus as being the only way to God.

A Contrast of Two States

Have you noticed that there are usually only two antithetical states of being contrasted in the Bible? The Bible contrasts God and devil, light and dark, righteousness and sin, good and evil. The Bible does not even attempt to deal with subtle shades of light and dark. The Bible does not attempt to subdivide states of being into grades – that is just something that mankind tries to do because it cannot attain complete righteousness through its efforts. This approach has become so acceptable, that we do not even give it a second thought, even though it is not in accordance with the Bible. We are not meant to attain complete righteousness by our own effort, which is why Jesus Christ died for us, so that we could accept His righteousness. Righteousness is a state of being just like sin is a state of being.

Righteousness by Faith

Our righteousness is according to faith. The Bible tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Our righteousness is according to faith: this means that we are expected to believe we are accepted by God even when we cannot see anything to support this belief according to our five senses. It is easy to believe that we are right with God when we are actively serving in church, we are praying every night and everything seems to be going well for us. But what about when things aren’t going so well and we are struggling to maintain the “good little Christian” routine? Righteousness by faith is not always as easy as we would like to think it is.

Kenneth E. Hagin is thought of as being the pioneer of the Word of Faith movement. Hagin would typically focus on faith for healing and faith for finances. Hagin would also say that faith could be applied to any other legitimate need, such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Hagin would state emphatically that the believer needs to believe that his need is met regardless of what his senses tell him: if a Christian is believing God for healing – he should not look to the lying symptoms of his physical body. I believe it is the same with faith for righteousness: we should believe that we are accepted by God – regardless of our conduct and behaviour.

The first term used by Thayer’s Greek Definitions to describe the Greek word dikaiosunē (G1343) is: in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God. The state we ought to be in is that we are children of the Most High God. The state that we ought not to be is eager-beaver little Christians anxiously running around church trying to please God with our pathetic efforts to be just like Jesus according to our own efforts.  The emphasis should be on God’s unconditional love for us and what He has done for us through Christ – not on what we can do for God through our works.

It is assumed that as we resume fellowship with God through Christ (right-standing with God) the good works should follow from there. The state that we ought to be is that God lives His life through us. The question is – if God lives His life through us, why do we need to make such stringent efforts to vet every mode of behaviour and decision that we make? As if we need some sort of safety net just in case the Holy Spirit decides to “test” us to make sure we know our right from our wrong and our good from our bad.

Righteousness is all about focus: do we focus on our proud attempts to do what we believe is right? Do we focus on those things other people say we ought to do – but find we cannot do? Or do we focus on the fact that God accepts us apart from our works so that we can enjoy intimate fellowship with Him through Christ; thus allowing Holy Spirit to take control over our lives?

Grace produces good works. Grace is also righteousness conscious. Sin-consciousness produces more sin, as it creates a cycle in one's life to sin. The Bible says that the strength of the law is sin (1 Cor. 15:56). Paul said that he died, spiritually speaking, when the law came and sin revived in him (Romans 7:9).

Focusing on right living only brings one to sin, I believe, and focusing on Jesus and His love for us and that we are righteous by His blood, leads to right living.

Righteousness According to Christ’s Efforts

If our righteousness is primarily positional righteousness – we can all breathe a sigh of relief. This means that our right-standing with God has everything to do with the good works of Jesus and not our own works.

The Bible says in Romans 8:4 that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfiled in us. I like the way The Message translation puts it: And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. Our righteousness is all about ceasing from our own efforts to discern what is right, wrong, good or bad and then trying to live according to that knowledge. Our righteousness is simply embracing what God is doing in us.

The Wuest translation of Romans 8:4 puts it this way: that the righteous requirement of the law may be brought to completion in us who, not as dominated by the sinful nature are ordering our behavior but as dominated by the Spirit. It is simply a matter of whom, or what, is in control: the nature of man or the nature of God. We attempt to order our behaviour when we seek to establish the difference between right and wrong (typically by asking someone else) and then trying to live according to that knowledge in our own effort.

