The Daily Word of Righteousness

Something To Think About, #3

And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)

Christ is God's beloved Son. God desires that we hear Him, not that we develop some plan of redemption of our own or go back to the Law of Moses.

Christ is our Righteousness when we are abiding in Him, when we are living by His body and blood, when we are seeking Him night and day. We are not anxious concerning our past sins. They have been cast behind God's back. Our seeking of Christ is the righteousness God desires and we shall be rewarded accordingly.

It appears the majority of Christian believers of today are not seeking Christ with all their heart. They are living with one foot in the world. They bear the image of the world in their actions and thoughts. They live like the world.

All such will be rewarded according to their works.

As the Scripture declares, every person will be rewarded according to his deeds.

We have stated previously that the eternal Life that comes to us from Christ always reveals itself in righteous, holy, and obedient behavior. Where there is unrighteous, filthy, and disobedient behavior there is no eternal Life of God. It is as simple and as straightforward as that.

We must be laying hold on eternal life, on our union with Christ, at every moment throughout our lifetime. To not do so is to invite the forces of sin, corruption, and death to enter our personality. Seven unclean spirits more wicked than before will enter the house that had been cleansed.

Salvation is not a ticket to Heaven. Salvation is the transformation of the individual so he no longer has anything to do with Satan or Satan's works but instead has entered the eternal Life that is in Christ and the Father. He who is undergoing this transformation is not under Divine condemnation but is passing from the death of Satan into the fullness of the life that is in the Lord Jesus.

The transaction begins the moment we truly receive Christ. But we must walk diligently in grace each day so we have enough "oil" (Matthew 25:4); so the Word in us is not choked out by the things of the world (Luke 8:14); so no man takes our crown—our place of rulership in the first resurrection (Revelation 3:11); so our name is not blotted from the Book of Life (Revelation 3:5).

Our names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life, not when we heard and believed the Gospel but from the creation of the world (Revelation 17:8). Now the task is to keep our name there. This we do, according to Revelation 3:5, by living the victorious life in Christ; by pursuing the Christian walk according to the directions given us by the Apostle Paul.

The righteous and holy attitude and conduct the eternal Life of Christ works in us demonstrates our deliverance from the second death, from the Lake of Fire. Even with this the tongue of some believers is "set on fire of hell [Gehenna ]" (James 3:6).

If we march forward in the Holy Spirit, gaining the victory over the world, Satan, and our lusts and self-will, we will win the Kingdom. We will rise to greet the Lord at His appearing. But if after having believed in Christ we continue in the ways of the world we will reap corruption in the Day of Christ. All the Apostles taught this.

To be continued.