kenneth e hagin - leaflet - understanding righteousness

7/25/2019 Kenneth E Hagin - Leaflet - Understanding Righteousness

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UNDERSTANDING

RIGHTEOUSNESS

— by Kenneth Hagin

I Timothy 6:1212. Fight the good fight of faith.,

The faith fight is the only fight that theChristian is called upon to fight. If we're in anyother kind of fight, we're in the wrong fight.We might as well stop it , get out of it rightnow, and get in the right fight.

If there is a fight to faith, then there haveto be enemies, or hinderances to faith—elsewisethere wouldn't be any fight to it. You can't ve rywell have a fight without an enemy.

Romans 10:1717. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing bythe word of God.

A lack of knowledge of God's Word is thegreatest hinderance there is to faith—becausefaith come s by hear ing and hearing by theWord of God. Very often individuals pray forfaith when really it's knowledge they need,for faith is the "concomitant" of knowledge.It is that which "accompanies" knowledge.If you have knowledge of God's Word, youhave faith. Really you could pray for faithfor eve r, but you would never get it unles syou got knowledge of God's Word—for faithcometh by hearing and hearing by the Word

of God.And so, we'll investigate one of these hinderances in connection with the lack of knowledgeof God's Word which hinders our faith—thelack of understanding "righteousness".

James 5:16-1816. Confess your faults one to another, and pray onefor another, that ye may be healed. The effectualfervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.17. Elias (Elijah) was a man subject to like passionsas we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might notrain: and it rained not on the earth by the space ofthree years and six months.18. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain,

and the earth brought forth her fruit.

This passage states the prayer of a "righteous" man availeth much. A lack of understanding "righteousness" (what it is—and what itgives) holds more people in bondage, I think

personally, than perhaps anything else. In myopinion, this is one of the most misunderstoodsubjects in the Bible.

Romans 10:1010. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness....

Romans 5:1717. For if by one man's offence death reigned byone; much more they which receive abundance ofgrace and of the gift of righteousness shall reignin life by one, Jesus Christ.

Notice that Paul makes two significant s tatements in these verses about righteousness.

1. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.

2. We have received of the "gift" of righteousness.

Righteousness, he said, is a gift. Too manytimes , we associa te righteousn ess with goodworks. The Bible teaches good works and rightconduct, of course , but all of our good works and

all of our right conduct would never make usrighteous. Man could never become righteousby his good works or because of his rightconduct , because if that would do it then hewouldn't ne.ed Jesus.

But, you see, we've thought that a "righteous"person is something that maybe you "grow"into. We think, "If I could ever get to be arighteous man, my prayers would work." Andwe have rationalized, "If we could develop tosom e stat e of spiritual development, then wewould be righteous."

Well, thank God, we can grow in the Lord and

we can deve lop spiritual ly, but did you knowyou cannot grow in righteousness? You willnever be any more righteous than you areright now. You'll not be any more righteouswhen you get to heaven than you are rightnow—this very moment.

Published by: Kenneth E. Hagin Evangelistic AssociationPost Office Box 50126, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74150



This is one thing that hindered my faith.This very thing—a lack of understanding aboutrighteousness—almost cost me my physicallife. It almost caused me to die prematurely.

On the bed of affliction, over thirty yearsago, when five doctors had given me up to die,I began to read the Bible. I knew if there wasany help for me it had to be in God's Word andmy spirit kept telling me that I didn't have todie . (You se e, your spirit will know things thatyour head doesn't know, particularly if yourspirit has been born of God.) My heart—something on the inside of me— told me that there washope and help for me in God's Word. And so,I got into the Word with an open mind and I beganto see some things about faith and prayer.

I got over to the 11th chapter of Mark andread there those great statements that fell fromthe lips of Jesus regarding faith where He said,"...whosoever shal l say unto thi s mountain, Bethou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; andshall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe thatthose things which he saith shall come to pass;he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I

say unto you, What things soever ye desire, whenye pray, bel ieve that ye re ce iv e them, and yeshall have them* (Mark 11:23-24).

My spirit leaped with joy within me! PraiseGod!

