A warm welcome back to you. It’s great to have you back again for this issue of Daily Bread. The Bible talks a lot about righteousness. But what does righteousness mean? Let’s have a little Daily Bread Crumb, since it’s been a while since we’ve had one. The word righteous comes from a compound of two words in Old English, right + wise. The meaning is acting rightly or according to what is right, with a sense of justice or morality.

          Paul has been explaining meticulously to us in this letter to the Romans and all of us beloved of God, called to be saints, that the Israelites, who are the Jewish people, the Hebrews, the children of Israel, God’s own people, have gotten so enamored by the law that God gave them, that they forgot about God Himself. They didn’t recognize the new law. They couldn’t fathom that God broke the Old Testament and blessed us with a New Testament. Zechariah 11:10-13 ... Jeremiah 31;31-34 ... Hebrews 8:6-8

       He says in the opening verse of Chapter ten, Friends, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, because I’ve seen that they have a fervor for God, but they just don’t have understanding. They’re ignorant of God’s goodness, and in trying to go around making their own goodness known, they haven’t surrendered themselves to the goodness of God.

          I have to share something with you. You’re really gonna like this because we sometimes make things that are so simple, so difficult, and then when that little light bulb in our brain finally goes on (it’s called being enlightened by the Holy Spirit), it does something to us inside that brings us a more perfect understanding of our invisible God. In the beginning there was Adam and Eve and they were in the Garden of Eden and there was no law. Then the serpent came along and said, if you disobey God, you can know the difference between good and evil . . . You can be like God! (Now, tell me what was wrong with not knowing the difference between good and evil?)

          Well, you know the rest of that story, how God laid down the law right then and there, and mankind now had rules to follow and the burden of knowing right from wrong, which they should have left in God’s hands. Then, as time went on, mankind grew more and more evil, so God destroyed everything with the Great Flood and the earth started anew with Noah. Well, things didn’t improve much with time, yet God saw righteousness in Abraham and made the promise that you read about in our last study. Now, years passed and different events happened and God’s chosen people were given special laws of their own.

         This made them a well respected people, because no one else on earth had such righteous laws. Well, as time went on, you may have read in the Old Testament in your Bible, that the law was virtually impossible for mankind, even God’s chosen people, to follow, because they inherited sin from Adam and Eve. God saw that people could never make enough sacrifices and offerings to atone for their sins, so He sent His Son to be the final sacrifice, the end of the old law, and the beginning of the new law. What is the new law? Well, imagine Adam and Eve un-eating the apple. The new law, is GRACE, just like at the beginning. We, by believing in Jesus, become one with Him, and for the believer, for the one who obeys God, there is only good, you don’t know evil, just as Adam and Eve didn’t know evil before they disobeyed and were given law.

          Problem: The Jewish people over the years became so attached to the law, it became an obsession with them. So much so, that they couldn’t let go of it when God released them from it. They couldn’t see that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.

Let’s think back to Chapter 3 of this letter from Paul for a moment. He asks:

Q Do we then make the law void through Faith?

A Certainly not, in fact, we establish the law.

           So, with Grace, God puts the law within us and it is then established. Jeremiah 31;31-34 ... Hebrews 8:6-8

          The law, that is, the Old Testament law, is holy. It came from God, but do you think that God wanted to impose law on man or do you think that He did it because mankind would destroy themselves with evil if He hadn’t? That was before Jesus of course.

          Paul says: Moses described the righteousness of the Old Testament, saying, The man who breaks the law, shall live by the law. Leviticus 18:5 We all break the laws of the Old Testament every day of our lives. Paul goes on to say, but the righteousness which is of faith goes like this:

Deuteronomy 30:11-14

For this commandment which I command thee this day,

It is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
It is not in Heaven, that thou shouldest say,

Who shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it unto us,

(that is, to bring Christ down from above:)

that we may hear it, and do it?
Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say,

Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us,

(that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

that we may hear it, and do it?
But the Word is very nigh unto thee,

in thy mouth, and in thy heart,

that thou mayest do it.

That is, the Word of Faith, which we preach,

          We should keep the Israelites in our prayers, as Paul did, and strive to follow the original law of Faith ourselves. Above all, believing in Jesus is the key in all of this. He is the author of our Faith. He is righteousness. He is freedom. He is salvation. Jesus is Lord!

          Can’t wait until next time when we share more Daily Bread together, so hurry on back and don’t forget to notice how beautiful your feet are the next time you look at them! God Bless.