The capsulizing definition of righteousness is a simple statement, that it is the expression of the will and nature of the Father. It’s hard to beat this definition. In our previous article, we discussed how that God, in helping us understand what righteousness is, had to reveal His will and His nature to man. If we didn’t know God’s will, how could we possibly have known how to serve Him? How could we know how to respond to Him? If we didn’t know His nature, how could we function?

Today’s article is going to be straight up fire, I promise you all. In our last article, we discussed the legal aspect of righteousness. In today’s article, we finally understand the vital aspect of righteousness.

THE PROCESS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

The best way to illustrate it is this way:

God calls everyone. Jesus has come, died, resurrected, and brought salvation thus, salvation has been consummated and now man can be born again. So, the message has gone out to say anyone who believes the salvation that Christ has brought will have that salvation.

Now when you believe this gospel, He says salvation is yours and you are made right with God because you have accepted His righteousness. That righteousness is what brings you and keeps you in the presence of God.

Here’s a real-world example of what this looks like:

You hail from a remote, dirt-poor country on earth called the Republic of Puny Mortals, right? And you want to change your citizenship to this city called Christ, the New Jerusalem. In order to become a citizen, you need to be granted citizenship to Christ, right? So, what Jesus did when He came on earth is the equivalent of having come to the Republic of Puny Mortals, establish an embassy where all puny mortals can apply for citizenship too, and Jesus says the only criteria is that you believe in this gospel I came with of having brought the divine embassy into your country. So, with that, Jesus made the ability to become a Christian possible, right? But just because you acknowledge that this embassy exists in your country, does not give you citizenship to Christ rather, it only makes it possible for you to become a Christian. That’s what believing does: it makes it possible for you to become a Christian by giving you right-standing with God.

So, what Jesus says is if you come to the embassy to register for this new citizenship, there is a stamp available for everyone. Now, just because you have that stamp doesn’t mean you are in Christ yet. But legally, it gives you the legal right to come into this new Kingdom called Christ. You have the stamp because you accepted the invitation. Remember, the one who doesn’t have the stamp can’t even come into this new Kingdom at customs, right? But you have the stamp so you can come into the Kingdom. And as soon as you arrive at the customs border, all you do is present your stamped passport and you are allowed entry because you have the right to enter the Kingdom. Now, after you enter the kingdom, you don’t need that stamp anymore: you don’t need permission to enter the Kingdom because you are already in the Kingdom. That stamp has served its purpose because you have used it to get into the Kingdom and become a new citizen of it. You don’t need your stamp anymore because you now have your own unique identification in that country.

How does this apply to righteousness? When you believe the gospel, it is credited to you for righteousness (this is your legal righteousness). When you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are made right with God. This believing is your stamp. It gives you the legal right to enter this new Kingdom. But once you take the next step and enter into this new Kingdom, you no longer require that legal righteousness (the stamp), because you are given vital righteousness (your new identification as a new entity in the Kingdom called Christ).

Most, never take this step: many because they’ve never been informed and others because of ignorance. So many have the stamp to get into the Kingdom and become Christian, but never actually use it because they think believing is enough when in reality it only makes it possible for you to become a citizen.

With context having been gotten out of the way, let’s now take a look at scripture:

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”—Romans 10:10

Did you see that? Believing makes it possible for you to receive salvation, but confession is what gives you that salvation: that’s what makes you a citizen of that new Kingdom. That’s how you become a Christian! You need to confess it with your mouth. Do you see why some people have never been born again? Because its not enough to believe, you need to consciously verbally declare that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. And because they have never said that, they have never entered into salvation. This is the point of everything I do—helping people make this confession. Because, just believing alone isn’t enough: you need to make this confession otherwise you cannot have salvation and become Christian. It’s like you have the stamp to become a citizen, but you never entered the kingdom and became a citizen.

