Last blog post, I talked about what righteousness is and how Jesus is our standard for righteousness. So, when we think about righteousness and what it means to walk in the Spirit, we must look to Jesus because He showed us how! He was the first to completely walk in the Spirit without messing up, and did you know that we have that same power because His Spirit lives in us?
Before you give me any pushback, it’s true! I John 2:14 says, “you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.” John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” With two verses, we can agree the Word of God is in us, and John 1:1 says the Word was God. I’m sure you’ve heard plenty of times that Jesus is the Living Word, so from these two verses, you can conclude that Jesus abides in you; since the Word abides in you and The Word is God. So, again Jesus abides in you, and with that, you can do anything Jesus did.
This might be a difficult concept to grasp, but let me repeat it, Jesus abides in you. You can do whatever and anything Jesus did and more, as Jesus says in John 14:12, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” So, if you can do greater works than Jesus, you can certainly live as righteously as He did, can’t you? Let’s destroy the lie that no one can be righteous or holy but Jesus because the Spirit of Jesus lives in us so that we can be righteous too! We are new creations in Christ; we live with Christ and as Christ. So, know we can do anything Jesus did because His Spirit lives in us!
Romans 6:5-8 says, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,” Can’t deny it now! When Jesus died, the power of sin over us died as well! So, our sinful nature is to be no more; we are called to be righteous since sin has no power over us! And to live with Christ to live like Christ, which is in all righteousness and truth! We are to live in the likeness of Jesus, of His resurrection, which means to live in all power and righteousness! Our old selves died, and we are new! So, now you can live like Jesus!
Without further delay, let’s look at what Jesus did and why He is our standard for righteousness!
Jesus Imitated and Obeyed God
“Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”
John 5:19 NKJV
We touched on this last blog post, but I’m getting more in-depth with these points this week. When it comes to being righteous and walking by the Spirit, the number one thing is listening to God. That is what walking by the Spirit is, listening to God’s Spirit that lives in you. And Jesus did this perfectly. John 5:19 says, “Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” An essential part of walking in the Spirit is being humble. Jesus, God Himself in the flesh, admitted that He could not do anything of Himself. Jesus was powerful on Earth, but He said nothing was possible without God the Father. So, we must humble ourselves to be righteous and admit that we cannot do it alone and need God’s help.
Jesus then says that He only does what He sees the Father do, and the Son does in like manner. You know the Bible says we are sons of God. Galatians 3:26 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Once you are born again, you are a son of God, and sons mimic their fathers. We are to be imitators of God, which is what Jesus was saying in this verse, that He only imitates what He sees God the Father do. We are not exempt from this because we are sons too. So, to be righteous like Jesus, we must strive to be like God, which comes with listening to what He has to say and does. And listening to God is obeying, so think about your own life; how often do you actually heed God’s instruction? Jesus was always willing to do as the Father wanted; can you say you do the same? That is the first step to being righteous, listening to God, and imitating Him.
But how do we know what God wants us to do? Or how can we be imitators of God? For the first question, God will tell us through His Holy Spirit that lives in us, but also, it is in His Word, the Bible, where we learn to be true imitators of God and know what God wants us to do!
Jesus Knew The Word
This is what made Jesus unstoppable. He had the Word backing Him up whenever anyone tried to challenge Him. This is needed when the enemy tries to get us to engage in sin. And sin certainly is not a step towards righteousness but takes us right out of it. Being righteous brings us closer to God and our divine purpose, so the enemy will want to pull us away from that. Knowing the Word will allow you to understand God’s will for us, His commandments, and your authority, which all aid in our righteousness and purpose. In Luke 4, Jesus was at the end of His fast, and the devil came to tempt Him. The scriptures actually say that in Luke 4:2, Jesus was “tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days, He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.”
So, many think it is just this one day, but during His entire fast, Jesus was tempted, but He knew the Word, which is why He was triumphant.
When the enemy tried to tempt Jesus with the world’s riches and told Him to worship him, Jesus replied, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” Every response Jesus had started with “it is written.” Jesus had the Word backing Him up and giving Him strength to remain righteous and blameless unto God! Without the Word, we cannot be righteous or even know what righteousness is. Jesus knew what was right because He knew what the Word said; We only know what is right and wrong because of what the Word says. If we don’t know the Word, is it easy to fall into the devil’s trap and say, “okay, I’ll worship you!” But if we have the Word in our hearts as Jesus did, we can combat the enemy’s attacks, and he’ll have nothing for us. I Corinthians 10:13 NKJV says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” That way of escape is the Word. The devil would not have fled from Jesus if Jesus didn’t have scripture after scripture during this attack. The power of God undoubtedly excels over the power of the enemy, and you draw on that power when you speak and know the Written Word. It is the only way you can remain righteous; it is the only way to defeat temptation and be holy; without it, what are you standing on? What is your reasoning? Where are you getting your instructions for righteousness? Who is commanding you? Because if it isn’t the Bible, God’s Word, then it is the world.
You cannot be righteous if you listen to the world and not the Word. So, it is pivotal that you pick up your Bible and use it like the weapon it is. Use it for instruction and strength because that is what you’ll need to accomplish your divine purpose. Regarding righteousness, that cannot be achieved without the Word of God. Psalms 32:8 NKJV says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” God does instruct and teaches by His voice, but He does it mainly by the Bible. To truly follow the Holy Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we must read the Word. That is how we can be imitators of God, hear His voice, obey, and ultimately get closer to righteousness.
Jesus Fasted and Prayed
Another reason why Jesus was able to defeat the enemy is that He fasted and prayed. In a time of fasting and prayer, you are dedicating and devoting yourself to God, through your time and through denying the flesh. Prayer and fasting kill the flesh and build your Spirit because you are supposed to engage with God more than usual during this time. For instance, you are to read the Word more, pray throughout the day, worship, and have an intimate time with God that you usually wouldn’t. Jesus was building up His Spirit during this 40-day fast, so by the time the worst of the temptation came; The Word and prayer girded him. He has been denying His flesh for 40 days and building His Spirit; there is no way the devil was overcoming Him; he didn’t appeal to any of Jesus’s desires. When you fast and pray, your desire for God grows more potent, so the things of the world don’t matter as much.
During fasting and prayer, God also reveals things to you about your purpose, things to cut out your life, and things that will bring you closer to Him. From my experience with fasting, I can say that God revealed so much about my purpose and dreams; it made me want to dive in deeper, and it gave me the desire to be righteous, so I could reach those goals God has for me. When you see God the way you do through fasting, the desire to be unrighteous dies. You’ll want to live right to achieve all God wants you to accomplish. Nothing beats spending one-on-one time with the Father, so if you struggle with killing your carnal/worldly desires, I strongly encourage you to fast and pray. It builds up your Spirit in amazing ways; it opens doors to blessings, gives you insight into your divine purpose, and grows your desire for righteousness. So, there are plenty of benefits, and as believers, we are required to fast and pray, so find time in your schedule!
If we want to be righteous, we must be like Jesus. This is the easiest way to achieve righteousness. If you feel confused about what it means to be holy, righteous, and blameless, look to Jesus’s life. Part two will be posted on Saturday, continuing this discussion, but I hope this helped, and God bless!
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