The Righteousness of God in Christ part 1

The righteousness of God is such a vital subject for us to understand.
And yet for so many Christians their understanding of this powerful truth is limited to the perspective that God is wholly Righteous and Just, and that they are unworthy and unrighteous.
And if they have any comprehension of the Righteousness of God it tends to be in mostly legal terms-God has forgiven them through Jesus and now reckons them as righteous.
Very few have any conviction that they actually are righteous.
In fact for many Christians it would seem almost an anathema to say "I am the righteousness of God"
Such a statement would seem presumptuous.
One of the chief ploys of the enemy of our souls satan, is to attempt to obscure our true identity as a child of God.
If a persons identity can be obscured or distorted then that person can be more easily misled. Or to put it more bluntly if we are lied to about our identity that we can be more easily enslaved.
That is why Paul the apostle in the book of Galatians is so white hot in his anger at the attempt of those with a religious spirit to usurp the true calling and identity of the christians in the Galatians church.
They had been called to freedom but were being led back into bondage.
They had become new creations but were being bewitched into observance to the works of the law again.
If a christian becomes convinced of their identity in Christ Jesus and of Christ Jesus inheritance in them, then they will be free to act in accordance with the truth of who they really are and satans lies will be far more easily exposed.
It is important for us to understand that in the old testament when God revealed himself as Jehovah it was through a series of divine encounters in which he demonstrated his redemptive nature.
What do I mean by this?
Simply this.That when God revealed his redemptive names it was in order to show us not just what he is like but what he wants to be to us and for us.
For example when he revealed himself as Jehovah rapha or the Lord who heals you,it was not merely to demonstrate that he is by nature a healing God,but to enter into a covenant with us to be our healer personally.
Or when he revealed himself to be Jehovah shalom or the Lord our peace it was in order to be to us our peace.
Alternatively when he reveled himself to be Jehovah jireh or the Lord will provide it was to establish that he would always be our ultimate source in this life of needed provision.
So in actuality when God was revealing himself as Jehovah-(which he did through different attribute names)he was revealing his names in covenant context, "this is who I am, this is what I am like and this is what I want to be in you and for you"
It is not a picture of God standing aloof from us,but rather of joining that aspect of his redemptive nature to us to be that for us in his power and in his love.
Marriage is I suppose the nearest earthly institution which we have to understanding this(because God gave it as the closest covenant relationship between a man and a women)
We do not enter into marriage in order to merely admire and be impressed by the qualities of the one whom we are marrying,but in order to share and partake of that person,and let those qualities minister to us and cover us in love.
How much more is this the case with the Lord who is a covenant keeping God.
In the old testament the Lord revealed his name as the Lord our righteousness or Jehovah Jireh.
It was not as the Lord who is righteous but as the Lord our righteousness.
There are two qualities that are equally important for us to nurture and to grow in in our christian lives,but which some Christians sometimes struggle to reconcile as if they are mutually exclusive.
They are the qualities of faith and of humility.In reality these two qualities go virtually hand in hand.
Humility is our willing acceptance of and submission to the word of God.
If the word of God says that I have been made the righteousness of God than I accept that even if it goes against my own feelings or opinion about the matter.
That is the very essence of humility to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God with regard to that which he has said.
Faith is the readiness of heart to believe what God has said and to simply act upon it.
Some people therefore misguidedly imagine that they are being of a humble frame of mind when they refer to themselves as miserable worms and unworthy sinners not realizing that they are not seeing themselves in the light of what the new testament says that they are.
And the way that God sees us is based entirely upon the revelation of Christs death burial and resurrection; of what Christ has done for us and who he is in us, and who we are in him.
Why would we want to hold onto the old identity tags of what we once were before we met Christ when by the sheer mercy and grace of God we are now new men and new women,made alive together with Christ and raised up together and made to sit together with him in Christ Jesus.?
It is not a lack of humility to say these things but rather the boldness of faith which is pleasing to God.
In the new testament the Apostle Paul introduces this theme of the "Righteousness of God"in the book of Romans chp 3 in the following statement.

"But now the righteousness of God without or apart from the law is revealed,being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe:for there is no difference;
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God;
To declare ,I say at this time his righteousness;
that he might be righteous and the righteousness of him that believes in Jesus."

