Romans 3:10

The Greek word "dikaios" was translated as righteous in this verse. It carries the meaning of inherent Righteousness/Holiness. Dikaios has to be given to us, therefore, the only Righteousness we can ever have must be received from God. We do have the right to choose to accept it or to reject it because we were created with FREE WILL.

All of humanity descended from Adam, therefore we have Adam’s nature (fallen). We inherit this nature at physical birth, therefore, we are born physically alive but spiritually dead. We must be born a second time (born again) spiritually in order to receive the Righteousness of God. This re-birth can only occur as a result of accepting Jesus Christ, God The Son as our Lord and Savior.

Why Jesus?

In all of creation, God created two species with free will: angels first and subsequently mankind. Both species were created with the ability to freely choose and were equipped by God to make sober and moral decisions for Him.

All angels were instantly created by Him and were always in His presence and had a knowledge of Him. Mankind has been created in time and over time and has not seen him. Mankind was given a greater privilege, that of being able to utilize faith as our operating system. Refer to James 1:21 we have been engrafted with the Truth.

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls."

We have the privilege of choosing Him by FAITH and not by sight. God gave free will because He wants to receive our love and to tabernacle with man. Read Revelation 21:3. In order to tabernacle with His creation, creation had to become unimpeachable. Study the following passages: Ephesians 1:3-14; Ephesians 2:1-10; Ephesians 3:1-21; Philippians 2:1-10 and Colossians 1:10-29.

Free will is a "creation decree" that is often overlooked because we tend to prefer blaming someone or something else for our shortcomings. This tendency has been evident since the beginning of time. Remember Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and the serpent was not given a chance to pass the blame (read Genesis 3). The fact that God did not give the serpent an opportunity to pass the blame is a doctrine in itself. Because of our arrogance the doctrine of free will is difficult to accept. The most common way to look at the operation of free will is to examine the contents of our own hearts. Which of us would prefer a love relationship that is forced as opposed to one that is freely given? The obvious answer is No One. God is sovereign and could have created us to love Him, but He has given us the ability to choose YES or NO.

Now, consider all of the great heroes of the Bible and of modern times, all have fallen short of the Glory of God. Our God is an omniscient God, He was well aware of the fact that He would have to personally reconcile His creation back to Himself, but we had to become aware of that fact. During the "fullness of times," He entered creation. We remember this "great event in time" with our celebration of Christmas. As Christians, we now know that: all creation was created with free will. Free will ultimately will choose against God (only one sin is sufficient to be condemned), creation demanded redemption, from creation redemption had to be eternal and therefore God had to become fully man while being fully God and pay the price for us.

The Old Testament sacrifices were efficient for a moment in time but had no lasting value.

God the Son/Jesus Christ entered His own creation and lived a perfect life as a man so that He qualified to be judged as a man. He chose willingly to be punished, humiliated, tempted and placed on the cross in order to reconcile His creation back to Himself.

Read Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Please note the word gift; I can not buy a gift. Even Christians that have not matured in their relationship with Christ often misunderstand this passage. Even in the secular world, gift is better understood. Webster’s Dictionary defines gift as (1) something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to honor a person or an occasion or to provide assistance; (2) something bestowed or acquired without being sought or earned by the receiver. In exchange for His life, God has given the gift of eternal life. I can not buy it again, with money, emotions, good intentions or any effort on my part, I can only receive it. By receiving it, I am demonstrating that the Object of my faith is Jesus Christ and not something made by the hands of man.

The entire theme of the Bible can be seen in just this one verse.

 A sin is any act or thought that is outside the Will of God, and as you might expect, it is easy to be outside the will of God when you do not know Him. So He has given us His Word, look at Ephesians 4:9-16 for more on this subject. We also learned that God knew that we could not be sinless so He changed the "ledger sheet" and placed all of our sins on Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21) and credited all believers with His Righteousness. Jesus Christ became the Passover Lamb so that we could be set free from ourselves. His life of perfection led Him to the cross in what would have been an illegal death had He not chosen to go for us. Sin brought forth the death sentence. Adam and Eve did not receive the sentence of death until after the Fall in the Garden. Jesus’ perfect life could have prevented His death. However, Jesus made His crucifixion legal by willfully choosing to have all of our sins placed on Him as He hung on the cross for you and me. On the cross, He died for all of the sins (not evil) of the world. John 3:16 is a familiar passage to everyone, we even see it in the end zone shots of televised football games. The Bible has many passages that affirm John 3:16; however for the purpose of this message, read John 6:16-29 to confirm the gift statement.

Once/year we remember Jesus’ love for us by celebrating "Easter." The word "Easter" is found in the Bible only once (Acts 12:4). Easter is derived from the Greek word "pascha" which means the Passover. In this passage, the false king Herod in an effort to please the Jews was determined to kill Peter after Easter (the Passover). We Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first Sunday after Passover and call it Easter. The doctrine of Jesus’ resurrection is a primary doctrine of Christian churches because it is the foundation of the church, we should celebrate it daily and not once/year. The resurrection of Jesus means that His death was acceptable for our sins, His resurrection is a guarantee of our eternal life, His ascension and session on the Heavenly Throne provides our Peace. See Leviticus 16; Psalm 110 and John 14: 1-31.

Jesus endured hunger, discomfort, alienation, the pain of seeing loved ones choose eternal damnation, and the excruciating pain before and on the cross. His life on earth was purposed and He carried out the Father’s Will so that we too could become purposed. Without purpose, we can not weather the storms in our lives. Knowing what we know of the price Christ paid for our freedom, we still tend to choose to compromise our purpose so that we can be "comfortable" (even in harmless areas like being hot in the summer, not having the latest and most fashionable clothing to wear).
Thank God for His Wisdom.
In John 19:30, Jesus used the phrase: "It is finished." This phrase is derived from the Greek word "teleo." Teleo means fulfillment, nothing can be added, eternal completion, the consequences of the cross will acceptable unto eternity. In other words, the cross satisfied the LAW and Revelation 21:3 is a direct consequence of this action. Please remember that our God is Holy, Sovereign, Eternal, Immutable, Omniscient, Omnipresence, and Omnipotent and can not lie:

Just as Truth existed before It was written

God had already finished what He started before He began.

The celebration of Easter is the celebration of what God has done to free us from our condemnation. To earn this freedom for us, Jesus first had to enter creation, live a perfect human life and be willing to accept our sins upon Himself. Compare this with our tendency to blame others for our problems. WOW. When the time came, Jesus also had to endure an illegal trial before being judged with our sins. The trials were illegal because they broke the following Jewish laws:

Trials could not occur at night.

Trials could not occur in the home of the High Priest.

Two or more witnesses did not substantiate the charge.

The charge was altered when presented to Pontius Pilate.

The Sanhedrin were not authorized to investigate charges that they brought forward.

The arrest was made at night.

The Sanhedrin were not authorized to give the death sentence.

Upon completion of the illegal trial, Jesus was beaten with a Roman whip, which was designed to remove flesh and create a tremendous loss of blood. Then He was crowned with a scarlet (representing man’s sins) robe and a crown of thorns (representing the curse as given in Genesis 3). Read Numbers 21 for some background material on the curse. Jesus then had to carry His cross, which weighed in the neighborhood of 100 pounds. Jesus endured all of this, ONCE, so that we would not have to. He has commanded us to understand what He went through for us so that we can love Him personally. He is seeking a personal relationship with you, NOW.