get right! really?

Man o man….you know those times when you are “thinking” about purchasing a new car, and the car you have on your radar screen to purchase just magically starts showing up all over the highways and streets you are traveling? Or that shirt,or skirt that you have seen and you picture yourself in that piece of material prancing out to the dealership to pick up ……WAKE UP bivo….hahaha….you know what I mean don’t ya…

 Sure you do. Our senses are heightened. We become sensitive to what attracts and even distracts our thoughts. For the past couple of years and even more so the past few months the words “get right” when placed in front “of God” pierce my heart.  The words are typically uttered in conversation when someone is not sensing they are exactly where God would like for them to be, based on the various unwritten rules, they are gauging themselves up against. Or it could be the times that someone is comparing themselves and their activity to someone they perceive is sold out to Christ? Or it’s this phantom cape wearing Christian in their mind that is whispering “you better get right man”…..what the heck….or or if we are the cape wearing Christian, GET RIGHT are words that are sometimes thought OUT towards someone whose life is spiraling and our default response to someone else’s chaos and yes even our own is dang we better “get right”….please picture my finger down my throat touching my, what’s the name for that little dangly thing,….yea yea that’s it…and I’m just about to projectile all over my new shirt in my new car.

 HOW? I mean what do you tell someone  to do to ‘get right’? Through years of counseling I have heard just about every type of source, angle, and discipline folks utilize to get right and having traveled the roads of church speak for several years, I think I understand what the meaning is underneath the self ambush of getting right, but gang what are YOU going to do? Isn’t that why Jesus came? Didn’t He come so that we would be made right (justifed, righteous)? Before we answer this let’s first see if the words get right are in any of the translations that come across our screens or in our laps…I currently read from the NLT (New Living Translation) and lo and behold the words do show up together. Take a peek.

 Romans 9:31 (NLT) But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

Romans 9:32 (NLT) Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

 uh oh….that could have some folks sticking their fingers down their throat hahaha…Gang, this scripture is referring to the chosen people of God and they couldn’t “get right” through their efforts. When we study the Old Testament we laugh inside and out at the craziness of how they (the chosen people of God) continued to add rules to themselves and others in order to get it right. Yet that is exactly what some if not most are doing today in 2012…If we read on and bring in the last verse in this chapter, Paul let’s us know that the stone they are stumbling over is Christ and when anyone who trusts/believes in HIM (Jesus) will never be disgraced. You can forget about getting right because through Christ you will be MADE RIGHT!

 22 times the words “made right” can be found in the New Testament of the New Living Translation (NLT). 13 of the appearances occur in the book of Romans with 5 of those appearances showing up in Chapter 3. One more note the words made right translate to either justified and or righteous. Romans 3:28 So we are made right (justified) with God through faith and not by obeying the law. Ok here is is simple way to remember what justified means….its just as if you never sinned and our justification is obtained how?__________ yes through faith! And class the law in verse 28 is referring to the old law, but that law also includes the self made law or the hurdles you must jump back through to “get right”. Once we have been justified through we are now in a state of righteousness, which means acceptable in the sight of God. Here is an example Romans 3:21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right (righteous, acceptable)with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses [fn] and the prophets long ago.  v22 We are made right (righteous, acceptable) with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (I will place the other verses at the bottom for you to reference)

 Another pop quiz class…how are we accepted by God? Yes….through faith, true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are…WOW, now that is why it’s called GREAT NEWS….You see, this now makes the verses where Jesus stated that the world’s sin is it’s unbelief (John 16:9) and he along with others as they traveled would share with folks for them to repent and believe for the kingdom of heaven is near. So as we turn from our unbelief, when we turn from our having to “get it right” on our own,when we turn from our unbelief of that it is up to what I do for me to ‘get right’ with God, we are set free! Set free from ourselves and can live in the freedom of the empty tomb, so if the words “get it right” start to creep in your mind, I pray these three words flood your soul. IT IS FINISHED!

 Galatians 2:16 NLT Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law

 love em up!

 Romans 3:20-25,28          1 Corinthians 6:11

Romans 4:1                         2 Corinthians 5:21

Romans 5:1,9,16               Galatians 2:16-17

Romans 8:10                      Galatians 3:11,21,24

Romans 9:30

Romans 10:4

Romans 10:10

 

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