Acts 24:25 "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come..."

Finding a balance in the whole of Scripture rests on these three pillars - righteousness, temperance and the judgment to come. Understanding the role each plays in the work of God helps us see as God sees. My opinion is worthless if it does not align with God's purposes. As is any opinion proposed by anyone if that opinion does not consider the whole counsel of Scripture. We can all be well meaning and as sincere as we know how to be but at the end of the day we will all be judged by our own works in that "judgment to come" where not only actions are brought to light but also the hidden intentions and motivations of the heart.

1 Corinthians 4:5 ...Until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts...

The Bible reveals that God is a God of purpose and order. When anything is operating outside of that purpose and order - either spirits or mankind - God has a remedy to restore all that exists back into alignment with His singular purpose and order. Allowing for anything else is the formula for a continued chaos and disorder.

The creation of this current earth was born out of chaos and disorder as a demonstration and example of God's supremacy and ultimate control over what began as the empty void of darkness and chaos. God spoke and it was. That single statement is the bedrock foundation of all creation and everything else that exists throughout all eternity.

This is no small thing because right here it establishes His Headship and our accountability to His authority - that includes both spirits and mankind. Both who were originally created as moral righteous agents. All was originally created in righteousness.

Righteousness

Righteousness concerns what is right before God and, ultimately, God's work of making right what went wrong. It includes God's own righteousness, the righteousness revealed in Jesus Christ, justification by faith, forgiveness and reconciliation, and the new life produced in those who have been joined to Christ. See (Romans 1:16–17; 3:21–26; 5:17–19; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

It therefore includes grace, but righteousness is larger than a message of grace alone. Grace describes God's favor and the means by which undeserving people are received; righteousness describes the right order into which that grace brings them. It is not merely the cancellation of guilt while leaving a person unchanged, nor is it human beings establishing their own righteousness by keeping rules. In Christ, God deals with sin judicially and reconciles us to Himself so that righteousness can actually characterize the life lived that follows.

The Angel told Daniel that Christ's mission was: “to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:24). What was disordered by the serpent through Adam begins to be set right and reversed through Christ. God is righteous and His order holds those who are restored to that righteousness.

2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

1 John 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Knowing He is Righteous leads us to accountability to His righteousness. That accountability leads to the restoration to His purposes and order in your life. Which now brings us to the second pillar.

Temperance

Temperance, or self-control, concerns how a person lives after being brought under the government of God. The Greek enkrateia carries the idea of mastery or restraint over one's desires and impulses. It is therefore much broader than abstaining from one particular vice. It concerns who governs the life.

The flesh once ruled through its own desires, but the person who has received the Spirit is learning to walk according to another government. That government is The Kingdom of God. Let the abundance of counsel speak and please allow my extensive reference.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Romans 6:12-14 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Romans 8:13-14 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Galatians 5:16-25 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Significantly, temperance is itself part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). It is not asceticism, self-punishment, or an attempt to earn righteousness through discipline. Neither is Christian liberty permission to remain governed by fleshly desires and appetites. Paul could say, “All things are lawful unto me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Temperance is therefore righteousness becoming visible in conduct: my will, appetites, ambitions, possessions, speech, relationships, and even my liberty are brought under Christ.

This willingness to bring every aspect of our lives into the subjection of Christ is the fruit beginning to show itself. The fruit that reverses what Satan started. Satan started out as righteous and "perfect" according to Ezekiel 28

Eze 28:15  Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 

But that iniquity that was found in him turns out to be the first record of one turning from the purposes and order of God to follow his own personal desires as found in Isaiah 14:

Isaiah 14:13-14 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

This set of "I will" desires originated in his heart and with the temptation and fall of Adam - mankind became participants in that break from the purposes and order of God. So the dividing line was created between all those who choose to live by the personal aspirations of "I will" versus all those following Christ into the restored order of “not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42)

So it is worthy of repeating the counsel of scripture:

1 John 2:29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God...

Whosoever does not righteousness is not of God.... The God who is the very source of life and existence. Can separation from life and existence continue? What is outside of life and existence? Only non-existence and permanent death. Is that where you want to be? Well... speaking for myself - NOPE! This world may not be much but at minimum it shows me there are things worth living for. When we bring God into the mix He shows me His Kingdom is worth both living and dying for and that is the entire basis for temperance.

