Entry Heaven Demands Jesus Kind’s Of Righteousness [2]

When God delivered His people out of Egypt, through Moses, He gave them a set of Laws called the Torah; also known as the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
The purpose of this was to teach the Israelites how to live righteously through obedience. It was to teach them how to live like Him.  And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us. See Deuteronomy 6:25.
The Torah is the story of God delivering, restoring, and establishing a covenant with His people. However, because of their hardened hearts of stone, they constantly rebelled against God’s law. The Prophet Ezekiel says that one day God would give them a new heart in order to obey His law. See Ezekiel 11:19.
In order for them to obey the law and produce righteousness, they needed a new heart to replace their hearts of stone. They needed a heart that would desire God and delight in His law, rather than continue in wickedness. Since they were incapable (as we are) of changing their own hearts, how would God provide a way for their hearts to be changed? Through Jesus. See Romans 10:4.

B. The Purpose Of The New Testament Cross:
When God sees His people, He doesn’t see our sin. Instead, He sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He sees us instantly and completely justified through that righteousness. See Isaiah 61:10.
This was the purpose of the Cross. Out of love and mercy, Christ came to fulfill the law for us. He fulfilled the story of the Torah for His people. We were unable to obey the law and live in righteousness, so Christ came and lived in perfection in our place. He took our disobedience, nailed it to the cross, and gave us His righteousness. See 1 Peter 2:24.
This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. We don’t have to work and try and produce our own righteousness, Christ has robed us in His. His entire earthly mission was to reconcile the Church, making Her in righteous standing with God. See Titus 3:5-7.

C. How Do I Pursue Righteousness?:
So we’ve covered what righteousness is, and how we get it. Let’s continue with how we pursue it. In 2 Timothy 2:22, when Paul talks about turning from our lustful desires and pursuing righteousness, he doesn’t mean trying to earn or achieve it. He means pursuing God’s character, because it is the desire of our new nature become more Christlike.
To pursue righteousness means to turn away from your natural, sinful desires, and turn to Christ and His perfect and righteous ways. Through obedience to this command, God is preparing us for eternal life with Him—aligning us with our righteousness through Christ.
We can rest in the fact that God sovereignty works everything for the good of His people, including restoring us through the righteousness of His Son. Our righteousness began in Christ and is completed in Christ. Follow Him and pursue it daily. See Psalm 23:3.

Prayer Points:-
1. Oh Lord God, I want to be righteous and holy like You, help me to be henceforth by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
2. Oh Lord God, help me to resemble Jesus totally henceforth by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. I refuse to die in sin, help me to crucify self and sin never to have dominion over me any longer, in the name of Jesus Christ.

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