As sons of the Most High God, it is important that we learn and believe what God’s Word tells us we have been given in Christ Jesus. One aspect of what we have been given in Christ is righteousness. God through Jesus Christ has legally paid the full redemptive price for the sins of mankind, making it available for anyone to be born again of God’s spirit and spiritually righteous before God now and forever.
God’s Word lays out very plainly the righteousness that believers have legally been given in the new birth when we confessed Jesus as lord and believed in our heart that God has raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9,10). God’s righteousness is one of the sonship rights we received when we were born again. God’s gift of holy spirit is eternal life; we cannot lose that spirit, and it is totally by grace. God’s desire is and always has been to justify His children and not to condemn them (Romans 8:33). Before we go to God’s Word to understand more about His righteousness, let’s first define it. Righteousness is the God-given justification whereby a born-again believer stands in the presence of God without any consciousness of sin, guilt, or shortcomings.
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.
We can have a righteous mind-set all the time because we have been “made the righteousness of God” in Christ Jesus. As believers, we have the righteousness of God now. Therefore, we do not need to condemn ourselves for our past sins or current weaknesses and shortcomings. We have been set free from the unjust accusations that our adversary, the Devil, tries to put on us, tempting us to think less of ourselves than what God has declared that we really are.
This righteousness, which we now have from God, could not be earned by the works of man. Only at the cost of God’s only begotten Son’s life could this be accomplished. The righteousness we now have as sons of the Most High God has nothing to do with any of man’s meager attempts through the flesh to become justified and righteous before Him.
Philippians 3:9:
…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.
It is not necessary for us to try to earn what God has already accomplished through Christ. Our righteousness is totally by grace; it is a gift from God.
Ephesians 2:8,9:
For by grace are ye saved through faith [the faith of Jesus Christ]; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
God is a God of order and of complete justice. So, when Adam sinned and mankind lost the spiritual connection with God, God had to restore that connection on totally legal grounds. It was through His only begotten Son that God accomplished this. Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, took the sin of mankind upon himself so that we might be made the righteous of God in Christ Jesus. And the way God set it up is that once people are born again, they can never lose their spiritual connection with God and they can never lose their spiritual righteousness.
I Peter 2:24:
Who [Jesus Christ] his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness….
As born-again believers, let us enjoy the righteousness that we have been given, which is totally by grace, as we stand in the presence of God without any consciousness of sin, guilt, or shortcomings.