Revelation of Righteousness
+ The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus are a revelation of humanity’s right-standing before the Lord. Through Jesus, man and God find total likeness in each other.
Christian faith is participation in the faith of Jesus through His Holy Spirit. It is a relational sharing in the finished work of the cross. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, is what God believes about humanity. Jesus is God’s reasoning and logic, His logos, incarnate. There is absolutely nothing we could do to reach Him, so He came to us. In doing so, Jesus radically transformed humanity’s relationship to our Father. We are totally and completely immersed in Christ, and commune with Him through His Spirit. Our relationship with Jesus grows as we simply abide and walk with Him. Abiding implies total unity without distance or delusion. Before we can discuss the spiritual dynamics of unity with Christ, we need to address one element of Christ’s life and work: His impartation of righteousness on our behalf.
About a year ago, the Lord woke me up and put the word “righteousness” on my heart. A little confused as to why, I asked Him for clarification. “You don’t know what this word actually means in terms of relationship with me,” He said. This was interesting because I always felt I had a good grasp on it. Righteousness is being justified before God so I could go to heaven. It seemed simple enough. I shrugged it off, but the Lord kept it on my heart for hours. Later that day, I decided to I set out on a word study. What I found served as the basis for a total spiritual transformation, and crushed lies I had been believing about my standing with God. Before we can enjoy spiritual unity and intimacy, we need to renew our minds about what true, biblical righteousness actually is.
The Greek word for righteousness is dikaiosuné. On the surface, the word indicates a right standing with God. At a deeper level, it reveals integrity, virtue, rightness; correctness of feeling, thinking, and acting. It implies equity or two parties finding likeness in each other. Two parties finding likeness in each other is amazing way to describe Christ’s work on our behalf. He loved us enough to come and bear the penalty for our sin so we don’t have to. The cross bore the penalty for us. The sin nature of humanity was crucified with Jesus on the cross. His words were, “It is finished.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1 Corinthians 1:30 (NKJV) “but of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God - and righteousness and sanctification and redemption - “
Righteousness is total freedom from sin. It is not freedom to sin, but an understanding that Jesus bore our sin nature on the cross, died, rose again, and ascended. Righteousness is an imputation of freedom to commune with our heavenly Father. Jesus canceled the spiritual power of sin’s hold over humanity.
Colossians 2:11-15 (NKJV) “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirement that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”
If you’ve stepped foot in any Christian church at any point in your life, you know Jesus died for your sins so that you can go to heaven. In fact, you’re reading because you want to learn about this wonderful Jesus and how you can become a better Christian. Jesus dying on the cross for us is an amazing reality, but it didn’t stop there. He was raised to life by the Father, and then ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father in power and authority.
This might not sound like anything new, until you start to realize our theology doesn’t match the reality of our inclusion in the resurrection and ascension. Righteousness reveals our new nature in Christ.
Galatians 2:20-21 (NKJV) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for it righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Many churches teach a doctrine of a sin nature, that the cross was enough to pay for sin’s consequence, but not enough to save you from your inherently depraved nature in this life. The reality is your sin nature was either crushed on the cross or it wasn’t. There is no in-between.
The cross was enough or it wasn’t. Jesus’ atoning blood covered all sin - forever. If we believe we are still carry intrinsic sin and have a responsibility to beat down the sin nature, we go through life battling a mythological duality within us. It’s like the light side vs. the dark side - as each vies for dominance, we cry out to the Father to save us from ourselves. This is heretical and unbiblical, and the early church spent years battling this incorrect thinking. Our life becomes a performance driven by pride, shame, and guilt. Our Christian walk is driven by a victim spirit; believing we are sinners, we fall again and again and again at the foot of the cross. We have great intentions, but we can never measure up. This is actually works-based righteousness in disguise, the very thing that Christ came to destroy and Paul argues against in his epistles.
Romans 10:3-4 (NKJV) “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to everyone who believes.”
If you believe you have a sin nature, you will continue to sin. Let’s imagine this principle in action. You just attended an amazing conference and heard an incredible speaker. You’re totally on fire for Jesus! You ride a high for a few days. You even start evangelizing at school or in the workplace. You’re noticing incredible changes in your family. Things are great! Then the daily grind settles in again. You realize you haven’t spent time reading the Bible or talking to Jesus the past few days. You start to feel guilty. Then, that temptation strikes...that temptation you’ve tried to shake off in your own power for years. Your mind starts spinning and playing games with you. Guilt and shame start speaking into your ear.
