Jesus' righteousness became ours

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  2 Corinthians 5:21

Many Christians think to become righteous they have to work hard to achieve it. And then they feel bad when they do wrong. They don’t realize that by doing these things, they are not seeking God’s righteousness, but are trying to establish their OWN righteousness by their law keeping and right conduct.  

Righteousness is not about right conduct. It is a gift from God to us through Jesus. And since it is a gift, we cannot earn it by our law keeping and right conduct. We can only receive it. How do we receive this gift? We receive it through the cross. God made Jesus “who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  

So today, we are the righteousness of God in Christ. We are as righteous as Jesus is. There are some Christians that think there are different classes of righteousness, like the seating classes on an airplane. They think that some of us have economy seating righteousness, others have business seating righteousness and a select few have first class righteousness.  

You may be thinking, “Pastor Don, I don’t understand. How can I be righteous when I have done wrong?” Think about this. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us. Jesus knew no sin, did no sin and in Him was no sin. But at the cross, He received our sin and became sin for us.  
In that same way, we, who were sinners, knew no righteousness, did no righteousness and in us was no righteousness. But at the cross, we received His righteousness and became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  

At the cross, the great exchange took place. Jesus took our place so that we might take His place. He did not deserve to be made sin. But He was made to be sin in our place. We did not deserve to be made righteous, but we were made righteous because we received His righteousness. There is no better news than this for the believer. This message had a profound effect on my life and continues today. PTL