Righteousness Equals Relationship

Hello Again- & grace and peace to you from God The Father & our Lord Jesus The Christ

In God's economy being righteous means being united to Him. That's it - simple. All other world religions teach that we must do good works and then, in the afterlife, a god weighs and balances our good works & our sins and we may, may be able to get to Heaven. Anyone can start a new religion and it would be the same as every other world religion - do more good works than your sins and you will go to Heaven. What a hopeless and lifeless religion. The scary thing is that none of these religions tells you - how good is good enough. No one in Buddism, Islam, New Age, Hinduism, or any other religion (if you talk to them) none of them are sure they have eternal life. Of course universalism says everyone will go to Heaven. But that is not a just god - that is no god at all.

The truth as it is in Christ (as revealed in the Holy Scriptures) says , "I write these things to you who believe (trust) in The Name of The Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." In Christ you can be sure with no doubts that you are forgiven; that you, for sure are going to Heaven. You simply come to a God Who loves you with open arms held out wide waiting to receive you, to forgive you, to cleanse you, and to make you His child.

All of those other religions teach that you have to strive and work to get a "god" to love you. That is so draining, so discouraging. The truth however is that God IS Love (1 John 4:8) and that He loves us unconditionally without overlooking our sin problem . He says that if we are united to Him then we have His life flowing through us. Because He loves us He has said, "I will heal you of your spiritual leprosy, your spiritual cancer." Rather than let you die an eternal death I will die in your place, I will die as you, I will rise as you. So that if you join yourself to me your old sick self will die and be resurrected as a brand new creation ("if any person be in Christ they are a new creation. The new has come, the old has passed away." 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Being united to Christ is the key, "Anyone who unites himself to The Lord is one with Him in spirit." 1 Corinthians 6:17. 1 John chapter 5 tells us that "He who has The Son of God has Life" and that "Life is in The Son." Can you imagine - union with God Himself. United to God and having His life and His love and His joy & peace flow thru us!! How do we become joined to God? We become joined to God thru Christ (Who is God Who took on our humanity). Jesus The Christ took on our humanity (had our flesh join to Him) so that He could be one of our own race. He came to us. HE took the initiative. We come to Christ Who is God (The 2nd Person of The Trinity - "God of God, Light of Light").

We trust Him and we entrust ourselves to Him and He in turn gives us new life. God sent His Son Jesus so that we could embrace Him (embrace Him who first embraced our humanity). What love that God would embrace the human race to the extent that He would become "One of us" and yet remain God. God wanted to bind Himself to us thru Christ. All we have to do is bind ourselves to Him thru faith (trusting in this spiritual transaction that we can't see with our eyes - believing in this spiritual world that is invisible to our senses yet just as real as the physical world).

Let's all open up our hearts to God's love and life (the word for "life" and "eternal life" is Zoe in the Greek). Let Him bring us back to spiritual vibrancy and vitality!! Take the step of faith and become united to Christ. Walk in that blessed union for the rest of your life. You will forever be changed for the better.