What the Congregation Needs to Know about the Dual ness in the Building of the Invincible Church of Jesus


By Rev. Rob Roy McGregor S


ince righteousness, as the word is used in the New Testament, constitutes the - anity — as we learn from A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, by William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich.


Given, then, that the concept of righteousness is essentially equivalent to Christianity in its meaning and function, it is critical for Christians to under- stand how the concept functions in the Greek New Testament so that they will know how to practice righteousness and know that they are indeed Christian (1 John 2:3-6).


Righteousness represents a condition, a state of being. God, who is spirit, is


by nature righteous, and when he acts, he does what is right when dealing with  — a righteous person in the likeness of God and the Lord Jesus — does what is right when dealing indiscriminately with all others individually and corpo-  The Greek word for righteousness is  (dikaiosyne). Other English


words used to translate it are justice and uprightness. In Jerome’s Latin ver- sion, the Vulgate, dikaiosyne is translated by iustitia, which is written justitia and translated elsewhere by righteousness, justice, fairness, equity, innocence,  A redeemed (saved) believer, a  (dikaios), then, is righteous because he, being made righteous through the indwelling Holy Spirit, does what is right, just, fair, righteous, and upright in the eyes of God when dealing with all other persons just as God is righteous because he does what is right toward  — the way God loves. There is, consequently, no difference between what God does when he loves and what God does when he deals righteously without discriminating! A truly redeemed believer cannot love God without loving his brother and neighbor at the same time (1 John 3:10)! The dual role of righteous- ness in a true Christian’s life, then, is clearly (1) to be both righteous and (2) a doer of righteous deeds simultaneously. This is not something a Christian can cherry pick! Before the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, no one from the time


of creation was able to do what was right out of his own nature. Everyone was  what is right was by obeying the laws, commandments, practices, instructions, and customs of the society. For example, one was innocent of adultery in the absence of the act and guilty of breaking the Sabbath by exceeding the limits of a Sabbath day’s journey. Spiritual aptitude is not required, only conformity! In the mentality of the Old Testament, then, one was righteous if one obeyed the law willingly or not. How, then, does a person become capable of doing what is right while seek-


- redeemed disciples (Matt. 6:33)? - tion of the world, have been, are being, and will be saved by faith (Acts 2:39; Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:1-3). What, then, is saving faith? On the day of Pentecost, when no one, not even the disciples, were saved, those who, at the preaching of Peter, accepted the message were saved — male and female without distinction


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— by the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). The gift of the Holy Spirit — his implantation and indwelling in those who accepted — had already taken place, and the elect had been saved before they knew that what had saved them was the death and res- urrection of Jesus Christ. They were already saved before they knew that fact and believed it. What they came to believe, then, was simply that they were saved by the work of Jesus on the cross, quite apart from doctrines and baptism. The hundred and twen- ty persons, plus or minus, gathered in Jerusalem, including the twelve apostles, received the Holy Spirit and were saved before the preaching of the word and personal baptism, of which there is no record for those - yond that, they were saved by noth- ing that is stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Nicene Creed, for example. With the follow- ing words, the Apostle Paul assured the Romans and all believers of the limited requirement of saving faith: “If you confess with your mouth Je- sus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). Limiting the content of saving faith to Jesus’ death on the cross is essential to our understanding be-  faith follow saving faith and belong to our tradition while there are other traditions ranging from Roman Ca- tholicism through Eastern Orthodoxy and beyond. All true Christians are saved by “saving faith” and nothing more! Other aspects of faith do not save. All that to say emphatically that any and everyone who receives the indwelling Holy Spirit, having been forgiven and set free from the sins of the original Adam, becomes and is a new, forgiven, and righteous creature


The Associate Reformed Presbyterian


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