When you declare that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, the dominion of Satan over you is immediately broken and you are immediately catapulted into this kingdom of God.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”—Romans 5:1

Justified means ‘declared righteous’ which means we have been brought into a reconciliation with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”—Romans 5:18

Now I paused only because I want you to pay closer attention to this following verse because it shows you the process,

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”—Romans 5:19-21

So, what’s he saying here? That sin had reigned and brought condemnation to man; it had destroyed man’s life. But now, God’s grace (which means favor that no one had to qualify for it) reigns by crediting righteousness to the ungodly so that these ungodly might receive eternal life. Do you see the process?

Grace is reigning by giving righteousness. That means by helping man come into the presence of God and have a right to approach God without fear, guilt, inferiority, or condemnation. Why? Because He gave you His grace. So now, He says ‘come through Jesus Christ. Jesus died for you. He took the punishment for your sins and so if you believe that Jesus died in your place, then you don’t have to pay for those same sins twice by ever dying’. Do you see that? He died for all your sins (past, present, and future) so then why do you need do die again for sins that have already been paid for? Otherwise, you will be paying for the same sin twice.

If you believe what Jesus did for you on the cross, he says legally righteousness is your because he took your place of sin so that you could take his place of righteousness—this is the gospel of substitution. Let’s take a look at a verse that helps us understand this better:

“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”—2 Corinthians 8:9

You see that? Substitution—He took your place so that you might take His place. He became poor so that you might become rich.

Now, did you notice that this righteousness was made available to everyone? Not just Jews or Romans or anything. It was made available to everyone on earth. In the same way all the stamps were made available for everyone to be able to become a citizen to whoever decides to. Meaning if you want it, you can have it simply by believing which immediately credits legal righteousness to your account.

THE VITALITY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?

Now that we’ve established a good basis for the visualization of the process of righteousness, we can look at vital righteousness. Before we dive into scripture, I just wish to give you a bit of context on the difference between the books of Romans and 2 Corinthians. In Romans, Paul presents the legal argument for righteousness, and in 2 Corinthians he presents the vitality of our righteousness

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

To wit (bare witness), that God was in Christ, reconciling the world (not Christians) unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”—2 Corinthians 5:17-21

I am beyond tempted to explain so many things about this portion of scripture but for now observe that last part. He says, God wants us to bare witness that He was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and not imputing sin unto them but righteousness. And that He has given us that same ministry of reconciliation. That’s why he says we are ambassadors for Christ (notice He didn’t say for Jesus, which means we are ambassadors for our heavenly Kingdom). Now, here’s the massive one I want to bring to your attention. He says, notice he says God made Jesus sin for us so that we might become God’s righteousness. He doesn’t say so that we be made righteous, rather so that we become God’s righteousness by virtue of this salvation—this is vital righteousness.

In other words, this legal aspect of our righteousness is what brought us into that salvation. When you confessed the Lordship of Jesus Christ, at once, you were imparted with eternal life—the life and nature of God—suddenly you’re awakened to the fatherhood of God and you realize that not only is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, but that He is your brother; He has made the Father, your father. Now you are in God’s presence every day, all the time, 24/7. You’re a new man. You have a new nature. You are Christian!

So, then some of you might ask why you still feel and think the same as you did before you became this mammoth of a God that I just revealed in spectacular fashion that you received? It’s because of your mind. Let me illustrate it this way:

If you bought a brand new, next generation laptop for yourself and installed into this new laptop the same hard drive that you used on your old laptop, will you find new files on that old hard drive even though the laptop itself is new? Of course not, right? Your old files will still be on that old hard drive, so will the old operating system, and the same viruses too. How does this relate? When you became born again, you became a new self (a new laptop in this example). But that’s not enough because you need a new mind (installing a new hard drive too with new information and a new operating system designed for that new laptop). And how do the scriptures say we do this?

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”—Romans 12:2

Paul is saying replace the old files you have in your mind constantly by having new thoughts, and ideas, and opinions—replace the old ones. Otherwise even though you’re born again, you’ll be thinking the same way you used to think because you already had all those thoughts in your mind prior to that moment you became born again.

