You have been overwhelmed with the guilt of not having a perfect Christian life, thus not being able to please God . You have lost all hope ,and see yourself as the vilest sinner . You aren't that evil ,atleast you haven't murdered anyone . You try to do some good things yet it seems not good enough. Your soul is thronged with depression ,guilt ,low self esteem and even feel unworthy to come to God . You wondered if you could ever make it to heaven . You really wanted to stop sinning but then you find your self doing it again . Your Christian life is no more exciting . But all hope isn't lost .You May be feeling this way probably because you are trying to hard on your own . Its time to lean on the grace of God now .
Jesus Christ came to justify the ungodly ,he came for those who needed salvation ,for what is the use of a saviour to those already saved .He came so we May achieve something we haven't been able to do on our own ,to be made right with God,to be "perfect ".
Righteousness isn't about what you do or don't do . If it were then I shouldn't be born again , like Apostle Paul never deserved a second chance .You see when you view it so ,it no more becomes a free gift but something you deserve .That's the misconception people have . We are not and can never be righteous until we have faith in God .
Let's look at the definition of Righteousness .
It is the quality of being morally right and justifiable .Righteousness comes from the greek word Dike implying Justice (In other words, to justify means to declare righteous, to declare to be in the right, to vindicate. )
Therefore to be righteous means to be just .If man had failed at doing anything ,it will be attaining righteousness . It is our trust and faith In God that makes us righteous and not what we do .
The book of Romans affirms this claim .
Rom 4:5
However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
Okay so back to our topic ,how can you be perfect before God ? No ! you can't be perfect , not even on this earth .So far as we live in our flesh ,perfection is something we can't attain .This stands to reason that we can never live a sin free life . The scripture above also denotes that our works can't give us the righteousness we need only Jesus can.It is him alone who justifies the ungodly . Bear in mind that the ungodly can't justify themselves and make themselves perfect enough before God,they will still look filthy .So there is a need for a justifier .This means that the only way we can reconcile God's command to be perfect and our imperfection is by grace . Through the grace of God we are justified .
It is a free but priceless gift God offers to imperfect people through the death of his son Jesus Christ .This grace however isn't a carte Blanche to sin for it is not the will of God for us to live in sin but to live in freedom .
So Paul can say in Phil 3:9 : and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith
So stop being self - righteous ,you weren't able to achieve it neither can you ever achieve it on your own . God is the giver of righteousness ,by Faith in Jesus . He is the one who justifies(makes right ) the ungodly . This is the righteousness we can gain by faith .
This is the first part on the series of Righteousness .
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