Saturday, May 14, 2005

As Born Again Christians, We Are Now "Totally Righteous!"

Not only do we receive forgiveness through faith in Christ, we ALSO receive righteousness - Christ's righteousness! Through faith in Christ, we exchange our UNrighteousness for His PERFECT righteousness!

Resting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ FREES us from the impossible task of trying to keep ourselves "clean" before God. Before you get all in an uproar, let's look at some Scriptures concerning the issue of righteousness.

Romans 3:21-22

" 21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction"

According to the Word above, it says that our "righteousness" comes from God alone, doesn't it? So, ask yourself, "Can I become righteous by observing the law?" If you came to the same conclusion I have, the answer will be "No!". And how do we attain righteousness if not by the law? The way I see it, it's "through faith in Jesus Christ to ALL that believe!

2 Corinthians 5:21

21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

To me, it just explained any better than right here. Plain and simply put, Christ had no sin. God made Christ to be sin on our behalf. Christ didn't take just a little of our sin... He didn't just take our past sin... No. He took "ALL" our sin, past, present and future. If He hadn't, WE'D STILL BE LOST!

Because of this "exchange", we became righteous before God. That is the only reason we will EVER be righteous before God! Through the "exchange and sacrifice" of and by Jesus Christ alone! Nothing I do, nothing you will ever do, nothing ANYONE does will ever bring about any sort of righteousness! It's ALL JESUS! The Word says, "In JESUS, we become the righteousness of God!"

So... This being said, if we have become righteous to God through Jesus Christ, how righteous are we? Now you're getting it! We are TOTALLY RIGHTEOUS through the "gift" of Christ!

Romans 4:5

5But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

Here, the scripture says that "God justifies" the who? The point the scripture is making here, is man cannot possibly be justified by any attempt of works. Rather justification comes only by trusting God, through the "accreditation of faith" to those who believe! Thus, a person cannot gain righteousness through good works, but to those that have "believe in faith", the righteousness we receive is nothing less than "God's Righteousness"! What a gift! Glory to God!

Romans 5:17

17For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Death reigned through the trespass of one man, meaning our spiritual outcome was death in hell if we do not believe in Christ. No one was left out. Every person who ever was, or is going to be, is affected but the actions of that one man.

But we, as believers, have been given a "gift" having received God's Grace: We have been "given" God's Righteousness! And, to "reign in life", means we are going to live forever!

Philippians 3:8-9

8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

Paul sternly states the case of Truth here. He has a name for "self-righteousness" that comes from only obeying the law - He called it "rubbish"! The righteousness that was of value to Paul, was that of God, through Christ only!

Who's righteousness would I rather have? God's, through Christ of course! The only way to receive the righteousness of God is by faith in Christ and His finished work at Calvary. To those of you that are reading this blog, are YOU willing to give up on your feeble efforts and "rest" in His free gift of righteousness today? Right now? This very instant?

Rest assured, that if you stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you are 100% acceptable to God! For sure! Period!

Ephesians 1:6

6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved

According to this verse, we ourselves cannot establish our acceptannce before God. The One who has gained us our "acceptance" is Jesus Christ alone! Again, "It's All Jesus!" And being accepted as righteous by God through Christ, we can now relate to Him in freedom, total willingness without dread, and with an everlasting "assurance" with total confidence that He is now our Father... from now on!

It is of the utmost importance we understand that the "Righteousness of God" is not just another gift He gives us. Righteousness is given in the form of a person, Jesus Christ the Righteous One!

Romans 1:16-17

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

Paul was not ashamed of the gospel because he knew it was the literal power of God. One of the many things the gospel reveals is that the "righteousness of God" IS Jesus Christ! You can receive the "Righteousness" of God by faith, and those that have received God's Righteousness are to live by "faith" also.

Are we all resting in the righteousness we have received as child of God? After 12 years, I can say I now am. I did not not realize for a very long time how so complete the work of Christ toward me and the world... the "finality" of the cross... But now, Bless God, I do!

Scripture is clear that no one will ever be declared righteous in God's sight through obedience to the law. So, God, in His grace and mercy, did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He imputed to us His righteousness by coming to live in us! "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption," (1 Corinthians 1:30). As a result, we stand in His presence totally accepted AND totally loved!

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi! I am a christian woman from Venezuela living in Spain. Thanks for these wonderful articles. I will be sharing them at church in our weekly study group (in spanish of course).
God bless, Patricia

10:48 AM  

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