“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”—Ephesians 4:24

Are you seeing this? Paul recognizes everything we have discussed so far and tells us to put on this new form—this new nature. Meaning appear with the new nature that’s already inside you—which means let it take over your expressions. Let’s look at that last part of this verse in a different version,

“and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”—Ephesians 4:24 [NIV]

I honestly have difficulty reading such sometimes without getting so excited enough to just scatter everything! Like… are you reading this? Are you seeing this? When he says ‘true righteousness’, he isn’t comparing truth versus lies here. He is talking about reality. He is talking about vital righteousness. He tells us that your new self—your born-again self—was created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So, what do you say? I am the righteousness of God. Which means, everywhere I go, I express the righteousness of God because that’s who I am. That’s what made Jesus different from all the religious leaders and everyone else in the world—He was the expression of the Father’s will and the Father’s nature. Do you see now why He would say,

“…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…”—John 14:9

Because He was the expression of the Father just like us. So, you ought to be saying this like Jesus,

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!

This is why you are not allowed to live like everyone else i.e., poor, sick, miserable, in-need. This is why you are not allowed to speak like everyone else i.e., lies, profane language, anything outside of what God says you are. Because you are the very expression of God Himself and He expects that when the world looks at you, they should see Him. So, if you are doing or saying or thinking anything that does not express the will of the father, then you shouldn’t be found doing it. You can’t act like the rest of the world. Don’t act like you’re not.

In the wilderness, Moses asked whom God He should tell Pharoah that he’d been sent by and God said,

Tell him that, “I am” has sent you. [Reference: Exodus 3:7–8, 13–14]

When Jesus came to earth, He said exactly the same thing,

“Before Abraham was, I am” [Reference: John 8:48-59]

So, then ask yourself how you should be talking about yourself?

I am!

This is why the scriptures says not to take the name of the Lord in vain (Exodus 20:7). Think about your language whenever you say things like ‘I am sick’. Really? I am, being sick? How dare you? I am, cannot be sick. Or words like ‘I am broke’ or ‘I am poor’ or ‘I am just a simple man’. Really? Are you hearing yourself? I am? Being a broke or in-need or poor, or simple man? How dare you! Do you see why God wants you to be saying the correct things about yourself? Because you are directly connected to God!

“…For as He is, so are we in this world”—1 John 4:17

CONCLUSION

This has honestly been one of my favorite topics of all we’ve talked about so far and I hope you see why now.

If I am to conclude this series then let it be on this note: this type of wisdom and everything we discuss in this series and on my platform is for Christians and Christians alone. If you are not Christian then this cannot apply to you no matter what you try. And this is not me saying this, Jesus Himself says it,

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”—John 14:6

There is no other way to have this except by becoming Christians. Christianity is not just a religion. Read everything we’ve taken a look at from our very first article series on Who and What a Christian Really is for yourself to know what a Christian is. If you are here and haven’t given your life to God (and therefore aren’t Christian) then I offer you the opportunity to give your life to God.

Simply believing in God and in Jesus DOES NOT make you Christian.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.“—Romans 10:9

Paul tells us exactly how to become Christian. He says you need to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, and you need to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. If you have never done this then you have not Christian no matter how often you go to church and no matter how good a person you are. So, right now, if you’re reading this and wish to give your life to God and become a Christian, repeat this prayer below out-loud to yourself wherever you are,

“O Lord, God,

I believe with all my heart in Jesus Christ, Son of the living God.

I believe He died for me and God raised Him from the dead.

I believe that He’s alive today.

I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life from this day.

Through Him and in His Name, I have eternal life; I am born again.

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul!

I’m now a child of God. Hallelujah!”

Now if you said that prayer for the very first time and gave you life to the Lord today, congratulations: you are now a new creation! You are born again! And you are child of God from this day. Please, please, please reach out to me directly using my contact form or on the numbers given below and I will respond to you immediately: I have amazing gifts lined up just for you and I wish to help you through your Christian walk. Feel free to read my article series on Who and What A Christian Really is to learn more about who you are as a Child of God, what it means to be a child of God, and what you have as a child of God.

Thank you so much for joining me on this amazing journey and I look forward to seeing you in my next article where we discuss the very concept and nature of sin as Christians.