Christ crucified: “… a stumbling block….”

Beloved of God, Romans 10:1-5 addresses the critical issue of doing righteous deeds in order to be righteous or to “maintain your salvation” — a doctrine which is being passed off as Christianity in many places of worship today—

“Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in Him are made right with God.”

Since Eden when Satan deceived Eve with his seemingly good but actually deathly doctrine of dependence on human effort for the attainment of godliness/righteousness, the biggest challenge with man has always been PRIDE aka trust in human effort (the arm of flesh) for the attainment of righteousness aka to “be like God” the Righteous. God’s word says in man’s humanity (the flesh) dwells no good thing. But man still strives to be RIGHTEOUS LIKE GOD or GODLY aka “be like God” by DOING the things dictated by the knowledge of good and evil aka the law, and depending on WILLPOWER for the achievement of same. Beloved, that is not God’s way. See what God's word says about man’s will-power/ability to produce good or do righteous deeds which many churchgoers are being led to repose confidence in- a truth that Paul experienced in 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."

God's word says human effort aka the arm of flesh will fail, is powerless and cannot. But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail causes many churchgoers to say:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can walk uprightly, keep the law from being broken by me and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power and sheer determination.”

That reasoning is akin to how Peter thought that his Maker was wrong about his then upcoming denials— just like many today who think that they can keep even a tittle of the law because they are unaware that God's mercy is the “skeleton” that is restraining them from experiencing Satan's sifting and collapsing into the helpless and sins-ridden mass of flesh that man is of himself. Beloved, let he that is standing take heed lest he fall. This brings to mind the question asked by God Himself in Amos 3:3–

“Can two walk together unless they are agreed?”

How can one walk with God and enjoy the benefits of Christ’s salvation (including God’s GIFT of everlasting righteousness) if he does not even believe that he is in dire need of this gift which is the only thing that can bring sinful man into communion with our righteous God? Beloved, Christ Himself says in Matthew 6:33–

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

And what is the kingdom of God? Beloved, His word says— “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but Righteousness, Peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” — all three are GIFTS of God’s super-abounding Grace— undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Also notice that Christ says that we are to seek “His righteousness” (a gift) and not ours from puny efforts at doing righteous acts in order to get God to like us or move on our behalf. Those righteous acts which some “pastors” mislead the flock into doing in order to get right with God or get God’s favour, see how God sees them in Isaiah 64:6–

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

When we seek first the kingdom of God and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, “all these things” including freedom from sins, godly living, good works and the blessings of God which many are running about trying to obtain by fasting for 70 days and doing all sorts of works by human effort, they are ADDED unto us. Seeking HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS is what is paramount, beloved. To the one who has these free gifts of God, all other things are ADDED. Hence Christ’s word in Matthew 25:29 which many misinterpret—

“For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

See the Amplified Version, bearing in mind that the things Christ counsels us to seek first (the kingdom of God and HIS righteousness) are GIFTS from God— 

“For to everyone who has [and values his blessings and gifts from God, and has used them wisely], more will be given, and [he will be richly supplied so that] he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have [because he has ignored or disregarded his blessings and gifts from God], even what he does have will be taken away.”

Beloved, eternal life is the GIFT of God through Jesus Christ our Lord—

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free GIFT of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans‬ ‭6:23‬ .‬‬

Righteousness is the GIFT that proceeds from Christ’s death for our sins and His resurrection—

“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 ‭5:17‬ ‭

To everyone who values these blessings and GIFTS from God and uses them wisely (trusting utterly in Christ who is our WISDOM from God and not in man’s fallen wisdom,) more will be given. 

But to the one who ignores or disregards God’s gift of righteousness and eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord, refusing God’s way and choosing instead to strive for his own righteousness by keeping the law and doing righteous deeds, even that righteousness which he thinks he has, it will be taken away! — 

“For to everyone who has [and values his blessings and gifts from God, and has used them wisely], more will be given, and [he will be richly supplied so that] he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have [because he has ignored or disregarded his blessings and gifts from God], even what he does have will be taken away.”

And how is it that “…from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”? Beloved, it will be taken away because the law which such presumes to be able to “at least try” to obey in order to get his own righteousness was given to increase sins—

“The law was given so that sin would increase. But where sin increased, God’s grace increased even more.” Romans‬ ‭5:20‬.

Even that self-produced righteousness which such who do not have God’s gift of righteousness presume to have, it will vanish seeing as their efforts at trying to acquire and hold on to their own righteousness only causes sin to increase.

