One of the major challenges some Christians have with guilt, condemnation and accusations of the enemy is because they lack knowledge about what Christ wrought for them in His sacrificial death.
They think salvation to be something partial while they barely get along in their relationship with God. Some have been in the faith for years but know little or nothing about their justification partly because they were not taught and also because they don't believe it whenever they read about it from scriptures.
We emphasize and re emphasize this truth because of the unchanging nature of biblical truth. We are not cheapening grace, rather we uphold it and make all of God's children take advantage of their rights and privileges in Christ.
While religion is battling to obtain justification by works, someone obtained it for us once and for all and gave it to us freely. Hallelujah!!!
Another miracle of justification is that the very righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. We are declared righteous legally: "Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous"( Romans 5:19 NLT).
Sin was imputed to us through Adam but righteousness was imputed to us through Christ. In a simpler language, we inherited sin through Adam but now that we are in Christ, we have inherited his righteousness.
He took our sin and gave us His righteousness: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV).
It this imputed righteousness that gives us access to the father without fear, guilt or condemnation. This righteousness is not like a filthy rag because it is the very righteousness of Christ. It is our self righteousness that is like a filthy rag before God. A believer is not expected to be self righteous, rather we should stand in the righteousness of Christ.
Never you call the righteousness of Christ imputed to you a filthy rag because you want to sound humble. Religion thrives on false humility but faith in Christ thrives on accurate biblical knowledge.
You can't have this understanding and still be moody because of your past. I got my freedom when I understood this truth after decades of being in the Lord.
Another purpose of the imputed righteousness is to make you live above sin.
Knowing that you have been made righteous is an all- important key to victory over sin: "For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, FOR ALL WHO RECEIVE IT WILL LIVE IN TRIUMPH OVER SIN AND DEATH through this one man, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17 NLT). This is profound, read it again.
If a believer wallow in sin, it is not because sin is so powerful that he cannot overcome it, it is a function of lack of knowledge about this righteous status that he possesses and inability to subdue the flesh. Sin has been conquered on the cross.
The imputed righteousness is the edge we have above sin. Apostle Paul says, "FOR SIN SHALL NO LONGER BE YOUR MASTER, because you are not under the law, but under grace"(Romans 6:14 NIV).
This is what religion does not have. Religion seeks to overcome sin through do's and dont's but in Christ, we have the power and enablement to live right without struggling because it is our new normal. That's why I stand opposed to teachings of grace that gives men liberty to indulge in sin.
Grace will not teach you to indulge in what he( Christ) has come to solve- the problem of sin.
Now that you're the righteousness of God in Christ, live like it and let men see it in your daily life and conduct.
