Re: Using Eternal Faith

SoulfulSurvivor, I understand looking at the christian world and this forum and saying "yuk!" It certainly doesn't look pretty.

God gave a very dire summation of the whole human race. He said:

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
13“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

That includes everyone. It includes me. It includes you.

Romans 7:18
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

No one is a "good person" outside of Christ. Oh, they think they are, they feel like they are. And you are very right in saying that many people that claim Christianity appear very self righteous. Maybe all you've seen do. I'm sure you would include me in that as well. But I don't claim any righteousness of my own. I know the evil that is in me. It's way worse than you've ever seen displayed here. So I know I have only one hope, and it's the only hope anyone has. And if anyone is hoping in anything other than this, and sadly many claiming Christians are, then there is no hope.

This is the hope:
The righteousness of Christ alone!

This is what God will be looking for on judgement day! Nothing else will do. Everything else is filthy rags to him. He's looking for those that are clothed in the righteousness of His Son.

Isaiah 64:6
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

But...

2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I know you've been through hell and back with your ex-husband. I read your posts. I've wept for you. I want to see you have full redemption from all you've been through. But that won't come through the goodness of yourself, and I say that with honesty and love, even if you can't see that.

Don't look at claiming christians to judge what christianity is. So many make that mistake. Many people claiming to be christians and trying to represent what christianity is, are not even christians!
Certainly don't judge what christianity is based on this forum. It's a mess here, I agree!

Look to Jesus! He is the only one that lived a perfect, righteous life. Christians will fail, and fail badly. Anyone that is claiming christianity and really understands what christianty is, knows that is the point, that they need Jesus! They need his righteousness, because they don't have their own!

If you think you have your own righteousness and depend on that, you are not alone. Many people, the majority, think this way. But it's a dangerous place to be.

Romans 10:3
3For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Romans 3:
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.