“It’s been awhile since you’ve spent time with God, now He’s distant! Feel the distance!”, “you’re just a dirty sinner, God will forgive you. It’s part of your nature. One time won’t hurt!” We listen to these spiritual voices and give in. We feel guilty for days, beat our chest, tear our clothes, and make a dramatic altar call to “repent”. We spend time trying to “get back on track”. Days, weeks, or months later the cycle repeats itself. This is the law of sin alive and well in modern Christianity, and it is results from a fat lie we believe about ourselves. It isn’t Truth.
Romans 8:1-2 (NKJV) “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Jesus took our sin nature and died. However, He didn’t stay dead. He was resurrected, ascended, and then sent His Spirit to us so we can participate in divine communion with him. The righteousness (right standing, freedom in thought, likeness in Christ) imputed by Jesus reveals our identity as a purified Bride. We don’t need to work for it, the cross did all the work. Anything less than that is works-based righteousness, a resurrected form of the Law that Jesus came to abolish.
Put yourself in a place right now where you take inventory of all the mental and emotional bondages you are struggling with, and then identify ways in which you knowingly or unknowingly strive for freedom from them. Now breathe in and realize Jesus accomplished it all on the cross. We are caught up with the Lord, and are now led by His Spirit. We are free from sin.
Romans 5:1-2 (NKJV) “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Romans 8:10-11 (NKJV) “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
To be clear, we aren’t “writing off” sin. Evil exists because of sin. Sin destroys God’s children and prevents them from being the people they are intended to be. God does not hate his children, He hates sin. We can still choose sin. We still suffer the “collateral damage” from others’ sinful beliefs and actions. But you, as a believer, no longer have a sin nature. It was destroyed on the cross. You live in a life framed by the Spirit. The “flesh,” Paul’s term for the pre-Christ, pre-Spirit mindset, does not exist as as nefarious entity within you. You are completely free and united with your heavenly Father.
Distance is deadly. A revelation of Christ in us and his imputed righteousness reveals that we already have total union with Him. By believing that we are totally loved and declaring that we are completely pure and righteous through the faith of Jesus, we gain a new boldness and confidence in our relationship with the Lord. Distance disappears and His love begins to overwhelm our hearts, transforming us from the inside out, not the outside in. We begin to see ourselves as He sees us - pure, spotless, lovely, and declared righteous. He so desires intense intimacy with us! We begin to enjoy our walk with the Lord. We begin to experience supernatural intimacy. We begin to see ourselves as supernatural royalty, well-approved by our Lord and King.
Romans 5:17 (NKJV) “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.”
We need to self-examine and ask ourselves where a performance-based mindset still infects our relationship with the Lord. We need to deeply believe that He loves us entirely apart from our works on His behalf. This is an easy intellectual truth, but I think upon self-evaluation our hearts will feel differently. I can think of several areas in my own life where I have unknowingly continued to perform to win more of Him. The Spirit will move the most upon us individually and corporately as we yield these mindsets completely to Him.
The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ is a revelation of humanity’s righteousness.
Righteousness is total freedom in the Spirit: Jesus and man finding likeness in each other.
Righteousness is freedom from performance-based Christianity.
Righteousness means spiritual unity with Jesus.
We share the faith of Jesus and live in His righteousness. Following His lead, we blaze a heavenly trail in our lives for those trapped in darkness to see. Clothed with his righteousness, we shape atmospheres and transform lives. We bear our faith boldy on our hearts and minds, free from any condemnation and shame.
Romans 1:16-17 (NKJV) “ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’”
Let’s end with a glimpse at the Psalms, the writers of which which were able to glimpse far into the future to see the glory of Jesus’ righteousness.
Psalms 85:13 (NKJV) “Righteousness will go before Him, And shall make His footsteps our pathway.”
Psalms 132:9 (NKJV) “Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness, And let your saints shout for joy.”
Psalms 72:7 (NKJV) “In His days the righteous shall flourish, And abundance of peace, Until the moon is no more.”
Our inheritance is peace, power, and intimacy with our Lord. Let’s walk in it.
