16 January 2022: “There is no one righteous, not even one”

Service available on Youtube, or as text (below), or for audio see the Podcasts page.

Welcome

Please pray for Festival Manchester, taking place this summer:

(a) Christians will catch the vision, pray and get involved

(b) For God’s hand to be over all logistical, technical and operational arrangements

(c) People to hear about Festival Manchester.

Worship

Word

Please read: Romans 3:9-20

There is no one righteous, not even one.

Rom. 3:10

We may take exception to such a statement from the Scriptures and even refer to a person who we think is a good, righteous, and morally upright person. However, none of us decides or defines what standard of righteousness we are talking about – it is God who does that. It’s as if the apostle anticipates that there will be some who object to this statement, “There is no one righteous“. “Ah but you don’t know Daniel Abrams – now there’s a righteous person if ever there was one“. The apostle repeats his statement with an additional phrase, “There is no one righteous, not even one, [not even Daniel Abrams]”.

One thinks of the ruler who came to Jesus and insisted that he had kept all the commandments:

“All these I have kept since I was a boy”

Luke 18:21

Jesus then fine-tunes the commandments and the man went away sad realising God’s standard of righteousness was too high for him (Luke 18:23). Even the disciples were taken aback by the standard,

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Matt. 19:25

In Jesus’ reply we have the solution,

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”.

Matt. 19:26

Like Salvation, Righteousness, is a gift from God to all who believe. Before a person can come to that place of being saved, of being declared righteous in God’s sight, of receiving righteousness as a gift, of receiving the gift of His Holy Spirit, they must abandon all thoughts of self-righteousness and fully trust in His righteousness, and be born anew into the kingdom of God’s Son, the kingdom of righteousness, Amen!

Quote of the week

“Righteousness – is living as God desires humankind to live”

D. M. L. Jones

Verse of the week

It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”.

1 Cor. 1:30-31

Let’s Pray

“Heavenly Father, thank You for Your gift of righteousness, such that by Your grace, we are now in a right standing with You, and that by Your Spirit, You are changing us more and more into the righteousness of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord may many hear the Gospel in this coming year and respond with faith in Jesus Christ, Amen.”