saintly and holy.
It was 'RIGHTEOUSNESS' that God had in mind, when he sent his only
begotten son into the world.
'Whom God has set forth(i.e Jesus Christ) to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His RIGHTEOUNESS...'(Rom.3:25).
God, onseeing the moral depravity and iniquity of man decided to send
His son to die for us all, so as to:
1. Impute and credit righteousness to us, and to;
2. Impart and implant the nature of righteousness into us.
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS
To impute is to ascribe, assign or credit.
Sin was ascribed, assigned and credited to us as a result of the sin
of Adam. i.e We were counted sinners because of Adam's
disobedience(Rom.5:19). We became sinners right from conception as a
result of Adam's sin(Psalm51:5).
Just as we were counted sinners because of Adam's sin we shall be
counted righteous if we acknowledge, repent and confess our sins and
believe in the atoning work done on the cross by our Lord
Jesus(Rom.3:28, 1John1:9, Acts3:19, Rom.10:9-10).
IMPARTED RIGHTEOUSNESS
Do you know that the sin of Adam not only made us to be counted and
regarded as sinners, it also imparted and implanted the nature of sin
into us. As a result of the sin of Adam, all human became sinners by
nature, sinners by thought and sinners by actions.
This was the chief reason why Jesus died -To sanctify and purge out
that imparted nature of sin, thereby imparting the nature of
righteousness, holiness and purity into the new believer.
'Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. That He might
sanctify(purify and purge) and cleanse it...That He might present it
to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle...'(Eph.5:25).
Christ had to die for our sins because the sacrifices of the Old
Covenant '...could not make him that did the service perfect, as
pertaining to the conscience(Heb.9:9).
If justification and imputed righteousness was all we needed, then the
blood of goats and bulls would have been enough(Christ death wouldn't
have been necessary).
All those sacrifices of the Old Testament made the people justified,
it covered their sins and made them appear righteous before God, but
they were unable to impart the nature of righteousness into
them(Heb.10:4).
After those sacrifices, the people still went back to their sins, as a
result of this Christ had to come inorder to impute and also impart
the nature of righteousness into man, so that after man has been
counted righteous, he can also live a righteous and holy life(since we
need to be holy in order to make heaven, Heb.12:14).
It was after God saw the limitations of the Old Covenant, that He
decided to make a New Covenant with man through the death of Christ.
And this is what the New Covenant in Christ promises to offer:
"I WILL PUT(IMPART AND IMPLANT) MY LAWS INTO THEIR HEART AND IN THEIR
MINDS WILL I WRITE THEM"(Heb10:16).
It takes purity of heart to make heaven(matt.5:8). If you must make
heaven with all these temptations that beset us today, you need to
have a nature that detest sin(just like that of Joseph), a nature that
frowns at sin, ,nomatter how appealing.
Therefore you need to:
1:Acknowledge, repent and confess your sins and believe that
Christ's died and rose to take them away, After this,
2.You need to take it upon yourself as a matter of seriousness and
call on God continously in heartfelt prayers to sanctify and impart
the nature of righteousness into you by the efficacy of the atoning
work done on the cross.
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