Righteousness by Faith

Righteousness by Faith

by Wayne Dailey
Senior Pastor, Bethel Revival Center
43 Norwood St.
Everett, MA 02149

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Yield to God

Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

When we're under grace, sin ceases to have charge over us, ceases to have control over us, simply because we're no longer under the law but are now under grace. What then?

Romans 6:15,16
What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

When we yield our bodies, whether it be to righteousness or to unrighteousness, that's who we become servants to obey: either of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness.

Which way are you going to go? If you yield your members unto sin, then you go the way of sin and death; but if you go in the realm of yielding in obedience unto God and His Word, you go the way of righteousness.

Romans 6:17
But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Obedience to the Lord is equal to say that we are in obedience to His Word and are now become servants of righteousness.

Romans 6:18
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

We were servants to sin, following the course of sin unto death, until we met Jesus and received Him as our Lord and Saviour. When sin was taken out of our lives, then we began to serve righteousness.

We can't help but see from the Scriptures what we gain when we have been freed from sin. This is what Christ did for us. He came to take our sins away, came to break the bondage of sin in our lives.

We all should be able to look at our lives and truthfully say: "My life is not filled with the sins it once was so filled with. I no longer yield to those things. I'm not going that route any longer. I'm not wasting my life on those things. I now yield to Christ, yield to His Word. Yes, I now yield unto Him as one who is alive from the dead."

We recognize, then, that when we were made free from sin, we became the servants of righteousness. And, thus, where we used to obey sin, we now obey righteousness. This begins to lay a foundation to help us to see that sin and righteousness are two extremes, two extreme opposites!

When we were in sin, we had no true righteousness. But when we turned away from sin, repenting of our sins and turning unto the Lord, then we received His righteousness.

Now, sin and righteousness do not mix because they are opposites, extreme opposites.

Romans 6:19
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

There must be an act on our part: that of yielding. This is something we have to do. We yield because God is at work in our lives, and we now find we want to yield our lives unto Him.

A New Nature

When we were lost in sin, we just naturally yielded our lives unto sin. Nobody had to teach us how to sin. We may have been taught to commit a specific sin we had never done before, but what I'm saying is that we sinned because we were sinners by nature. Yes, we were all born in sin, born with a sinful nature. And, as sinners, we walked in sin from day to day.

But those who have been born again have been given a new nature.

When Paul speaks of the infirmity of our flesh, the weakness of our flesh, he is speaking of our past, prior to salvation. When it came to sin, we were weak.

"But I wasn't weak; I was strong!" You mean to tell me you withstood sin every day? You never sinned? Well, that's not what the Bible says:

Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

Before we were saved, we yielded our members unto sin and iniquity; but since we repented of our sins and received Christ as Lord and Saviour, we now yield our members unto righteousness and holiness. We now want righteousness and holiness in our lives, but there is a yielding that has to take place. We have to give ourselves over to going this way. God leads us to go this route. His will is that we repent and turn to go this way, that our life no longer lives in sin unto death, nor that we profess to be a Christian while yet living a carnal life.

Romans 6:20
For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Sinners are free from righteousness. Does that sound right? That's not something you hear every day? But it's right there in the Bible. When we were serving sin, we had no righteousness, because a sinner has no true righteousness. Some may say they do good things; nevertheless, they're not righteous. If they're unsaved, they are not righteous, because there is no such thing as a righteous sinner.

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

There are those sinners whose lives may appear to be righteous, but true righteousness doesn't come that way.

Romans 6:21
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

So, a person who has come out of sin, who has repented of their sins and been truly born again, can look back at what they came out of, look back at what they had been yielding to, and see that the end of all of that was death. Death is the only fruit there is of sin.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The wages of sin isn't eternal life; it isn't heaven. The wages of sin won't bring any good thing. The wages of sin is death.

But, praise God, when we have been born again, we are made free from sin. By our life in Christ — by the cleansing blood of Jesus, by that sacrifice on the cross — freedom is brought into our lives.

Now, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. What a contrast! Before salvation, sin was working death in us. No wonder we had so much trouble as sinners. Everything we did was working death in us. But the day we came to Jesus — the day we turned our hearts unto Him, believed in Him as Lord and Saviour, began to walk with Him — it didn't take long to begin to see the change that took place. And we now have our fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

Romans 6:22
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

God's Word gives us some clear understanding about true righteousness.

Romans 10:4
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

We want to look into this chapter and see righteousness from this perspective: Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

Righteousness by Works vs. by Faith

The Jews lived under the law down through all the generations. As far as righteousness is concerned, Moses gives us some insight:

Romans 10:5
For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.

Living by the law was being a doer of the Word. Under the law, if you did those things, you were doing works of righteousness. So, to be righteous back then was to work: to do what the Word said to do.

Romans 10:6a
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise

The righteousness which is of faith speaks to us in this manner: not what we read concerning Moses and righteousness by the law, but the righteousness which is of faith.

We want to look at this carefully to gain an understanding of the great difference between these two types of righteousness.

Romans 10:6b-8
Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach

We have this word of faith close to us, so close that it's nigh even in our mouths.

