The Gospel in Ten Words (16 page)

Jesus
said the Holy Spirit would seek to convince us of our righteousness (John 16:8
–
10). When
do you most need convincing of your righteousness in Christ? It is when you are
feeling unrighteous. It is when you have just sinned.

When you sin the Holy Spirit will seek to remind you that
you are still righteous because you are in Christ the Righteous One.

I appreciate this is completely different to the message many of
us have heard (and some of us have preached). We have been told the Holy Spirit
is like a heavenly cop who issues warnings whenever we stray. But that’s not
what Jesus said. He said the Holy Spirit would “glorify me” (that’s Jesus),
guide us into all truth (also Jesus), and convince us of our righteousness
(Jesus again). The Holy Spirit is not closing his eyes to your sin; he is
trying to open your eyes to Jesus. Just as a gyroscope in a plane will always
reveal the true horizon, the Holy Spirit will always point you to the Righteous
One. He will always encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus.

Having
been declared righteous, then, by faith, we have peace toward God … (Romans 5:1,
YLT)

Do you know why so many believers have no peace in their
relationship with God? They would tell you it is because God is angry with them
and their sin, but the real reason is they are ignorant of him and his
righteousness. In the kingdom, peace always follows righteousness. If you are
more conscious of your sin than his righteousness, you will never enjoy peace
with God.

The church has an unhealthy obsession with sin. We spend our lives
watching out for sin, resisting sin, fighting sin, hiding sin, running from
sin, owning up to sin, talking about sin, turning from sin, and hopefully,
overcoming sin. With so much emphasis on sin, guilt, and shame, is it any wonder
so many of us don’t feel righteous? We need the ministry of the Holy Spirit now
more than ever.

Jesus
said, “Seek the kingdom and his righteousness first” (see Matthew 6:33). First
means first. First does not mean second. Jesus knew if we sought his
righteousness second, say, after we’d gotten ourselves all cleaned up and
sorted out, it would never happen. Sin-conscious people don’t seek his
righteousness; they hide behind fig leaves.

We need to change our thinking. We need to put off the old self
and “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). God has done his bit
—
he has made us new
—
but we
have to put it on. We have to start walking and talking like righteous people.
The righteous are supposed to live by faith.
When you sin it takes absolutely no
faith to feel unrighteous and unforgiven. It takes faith to look at the cross,
listen to the Holy Spirit, and confess, “I messed up, but because of Jesus I am
still righteous!”

We
don’t know how good we’ve got it. In the Old Testament people were labeled
righteous if they acted righteously, but you are righteous by design. In the
old, righteousness was temporary. You could be righteous on Sunday and
unrighteous on Monday.
[56]
But you have been created to be like God in true righteousness. Do you realize
what this means? You are truly and eternally righteous. Your behavior does not
come into it. Just as your righteous deeds did not make you righteous, your
unrighteous deeds do not make you unrighteous. Don’t you see how liberating
that is? Instead of wasting time worrying about sin, we can get on
with the joyful business of living well and living right.

Another sign that
some don’t appreciate the gift of righteousness is anxiety regarding the Lord’s
will. “What should I do? What does God want me to do with my life?” In Hong
Kong I met plenty of Christians who were bouncing around Asia in a quest to
divine the Lord’s will for their lives. Many of these dear people were living
in a state of self-inflicted paralysis. They had put life on hold and were
afraid to make choices in case they got it wrong. “What if I miss it?”
How can you miss it when you have already hit it?

God’s
word and the Holy Spirit are declaring together that you are truly righteous.
This means your desires are righteous, your dreams are righteous, and your
deeds are righteous. To paraphrase Proverbs 12:5, “The plans of the righteous
are right.” If you want to make a cup of tea, then that is a righteous act. Go
and make a righteous cup of tea!

Righteous
deeds are what righteous people do. I am not saying you are incapable of dumb
choices, and there is no such thing as righteous wrongdoing. But when you
abandon yourself completely to his love trusting in the gift of his
righteousness, your choices will all be good. Since Jesus has already won, in
him you cannot lose.

And
now, children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for
him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for
red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives. Once you’re convinced that he
is right and righteous, you’ll recognize that all who practice righteousness
are God’s true children. (1 John 2:28–29, The Message)

We don’t practice righteousness to become God’s children; we
practice righteousness because we
are
his children. Like our Father we
are bona fide, qualified, righteousness practitioners. You should get a framed
certificate to remind you. In fact, you should get ten certificates, one for
each chapter of this book. Hang them in the living room and they’ll be great
conversation starters.

You are going to have to trust God that your dreams and desires
are righteous. Better still, learn to see the desires of your heart as
God-given seeds planted by him. If your passion is to be a trampoline tester
then go be a righteous trampoline tester. If that is the God-given desire of
your heart it would be a mistake for you to be anything else.

One of
the greatest failures of the modern church is that we have defined career
success in terms of formal ministry. The message many young people hear is
this: If you want to be a Somebody in the kingdom, you have four choices;
pastor or deacon, if you work well with others, or missionary or evangelist if
you don’t. Too bad if you would rather race cars or make noodles. Too bad if
the music you write or the movies you make are not overtly Christian.

