Rightousness Really?

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new. All things are of God. who hath reconciled us to Himself thought Jesus Christ, and hath given us to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world 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 stead, be reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to sin for us, who knew no sin: that we might be made the rightesousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (KJV)

Wow there is a lot in these verses! I really want to focus on a couple of things that I see. We get so hung up on who we were and what we have done in the past. Many times even as we come to Christ, we feel that we can't be of much use because we have things in our past that man would hold against us, but God says we are a new creature, the old man is gone! The literal Greek says we are new species of being that never exsisted before! The old us died and we were born new!! That means our history, our past is gone in God's eyes...we are brand new! Our spirit is reborn, but we must renew our mind to the Word of God to control our physical bodies.

Then the one that I really want to look at is "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" As believers in Jesus Christ, we are the righteousness of God Himself! That is huge, but often confusing for us. I don't feel very righteous often...

Righteousness is not a 'goody-goody' way of acting or something to be attained. It is a free gift from God, provided by Jesus' completeed work of the cross. By grace we are declared righteous. Traditionally, we confuse righteousness with holiness. Righteousness is not about how you act, it is what you are--the nature of God. Righteousness literally translated means "in right standing". We have been put in right standing with God through Jesus Christ and that does not change because of our actions...it is a completed work of grace that we receive when we accept Christ. We are in right standing with God.

Holiness is about our conduct. what we do, we are commanded to live a holy life..set apart for Christ!

So yes really we are righteous in the eyes of God!
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