Beloved, the message of Christ is foolishness to human reasoning; and human reasoning is all about doing righteous deeds in order to become righteous or get God’s favour. Romans 10:1-5 above shows us that doing so is not God’s way. God’s way is Righteousness by faith and not by works. Anyone who is not standing on the foundation of “Righteousness by Faith” through Christ cannot lay claim to be a follower of Christ, beloved. Christ’s blood that was shed for our sins is the only difference between “the righteous” and “the wicked.” 1 Corinthians 1:22 says:

22 "For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Verse 18 of the same chapter says of the message of the cross that Paul preached aka "Christ crucified"- 

"For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God."

The message of Christ is "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." His death and resurrection is what makes even the vilest offender who believes righteous in God's sight and free from wrath, all without keeping a single law or doing a single righteous act— like Abraham who believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 

As a result of wrong teaching which tries to remove or replace "Jesus Christ and Him crucified"  with human striving at obedience for the attainment of godliness, many are trying to be right with God by keeping the law and are mounting silly attempts at suppressing sinful passions by human striving. Believer, that is the hallmark of having the sinful or old nature which all of mankind inherited from Adam—

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

From the above verse, we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes a person a sinner. Adam passed on the sin/old nature or sin “virus” to all of his descendants. Sinners will produce sins just as a person infected with HIV will produce symptoms of his infection—the fact that he looks healthy (sinless) does not make his blood (works) acceptable. His works are deathly, even aka dead works. 

Likewise, the one who receives God’s gift of righteousness in Christ gets to produce a harvest of good deeds for God (Romans 7:4) because in Christ Jesus, we are a new creation having the same “righteous nature” as Christ.

That sinful or old nature which Adam passed on to all of his descendants conscripted man to a lifetime of producing acts of sins. Christ has rid all who believe in Him (having Him as our Righteousness and Strength) of the old or sinful nature/sin virus which Adam passed on to all of his descendants. See Colossians 2:11–

“When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.” Colossians‬ ‭2:11‬ ‭

Unfortunately, in many places of worship, emphasis is placed on ignoring and disregarding God’s gift of righteousness to us in Christ. Many “pastors” are focusing on treating the symptoms of the sinful nature (acts of sin that lead to death) and are ignoring the root (sin nature.) That is as wicked, deceitful and as useless as telling an HIV carrier that he will be healthy (righteous) if he just continues to treat his immunodeficiency-driven tuberculosis (act of sin) with his self-brewed cough medicine (human effort at obedience.) No matter how healthy the “virus” carrier looks or tries to be, he is still infected. Whatever he gives from his body (his works) are deathly and unacceptable and can kill his recipients. This is why Christ showed Nicodemus that he needed to be born-again— even the holiest church daddy cannot match Nicodemus when it comes to obedience and doing righteous deeds but at that point in John 3, Nico was WORLDLY. Recall that he was the first recipient of Christ’s word to us—

“For God so loved the world…”

There is none righteous, beloved. God gave up His own Son to give us His own righteousness as a GIFT. “The world” is simply anyone who is striving to be righteous like God or godly (“be like God” as Adam and Eve attempted to do) or striving to get right with God by human effort at keeping the law which gives the knowledge of good and evil and kills like the tree of the same name in Eden. 

“The world” rejects Christ’s sacrifice in making the sinner who believes in Him godly/righteous like God. Try to steal something in a shop or break any of the Ten Commandments and see what “the world” will do to you; even the world’s legal system requires people to swear by God or whatever to be truthful when it judges cases, something that Christ expressly forbids in His word—

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”

Beloved, 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that the evil one — Satan — is the god or ruler of this world—

“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.”

“The world” can be very religious and even passionate about obedience, but its own obedience is targeted at replacing what Christ has done with what man must do in order to be righteous before God. It refuses God’s way as seen in Romans 10–

1 “Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in Him are made right with God.”

