The Truth And The Many Misconceptions About Righteousness

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

I used to think that salvation had nothing to do with works. I didn't realize that Jesus has really set us free from sin so we can do good works. We were unable to do good works, but, through Christ, we can now do good works. I didn't realize that Jesus gives us the free gift of righteousness, and the righteousness that Jesus gives is real. Then, I realized that righteousness is actually something that Jesus does in us. Our part is to yield to Him. Our part is submission.

At the same time I had this attitude, I was trying to do good. That seems like it doesn't make sense because it doesn't make sense. I had my interpretation of the law. It was my idea of right and wrong, and I drew the proverbial line in the sand. Of course, we all know how the line in the sand works. You stand as close to the line as you can. You know you can cross that line. Oddly, you can move it since you drew it in the first place and it's just a line in the sand. Now I realize that people who live by rules and principles ask strange questions. "How much good do have to do for it to be enough?" "How bad do I have to be before I'm too bad?" "This sin keeps coming back into my life. Have I gone so long that God can't forgive me?" The person who walks in the Spirit never asks these types of questions. The person who walks in the Spirit asks, "How can I get closer to you, my Lord, so that You can work Your works through me more completely?" "How can I deepen my relationship with You, Jesus, and come to know you better?"

It has become popular to ask ourselves the question, "What would Jesus do?" Then we try to figure out what Jesus would do. Maybe we even look at the law in the Bible to figure this out. Maybe we just try to rationalize an answer to the question. Once we have our answer, we use our human effort to try to obey our new law. The Israelites heard God's voice directly, then they heard the law directly from Moses. Yet, they were unable to obey the law. The weakness of the flesh didn't let them obey God's laws. Pretty soon they were rationalizing new rules and laws that they liked better than God's laws. Jesus wants to tell us what to do and He wants to do the works through us. This is not self-effort. This is yielding to the anointing of God.

I once thought that the reason that the New Testament encouraged us to do good works was because we are so thankful that we want to do something for God. I was always careful to make a mental distinction so that I didn't think that I was earning my salvation. The Bible is clear in stating that we can't earn our salvation. So I was trying to do things that are righteous and good as sort of a gift to God. Then, the Holy Spirit brought the Scripture to me that says that our righteousness is like filthy rags to God. It was then that I realized that I didn't want to bring my filthy rags as a gift to God. God wants a soul that is turned over to Him, a soul that He can cleanse. He doesn't want filthy rags.

The Truth And The Many Misconceptions About Righteousness

How can we know anything about anything

Growing in Christ

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