There is a story told about the famous Cardinal Bellarmine, the great Catholic apologist who all his life fought the message of justification by an imputed righteousness alone. As he lay dying, he was brought the crucifixes and the merits of the saints to help give him assurance before death. But Bellarmine said, “Take it away. I think it’s safer to trust in the merits of Christ.”

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For many people as they near the end of their lives, they look back and see how vain, how futile, how useless their deeds and their works are for earning salvation with a holy God, and thus how much they need the righteousness of Christ.

Yet the good news is that we don’t have to wait for the approach of death to have security in the Lord now. The whole covenant is based on the secure promises of God now, promises for us now, promises that can make our life better now.

Look up the following verses and answer the question asked with each one in the context of developing, keeping, and strengthening your covenant relationship with God:

Psalm 34:8 (How can you taste God’s goodness?)

Matthew 11:30 (What is it about what Christ has done for us that makes this yoke easy?)

Romans 5:1 (What does justification have to do with peace?)

Philippians 2:7-8 (What have you gained from Christ’s experience?)

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. Psalm 25:14 NLT

We’ve all heard it said, parents and teachers cannot be friends with their children. They have to be disciplinarians instead. I saw a meme on Facebook where a mother was telling her child, “I am not your friend. I will discipline you when you need it. I will always be watching you and needing to know where you are every second.” To me, that sounds exactly like a friend! When talking about parents and teachers being friends with their kids, maybe we just need a broader view of friendship. There is more to being friends than going shopping or golfing together and then out to eat.  Actually I have many friends with whom I have never done any of those things. To me, the discipline and accountability all fall under friendship. 

A friend of mine in Texas summed it up wisely I believe. She said, “While I can’t be friends with my child who is rebellious, I can be friends with my child who is obedient.” Of course I still believe she was being a real friend by disciplining her child who was rebellious. Even so I appreciate the point that she made that a parent and teacher can be friends with an obedient child. As the psalm above tells us, that the Lord is a friend to those who fear (respect) Him. I understand that the goal of the covenant He teaches us is friendship.

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The goal of the atonement is friendship. The goal of the covenant is friendship. While I have never had children of my own, I have had countless students over the years in the Adventist schools where I have helped out. Disciplining children to learn has opened my eyes to my own teachers so long ago. The teacher who I despised for making me stay after school to get my work done I now see was truly my friend. At dismissal time she could have told herself that she had done all she was paid to do and gone on about her day, but instead she gave up her own time to make me succeed. It did not matter to her that it made me upset with her. She cared so much about my future successes that she was willing to make me hate her if that is what it took for me to succeed. Now that is what I call a real friend! 

Now as a teacher and mentor,  I often have to be the “enemy” when I am really being a friend. As a matter of fact, as I was just now writing this, it occurred to me that if a child is set on self-destruction then, in their mind, I really am their enemy by foiling their self-destruction. Even so, in my mind I am still being a friend. I am at peace with the fact that there are several young people out there who consider me an enemy because I held them accountable to be their best. At the same time, while gift cards and treats are nice during teacher appreciation week, nothing is more meaningful to me than when years later former students call me up or even send a text, asking me a Bible question or sharing a prayer request. Sometimes they will share a warm memory assuring me my time and efforts were worthwhile. Even though I have never “hung out” with them, even so with all the time spent in the classroom together I still consider them my friends. The fact that they contact me years later when they have a need tells me they consider me a friend. Again there is a lot more to friendship than golfing and sharing nachos together. 

When I study the covenant I see that Jesus is interested in my friendship. If I am respectful and obedient I am more than His servant. I am His friend.

You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. John 15:14-15 NLT 

Amen!(1)

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Looking again at Genesis 15:6, we can see that various translations have rendered the term counted (Hebrew, chashab) or “reckoned” or “credited” (RSV, NIV) or “accounted.” (NKJV)

The same term is employed in other texts in the books of Moses. A person or a thing is “reckoned” or “regarded” as something that person or thing is not. For instance, in Genesis 31:15, Rachel and Leah affirm that their father “reckons” (“regards” or “counts”) them as strangers, although they are his daughters. The tithe of the Levite is “reckoned” (“regarded” or “counted”) as though it were the corn of the threshing floor, although it is obviously not the corn (Num: 18:27, Num 18:30, NIV).

How is the idea of reckoning expressed in the context of sacrifices? (Leviticus 7:18, Leviticus 17:1-4).

