Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday is fast approaching, and we want to dive into the Word of God and see and understand what Jesus did on the cross and all the privileges, benefits and freedoms that belong to us, as children of God. Having a revelation of righteousness or your right standing with God makes you stand tall in the spiritual realm. Well, you also look like that because 1 John 4:4 says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”. So, having a revelation of your right standing with God makes you stand tall.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We are talking about becoming new on the inside, not on the outside. When you got saved you became a new creation. You were not remolded. You were made brand new. You are a new species of being that never existed before. When you got saved and became a new creature, you also became righteous. Righteousness is not what you do. Righteousness is who you are.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus was made to be our sinfulness so that we could be made His righteousness. Jesus became sin with our sinfulness so that we could become righteous with His righteousness. Jesus is our Righteousness. “Jehovah Tsidkenu.” Righteousness is not something that can be attained through our own works. The Bible says in (Isaiah 64:6), that in the eyes of God “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”. Righteousness is a gift of God, provided by Jesus at the cross of Calvary through the grace of God. The word righteousness translated literally means to be “in right-standing.” You have been put in right-standing with God. Say…”I have right standing with God”. You have the right to stand in the presence of God without any sense of fear, guilt, shame, sin, or condemnation. Through our traditional thinking, we have confused righteousness with holiness. We think righteousness is the way you act. Holiness is your conduct—but righteousness is what you are. When you live opposite to who God says you are, you will find your Christian walk to be difficult. When Christians play around with sin, they end up having mental harassment. The devil has a right to take you when you play in his territory of dirty. Dirty is his territory. Clean is God’s territory. The most unhappy people are not the unsaved. The most unhappy people are backslidden Christians. They know better but they don’t want to hate what’s wrong.
The most holiest are the most happiest. The most cleanest are the most clearest. The most sanctified are the most satisfied. If you want joy, you must love righteousness and hate wickedness. Having a revelation of your righteousness will keep you from sinning.
I Corinthians 15:34 NKJV
Awake to righteousness, and do not sin…
When you wake up tomorrow morning, wake up (awake) to the revelation that you are righteous. That you are in right-standing with God. As a result of accepting Jesus and His work on the cross, there are certain privileges, rights and freedomsthat we have as children of God because we are in right-standing with Him.
Righteousness means you have rights.
You have a right to be healed. You have a right to be blessed. You have a right to live a prosperous and peaceful life. You have a right to have your prayers answered.
Righteousness makes things right.
Whatever’s wrong, righteousness will make it right. We didn’t get in right-standing with God by being good and acting right. We got there through faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work at Calvary.
We don’t go to church to become righteous. Going to church is what righteous people do. We don’t pray to become righteous. Praying is what righteous people do. We don’t tithe and give to become righteous. Tithing and giving is what righteous people do.
So, having a revelation of your right-standing with God will make you stand tall. But having a sin-consciousness will produce defeat and a false sense of humility. It’s time for you to get rid of sin tags. Why? Because Sin-tags become stumbling blocks in our growth as Christians. What is sin-tags?
“Oh, I’m just a worm for Jesus” “Oh, I’m so unworthy” “Oh, nobody loves me” “Nothing good ever happens to me”. “I’m just a sinner saved by grace”
The Lord didn’t say, “Belittle yourself.” or “speak ugly about yourself”. He said you must think highly of yourself. If fact when you speak ugly of yourself, you are blaspheming God because God never made junk. God never created anything that turned out unworthy and no good. No, you are His workmanship. You are His Masterpiece.
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
Confession:
I am God’s masterpiece. I am created anew in Christ Jesus. I am doing the good things He planned for me long ago.
Ephesians 1:4 NLT
Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.
Confession:
God loves me.God chose me.I am holy. I am without fault in His eyes. He finds no fault in me.
God finds no fault in you. People might find fault in you. You might find fault in you, but not God. He finds no fault in you.
John 8:1-11 NKJV
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
If you asked most Christians, “Are you righteous?” they would say, “Me? No!” They’re trying to be humble. They’re afraid God wouldn’t like it if they said they were righteous. But they are speaking from the way they feel, the way they’ve been trained, and from ignorance of God’s Word. Most everyone is familiar with this scripture,
Romans 3:23 NKJV
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
This scripture has been used untold numbers of times in preaching sin. But the Apostle Paul, in writing this letter to the body of believers in Rome, was teaching them about righteousness. What He was saying was, “if all have sinned then all can become righteous”.
Romans 3:21-26 NLT
But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
Verse 23 is one, complete sentence constructed around the righteousness of God. Preachers have taken out one phrase (the only part not referring to righteousness) and preached it with no mention of the verses around it. Therefore, everyone knows about sin, but very few know about the righteousness of God, or that they have been made right in His sight. We are well aware of what we have been born out of but have no idea at all of what we’ve been born into! We’ve been born out of sin, but we have been born into righteousness.
Now pay attention to this and remember it
Every time we start toward the righteousness of God, Satan jumps up in our paths and says, “Remember the ugly things you’ve done? Don’t expect God to forget all that! Who do you think you are? You’re too unworthy to approach God!” . But the Word says the blood of Jesus purged our sins— they no longer exist—so we should take the Name of Jesus and drive out sin-consciousness. We must drive it out and begin to develop a “righteousness consciousness”. Developing a righteousness consciousness will create a victory consciousness. It will cause you to stand tall.
Hebrews 8:12 NKJV
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
If God does not remember your sins anymore, then why should you. Once you confess your sin, you must make the decision to stop remembering them because God forgets them. So, forget what the Lord has forgotten. Forget your past sins, failures, and mistakes. Forget what is behind. If you keep thinking about it, it will hinder your spiritual progress. It will keep your faith and prayers from working. Say this, “Thank you God for my forgiveness. I forgive myself and press forward”. What great news. Now take a step higher in your walk with God and pray this…“Lord Jesus, today, I choose to forgive the sins, mistakes, and failures of others against me. I will not remember them anymore. I bless and do not curse. I am a forgiver not a condemner and I choose to love like You, in Jesus Name. Amen.”
Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.