You are Righteous and Holy

Do you feel righteous and holy? If I am being honest, there are many times that I don’t feel righteous or holy, but that is what Satan would want us to believe.

I have been leading a study online with a small group of men through the book of Romans. We studied the passage that contains this verse just last week. We learned that God created Adam to be our representative in all things. As such, when Adam sinned, we actually sinned at that same moment in him even though we were not here yet. Yes, we are all also guilty of committing our own sins just as Adam did, but even if we didn’t, we were guilty because all that was true of Adam is also true of us until the point that we placed our faith in Jesus Christ.

Once we placed our faith in Jesus Christ, from that point forward, Jesus is our new representative and all that is true of Christ (humanly speaking) is true of us. Jesus was without sin yet paid the penalty of the sin that Adam committed on our behalf. Jesus also paid the penalty of all sin we would personally commit. Once we placed our faith in Jesus as our representative, all of our sins were paid and we instantly possessed and continue to possess the righteousness and holiness of Christ. The wages (what we earned) for our sin was death, but through grace Jesus gave us a free gift of His righteousness and holiness simply by us accepting His gift.

Though we may not feel righteous or holy, righteousness will reign (control us) through Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that we are sinless, but rather that sin has no power over us and is inconsistent with our new identity. Our real identity as followers of Christ is holy and righteous and when we do not behave righteously, we are being inconsistent with our real identity in Christ and require confession and repentance to realign with our true identity in Christ. The rest of our lives in the process called sanctification where our bodies and minds catch up with our identity and we behave more and more consistent with our new selves.

Ben