I was so thr illed I decided to run a ref ere nceon the scriptures pertaining to faith and prayer.This brought me to the 5th chapter of James:

James 5:14-1514. Is any sick among you? let him call for theelders of the church; and let them pray over him,anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:15, And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,

and the Lord shall raise him up; (heal him) andif he have committed- sins, they shall be forgivenhim.

When I read about calling in the elders of th<_church I thought you had to do that to be healed.(You don't have to, you just can.) Tears leapedto my eyes and I began to cry, because there wasno one to call in and I thought I had to do thi s.

But the Holy Spirit is our teacher, praise theLord! And He called something to my attention.(When I say the Holy Spirit spoke to me , I meanit se emed as though someone spoke up from onthe inside of me in my spirit.)

He said, "Did you notice that verse said, 'theprayer of faith shall sav e the sic k' ?"

I looked at it again and I said, "Well, yes,that's what it says. It does say that."

And that voice within said, "You can praythat prayer as well as anyone can."

I began to see it! I began to beli eve it!

But you see, when I read further about the"effectual fervent prayer of a righteous manavailing (working) much," the devil (because heknew I didn't know what righteousness i s norwhat it gives ) took advantage of my lack ofunderstanding: that to defeat me.

He said to me, (and when I say Satan said tome, it was just like a voice speaking in my mind)"Well, yes, you could pray that prayer of faithalright, if you were righteous. But you see itsays right - here, 'The effectual fervent prayerof a r ighteous man avail eth much.' If you wererighteous you could do that. You could pray theprayer of faith and receive your healing."

Notice, he didn't contradict what was saidto me, nor did he say, "You can't pray thepraye r of faith," bec ause I bel ieved I could.But he went another way and, of course, when hesaid what he did he reminded me oTall of myown mis tak es and faults and fai lur es. He broughta mental picture of them right up before me.

He knew I didn't know what right eousness isand he knew I didn't know what it gives. I thoughtthat righteousness was some kind of a spiritual

state that you might eventually attain throughspiritual growth. But I knew I just wasn't there.You see , the devil asked me , "Are you

righteous?" Not knowing what it is, I said, "No,I'm not." As I looked at myself from the naturalstandpoint, I wasn't what I at that time consideredrighteous—I was far from it.

So, you see , by accepting what the devil said,I just simply permitted him (because of the lackof understanding r igh teousne ss) to rob me of theblessings God intended I should have right then.

I reasoned to myself like this, "Well, if I just don't die. If I can just live long enough to

grow enough to develop enough spiritually toever get to be righteou s." I said to myself, "IfI eve r get to be righteous, I'll sure be a 'whiz'when it comes to praying." But I laid it asidebecause I was just sure I wasn't righteous.

Thi s all happened over a per iod of months,not just a few days or a few ho urs . One day as Iwas reading , "Elijah was a man subject to likepass ions ," I thought, "I bel ieve I'll just go backand check up on that dude. If he 's giving him as anexample of praying and getting res ul ts , I canfollow his example and get results. He's givenhim as an example of a righteous man."

So I went back and began to read up on him.And the more I read about him, the more he reminded me of myself. Then I remembered thatthat's what James said. James said, "He's aman, (Elias or Elijah) subject to like passions aswe are ." James was comparing Elijah with him sel f and the Christians he was writ ingto. He said,

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"He's just a man like us , subject to like pass ionsas we are."

The devi l had said to me , "Now you're notrighteous and you couldn't get your prayersanswered. You know you got mad and knocked thetray off the bed. That's no way for a righteousman to act is it?"

Well now here was Elijah subject to likepas sio ns as we are . He had his great moments .He'd prayed and shut up the heavens for threeye ars and si x months, he'd had the contest with

the prophets of Baal and had prayed the f iredown, then he'd prayed fhe rain down— prais eGod! The Spirit of God came on him then andhe outran the king's chariot fourteen milesacross the plains of Jezreel. He had his highmoments.

But, when he got to Jezreel, somebodytold him, "Jezebel said that she's going to haveyour head off by this time tomorrow." He'dhad all the 450 prophets of Baal slain; theirheads cut off. And so Jezebel was going tohave his head.

