The Results of a New Life in ChristSample

CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

Isaiah 61:10—One of the requirements God made upon His people is that we be righteous; that is, we are to conform to His ethical and moral standards (Ps. 15:2; Mic. 6:8). Because God is holy, He cannot allow sinners into His presence (Is. 6:3–5). Because all people are sinners, we could not be saved apart from God’s supernatural intervention (Rom. 3:10, 23). The righteous demands of God coupled with humanity’s inability present an insoluble dilemma from our perspective. God, however, has graciously solved the problem. He sent Jesus, who never sinned, to die for our sins and thus satisfy His wrath toward us. Simply put, it means that God, at the cross, treated Christ as though He had committed our sins even though He was righteous.

On the other hand, when we believe in Jesus, He treats us as though we are as righteous as Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). The Bible calls this type of righteousness “imputed righteousness” (Rom. 4:6). That simply means that God puts to our spiritual account the very worth of Christ, much as though He were a banker adding an inexhaustible deposit to our bank account. There are, sadly, many people who still refuse to believe that such an abundant blessing can be theirs as a gift (Eph. 2:8–9). Nevertheless, the Bible urges all people to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and thus be reckoned as righteous by God (Rom. 4:24).

This Bible study is an excerpt fromThe OPEN Bible, Published by Thomas Nelson Bibles