Ambrose.J. Chakre
(The Beginning of Righteousness)
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. Isaiah 43:18
If the righteousness of God could be gained by mere deeds, the sacrifices of God would have been in vain. The little acts of wickedness we did in the past pricks our conscience and the demons of it will haunt us wherever we go. The evils of our evil deeds will either reform our ways or lead us to the way of sin and death. If our sins of the past were unforgivable, Christ wouldn’t have died to secure our salvation. When we live according to the sinful nature, our minds will be set on what that nature desires (Romans 8:5). The sins which we committed in the past and the sins which we are enslaved to should be done away with that our future in Christ may be secured.God fulfills all of His promises but we can only receive His promises when we have the Holy Spirit in us. God demonstrated His love for us by dying for us (Romans 5:8). The maggots will always feast on rotten meat and they will ultimately feast on us too if our lives are rotten. The point is this, as long as we are controlled by our sinful nature our deeds will be evil but the consequences of it will not be as pleasurable as the moments of the present. God will not judge us by how great our sins were but by how genuine our prayers of repentance are. No matter how great our sins are God has promised us to cleanse us from all of it. The moment we accept Christ, the New Life becomes part of us. In regard to this the Word of Life states “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God (Romans 6:6-10).
This doctrine of death and resurrection has the power to impact our lives and transform our ways for His holy purposes. It was by the act of death that death was conquered but it was by the act of love in which our salvation was secured. After all that Christ had done for us it will be insensible if we continue living the life of sin which Christ hates. Since Christ died for us our sins are also done away with. In the same way we are to count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).
Death had been conquered by Christ and we will experience what He experienced when we believe and obey His Word. The death He died He died to sin and the life He lives will be lived for righteousness. In view of this I urge you to follow the ways of God that you can be where He is. If your sins were forgiven, it will also be forgotten (Hebrews 8:12). This is the promise of the covenant which has the power to either condemn us to hell or resurrect us to the life of righteousness. We were once far away from Christ but we have been bought near through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). The light of this God wants us to honor all that is sacred and to pursue all that is holy. And when we crucify our sins on the cross with Christ, our sins will be purged and the righteousness of God will live in us. The scripture also states “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2nd Corinthians 5:17). Embrace the New Spirit of life and you will receive what you didn’t deserve. The Righteousness of Christ is what we don’t deserve. But we are assured of it when we confess our sins everyday and keep renewing our Spirit every new day. Die not in sins but die to sin and live in righteousness. This is the beginning of righteousness.