He started running again. Now the first

time he ran those fourteen miles across theplains of Jazree l the hand of the Lord wason him. But this time he started runningthere wasn't any hand of the Lord on him.It was just Elijah running, and he ran untilhe gave out. He climbed up under a junipertree and said, "Lord, just let me die."

He really didn't want to die. If he didwhy didn't he just stay where he was? He'dhave been dead by that time. They would havealready had his head off by then. If he hadreally wanted to die he could have just stayedwhere he was. Why run and give out and then

die? No, he didn't really want to die any morethan you did when you said , "I might as wellbe dead." Or -than I did. You s ee , he was a mansubject to like passions as we are.

The more I read about him the more hereminded me of myself—sort of double talksometim es—mistak en ideas—you could see hisshortcomings, mistakes. And I said, "He's notmy idea of a righteous man." (But that's wherewe get into trouble—substituting our ideas forGod's Word.) "How in the world could God callhim righteous?" I wondered.

Elijah went on to say, "Now, Lord, you mightas wel l let me die . I'm the only one left anyhow.Everybody else is backslidden but me."

(You know, you run into those kind of folkstoday. "Nobody but me has anything—just me andmy l itt le bunch." I'm so glad that's not the truth,aren't you? But in spite of all their mistakenideas they can still be righteous in the sight of

God. Hallelujah! And they get answers to prayer. )"Yes," Elijah said, "I'm the only one left,

everybody's backslidden but me. Everybody'sbowed their knee to Baal except me."

God had to c orrect him on that and said, "No,no, I have sev en thousand reserve d unto mysel fwho have not bowed their knees to Baal."

How could God call Elijah righteous? Howcould James inspired by the Holy Spirit givethis man as an example of a righteous manpraying? I just wondered about that and Ibegan to check into it.

I found out that the 32nd Psalm says:

Psalm 32:1-21. Blessed Is he whose transgression is forgiven,whose sin is covered.2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord im-puteth not iritiquity...,

I found out that in the ca se of the OldTestament saints God had set up a sy stemwhereby the blood of innocent animals could beshed which would cover their si ns and He didnot impute iniquity unto them. He imputed

righteousness unto them. That i s , He "counted"them as being righteous.Then, when I got over to the New Testament,

I began to se e that the Bible say s we have abetter covenant established on better promises.(See Hebrews 8:6.) We have thought and said,"Our sins are covered." But really our sinsaren't covere d. The New Testament say s weare cleansed from sin. Cleansed—Hallelujah—by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!

II Corinthians 5:1717. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is anew creature: old things are passed away; behold,'all things are become new.

n Corinthians 5:2121. For he hath made him (i. e. , God has made Him,Jesus) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we mightbe made the righteousness of God in him.

Did you notice the phrases "in Christ" and"in Him" in each of these v er se s? In Christ webecome a new creat ure (vs. 17). In Him we havebecome the right eousness of God (vs. 21).Hallelujah!

You, when you were born again into Christ,became a new man, a new creature, in ChristJe su s! You know as wel l as I know that Godnever made an "unrighteous" new cre ature. Thatwould be an insult to the work of God.

Romans 10:10, quoted earlier in this lesson,says , "...with the heart man believeth untorighteousne ss. .." How does a man get there?He believes unto righteousness! Hallelujah!



Romans 5:17 tells us that we have receivedof abundance of grace and of the "gift* ofrighteousness. Glory! Righteousness is a gift!

And when you were born again, you bec ame anew man in Christ Jesus and were made therighteousness of God in Him! Hallelujah!

I was teaching along this same line severalyea rs ago in Scranton, Pennsylvania in one ofthe Full Gospel churches ther e. The pastor hadmade mention of the fact that the Superintendentof the Sunday School was really the mostspiri tual man that he had ever pas tored.

This man worked the evening shift so heattended the day se rv ic es where he sa t on thefront seat eve ry morning taking note s. I knewfrom what the pastor had said that everyoneconsidered this man to be the most dedicated,spiritual Christian in the whole church.

