Righteousness is Based on the Finished Work of Jesus
ICS Daily Devotions
Ephesians 4:24 (NKJV) and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
What is righteousness? Righteousness gives us the ability to stand in the presence of God the Father without feeling guilty, condemned or inferior, as if sin had never existed. Do you know how many people of other beliefs have sought this position or attainment but failed miserably? As believers in Jesus Christ, however, this is the treasure that God has given to us!
We can stand before God as if sin had never existed in our lives because Jesus has redeemed us with His blood. Righteousness is a standing of uprightness with God. It is a positional truth. In other words, it doesn’t mean we are perfect, but God chooses to see us as righteous in Christ. Righteousness is the blessing that is imputed to us upon salvation—a position we hold with our Heavenly Father as if we had never sinned. This position comes into effect after you have received Christ and become a new creation.
This righteous position is found in the new creation of the heart, inner man or spirit man. The Bible says that God created it in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, you are a new creation after you have been born again, seen as righteous and holy before God!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
The fact that you have been made righteous by faith means that in Christ, God now judges you as righteous, and you meet with His approval according to His standard of what is right.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Righteousness is the very reason for the plan of redemption. We cannot achieve anything before God through our own strength. God, in His abundant grace, allows His only begotten Son to be made sin for us, so that we may be hidden in Him. We have this right standing before God because of Jesus’ work of atonement. This righteousness comes from God and to us through faith in God. It allows us to have a restored fellowship with God—the same relationship that Adam had in the Garden of Eden before the Fall.
No one can attain righteousness except through Jesus Christ. The righteous live by faith in Jesus’ work of atonement. It is a reality for believers when we stand before God daily, and not a religion. Praise the Lord for His abundant grace that He has showered upon us through Jesus Christ! This truth about righteousness will help us to boast about the Lord and to make Him known, and it will draw us closer to God daily.
Sermon Series: Righteousness: Religion or Reality
