What Makes Us Righteous?

Love is the Spirit of God. It is the force that created everything that is good. It is also the force that propels us to sacrifice our own interest in order to serve those who have hurt and betrayed us. It is also the Spirit that makes us pure, humble, gentle, forgiving, merciful and charitable. Furthermore, it drives away hate, jealousy, lust, greed, and selfishness from our heart. When we live by this Spirit we find peace in our heart, because, it makes our spirit resonate in unison with that of God’s.
God’s love was expressed when he took a human form and accepted the most humiliating and painful death to make us righteous. His love therefore is the very source of our righteousness. Therefore, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-3)”.
 
Love is the Spirit of God. It is the force that created everything that is good. It is also the force that propels us to sacrifice our own interest in order to serve those who have hurt and betrayed us. It is also the Spirit that makes us pure, humble, gentle, forgiving, merciful and charitable. Furthermore, it drives away hate, jealousy, lust, greed, and selfishness from our heart. When we live by this Spirit we find peace in our heart, because, it makes our spirit resonate in unison with that of God’s.
God’s love was expressed when he took a human form and accepted the most humiliating and painful death to make us righteous. His love therefore is the very source of our righteousness. Therefore, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-3)”.
I've read what you said and the choice of words makes me wonder if you're saying the the works of love are our righteousness but the scriptures say Jesus is our righteousness.

1 Cor 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."
 
Love is the Spirit of God. It is the force that created everything that is good. It is also the force that propels us to sacrifice our own interest in order to serve those who have hurt and betrayed us. It is also the Spirit that makes us pure, humble, gentle, forgiving, merciful and charitable. Furthermore, it drives away hate, jealousy, lust, greed, and selfishness from our heart. When we live by this Spirit we find peace in our heart, because, it makes our spirit resonate in unison with that of God’s.
God’s love was expressed when he took a human form and accepted the most humiliating and painful death to make us righteous. His love therefore is the very source of our righteousness. Therefore, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:1-3)”.



Seems to me that love is a GIFT FROM God. Love is His nature therefore He can do nothing except love us.
 
Our righteousness in Christ comes from the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all sin.

Romans 5:9 (AMP)
Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
 
Seems to me that love is a GIFT FROM God. Love is His nature therefore He can do nothing except love us.

Major, greetings from Apple Valley Calif. Love is a person as God is Love. When we read 1 Cor 13 we need to remember that people claim to do and have these things, but in reality they can not truly have these or do these things unless Love (God) was with them.
 
Major, greetings from Apple Valley Calif. Love is a person as God is Love. When we read 1 Cor 13 we need to remember that people claim to do and have these things, but in reality they can not truly have these or do these things unless Love (God) was with them.

Isn't love a feeling or a motivation?

God is 3 persons in one correct? Father -Son and Holy Spirit who is motivated by the attribute of love as a feeling.

If "love" is a person, wouldn't that in fact take away from the work of righteousness which Jesus the Son accomplished on the cross for us when He shed His blood to pay for our sin??
Yes- No?
 
Love is not a feeling so much as it is an action verb....to love is to enact one's will to perform it. That is how we as believers can choose to obey God and love someone who actually makes our skin crawl in the natural---and in doing so, the aversion is soon replaced by a genuine measure of agape love. God's doing.

(Forgiveness works the same way.)
 
When we get to heaven we will see the only law at work is love! No need for any other rules...:D
Its not an emotion, its the very nature and character of Our God, and the only way we have a concept and understanding of this is through the Spirit of God that sheds that love (agape) of God abroad in our hearts. This is all the law! the law was about love from the beginning, that man did not have it was the purpose of the law!
 
Isn't love a feeling or a motivation?

God is 3 persons in one correct? Father -Son and Holy Spirit who is motivated by the attribute of love as a feeling.

If "love" is a person, wouldn't that in fact take away from the work of righteousness which Jesus the Son accomplished on the cross for us when He shed His blood to pay for our sin??
Yes- No?

1Jn 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

These things are the attributes of Love (God) it is a part of his nature. Love is not a feeling, but it can produce a feeling in the one where God dwells. Love is God, and God is Love who is a person.
What you might be missing is the fact that every thing Jesus did was by faith, and this faith works only by Love, who is God.
We do not do the works of faith, only God (love) works faith, because faith works by love (God)
Jesus never claimed to do anything, he said it was his Father in him that was doing the works. In fact Jesus also said....

Joh 5:30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Joh 5:19 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

Then he also tells us......

Joh 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from having the Word of God in us (Love) we can do nothing, because it is the Word (love) that works through us. The only thing we are required to do is simply believe.
 