Beloved, see the forbidden fruit as a picture or typology for the law which many churchgoers are subtly being deceived to eat of in order to be godly (be righteous like God) in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG)-

"Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

Satan through his "pastor" agents is still seducing the world that God so loved into trying to be godly (be like God) by human striving at following the dictates of the knowledge of good and evil aka the law. That false doctrine seemed good to Eve, just as it does to many churchgoers today; but it is the way that Proverbs 14:12 speaks of:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

Satan’s doctrine of deceit has not changed since Eden and many “pastors” are trying to pass the same abomination off as Christianity. Beware of such, beloved. Following such teaching is the hallmark of having the old/sinful nature which Adam passed on to all of his descendants. Such are not a new creation— made righteous by Christ’s obedience. Their trust is in the arm of flesh (human striving at obedience aka the hallmark of having the old nature) that will fail and when it does, as it was with Peter who boasted in his strength to stand but denied Christ three times, those sinful passions will explode in a volcanic eruption of 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.” Romans‬ ‭7:5‬ ‭

Many churchgoers are literally dying under the oppression of antichrist pastors - enslaved to the law which only results in a vicious cycle of sins, guilt, condemnation, lack, sickness and earthly ills and are running from pillar to post looking for deliverance from sin, earthly ills and death which God freely gave His own Son to save us from, because He so loved us.

The spirit of the antichrist is not necessarily anti-God. In fact, its carriers seem to be very holy and religious like the antichrist Pharisees who rejected Christ - preaching strongly against sins and shouting the need for people to live a godly life from the rooftops. The word “antichrist” is translated from two Greek words—

Anti — meaning “replace” or “in place of” and 

Christos — meaning “Christ” = “Anointed”

Antichrists aren’t ugly, horned creatures wearing red underwear and wielding pitchforks like the creatures in those religious church horror movies which some movie producers used to terrorise children in the 80s. Antichrists refer to anyone who tries to REPLACE what CHRIST has done to make us righteous, free us from sin and death and to grant us eternal life with what MAN must do by his useless human effort aka the arm of flesh. 

For all of their religious piety, obedience and enforcement of the Law of Moses, the Pharisees were antichrist. Little wonder Christ referred to them as “Brood of vipers” and “Satan is your father.” Jesus Christ the Tree of Life was right there with them to save them and grant them everlasting righteousness and eternal life as gifts of God’s super-abounding grace, but they chose to cling to doing righteous deeds in order to be righteous aka doing what the law commands in their bid to be good/godly aka “be like God,”— the same deceit that Satan the original viper/serpent sold to Eve in Eden. 

The antichrist spirit appeals to the non-existent will-power to do do righteous deeds in order to be righteous in those who think they can "at least try" to keep the law in order to be godly (be like God.)

Beloved, Christ’s shed blood is the only difference between “the righteous” and “the wicked,” no more and no less— 

"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." Romans 5:9.

Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ suffices for God to declare any righteous. Anyone outside the umbrella of His GIFT of righteousness is “the wicked” or “the world,” including Nicodemus at his night meeting with Jesus and Saul who “obeyed the law without a fault” before he counted all of his obedience and righteous deeds as DUNG in order to gain Christ (Philippians 3.)  

With Christ as our righteousness (believing the message of Christ aka "Jesus Christ and Christ crucified" and embracing God's undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour,) God sees us as righteous, "even though we are guilty of many sins." (Romans 5:16.) But this truth is too hard to swallow for people who think they have some good in them as to be able to keep even a tittle of the law by human striving when Christ says “There is none good but God.”  

This GIFT of righteousness which God freely gives to all who believe in Jesus is a "STUMBLING BLOCK" for religious folk who refuse God’s WAY by trying to keep the law in order to score points of righteousness with God. But they keep on stumbling and wonder why “bad things happen to good people” despite all of their efforts at obeying the law and doing righteous deeds, hence Proverbs 4–

18 “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 Passion Translation puts it thus—

18 “But the lovers of God walk on the highway of light,

    and their way shines brighter and brighter

    until the perfect day.

19 But the wicked walk in thick darkness,

    like those who travel in fog,

    and yet don’t have a clue why they keep stumbling!”

Such refuse God’s way for man to attain to righteousness, rejecting Christ as their righteousness, and so cannot live in triumph over sin and death. They continue to stumble aka experience plenty sins and calamity and do not know why! This is why “the world” keeps on asking the question—

“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Beloved, none of us can obey or be DOERS OF THE LAW/righteous deeds as much as Nicodemus was doing at the point when he sought Christ under the cover of darkness, but at the time, Nicodemus was “none good”— according to Christ, “There is none good but God.” Christ suffered and died to make us godly (Romans 5:9.) Believing so is what it means to be a doer of the word. Recall that we are to be DOERS OF THE WORD and not DOERS OF THE LAW. See the WORD that we are to be doers of and not hearers alone in Romans 3–

26...for He himself is fair and just, 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."

