You are made in the image of God.
You are not God.
by
Dean Gotcher
You are not God. Only God is righteous in and of himself. Yet, you are made in the image of God. You can evaluate as He can evaluate. When you evaluate yourself and the world around you according to God and His Word, you are living as God created you to live, according to His will. But, if you evaluate God and His word according to yourself and the world around you, i.e. according to your opinion, i.e. how you "feel" and what you "think," or the opinions of others, i.e. how they "feel" and what they "think," you are living according to your will, or according to their will, you are living in sin. You are treating yourself as thought you are God (or others as thought they are God). Righteous in and of yourself (righteous in and of themselves).
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." 1 John 2:16
"If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Mathew 6:24
God is spirit, informing you of what is right and what is wrong. You are flesh, 'driving' by your "natural inclination" of approaching pleasure and avoiding pain, i.e. by nature seeking after the things of the world, in pleasure, in the moment. When you evaluate the world, yourself, and God and His Word from your own nature, i.e. from "human nature," you make flesh the standard from which to determine what is right and what is wrong from. If you are 'justifying' "human nature," i.e. carnal man as the standard from which to live by you will die in your sins.
"And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." John 8:23-24
"And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." 1 John 2:17
Righteousness can only be imputed by God to those of faith in the Him. It is only in the Lord that we can be 'redeemed' from the wrath of His Heavenly Father for our sins (receiving eternal damnation for evaluating ourselves and the world around us from our own nature, i.e. according to how we "feel" and "think," and acting as thought we are God), 'reconciling' us to His Heavenly Father, that we might have eternal life.
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12
Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2013-2015