You Are Righteous Now
You Are Righteous Now
Many born-again believers are spiritually defeated in
this life because of sin-consciousness. They have been
saved, but Satan comes to their minds and tells them
they are not good enough for salvation because of the
many years they lived in sin. This spiritual antagonism
and defeat comes when a person does not realize what
has been given to him by Jesus Christ. When a person
becomes a Christian, he is legally made righteous in
Christ.
What is righteousness? Righteousness is the God-given
justification whereby a person stands in the presence of
God without any consciousness of sin, guilt or shortcomings.*
Righteousness is something God imparts; it
is something God gave to you when you were born
again, when you confessed with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believed God raised Him from the dead.†
Even though believers receive righteousness when they
are born again, many people for lack of teaching still
think that they are unworthy to receive the goodness of
God. This satanic belief keeps driving deeper and deeper
into their subconscious minds. If my being worthy of God
depended upon my own strength, I would be a great
failure. I know that I am weak in myself and I know
that I am unworthy in myself, but Christ has made me
worthy. So, no matter how I feel or what my feeble
mind tells me, I am strong and in Him I am worthy.
Ever since man was created, he has tried to work out
his own righteousness and tried to do the kind of work
which would make himself look good in the sight of
God. The basic cry of the heart of man is to be righteous
before God; so many Christians do all kinds of
work to obtain righteousness, such as confessing their
sins, teaching Sunday School classes and keeping the
ten commandments. Yet these good works do not make
a person righteous. Righteousness is obtained from God
through the faith of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:9:
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is
through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith [believing].
Your tears, your toil and all your prayers—your good
works—will avail nothing. Righteousness is not by the
cross that you bear, but by the cross that Jesus Christ
bore for you. The righteousness of God is given to
every believer, not of works, but by God’s grace which
is divine favor.
II Corinthians 5:21:
For he [God] hath made him [Jesus Christ] to be
sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him.
God made Jesus Christ to be sin for us. Jesus, who
knew no sin, took our sin upon Himself so that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Everything Adam lost in the fall, Jesus Christ regained
for the believer when He died upon the cross.** Jesus
Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God.
Today there is no longer a question of the sin problem.
The sin problem was settled in Jesus Christ. What
remains is the sinner’s problem. A sinner, when he accepts
Jesus Christ as Lord, must renew his mind to
believe The Word that he is righteous, and as a son of
God he will no longer worry, fear or feel unworthy. He
will simply have confidence that he is worthy through
Christ Jesus.
Many denominations have erroneously taught that a
person can be righteous one minute and unrighteous the
next; and if that person does not become righteous again
before his death, he will miss heaven and end up in hell.
This is not true. When God made us righteous in Christ
Jesus over nineteen hundred years ago, we had nothing
to do with it. When the Spirit of God in Christ is born
within us, we are at that moment and forevermore righteous.
We receive the nature of God which makes us
righteous right then and there.
Romans 3:22-25:
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:
for there is no difference:
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 hath set forth to be a propitiation [payment]
through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
though the forbearance of God.
You cannot and I cannot earn this righteousness. God
in Christ Jesus was made righteousness unto you over
nineteen hundred years ago. So why do you still say, “I
am an unrighteous person” if you are born again?
I Corinthians 1:30:
But of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption.
You are not an unrighteous person if you are born of
God for you have been made righteous; you have been
given wisdom; you have been sanctified and you have
been redeemed. I call this a gospel of deliverance. Neither
you nor I by our own efforts can achieve this; it
was “made unto us,” done for us.
Romans 5:8:
But God commendeth [favorably introduced] his
love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Christ died for us, not when we were good enough,
but when we were bad enough to need Him. And in
making us righteous, Jesus Christ also spared us from
future tribulation.
Romans 5:9:
Much more then, being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him [Christ].
How I love to teach this gospel of deliverance and
righteousness. When you know you are righteous in Him,
believe. When you believe the Word of God, you know
that your life is in Him; then no fear, worry and guilt
can frustrate and defeat you. For a believer there is no
want, there is no poverty, there is no sickness, there is
no defeat because these were overcome by way of Jesus
Christ. You can be released from your bondage today if
you but believe the Word of God. You must have confidence
toward God.
I John 3:20, 21:
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than
our heart, and knoweth all things.
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we
confidence toward God.
So long as man’s heart, his innermost being, is condemning
or accusing him for any reason, he cannot get
answers to prayer because he does not have confidence
toward God. He cannot believe and accept the simple
promises of God’s Word. Those who are righteous in
Christ Jesus and who know that they are righteous have
no reason to fear. They can have confidence toward God
and therefore think and live victoriously.