Beloved, why CHALLENGE GOD and continue to expose yourself to the vagaries of Time and Chance and Satan’s sifting by taking PRIDE in man’s non-existent ability to do or become good? Whatever works proceeds from such human striving at being righteous is dead works— like a menstrual rag in God’s sight according to Isaiah 64:6. Beloved, it is impossible for us to deceive ourselves in the matter of dead works— 

if we knew and believed that it is Christ in us doing our righteous works and godly living and not our own might and power, it would be difficult for us to credit God’s freely-given provisions for us in Christ to useless works of the law such as our own obedience or 70 days fast, point accusing fingers at others who are still struggling with sin or threaten them with God’s wrath if they don't change. Rather, we would agree with Christ who says—

“There is none good but God." 

We would see that the good that we do is by God's grace (unmerited favour) alone. When we see people committing heinous sins and having no good works, we would know that "There I go but for the Grace of God."  We would see how helpless man is to overcome sins and produce good works by himself and like Moses who pointed the suffering Israelites to the bronze serpent, point such to Christ who saves from sins and transforms the sinner who truly believes to live right and bear much fruit, as it is written of Him in Titus 2:14--

"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."

Beloved, let Christ be your Good. He gave His life for you and I for this purpose. Be delicate and helpless before Him — like sheep with their Shepherd, and His goodness and mercy will hunt you down all the days of your life. He will take care of you. Utterly reliant on Him and not trusting our silly efforts to be good or to save ourselves, the thoughts of the Holy Spirit become our action.

Only by receiving 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. See entire context of the verse in 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."

Our right-standing with God is the result of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" - the gospel that Paul and the apostles preached. It is a STUMBLING BLOCK for churchgoers who think that their right-standing with God and eternal life is hinged on their human ability to do what the law commands and live a godly or righteous life.

The part of the gospel of Christ concerning God seeing all who believe as righteous "even though we are guilty of many sins" also seems to be the only thing that many skeptics take away from the whole counsel of God (Grace,) as if we have Grace just so that we can go and sin as we like. Not so, beloved. Unless God is lying which He can NEVER do, being without Grace aka trusting in self for the attainment of godliness is why sin abounds. Beloved of God, Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11 says of Him: 

“God’s marvelous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone."

Verse 14 of the same Titus 2 says: "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."

How can the Physician and Medicine (Grace) whom God gave for our freedom from our terminal illness (sin nature) and its symptoms (acts of sin that lead to death) make us more sick (sinful?)

See verse 17 of Romans 5 again below for what happens when you believe that God in His super-abounding Grace sees we who believe as righteous in Christ despite our many flaws, sins and imperfections: 

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."

And in Him, we never remain the same. Only when, in our sinful state and having no confidence in our own ability to keep a single Law in order to be righteous or be good, 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. 

This super-abounding Grace of God is something that Satan and his pulpit-Manning ministers do not want anyone to enjoy so they preach human striving at obedience (law-keeping) and the doing of righteous deeds in order to get right with God and enjoy His blessings, afterall, what is bad in keeping the Law in order to be godly? Believer, that way seems right to man but the end is death! See proverbs 14:12 -

"There is a way which seems right to a manand appears straight before him,

But its end is the way of death."

The letter (law) kills but the Spirit gives life and with the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by might nor by power (human striving.)

Trying to keep the law in order to get right with God/as a guiding principle for morality/to get Him to bless/to curry His favour or for whatever reason at all is to reject God's abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness to us that Christ died that we might have. This has dire consequences. Galatians 5:4- 

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace." 

The one who is cut off from Christ cannot enjoy the benefits of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" as it is written  in Titus 2:14-

"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."

The rejection of Christ as one's righteousness becomes a STUMBLING BLOCK to that one’s being free from sin, being cleansed, belonging to Christ and producing works of faith. Sin has dominion over the one who is striving to keep the law in a bid to be right with God and saved: 

"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14. 

But many churchgoers have this verse backwards. By God's grace, let's not be found here. "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" is the message of Christ and why our heavenly Father who so loved us that He gave His own Son to die for us sees us as righteous and gives us ALL things FREELY - ALL things, including righteousness, eternal life and deliverance from all earthly ills. See Romans 8:32 - 

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Beloved of God, it is Christ's "Neither do I condemn you" that makes us "go and sin no more." He does the transformation, not you or I. So let Him love you into (w)holiness. See the Father’s love for you. If you are yet to know and believe True Grace, ask our Heavenly Father to open your eyes to see His Grace, beloved. As He did with the prodigal son, He is eagerly waiting to run to you to enfold you in His loving embrace of True Grace. 

Believe Right and you will Live Right.