His Righteousness

1 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) ~ He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

All too often, as believers, we are asked these questions: How can you blindly serve a God that allows such awful things to happen?  Why do you put your faith in a God you can’t see?  What is so great about being a Christian? As the song says, “Let me tell you about my Jesus.”

The greatest thing about being a believer is that through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I have been made righteous in the eyes of God.  Regardless of what I have done, regardless of what I may do, God sees me as His righteous child through the sacrifice that Christ made for me.  It’s not the things I do for Him, it’s not the worship I bring to Him, it’s not the things I give to Him, it’s Christ’s redemptive act of dying on the cross for me that makes me righteous.  That is why I praise, that is why I serve, that is why I sacrifice.  Regardless of how horrific this world becomes, no matter how unjust people are towards each other, I will always see my God as just, as holy, as worthy of my praise, because of that one act.

We just recently celebrated Veterans Day.  A day that honors the men and women that served this amazing country.  There are some of those men that died and paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms that we enjoy.  Those are the men that we owe the greatest debt of gratitude.  They are the reason we have this blessing of freedom.  However, regardless of the most honorable of sacrifices these men made for us, their deaths could not do what Jesus’ death did.  Only the blood of Christ can bring us from our place of sin and shame into the glorious light of the righteousness of God.

Sometimes when I’m in the midst of my selfishness and not really doing what I know I should be doing or doing things I know I should not be doing, I don’t feel very righteous.  I wonder to myself, “How can God love me?  How can He see me as His precious righteous child?”  When I read scriptures like 2 Corinthians 5:21, I am reminded of where my righteousness is found.  It isn’t my works. It isn’t anything I have done or can do.  It comes from Jesus.  I cannot earn any more righteousness.  I cannot become any more virtuous.  All the righteousness I would gain came at the moment I put my faith in Jesus Christ.  It doesn’t diminish when I sin. It doesn’t grow greater when I do what is right  because it is not mine.  The righteousness I am credited comes directly from Jesus Christ.  That is enough for me to blindly worship, wholeheartedly serve, and willingly sacrifice the meager offerings I have to give to the one true King!