From a sermon preached by Rob Rufus -
Romans 1 v 17 “for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed - a
righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written the
righteous will live by faith".
What is the faith the righteous will live in?
The faith that I AM the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. This context that Paul is speaking about is in the context of the
gospel, the power of salvation and that a righteousness from God is revealed.
That is by faith from first to last and ever lasting. That is what your faith
is. What is your faith as a Christian? You don't need faith for healing,
blessing and prosperity, wholeness - what you need to develop your faith to
higher and higher levels is that you have a gift of righteousness and you are
the righteousness of God. THAT releases the power of "soza" - health,
healing, protection. The Church is teaching people to have faith for healing,
faith for blessing, for prosperity. You hear about "Five Steps for Faith
for Healing", "Five Steps for Prosperity", "Five Steps for Protection".
I am running out of steps - I can't remember what the first and second step
was! That is exhausting and it doesn't even work!
The righteous - those who have a gift of righteousness -
they live by faith! Faith in what? Faith that they are the righteousness of God
from first to last! Now all over the world people are getting this message and
lives are being changed as we read only a few of the reports back. Also around
the world you have got people reacting to this message. That is encouraging because
if no one is reacting then we are not preaching the Gospel that Paul preached!
This Gospel Paul preached, people hated it and beat him and put him in prison!
Today they just write negative emails about me! I will take that far more than
what Paul got!
You get people say things to try and say something that I am
not saying. This is what I heard this week in Australia ;
"Ah Rob is preaching a righteousness that gives you a right to go to
heaven but he is not preaching the righteousness required for daily Christian
living". That sounds holy. That's impressive.
Folks there is NO distinction between the righteousness to
get you to heaven and the righteousness to get heaven to you.
There is not one distinct righteousness for salvation and
another practical righteousness for Christian living. They don't exist! There
is only one kind of righteousness! There is ONLY imputed righteousness! There
is not imparted righteousness and impacting righteousness - there is only
imputed righteousness! That is the only thing the Bible talks about! I want
that point to settle in here. You see they patronize Rob and say; "Of
course he is emphasizing the gift of righteousness for salvation". I say;
"Explain salvation to me - health, healing, wholeness, preservation,
protection". "He is emphasizing righteousness for salvation". Oh
yes I am! Guilty as charged! "But you see of course, he is not emphasizing
the righteousness for daily Christian living. So you see listen to that if you
want but you will only be hearing a righteousness for salvation and not a
righteousness for daily Christian living".
Well friends there is no distinction between a righteousness
for salvation and a righteousness to go to heaven and a righteousness for daily
Christian living - because there is only ONE
kind of righteousness and it is the gift of righteousness that you receive.
There is no gift of righteousness and then a practical righteousness.
The gift of righteousness will eventually lead to practical
outworking and living but they are not two distincts.
There is acceptance grace and empower ing
grace and I have always taught that they are the same thing but for clarity we separate
them only for clarity's sake. If people teach two kinds of righteousness - the
gift of righteousness and for daily living and some kind of other righteousness
who God alone knows what it is - some kind of other righteousness for daily
living then;
They are NOT preaching the Gospel and that is why they are
not seeing the power of transformation in people's lives. What they are
preaching is self-righteousness.
If you do not preach the gift of righteousness as the only
righteousness the Christian has - then you are preaching self-righteousness
mixed up with the gift of righteousness and that is very, very dangerous. I want
you to go to Romans 9. Yes they are saying there is another kind of
righteousness for sanctification and Paul the apostle is saying they are wrong.
Paul says there is only one kind of righteousness - the righteousness that
saves you and salvation is preservation, wholeness, protection for time and
eternity. If you add any kind of righteousness that is seperate to that - one
that is for your sanctification then you are not preaching the righteousness of
God, you are preaching self-righteousness. People say; "Yes you are saved
by righteousness as a gift but then you have got to DO things in practical
righteousness".
No if you do things in practical righteousness to earn the
blessing of God then you have stepped into the danger zone of
self-righteousness.
The Church world is pursuing self-righteousness! They are
being taught that you have got to DO things to get the blessing. You have got
to do things to get salvation - you have got to do things to get healing,
provision, protection. I could take hours hear to teach the things they teach
and I could teach the things they teach well because 10 years ago I was
teaching them!
ALL YOU HAVE GOT TO DO IS
BELIEVE!
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Thank you for visiting my blog. Please do not feel you have to comment. I enjoyed writing, listening to God and sharing his toughts. I hope you enjoyed reading, and may God who is able to make all grace, every favour and earthly blessing come to you in abundance, do far above all you can ask or think, according to the power that works within you. Be blessed.