WHEN WILL JESUS COME BACK? 3

GodThoughtsWired!             Wednesday, March 9, 2011 Evangelizing the Church in the Age of Delusion

You are subscribed as %%emailaddress%% WHEN WILL JESUS COME BACK? 3 "The day of the Lord will come like a thief... Since everything will be destroyed... What kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." -2 Peter 3:10-12, bold mine And another reader responded, "I'm surprised by your ignorance pastor brad. All of our "righteous deeds" are like filthy garments in the sight of the Lord.  READ YOUR BIBLE!!!" This is a sad one.  Over the years, I've found this"misunderstanding" of the New Covenant to be  fairly prevalent.  Here, the reader is referencing the following Old Testament verse, "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment..."-Isaiah 64:6 While it is most certainly true that under the Old Covenant, "All of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment," under the New Covenant we need to understand what Jesus meant when He said, "For I say to you that unless your righteousnesssurpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." -Matthew 5:20, bold mine QUESTION:  How can it be that those who will enter the kingdom of Heaven will have displayed greater righteousness than that of the scribes and pharisees? ANSWER:  Our righteousness is not of the flesh (as the scribes & pharisees), but of the Holy Spirit that resides in all true believers (see Acts 5:32).  New Covenant Christians live righteous lives by "walking by the Spirit and not carrying out the desires of the flesh" (see Galatians 5:16).  Paul eloquently describes this New Covenant process: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh... If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law... Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." -Galatians 5:16-25 Far, FAR, FAR! from our righteous deeds being like "filthy garments" in the sight of the Lord, the New Testament Christian is a NEW CREATURE! (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, A holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light... now you are the people of God... now you have received mercy.... Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul... Keep your behavior excellent..." -1 Peter 2:9-12 And so we've come full circle.  The Bible says (if you disagree with what the Bible says, your disagreement is with God, not with me), "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.  It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."-Revelation 19:7-8, bold mine GLORY TO GOD!  Our "filthy garments" have become "fine linen!" Do you see it? For more information about the GodThoughts Ministry, clickhere. For more information about the author of GodThoughts, clickhere. PLEASE prayerfully consider supporting the GodThoughts Ministry (click on "donate" button below). The cost to provide this FREE Ministry world-wide in 2010 was $40,700.00 (see Annual Report for full details).