In Pursuit of Jesus - Week #7 "Jesus and His True Mission"

Romans 4:5 “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,”

What do you think righteousness is about? Something you do or something you are? Right doing or right being?

The Bible tells us that after Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross, God imputes righteousness not to those who strive to obey the law (Galatians 2:16), but to anyone who simply believes in His Son. Because Christ took our sins and gave us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), the moment we believe in Him, God treats us as righteous apart from our works or obedience. (Romans 4:5–8) This is new-covenant righteousness — a righteousness that comes by faith and not works.

You are not righteous because of how morally upright you are. You are not righteous because you exercise self-control. You are not righteous because you read 10 chapters of the Bible daily. You are not righteous because you feel righteous. But you are the very righteousness of God in Christ solely because the sacrifice of Jesus made you so. When you believe this, your faith is accounted for righteousness.

And this is what God wants you to use your faith for. If you are righteous by your deeds, you don’t need faith. You also don’t need faith to know that you still sin. But you need faith to believe and declare that you are the righteousness of God in Christ, in the midst of your struggles with temptation and sin.

For example, when you feel lousy because you have just shouted at your wife, God wants you to exercise faith to see yourself still righteous in the midst of that failure. This living revelation that you are still righteous will give you the strength to love your wife and reconcile things with her.

But the devil may remind you of your foul temper and question your integrity: “How dare you call yourself righteous when you just did that!” Just ignore his lies and boldly declare," I am not righteous because of what I have done or not done. I am righteous only because of the blood and finished work of Jesus at the cross!”

Hebrews 10:2
2... For the worshippers, once purified, would have had
no more consciousness of sins.

What are you more conscious of today? Your sins or the fact that you have been forgiven? My friend, don’t be conscious of your sins. Be conscious instead of Jesus and His finished work. The Lamb of God has taken away all your sins at the cross, so count on the fact that you are a forgiven child of God!

No matter what has happened or what you have done, God wants you to know that because of His Son’s finished work, He will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12)

That is why you should not be conscious of your sins. In fact, when you are sin-conscious, the devil brings in condemnation, and the more you receive it and condemn yourself, the more you will find yourself unforgiving toward yourself and even others.

I was told by a pastor friend that when a lady, who had cancer on her face, asked for prayer for healing, the Lord revealed to him that it was self-hatred that was keeping her from receiving her healing. She could not forgive herself and was full of self-condemnation.

When she realized her problem, she counted on the fact that God was merciful to her unrighteousness and that she was already forgiven. She received the love of God. Then, right before the pastor’s eyes, her whole face changed — she received her healing that very moment!

Something happens when you believe that you are forgiven. That is why God says to you, “I want you to believe that all your sins I will remember no more. I want you to believe that you are My child enjoying My mercy and that you can always count on My forgiveness.”

Beloved, remember that all your sins have already been paid for by Jesus on the cross. And the more you count on the fact that you have the Father’s forgiveness and that He does not condemn you because of Jesus’ finished work, the more sin and its effects — sickness, hatred, lack and so on — will lose their grip on you. You will find yourself walking in a greater measure of God’s grace and blessings

What did Jesus come to do?

1. To reveal the Father (Matt. 11:27)

• "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
1. To be a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28)
• "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
2. To serve (Matt. 20:28)
• "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
3. To save the world (John 3:17; Luke 19:10)
• "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
4. To preach the good news of the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43)
• "But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent."
5. To bring division (Luke 12:51)
• "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division."
6. To do the will of the Father (John 6:38)
• "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me."
7. To give the Father's words (John 17:8)
• "For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me."
8. To testify to the truth (John 18:37)
• "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
9. To die and destroy Satan's power (Heb. 2:14)
• "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death -- that is, the devil."
10. To destroy the devil's works (1 John 3:8)
• "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."
11. To fulfill the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17)
• "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."
12. To give life (John 10:10,28)
• "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full...I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."
13. To taste death for everyone (Heb. 2:9)
• "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."
14. To become a high priest (Heb. 2:17)
• "For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people."
15. To atone for sin (Heb. 2:17)
• "For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people."
16. To proclaim freedom for believers (Luke 4:18)
• "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed."
17. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor (Luke 4:19)
• "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
18. To bring judgment (John 9:39)
• "Jesus said, "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."
19. To take away sin (1 John 3:5)
• "But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin."
20. To preach (Mark 1:38)
• "Jesus replied, 'Let us go somewhere else -- to the nearby villages -- so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.'"
21. To call sinners (Mark 2:17)
• "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'"
22. To know who is true (1 John 5:20)
• "We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true -- even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."