Romans 1:17

(Romans 1:17)

『For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.』

 

God's righteousness was revealed. All human beings are sinners to die to God. This is God's righteousness. However, God makes Jesus Christ on the cross and the sinner one and admits that they are righteous when the sinner repents.The cross is the place where the death of Jesus and the death of a sinner are combined so that the sinner pays the penalty for sins through Jesus Christ. It is a gospel to those who believe this. Sinners do not live by faith, but righteous people live by faith. Faith does not apply unless we repent and are born again. Romans 6: 6-7 says:『 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. 』

 

Those who do not die for sin are not righteous. Romans 6:11 says: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God loves those who have the resurrection life. God pity and loves those who repent, as 1 John (4:9) say: In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him

 

『But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.』(John 20:31)

 

Jesus' disciples believed that "Jesus was the Son of God," but abandoned Jesus before the cross. If you do not deny the life of the flesh, no matter how much you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you cannot obtain the life of heaven. So repentance is to deny yourself. The repentant does not look to himself, but to the Lord. Under certain circumstances, the factor that determines whether you will follow the flesh or the Spirit is repentance.

 

『Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 』 (Romans 8: 12-14)

 

Sometimes, those who have faith are tested for their beliefs. Difficulties reach the believer. But through the test, the believer must realize that he is to repent. Believing that Jesus died in my place of sin does not result in salvation, but gives the one who realizes the opportunity of repentance. So repentance is to die with Jesus. The consequences of dying with Jesus must be seen in life. The Bible says: "You should not live like that when you became a slave to sin"

In 1 Corinthians (5: 9-11), Paul says: 『I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 』

 

It is natural for everyone to get along with people. But although they say "brothers of faith," it is difficult if they live in response to the flesh like the people of the world. So Paul strongly points out, "Don't get along with such people." If they think they are God's people, believe that they are saved, and do the same greed as the people of the world, they are in more serious sin than those who do not believe in God. The Bible says that this is spiritual adultery. They must repent and turn away.

 

『Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.』(1 Corinthians 6: 18-20)

 

So in Ephesians (4: 22-24), Paul tells us to take away the old man. Day by day, spiritual wars are going on. He says, "Do not be anxious about the Holy Spirit." As long as the body exists on earth, spiritual warfare will continue until death. The goal of life is not achievement but change. God, like Job, challenges and transforms believers. Those who repent do not trust themselves, do not love themselves, and do not believe in themselves. Those who repent trust in God. This is the life of the reborn.

 

『Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:』(Colossians 3: 5-10)