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Selected Messages Book 1
righteousness is accepted in place of man’s failure, and God receives,
pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats him as though he
were righteous, and loves him as He loves His Son. This is how faith
is accounted righteousness; and the pardoned soul goes on from grace
to grace, from light to a greater light. He can say with rejoicing, “Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of
the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ
our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life” (
Titus 3:5-7
).
Again: it is written, “But as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God” (
John 1:12, 13
). Jesus declared,
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”
(
John 3:3
). “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God” (
John 3
: 5). It is not a low standard
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that is placed before us; for we are to become the children of God. We
are to be saved as individuals; and in the day of test and trial we shall
be able to discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth
Him not. We are saved as individual believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many are losing the right way, in consequence of thinking that they
must climb to heaven, that they must do something to merit the favor
of God. They seek to make themselves better by their own unaided
efforts. This they can never accomplish. Christ has made the way by
dying our sacrifice, by living our example, by becoming our great high
priest. He declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (
John 14:6
).
If by an effort of our own we could advance one step toward the ladder,
the words of Christ would not be true. But when we accept Christ,
good works will appear as fruitful evidence that we are in the way of
life, that Christ is our way, and that we are treading the true path that
leads to heaven.
He Becomes Our Righteousness
Christ looks at the spirit, and when He sees us carrying our burden
with faith, His perfect holiness atones for our shortcomings. When we
do our best, He becomes our righteousness. It takes every ray of light