By Christ's Righteousness Alone

" The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.
 So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. 
And in that body God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins " . 
Romans 8 : 3. NLT

God gave His people through Moses instructions and laws regarding the acceptable ceremonial sacrifices for their repentance, proper cleansing, sanctification and for their purification.
 Rejection of God and the rejection and disobedience of His laws is SIN.
The law of God states that " The soul that sinneth, it shall die ..." Ezekiel 18: 20.
 In order to pacify God, the sinners had to make atonement  for their sins through the shedding of blood which was mandatory for the purging and forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22 
Every time they sinned, people had to come to the temple to do ceremonial rituals of cleansing and forgiveness which they were told would make them qualified to become  righteousness before God. 
These rituals had to be performed each and every time by the priests on behalf of sinners as atonement for every sin.They entailed offerings of blood sacrifices for sins through the shedding of the blood of "clean and spotless" animals.
 Leviticus 14:19-20.
Apart from individuals offering sin offerings , the ceremonial laws stated that occasionally , the High Priest  must present blood sacrifices at the altar as national sin offerings on behalf of all the people, in order to take away their collective sin as a nation. Leviticus 4 : 13-21.
These rituals of ending blood sacrifices for sin were burdensome ; and they were not fit for the purpose of permanent remission of sin. 

This was the situation before Christ came to the earth .
Then a more excellent way for the remission of sins was presented to mankind through God's salvation plan  .
God's Salvation Plan was completed and perfected through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God ,whose blood was shed on the cross as the perfect sacrifice once and for all , for the redemption of mankind.

1" But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)  
^12.he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption". 
Hebrew 9 : 11- 12.
God's Salvation plan was born out of God's mercy ,His  love  and grace.
God knew that all man's sacrifices and continuous efforts to make amends for sin could not save man neither could these bestow  mankind with His righteousness.
 Man needed a saviour to stand as the Mediator between sinful man and the wrath of God.

The Mediator who would qualify to do that had  to be sinless and had to be acceptable  to God as a perfect sacrifice for the remission of sins .

Who else qualified for such a huge task than the Jesus Christ the son of God , the spotless lamb of God chosen from the foundation of the world ? 1 Peter 1: 18 -21.
Jesus , came to the earth in human form but He was born without the Adamic seed of sin .John 1:13,14.
But He was made sin for our sakes.  
" For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 
2 Corinthians 5 : 21.
 Therefore Jesus Christ , no man else , qualified  to bear the sins of the world as the sacrificial lamb slain for sinners' sake. , Hebrew 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21
 God saw the sacrifice of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross and God was satisfied and His wrath towards the sinner was pacified. Isaiah 53:10, 11.
God accepted Christ's sacrifice as the perfect offering for the sins of the world.  

"It is finished!" 
After those words were uttered by Christ ,He died on the cross, accomplishing His redemptive mission to the world.  
Christ's sacrifice, once and for all, brought to an end the necessity for all man's efforts and endless works through which no man could achieve God's righteousness and holiness.
  Christ's sacrifice tells us that because "It is finished !", all human reliance on works of outward public shows of penance by putting on ashes and sackcloth , by performing ceremonies of unending animal blood sacrifices , alms giving and all sorts of " holy offerings"are unnecessary.
 Ali works which were supposed to buy God's forgiveness and acceptance, have been rendered  "not fit  for purpose"!, because "It is finished!"

Jesus has paid the price for all sin, for all infirmities, curses, afflictions and oppressions.
Our salvation was perfected  by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
All that is required from all humans for us to accept God's love and obey Him by believing that Jesus died and resurrected for us that we might live eternally.
^" Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; " Hebrew 5:8-9.
Belief in salvation through Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved ; there is no other way to please God.
"Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. 
No one can come to the Father except through me ".
John 14:6.(NLT )
  God's salvation is offered to you full and free.
Today, now ,is your day of salvation.
Please, make a definite confession of faith and acceptance of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour  . 
Do not delay  to accept God's love  and mercy ; the alternative  to rejecting Jesus Christ  is to choose to qualify  for the wrath of God .

