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10 of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;

 

The second area by which the Holy Spirit convicts the world is “righteousness.”

10 of righteousness,

The standard for acceptance into heaven is God’s very own righteousness, which is absolute or perfect righteousness. If God were to receive anyone into His presence with even a fleeting sin, He would compromise His own character. He would be inconsistent with Himself.

Thus, God’s righteousness is the standard for going to heaven. This is the argument of Romans 3 through chapter 5. When people attempt to please God by their own righteousness, they fail to accept the central reason Jesus came—to pay for sin and to declare the person who believes this as righteous as God is righteous. By this God maintains consistency with His own character. He is “the just, and justifier of them which have faith in Jesus” (Ro 3:26).

because I go to My Father

The issue of Jesus going back to the Father relates to whether the Father would accept the sacrifice our Lord made on the cross. By Jesus presenting His righteousness to the Father, He reversed man’s failure to measure up to God’s righteousness and vindicated those who go to heaven based on His righteousness (Mt 5:20; Ro 10:3; Php 3:6-9; Ti 3:5).

The resurrection and ascension vindicated the righteousness of Christ. The Father justly welcomed Him back into His presence. The Father did not compromise His righteousness by receiving the One who bore the sins of the world. This was the Father’s justification of Jesus’ work on earth. The resurrection and ascension validated His offer of salvation to the world from the Father’s perspective. The ascension of Christ declared that righteousness was available to anyone who believes in Jesus.

It is the Spirit’s role to convince the world that Jesus met all the demands of God’s absolute righteousness. He revealed that point after the crucifixion of Jesus paid for the sins of the world.

and you see Me no more;

Once Jesus went back to the Father, He would no longer minister among the apostles. They would no longer see His corporeal body.

PRINCIPLE:

The Father accepted the righteousness of Christ as the basis for anyone who believes in Him to enter heaven.

APPLICATION:

God’s righteousness is absolute; man’s righteousness is relative. Since God is an absolute being and not finite, He can only accept perfect righteousness into His presence. Jesus established our righteousness and declared those who believe on Him to be as righteous as He is righteous.

It is the ministry of the Spirit to convince the world of God’s standard for entering heaven—the righteousness of Christ. He would point to Christ as the righteous one (Ac 3:14; 7:52; 1 Jn 2:1; 1 Pe 3:18). The Jews of Jesus’ day were “ignorant of God’s righteousness” (Ro 10:3). God’s absolute righteous is a completely different category than man’s relative righteousness. Jesus met all the demands of God’s perfect righteousness.

The charge that the Spirit levels at people is that they do not measure up to Christ’s righteousness. The issue of the ascension of Christ was whether the Father would accept what Jesus did to meet the absolute righteousness of God when His followers were declared righteous.

Righteousness apart from believing what Jesus did to pay for sin is completely inadequate. No one can be as right as God is right apart from God declaring him that way. Only the Holy Spirit can bring people to understand that they cannot become right with God other than by Jesus paying the penalty for their sins and then having God declare them as right as God is absolutely right or perfectly righteous.

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