One morning (I wanted to illustrate that mostfolks don't know what righteo usness is) I suddenlystopped and said to him, "Are you righteous?"

He said, "I'm trying to be.""Now I'm not trying to be vulgar," I said

to him, "but are you a man or a woman?"

"I'm a man," he said."How did you get that way?" I asked.He answered, "I was born that way."I said, "That's the way you get righteous!"That's the way you get to be righteous. You're

born that way. Praise God! Peter you remembersaid, "As newborn babes desire the sincere milkof the Word that you may grow thereby." Thatlittle newborn babe is just as right eous in thesight of God as the older saints who have beenliv ing for God for 50 or 60 year s and are fullof good works and right conduct. And that newbornbabe can get his or her prayer heard just as

quickly as the older saint—because righteousness means right standing with God!

That's what it means—right standing withGod! And, you see, we have the right standingwith God not because of what we did butbecause of what Jesus did!

It's a gift! Receive the gift! We have receive dthe gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus. Andyou se e that newborn babe in Christ has justas good a standing with God as the old saint whohas been living for God for many yea rs . Andyou can see this, that you'll not have any betterstanding, any more right standing, with God

when you get to heaven then you have rightnow. Hallelujah!

Now you know that's difficult for folks toaccept. Yet, if they' ll just bel iev e what theBible says, the scriptures that we've laid outhere you've got to believe it. We get fouled upwith "religious teachings" sometimes instead

of actual scriptural New Testament teachings.Let's read again II Corinthians 5:21. "For he

hath made him (Jesus ) to be sin for us , whoknew no sin...."

Now I believe that part of that verse istrue, don't you?

I've tested people and said, "How many ofyou beli eve that's true, that part of that verse ?"Everybody lifted their hand.

Then I would read the last part of the sameve rs e, "...that we might become the right eousness of God in Christ." And I would say to them,

"Therefore, we ar e, I am and you are, we arethe righteo usnes s of God in Chris t. How many ofyou believe that's true?"

The biggest majority of the time, you couldn'tget half of them to lift a hand on the last part. Andyet , if one half of that ve rs e is true , the other halfis true too. God made a provis ion for us thatbelongs to us—and we need to realize it is ours!

Let' s read together now from the book ofRomans.

Romans 3:21-2621 . But now the righteousness of God (remember

that II Cor. 5:21 said we are made the righteousnessof God in Him) without the law is manifested, beingwitnessed by the law and the prophets;22 . Even the righteousness of God which is by faithof Jesus Christ nntn all and upon all them that believe:(Glory Hallelujah! That sets something dancing on theinside of me. Glory!) for there is no difference:23. For all have sinned, and come short of the gloryof God; (sure we have)24 . Being justified freely by his grace through theredemption that is in Christ Jesus:25 . Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiationthrough faith in his blood, to declare his righteousnessfor the remission of sins that are past, throughthe forbearance of God;

26. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness:that he might be just, and the justifier of him whichbelieveth in Jesus.

Another translation reads on the 26th verse(because the same Greek word is used whichcan be translated "just" or "righteous"): "...thathe might be righteous, and the righteousness ofhim which believeth in Jesus."

Romans 5:17-1817. For if by one man's offence (He's talking aboutAdam's sin in the beginning.) death reigned by one;(Because of Adam's offence or sin , spiritual death—he's not talking about physical death—Satan, through

spiritual death reigned.) much more they which receiveabundance of grace and of the gift of righteousnessshall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment cameupon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one (That's Jesus and His righteousness.) thefree gift came upon all men unto justification of life.(Or, the Greek word is the same, unto righteousnessof life.)



19. For as by one man's disobedience many weremade sinners, so by the obedience of one shall manybe made righteous. (Hallelujah!)20. Moreover the law entered, that the offence mightabound. But where sin abounded, grace did muchmore abound:

21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even somight grace reign through righteousness unto eternallife by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now going back to the 17th verse, we havereceived of abundance of grace and of the giftof righteousness. Righteousness, then, is a gift.

