One thing holding more Christians in bondage than anything else is a lack of understanding righteousness. That’s why every day of your life on this earth, Satan is going to try to convince you that you don’t have any right to the things of God. He’s going to try to bring you into bondage again to sin in order to control your life. But he won’t be able to do it if you’ll reawaken yourself every day to who you really are in Jesus.
You Can’t Earn Righteousness
“We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” (Romans 3:22)
Do you struggle with feeling “good enough” for God, for His blessings and favor? Maybe you’re working to live a righteous life through works, and even comparing yourself to others in hopes of finding some place where you will finally feel like you deserve to be called righteous.
In spite of anything you’ve heard or believed, the truth is, righteousness is a free gift.
Those who don’t understand that righteousness comes from God as a gift, become frustrated trying to establish their own righteousness through good works [simple_tooltip content=’For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.’](Rom. 10:3)[/simple_tooltip]. It won’t work. It’s an all or nothing situation [simple_tooltip content=’And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.’](Rom. 11:6)[/simple_tooltip]. We must trust completely in what Jesus did for us to obtain right relationship with God. Any trust in our own goodness will void the atonement Christ made for us [simple_tooltip content=’You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.’](Gal. 5:4)[/simple_tooltip].
This is precisely the condition of millions of people in the body of Christ today. They receive salvation by putting total faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, but then they return to believing that the Lord still relates to them on the basis of their works, even after their salvation. That’s not true.
Colossians 2:6 says, “As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him.” That means if you were saved by putting faith in God’s grace alone, then you maintain that relationship in the same way.
Failure to understand this truth is at the root of all guilt and condemnation. Satan’s only inroad into our lives is sin. If we understand our right standing with God on the basis of what Jesus did for us, and not by our own actions, then Satan’s power to condemn is gone.
Sin Consciousness Is Not God’s Will for You
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
If you were to ask most Christians, “Are you righteous?” they would say, “Me? No!” They are trying to be humble. They’re afraid God wouldn’t like it if they said they were righteous. Actually, they’re speaking from the way they feel—from the way they’ve been trained—from ignorance of the Word of God concerning righteousness.
Every time we start toward the righteousness of God, Satan jumps up in our paths and says, “Remember the ugly things you’ve done? Don’t expect God to forget all that! Who do you think you are? You’re too unworthy to approach God!”
This is called sin consciousness—being focused on condemnation and negative outcomes rather than what Christ has done for you.
the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. (Hebrews 9:8-9)
The truth is that Jesus put you into right-standing with God and re-created you by the Spirit of God as if sin had never existed, and gave you a righteousness consciousness. This reality makes you confident before God. And once you are confident before God you can stand against the devil and against the trials.
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)
What is an evil conscience? An evil conscience is a perpetual sense of sin-consciousness. An evil consciousness is always tell you that you’ve not prayed enough, you’ve not read enough… nothing is ever enough! And is not the voice of the Holy Spirit, but these are the accusations of the devil, sucking out the faith of God from you.
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)
What is a dead work? A dead work is anything that you do, thinking by doing it you are justified by outside the cross. If you pray, thinking that praying make you right with God, that’s a dead work. But if you pray because you are right with God, there is power there.
If you think studying your Bible makes you right with God, you have missed it. There is no revelation, because you are not bearing witness with the Spirit of truth. [simple_tooltip content=’This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.’](1 John 5:6)[/simple_tooltip] But if you’re studying the Bible because you know you are right with God and the Bible is the love letter from the One who made you right, it will open up to you.
We have this idea that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession of sins. But nowhere in the book of Hebrews does it say about the confession of sins. Indeed, it says that He is the High Priest of our confession, and we see how the Holy Spirit expand this truth.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, (Hebrews 3:1)
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (Hebrews 4:14)
You cannot hold fast to a confession of sin… because once you confess your sin, that’s it.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)
What is this confession of hope? It is the confession of „Jesus Christ, our righteousness.” [simple_tooltip content=’But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—’](1 Corinthians 1:30)[/simple_tooltip]. Because in the preceding chapters it is said that „the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did…” [simple_tooltip content=’for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.’](Hebrews 7:19)[/simple_tooltip] – this is the righteousness of God.
It is not the confession of faith either, it is the confession of hope. Because the Greek word for faith is pistis; but in this verse is the word elpis, which means hope. Hope is a positive expectation … „Let us hold fast the confession that Jesus Christ is our righteousness, for He who promised is faithful.”
In order to understand what God has promised, we must look again at the context. The most recent promise that has been given is the promise from verse 17: „Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more,” says God. He is faithful to this promise.
Let us hold fast the confession of hope „Jesus is my righteousness,” because God who has promised will remember our sins no more. He is faithful and He cannot lie.
Why does it say to hold fast? Because this will be a fight every day. The devil will come and remind you of something you did not do right or something you did wrong. You have to fight all this. Your breastplate of righteousness is „The Lord Jesus is my righteousness.” It is not enough to know it, you must say it.
It’s time to accept the truth that sin consciousness is not God’s will for you and to move in line with this revelation of the truth about righteousness. You were a sinner—you have been forgiven. You are now His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus! [simple_tooltip content=’For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’](Eph. 2:10)[/simple_tooltip]
Righteousness Is a Powerful Force
“Much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness… reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).” –Romans 5:17 (AMP)
Using the meaning of the Greek language, this verse could be stated like: „Those who receive abundance of unmerited favor and from clearance of all the guilt will reign as kings in life through Jesus Christ.”
Righteousness is a powerful force, and this verse makes it clear—receiving righteousness enables us to “reign as kings in life.” But if we don’t reign in life
But if we do not reign in life, it’s because we do not receive the gift of clearance of all our guilt. Once the devil has you in the defensive, he can rob all the power of God from you. He knows he can neutralize the power of God if he can put you in a state of guilt, under condemnation. He does not want us to receive the gift of clearance of all the guilt, but to receive the imputation of guilt.
Remember, you are a world overcomer. You are the righteousness of God. So, it is time, by faith in the blood, that you start talking like an overcomer, acting like an overcomer and telling the devil he is overcome.
Righteousness is a powerful force. When we stand in the righteousness of God, we have the right to stand without any fear, knowing that demons have to flee in the Name of Jesus who defeated hell and death on the cross. We have more power over our lives as the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ than Satan had over us while we were in sin.
Awake to Righteousness
“Awake to righteousness, and sin not….” –1 Corinthians 15:34 (NKJV)
Become aware that you have been made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, and you have been placed in right-standing with Him through the sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary. When you have a revelation of the truth about righteousness, it will stop the sin in your life.
As long as Satan can convince you that you don’t have any right to the things of God, he can keep you under his thumb and sin will control your life. But when you awake to righteousness, you will realize that Satan is a defeated foe, and the struggle is over.
Awake to righteousness… become righteousness minded! You have been thoroughly equipped to handle every situation that comes your way. You are to reign in life as a king by Jesus Christ. You are to live in fellowship with the Father. He chose to give you His righteousness, His ability and His strength “because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4, KJV).
