Righteousness is a gift from God; you don’t qualify for it. When you were born again, you were born righteous, with the nature of God—the nature of righteousness. Religion teaches that if a man would live right, then God would qualify him to be a righteous person, but that’s not true. It’s a contradiction. No one can live righteously, until He’s first made righteous by God. God’s righteousness in your spirit is what gives you the ability to live right.
That is why in Christianity, what God does is to first make you righteous, before He’d be justified to expect you to live right. The Bible says Jesus Christ died on account of our offences, and was raised back to life for our justification (Romans 4:25). Justification means to declare righteous. When a man receives Christ, he receives a new life, and is as one who has never existed before: a new creation in Christ.
This new life isn’t characterized by sin. This new life is superior to sin, the devil, death and hell. This new life is the life of righteousness; now you can live a righteous life. The reason men sin is because they’re sinners by nature. That nature is supplanted by God’s nature of righteousness when a man is born again. Because you’re born again, sin no longer has dominion over you; it becomes natural for you to live right and fulfil the will of the Father, for His righteousness is in your spirit.
Confession
I’m crucified with Christ; it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. His righteousness in my spirit is expressed on the outside; it’s natural for me to live right and fulfil the will of the Father, because of His righteousness in my spirit.
further study: Romans 3:20-22; Romans 5:17; 2 Corinthians 5:21
: 2 Corinthians 5:1-6:1-2 Proverbs 18-19
: 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 Jeremiah 24
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