The difference between the righteous and the wicked

Believer, remember Joseph's words in Genesis 39:9 when when Potiphar's wife wanted to sleep with him and he resisted: “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

“The wicked” anywhere is anybody that has sinned against God, be it by doing great wickedness or minimal wickedness. Sin does have degrees of greatness. In John 19:11, Christ said to Pilate "...Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

God's word says “all have sinned…” so by default, no one on earth is excluded from the dragnet of “the wicked.” It encompasses all who have sinned and that's everybody. We were all destined for hell. We were all "the wicked." In God's eyes, the difference between the righteous and the wicked is not defined by what we do/don't do by human effort. Everybody is "the wicked" by default, thanks to Adam's sin and no amount of law-keeping or good works can remove this stain:

"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are." Romans 3:20.

Because God so loved us, He Himself provided the Way for us to be made righteous in His sight: Romans 5:9-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Christ's shed blood makes the difference between the righteous and the wicked. Only those who believe and practice the above verse, no longer depending on their ability to keep the law, are righteous in His sight, and this we do by grace. God's righteousness is a gift and not a product of human effort at right-doing. Romans 5:19 says:

“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.”

From the above verse, we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes a person a sinner. Adam's sin made everyone descended from Adam sinners aka Wicked.

Committing acts of sin, alongside sickness, stress, depression, lack, oppression, etc are the result of having the old/sin nature that was inherited from Adam.

The old nature is characterised by trying to keep the law in order to be godly (be like God.) This is evidence of rejecting God's gift of everlasting righteousness to us in Christ. The one with the old nature does not believe what is written of God in Romans 5:9 but expects God to see him as righteous based on his ability to keep the Law and using the arm of flesh (human effort) that will fail. He tries to escape God's wrath by human effort at keeping the law and doing good things (law-keeping.) Everyone with this old/sin nature is subject to the Law and the curse: Galatians 3:10-

"Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God's curse!”"

No one can obey everything. We don't even KNOW everything- more than 600 apart from the Ten Commandments.

Just as committing acts of sin is not what makes a person a sinner (wicked), keeping the Law and doing righteous things is not what makes or keeps a person righteous in the sight of God. Remember:

“By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.

Only God's gift of righteousness to us that proceeds from "one Man's obedience" - Christ's - will suffice for God the Righteous. This righteousness isn't dependent on our ability to obey the law. It is a gift: Romans 5:16-17.

"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Only when we receive God's abundance of Grace and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death and through the One, Jesus Christ.

Many non-Christians do their best not to sin but this does not mean they are saved. Romans 3:20 says "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

To profess Christ (Grace-personified) while trying to keep the Law in order to attain the same godliness and eternal life that He gave His life for us to freely have is to be neither under Law nor under Grace. This is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ spoke of in Revelation 3.

Law and Grace don't mix. Christ does it all. But there is something about the arm of flesh (dependence on human effort at obedience) that wants to be relevant in the story of our salvation. That something is Pride. God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) cannot: Romans 7:18-

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort) that will fail says: "No, I can. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law. "

Like Peter who boasted in his own strength and ended up breaking the Law, many wrongly believe that they have the will-power to do what is right and keep the law. Believer, let's not be found here. Such are not a new creation in Christ, made righteous in God's sight by His blood. They often respond to God's saving Grace with statements like: "So I can go and commit murder and steal because of Grace..." Such are yet to realise that the arm of flesh (dependence on human effort at doing right) will fail- the reason why we are not committing murder for a living is because God did not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13.

As long as this old nature inherited from Adam is intact, sin will multiply seeing as "...the strength of sin is the Law" (1 Cor. 15:56); those who depend on keeping the law and their good works to make them righteous in the sight of God and heaven-worthy only strengthen the grip of sin over their lives. The more people with this old nature try to keep the Law, the more they commit sins that lead to death. See Romans 7:5:

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

This is what Paul and his companions preached. It made many religious Jews whose lives were all about keeping the law to get right with God angry. The law that many are trying to keep in order to overcome sins and be godly is designed to INCREASE sin: Romans 5:20-

"The law came to make people have more sin. But when people had more sin, God gave them more of His grace."

Reigning over sin, addiction, sickness, stress and all earthly ills are fruits of the new nature that we have in Christ as it is written in Romans 5:17 -

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ."

Romans 7:4 also shows us how we get to produce a harvest of good deeds for God - only when we are dead to the Law and united with Christ!

