Righteousness

Who do you see yourself as in the LORD?

I was listening to the radio just now. A christian station. And there was one of those three minute bible lessons that a pastor was giving. He was talking about the time in Luke 7, where the woman came and washed Jesus' feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Then she anointed Him with ointment.

While she was doing this, Simon had spoke out against her. She was a sinner. "If Jesus was a prophet", he thought, "He would know who she is". Maybe any other prophet wouldn't have let her do this. But Jesus did.

Jesus replied with a parable. And then He spoke,
"Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, , the same loveth little".

And then this man who was speaking about this bible minute said something that many would accept, but would be wrong in doing so.

He said, "If you cannot admit that you are a sinner ['admit' in the present tense] then you are incapable of knowing the full love of God".

Essentially, I have to admit that right now, in this moment, I am a sinner.

Well, the truth of the matter is, I am not a sinner.

Someone says, "Have you ever sinned? Then you're a sinner".

My past sin doesn't make me a sinner now. It just means that I was a sinner.

What is the opposite of sin?

Righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21
"For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin..."

One thing I find interesting is that Christ, knowing no sin, became sin. I like how Pastor Woods tells it.

If you needed brain surgery, but didn't have money for it, would you trust me to cut into your head and give you the surgery? It is free after all! And I have used a saw once.

I know nothing about the brain. I have not studied it. I know no medicine.

But that is part of the miracle. Because Jesus knew absolutely no sin, yet He became it. The verse goes on:

"... that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him".

Look at that again,
"...be made..."

When you talk about something that has been made, you are talking about something that is completed. It's not something that can be progressed or digressed in, it's a position. You have become. You, being saved for 20 years, are not more righteous than someone who has just been saved today!

Why?

Righteousness is a position!

I am the righteousness of God. I am not a sinner. Can light and dark occupy the same space at the same time? Can hot and cold co-exist?

Likewise, you cannot be the righteousness of God and a sinner.

Look at the passage just a few verses before that;
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new" 2 Corinthians 5:17

What are the old things? Sin!

What are the new things? Righteousness!

I am not a sinner!

I was a sinner.

I am susceptible to sin.

But I am not a sinner. When I admit that I am a sinner, I am conscious of sin. it's called sin consciousness.

Hebrews 10:2
"For then would they not have ceased to be offer? Because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscious of sins"

Hebrews 10:22
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscious, and our bodies washed with pure water".

Someone once said that 'a half heart repentance can keep you from experiencing all that God wants you to'. I can say the same of the sinful mind.

Romans 16:19
"...I want you to remain innocent about what is evil and wise about what is good".

Don't keep thinking about all of this 'sin'. You have been delivered from it!

Let's look at 1 John 3:8-10;
"He that committeth sin is of the devil..."

Well, if You are in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) then you cannot be of the devil.

"...for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."
"Whosoever is born of God does not committeth sin..."

So if you are of the devil, you are a sinner, if you are of God, you are His righteousness.

"...for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God"
"In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother"

If I am of God, I am the righteousness of God. If I am of God, and claim to be a sinner, I know not who I am in the LORD Jesus, for He has rescued (redeemed) me from sin.

As a child of God, I must not be conscious of all this sin. I have heard of people who pray every night, "God, I don't know what I did, but I'm sure I did something wrong, so please forgive me".

If you can't remember what you did wrong, how much more does God not remember? Your sin is as far from you as the east is from the west.

We need to stop thinking about this sin and focus on 'righteousness consciousness'.

We are no longer slaves to the curse so let us stop admitting it! You tell yourself long enough that you're a sinner, and you're going to start convincing yourself of it. You'll start to believe it!

Praise the LORD I'm free from sin! I am no longer a sinner, I am the righteousness of God!

How do you think of righteousness? Please share with me your definition!