SOME RIGHTEOUSNESS REALITIES

SOME RIGHTEOUSNESS REALITIES

WE do not grow in Righteousness. We are made Righteous, and Righteousness is credited to us. God Himself is our Righteousness and He made Jesus to be Righteousness unto us. There is no such thing as growth in Righteousness. There is growth in the knowledge of what Righteousness means. There is growth in acting as though we were Righteous. There is growth in faith in our Righteousness.

Very few people have any faith in their Righteousness in Christ. They have faith in their weakness and their lack of ability, but few have any faith in the thing that God has made them to be. This is an unhappy fact. Until we have confidence in our own standing before the Father, in our own Righteousness in Christ, we will never have faith that will bring blessing to ourselves and others. Faith is destroyed by Sin Consciousness. Faith is built up and made invincible by Righteousness Consciousness.

This entire problem rests upon our estimation of the Word. If we have a low estimation of the Word, then we will have a low estimation of our Righteousness in Christ. If we have a low estimation of the Word, our faith will be weak and vacillating. But if we believe the Word, rest on the Word,’ know that no Word from God is untrue and that God cannot lie, then our faith becomes strong.

When we say that God cannot lie we mean that the Word cannot lie. It is the Word with which we are dealing. The Word is the contract, the Covenant, the legal instrument with which we have to do. It is more than a legal document. It is a living document. It becomes a living force in our lives as we act upon it. A low estimate of the New Covenant or the New Testament will bring a low estimate of the work that Christ did. A low estimate of the Word and of the work that Christ did is hound to react in our lives.

Men and women will see at once that there is something weak and inefficient in our lives.
When we believe Rom. 4:25, it will be manifested in our lives, in our conduct. “Who was delivered up on the account of our trespasses and was raised because we were declared righteous.” People will feel it in our conversation. But if we doubt the efficacy of His finished work, every phase of our life will show it. The reason people cannot get their healing is. because of a low estimation of the Word and of the finished work of Christ. When we have the proper estimation of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we know that “By His stripes we are healed,” and we need no one to pray for us.
We know we are healed, and with joy we thank Him for it. All this trying to be worthy, trying to be Righteous, crying and agonizing before the Lord, is the product of a low estimation of the integrity of the Word of God. When we know that the Word is true, that we are what the Word says we are, and that we can do all the Word says we can, we begin at once to take our place, assert our authority, and enjoy our privileges in Christ. We grow in grace. Grace is love unveiled, love in action. It is love doing things.

We can grow in that. We can let love dominate us. Then we will reveal Jesus in our conduct. We can grow in love until our whole life is saturated with it, until every motive will be born of it, until every word will have its fragrance. We are Righteous from the time we are Born Again. Faith grows as we walk in the Word. We grow in knowledge of our Righteousness, what it can mean to us, and its vast privileges and responsibilities.

We do not grow in sonship, though we may grow in the knowledge of what sonship means.
Perhaps the clearest definition of what we are in Christ is given in Heb. 10:38, “But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul bath no pleasure in him.”
God calls the church His “righteous one.” He speaks of us individually as His righteous one. If we draw back into the Sense Realm of dead works, we rob Him of the joy that belongs to Him.