Every religion of the world teaches that if you would first live right, God would then make you righteous and accept you. But that’s like pressing your dirty laundry before laundering them. There’s a whole lot of difference between having God’s righteousness and living right, and it’s important to put them in the right context.
When you received Christ into your life and made Him Lord of your life, you received God’s righteousness as a gift into your heart. It isn’t something you hope to get when you get to Heaven. It’s God’s nature that was infused into you the moment you were born again (Romans 5:17). This righteousness, however, is different from right living. Right living is only possible for the one who’s been made righteous, and is the product of the nature of righteousness in a believer. A sinner can’t live right, no matter how “nice” his actions are, until he’s first of all righteous.
God, in Christ Jesus, has made you righteous. That’s the good news: anyone can become right with God through faith in Christ Jesus. If anyone confesses with the mouth that “Jesus Christ is Lord of my life,” believing in the heart that God raised Him from the dead, according to Romans 10:9-10, he or she will be made righteous like God is. Once that’s done, he or she can live right and please God every day, living the life of faith in His Word, and there’s no struggle to do so!
Prayer
Dear Father, I thank you for giving me your nature of righteousness as a gift, and inspiring in me the consciousness of a victor. I have been freely justified by your grace and rejoice exceedingly, knowing that I’ve been chosen to reign in life by grace through righteousness, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