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,* who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Romans 8:1-5 nkjv

We can either read this text as an obligation or a promise. We could read this text as a warning to ensure that as Christians we don’t live according to the flesh. We tend to think of the word “flesh” as denoting sexual sin more than anything. Other than that, we often think of carnal behaviour, sinful behaviour, in relation to “the flesh”.

Notice how Paul doesn’t reel-off a list of rules that need to be kept. Paul does not say, “Jesus died on the cross so that you must be forgiven. Now you must make an effort to keep the rules – here are the rules…” There is no mention of specific rules because righteousness is a state of being. Paul often contrasts two states of being in the Bible: believer and unbeliever; sinful nature and divine nature; love and fear; flesh and spirit. Walking according to the spirit is therefore a promise – not an obligation.

When you believe you are the righteousness of God in Christ – there is no need for you to discern the difference between good and evil. The Bible says that if you believe you are right with God through Christ – the Holy Spirit orders your steps. As a child of God you are led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). If you are led by the Holy Spirit – you are not under law (Galatians 5:18). I like the way The Living Bible renders Galatians 5:18 - When you are guided by the Holy Spirit, you need no longer force yourself to obey Jewish laws.

I am inclined to use the word readiness to describe righteousness in Christ. The reason for this is that when a believer has been made righteous before God, he is then in a condition whereby God is ready move in his life.

We will continue this study in the next blog entry entitled: Righteousness by Faith.

Righteousness According to Works

Jesus Himself said that we were to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness in Matthew 6:31-33. If this righteousness is the ability to live right – we are simply brought into the law as we seek to fulfil the admonishments of Jesus by trying to keep rules.

If the requirement to be righteous rests solely on our ability to live according to a high moral standard, then we need to know what that standard is. Seeking righteousness through moral conduct inevitably leads to the introduction of a moral code. The emphasis on the church then becomes the necessity of adhering to that strict moral code. If must be a strict moral code otherwise we are simply not taking righteousness seriously enough. How can we be assured of our right-standing according to our works if we keep one rule, but not another? (See James 2:10).

It is at this point that Christians begin to buckle under the pressure of rule-keeping. The question is then asked, “Should Christians keep the Ten Commandments?” Anxious and insecure Christians often ask their pastor if a certain thing or mode of behaviour is permissible. Christian discussion boards are full of posts from Christians who are interested in knowing whether they are allowed to wear certain articles or clothes or have tattoos or whatever. Christian bookshops also assist these confused believers by offering bookshelves full of books which tell Christians what is acceptable and what is not.

This system of righteousness is never effective because it always leads to uncertainly regarding the “grey areas”: those areas which are not quite black or white in terms of certainty. A lot of pulpit preaching is focused on “helping” confused believers to know what is right and what is wrong. However, how are we to know whether the pastor is preaching according to divine revelation or from his own opinions?

Even if you are sure what is right and what is wrong – how can you be certain you will be able to live according to those rules one-hundred percent of the time? This is when the concept of post-crucifixion forgiveness of sins comes into play as believers are given the option to “get right” with God when they do sin.

We will continue this study in the next blog entry entitled: Righteousness According to Christ’s Efforts.

Confusion over the Word “Righteousness”

The words righteousness and righteous, from a Biblical perspective, carry incredible power of restoration and reconciliation. However, these words have been bandied about so much in the church in such a way that they have almost become devoid of power for many people.

“Rightness”

Sometimes, I am tempted to use a different word when it comes to right-standing with God and the re-created nature of man; I am sometimes tempted to use a word such as rightness instead to convey this wonderful promise of God.

Rightness is a word that Joseph Thayer uses in Thayer’s Greek Definitions to describe the Greek word translated righteousness in the Bible. Words can carry great power, and yet, it is not the words themselves that carry power, it has much more to do with the meaning attributed to those words.

This is what Thayer’s Greek Definitions says about the Greek word dikaiosunē (G1343), which is translated righteousness:

1) in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God

1a) the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God

1b) integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting

2) in a narrower sense, justice or the virtue which gives each his due

Right Standing or Right Living?

