I think one of the most amazing things about God is that He will never give us what we deserve. If He did, we would all go to hell. He does not grade on a curve because 99% would still be a failure if He did. To avoid hell and walk in His blessings requires us to either reach perfection (100%) or be given the ability to walk in His righteousness.
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans 5:18-19
God has provided us His righteousness through Jesus. This enables us to stand before Him on the basis of Jesus’ works and not on our own.
No human being will ever have the ability to earn God’s righteousness in their own works. We cannot earn standing before God by being “good enough”. This is because of the sin nature each one of us was born with as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin.
Scripture is clear:
- It was by one man (Adam) that judgment was introduced to the human race
- It was by one man (Adam) that condemnation exists
- It was by one man (Adam) that we have a sin nature and are condemned to eternal separation
- It was by one man (Jesus) that all of the above were negated and humanity was provided an open door to walk in right standing with their creator!
Jesus offers freedom, righteousness, forgiveness, justification, and so much more. If we can learn to identify with our position in Him, we will find freedom.
This is an important revelation in our quest to live the victorious Christian life. If we can identify ourselves as having been born in Adam things will become much clearer. It is not our actions that caused us to be separated from God. We were born in sins and it was not our “sin actions” that caused us to be separated from. It was the sin nature that all of us were born with which created the chasm between us and our creator.
In the same sense that none of us did anything to cause ourselves to become sinners, none of us can also do nothing to earn God’s favor. His righteousness is a gift provided through the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We cannot earn it! It is a gift that we receive by faith.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3
The New Birth is our entrance into the Kingdom of God. We were born into this world with a sin nature and we can be born into God’s kingdom with His righteousness. Some people struggle with the concept of being righteous before God. They have memories of their lives before salvation and judge themselves as being unworthy of God’s favor.
We were all born into this world with a sin nature. That is a fact. The sin nature was conferred on us simply as a result of our being born into this world. In the same sense, God’s righteousness is conferred on us simply as a result of our being born again. It really is that simple.
There is nothing that could qualify in ourselves when we invite Jesus to be our Savior and are “born again” to receive this righteousness. We were born with a sin nature and lived lives that were not focused on God. He makes us righteous not because we have earned the right for Him to do so but because of the redemptive work Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Our lives should be different after receiving the new birth. This is not always the case though. People become confused by this. They do not realize that the change experienced will be proportional to the amount our minds become renewed with the Word of God. Our old sin nature was put to death when we received Jesus and God recreated us with His nature but we must learn to walk in it.
We will dive into this as we progress in the study. For now it is important for us to see that our old nature is gone and has been replaced with God’s nature. This is true for every Christian. I have heard people in church say that they are “old sinners saved by grace”. Technically speaking this is not true unless they have never been born again. If you have invited Jesus into your heart the correct wording would be that you were a sinner but now are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
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