Today's "Grace Inspirations" by Joseph Prince is another good reminder of just what we received at our New Birth!
You Have First Class Righteousness
2 Corinthians 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.
Some Christians believe that they have
to work at becoming more righteous. And they kick themselves when they do
wrong. They don’t realize that by doing these things, they are not seeking
God’s righteousness, but are trying to establish their own righteousness by
their law-keeping and right conduct.
Righteousness is not about right
conduct. It is a gift from God to us through Jesus. And since it is a gift, we
cannot earn it by our law-keeping and right conduct. We can only receive it!
How do we receive this gift? We receive
it through the cross. God made Jesus “who knew no sin to be sin for us that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him”. So today, we are the
righteousness of God in Christ. We are as righteous as Jesus is!
But some of us think that in the body of
Christ, there are different classes of righteousness, like the seating classes
in an airplane. They think that some of us have economy-class righteousness,
others have business-class righteousness and a select few have first-class
righteousness.
That is nonsense! When God gave us
Jesus, He became our righteousness. So we have His righteousness. This means
that we are 100 per cent righteous in God’s eyes! We cannot but have
first-class righteousness!
You might say, “I don’t
understand. How can I be righteous when I have done wrong?” Think about this:
Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us. Jesus knew no sin, did no sin and in
Him was no sin. But at the cross, He received our sin and became sin for us. Likewise, we, who were sinners, knew no
righteousness, did no righteousness and in us was no righteousness. But at the
cross, we received His righteousness and became the righteousness of God in
Christ Jesus.
At the cross, the divine exchange took
place. Jesus took our place so that we might take His place. He did not deserve
to be made sin, but He was made sin in our place. We did not deserve to be made
righteous, but we were made righteous because we received His righteousness.
What good news! What amazing grace!
AMEN! Our God is GOOD, ALL the TIME! Here is Chris Tomlin with "Good, Good Father"
Shalom in Him!