The same Greek word which is translated justice or justification is also the word for righteous or righteousness and can be equally translated both ways.
Personally I find it more helpfull to translate it righteous and righteousness in this passage, for instance in v26" that he might be righteous and the righteousness of him that believes in Jesus",as opposed to that he might be just and the justifier, although both translations are accurate.
In this passage Paul the Apostle is talking about the revelation of Gods very own righteousness which now has been revealed to all and which by faith in Jesus Christ comes to all and upon all who believe.
It is a perfect righteousness which is not obtained by the law or the keeping of it, although the law bore witness of it, and in v24 and 25 we see how this Righteousness of God was given to us.
It is by the grace of God through the great redemption that Jesus obtained for us and by God having made his sacrifice a propititation through faith in his blood.
What precisely does this mean?
Simply this that on the cross God laid all of our sin and every bit of the curse upon Jesus and he absorbed it all.
Everything bad about me Jesus took to himself.
At that moment (I call it the great exchange) God declared to all humanity
"I account all of your sin as belonging to Jesus,and all of His Righteousness as belonging to you."
This is the great substitutionary sacrifice,that all he is was offered to us so that all that we are was placed upon him.
When Jesus rose from the grave he had "put sin away by the sacrifice of himself"
As far as God the Father is concerned if you are in Christ Jesus all of your sin has now been put away and is buried with Christ.
When he was raised you were raised with him and when he was made alive you were made alive with him.
In other words he is now your identity and you are a new creature in Him.
As a christian it is now no longer your unrighteousness in stark contrast with his righteousness but his Righteousness having become your righteousness and your righteousness being entirely of Him.
What the enemy wants to try to do is to separate your identity from Jesus because almost certainly if he can succeed in doing so you will begin to live by how you feel or how you think about yourself,rather than by what God has said in his Word.
"Well I just don't feel righteous", someone will often say,however that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what you now possess.
Paul makes a sobering statement in Romans chp 10 in speaking of those jews who rejected Jesus as the messiah, when he says
"For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness,and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God"
They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God,and really that is the crux of the gospel.
We submit to it by our acceptance of it, and by coming to Jesus in repentance and in faith.
We do not only fail to submit to it by our failure to accept Jesus and to come to Him.
We also fail to submitt to it in a way that honours God when as Christians we still see ourselves in the light of our old identity as we once were before we received this gift of Gods righteousness and his eternal life.

Paul speaks in Romans chapter 5 of the reality of our reconciliation to God when he says
"If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,much more,having been reconciled,we shall be saved by his life.
And not only that ,but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

