Let’s read what is written in 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ”. You may already know that Jesus Christ came to Earth to die for us, bringing us a new opportunity of life, a new life. All Christians accept the first part of the verse as truth.
However, I want to point out to you the second part of this verse: “so that we could be made right with God through Christ”. What does it mean? It means that we have a right standing before God. It means that, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become righteous with Him. Some people may accept the first part as truth, but they might have a hard time understanding the concept of righteousness.
Let’s read Romans 5:17 – “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ”. Here, it clearly says that, when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we also receive the gift of righteousness. Our spirit gets renewed, as it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ becomes a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun”. Our past sins are gone.
Righteousness is often associated with good works. However, our good works do not have the power of putting us in a right standing before God. We could never be saved through our good works. Good works cannot buy us a ticket to heaven or justify us. If this was true, we would not need to accept Jesus. Salvation would just be a payment for something good we had done in life, not a gift; that way, our salvation could never be considered a sign of the grace of God. However, righteousness is a gift we receive from God when we accept Him. When we accept Him.
Our good works are a consequence of our new position before God. They are not the cause. If, after accepting Jesus, you become a new person, it means that there is no barrier between you and God anymore. You can have a relationship with God, your Father. Galatians 4:4-6 says: “But when the right time came, God sent His son, born of a woman, subject to law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father’. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir”. How would God put His Spirit to dwell in you and call you His heir and child if you would still be a sinner, unjust and unrighteous?
You become righteous the moment you accept Jesus. If you accept Jesus in this moment, you are in the same level of righteousness of someone who has been a Christian for more than 50 years. It does not matter, because righteousness is a gift. After accepting Jesus, we all become children of God. We become part of the same family with the same Father and belonging to the same body of Christ.
You already have right standing before God. You do not have to earn it, because it is a gift. God’s wonderful grace gave us right standing with God, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ. And Hebrews 4:16 says that we can come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Therefore, this eternal life does not begin just after going to heaven. This eternal life is already a reality for us. We will go to heaven (that is also a reality already), but we can already enjoy the benefits of being a child of God.
Romans 5:17 (as I have read before) says that those who accepted Jesus Christ also received God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through Jesus Christ. We do not have to live as we were afraid of the devil or as if we were frightened by every circumstance that comes our way. We already have the answer. The answer is Jesus. We have to stand firm with faith in what God already promised and declared about us in the Bible. That is the fight of faith. That is our position of authority in Christ.
Therefore, we need to behave accordingly to the authority and to the position we already have before God in Christ.