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1Jn 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1Co 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
1Co 13:5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
1Co 13:6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
1Co 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

These things are the attributes of Love (God) it is a part of his nature. Love is not a feeling, but it can produce a feeling in the one where God dwells. Love is God, and God is Love who is a person.
What you might be missing is the fact that every thing Jesus did was by faith, and this faith works only by Love, who is God.
We do not do the works of faith, only God (love) works faith, because faith works by love (God)
Jesus never claimed to do anything, he said it was his Father in him that was doing the works. In fact Jesus also said....

Joh 5:30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Joh 5:19 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

Then he also tells us......

Joh 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from having the Word of God in us (Love) we can do nothing, because it is the Word (love) that works through us. The only thing we are required to do is simply believe.

I do understand the point that you are trying to make, it is just that I do not agree with you that "Love" it self is in fact a PERSON as you state.

Love is, IMHO the heart-felt affection of the Christian in response to the love God has shown toward us, especially in the gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Love is an affection which prompts the Christian to action. Love is first and foremost directed toward God and then toward others in an order of priority: God, family (especially our mate), fellow-believers, our neighbor, and even our enemy. Love subordinates the interests of the lover to the one who is loved. Love inspires our deliberate, diligent, self-sacrificial service to others, which is intended for their good, at our expense.
 
I do understand the point that you are trying to make, it is just that I do not agree with you that "Love" it self is in fact a PERSON as you state.

Love is, IMHO the heart-felt affection of the Christian in response to the love God has shown toward us, especially in the gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Love is an affection which prompts the Christian to action. Love is first and foremost directed toward God and then toward others in an order of priority: God, family (especially our mate), fellow-believers, our neighbor, and even our enemy. Love subordinates the interests of the lover to the one who is loved. Love inspires our deliberate, diligent, self-sacrificial service to others, which is intended for their good, at our expense.

How about looking at it this way.....

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

You died on the cross with Christ, and now your new life is Christ. It is no longer the "I" that lives you but Christ. He is the one leading and guiding you into all that you do. He is the person that is now your new life. If you are having compassion for others it is because of Him that you are moved to help them. It is no longer you who lives but Christ in you, and he is a person who is love.
 
How about looking at it this way.....

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

You died on the cross with Christ, and now your new life is Christ. It is no longer the "I" that lives you but Christ. He is the one leading and guiding you into all that you do. He is the person that is now your new life. If you are having compassion for others it is because of Him that you are moved to help them. It is no longer you who lives but Christ in you, and he is a person who is love.

As I said, I understand your motive and what you are saying.

You see, Christ LOVED me but He could not LOVE me into heaven my brother. He had to give Himself for me. Thta is eternal life in Christ who is the Hope of glory and that can only be received as a gift by faith.

You are correct in that we are NOT to seek to be crucified with Christ. We have already benn crucified with Him. The principle of living is not by the Law which has slain us because it found us guiliuty. Now we are to live by FAITH in the Son of God.

So then, how does the Christian live??????? IN CHRIST. Not in love as Love is a person which you stated, but in the Messiah who is THE person of Jesus the Christ.
 
As I said, I understand your motive and what you are saying.

You see, Christ LOVED me but He could not LOVE me into heaven my brother. He had to give Himself for me. Thta is eternal life in Christ who is the Hope of glory and that can only be received as a gift by faith.

You are correct in that we are NOT to seek to be crucified with Christ. We have already benn crucified with Him. The principle of living is not by the Law which has slain us because it found us guiliuty. Now we are to live by FAITH in the Son of God.

So then, how does the Christian live??????? IN CHRIST. Not in love as Love is a person which you stated, but in the Messiah who is THE person of Jesus the Christ.

Is Jesus Christ God? Is God Love? Are you in Christ, who is God, and who is Love?
 
Is Jesus Christ God? Is God Love? Are you in Christ, who is God, and who is Love?
I think when Bible says God is love, it would mean love is best defined by God.. Paul writes about love as,

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I think we can replace the word love with Jesus or God.. It would perfectly fit.. Does not mean, it makes love a person.. Love is a core attribute of God, best defined by God himself.. The perfect love is what was accomplished by Christ.. John 3:16.. Same goes with other things like righteousness or justice.. the most just person is God himself.. Righteousness is what God is..
 
1Jn 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (ESV)

You can not love without God being in you, because God is Love. If you live in Love (God) God lives in you, and God (love) lives in you. If God (love) is not in you, you can not love. We are in Christ (love) and Christ (love) is in us. All we are doing is letting Love (God in us) to flow to others.
 
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