The Wonderful Gift of Righteousness

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:17

The word righteousness is a legal term. It means to have right standing before God. Study Bibles define righteousness as “that gracious gift of God to men whereby all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are brought into right relationship with God.” In other words, your right standing before God is based upon Jesus’ right standing before God. If you struggle, as many believers do, with whether YOU deserve to be blessed, favored, and victorious, you are actually asking the WRONG question.

The question you should be asking is, does JESUS deserve to be blessed, favored, and victorious? Because you are in Christ, having a blessed future is not based on how much you strive to be perfect or how hard you work at changing yourself. It is based on the person of Jesus. The Bible proclaims, “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Does Jesus deserve to be blessed, favored, and victorious? Then so do you.

This is what being IN Christ means. It means that today, God evaluates you and sees you based on the perfection of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ righteousness is your righteousness. In fact, the Bible explains that because Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, we are NOW the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). Today, you are as righteous as Jesus because your righteousness is from Him.

He purchased it for you at the cross. When you received Him as your Lord and Savior, He took away all your unrighteousness once and for all and gave you HIS gift of righteousness. This righteousness is something that you can never obtain or achieve through your right doing. It can only be RECEIVED by your right believing in Jesus. And do you know what happens when you receive this gift of righteousness? The Bible declares that “those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will REIGN IN LIFE through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

So, this means, when YOU reign, YOUR addictions don’t. When YOU reign, sicknesses doesn’t. When YOU reign, fear, depression, and every obstacle that is obstructing you from living your life to the fullest will be torn down and done away with. Glory to God. How wonderful is this gift of righteousness? PTL