"4 So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God."

Christ does it all. Remember 2 Corinthians 5:21- "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Christ performed a perfect work in cleansing us of all our unrighteousnesses and giving us His own righteousness as a gift. Anyone who is without this gift of righteousness in Christ is "the wicked," even if they do their best to keep the law and do righteous things. See Christ's word in Matt. 7:

"22 When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord! In Your name we spoke God's message, by Your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’ 23 Then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you wicked people!’

Even bible-toting, demon-binding and miracle-performing leaders and churchgoers can be among the wicked. All who depend wholly on Christ as their righteousness, forsaking theirs from works of the law, get to escape this dragnet of “the wicked,” and not because we obeyed the law or did good things. See this Romans 3:

26 “…and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

The difference between the righteous and the wicked is how we believe that we are made righteous: either by works of the law or by the blood of Jesus. When your believing is right, right living will follow. But many who profess Christ put the cart before the horse.

Romans 5:17 shows us how to live in triumph over sin and escape being counted among the wicked that are under the reign of death and will perish in the second death:

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Death here covers all earthly ills….up to the second death in hell. Remember Adam's sin conscripted his descendants to sinnerhood, wickedness and death. Living in triumph over sin and death are fruits of receiving God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness. No wonder Satan's agents are very quick to come against Grace-based teaching. Receiving these gifts without living right is as impossible as jumping into the sea naked without getting wet. You don't have to try to get wet in the sea. Christ transforms us to live right. See 2 Corinthians 3:18. But Satan's mouthpieces are trying to redefine God's saving grace with statements like: "So I can go and commit murder and steal because of Grace..."

Many who profess Christ are trying to live in triumph over sin and death by human effort at keeping the law and doing good things, believing that these things are what make them “not wicked" and heaven-bound. Sin has dominion over such. Wickedness abounds here-“For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace.” Romans 6:14.

The sin nature inherited from Adam put all mankind in the boat of wickedness/unrighteousness by default. Plus “All have sinned...” We who have Christ as our Righteousness are no longer in that boat. If we do sin, we still can never be a part of the wicked because we did nothing to earn our righteousness. It is a gift.

But Christ does not just leave us to continue to wallow in sins as many in the church are bickering about today. He Himself tells us what He is doing in our lives now that our heavenly Father has drawn us to Him: John 6:43-46 (MSG) -

"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End....""

With Christ as our righteousness, our path grows brighter and brighter like the morning sun. The one who is sinless by His own power does not need Christ to transform him. The path of the wicked (those who are trying to keep the law to get right with God) is like darkness. See Proverbs 4:18–19:

“But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

That shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;

They do not know over what they stumble.”

"The righteous" in the verse above does not refer to those who are doing their best to keep the law. Romans 3:20 tells us this is an effort in futility, “For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands…” "The righteous" here are those who are made righteous by Christ's obedience and not their puny efforts at keeping the law.

Believer, to know Christ and to be known by Him is to have Him as our Righteousness. See Romans 9:

"30 So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with Him through faith; 31 while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it. 32 And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the “stumbling stone” 33 that the scripture speaks of:

“Look, I place in Zion a stone

that will make people stumble,

a rock that will make them fall.

But whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”"

To such who still look to the Law to make them righteous in God's sight, God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ becomes a stumbling block that causes them to stumble and fall. Isaiah 64:6 describes our own righteousnesses from all our efforts at keeping the law as "a menstrual rag" -

"We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight."

But some of us still depend on the "good" things we do for salvation.

The law is not of faith. Because we cannot get right with God by keeping the law (Romans 3:20;) because even our BEST efforts are like "a menstrual rag" in His sight (Isaiah 64:6) and because He loved us so (John 3:16,) God "..made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

In Christ, we are made righteous apart from our works. In Him, God sees us as 100% righteous. He sees us as Christ is (righteous,) EVEN WHEN WE SIN, but we do not continue in sin. Why? Because with His gift of righteousness comes no condemnation; there is no condemnation for all who are in Him (says Romans 8:1) and it is His "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more." Titus 2:14 says of Him:

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

This is God's word. God is not man that He should lie. How can we continue to live in sin when Christ gave His life to free us from every kind of sin? Believer, let's take our blessed brains to church. Keep the law for righteousness and sin will INCREASE. In Christ, under grace, you will not continue to sin. Sin will lose its dominion over you, "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under Law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

Believe Right and you will Live Right!