Righteousness of Man Essay Example

and while understanding what would happen to him, he was tortured to death, taking all of our filth onto himself, and having his own Father turn away from him. Through this, Christ fulfilled the Law that we were unable to fulfill ourselves, and he gave us the gift of God which is eternal life. Now through Christ, we can be seen as righteous before the Almighty God.

This is another thing that Christians look over. After all the horrible things we as sinners have done, the most glorious being to ever exist sees us as good. This unmatched love of God is what gave us eternal life, and all we have to do is accept Chrism's sacrifice. The question is: what comes next? We are now seen as righteous, yet we still sin. Paul says: "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. " We are no longer under the law, but "All who sin apart from the law will perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be Judged by the law. So does this mean that all men will be condemned by God whether they re under the law or not? The answer is yes. Whether Jew or not, all men will stand in Judgment before God. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. " If not for Christ, there would be no hope. Since we are no longer slaves to the law, we must be slaves to Christ. Slavery, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. Contrary to our cultural beliefs, we were

made to be ruled, not to be our own masters. All men serve a master, but the only question is whether or not that master will be God.

Since we are slaves to God, we should strive for righteousness, out of love for God. No man an be perfect and fulfill the law, however, or Chrism's death would have been meaningless. The problem this causes is one that has split the church, and caused antinomian to arise. Antinomian is the belief that God no longer has a moral standard for us, since Christ has fulfilled the law in our place. In other words, if we accept Christ, we can sin and do whatever we please since we have already been saved; therefore the law has been abolished.

Christ speaks out against this very issue though, and said "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any meaner disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. " What Christ was telling us, is that by fulfilling the law himself, then dying to take our punishment, we can be counted as righteous, but the law must still be obeyed.

At face value, this seems to contradict itself, because if the law has already been fulfilled, why is there a need to follow it still? Paul responds to this very question in his letter to the Romans. "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so

that grace may increase? By no meaner! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? " The thinking that since you are Justified you can sin as much as you want, is not the result of a true conversion. A true conversion would yields a greater desire to obey God, and an understanding of what he did for us.

The desire that will be put into us after we are regenerated by His Spirit, and also God's desire for us, is that we will no longer sin, but strive for perfection. We should desire to please God, out of love for him, and gratitude of His gift to us. A second reason Antinomian is umbilical, is that there is a moral law that God established, and expects us to obey. Again, our love for him should be the main reason that we obey. If we truly have been regenerated by the Spirit, we will love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and also love our neighbors as ourselves.

If we do these two things, we will be fulfilling all of God's commands inherently. This law of Christ is the new law, and enveloped the Old Testament law in itself. This law of Christ is not a book of rules that we must follow, but a law of selfless love. Having selfless love for another person is out of our capabilities without Christ, nice we are always trying to get something out of our love for another person and even from God sometimes. A common response to why someone is a Christian is because they don't want to

go to hell.

This type of desire is not one that God looks for in us, since he wants us to desire him out of sheer gratitude and love for him. Since we cannot do this on our own, this is another instance in which Christ has fulfilled something that we cannot do without Him. Antinomian is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. God's desire for us is that we will live a life of integrity, morality, and love. Yes Christ freed us from the Old Testament Law, but that does not give us a license to sin, but instead a covenant of grace.

The Christian's goal is to overcome sin and to cultivate God's righteousness in us, with aid from the Holy Spirit. The fact that we have been freed from the Old Testament law, should be reason enough to live by Chrism's law. "We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The man who says, 'l know Him,' but does not do what He commands is a liar and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are n Him: However claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. We have been freed from the bondage of sin by the infinite mercy of God, and Chrism's willingness to humble Himself in such a way that we are incapable of fully understanding. We are no longer slaves to the flesh, but instead slaves to God. By our slavery, we have become renewed and we have been reconciled with

our heavenly father, who had such selfless love for us, that even though we consciously ran from Him and defiled his creation, He had his son die so that we could live an eternity with Him as he created us to do.

As a new creation in Christ, we are obligated, but at the same time should aspire to serve Him and follow his commands. If we cannot love others, and He who gave his life for us, than we deserve nothing but damnation. However since we have been given an opportunity to overcome evil, and take advantage of a second chance to be counted as righteous, there should be nothing that we desire more than to serve and please God in everything that we do. Therefore, even though the Law has been fulfilled, the thought should not even cross our minds that we can sin since we have already been Justified by faith.