I grew up as a pastor’s kid. Through that experience and my own
tenure as a pastor I have met and dined with countless church leaders. In my
opinion most of them have ended up in formal ministry because it was expected
of them or because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Pastoring is a noble
occupation and those who do it well should be applauded. But those who do it
poorly and for the wrong reasons need to be set free from an occupational
choice that was uninformed by the gospel of righteousness.

Living up to other people’s
expectations or trying to be somebody else
is not how you live deeply in Christ. I can also guarantee
you that God can think of more than four fulfilling occupations for his children.
Since his imagination is unbounded the possibilities are endless. Your
prospects are good. It’s quite possible you were put on this earth to do
something that has never been done before.

You are a precious and unique member of his body. There are things
that are easy for you that are hard for others. You feel and see things
differently from other people. These differences are not accidental. They hint
at the flavor or expression of the kingdom that God has given to you alone.
They point to your gifts and we need them. The world waits to see Christ
revealed in you.

There are only two ways we can screw this up; by refusing to participate
(God what should I do?) or by reverting back to old habits of Adamic
independence (I’m a self-made man). For some the temptation is to do nothing;
for others the temptation is to pull the levers and make things happen. But
these are inferior ways to live. You were born for greater things. You have
been called to shine like the sun. The God who made you righteous and planted
righteous desires within you has set you up for success. He has lined up the
resources of heaven in anticipation of blessing all the work of your hands.

To reiterate, this is not about divining the Lord’s will in
advance. This is about knowing and trusting the One who made you the way you
are, who even now orders your steps and who swells your heart with God-sized
dreams.

So what are you waiting for? Be convinced of your righteousness,
fan the gift of God into flame and go for it. Live deeply in Christ and be the
person he made you to be. Your future is bright!

The path
of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till
the full light of day. (Proverbs 4:18)

When you
stumble and sin, an old covenant preacher will say, “Look at what you did!” But
a new covenant preacher will say, “Look at what
he
did!” An old covenant
preacher would have you turn from every sin until you’re a dizzy sinner. But a
new covenant preacher will release the grace of God that empowers you to sin no
more (Titus 2:12).

Under the old covenant you were righteous because of what you did,
but in the new you are righteous because of what he did.
You are declared
righteous, recreated to be like God in true righteousness.

What
does God want you to do with the gift of his righteousness? He wants you to
receive it, to walk in it, and to rule and reign with him in righteousness.

The gospel is not a list of things
y
ou must do
to inherit eternal life. It is the blessed announcement that the righteousness
you need to enter the kingdom of heaven
—the righteousness that exceeds
that of the Pharisees and law teachers—
comes to us as
a free gift through faith.

For you
died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

Why do 90 percent of
Christians struggle to receive grace and live the Christian life? There are two
reasons. First, they do not properly value what Christ accomplished on the
cross. Second, they do not know what happened to
them
on the cross. Every believer knows that
Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but not every believer knows they died
too. Paul says so, again and again. To the Christians in Colossae; “You died
with Christ.” To the believers in Rome: “We died with Christ.” To the
Corinthians: “We all died.”
[57]

You
may say, “How did this happen? I don’t remember the nails.” Well do you
remember the chapter on Union? When you were included in Christ you were
baptized into his death. His death became your death and, as we shall see, this
is very good news indeed.

When
you got saved you were probably told a lot of wonderful things about your
future
.
“God has a wonderful plan for your life.” You may have been told some wonderful
things about your
present
. “We are living in the kingdom now.” But you
probably didn’t hear many wonderful things about your
past
.
“It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from or what you’ve come out of.”

In truth, your past matters a great deal. If you think
you came out of Egypt then you may be tempted to go back to Egypt. “I was born
and bred in Egypt and that’s where I belong.” But when you see your old life as
crucified with Christ, that tie is severed. The old Egyptian no longer lives
and Egypt no longer appeals.

Here is the good news: God is not only the Lord of your
present and future, he is also the Lord of your past. When you were born again,
he gave you a brand-new life complete with a brand-new past. You have a new
history and it began at the cross where you died with Christ.

I have
been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me …
(Galatians 2:20a)

Your baptism into his death is just about the most
important thing that ever happened to you, yet many Christians are ignorant of
it. Ask them about their past and you will hear all the bad things that
happened to them and all the dumb choices they made in their old life. Although
their intent is to glorify Christ, the reality is they are living in the shadow
of someone else’s past. Their present is haunted by the ghost of who they used
to be.

Just once I would like to hear a testimony like Paul’s: “
I was born, I did
some stuff, then I died. I was crucified with Christ, and the person I used to
be no longer lives.”

Do you know how many Christians Paul had killed or locked
up before he was born again? Neither do I. He never tells us. We know he got
mixed up with some bad stuff because he refers to himself as the chief of
sinners, and we know he persecuted the church because other people tell us. But
aside from one passing mention in Galatians, Paul says nothing about the sins
of his past. It’s like he doesn’t identify with them. It’s like he says, “I
forget the past” (see Philippians 3:13).

Don’t you find this interesting? If Paul came to speak in
our churches we would introduce him as a Very Bad Guy who got turned around by
Jesus. But Paul has no time for that. The good stuff of his past he considers
dung and the bad stuff he barely mentions. Instead he simply says, “I died.”