“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
One day, I asked a born again gentleman: “Are you righteous?” He paused to think for a while and replied, “I’m working on it.”
“So, how are you going to know when you’re finally righteous?” I quizzed him further. At that point, he didn’t know what more to say. Like that gentleman, many Christians don’t think they are righteous because they equate righteousness with right-living. They look at their actions to rate their righteousness. But there’s a difference between the two concepts.
The Bible says “…if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). When you received Christ into your heart, God gave you righteousness as a gift. It’s not something you worked for. Righteousness is the nature of God that is imparted to your human spirit that produces in you the ability to stand before God without guilt, inferiority or condemnation. Righteousness is the nature of God that makes Him God, and since the righteousness you received is the same one God has, it means you’re as righteous as God is righteous.
Understand that you can’t grow in righteousness because it’s your nature. Right living, on the other hand, is the product of righteousness. No man could live right until he’s first of all righteous; God can only require a man to live right only after that man has been made righteous. This is the reason He imparted righteousness to you freely. The ability to do the right things can only flow naturally from a righteous spirit. Now, some of your actions may still be imperfect but that doesn’t in any way impact on your righteousness. What you need do is get the Word of God into you and righteousness will find expression through your actions.
Reiterating this a little bit more, when you were born again, you became as righteous as Jesus is. You can’t be more righteous on a particular day than you are right now, for God’s righteousness is perfect which is what you already have in Christ—and you can’t improve on perfect. That righteousness is in your spirit, and it produces in you right living—the ability to do right!
Prayer
Dear Father, thank you for imparting righteousness into my spirit, thereby making it possible for me to live and function rightly in life. That righteousness has brought precision and excellence into my life, enabling me to do the right thing always, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Further Study
Romans 5:18-19
2 Corinthians 5:21
(Taken by permission from Christ Embassy Church , aka Believer’s LoveWorld Ministries , Lagos, Nigeria. www.ChristEmbassy.org )
