Believers Are Righteous

Righteousness is God's gift in Christ to believers. Upon trusting in Christ,  believers are accounted righteous through our Savior and Lord. It's known as imputed righteousness. Through faith in Christ, you are accounted righteous before God. It is never self-righteousness, but the righteousness of God in Christ.

Believers are righteous by faith in the gospel of Christ. The apostle Paul speaks of the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Martin Luther called it the great exchange. Christ takes away our sin and gives us His righteousness.

Believers are righteous by faith in Christ alone. The Christian life can never be based upon our self-righteousness, which is as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6). To the contrary, you give up your self-righteousness, and become righteous before God in Christ alone. Christ gives us perfect righteousness from God. Simply stated, believers are righteous in Christ alone.

Believers are accounted righteous in Christ alone. Our sins are imputed to Christ as our sacrifice for sin at the cross. His righteousness is credited to us by faith alone. There is only one way we can be righteous with God. We are the righteousness of God by faith in Christ alone.

The Fullness of Grace

Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "It is grace at the beginning, and grace at the end. So that when you and I come to lie upon our deathbeds, the one thing that should comfort and help and strengthen us there is the thing that helped us in the beginning. Not what we have been, not what we have done, but the Grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord."

God's grace is unmerited favor for every believer. That's the grace of God in Christ alone. It is the gift of God that can only be received by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is not what we have done, but what God has done for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. 

God's grace is salvation in Christ. "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). God's grace is in Christ dying for our sins (Hebrews 2:9). God's grace is at the empty tomb. He is risen for our justification (Romans 4:25). He lives as our sanctification (1 Peter 1:2). He is coming again for our glorification (Romans 8:30). The fullness of grace is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lloyd-Jones was saying that the Christian life is the fullness of grace in Christ. It is grace in three tenses, past, present and future. He said, "The Christian life starts with grace, it must continue with grace, it ends with grace." Salvation is the fullness of God's grace in Christ, from the beginning unto the end..

Your Ministry Gift

Every Christian has one or more gifts for ministry to serve God through the church. All members of the body of Christ have a ministry gift. These gifts are used to serve others to the glory of God. Each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Peter 4:10).

Millard Erickson wrote, "The Holy Spirit dispenses his ministry gifts to the church wisely and sovereignly. Possession or lack of a particular gift is no cause for pride or regret. His gifts are not rewards to those who seek or qualify for them."

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills (1 Corinthians 12:11). God decides your ministry gift. The Holy Spirit gives us our gifts. All believers have a ministry gift according to God's will. That includes you. Every believer has a ministry to serve others. 

How can you know your ministry gift? First, read the Bible to understand the ministry gifts (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Peter 4:10-11). Also, consider your ability to minister or serve others. Next, look at the opportunities that God has given you. Finally, remember how God has used you in the past. Every believer has a ministry. God will confirm your gift through prayer and experience.

Who God Will Save

God will save whoever believes in His only begotten Son (John 3:16). All who are saved experience the love of God in their hearts. The Holy Spirit makes God's love real to us (Romans 5:5). In Christ we know God's personal love for us at the cross of Jesus (Romans 5:8).

God will save every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). God is pleased to work in us through Christ (Hebrews 13:20-21). God will "make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen" (vs. 21). Therefore, every believer is saved because God is working in us. Our relationship with God in Christ is forever.

God will save all who receive grace in Christ. Jesus is the grace of God (John 1:14). Grace saves us through faith in Christ. Grace in Christ is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is God's unmerited favor for sinners. Believers are saved by receiving God's gift in Christ (John 1:12).

God will save every believer to the praise of His glory in Christ (Ephesians 1:12-14). Believers are saved "to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6). We are saved by trusting in God's Beloved Son. Believers are saved through Jesus Christ our risen Lord (Romans 10:9).

Walk in the Spirit

The Bible teaches believers to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16). Everyone either walks in the Spirit or the flesh. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer in Christ (Romans 8:9). The flesh refers to our old sinful nature. Those without the grace of God in Christ, live according to the flesh. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Romans 8:8).

Victory in the Christian life is walking in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Lust includes any sinful desire. To walk in the Spirit is yielding to the Holy Spirit, who lives within every believer (Romans 8:9). Those who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ have died to the old life, to walk in newness of life. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24).

Walk in the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22). Believers don't produce fruit, the Holy Spirit does within us. Jesus said, By their fruit you will know them (Matthew 7:20). 

The fruit of the Spirit describes who Christ is within the believer. The first word describes the fruit of love. The fruit of the Spirit is the love of Christ working in the believer. To walk in the Spirit is to walk in love. It is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

The Holy Spirit Received

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ receive the Holy Spirit. Several Bible passages teach that the Holy Spirit is given to all believers, rather than to a select few (John 7:37-39; Acts 11:16-17; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 5:5). The gift of the Holy Spirit is not a reward, and no merit is ever involved in receiving a gift.

All believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That means the Holy Spirit is not just working in some believers, but in all. You cannot be a Christian without the indwelling Holy Spirit, also known as the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3). The Holy Spirit seals every believer (Ephesians 1:13). The Holy Spirit is within every believer now.

The indwelling Holy Spirit is Christ living in you as a believer. The Holy Spirit comes only and always as the gift of God to all believers. The Holy Spirit enables the believer to live the Christian life. No believer can merit nor earn the indwelling Spirit. 

"Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2). Scripture makes it clear. The Holy Spirit is not earned by the works of the law. You receive the Holy Spirit as the gift of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:13-14).

The Worship of God

The angel of the Lord said to John the apostle, "Worship God" (Rev. 22:9). That's after John fell at the angel's feet to worship. The warning reminds us to worship anyone else but God is idolatry. When the book of Revelation was written, people were commanded to worship the Emperor of the Roman Empire. Christians were persecuted, because they refused to worship him.

The book of Revelation is about true worship of the living God. Heaven is revealed as the place of continuous worship of God (Rev. 4-5). Both angels and saints worship God Almighty. They worship bowing before Him with words such as these: "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created" (Rev. 4:11).

"And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever" (Rev. 5:14). The elders represent all the redeemed of the Lord in heaven. They fell down in submission to the sovereign Lord God and worshiped Him. Their number twenty-four represents the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Lamb. That is the redeemed of Israel and the church.

True worship is in heaven. That worship was words of praise and adoration to the Lord our God. He testified, "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!" (Rev. 19:1). That's true worship giving glory and honor to God. His people worship Him now and forever!