While two friends were crossing through a dilapidated building, a beam fell on them trapping one of them beneath the rubble. His friend tried to lift the beam off his friend’s body but it was so heavy, that he could not even move it an inch.

Fortunately, he found a hose pipe beside him and opened the tap connected to it and let the water fill that floor. When the beam submerged in water, he was able to slide his friend from underneath the pillar with ease.

The grace of our Lord makes all our hurdles lighter, so that we can push them away and move forward with the task that God has assigned us. The below promise verse is not about worldly riches but about the abundant grace of God that is freely available to us in all our endeavours, to accomplish God’s purpose.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

2 Corinthians 9:8

Self- Righteousness

If we rely on our own spiritual merits, then we are ignoring the righteousness of Jesus. Authors of all the Epistles in the Bible, educated their readers to depend on Jesus’s righteousness rather their own. Despite numerous verses telling us that we have been saved by the righteousness of Jesus, we are still trying to prove our righteousness. God, through His prophet, revealed our state of unworthiness in the below verse.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah 64:6

We compare ourselves with others and assume that we are better than them. We should stop this practice and should start comparing ourselves with Jesus. When Isaiah saw God in his vision, he realized what was in his heart and confessed it in the following verse.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

Isaiah 6:5

This can be possible in our lives also if we meditate on the word of God day and night. The human tendency is to search for soothing words, lest we be rebuked or warned by anyone. This attitude is a characteristic of fools and not of wise men.

The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

Proverbs 12:15

Self-righteous people are interested only in expressing their feelings and do not want to listen to another’s advise. When they share their pain with others, they feel good and pretend to listen to their feedback, but they don’t.

Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.

Proverbs 18:2

In a nutshell, self-righteousness gives satisfaction to people in their own eyes, never allowing them to realize their mistakes and thereby not having the fear of God. They are confident that at any cost, there is a place reserved for them in heaven.

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.

Proverbs 3:7

Righteousness of Jesus

We are well aware of the behaviour of the people of our time. None of our relatives or friends may give their life to save us when we lead an unrighteous living. As an exception, people may die when their favourite leaders or actors pass away. But broadly speaking, everyone is trying to save their skin and not others. Bible says even if anyone wants to save their soul, no one is capable of doing so.

No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough—so that they should live on forever and not see decay.

Psalms 49:7-9

As sin had gripped every human and made them worthy for it wages, the death, Jesus who knew no sin, became a sinner by way of taking our sins on Himself to face the death on behalf of us. Yet, death could not conquer Him but Jesus conquered death forever.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57

Jesus did not eliminate the law but fulfilled it by way of undergoing the punishment sentenced for all who broke the law. When Jesus has already been punished for the sins we have committed, then there is no more legal binding left uncleared as we have been set free. For this reason, now, we are under the jurisdiction of the grace of God and not under any law.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:13-15

Ignorance of our Salvation

We have become righteous because of the righteousness of Jesus. In spite of this profound truth, if we rely on our own righteousness, we may become an easy victim for satan who always gives us a guilty conscience by reminding us of even a decade old mistake.

We should have a clear understanding that our righteousness is because of His righteousness, only then can we give the deceiver a solid answer. The simple answer is that we have been set free because of the blood of Jesus, that has cleansed us from every sin.

When we do not understand and believe that our sins are forgiven, we will be sinning again and again and would not be able to produce any fruits and we will continue to live in the old pattern of our sinful life.

But whoever does not them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

2 Peter 1:9

Most people are still unable to come under the grace and are still living under the law because they do not understand the sovereignty of our God. Satan had lured Adam and Eve to disobey God’s command in the garden of Eden and thereby snatching their authority to rule over the earth and everything in it.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

1 John 5:19

To our surprise, many people think that the ransom and the price was paid to satan to redeem the authority back to mankind. Because of such ignorance, we keep satan above God and think Jesus had paid their debt in full and now mankind has regained their authority to rule over the earth.

This is also one of the outcomes of self-righteousness that builds up the ego in people’s heart and they never admit the sovereignty of God. Jesus by shedding His blood on the cross did not redeem the authority that had been lost by us in the garden of Eden but He redeemed the soul of mankind that was sentenced to eternal death because of their disobedience to God.

Before the creation of the earth, God knew that the human souls are going to perish as a result of their disobedience to Him because it is God who formulated the rules and regulation of the spiritual realm and according to His ruling, the wages of sin is death.

Our God is a just God and He will not take away His word, He will not manipulate His rules to save His people nor will He search for a loophole in His legal system to save mankind. Instead, He is willing to fulfil the law according to His ruling by way of executing the death sentence. Satan taking this opportunity proved mankind guilty and filed a legal petition levying them the penalty of death.

This has enraged the wrath of God and someone has to cancel all the legalized proofs framed by satan through their virtue and there is none except Jesus who is worthy to do it.

In a football team, an injured player cannot be substituted by another injured player. If so, the whole purpose of the team will be defeated. An unrighteous person cannot substitute another unrighteous person and only a righteous person should substitute the unrighteous one.

But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.

Psalms 49:15

Jesus died for all of us, who ever lived or are going to live on this earth. He saved us from the wrath of God because we will never be able to pay the price for our transgressions. Our elder brother Jesus has paid the price to reconcile us with His Father so that we too can become His children. May God pour out more of His grace on us, so that every hurdle will become lighter and we can hurl them away from us.