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 3:36.

Maybe you have accepted Jesus some time in the past , but  since then you have gone back to trying to please God by your own methods of  attaining " righteousness ". 
Now is the time  to abandon doing it your own way and to believe in God's own perfect way through Jesus Christ. 
There is no alternative , no other way to become righteous before God , no other way to Heaven except through Jesus Christ the son of God.
God bless you as you obey His Word . Amen .
" ⁸ But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
⁹ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
¹¹ For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed ". Romans 10: 8 -12.

Dominion through Worship

" But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  
 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23 - 24

Noah obeyed God and he and his family ,and the other living creatures who went with him into the ark  were the only survivors of the rains and flood  which  destroyed all living beings on earth. Genesis  8 :13 -19. 
When Noah stepped out of the ark  after the flood , he saw the devastation all around him. Destroyed by the flood were his homestead , his livestock and farmland , all his neighbours and friends and the life he had known for decades were all swept away by the great deluge.
The scene before Noah was that of a total wipe out by flood waters with no immediate remedy in sight for Noah and his household .
God saw Noah and his household surveying the devastation all around them .
Then God waited , expecting to see and hear reactions from them .
There were two options before Noah ; either he offered sacrifices of thanksgiving unto God  for sparing his life and for sparing the lives of his family ; or Noah could have chosen the other option which was that Noah and his family could have raised up a huge lament  to God ; bewailing the loss and destruction of their houses , lands ,fields , farms, livestock and other worldly possessions .Noah could have cried out  like this :
" Oh my God ! All we see  every where is muddy , smelly water !
God why did you allow millions of souls to perished here? !
Are you not supposed to be a merciful God ?!
 Everything is gone ; our  homes and land,  our crops  and livestock !
How can we farm and what shall we eat ?!  God?! Can you see us now ?"

 Sacrifice has been aptly described as" the giving up of the indispensable third leg of the stool".
 The heart of men is linked to their worldly treasures which is everything which they hold dear.
 Sacrifice is  that offering which is as special and precious as it is costly to the giver .
The word  "sacrifice", would readily ,come to mind as the giving of spiritual offerings of songs, dancing , of cash or goods to God and the giving of donations  to needy  human beings.
 There are diverse forms of sacrifices in the forms of either spiritual offerings to God or giving something valuable as donations and gifts to help the disadvantaged.
God appreciates all sacrifices which are offerings from genuine hearts
 Usually the poor and the needy would appreciate immediate reliefs and so they would prefer cash donations  to cashless ones. 
Gifts in cash and kind minister to immediate human needs quicker and more effectively than greeting and hugging the poor and the needy  or preaching and singing  to them.
Therefore cashless sacrifices are not accorded the same value and appreciation as those made in monetary forms . 

Sacrifice is not only that offering or donation which is tangible and which is in form of offerings of cash and goods only .  
Offering praise and  prayers  are worthy sacrifices acceptable  to  God so also are

The Just shall live by Faith

" And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. 
And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him,
Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:
And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again ". Mark 10: 32 - 34.
  Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day are the bedrock of the Christian faith and belief in this bedrock is imperative for living a glorious life in Jesus Christ. This is a life-time spent in accepting , believing in and confessing faith in the Salvation Plan of God for all mankind .
 The Salvation Plan of God says : All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3 :20 - 26 .
All men needed a Saviour to take upon Himself the guilt of Man's sin and  without the shedding of blood , there is  no remission of sin . 
Therefore not the blood of goats,calves and bulls was required ; but the perfect  blood sacrifice was the only  blood offering acceptable to God for the remission of sin to effect the salvation of mankind.
 The shedding of the blood of the Spotless Lamb of  God was the perfect blood sacrifice . 
Hebrew 9 : 11 - 15 .
 Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrificial lamb , spotless , holy and acceptable  to God; chosen from the beginning of the world as the Saviour of  mankind, to bear the sins of the world

