ICS Daily Devotions
Made Righteous in Christ
Eph 1:4 Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
We are without blame or blameless before God. These verses talk about positional truth in Christ regarding our God looks at us in Christ. Blameless means to be free from faultiness. This picture reminds one of the Old Testament sacrificial animal which was required to be free of defects. Under Jewish law before an animal could be offered as a sacrifice it must have been inspected, and if any blemish was found, it must have been rejected as unfit for an offering to God. It was used literally of the absence of defects in sacrificial animals and figuratively of the Lamb of God as unblemished.
Just as Jesus Christ was the spotless lamb of God. We have become blameless or spotless in Christ. It has nothing to do with us, but it has everything to do with Christ’s redemptive work. Thus, it causes us to be hidden in Him and blameless. Do not close your prayers with the unworthy sinners’ prayer that shows your dependency on yourself or on the old creation of Adam. We can come to God and should be living a victorious Christian life by believing that we have God’s nature in us and that we are in Christ, thus making us worthy to approach the throne of grace to find help and mercy. Having faith that we are able to come before God is because we are blameless before God in Christ.
2 Cor 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God IN HIM.
We stand righteous before God in Christ, as we become the very righteousness of God when we are in Him. It means the ability to come boldly before the Father without a sense of guilt, without a sense of sin, without a sense of failure or inferiority. Just as if you have never sinned. We stand blameless or above reproach because we are in Christ. It is about Him, not about ourselves.
We are made righteous. For instance, a pulpit is made to be a pulpit. It can’t help being anything else but a pulpit. Similarly, we are made righteous. It has nothing to do with us – and everything to do with Him. It is being in Him that makes us righteous, not our own good works. No dead works should be practiced.
Jesus bore our sins to the cross, that we might now receive His Righteousness. It was the Great Exchange that took place. He identified with us, that we might identify with Him. He took our sins, that we might receive His righteousness. The status of His righteousness imputed on us is supposed to evoke His holiness within us. We still need to walk out these truth about His righteousness in our daily walk by having our minds renewed!
Righteousness is different to holiness. Righteousness has to do with your talk, holiness has to do with your walk. Righteousness is your standing before God, holiness is your standing for God. Righteousness cannot be increased by you because it has nothing to do with your works. The level of holiness can be increased in your life, and outworked in your actions. In other words, righteousness is legal, holiness is practical. Righteousness is a gift, holiness is an action. Every Christian is made righteous by Jesus, but not every Christian is walking in holiness! Be aware that there should be fruit in a Christian’s life! Part of that fruit that is produced is holiness. Let therefore righteousness and holiness go hand in hand in our lives.
Series: Our Identity in Christ
