Abundant Grace Fellowship
Are You As Righteous As God?
Are You As Righteous As God?
By Pastor J.D. Link
Abundant
“Heretic! Blasphemy! You, as righteous as God? Why, the very thought of it!” I know this may sound like a strange question, but before you decide I need to be dragged outside the city gates and stoned, I’d like us to look into The Word of God and see what it has to say about our righteousness.
First, let’s define righteousness. Strong’s conc. says “equity in character or act; Christian justification.” Thayer’s Gk. Lx. defines it as “integrity, virtue, purity of life; in a broad sense: the state of him who is as he ought to be, righteousness, the condition acceptable to God.” In other words, right standing before a holy God. So according to the New Testament, if you are righteous, then you are in right standing with God. Now the question one might ask is “Am I already righteous?” The next question may be “If I’m not, how do I go about obtaining this righteousness?”
To answer the first question, if you have not committed your life to Christ and received Him as your Lord and Savior, You are not righteous. You might think you are, and you might do some righteous things, but you are not righteous. In fact, outside of Christ, all your righteousness is as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). “There is none righteous, no not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10, 23) [unfortunately, these verses are too often addressed to Christians, instead of unbelievers]. Again, while it’s good to do acts of righteousness, they will not make you righteous. Righteousness is a spiritual reality, not just an outward action (although outward actions should result from it). 2Cor 6:14 says for believers not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? Notice believers are called righteousness, unbelievers are called unrighteousness. Believers are called light, unbelievers are called darkness. This clearly speaks of a spiritual condition; something we are, not something we do (2Cor. 5:21).
The next question is how do we obtain righteousness. Romans 5:17 says that righteousness is a gift. You can’t work for gifts, you can only receive them. You might say “Well, I’ve done this deed and I’ve done that righteous act.” The people who were told by Jesus to depart from Him, He never knew them, said the same thing (Mt. 7:22-23). My friend, do not try to earn right standing with God by your works. The Word says if you do, you frustrate the grace of God, and Jesus’ death was for nothing (Gal. 2:21); that Christ profits you nothing, He has become of no effect unto you, you are obligated to keep the whole law, and you have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:2-4); that you are ignorant of God’s righteousness (Rom. 10:3); and you will not be justified (Rom. 3:20-28; Gal. 2:16). Do you still want to try to earn your righteousness? I believe I’ll take the free gift.
So, are you as righteous as God? In your flesh, absolutely not. We must know that in us (that is, in our flesh) dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18). Jesus said the flesh profits nothing (Jn. 6:63).We must also know, though, that we are not just flesh. We are spirit, soul, and body (1Thess. 5:23).You, in your spirit, if you are a born-again Christian, are the righteousness of God in Christ (2Cor 5:21). Why? Because your righteousness is not your own! It is Gods! In Isaiah 54:17, God says our righteousness is of Him. It’s His own righteousness that he gives us as a gift. Paul says in Phi. 3:9 that we are found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God by faith! Righteousness has been imputed to us, which means God’s righteousness has been put on our account or reckoned to us (Rom. 4:11, 22-24). It is ours! That is awesome! Praise be to God our Father in heaven that we don’t have to stand before Him in our own righteousness, but in His righteousness! That, my friend, is why we can come boldly unto the throne of grace! That is why we are seated at God’s right hand this very moment in Christ (Eph. 1:20, 2:6). God gave us His righteousness! My goodness, if that doesn’t light your fire, your wood is soaking wet! Until next time, rejoice in the Lord! (Phi. 4:4)