Righteousness By Faith

RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH

THE church does not appreciate what she is as declared in the Word. We have been taught that we were unworthy and unrighteous, that we were weak and had no faith, for so long that it has become a chronic disease. We look with fear upon any message that brings relief unless it is a message of works. If we could sacrifice something, if we could pray long enough and hard enough, if we could confess our sins enough, then in some way we might get straightened out in our spiritual life. The whole thing is wrong.

Righteousness comes by faith. It is not gained by works, by repentance, by crying or by weeping. Neither does it come by the way of begging. It comes only by the way of faith.
Man has always sought to get Righteousness by works. If we thought we could become the Righteousness of God by praying for a certain number of hours, we would do it. If we were told that someone had obtained Righteousness by confessing all their sins since childhood and by making restitution for them, we would be willing to make the effort.
Righteousness does not come that way. It comes by faith. Not by your work but by Christ’s work. Not by your tears but by the tears of Christ. If everyone of us knew that we have Righteousness in us, we would become entirely independent of circumstances.

If we were as conscious of being the Righteousness of God as we are conscious of being weak and unworthy, we would not be sick any longer, we would not be held in bondage to want and poverty.
If we were as conscious of our Identification with Jesus Christ and our oneness with Him as we are conscious of physical pain and physical need, we would never have pain and we would never mention our needs again. This new sense of Righteousness, this new fact of Righteousness, this new discovery of our being the Righteousness of God in Christ gives us a new sense of freedom in Christ. It utterly destroys the Sin Consciousness and the Weakness Consciousness and the Want Consciousness. In their place has come the all absorbing reality of Christ. We know that He is our Righteousness and that we are the Righteousness of God in Him.

He is with us in all His ability and strength, in all His completeness and fullness. We are not afraid of circumstances. He whispers, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” He is with us. He is the God of the New Creation. He is our strength., He is upholding us with His Righteousness. We cannot fail. We cannot be kept in bondage.

This gives us a new liberty in prayer, a new sense of authority as sons and daughters of God to use the Name of Jesus, a new joy in fellowship with the Father. There is a new freshness in the Word. It has become literally His Word to us. Its absoluteness grips our hearts. We may not have realized it before but the Father and Testis are speaking to us.

The Word is the voice of the Father. He is not speaking to multitudes. He is speaking to each one of us. He declares that we have become the Righteousness of God in Him. We know that we are what He declares us to be.

Then there comes a new sense of mastery. We are coming into our rights, our legal rights in Christ. Our steps are sure now. No longer is there any uncertainty. We are not afraid of what the day may bring forth. We know what it means when He says, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” We know what it means when He says, “Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them.” He is talking to us. The sense of mastery, the strange new dignity of sonship, sweeps over our hearts.

We understand what it means to be under orders from heaven. We are ambassadors. We are clothed with authority from heaven. Luke 24:49, “But tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with ability from on high.” Now we understand what Jesus meant when He said that demons and the forces of darkness would be subject to us. Weakness, fear of failure, the little kingdoms that once ruled the world have been subordinated by Jesus Christ. Jesus conquered Satan. Every Satan-ruled force is subject to His Name.
He put Satan and all his works under our feet.

Now we know what Redemption means. We know we have become “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” We know that “of His fullness have we all received and grace upon grace. We know that we have received “the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.” We reign as kings in the realm of life through Jesus Christ. We begin to understand I Cor. 12:3, “And no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.”

Now we say it as New Creations conscious of our standing and our rights. Satan’s dominion has been broken. The Lordship of Jesus has begun.
We shall not want because we are one with Him. He is the Vine, we are the branches. We are the fruit-bearing portion of the Vine. We are His lips! We are His hands!
We are living with Him. He is living in us unseen but real. We walk with Him.
All this Righteousness gives us.