The question of faith - Part 2Dr. Frederick K. Price Jr.
For in it the righteousness of God -- for in the gospel of Christ – is revealed.
Only in the gospel of Christ is God's righteousness revealed.
What is God's righteousness?
Here's a better question. Who is God's righteousness?
The righteousness of God are those who believe in the power of the gospel.
If you're saved, if you acknowledge and confess that Christ is Savior and Lord, if you have believed in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, well, my friend, you are the righteousness of God.
Second Corinthians 5:21: For He (the Father) made him (the Son) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become . . . .
Become what?
. . . that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. You and I are not living this life attempting to live righteously. We are not living this life trying to become more righteous daily. No, no, no. We have been made the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God. That is who we are. Your righteousness cannot increase. Fruits can increase and abound. The works of righteousness can be manifold. But for you, being the righteousness of God, there is no increase or decrease. It's what He has made you to be if you believe in the power of the gospel of Christ.
If you are saved, you are the righteousness of God. And immediately, the truest part of you – your spirit – is made righteous.
The soul part of you is being made righteous. Your body will be made righteous, but the most important aspect occurs immediately. Your spirit-man is reconnected to the power source, and He says here:
As it is written, the just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)
Who are the just? The just are the declared righteous. The just are the righteousness of God. Righteousness, just, righteous, all from the same Greek root word.
So, if the declared righteous, and those who are the righteousness of God, have been made righteous as a result of believing in the power of the gospel, and if you believe in the power of the gospel, you believe that Christ is Savior and Lord, that He is the way to the Father, and there's no other way.
You believe he was sent by Abba, by God, to take away the sin of the world. If you believe those things, then you are His righteousness. If you believe that, you are the just, the declared righteous.
And guess what your lifestyle is?
Just as Paul said in Second Corinthians 5:7: For we walk by faith . . . .
That's our walk. We also see what our lifestyle is a lifestyle of faith.
And as Apostle would ask: "Well, how often do you live?" That would be 24/7.
When I'm asleep I'm living. When I'm awake I'm living. There are 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, 12 months in a year, according to our Gregorian calendar.
How often do we live? All the time.
So if the declared righteous, the righteousness of God, those who believe in the power of the gospel, those who acknowledge that Christ is Savior and Lord and the only way to the Father, guess what our lifestyle is? It is a lifestyle of faith, and that means that the just are to be in faith 24/7.
That means 24/7 we are not moved, or live according to, or walk, according to what we perceive by our senses.
Simply meaning what? That what our senses tell us should never usurp the Word.
What our senses tell us never lord over or become more important or reliable than what the Word says. That's what it means to live by faith.
Now, Paul says: As it is written. . . . Well, normally when we read the New Covenant, or the gospel, and we see words like, "It has been said," "It has been written," and "the prophets said." Where did they say it? Where was it written? When was it said? During the Old Covenant or when the Old Covenant was in force.
Now, Paul brings this up in Galatians also, and says the exact same thing.
He says, "The just shall live by faith."
And then the writer of Hebrews . . . . and you all will notice that I always refer to the writer of Hebrews as "the writer of Hebrews" because we don't know it was. We can't say for sure.
Now, I've heard of a prophet who said, "Paul wrote Hebrews," and I understand it's very Pauline-ish, and I've heard some others who have said that Paul wrote Hebrews.
However, there is also a theory that Barnabas wrote Hebrews. Still, we cannot say for sure. At most, we can say, "This is what I believe." But in the Scripture, there is no one given credit for that Epistle. And notice, it's the Epistle to the Hebrews. Is that not interesting?
So, in Hebrews, it is also recorded, The just shall live by faith three times in the New Testament.
As a matter of fact, that Hebrews chapter 10 reference is why some believe that it is Paul who wrote Hebrews.
Nevertheless, three times we see it: the declared righteous shall live by faith. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans says:
For it is written. . . . Where was it written? Who said it? Where did Paul get it? From a prophet, considered a minor prophet because the minor prophets are the prophets with the least chapters.
The major prophets are the long-winded prophets.
Habakkuk, chapter 2, and here in verse 4 it reads: Behold the proud. His soul is not upright in him. But the just shall live by his faith.
The souls of the proud are not experiencing the benefit of, let's say, Psalm 84:11: For the Lord God is a sun and a shield.
The Lord God is a sun, a provider, a shield, a protector. That's what the husband is to be
for the wife and the children – the family.
We men, we husbands, are suns and shields like our Abba is to all of us.