When Israel sinned by speaking against God and against Moses in the wilderness , God sent fiery serpents into their midst which bit them causing the death of many Israelites.
  Then in their agony and terror , the people raised up a huge outcry to God  for mercy and  deliverance. Numbers 21 :4 - 9. 
 God's answer to their cries and God's solution for their pain and death was based on a simple condition which seemed foolish and hilarious to many of them .
Who amongst them would have thought that the cure and deliverance from death  would be found in no other source but through their faith in staring at the brazen image of the very same dreadful serpent  that was causing so much horror and death in  their midst ?
God told Moses to make a serpent of brass and to set it on a pole and to tell the people that all that was required for the snake bite victims to do was , simply , to believe that they would be saved from death by lifting up their eyes to gaze at the serpent of brass lifted up on a pole.  
Those who survived the terrible ordeal were those victims who had a child-like faith in this solution and they looked at the  brazen fiery serpent hanging on the pole .  
But those who perished were the disputers who despised and rejected this God-given solution; by dismissing it as "foolish , unreasonable and unscientific " .
Incidentally , even today , that same symbol of the serpent on a pole is the world-wide symbol of the Medical Profession . 

In the days of Christ , the cross was a dreadful symbol of a very shameful and painful death .  
Spiritually, the Jews regarded death on the cross as an abominable death .
 Any one who was crucified was regarded as a cursed person . Deuteronomy 21: 22-23.
The occupying Roman government used the cruel punishment of death by crucifixion  to make a public example of hardened criminals and the Jewish dissidents who rose up to rebel against Roman  occupation and forced rule of Israel.
  Therefore the sight of Jesus Christ  hanging on the cross in great agony like a common criminal was a very painful and shameful  one for His family and disciples to behold. Galatians 3 :13,14.
 Hours after the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and He was confirmed dead and His body was removed from the cross , He was buried and His body was sealed up in a cave , heavily guarded by Roman soldiers to ensure that the grave of the Saviour of the world remained sealed , permanently. Matthew 27: 62 - 66.
There was great jubilation in the camp of  Jesus' enemies both on earth and in the Satanic realm because they thought Jesus Christ had been silenced for ever.
When Jesus died on the cross and was buried, the events were witnessed by His mother and some of His disciples; that is those ones who did not go into hiding after Jesus was arrested..
John 19:25 -27, 38- 42 .
Most of  Jesus' disciples and followers had come  to believe that Jesus was the Messiah
 indeed ; because of His miracles , His teachings and His promises of eternal life .
The  fear , despair and grief of Jesus' mother , family and friends must have  been great  because before their eyes was the finality of Jesus' death on the cross and of His burial in a heavily-guarded and sealed grave.  
They too must have thought it was all over and finished indeed.
  " It is finished !" John 19 : 30.
. " He  paid  the debt He did not owe.
I owed the debt I couldn't pay ;
I needed someone to wash my sins away 
And now I sing a brand new song ! 
Amazing Grace !
Lord Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay !" 

Christ  was the rejected stone which was despised and set aside as nothing  by the " expert builders" of this world . He was the rejected stone which has become the head stone , indeed the Chief Corner Stone. 
There is  no salvation in any other name but the name of Jesus Christ and there is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. Acts 4 :11 - 12.
 Just as the brazen serpent was lifted up on the pole for the dying victims to look at it and to live ; so also is the belief in the crucified , dead , buried and resurrected Christ the only way to eternal life .  John 3 : 13 -18.
Faith in the redemptive blood of Jesus and His finished work on the cross is what justifies a sinner  before God.
This Faith is upheld and built  not only upon the words of our confessing that "Jesus is Lord !";  but on the Belief that Jesus is Lord and Saviour who is able  to deliver to the uttermost ,  all the days of our lives on earth and that Jesus is the giver of eternal life 
 " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, 
The just shall live by faith ". Romans 1:16,17.