I believe there have been a lot of debate and much confusion as to whether Biblical righteousness is simply a title bestowed upon sinful man by God, as a result of believing in Christ; or whether it actually includes the ability to live right.

Joseph Prince says that the church often talks about positional righteousness and experiential righteousness, when the Bible makes no such demarcation: the Bible simply refers to righteousness without splitting it up into different categories.

We will continue this exposition in the next blog entries which focus on Righteousness According to Works, Righteousness According to Christ’s Efforts and Righteousness by Faith.

The Trap of Self-Justification

Something that the Lord has been revealing to me recently, has been the concept of self-justification. This is a really tricky thing I find.

The Charismatic Movement

When I was caught-up in the charismatic movement in the late nineties, I found that there was a great deal of emphasis on Christians proving their worth to God and each other. There was an emphasis on God "using" people, with the idea that you were not a proper Christian unless you prayed constantly for God to "use" you in all sorts of extravagant ways.

I think what made all of this worse was the Word of Faith movement with its spectacular testimonies, signs and wonders. I'm all for that but with the proper emphasis and motive.

The Desire to Prove Oneself

The carnal nature is inclined towards proving oneself. The concept of the law as in the Ten Commandments was something that was actually requested by man, as far as I understand. It is for this reason that the concept of establishing rules as a means of a person being qualified or disqualified for the blessing and favour of God - is such as natural inclination.

Unless we first accept ourselves just as we are, we will never attain the clarity, peace, joy and love that we need in order to walk in the fullness of what God has for us. But this is why the whole concept of keeping rules or proving yourself by asking God to "use" you - is such a massive distraction. This desire for God to "use" us to do marvellous things, appeals to the lower nature's compulsion to prove oneself to God and other people. There is this sense in the church of two types of Christians: active Christians and passive Christians. A person will make themselves do all sorts of things they don't want to do in the church, all for the sake of being acknowledged as an "active Christian" or a “devoted Christian”.

To be honest, I'm inclined to believe that the concept of bringing together a group of frustrated and confused people who are desperate to prove their worth - is a really bad idea. The pastor of a church can exploit this desperation in order to maintain his religious show. It's like a conveyor belt of frustrated Christians, hopping on and off, either burned out on religion or desperate to prove themselves.

Un-anointed Works

When I look back on everything that I've done so far in church, I can see that hardly any of it was really blessed by God. There have been so many start-and-stop activities were I have been convinced that I've been called to do something, only to find that I've made all sorts of commitments to something that does not really work for me and something that I'm beginning to struggle with. Then, when things don't work out, we make the glib excuse of, "Well, God changed His mind." Yeah, right, as if!

Seek Righteousness First

Jesus says to seek righteousness first: knowing that we are acceptable to Him - just as we are. But then we get caught-up in the practice of feeling as if there is something wrong with us if we don't get excited about going on mission trips abroad or joining the weekly prayer meeting. There is this sense that if God does not "use" us, then we are harbouring hidden sin, or we need to read more Christian books in order to find the right principles and formulas to keep. This is like entering into a vast maze, because the power from God that we are seeking in order to fulfil some kind of requirement that we think we ought to fulfil, for our own peace of mind, simply is not being afforded to us by God.

Even though we are told that we are righteous, there is that sense that we are still required to keep rules, albeit, through the power of God. Living according to the law is not just seeking to keep rules through self-effort, it is also seeking to keep rules through confessing "power from on High" according to the Word of God.

Bertie Brits teaches that we should avoid seeking the power of God so that we can fulfil the law - Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf. Our job now is to rest in His finished work and to live freely and naturally as we allow Hs love to become our own nature and desires. As soon as we look to rules, principles, obligations and formulas - we end-up restricting the love of God working in us, through our own logical reasoning.

The Old Covenant could not produce life, the presence of God, in the heart of a person (See Romans 7:10). We need the life-giving presence of God in order to live a godly life. But God is not going to give us His power so that we can fulfil our own sense of self-justification. The pastor might tell the congregation that everyone in the church should join the next mission trip abroad – but is he right? What are his motives? Perhaps God wants you to go on that mission trip, but then again, perhaps He does not.

