It seems that after a while, after becoming saved, we may become unsure of our righteousness. We may seem to falter and to become doubtful whether or not we are in right standing with God. You may continue to have ideas, or thoughts, pop up in your head that trouble you about your salvation experience; even to the point of believing that you may not be truly saved. All of this is no more than the attacks from the evil one. He is trying to condemn you with thoughts from your past, or lead you into temptation.
When these occurrences occur we must remember that we have been forgiven of our sins through Christ’s blood. He has won the battle for us! We only need to continue to believe in Him and to repent of the thoughts that we may ourselves continue to have about our past or present that we try or desire to hold on to. Sometimes we think what we do think because we desire to. We must be careful! If we do not repent and turn our thought patterns over to Jesus, we may fall into the trap set by the evil one which may lead us into sin. Unrepentant sin will lead to judgment.
Let us look into God's word:
Righteousness: upright conduct; virtue (goodness; moral excellence; purity); being right and just.
Romans 1:16-21: 16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well. 17For in it God’s righteousness is being revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The just will live by faith.”,
God’s Wrath against Sinful Humanity
18For God’s wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and wickedness of those who in their wickedness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is clear to them, because God himself has made it clear to them. 20Indeed, ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been understood and observed by what he made, so that people are without excuse. 21Although they knew God, they didn’t honor him as God or give him thanks. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their ignorant hearts were darkened.
James 2:23: 23And so the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Philippians 3:7-9: 7But whatever things were assets to me, these I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more; I continue to consider all these things as a loss for the sake of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It’s because of him that I have experienced the loss of all those things. I consider them rubbish in order to gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faith of Christ. This is the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
We can see clearly, in these few Scriptures, that belief and faith are two main functions in receiving the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus. We ourselves are not righteous, but only in and through Jesus can we become that way. It is not of ourselves or from ourselves that we become righteous. Only through belief and faith in Jesus can we become righteous.
Romans 3:10-12: 10As it is written, Not even one person is righteous.11No one understands. No one searches for God. 12All have turned away. Together they have become worthless. No one shows kindness, not even one person!
Our righteousness can only come from God. The Scriptures say that all of are sinners and that we all fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:21-28: 21But now, apart from the Law, God’s righteousness is revealed and is attested by the Law and the Prophets— 22God’s righteousness through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and continue to fall short of God’s glory. 24By his grace they are justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God offered as a place where atonement by Christ’s blood could occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past. 26He wanted to demonstrate at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the person who has the faith of Jesus. 27What, then, is there to boast about? That has been eliminated. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on the principle of faith. 28For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from the works prescribed by the Law.
So then, we are justified by faith, or we are declared righteous. This is something that God has done for us. It is not something that we can accomplish ourselves.
Romans 5:1-9: 1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing God’s glory. 3Not only that, we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5This hope does not disappoint us, because, God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6For while we were still helpless, Christ died for ungodly people at just the right time. 7It is rare for anyone to die for a righteous person, though somebody might be brave enough to die for a good person. 8But God proves his love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
9Now that we have been justified by his blood, how much more will we be saved from wrath through him!
So, we have now seen five things that Jesus has provided for us to become righteous.
Belief: we accept what we read in scripture as to be real and true.
Faith: we trust and believe without proof things unseen.
Grace: favor and love of God.
Hope: to desire with.
Blood: we have become justified (cleared from blame).
So because we believe in Christ Jesus, by accepting Him as real and true, have the faith God gives us to trust in Him, needing no proof, having giving us favor and the love of Jesus by grace, given us hope with the expectation of fulfillment, covered and cleared our sins on the cross causing our justification, we are now in right standing with God because of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Conclusion:
The answer to the
question “Are We Righteous?” then would be,
Yes We Are!
Amen.
Rev. D.F. Carpenter