THIS, from today's "Grace Inspiration" by Joseph Prince, is SO vital for us to get inside! We CANNOT live truly free until we realize that the WORK in us is HIS!
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, “Pastor Prince, 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! And THIS TRUTH is what give us the freedom to walk out this life in complete confidence that HE, Who began this 'GOOD WORK' in us, will continue and complete it! HALLELUJAH! And He ALWAYS gets it right! Here is Hillsong with "I Am Who You Say I Am":
Shalom in Him!
