Hidden Agenda or Ignorance?

I had a conversation with someone the other day and this brother got me all wound up about something, and now I can't stop thinking about it. There is something that is the heart of the Gospel Message of Justification By Faith, that no one seems to know anything about. In some denominations it is never spoken of and others it might be touched on, but usually only briefly in passing. It is beyond me why not, and I have wracked my brain trying to figure out what it is, Hidden Agenda or just Ignorance.

Christendom in general has blatantly left this all important doctrine and left it trampled in the dust, choosing rather to dwell on rudiments of the world, traditions of men and human wisdom. Most miss it completely and only some touch on it briefly. It is the heart of Justification by Faith, and it is IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS! How can something so important, fail to be taught? This imputed righteousness is what is getting us to heaven, and almost nobody is talking about it! Granted some say that salvation is not our works, but they fail to mention what is! Am I the only one that this strikes as being a bit odd?

The first time I believe that I ever heard the term "imputed righteousness" used, was on some cd's that I ordered from Adrian Rogers just over two years ago. Right from a child til I was in my twenties, I had never even heard that we don't get to heaven by our own works! I heard that on the radio I believe. I think of all that time wasted while I was growing up, sitting in a pew listening to rudiments, traditions, and human wisdom (all of it is our righteousness) that has no bearing on anyone's eternal salvation. That`s right! Let's put this in perspective. Our right doing or our righteousness and has NO BEARING on our eternal salvation! What I mean by that is, the murder called the Son of Sam has just as much of a chance and access to eternal life as I do, regardless of what He has done in the past. Mother Teresa has no better chance at eternal life than I do, regardless of all the good she has done. Let that sink in! We need to understand this. We have all sinned and because of that, we cannot get in on our own righteousness. This is the message of the gospel! The message of the bible is this, We have sinned and because of that, we are already condemned and have earned eternal death in the lake of fire. There is nothing we can do to get ourselves out of this condemned state, except believe that what Jesus did is enough, to not only get us of that condemned state, but give us eternal life. Therefore our righteousness is just a useless pile of crap as a means of getting us in right standing with God and getting us into heaven. (I can't overstate this) It won't succeed in getting us anywhere. You can solve world hunger and bring peace to the whole world and it wouldn't get you a wink at heaven. If you don't understand that then you don't know how stinking filthy your are, covered in all your sin.

So here is what we have come to. I recommend you read from verse one to verse nine to get the whole context.

Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9 ¶ And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Paul starts out in this chapter by saying that if anyone (Mother Teresa, the Pope, the preacher...) thinks that they can have confidence in the flesh (the way they have lived their life to get to God and inherit eternal life) he can more. He goes on bragging about what tribe he came from, how he was an upper class Hebrew, a Pharisee etc. and he says that concerning the righteousness that was his that he got from obeying the law, he was without blame. Nobody could lay blame to Paul and say that he broke the law. He was zealous for God and for His law and if anybody could have confidence in the way they had lived to get into heaven it was Paul. But look what he goes on to say. All that righteousness that Paul got from obeying the law, he counted as DUNG as far as getting to God was concerned and getting to heaven. All of it! MANURE! Not just compost, the real stuff! Paul`s hope was that he wanted to be found on judgment day not with his own righteousness, but that other righteousness which comes to a person by faith in Jesus Christ. That righteousness that you get into heaven with, that is called the righteousness of God. (Read Romans chapter 4) We are talking about God's righteousness that is manifested through the life of one Man, the MAN CHRIST JESUS! God's righteousness is how Jesus Christ lived while he was here on earth. All of His righteousness is placed to a persons account, who simply accepts the gift of salvation freely without any offering of works and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart. It is called imputed righteousness!

Saddly, this wonderful message has been lost in today's "Christianity". Most of what is taught on the radio and so on, is how to make your marriage better, how to make your life better and better, by doing the right thing, (sounds like Dr. Phil, or Oprah) and the heart of the gospel message has been lost in the shuffle. God's righteousness has been lost in the shuffle. Man`s righteousness has been elevated to such a high extent that God`s righteousness is hardly ever found. The true gospel is as foreign to most ears as snow is to someones eyes who lives on the equator. To prove this, walk around at your church, never mind the street, and ask people to explain imputed righteousness to you.

I do realize that I always had access to a bible growing up and therefore had no excuse, but when growing up, you sit week after week listening to messages about how our righteousness is the be all and end all, you start reading the bible through religious glasses, the truth is hidden because it is so foreign to you.

So is it a hidden agenda or ignorance? Probably a bit of both. Maybe more towards the ignorance side because this message is so little understood. But I also do believe that there is a fear of telling people the truth (by those who are in a position of influence) and really setting them free, because it is easier to control people who are under bondage. You tell them the truth and set them free... You never know what might happen. This gospel message will set a person free! I have seen it numerous times. When you stop relying on your own righteousness and reckon that all of Christ's righteousness has been put to your account, you are truly free! There is no more need to build on that pile of dung that was formerly your righteousness. You have all the righteousness that you'll ever need to get you into heaven, from now to eternity, and it is Christ's righteousness! We are going to heaven on the best righteousness available and His righteousness is all we need!

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

2Co 5:21 For he (GOD) hath made him (JESUS) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.