How do we increase in righteousness?

[Jeff4607]

How does our righteous increase?

 

[brinny]

How does our righteous increase?

Delighting in God.

For it delights His heart and it blesses Him when we do.

 

[brinny]

By the way, welcome to CF.

 

[Jeff4607]

Delighting in God.

For it delights His heart and it blesses Him when we do.

 

[Emli]

By humbling ourselves before God, committing to His will, and by loving Him with all of our minds, all of our heart, soul, strength and minds.
Ask the Lord to impute His righteousness onto you. Study the word, follow his commandments by asking Him to lead you. Then leave it all up to God!

 

[Jeff4607]

Thank you for the welcome.
Delighting in God is a good thing , but it does not increase our righteousness.

 

[Jeff4607]

By humbling ourselves before God, committing to His will, and by loving Him with all of our minds, all of our heart, soul, strength and minds.
Ask the Lord to impute His righteousness onto you. Study the word, follow his commandments by asking Him to lead you. Then leave it all up to God!

 

[Jeff4607]

When someone pays you for a service, you are payed a wage. You could say that it is credited to your account.
How can we be credited righteousness? Or can we be?

 

[Emli]

When someone pays you for a service, you are payed a wage. You could say that it is credited to your account.
How can we be credited righteousness? Or can we be?

Think of it like this. Before you were saved, your behavior was 100% sin, and 0% righteousness, then when you are saved, Christ puts His righteousness in your heart. You are born-again as a new creation. As you pray, read the Word, go through trials and just grow in your loving relationship with the Lord, your sin decreases and your righteousness increases. But it increases because you are putting to death your old sinful nature, and because Christ guides you and transforms you into His likeness. We cannot do anything righteous or deserve salvation on our own merits, but we are changed by Him.
Do you understand?

 

[Jeff4607]

That's not true. Before I was a believer, there were times when I did what was right.
How was Abraham credited righteous?

 

[Emli]

Righteousness and doing what is right are two different things.
When we try to be good on our own, God doesn't see that as righteousness, because we are still sinners in His eyes.
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6

Abraham believed in and surrendered his life to God, and God credited that faith to him as righteousness. That is how we receive Christ's righteousness today, by believing in Him. Because we believe, we are being made righteous in His name. But all faith comes from God. We cannot believe until God opens our eyes.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--" Ephesians 2:8

 

[Galatea]

The Bible tells us that Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteousness. He had faith. He believed God would give him a child, he believed God would bless him by causing the Messiah to descend from him, he believed God that if he sacrified Isaac, that God could raise him from the dead, he believed that God would bless him materially and he did not need to take gifts from heathen kings, he believed that God would spare Lot if Lot was a believer.

Abraham was not perfect, and did some things that were wrong. The reason why he is considered righteous is because he had faith in God.

 

[brinny]

That's not true. Before I was a believer, there were times when I did what was right.
How was Abraham credited righteous?

He BELIEVED God.

 

[brinny]

Thank you for the welcome.
Delighting in God is a good thing , but it does not increase our righteousness.

The bottom line, my brother, is that it's what supersedes ALL other things. It was THIS very thing that Jesus was referring to when He said that one must be as a "little child" to enter heaven.

 

[Jeff4607]

The Bible tells us that Abraham believed God and it was counted as righteousness. He had faith. He believed God would give him a child, he believed God would bless him by causing the Messiah to descend from him, he believed God that if he sacrified Isaac, that God could raise him from the dead, he believed that God would bless him materially and he did not need to take gifts from heathen kings, he believed that God would spare Lot if Lot was a believer.

Abraham was not perfect, and did some things that were wrong. The reason why he is considered righteous is because he had faith in God.

 

[Jeff4607]

You are exactly right. Many have been taught and believe untruths about righteousness and faith. "It is impossible to please God without faith" and "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the Sadducee's, you will never enter the Kingdom." "For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant."
"Through faith you are saved by grace." "The righteous, by faith will live".
The greater our faith, the greater our righteousness, the greater our righteousness, the more power we have to overcome sin and do the right thing every time.
"When Jesus saw their faith he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
" For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness."

Isn't it odd that we never hear these truths from the professionals. I think it's because many of them enter the fold someway other than the front gate.

 

[Emli]

You are exactly right. Many have been taught and believe untruths about righteousness and faith. "It is impossible to please God without faith" and "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the Sadducee's, you will never enter the Kingdom." "For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant."
"Through faith you are saved by grace." "The righteous, by faith will live".
The greater our faith, the greater our righteousness, the greater our righteousness, the more power we have to overcome sin and do the right thing every time.
"When Jesus saw their faith he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
" For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness."

Isn't it odd that we never hear these truths from the professionals. I think it's because many of them enter the fold someway other than the front gate.

That's true. You get it.
It depends on who you listen to. This (correct) view on salvation, is what caused the Reformation. Many churches, especially the Catholic Church, still preach that we are saved by works. But that makes absolutely no sense Biblically.
They use their own minds to try to understand Scripture, but we are told not to rely on our understanding, but commit ourselves to the Lord.

You should find some Protestant or evangelical preachers on the Internet, who live by this view, who will edify you in the faith. I recommend John Piper, Francis Chan, or Timothy Keller, depending on your personality, but there are many others.

 

[SkyWriting]

How does our righteous increase?

That is not an option.
New International Version
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;

New Living Translation
As the Scriptures say, "No one is righteous--not even one.

English Standard Version
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Berean Study Bible
As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;

Berean Literal Bible
As it has been written: "There is none righteous, not even one;

New American Standard Bible
as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

King James Bible
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

Holman Christian Standard Bible
as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.

Topical Bible: Righteousness

 

[Jeff4607]

By physical birth, no one is righteous.
After a Spiritual birth, we are expected to do right, every time.

 

[Jeff4607]

The bottom line, my brother, is that it's what supersedes ALL other things. It was THIS very thing that Jesus was referring to when He said that one must be as a "little child" to enter heaven.