Righteousness which is of faith is so different from the righteousness which was of the law. Righteousness which was of the law was to do these things; but righteousness which is of faith is to believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ: believing on Him and on what He did for us.

Yes, the righteousness which is of faith is given to us freely when we believe on Jesus Christ.

James 2:23
And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

To impute is God's way to give you something without works. You didn't do anything to have it imputed to you other than to believe. Those who turn to Jesus and become believers, those whose faith is holding fast to Christ and to His Word, will find the righteousness that is of God imputed unto them, freely given.

Yes, the very righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us when we believe on Him unto salvation. This means it is given us in this manner: God writes these things in the Book. He blots out the sins and replaces them with righteousness. He imputes it — gives it to us — gives righteousness to our account.

So, we have His righteousness given to us as a gift when we believe.

Ephesians 2:8,9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.

Salvation is by believing, not by any works of righteousness which we have done. Because we believe Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead to give us eternal life — because we believe, His righteousness is imputed unto us.

Romans 10:8
But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach

It's by His mercy that we are saved. It's clearly identified to us, then, that this is the way it would come to us.

Believe and Confess

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

If we believe in Christ and believe that God has raised Him from the dead — these are crucial points of the gospel that we must believe to receive eternal life. Yes, we must believe in Christ; and, as the Scriptures tell us, we are not only to believe but also to confess the Lord Jesus with our mouths.

Is Jesus your Lord and Saviour? If so, don't you want to tell everybody?

But it's not the number of people whom you confess Jesus to. It's the fact that you are confessing Him as your Lord and Saviour. To confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus is to tell others that He is your Saviour and Lord. We're called to be identified with Him, in that He is Lord of our life.

We saw in verse eight where the Word would be nigh us, even in our mouth; and then in verse nine we are told to confess Him with our mouth. These are words of faith.

Romans 10:10?
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Here we see righteousness: for with the heart man works unto righteousness. Does that sound right? Did I quote it right? That's the way a lot of folks assume it says. But God said, "for with the heart man believes unto righteousness." With the heart: it's got to be within. It's got to come from the inner man, from down deep inside.

With the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Confessing Christ brings salvation, when we also believe with our heart unto righteousness. This is how we receive the righteousness which is of God. It's not that righteousness which is known as self-righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God.

The Pharisees sought out a salvation of self-righteousness. They sought only that righteousness which was in doing, not in believing. And they missed the mark.

Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

This speaks of self-righteousness. But true righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. Man believes unto this righteousness with his heart. He doesn't work for it; he believes.

So, we believe unto righteousness with our heart and confess Jesus with our mouth unto salvation. We confess Him as Lord and Saviour, confessing that we have repented of our sins and received Him into our heart, confessing that we are believing on Him.

The Simple Gospel Message

The gospel message is very simple: We have to have Jesus Christ, have to receive Him as Lord and Saviour, have to believe on Him and let Him into our heart and life.

What is the great benefit out of what I just read? It is that salvation produces righteousness. As we saw in chapter six, we change from our old sinful way and begin to yield our members as servants unto righteousness. Being made dead to sin we are brought forth unto righteousness.

Romans chapter six made clear to us that we had no righteousness when we were living in sin. But now we have righteousness in Christ. We have been made dead to sin and alive unto righteousness, walking with God in true righteousness and holiness.

These things are very important to us as we walk with the Lord.

Romans 10:11
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.

Are you ashamed of Jesus? Are you ashamed of your salvation experience? Let me ask you a question: Do you ever duck out, conveniently? When certain people are around, do you duck out because they know you're a Christian? Or are you bold to stand up and confess Christ, be what you are, and represent Him truthfully?

Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord: Men have many ways of saying this, such as, "I invited Jesus to come into my heart." To call upon the name of the Lord is to invite Him to come into your heart as your Lord and Saviour.

Now, God knows our hearts. He knows when our hearts are prepared, ready to yield to Him. He will woo our hearts, draw us unto Himself, drawing upon our hearts.

We can look back to where we sensed His dealings in our hearts, felt that drawing. It's a lot easier to come to the Lord when you know He's drawing you to come. He sets things up in your pathway to cause you to be drawn to Him. He'll put just the right people in your path.

Some testify that it seemed that everyone who came across their path told them about Jesus. That was God drawing them unto Himself through the witness of others.

Romans 10:14
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

How can people find out if nobody tells them? How can they find out if we who believe in Christ refuse to open our mouths to confess Him before men?

Have you ever thought that you ought to be a preacher? I'm not talking about someone who stands behind a pulpit to preach. That serves a purpose and mission. But we are all called to preach, in that we are all called to witness to the lost, to confess Christ, to open our mouths and share the gospel.

Sharing the gospel with others is a work that has great reward: the people who every day let their light shine before others. There is no big thing made over who they are, no big crowds gathered, no fame.

My, just think, they had a crowd today of one person. They shared Jesus with that one, letting their light shine. That was a great work.

Don't hide Jesus from those on the job. Live the life before them. Let the bright light of Jesus in you shine forth.

John 7:38
He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Do you believe Jesus was just talking to preachers when He said that, or can every believer have rivers of living water flowing from their vessel? Realize that when you share the gospel with someone, that's just what you're doing: letting those living waters flow forth from your life.