Romans 3:21
But now the righteousness of God without the law (now we’re coming to the end of the shadow, we’re coming to the image. We’re coming to the real thing which is Christ centered) is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;"
Now whenever somebody accuses me, and they do occasionally, of being too Pauline, by saying, "You make too much of Paul. Paul isn’t the only one that knows any of these things." I say, "He never claimed to." Look what he says right here. Everything that is being revealed is resting on that which went before and what went before the Apostle Paul? The Law and the Prophets. He never claims to have just come out of the woodwork with all this. His is just part of what I’ve always called progressive revelations. From Genesis 1:1, this blessed Book is a progressive revelation, as we grow in the spirit by the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Truth is Christ) each layer of the hidden secrets are revealed. You don’t get it all up there in the first chapter, God requires this in us and of us, to search for Him while it is called to-day. It just keeps flowing and as it gets closer to the end it’s just like the old Mississippi. You know up there in Minnesota and Wisconsin where you can walk across it on a few stones. But by the time it gets to the Gulf of Mexico you need a ship to go across it. God by His divine wisdom created man a receptive being who would hear God and receive what He said then act upon what was said by Him and Him alone. This is just as Jesus did while here as the Son of man and the Son of God as our second Adam. So He is Christ the Messiah of God's message of redemption for all man kind through His salvation only available in Christ.
That’s the way the progressive revelation of Scripture is. It just keeps expanding and expanding and expanding. And that’s why we can’t plumb the depths of it. But, Paul claims by inspiration that everything he’s had revealed to him is resting on the Law and the Prophets. Through the Old Testament economy Christ came in His first advent, presented Himself to the Nation of Israel for three years, but was rejected and crucified in order to become the supreme sacrifice that the Law and Prophets again, were just a shadow of. See?
All right, so after being witnessed by the law and the prophets, this is now evident that "the righteousness of God," not man’s righteousness, but God’s righteousness [right-wise-ness] as we see in verse 22.
Romans 3:22a
"Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:…"
Christ is the righteous One! And that’s another pill that’s hard for some people to swallow, that all of this is appropriated on our behalf when we receive the faith of Christ Jesus to believe – plus nothing. Do you see it? “By faith of Jesus Christ” Jesus as the son of man had to extend living trust through the Holy Spirit the same as we do therefore it is counted Him through the sufferings as faith. We're NO different He's our forerunner or team-leader, we are to walk as He walked, or in the same manor. This Paul experienced through many trials and sufferings also. But through all His Grace was his, Paul's, weakness made strong or strengthened. For the Lord said My Grace “is” sufficient for you or is being made perfect through your sufferings. Does any one hear this and are we now getting it?
The church says that, “There’s more than faith plus nothing." Well, then to this I say, "Because it is Faith plus Nothing! It’s a free gift that you cannot work for.” I don’t care what any person says because, over and over, the Scriptures make it so plain that this is where it’s at. It isn’t trusting ‘plus.’ It’s BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART! (Romans 10:9-10) And we can and must do that. So we just go back and we didn’t say a word from our own thinking, we just went Scripture after Scripture after Scripture. And fortunately, I think, with the Holy Spirit’s help, we are able to show all these verses like this one right here. Look at it again. This is one that we've used and I’ll show you how we did it. "For it is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all them that believe" and are baptized? Or who have sown allegiance to our denomination, doctrine of faith, way of worship, speaking in tongues or anything else of mans ingenious creative efforts. No, that’s not what it says. And then you can go back to Romans 1:16, what does Paul say?
Romans 1:16a
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (this Gospel) is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth;…" and is baptized? Is that what it says? No. That’s not what it says. To everyone that what? Believeth! Period. And so we went all the way through Paul’s Epistles where it says to him that "believeth." Plus nothing. See? All right so here it is for all them that believe. For the few who have chosen, NOT are chosen. How do we come to believe? By first accepting that which we're taught in other wards through receptivity. With no strings attached on our part. And then of course, "there is no difference between Jew and Gentile." Now they must all come the same way, by receiving, then believing Paul’s Gospel of salvation. I have personally known of some who have prayed for the power for many years thinking that we're to do as Jesus has done while in His earthly ministry to Israel. Because it says, "and greater things shall you do" not understanding that without His Spirit within our being we can not and again I say can not bear Him witness through His Grace activity within us. His living within us and expressing His Life through us as God intended.
Back to Hebrews 10, so let’s move on through the verse now. This whole system of the Law, which was only the shadow, with all of its works; feast days, the sacrifices, continuously – never ending. And then what does the verse say?
Hebrews 10:1
"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
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