Monday 12 January 2015

I AM RIGHTEOUS! - GOD IS GREATER THAN MY FAILURES – PART 5 OF 9

Dictionary definition of Righteous:
Righteous
  1. Morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.
  2. In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment.
I am righteous – God gave me my righteousness as a gift and no one can take it from me!
Let’s read from Romans 3 in the New International Version and then read the same passage from the easy-to-understand language of The Message:
“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”  Romans 3:19-22 NIV
Now let’s read the same passage from The Message:
“Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.”  Romans 3:19-22 The Message
This is what righteousness is – to be in ‘right standing’ with God.  When God looks at us He does so through what I like to think of as ‘Jesus coloured glasses’.  He sees us, the ‘new us’, clothed in Christ’s righteousness.
Like I said earlier, I believe this intellectually but the wonder, the huge ‘wow-factor’ of this truth, has yet to migrate from my brain to my heart. 
If you’re like most people I’ve asked these first four questions of, you’re probably zero for four.  Sometimes it’s good to be wrong, because when you find the right answer we can once again stand in awe of such a gracious God!

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