The Threat of Being Called “Lazy”

I think what often happens is that we dread being called “lazy” by other Christians. The word “lazy” is used far to often by well-meaning preachers who try to “motivate” Christians into serving God. What they end-up doing is patronising people and bringing a sense of condemnation to believers who are already struggling to believe that God loves them, just as they are.

If you are not called to do such things, it can cause your anxious mind to race, “Why aren’t I called to go on this mission trip? Is it because I haven’t prayed enough? Do I need to read the Bible more? Perhaps there is a book that will give me the correct principles and formulas to follow? What’s going to happen to me if I don’t go on that mission trip? What will other people think of me? What am I going to tell them? What excuse can I make?”

Self-Justification Amongst the Pharisees

During the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, He was always at odds with the religious elite of the day: the Pharisees and Sadducees. These Jewish sects sought to prove themselves to be better than everyone else, and more deserving of the favour of man and God, according to their efforts and achievements.

Everything that the Pharisees did appeared noble, but it was their motive, the honour of others, that made it so wrong. Even prayer and fasting became a platform for these people to prove their worth to themselves, God and others. (See Matthew 6:5-6, 6:16). I like the rendition in The Message translation:

⁵ "And when you come before God, don't turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat? ⁶ "Here's what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. ⁷ "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. ⁸ Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.

Matthew 6:5-8 msg

God Resists the Proud

The Bible tells us that God resists the proud (see James 4:6). Who are the proud? Obviously, “the proud” are people who boast about their status, achievements and ability.

But perhaps “the proud” could also include those well-meaning Christians who have a strong desire to prove their sense of worth to themselves, God and other people – according to what they have and what they do. If this is the case, what is the likely result of such a person’s pursuits? Well, if God resists a person, I see that as there being no plan or purpose of God in that thing. If there is no plan or purpose of God in an endeavour, there will be no cohesion between people in order to bring about the accomplishment of it. In order to achieve even the simplest of tasks, we need the love of God and everything that 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says that love is.

Even the simplest service to God, such as welcoming people on the church door, can become incredibly tedious without love. Without the wisdom of God, a person will easily become confused, even in the most basic tasks. If a person does not experience the life and love of God to do something, they will struggle with it and eventually, they will be burned out on religion.

²⁸ "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. ²⁹ Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. ³⁰ Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Matthew 11:28-30 msg

If God resists a person because of their pride, because of their natural inclination to prove themselves and to seek the approval of others – what is likely to happen in the life of that person in regards to their ability to live a godly life and avoid sin? I would say that without the wisdom, life and love of God operating freely in their life, as they seek to fulfil their own need for self-justification – they are likely to succumb to all manner of temptations.

God Gives More Grace to the Humble

You might be wondering why God does not give Christians the power to keep the law, and thereby, justify themselves. I am not saying that we should deliberately seek to break the Ten Commandments, as if we have a point to prove. Neither am I saying it is a bad thing if we find ourselves, for instance, not committing adultery. I am just saying that we ought to be consciously aware of our motives for doing many of the things that we have been conditioned to believe that Christians ought to do.

Remember, God gives more grace to the humble (see James 4:6). Humble people do not have a point to prove. Just consider what religious, proud people are like, they way they treat other people and look down on them as if they are a lower class of human being. Then, consider how you might be inclined to treat other people if you were empowered to fulfil all of those religious obligations that the church has imposed on you. You might feel weak, sinful and helpless as you are now – but what would happen to you subconsciously if God, all of a sudden, enabled you to fulfil all of those religious obligations. The truth of the matter is, that anyone who seek to justify themselves according to what they have or what they do, be it in their own power or the power of God, has the potential to become proud and self-justified.

⁹ Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ¹⁰ "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men--extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' ¹³ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Luke 18:9-14 nkjv

Distractions to Seeking the Kingdom of God

What opposes a Christian seeking purely the kingdom of God and His righteousness is that he is convinced that created things will bring him the peace, joy and sense of security that he seeks.

This misunderstanding comes out of a failure to understand and appreciate the greatness of God’s grace. Only when a believer comes to know the reason why his soul has lusted after things in the past, will he come to realise his true need for those things that Jesus said we ought to seek after first.

