We are made righteous by Christ's obedience, not ours.

Believers, 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." Here we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes people sinners. Sinners are made sinners because of the sin nature that was inherited from Adam. Acts of sin are simply products of having this sin nature that Christ died to rid us of.

Many in the church today do their best to keep the Ten Commandments, do good works and pay tithes religiously in order to be right with God so they can receive from Him. This teaching is prevalent in many places of worship. Wonderful as they are, all of these things are symptoms of having the sin/old nature. It rejects the righteousness that Christ died that we might have and seeks to attain righteousness and consequently God's blessings through human effort at obeying the law and doing good things like paying tithes religiously. This is unbelief in Christ's finished work in making the sinner righteous by His obedience (Romans 5:19.) It is rejecting Christ.

The anti-Christ spirit is not anti-God. It can be very pro-God and pro-law. It simply downplays or outrightly rejects the finished work of Christ in making the sinner righteous. It tells you that you need to obey the law in order to be accepted by God or position yourself for His blessings, a direct contradiction of His word in 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."

But the spirit of the AntiChrist teaches that one has to obey the law to notch points of righteousness that will make God bless. There is NO Christ making the sinner 100% righteous in the equation. According to Romans 7:5, acts of sin happen and multiply when the old nature that was inherited from Adam is activated by attempting to keep the law-

"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."

Trying to keep the law in order to get God's blessings causes sin to multiply! The letter kills. Sin has dominion over those who are trying to keep the law in order to be godly (be like God.) Only under grace (undeserved, unmerited, unearned favour) does sin lose its power. Romans 6:14-"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace." But many have this backwards.

Satan knows "the letter kills" and is actively using the law to keep people who think that they can be godly by their own effort in bondage to sin, the same thing he did with Eve whom he deceived into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil towards becoming like God (godly.) Through his ministers in church, the Accuser points out "your ungodliness" aka sins, curses and shortcomings when Christ has already made you godly by His obedience. As he did with Eve, he tells you to eat from the tree (keep the law) to make yourself godly aka "be like God." The tree is a picture of the law which gives the knowledge of good and evil. The law is good. Trying to be godly is good. But eating from the tree (law-keeping) cannot make one godly. According to Romans 3:20-

."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."

As the tree did with Adam and Eve, the law only points out our sins. It shows us how naked (unrighteous) we are. In fact, the law was not given for us to keep and be saved by; it was given to show us how sinful we are. Under law the good that one does kills just as fast as the evil, just like the tree of the same name. It didn't matter what part, good or evil, that Adam and Eve ate of. The letter kills. The one with the sin nature rejects God's gift of righteousness through Christ and tries to keep the law to get right with God. But no amount of law-keeping and good works can make any righteous before God and thus escape the curse of the law.

Christ came to rid us of this old nature. In Him, we are a new creation. Because we have been made righteous by Christ's obedience (Romans 5:19) and not our puny efforts at keeping the Ten Commandments or paying tithes, God sees us as righteous through and through, even with our multitude of sins and flaws; we are dead to the law and one with Christ. His gift of righteousness is what gives us right-standing with God. And this is the result: Romans 7:4-

"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."

We get to bear fruit to God. We get to live right. The same "True Vine" life that flows in Christ the True Vine flows in us, giving us life. Just like a vine's branches that does not bear fruit immediately after it is born, we might not see the ripened fruits immediately but all the while, Christ the True Vine is nourishing and strengthening us, the branches, so that we are ready and able to bear the weight of the fruit when the season arrives. And because we continue to abide in Him (rely on Him and not look elsewhere for our righteousness,) we get to bear fruit, more fruit them much fruit.