Job understood he was a creation of God and that the very life that flowed in his body had the essence of God within it. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. The main event in Job’s life was when Satan was allowed to access him so he would curse God and was focused on afflictions in his physical life. However, God told Satan he could try him by removing all his blessings and bringing affliction upon his flesh, but he could not kill him.
Though Jesus had not gone to the cross and died in Job’s time His eternal sacrifice for a spirit of life from God to be in us as He determined in the creation was accounted to Job’s right standing. Job 42:12-17 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. 13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
In the end, Job’s life came out blessed more than when he was brought into the tribulation. God proved He is not into death and destruction as some would like us to believe. Though He destroys for the sake of righteousness, He as a sovereign God has the right to do as He sees fit.
14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. 15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
In every aspect of your life, God is to be revealed to you as the one who upholds your eternal right to life. Thus, humanity’s very heritage through a covenant with God is based not only upon this righteousness but all His eternal blessings. 16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations. 17 So Job died, being old and full of days.
Therefore, believers are established as living spirits holding a statute of right standing before Him through Jesus Christ. If you understand righteousness, then you know who you are in Him and know what God says you are before Him. Rom 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
For me to express how far most of the body of Christ is from knowing who they are because of leadership fearful of the truth that brings forth exactly what they know will occur should be offensive to every believer. However, spiritually alive offspring who know and understand the intent and concern in the heart of their Heavenly Father knows who they are in Christ Jesus and live a life free from the law of sin and death.
2 Cor 3:17-18 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Liberty from sin and death releases you to behold the glory of the Lord and be changed into the same image from glory to glory.
Look at what he says, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. We are offspring changed by the Spirit of the Lord to be as He was on this earth. I know many are thinking I am not Christ, but you are joint heirs and siblings made flesh and re-gene-rated in spirit to be as He is on this earth now.
Phil 3:8-9 (MSG) Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ 9 and be embraced by him.
Paul’s implication of receiving God’s righteousness reveals to us we are not to give up all things we have gained for the sake of a right standing by works that are according to religious leaders. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
So, let us finish this by learning what Paul wrote to Christians in Rome about righteousness and how all are brought under the work of Christ’s sacrifice. Rom 3:19-26 (MSG) This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else?
Paul explains the statute of sinners before God is accounted to all creation. Though he and everyone with him and even us are complicit in the aspects of sin, now something new has been added to the equation. It is a testimony that comes from those of the past who witnessed a time when God would settle humanity’s sins.
From the following verse, Jesus is the one God determined would settle the account of sin forever for every soul of creation. 20 Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. 21 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. 22 The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this.
This spirit of life of believers has existed because they are in a righteous standing with God their Heavenly Father, not by what they have done, but by what Jesus has done for them. Nothing they do outside of ministry equals what He has done because the spiritual and supernatural empowerment is in His sacrifice. 23 Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, 24 God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. 25 God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin.
Therefore, having faith in Him sets us free and moves us out into the clear openness of freedom to be who we are to be in the sight of God and to live the spirit of life He wills for us as His spiritual offspring. Having faith in him sets us in the clear. God decided on this course of action in full view of the public—to set the world in the clear with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured. 26 This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current history! God sets things right. He also makes it possible for us to live in his rightness.
Amazing, He says in this previous verse that this is the current history proving we can live in His righteousness. How important is that? A believer able to live in the rightness of God is in contrast with several theological texts I know about religious itinerate that a sinner is always a sinner. I remember in my early days I sat fixated on every word that came out of the mouth of whoever was behind the pulpit whether teachings or exhortations from scripture, most of which I adhere to today though my knowledge is beyond what was then revealed.
Psalm 119:169-172 Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word. 170 Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.171 My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes. 172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.
In the revelation of truth as per the Spirit of God, there is no ignorance. I have learned truth cannot contradict the truth, but I also know nothing of the power in a covenant with God or the creative power of His word, is without the Spirit of life. Thus, the freedom of allowing believers the opportunity to decide according to what He says is not in the law of sin and death.
There are no believers who are perfected in all of this because there are no perfect people, however, there is the word that leads to perfection of love and grace by the Spirit offering the opportunity of life in Christ founded upon His sacrifice only. Gal 3:11-14 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
The blessings of Abraham are still working today in the lives of all who by faith are redeemed from the curse of the law, made justified by Christ’s sacrifice and living according to that truth. 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
It is important to remember Christ has redeemed you from such a curse, it is freedom from condemnation that bolds His purpose on your behalf. This is why He says there is no condemnation on those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
This whole aspect of the Spirit of life is so every believer can live in the total freedom He has provided for them. Churches and pulpits rendering a worldly perspective more than a Godly one is not of the truth revealed in scripture but are fixated upon the dialog that speaks of death more than life. John 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
It is never God’s will for you to live a life that is more in tune with the death of both flesh and spirit as the curse details. Therefore, nothing about you is associated with the death that was on you before you were in Jesus Christ. And now in a statute of everlasting life, you are free from death and the grave. This is not to be a mystery, if you have Christ as your Lord in the sight of God, then eternal and everlasting life is yours, not death.
1 Cor 15:51-57 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. The reason I say it is not a mystery is that it is now revealed by the truth of the word and the Spirit of God, no longer hidden from believers and their right to know these things.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
While the death of one’s flesh may still be occurring, it is the final act that came upon all humanity at Adam’s fall. But Christ has victory over death and the result of His death and resurrection is now accounted to all who believe. 55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is all a part of the covenant you have with God through Jesus Christ His Son, that speaks of your eternal promise made to you before you were ever born, therefore, live the Spirit of life.