Too many of us are seeking after the kingdom of God as just another item on our prayer list. If we came to understand even a fraction of just how wonderful God’s peace is, we would be able to abandon all of our other wants that we believe our conditional in our attaining wholeness.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said:

“God has only to give you what you want to make you feel the emptiness of it!...You will generally notice that when the Believer gets near to God, tastes the unseen joys and eats the bread that was made in Heaven, all the feasts of earth, all its amusements and all its glories seem very flat, stale and unprofitable!”
—1891, Sermon #2225

There are some Christians who are trying to believe God for miracles of healing and financial provision, yet they are still burdened with fear and guilt. How can a Christian believe that God will heal him when he does not even believe that he is right with God?

Without this sense of right-standing with God, he will feel that there is something wrong with him and that he has to keep a set of rules in order for God to accept him. If a believer does not know he is right with God, sin will continue to play an active role in his life.

We cannot seek after miracles by faith when we are living in sin and not walking in love. It is therefore important to recognise this spiritual condition and to remedy it by learning about the promises of God, especially with regards to faith, love and righteousness. We must take the fundamental first steps of faith without getting too far ahead of God.

Righteousness Based on Hope

We know that hope is an expectation of good and that it is the opposite of despair. We also know that hope is not an aspect of the unredeemed nature but is an aspect of the Divine Nature. If a person does not walk in love, he will have no hope in him.

In order to have faith for provision, it is vital to access the hope that God’s love affords us. What happens a lot of the time is that believers are simply assenting to righteousness, then trying to believe in God for all kinds of provision. But without hope, despair will mar any attempt to sustain faith for provision for anything beyond a very short period of time.

So when it comes to expectation in the life of a frustrated and despairing believer, I am convinced that we can achieve a lot more by narrowing our expectations to right-standing with God, freedom from guilt, peace and joy. When we have these fundamental, primary promises of God operating in our lives, we are then in a position to trust in God for anything.

The more a person is prone to doubt and despair, the more grace from God is required. Therefore, if an anxious person is able to experience peace and joy, through acknowledging Christ, in situations that would normally throw them into a state of panic – then they know that something supernatural has taken place. They know that the promises of God as written in the Bible are indeed true. If the primary promises of Jesus are put into effect, then we can rejoice that every other promise of God’s Word will be put into effect in the perfect moment.

The beginning of a life of faith in Christ begins with a person being able to see their need of God’s righteousness as a free gift by faith in Christ. This first step also continues with the attainment of faith for right-standing with God, freedom from guilt, peace and joy. I would say that everything just flows from there. This is the solid basis for hope, which is the expectation of good. Without that hope, a person will always have a sense of despair and apprehension about them. This apprehension will always counteract faith because it opposes trust and belief in God’s promises.

Seek Righteousness First – Part 3

The word “righteousness” in the New Testament is the Greek word dikaiosunē (G1343). According to Thayer’s Greek Definitions, this Greek word means:

1) in a broad sense: state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God
1a) the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God
1b) integrity, virtue, purity of life, rightness, correctness of thinking feeling, and acting
2) in a narrower sense, justice or the virtue which gives each his due

As you can see, the righteousness that God has imputed to us, which Jesus Christ died so that we might have, is the power to live right. It is the power to live right that makes us acceptable to God.

I would say that it all comes down to expectation. Expectation is the key to disappointment. Expectation can put the will of man ahead of the will of God. Expectation can lead to a sense of guilt and unbelief as a believer puts all sorts of religious expectations on himself.

The Bible says that we who believe in Christ have been made the righteousness of God in Him. However, what happens if the next day we go and do something that we should not, or we are plagued by negative thoughts, or people are rude to us, or we don’t see the evidence of the victory that we were expecting?

We become defeated when we take such things to mean that we have not been given righteousness as a free gift; or we can suppose that we have been given right-standing with God as a free gift, but it is up to us to obey the rules. We can bring these expectations into context with the admonishment of Jesus in Matthew 6:31-33.

