Again the question: How does a believer develop the same character relative to his/her words, thoughts and deeds that is the sole possession of ONLY God the Father and His Messiah? How does one come to possess what only someone else possesses? We are told that the quality of being known Scripturally as “righteousness” must be received as a free gift for which one must qualify. Two “works” must be entered into: 1) hungering and thirsting for it (Mat. 5:6) and 2) yielding and surrendering to the sole Owner of it (Rom. 6:19,20,22). As is promised, he who hungers and thirsts for righteousness will be filled WITH it and he who totally yields to the owner of it will serve Him IN it.

A foundational theme that is voiced repeatedly in the Holy Scriptures is the concept of CHOICE. The believer is never forced by God to hunger and thirst for Him, nor is he/she forced to surrender to Him. Both are matters of free will. From the one who has just realized the existence of the Lord to the one who has supposedly served Him for decades–a choice based on free will must be made and action taken relative to the choice. Stated in plain terms: GOD CALLS OUT TO ONE AND ALL. ONE AND ALL MUST DECIDE EITHER TO ALLOW HIM TOTAL DOMINATION OR TO REJECT HIM TOTALLY. There is no supposed middle ground–the condition which characterizes the Institutional Church. The obvious follow-up question is: What is righteousness?

The righteous character necessary for salvation is the ability to discern God’s right way, to choose it and walk it. It is to voluntarily make a full, unconditional surrender to God and His perfect way as commanded in the Holy Scriptures. It is to set aside one’s own will and desires in order to do what He has predetermined to be THE right way. In Matthew 7:13,14 Jesus identifies His right way in terms of a strait gate and a narrow path that must be chosen and traveled by the God-seeker. Even so, the resulting righteous character is a gift from God that comes only by yielding to Him, surrendering to His expressed will and unconditionally dying to all self-interest and self-determination. Let us not forget that Jesus had to make the same choice and walk the same path as anyone determined to please the Father. See Jesus Christ–God, Man or Godman. The episode in the Garden of Gethsemene just prior to His death proves that He was totally human during His earthly tenure. As torture and eventual death loomed ahead He very humanly voiced His dread of what was to come and asked if there might be another way that God’s will could be fulfilled, as would any man. There was no other way. At that point He uttered those famous destiny-sealing words: “… not My will but Thine be done.”

Notice that two wills were involved in this statement–the Father’s and the Son’s. As a man, Jesus had a will which included aversion to pain and death as does every human ever born. It is man’s natural will to avoid both whenever possible. Jesus knew what would happen to Him over the next few hours–that He would suffer and die as had no other man. With the weight of the world pressing down upon Him, He asked the most obvious question. His response to God’s answer revealed that His will had disappeared into the Will of the Father. For all practical purposes, He no longer had a will. From that moment on Jesus did not give the immediate future another thought. He went on to His fate with love, joy and peace in His heart, knowing that He was in the will of the Father. Nothing else mattered.

Christ’s reaction to the will of His Father is the gold standard relative to our relationship with the Godhead. This relationship has two parts: 1) We submit our will to God’s will and 2) our will ceases to exist, leaving only His will in operation. The Apostle Paul stated the same thing using different words when he wrote, “I die daily” and “I am crucified with Christ” (1 Cor. 15:31/Gal. 2:20). Paul, like Jesus before him, practiced self-crucifixion–voluntarily dying to self by emptying himself of all that would gratify the physical, mental and emotional aspects of his being. Such is the righteous character required for entrance into the Kingdom of God at the return of Jesus Christ. And such is the character with which only God can “fill” the totally yielded, unconditionally-surrendered, self-crucified soul. This removes the mystery behind the Lord’s warning that only a FEW would live eternally with Him in His Father’s kingdom (Mat. 7:13,14). There are three primary reasons why so few God-seekers will make the cut: pride, fear and the Big lie. Pride=having to admit being wrong. Fear=fearing the response of others. The Big Lie=having been deceived into believing that one is saved and born again. And Satan smiles. L.J.