Dear friends,
The following is an excerpt from E.W. Kenyon's classic book Two Kinds of Righteousness. For clarity purposes, I have made editorial changes in the text. The chapter here is titled "Why We Have Failed" in the book, but I didn't want to focus on reasons for failure, but upon the solution that is needed. It is not my intention to distort the work of another person, but to share these wonderful truths with you while incorporating the revelation I have been given from the Lord. While some of the text and word usage has been changed, the spirit of the message Dr. Kenyon wanted to convey has not. May this speak strongly to you...
Revelation of Righteousness: The Supreme Need in the Church
The church has been very strong in teaching man his need of righteousness, his weakness, and inability to please God. She has been very strong in her denunciation of sins in (and of) the believer. She has preached against unbelief, world conformity, and lack of faith, but she has been sadly lacking in bring forward the TRUTH of who we are in Christ, or how righteousness and faith are available.
- Most of our hymns put our redemption off until after death.
- We are going to have rest when we get to heaven.
- We are going to have victory when we get to heaven.
- We will be overcomers when we get to heaven.
- We are going to have peace when we get to heaven.
- There will be no more failings when we get to heaven.
- We have nothing on this side except failure, misery, disappointment, and weakness.
What does He mean when He says, You are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power. [Colossians 2:10] When are we to be complete? Is it in this life or in the next?
What does He mean in Romans 8:37, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. When are we to be more than conquerors? Is it after death when we leave this vale of tears and suffering?
And Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. When is it that we are going to be able to do all things? Is it after we finish the course and stand with Him in the New Heaven and the New Earth?
He declares in Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. When does this become ours? We hear nothing but condemnation preached. The ministry makes no distinction between saint and sinner.
When does Romans 5:1 become a reality? Therefore being declared and made righteous by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ministers do not preach this kind of peace in the present as they instead, often convey God's displeasure with us. This kind of peace is always preached to be for the future. When are we to find this glorious thing called Peace? When does 1 Corinthians 1:30 become true, that Jesus is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption? Is that to come to us at our death, or is it truth for us now?
For he made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. [2 Corinthians 5:21]
We know the first part is true--Jesus became our sin. But is the last part true? Are we righteous in the present life, or are we to become righteous after our death?
Is this righteousness simply "reckoned" or "imputed" to us, or do we BECOME righteous in Him? Is this righteousness an abstract truth, a theory or is it a present reality?
Is Jude 24 to be depended upon? Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Is that presence, of which He speaks here, before which we are to be set with exceeding joy--is that after our death or is it now? It seems very clear to me that we live in His presence now, that we walk in His presence now.
If He cannot present us "now" before His presence with exceeding joy, He certainly cannot present us before the presence of the Father after death with exceeding joy. If it requires OUR death to cleanse us from sin, we are left in an unhappy dilemma. It would indicate that God in His redemption was unable to give us victory through the death of His Son, but that He needed our death to complete His redemptive work.
What the Scripture says about us is absolutely true: that God Himself is our very righteousness, and that we are the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor, 5:21). We are partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). There is no condemnation to them who walk in the light as He is in the light.[Romans 8:1; 1 John 1:7]
The whole teaching of the modern church in regard to separation from the world is vague and illusive. One branch of the church has taught that after we are born again, we still have a "fallen nature" in us. That is the sin nature that came as a result of Adam's fall. This fallen nature has made us children of the devil. Jesus said, You are of your father the devil. [John 8:44] They acknowledge the fact that God has provided a new birth, but that His new birth is a flat failure. The only thing God can do is forgive us and give us a place in heaven after we die, but He cannot take the old nature out of us.
The whole thing is absurd. It is not true. It is not the Word. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is new creation. Old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. [2 Corinthians 5:17-18]
The one in Christ is not of Adam's race. Adam is the father and head of the race of fallen men, and Jesus is the Father and Head of the new creation. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. [1 Corinthians 15:22] A man cannot be in Christ and have Adam's fallen nature in him. He is either in the family of God or in the family of satan. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. [1 John 3:1]
There can be no real development of faith, no strong victorious Christian life with this mixed conception. We are either new creations or we are not. We have either passed from death to life or we have not. When He says, Sin shall not have dominion over you... [Romans 6:14] He means exactly what He says.
If you live a life of weakness and defeat, it is because you do not know who you are in Christ. Do not be condemned by this. Rather, that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.[Ephesians 1:18-23]
The supreme need of the church at this hour is to know what and who we are in Christ, how the Father looks upon us, and what He considers us to be. Read with great care Ephesians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
Colossians 1:21-22, And you, who were in the past alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.
This has already been done in Christ. You stand before Him complete in Christ.That He might present it [the church] to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. [Ephesians 5:27]
In the mind of most people this is true after our death. But that is not true. We are presented without spot or without wrinkle now. Do you think that any believer filled with sin (as that term is used as a noun referring to the nature of a person) could be in Christ and stand before Him without spot or wrinkle?
If He cannot take the sin nature out of us when we are born again, if the merits of the blood do not reach this and wipe it out, then when can we ever be made right? Certainly not when we die, for this would make Jesus' death unnecessary and His resurrection a failure.
I declare before the whole world, the angels in heaven, and all the hosts of hell that the redemptive work of God in Jesus Christ needs nothing more to make us complete in God's presence.
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