Temperance tells me to live by "Not my will, but thine, be done" and that for all practical purposes kills "I will" and reverses our status as slaves to sin.

Romans 6:7-8 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

For those who refuse temperance then judgment follows.

Judgment to Come

Judgment to come declares that God's present work has an appointed destination. The Cross was itself a decisive judgment upon sin and the prince of this world (John 12:31–32; Colossians 2:14–15), but Scripture also speaks unmistakably of a judgment still to come. God “hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness” by Jesus Christ (Acts 17:31), and every person will ultimately give account before Him (Romans 2:5–11; 14:10–12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). This judgment includes accountability, recompense, the revealing of what has been hidden, the removal of evil, and the final establishment of God's righteous order.

Yet it should not be reduced to the message, “God is going to punish sinners.” Daniel 7 presents judgment as both the condemnation of the beastly dominion and a verdict “given to the saints,” after which the saints possess the kingdom.

Daniel 7:21-27 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. 23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

Judgment therefore has two sides: what opposes God's order is removed, while what belongs to His purpose is vindicated and established. Judgment's final horizon is the destruction of every opposing rule and even death itself, until all things are subjected and “God may be all in all”.

1 Corinthians 15:24-28 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

This is the remedy and reversal of the one "I will" born in the heart of one angel which then got transmitted forward into other angels and humanity. The history of creation demonstrates that "I will" and His will cannot coexist permanently. With the whole point being to teach all free will moral agents there is only one True God by whom life and continued existence can be attained. Amen.

At the end of the day, the “end of sin” promised in Daniel 9:24 is fulfilled when the wrong choices and consequences of sin are fully brought to light and revealed for what they are - a path to destruction. Then we can know why we do not want that path any longer. That revealing through the judgment of God gives us a perspective we did not have before. God's word had declared where disobedience would lead, but the serpent offered another interpretation, and mankind chose to believe the lie without yet comprehending the full fruit of that choice. Judgment removes the deception by bringing everything into the light. It imparts God's perspective and wisdom to free moral agents so that, having seen sin for what it truly is and where it ultimately leads, we can say that we do not want it. We do not want what was offered as a choice, because it has finally been revealed to be a lie, fruitless and ending in death. Having seen the end from God's perspective, the conclusion can arise willingly from within: we will sin no more. Then the purpose reaches its consummation: “that God may be all in all” - that life and existence according to the purpose and order of God may be all.

How the Three Are One Message

These three truths are inseparable because righteousness establishes the order, temperance teaches us to live within that order, and judgment brings that order to its final manifestation. Righteousness without temperance can deteriorate into a message in which grace excuses what Christ came to transform. Temperance without righteousness becomes legalism, man's attempt to govern himself into acceptance with God. Judgment without righteousness and temperance becomes little more than a message of fear and punishment. But together they present the whole movement of the Gospel: God makes right through Christ; the Spirit teaches us to live according to what God has made right; and judgment ultimately removes everything that remains contrary to that righteousness. Grace belongs within this whole picture. Grace brings us into what we could never accomplish ourselves, teaches us how to live once there (Titus 2:11–14), and carries us toward the completion of God's purpose.

There is consequently a past, present, and future dimension to Paul's three subjects. Righteousness looks especially toward the accomplished work of Christ; temperance describes our present participation in and submission to that work; judgment looks toward its consummation.

Yet none is confined exclusively to one period. Christ's righteousness is presently being manifested, self-government under the Spirit anticipates the coming Kingdom, and the judgment accomplished at the Cross guarantees the judgment and victory still to be manifested. This may explain why Paul could summarize his reasoning before Felix with these three subjects. He was not merely telling Felix how to “get saved.” He was declaring an entire divine order: what God has made right, how man must now live under that reality, and what God will finally do with everything that refuses His order.

In that sense, Acts 24:25 can almost be read as a miniature map of the work of God:

Righteousness — the order restored.
Temperance — the life brought under that order.
Judgment — everything contrary to that order finally removed.

The Gospel then becomes considerably larger than “grace alone.” Grace is indispensable, but grace serves God's greater purpose. We are not merely forgiven from something; we are reconciled unto Someone, brought under His government, transformed into His likeness, and carried toward a creation in which nothing remains contrary to Him. The story that began with man's departure from God's order in Eden therefore ends not simply with forgiven people, but with God's order completely restored: “Then cometh the end” (1 Corinthians 15:24)

Until at last!

“God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). And All is Made Right!