In our study of Mark we are in Mark 13:31; where Jesus backs up his promises that are contained in the prophesy to the Jews during the Tribulation with the oath that "Heaven and earth will pass away buy My words will not pass away.
Based on this we have taken up a study of the doctrine of immutability that is based in His righteousness and justice that comprise His Holiness.
Last time we noted that God's integrity is composed of His perfect justice and His perfect righteousness, is both the guardian of God's immutable attributes as well as being the basis of the believer's contact with God where God's perfect justice targets the believer's perfect imputed righteousness with blessing.
The function of God's grace policy demands that there can be no compromise of the divine attributes. Therefore, in the function of God's integrity, His righteousness demands righteousness and His justice demands justice.
Righteousness is the principle of God's integrity. Justice is the execution of God's integrity. God cannot accept anything less than perfect righteousness and God cannot bless anything less than perfect righteousness.
Gods' justice is the source of all direct blessing from God to the believer. Divine justice is only free to provide blessing to the believer because the believer has God's perfect righteousness.
God's perfect righteousness resides in every believer from the moment of salvation. Therefore, the believer is qualified to receive life support from God under the principle of logistical grace and lesser blessings.
Grace is compatible with God's justice. The principle of logistical grace avoids compromise of the attributes of God. Acknowledgment of any known sin to God alone is also compatible with God's immutable holiness or integrity.
What God's perfect unchanging righteousness rejects, His perfect justice condemns. What God's perfect unchanging righteousness accepts, His perfect justice blesses. God's justice of therefore, administers what His righteousness demands and with immutable integrity love executes it under God's grace policy.
God personally loves His own unchangeable integrity. This personal love is divine self- esteem. God's self-esteem is the pattern for the believer's spiritual self-esteem that is the basis for entering the cognitive self-confidence of the adult spiritual life. 1Cor 15:10;
God's immutable integrity is not cancelled because some members of the human race reject His provision of Jesus Christ as savior. God's integrity is not cancelled because some believers fail to execute the protocol plan of God through the application of the mechanics of the spiritual life. Rom 3:3-4;
Lack of virtue or integrity in mankind does not cancel God's immutable integrity. We do not have the power to do anything that can cancel any facet of what God's integrity did for us at salvation. Rom 11:29;
The justice of God is the source both judgment and condemnation and life support and blessing.
God's integrity is infinite, absolute, eternal and immutable. It is not maintained by the mankind's self- righteousness.
God's righteousness demands perfect righteousness and therefore it rejects mankind's relative self- righteousness.
What the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes in both blessing and judgment.
There is nothing mankind can do to destroy or compromise God's integrity. God's integrity stands eternally and unchanging, without any help from mankind.
This includes mankind's self-righteousness, his works, his human good and any form of legalism or activism.
The do gooders legalism and activism do not promote God's integrity. They blaspheme and oppose God's integrity. God blesses mankind without compromising His integrity by His imputing of divine righteousness to the believer at the moment of faith in Christ.
This means that blessing from God is always based on grace and never works. Eph 2:8-9;
Neither man's sinfulness nor his self-righteousness can glorify God. Only divine integrity or holiness glorifies God. Only God can glorify God therefore only what God has provided in grace can glorify God.
What God has provided in grace does not compromise His integrity, including salvation by faith alone in Christ alone and rebound by naming any known sin. Man glorifies God through cognition and utilization of God's grace provision.
If human works and human righteousness were a factor in salvation then God's righteousness would be compromised but human works and human righteousness are not a part of salvation so His immutable righteousness is not compromised.
Mankind is born physically alive and spiritually dead because of the imputation of Adam's original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature at physical birth.
The divine solution to spiritual death is faith alone in Christ alone. The only solution to spiritual death is the divine solution.
Titus 3:5; "He saved us, not from works which we have done in righteousness, but as a result of His mercy, through the cleansing that brings about regeneration even renewal through the agency of the Holy Spirit."
Mercy is grace in action that is directed toward inability.
Salvation by works is totally rejected because it would compromise God's righteousness. God's righteousness is often attacked by human righteousness. This occurs when people attempt to add something to faith alone in Christ alone.
No one has ever been saved or ever will be saved by being good. A spiritually dead person cannot produce any system of good works that will ever provide salvation.
The last half Titus 3:5; describes the mechanics of regeneration. God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit and God the Father imputes His very own eternal life to the human spirit. Simultaneously, God's righteousness is imputed to the human spirit. 2Cor 5:21;
All human righteousness is unacceptable to God and is never a part of His protocol plan. This includes entrance into the plan through salvation by faith in Christ alone and the execution of the plan by grace alone.
There is no place for human righteousness in God's plan for the believer. This means that when the believer has integrity it is all based on God's provision of grace. The worst believer in history still has the righteousness of God.
There is a sphere of human righteousness for the unbeliever that is extrapolated from the laws of divine establishment. This means that when the unbeliever has integrity, it is human self-righteousness that may be acceptable to people but not to God. Rom 4:2;
Justification is based on the believer's possession of the imputed righteousness of God.
Justification means that the justice of God evaluates the believer's relationship with God on the basis of the fact that the believer possesses the life of God and the righteousness of God.
The believer's possession of God's righteousness and eternal life means that God has found a way to bless believers in their post-salvation function without compromise of divine righteousness.
God's righteousness is not compromised by anything God gives in grace. The things that are given to us at the moment we believe in Jesus Christ cannot compromise God's perfect immutable righteousness.
Because Jesus Christ was judged on the cross, divine righteousness remains consistent under the doctrine of immutability.
Divine righteousness remains uncontaminated by any system of human works to retain or receive anything from God. God's righteousness remains intact to provide every believer with the greatest spiritual life of human history.
Our point of reference is the holiness of God that is comprised of His justice and His righteousness. Neither the justice nor the righteousness of God can ever be compromised. All the wonderful things that God does for us do not compromise His justice or righteousness. Doing good is not the reason why God does anything for us.
Every blessing we have is on the basis of the immutability of grace. People think of grace as God giving out something for free. That is wrong, because that would compromise His integrity.
Grace is given because of what God accomplished through Jesus' work on the cross so grace is an extension of the immutable righteousness and justice of God.
That is why grace gifts are irrevocable. Rom 11:29;
There is no emotion in the essence of God. God is love but God's love is not emotional. God's love is based on His immutable holiness or integrity that is far greater than emotion.
This means that spirituality is not emotion. Spirituality is the integrity or holiness that the believer develops as they function under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the PMA of God's Word.
Under this principle only what God provides for us in grace and our doctrinal response is spirituality. Emotion does not have the power of spirituality. It is God's power and therefore does not compromise the immutable essence of God.
This does not mean we are emotionless. It means that when we respond emotionally, it must be because of what God has provided in grace.
Those who do not know and apply God's Word that is truth are slaves to their emotions. The worst kind of slave mentality is the irrational emotional response that comes from insufficient doctrinal knowledge. Hosea 4:6;