Lam 3:21-23;
I recall this to my mind, and it gives me confidence. Because The Lord's mercy never fails; His grace provisions never cease, they are renewed every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
In our study of the doctrine of the winner believer. Heb 12:2; Rev 2:7; We noted that winner believers are the unknown, unsung heroes of history. 2Cor 6:9;
The winners are those who are not considered by the world to be wise or noble 1Cor 1:26-29; but they are the crisis personalities who stand in the spiritual gap and preserve the nation during the course of human history. Ezek 22:30-31;
We have noted that the individual who becomes a winner exploits God's grace to the maximum so we have taken up a study of grace in the context of being a winner.
We are presently looking at the mechanics of the common grace ministry of God the Holy Spirit that Jesus prophesied about in John 16:8-11;
John 16:10;"and concerning (imputed) righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you no longer see Me."
This is a reference to the righteousness of Christ during His first advent in unglorified humanity. This is the righteousness that He produced by His application of God's Word under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
This is the righteousness of Christ we share by imputation through the baptism of the Spirit that occurs at salvation when we believe in Jesus Christ. 2Cor 5:21;
Spiritually dead mankind cannot produce God's perfect righteousness. Isa 64:6; "Our righteous works are as filthy rags in His sight." Under common grace God the Holy Spirit's makes this issue clear.
The prophecy in John 16:10; addresses the Church Age. When Jesus was on the earth people saw Christ's humanity in Hypostatic Union. They did not see His deity because no one can see God and live.
The perfect righteousness they saw was produced from his perfect humanity as He applied God's Word to His experience under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
During the Church Age Jesus is not visible. Therefore He has to be represented. He is represented by the spiritual gift of evangelism and by the royal family of God when the Gospel message is communicated in witnessing.
So in evangelism, we present the unique person of Jesus Christ. Once Jesus Christ is resurrected and ascended, there is no visible demonstration of His perfect righteousness except through the message of the Gospel and the winner believer's example. 2Cor 3:2;
After His resurrection, Jesus Christ went to God the Father as the God-man with perfect righteousness as God and with perfect righteousness as man. No humanity can go to heaven without possessing God's perfect righteousness.
Because we have an old sin nature it is impossible for us to have perfect righteousness apart from the imputation that occurs by believing in Jesus Christ. When we believe in Jesus Christ for salvation God imputes His perfect righteousness to us.
To live with God forever we must have the same perfect righteousness as God. Spiritually dead mankind cannot possess eternal life or produce the perfect righteousness that God' requires.
God the Holy Spirit to makes this issue clear. God the Holy Spirit now communicates the principle of imputed righteousness at salvation. This is justification by faith. Rom 9:30-32;
Some will believe in Jesus Christ because of the perfect righteousness issue. Others will believe because of the sin issue. The rarest are those who believe in Jesus Christ because of the judgment issue.
John 16:11; "and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged."
Satan has been judged and sentenced to the Lake of Fire. Satan was judged at the end of the first phase of the prehistoric angelic conflict. Mankind was created to resolve the angelic conflict and was given free will just like angels have for that purpose.
Satan and all fallen angels have already been sentenced to the Lake of Fire based on their disobedience and rebellion against God in eternity. The person who follows the pattern of the fallen angels' unbelief and rebellion by their rejection of Jesus Christ will share the same condemnation that Satan and the fallen angels received.
Matt 25:41; "Then He will say to those on His left hand, `Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.'"
In His ministry of common grace, God the Holy Spirit makes this clear. Human history is designed to prove that God's judgment on the angels was fair and just.
Satan and the fallen angels were judged and all unbelievers are judged on the same basis. Satan rejected what God provided. His rejection of God's grace provision resulted in his judgment. It is the same with the unbeliever.
This same concept is presented in the Gospel message. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict. Like the angels, man was given free will and has a choice to make regarding Jesus Christ who is God's grace provision. 1Cor 15:22;
Positive volition accepts God's grace, negative volition rejects God's grace. Winners consistently accept God's grace and keep advancing. 2Pet 3:18; Titus 2:11-13;
Mankind is alive on this earth for the purpose of empirically demonstrating that God's judgment and sentence of the devil and his angels to the lake of fire for their rebellion was righteous, just and perfect.
Common grace is a technical theological term for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in evangelism or the presentation of the Gospel. This is the invisible work of the Holy Spirit that is required for the Gospel to be understood that is not felt or experienced.
The Gospel message is presented or recalled, but because of spiritual death at birth and the total depravity of mankind, plus the dichotomous state of the unbeliever, mankind cannot understand or comprehend the Gospel because it is spiritual information.
1Cor 2:11, "For what man understands the things of man except the spirit of life (frame of reference) which is in him, even so the things of God (gospel doctrine) no one (unbeliever) has known except the Spirit of God."