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God’s Righteousness is Our Righteousness
Righteousness is defined thusly: The status of being in the right. Regarding presence, behavior, membership, plans, desires, wants, needs; all requirements are fulfilled.
The righteousness of God is defined thusly: The nature of God in being right in whatever He does, thinks, or plans, and in wherever He goes.
If you have the righteousness of God, then you have the rights of God.
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.
Are you 5 gallons thirsty? You’ll be filled. Are you a teacup thirsty? You’ll be filled. Are you an ocean thirsty? You’ll be filled. Are you a universe thirsty? You’ll be filled. Do you desire the rightness of being? You’ll be filled. By and in and through Jesus Christ!
Romans 1:16, 17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein (in the gospel of Christ) is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
The word just in verse 17 is the root word of the word righteousness.
Righteousness – the right you have of being who you are, where you are, and doing what you’re doing.
Before Adam & Eve sinned, they had no other knowledge than a simple knowing, and an experience of all the good things God had provided for them. Experiencing one another; simple, rewarding labor; provision; enjoyment of life. Life was literally a garden of experience. But when they chose to eat of the tree of the knowing of good and evil, here’s what happened.
Genesis 3:7-10 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where are you? And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.
So, lose your righteousness, and the first thing that happens is a sense of lack, of not belonging, of being wrong and being in the wrong.
Ever walk into a room full of people that you don’t know, and the volume level drops down, and everyone seems to stop what they’re doing and look at you? And you are frozen in fear with the thought…I don’t belong! Then you know what Adam felt that day in the garden. And, as a matter of fact, he didn’t belong, and God drove him out of the garden.
By the way….because God has established His very own righteousness in me, and in the process of doing that very thing; when I walk into a room of people like in the above example, and everyone stops and looks at me, I choose to good-naturedly think, “Well, I know I belong, but I’m not sure about any of you !!!” (I don’t say this, but I do very strongly assert this in my mind and heart).
II Corinthians 5:21 For He (God) has made him (Jesus Christ) to be sin for us; who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
This re-establishment of our righteousness was instigated by God, a long time before we were ever born.
Romans 3:20-26 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His (God’s) sight; for by the law is the knowing of sin. But now (today) the righteousness of God without (apart from) the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God, by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference (between Jew & Gentile); For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; Whom God has set forth a propitiation (repaid and restored) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, at this time, His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.
Oh please read these verses slowly, and again and again. What you do has nothing to do with your righteousness! What !!!???!!! That isn’t how I was raised, probably not how you were raised. Growing up, our rightness had everything to do with how we behaved…..and, how we behaved never seemed to be good enough, did it?
Here, God is saying that what Jesus did is enough. And what Jesus did, is enough for everyone who believes on what God did in Christ for us. Oh, please……….just believe that. Jesus is enough. Christ is all you need, and you are absolutely, positively, wonderfully, eternally right before God!!
Knowing you are right before God keeps you from being stolen from. If you find yourself in a place you don’t think you belong, you’ll be open and susceptible to whatever anyone says or does…..including lying to you and stealing from you.
When I grew up, my dad was a doctor. We belonged to the city Country Club. They had a world class 18 – hole golf course. And on certain days, we teenagers could golf. I remember one day I and my friend, Michael, who’s father also belonged to the club, were just set to tee off on the first hole, when a party of 4 adult men came up to the tee, and told us to get away from there, because they were about to golf. Well, I was old enough, and full enough of piss and vinegar, that I looked at them and said, “Sorry, but we have a right to be here, and you guys can just wait for us.” And we went right ahead and golfed, and those 4 men waited for us. I asserted my right, and there was nothing they could do.
You have rights before God, in Christ. First of all, you have the right to be. That is huge!!!
Become rooted in the righteousness of Christ within. In Christ, you have the same rights as God Himself.
In Christ, you have the right to act. To make mistakes and try again. Yes! The right to try again. The right to hold your head up high in the presence of God, as well as in the presence of God’s enemies. That includes Satan, and all the unbelievers in the world.
So, where does the idea of “Watch your witness” come from? (Watch how you act in front of unbelievers). Not from God, that’s for sure. It’s one of Satan’s lies, meant to steal away from you the gift of your righteousness…..your right standing before God.
When Christ was being tortured and killed, do you think he hung his head in shame? No. He held his head up high, for he was the righteousness of God.
I Corinthians 1:30 But of him (God) are you in Christ Jesus, who by God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;
The new creation (that which each one of us is, in Christ) was created by God Himself. And every work of God is righteous, because God is righteous.
Ephesians 4:24 And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Romans 8:3,4 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (of Christ).
In, and because of the work of, Christ Jesus our Lord, we have been made into the quality of righteousness itself, for we are the nature of God himself. As such, we have the rights of God Himself. We are born out of God Himself. And all this work was instigated and is carried out by God Himself, through His son Jesus Christ.
It is on the foundation of our righteousness before God, that God is free to bestow all his good generosity upon us, and through us toward others.
Romans 5:21 That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by (means of) Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus Christ is our righteousness. Forget trying to do it yourself….be good enough in the eyes of God. Rather, humble yourself before God and accept this glorious truth, that God has given you His very own nature. Righteousness. As a gift! You have God’s right to be. You have God’s right to do. You have God’s right to do, and then do again!
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See related studies:
Justified, what it means
What EXACTLY God wants from you.
The Need To Be Right.
Morality versus Godliness
The Law vs. Faith
Dead to the Law
The Law of God
