I’ve been a Christian my entire life, but it took over 20 years for me to begin to truly embrace the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, I had asked Jesus into my heart to be my Savior, but I didn’t understand my new identity in Christ. What my heart heard all those years was what I needed “to do” to be righteous enough to earn God’s promised blessings and approval.
You know why that’s not good news? If you and I have to depend on our perfect obedience to be righteous and worthy of God’s promised blessings than we’re all disqualified. We’ve all disobeyed God. We we’re all declared sinners. That’s why we needed a Savior. We could never be righteous by our own good works, so Jesus proved His love for us by giving us His perfect righteousness as a free gift. That’s the reason He went to the cross to make it possible for us all to be made righteous in Him (Isaiah 53:3-11)
The Message of Good News is the Gift of Righteousness!
II Corinthians 5:19-21 says, “He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God. For God made Christ who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
What does it mean to be given this wonderful gift of righteousness? Righteousness means to be declared innocent, free from guilt, and justified; the person justified is declared to be entitled to all the advantages and rewards arising from perfect obedience to the law. It is the crediting to the believer by God Himself the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:17 tells us that, “those who receive the gift of righteousness will reign in life through Jesus Christ.
What about “it’s a gift,” did I not understand for so many years? I don’t have to work for it. I don’t have to earn it. Jesus paid for this gift for me with His blood. All I have “to do” is receive it and enjoy all the benefits of it. Jesus gave you and I His very nature and qualified us for every promised blessing of God by giving us His perfect righteousness as a free gift of His love. All the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen” in our lives because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
I no longer listen to those sermons that tell me there are 5 steps to prosperity, healing, answered prayer, etc. I’ve been made righteous in Jesus and I qualify because of Him. I am abundantly blessed, healed, favored, approved, and victorious in Jesus. Righteousness is the greatest gift of love ever given and I am so thankful for what my Jesus did for me!
I like the fact, that I am qualified as righteous, by Jesus, from hereon in. I don't have to concern myself that this gift will ever be taken away from me. We all know that if we try in our own strength to be good -- to be righteous -- it only lasts for so long, until we make the next mistake, or misstep, and let me tell you, the devil is always there to trip you up. That's why I love the fact that Jesus made me righteous. I don't have to and will never have to qualify for this blessing because Jesus qualified me for it! It has nothing and never will have anything to do with my own efforts. So, now I can rest easy, knowing that I am righteous, and if I do make a mistake I can turn to Jesus and let Him remind me that He made me righteous. I don't have to wallow in self-pity, or punish myself for my failure. I can just look to Him and say, "thank You, Jesus," for making me righteous. Then I can dust myself off if I've made a mistake, and let His gentle hand lead me in the paths of righteousness. "The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time." Prov. 24:16 NLT
ReplyDeleteRose, Thank you for sharing that this gift will never be taken away from us even when we do wrong. That's what makes it so wonderful! It was not earned by our good works, so it's not taken away when we fail.
ReplyDeleteWhat security we can live in. We are righteous yesterday, today, and forever because of the sacrifice of our Savior. He must really love us :)
What a big difference between telling someone, "Come back to God. He has done everything necessary to make you perfect in His sight" or "Come to God so you can work every day to attempt do something well enough to impress the Creator of the universe." Which invitation is Good News?
ReplyDeleteI'll take your first offer of good news Shannan! Come back to God, He's done everything necessary to make me perfect!
ReplyDeleteMost of my Christian life, I too did not realize that the Good News really was that I was righteous. I also thought that getting the blessings of Abraham was one of the main goals of the Christian life and that those blessings were everything listed in Deuteronomy 28. It was only when I went through the "Because of Jesus" Bible study that I learned that the blessing that we all heard so many sermons about was actually righteousness!! And, it was His perfect righteousness that qualified me for everything that I was working to get! What wonderful amazing news! Excuse me now while I go rest!
I choose not to read the bible, because it is a very old book and not very relevant to modern times. I think that using modern knowledge is a better way of being good people in this world. By the same token, I wouldn't take medical advice from a 1000 year old medical journal, and I wouldn't navigate the globe with a map of a flat earth.
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