The Daily Word of Righteousness

Grace; Heaven; Change; the Kingdom, #8

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (I John 1:7—NIV)

We enter the Kingdom of God each day as we turn away from our sinful nature, through the Lord's help, and overcome the problems of that day.

If we do not turn away from our sinful nature but are overcome by the problems of the day such that our fallen nature exercises its lust, spite, anger, drunkenness, lying, slandering, gossiping, profanity, filthy speaking, then we are not entering the Kingdom of God.

Furthermore, the blood is not cleansing us. The blood of Christ cleanses us only as we walk in the light of God's Presence, having fellowship with the Father. The blood of Jesus Christ does not keep on cleansing us when we are living according to our sinful nature. This is not scriptural.

As I stated previously, the way of salvation, of transformation through Jesus Christ, has always been in the New Testament. But there come seasons of refreshing from the Lord, windows of opportunity we might say, when Christ is ready to bring us to a new level in the Kingdom of God. We are entering one such season right now.

A Window of Opportunity

No, the promises of the righteous Kingdom of God are not fulfilled in us merely on the basis of ascribed righteousness. There is much, much more to come. In the day in which we are living the Spirit of God is showing us how to move toward the actual possession of that which has been declared in God's Word.

We are moving from the legal imputation of righteousness to the actual righteousness of the members of the Kingdom of God, the righteousness that reveals itself in a transformed character.

Let's take a look at some passages and see if the Word promises us that we will enter actual righteousness, actual transformation of personality, before Christ has finished saving us.

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:27,28—NIV)

Think about the above. To those who are looking for Jesus He will appear, bringing salvation. Thus we see that a major part of our salvation will come in the future, and the implication is that the salvation will consist of the removing of our sins.

I do not think this is speaking of the historic second coming of Christ to the world, because in His second coming "every eye shall see Him. Rather, the above sounds more like what Christ said to His disciples:

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:21-23—NIV)

To be continued.