We Are Righteous

I have talked about being set free of sin and now I want to talk about our righteousness in Christ.  When we were born-again we were covered by the righteousness of Christ.  The problem is many of us struggle with believing that it is true.  

When many of us look at our lives objectively all we see, for the most part, is our sin.  We are prone to think more negatively than positively about ourselves.  Many times instead of accepting a compliment we reject it because of our low opinion of ourselves.  But thank the Lord He doesn’t see us the way we or even others do.  We see our sin, but the Lord is so holy and righteous that He sees the blood because He can’t even look at sin.  

Don’t get me wrong, the Lord never condones sin He always judges it and corrects us if we do sin because He loves us.  Before we became believers, our righteousness was related to as filthy rags because we were totally unrighteous.  All the things that degenerated man accomplished in himself was only human effort and the Lord was not pleased with it.  Many times it resulted in arrogance, pride and self-exaltation and we know that God resists the proud and draws to the humble.  

When we humble ourselves admitting we need the Lord and His wisdom, knowledge, mercy, grace and forgiveness and we repent of and confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness, praise His Name!  We then become God’s children and we are covered with His righteousness.  Never forget, a man is never made righteous because of what he has done, but only because of what Christ did on Calvary.

I want to say to everyone who thinks their works before their conversion are giving them brownie points with the Lord, you are sadly mistaken and someday you will find that your good intentions only caused you to be separated from the Lord.  The Word says this in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” One of the problems here was these people thought they could get to heaven by their good works.  No matter how many good things or works you perform they will never be good enough.  The second problem was that Jesus never knew them on a personal level.

In the book of Romans, Paul spoke a lot about this subject of justification and righteousness, here are a few verses to read on the subject, they are found in Romans 4:1-8, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter?  If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.  What does the Scripture say?  ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’  Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:  Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

The Word also says in Romans, “the just shall live by faith.”  Where do we get this faith?  It is imparted to us by God.  Everything we need to be righteous, comes from God, even faith.  So stop thinking negatively about yourselves, God loves you and He sees you as righteous if you are one of His children through rebirth.  I hope what you read will encourage you and be a help to you.  May God bless you and yours and may you have a great day!!