RIGHTEOUSNESS IN CHRIST

Yesterday I woke up with this verse in mind. Romans 5:17 'For if by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.' Those words abundance of grace and gift of righteousness left a deep impression in my heart.

I felt that I got to keep hearing the word of grace preached by Pastor Prince, in order to fight the good fight of faith and reign in life. And so I binged on his sermons and the more I heard the word of grace, the more hungry I was for this word. It was like times of refreshing and I found rest hearing the word. In fact, hearing the word being preached, just like receiving, is probably the most passive thing one can ever do. It's unlike praying in tongues or taking communion or declaring the promises of God.

Yet, it is the will of God that through the foolishness of preaching that we receive from Him. Many a times, it is when we are doing nothing about our situation, just by listening to the word of grace that God works in our situation. Miraculously, without us knowing at times. When we hear the word of God, our bodies and lives are being sozoed by the power of God. When we rest, God goes to work on our behalf. When we work, God rests.

The effect of hearing the word is like water washing my dusty feet. Oftentimes we feel that we have no need to keep hearing the word on Jesus' finished work, our righteousness in Christ because we have heard it so many times. We think we know it all. But Pastor always says law is natural, grace is supernatural. You can listen to ten sermons about grace and one about the law, and you are back to relying on your own flesh. That's why we have to keep hearing the word because faith comes by hearing the word of grace.

I was reminded of fundamental truths about righteousness. It was like God taking me higher in the paths of righteousness. My conscience is satisfied because someone paid the price on my behalf. Jesus has taken the full brunt of God's wrath at the cross. He has become the payment for my sins and hence I can receive His righteousness as mine. God no longer judges me or imputes sin to me, not that I no longer sin but when I fail, I know that the payment has been made by Jesus.

I can have no more fearful expectation of God's judgement, of bad things happening to me because Jesus took all the bad things on Himself and gave me all the blessings He deserved. So now I can have a confident expectation of good things because Jesus paid it all for me. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am His beloved, a pearl of great price. If God did not withhold His only beloved Son, how would He not along with Jesus freely give us all things?

So often it is usually the case for things to look the opposite from what we thought would happen. When God releases a certain word in our lives, the enemy will always try to create circumstances contrary to that word. That's why there is a fight of faith. We should not expect or make room for such adverse situations, instead we need to take authority over it. If not, we will have a fearful expectation of what attacks are coming up next and how we should brace ourselves for impact. The key to overcoming these storms is to keep our eyes on Jesus and His finished work. Have a fresh revelation of what Christ has done for us on the cross and you will exclaim: how can I not walk in God's favour and blessings after what Christ has done!

Sometimes we disqualify ourselves by how we see ourselves. God sees us through Jesus, spotless and without blemish. And if God doesn't see and impute sin to me, why should I be conscious of my sins? Am I saying that the blood of Jesus is not effective or powerful enough to take away all my sins once and for all? Self-righteousness isn't just about pride but also about guilt and condemnation. We are often harder on ourselves than we think. The reason why we get disappointed is that we still place confidence on our own flesh, so when we fail, we feel guilty for not trusting God.

That's why the Holy Spirit was given to convict believers of our righteousness in Christ. It is during times like when we have failed, that we look to Jesus and say 'I am the righteousness of God in Christ.' No matter what it is, tell yourself that God has forgiven me and forgotten so this sin is no more and God still sees me righteous in Christ. Then forgive yourself and let it go, move on.