Many Christians have never renewed their minds to receive the reconciliation when it comes to the righteousness which they now possess.
They still see themselves as unworthy sinners and focus on the sense of distance that they see between God and themselves rather than upon their being reconciled and redeemed.
We should in the passage quoted above give more attention to the phrase in verse 10 "much more"
I was an unworthy sinner who was reconciled to God my heavenly Father by the death of his Son, but how much more now that I have been reconciled should I be walking in and experiencing the benefits and blessings of this new life and of the gift of righteousness that have been given to me.
I once had a relative who was given a sum of money in an inheritance and purchased for herself a brand new top of the range television set.
However so as not to appear ostentatious she kept the new television locked away in the front palour room which was virtually never used and continued to watch on her old rather worn out set(she was an avid viewer)
When she died my family inherited this set which was by then rather an old model,and I could not but wonder at the tradegy of thinking of this old woman having purchased this brand new television set and never having derived any pleasure from using it.
The analogy however is even more tragic when we think of how much we fail to enjoy the benefits of all that Christ has given us.And that includes the gift of his righteousness.
Romans chp5 v17 says"For if by the one mans offence death reigned by one;much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ."
We are meant to be reigning in this life because of the abundance of Gods grace that has come to us,and because of the gift of righteousness.
We can only do this when we change our thinking and renew our minds to become more conscious of the grace of God and gift of righteousness rather than our unworthiness and sinfulness.
Some people are afraid of becoming righteousness conscious, that is to see themselves as the righteousness of God at the forefront of their thinking,because they fear that it will make them blase about sin.
However the exact opposite is true.
The more we educate ourselves to think of ourselves as those who have become the righteousness of God the more our intolerance level to sin is greatly increased.
Why?
Because we are beginning to walk in the light of the truth of who we really are in Jesus and that truth is setting us free.
Now the gift of Righteousness has given me a right standing with God and his resurrection life is transforming me and changing me from glory to glory.
I am a child of God, and I am a new creation.
And him who knew no sin was made to be sin for me that in Him I might be made the righteousness of God.(2 corn 5 21)
What precisely does it mean to say that God has made me righteous in Christ.
Sometimes we need to demystify a word to lay bare it clear meaning.
To say that I am righteous through Jesus is simply to say that I have been given a right standing with God.
It is to say that now I may enter into the presence of a holy God without any shame or condemnation or fear of judgment.
I am right with God because Jesus is completely right with God and his rightness has now been given to me.
Why do so many in the church today struggle to take a firm hold upon this vital truth of our right standing with God?
I believe that the number one reason why this is so is because much of the church has failed in their teaching and comprehension of Gods word to rightly divide between the soul and the spirit.
And this is so vitally important when it comes to our distinguishing how God has made us righteous now and how we can walk in the joy of that revelation.
Man is a spirit that is that he is created in the exact image and likeness of God who is a Spirit.
To say that man is a spirit is simply to state the biblical truth that the spirit of a man (which is to be distinguished from his soul) is the essential core and heart of his being.
His spirit and spiritual things should always have ascendancy over his soul and soulish things.
Mans spirit is called in scripture the hidden man of his heart and the place out of which will flow the rivers of living waters.
When we are born again it is into our spirits that this new life from God is deposited, I John calls this the seed of God.
"Whoever has been born of God does not sin,for his seed remains in him;and he cannot sin,because he has been born of God"
This scripture has often confused some who read it thinking that it is implying the possibility of sinless perfection, however what it is clearly stating is that we have now received into our hearts or spirits the seed of God and that seed has quickened in us an entirely new life and nature.
Just a few verses further on John writes that "Whoever hates his brother is a murder and you know that no murder has eternal life abiding in him."
Eternal life is not just something that is promised for the afterlife but is the Resurrection life of Jesus that is now dwelling and abiding inside of every child of God.
Peter in his first epistle refers to the fact that "You have been born again,not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible,through the word of God which lives and abides forever"
There is a remarkable similarity between the passage in Johns epistle and this one in Peters, both make mention of a divinely planted seed giving us new birth and bringing forth a new life that now abides within us.
What is the significance of this to understanding our righteousness?
When you accepted Jesus and believed in Him, God planted the seed of a whole new life into you,which is in reality the same Resurrection life that raised Jesus from the dead.
It is the same life that dwells in Christ, and God quickened this to you by the operation of the Holy Spirit of God through your hearing and believing the Word of God.
In Johns epistle it is clear that this seed of a new life has given to us a new nature which manifested itself in our new desire for righteousness and our desire to walk in love.Why is this?
Because this new nature is now righteous and it is now love.
Paul writes in his epistles of this new life and new nature as a new man and leaves us in no doubt that this new man or new self is as righteous as Jesus because it has been created in his exact image and likeness and is connected for its nourishment and life to Him.
"And that you put on the new man which was created according to God,in righteousness and holiness of the truth"
This new person that God has created in me by virtue of my having received eternal life ; that is by the reality of Christs life now living inside of me, is created in righteousness.
God did not create any hybrid models part the righteousness of His Son and part my old rotten self.
No this new man is a brand new person made to look just like Jesus.
The art of Christian growth is now to feed the new nature and to starve the old, for in our flesh we still have to contend with the fallen nature.
However many Christians act as if they believe that the flesh is strong and the spirit is weak whereas when we learn to feed our spirits upon the word of God, we soon discover that this new life within is infinitely more virtuous and powerful to drive out the darkness and swallow up that which old.
In reality when you think about it how can anyone say that they are not righteous when they have the righteous One himself, His seed ,His life and His Spirit not to mention His word living in them.
It really goes back to my initial thoughts that to think as God thinks about us we must think in covenant terms and that means that all that Jesus is, and all that he has He has given to us.
We simply cannot separate our identity from him at any point.
Because the majority of Christians are living in the soulish realm they have to try to grasp righteousness as a doctrine only,a legal exchange on Calvary, but one which they do not believe has made them righteous in their essential nature now.
This is because they do not understand the change that God has wrought in their spirits now.
They tend to judge their understanding of righteousness from the standpoint of what God has legally granted to them(which is true) but in their own thoughts towards themselves and in their feelings they remain unconvinced of any real change.
So to summarize we are made the righteousness of God in the new birth by virtue of the great work of exchange that God the Father wrought in Jesus upon the cross.
All of my sin and my sinfulness(the inclination of my sinful nature to sin)was laid upon Jesus so that all of his Righteousness might become available to me.
That is the legal side of our righteousness;God reckons and declares us to be righteous the moment we accept his Sons sacrifice on Calvary personally.
But we are made Righteous also by virtue of a new life that God has placed within us,and this new life has created a brand new person that reflects the image and likeness of Jesus in His Righteousness and Holiness and truth.
We are now called upon to renew our minds to the reality of our being a new creation and to know and be fully persuaded that old things have passed away and all things have become new, and that all things are of God, in relation to his new man.
We must learn to feed the things of the spirit and to walk in the spirit consistently so that the things belonging to our old life and to the flesh lose more and more place over our lives and over our thinking.
Most Christians are waiting to attain to some higher level of sanctification before they feel more confident of seeing themselves as righteous rather than laying hold of that reality by faith now and confessing it boldly now so as to increasingly bring forth the fruits of it.
We do not grow in this Righteousness because it has been given to us by Jesus Christ and is perfect and complete(again it is seeing our right standing as one and the same as his right standing for all that he is now belongs to us)
What we do grow in is bearing the mature fruits of righteousness and bringing forth those good works of righteousness that God has planned for us to walk in.
In part two I will talk about some of the fruits of this righteousness which we can now
enjoy.