Righ teousness is right standing with God. That 'swhat it is!What does it give? In the 17th ve rs e we read,

"... they which rec ei ve abundance of grace and ofthe gift of righteousness shall reign in life—"Shall reign—shall re ign in life—this life— thislife right here!

One of our great troubles is that we want todelegate everything to the future and not havemuch right now. Did you ever think about theson gs we sing? You know like "When We AllGet To Heaven." Well, thank God, we're goingto get there and that's going to be wonderful

but we don't have to wait till we get there fora lot of things. Pr ai se God, we can have themnow. And, thank God, we will reign with Christout yonder . But we don't have to wait ti ll thento start reigning. The Amplified translation says,"reign as kings." Where are we going to reig n askings? He said right here, "Shall reign in life."In life—in life—in this life! How? By JesusChrist!

Paul used this illustr ation bec ause in the dayin which he lived, they had kings. We don'thave many kings today, if so, they don't havemuch authority or power. But in those days,

many nations had kings and the king wouldreign over his particular domain. His wordwas the final authority. Whatever he says goes.He's reigning. Well, the Word says that weshall reign in life, by Christ Jesus.

Now why can we do that? Because we havebeen made the r igh teousn ess of God in Christ.Jes us who is righteous became our righ teou sne ss . Our standing with God is sec ure . T her efore, we can stand in the pres enc e of God asthough we had never done wrong. We can stand inthe presence of God as though we had neversinned. We can stand in the presence of Godwithout a sense of condemnation or a spiritualinferiority complex.

No wonder in the book of Hebrews it says," Let u s come boldly to the throne of grace thatwe may obtain mer cy and find grace to help inthe time of need." We can come boldly to thethrone of God! It's all because of Je sus, isn't it?

Then too, in this life, we run up againstSatan everywh ere on every side . In II Cor inthians 4:4 Paul says that Satan is the god ofthis world. But you see, we can stand in thepresence of Satan, right before him, withoutfear . He can't condemn us. Hallelujah! Whenyou know the truth, you can stand in the pre senceof Satan with authority that gives you dominionover the devil and demons and disease becauseyou know that you stand in Jesus. Hallelujah!Satan knows that.

In my own particu lar ca se, when I began tose e th is , I knew that Satan had defeated mebec ause of my lack of knowledge and I beganto say , "I am the righteousness of God in Chri st.I am that righteous man that James was talkingabout where he said the effectual fervent prayerof a righteous man availeth much."

Earl ier I had said, "If I ever get to beright eou s, I'll be a whiz at praying." So Iwrote in my Bible way back there on the bedof affliction beside this vers e, "I am a whizin prayer."

And you are too, real ly . If you just knew it

and would take advantage of it. Sometimespeople think things are just going to workautomatically. But something can actually beyours spiritually, just like it can in the natural,and if you don't know it, it won't profit youanything. It is knowledge acted upon that bringsresults.

Wouldn't it be foo lish for us to come intoa dark room and grope around in the dark,finally find a chair and sit down and say,"I wonder why the l ights don't come on?"Sometimes people are just as stupid when itcomes to spiritual things. They say, "Well,

now if that's so why don't I have it . If thatbelongs to me why don't I have it?"

You see, it ia._ when somebody acts on whatthey know that the lights come on. It's whensomebody finds out where the switch is andturns them on. And when you find out whatGod's Word sa ys and act on what yu i know,that's when you get results!

Now take your place in Christ Jesus—Hallelujah—and know this. When you know thisyou won't have to be running around to getsomebody el se to do your praying for you.

You'll know this, that He will hear you just asquickly as He will hear the other fellow. Hewill hear you pray because you have just asgood a standing with God as the other fellow has.

Sometimes people think, "God will hear himbecause he's a preacher; or minister; or pastor;or an evangelis t. God wil l hear him but Hewouldn't hear me." No, that evangelist, or that



pastor, or that minister, doesn't have any betterstanding with God than you have. He just has aduty that you don't have; a responsibility thatyou don't have. That responsibility and that dutywhich he has doesn't make him any more righteous or less righteous; or give him any betterstanding with God; or cause God to hear him prayand answer his prayer any quicker then He'll hearyour prayers.