31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Matthew 6:31-33

It is so easy to fall into the trap of agreeing that you have been made right with God, but then the despair that still clings to you drives you to panic and complain because you still don’t have the provision that you believe you need.

In the case of Matthew 6:31, Jesus uses the examples of food, water and clothing. If you already have food, water and clothing, then you will not worry about them. It is when you don’t have these things that you worry about them. But Jesus tells us to not worry about these things. In order to stop worrying about such fundamental needs, we really do need the peace and joy that only God can bring. But quite often we do not see peace and joy alone as being sufficient for our needs, and as a result, we seek after provision before the kingdom of God.

Seek Righteousness First – Part 2

A lot of Christians make all sorts of efforts in order to live a blessed way of life. The approach often leads to all kinds of works and faith formulas. Yet I believe that Jesus Himself has given us the best formula for getting all our needs met and living a blessed way of life in Matthew 6:33.

Christians tend to assume that the kingdom of God and His righteousness is seeking to avoid sin with an effort of the will and to do good works, all with the aim of going to Heaven when your time on earth has come to an end. But Romans 14:17 tells us what the kingdom of God really is.

In Matthew 6:33, Jesus promise that all these things, being all the things we need in life, will be added to us – if we will seek to maintain a sense of God’s righteousness in us through faith in Christ; we are also to seek God according to His Word, so as to maintain a flow of supernatural peace and joy in our lives - supernatural because it is in the Holy Spirit.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary provides two meanings to the word supernatural.
1. (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
2. exceptionally or extraordinarily great.

Both these meanings are true of the supernatural peace and joy to be found in the Holy Spirit. We are seeking peace and joy beyond natural means; beyond logical or even scientific explanation. When the world says we ought to be in a state of despair, anxious, sad or fearful – we are to maintain peace and joy by means other than what would seem natural to those in the world.

There has been an incredible amount of Christian teaching during recent times regarding the importance of maintaining a healthy thought life. Quite rightly too because the thoughts you think today contribute a great deal towards determining what kind of future you will have.

Most teaching puts the emphasis on the believer thinking the right thoughts. This is correct but we also need to acknowledge that no matter what thoughts we think, if we do not have the peace that only God can bring, then we are not going to win the battles in our thought life.

No amount of positive thinking or confessing scripture is going to bring you a victory if there are areas of stubbornness and selfish ambition in your attitude. Attitudes and motives are everything. If your attitudes and motives are wrong, then your desires, your thinking and your expectations will also be wrong. These wrong thoughts patterns are what lead to wrong behaviour.

There is an element of truth in that God will often hold off from blessing people when they sin. But it is not so much the wrong behaviour that wards God off, it is the thinking that goes behind it – it is the unbelief. Essentially, wrong behaviour is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to sin. If we are to really get serious about tackling sin, we have to look beneath the surface and check-out our thought life.

It is love that brings us the peace that enables us to stop the continuous flow of superfluous thoughts that are not from God, but are from the soul, and therefore, form no useful purpose in our lives. When those thoughts are strong enough they spill out of our mouth in the form of murmurings and complaints.

We need the love of God so that we can bridle the tongue. But in order to get the love of God flowing within us, we have to welcome that love by coming into agreement with God.

Seek Righteousness First – Part 1

Jesus Himself said that we should seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. (See Matthew 6:31-33).

Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, too many people are trying to seek righteousness as a first step, by seeking perfection by keeping all sorts of strict religious rules.
Paul wrote to the churches, contrasting the difference between righteousness by faith and righteousness by works.

The righteousness that is imputed to us is not just right-standing, positional righteousness – it is the power to live right. The power to live right and obey God is love. Faith for righteousness is therefore the precursor to experiencing God's love and for living right.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

To be righteous by faith means that we believe we are accepted by God, just as we are – even though we cannot see the evidence of that righteousness, according to our judgements concerning our conduct.

If Word of Faith teaching tells beleivers that they can believe they are healed, despite their physical symptoms – then they can use that same kind of faith to believe that they have right-standing with God – just as they are. If the Bible says we are right with God because of what Jesus has already done for us – we should believe it without hesitation!