Submitting To God’s Righteousness, Part 2of10, Evans Olang

Romans 10:3, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God”

In the early chapters of the book of Isaiah, we have some things shown to us. I believe Isaiah was a good man according to men’s standards and with that he would have justified himself. Comparing to other people, you can tell that he was reasonably clean however this is a horizontal standard. If anything we all should look at the vertical standard (God’s) of being good. Being good means being perfect and being perfect would mean you have kept the Ten Commandments perfectly from the time you were born till now. Perfection means it has no crack even a little bit. If you were going to buy a vase or a mirror, one little crack shatters it’s perfection and thus if you kept all the commandments and broke even one at any point, then you become guilty of all for, you have shattered it’s perfection and James 2:10 says “Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend it at one point is guilty of all”. Psalms 19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect…” The Author of the law is perfect therefore when we break the law, it’s not against men but God. Many see their sin as done unto men and it doesn’t look that bad in comparison to men, but look at it from God’s point of view and see how serious it is. For instance, if lying (the 9th commandment) to a child may not sound that serious; if I lied to my wife, I’m in trouble; if I lied to my boss, I could lose my job; if I lied to the government, I could go to jail; if I lied to God… It’s who you lie to that determines how big or small the punishment.

What Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6 was not a bunch of laws being imposed on him but God displaying His righteousness before him. Romans 14:17, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” Something had to die in Isaiah’s case and all he was left with was to see God in His glory, holiness and righteousness. The light of His righteousness exposed the deep sin that was in his life hence he could not justify himself in God’s presence. Until people see the righteousness of God, they will never see their sin in its true state because they will be ignorant of it. The righteousness of God is what plows the hard heart, turning the soil of the heart and softening it for the gospel. What triggers men to see the righteousness of God? When the law of God is read to them. When it’s read, it takes away the ignorance men always had and either it accuses or excuses them. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers said, “The law, when it comes into the heart, it shows us how very black we are. Some of us see that we are sinners. It’s very easy to say it. The word “sinner” hath only two syllables in it, and many there be who frequently have it on their lips, but who do not understand it. They see their sin, but it does not appear exceedingly sinful till the law comes. We think there is something sinful in it; but when the law comes, we detect its abomination. Has God’s holy light ever shone into your souls? Have you had the fountains of your great depravity and evil broken up, and been wakened up sufficiently to say, “O God! I have sinned?”, Now, if you have your hearts broken up by the law, you will find the heart is more deceitful than the devil”. What Spurgeon is saying is that the law has to break the heart that the holy light of God’s righteousness may expose the sin inside. The laws draws the curtains of the holy of holies and all that you thought was not there or you thought you took care of is revealed. To use Ray Comfort’s analogy, You are wiping your coffee table in the morning, the table looks nice and clean. When you draw the curtains for the early sunrise to come in, what will you see in the air, dust; on the table you cleaned, dust. Did the light create the dust? Not really, it merely exposed what you and I could not see with our naked eyes. It’s by the help of the light that we saw that the table needed thorough cleaning and so is with the light of God’s righteousness exposing our sinful state, the hidden stuff. The law does not create sin, it merely exposes what we might have not thought was sin, what is hidden deep within and shows the seriousness of breaking the law.

It’s safe to say that a person knows he or she is a sinner and yes he or she might confess that he or she is a sinner but he or she will not see his or her sin as exceedingly sinful then desiring to be made right until the curtains are drawn back and His light of the law shines through. Listen to what Paul is saying in Romans 7:8, “… apart from the law sin was dead, but when commandment came, sin revived and I died”. If he had no law, he was righteous but when the law revealed to him his true state, he died cause the law killed his self-righteousness. It wasn’t grace that showed Isaiah his sin, it’s was the righteousness of God through the law that did. To continue, blessings Ev

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