You see, God doesn't love one member of Hisbody, the body of Christ, more than He lovesanother member . No matter if they are pas tor s orevangelists. We've got all kinds of wrong ideas

about it. You know, "If I could just get So-and-Soto pray it would work because he' s a rea l man ofGod." No, he may have learned how to takeadvantage of what belongs to him a litt le bitbetter than you have, but he's not any morerighteous than you are. And God won't hear himpray any quicker then He'll hear you pray.

I'm thoroughly convinced in my own spi rit thatthere is going to arise in these last days, bandsof believers, groups of them, here and there,who are going to learn how to take their placein Chri st and who they are and what they ar e.And you talk about prayer warriors, and you

talk about the prayer life, and you talk aboutgetting results—they are going to get them. Ibel ieve that. I'm thoroughly convinced of thatmyself. They won't have to be dependent on so mebody else to do their praying for them and to getanswers for them.

God will hear you! It's difficult for us a lotof times because in our churches we've beentrained c ert ain ways and we leave it up to thepastor to do al l the praying. But when you gainan understanding of what righteousness is andwhat it me ans, then you wi ll be able to step outof the narrow place of theology in which you havelived unto the boundless fullness of God! Hallelujah!

Now som e folks sa y, "I can se e from t hisscripture that we've received remission fromsin s that are past, and have rec eived the gift ofrighteousness, and that we are made a righteousnew creature, but now what about those sins andwrong doings since I've bec ome a Christian?"

After I'd learned these facts from the Biblethat's how Satan defeated me a lit tle whilelonger. He said, "Oh, yes , yes , that's right."(He wouldn't dispute it because the Word is true,

and he knew I had found it out.) "Yes , that's right,you were made a new creature in Christ and Goddidn't make an unrighteous new creature--butnow it is since you have been saved that you'vegotten angry and lost your temper and knocked thetray off the bed and so on. It's since then."

So he had me hung up for a little bit longerbecause I felt so badly beca use I'd missed itsin ce I had become a Chris tian. Have you missedit since you've become a Christian? Have you,since you've been saved, born again, become achild of God, never failed, never sinned, nevermissed it?

Wel l, I began to look at the Word again andI found that verse in First John.

I John 1:99. If we confess our s ins, he is faithful and justto forgive us our s ins , and to cleanse us from allunr ighteousne ss.

John wasn't writing to sinners here, hewas writing to Christians because he said,"My l itt le children, thes e things I write untoyou, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, wehave an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christthe righteous: And he is the propitiation forour si ns : and not for ours only, but also for thesins of the whole world (I John 2:1-2).

When a man sins, he is under condemnationand he loses his sense of righteousness. But,when he con fe ss es , "I have sinned, I have failedGod, forgive me Lord, in Je sus name," the

Lord does two things . If He just forgave himhis sin it wouldn't help him much because hewould still be under condemnation. But, according to I John 1:9, He (1) forgives us of oursins, and (2) cleanses us.

What does He cleanse us from? All unrighte ousness. _AU unrighteousne ss! Part of ourunrighteouness? No, all of it.

•Unrighteousness is just simp ly the wordrig hte ous ness with the prefix "un". Un-right-eousness , non-righteous. If I am cleansed fromunrighteousness or non-righteousness, or notrighteousness, then I am righteousness again!Hallelujah!

So I came back to the devil with that andput him on the run and he's been runningever since. Up till I found that out everytimethe devil met me he'd put me on the run. Andif I saw the devil anywhere you know, manI'd cross the street in the middle of the blockto keep from meeting him. I'd go down the backalley just so I wouldn't run into him. (I'mspeaking figuratively , you understand.) Ifhe popped hi s head up or cropped up anywhere, brother I was ready to turn and run.

But, after I found out who I am in Christ J esus ,praise God, I just almost invited the boy tocome by my house. Amen! If I could see him,I'd just go ahead right on mee ting him and he'sthe one who turned and ran—because he foundout I knew what the Word said!

This lesson is also available on cassette, HC-119 "Understanding Righteousness*Regular Price - $4.00

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kenneth e hagin - leaflet - understanding righteousness

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