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The King James Version uses the word imputed to translate chashab. If a particular sacrifice (“peace offering”) is not eaten by the third day, its value is lost, and it shall not be “reckoned” (Leviticus 7:18; Hebrew, chashab) to the benefit of the offerer. Leviticus 7:18 speaks of a situation in which a sacrifice is “reckoned” to the benefit of the sinner (compare Leviticus 17:1-4) who then stands before God in righteousness. God is accounting the sinner as righteous, although the individual is actually unrighteous.

Take some time to dwell on this wonderful truth that we, despite our faults, can be accounted, or credited, as righteous in the sight of God. Write out in your own words your understanding of what this means.

The great truth, that of being declared righteous, not because of any act that we can do but only because of faith in what Christ has done for us, this is the essence of the phrase “righteousness by faith.” Yet, it is not that our faith itself makes us righteous; rather, faith is the vehicle by which we obtain the gift of righteousness. This, in essence, is the beauty, the mystery, and the glory of Christianity. All that we believe as Christians, as followers of Christ, finds an important root in this wonderful concept. Through faith, we are accounted righteous in the sight of God. All else that follows; obedience, sanctification, holiness, character development, love, should stem from this crucial truth.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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“He believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

This verse remains one of the most profound statements in all Scripture. It helps establish the crucial truth of biblical religion, that of justification by faith alone, and it does this long centuries before Paul wrote about it in Romans. All of which helps prove the point that from Eden onward, salvation always came the same way.

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The immediate context of the verse helps us understand just how great Abram’s faith was, believing in God’s promise of a son despite all the physical evidence that would seem to make that promise impossible. It is the kind of faith that realizes its own utter helplessness, the kind of faith that demands a complete surrender of self, the kind of faith that requires a total submission to the Lord, the kind of faith that results in obedience. This was the faith of Abram, and it was counted to him “as righteousness.”

Why does the Bible say that it was “counted to” him or “credited to” him as righteousness? Was Abram himself “righteous” in the sense of God’s righteousness? What did he do, not long after God declared him righteous, that helps us understand why this righteousness was credited to him, as opposed to what he himself actually was?

However much Abram’s life was a life of faith and obedience, it was not a life of perfect faith and perfect obedience. At times he displayed weakness in both areas. (Does that sound like anyone you know?) All of which leads to the crucial point, and that is: the righteousness that saves us is a righteousness that is credited to us, a righteousness that is (to use a fancy theological term) imputed to us. This means that we are declared righteous in the sight of God, despite our faults; it means that the God of heaven views us as righteous even if we are not. This is what He did with Abram, and this is what He will do to all who come to Him in “the faith of Abraham” (Romans 4:16).

Read Romans 4:1-7. Look at the context in which Paul uses Genesis 15:6. Pray over those verses and write out in your own words what you believe they are saying to you.

<–Monday Wednesday–>

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Key Thought: In the covenants, blood was shed for sin. Jesus paid the debt owed to the law, so we can stand righteous in the sight of God.
June 19, 2021

1. Have a volunteer read I Peter 1:18,19.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
2. What does it mean to be ransomed?
3. Personal Application: Are you saved? How do you know you are saved? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states, “If we are saved only by a credited righteousness, not something that exists within us, then it doesn’t matter what we do or how we act.” How would you respond to your friend?

2. Have a volunteer read Genesis 15:6.

1. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
2. Was Abraham’s righteousness in the sense of God’s righteousness?
3. Personal Application: What did Abraham do that helps us understand why this righteousness was credited to him, opposed to what he actually was? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your friends states, “So if God credits everyone with righteousness because of Christ’s life and death; then the Universalists are correct that everyone will eventually be saved.” How would you respond to your friend?

3. Have a volunteer read Leviticus 7:18, 17:1-4.

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. How is the idea of reckoning, counted, or regarded used when referred to sacrifices?
3. Personal Application: Despite our faults, sins, and shortcomings, Jesus accounts us as righteous in God’s sight. How does that fact affect your response to Jesus in your life? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: One of your relatives states: “The Bible says is we confess, God will forgive us. But I don’t feel forgiven, nor do I feel like I am righteous. I still have the same flaws and make the same mistakes.“ How would you respond to your relative?

4. Have a volunteer read Galatians 3:11..

1. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
2. Why is no man justified by the law in the sight of God?
3. Personal Application: What is the difference between a living faith and a dead faith? What does faith involve? Share your thoughts.
4. Case Study: Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.

(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared.”Ministry of Healing, p. 148).

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