DIG for Tuesday the 17th of October…..our righteousness does exceed that of the Pharisees…..Matthew 5 v 20

The Bible contains what some class as ‘difficult’ passages and verses; many of these are in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Take Matthew 5 v 20 for example.

If this verse is taken out of context and not rightly divided with the rest of the Word (as many people seem to do) it can seem impossible to be good enough for God.

The trouble is that many think righteousness is about what you do, where we know that it is about who you are.

Righteousness is not about actions but position, your position in Christ.

The Pharisees and scribes were very zealous, they tried and tried to achieve righteousness through works of the law and they failed.

So how can we expect to be more righteous than them?

Well, we cannot, if we try in our own strength.

But the good news of the Gospel is that we are MADE righteous the second we become a new creature, the second we are born again (2 Corinthians 5 v 17 to 21).

So as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus our righteousness does exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes, as our righteousness is the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5 v 21).

And we have this as a gift of grace through faith, we were made as righteous as God not through our works but through the work of Jesus.

If you read this verse in context along with others it is of great encouragement and not difficult.

Because of Jesus you are righteous enough to enter into the Kingdom!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I have been made righteous as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and His finished work”.

Matthew 5 v 20…..For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven

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DIG for Thursday the 5th of October….more than just robed; MADE righteous…..Ephesians 6 v 14

Paul likens our Spiritual armour to that of a soldier. Have you ever thought of righteousness as armour?

A couple of years ago I did a teaching on the Old Testament High Priest’s garments and how his robe is a picture of the righteousness that He has clothed us in.

Isaiah 61:10 says that God has covered me in a robe of righteousness, but in the New Covenant our righteousness goes deeper than that.

When we put on a coat or a robe we only cover up what’s underneath. Being clothed or covered doesn’t change us on the inside.

But the righteousness of God goes right to our core. We aren’t just covered; we are MADE righteous. Not through our own efforts and good works, but ONLY through Jesus’ efforts and His Good Work (2 Corinthians 5 v 21).

How is righteousness like armour? Righteousness is like truth. It is what it is whether we know it or not, and we only benefit from it when we know it!

Do you know you are righteous? If we know that we are right with God, not just skin deep, but right to our core, what can the enemy accuse us of?

‘Not good enough’…’failure’…’powerless’…’hopeless’…without His righteousness we are all these and more…but we are not without His righteousness, we have been made righteous…we just need to know it.

When we know that we are righteous it acts as a breastplate, and the enemy’s attacks of accusations and lies fall away, blunt and powerless against us.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I am righteous to my core because I have put my faith in what Jesus has done for me, and thank you for the protection that gives me”.

Ephesians 6 v 14….Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness

DIG for Saturday the 19th of August…..righteousness is a gift of grace through faith…..2 Corinthians 5 v 21

All of us know that there is nothing we can personally do through works and deeds to save ourselves.

We know our salvation is received as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and His finished work.

As soon as we are born again we are made righteous (2 Corinthians 5 v 21).

So there is also nothing we can do through works and deeds to make ourselves righteous.

It also holds therefore that there is nothing we can do through bad works and deeds (in other words sin) to remove that righteousness or reduce it.

In the eyes of God a man is either righteous or he is not.

Whether we are righteous or not has all to do with what a man believes with regard to Jesus; it has nothing to do with actions.

You cannot make your self more or less righteous; you are made righteous as a gift of grace through faith.

You cannot ‘sin away’ your right standing with God just as you cannot work your way into right standing.

Righteousness, or right standing with God, has absolutely nothing to do with your works, deeds or actions.

Righteousness is a state of being rather than a state of doing, and is dependant upon what you believe about Jesus and His finished work.

Any man can be made righteous through faith because of what Jesus has already done!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I have been made righteous as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus”.

2 Corinthians 5 v 21…..For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

DIG for Tuesday the 1st of August…..the best ‘swap’ ever…..2 Corinthians 5 v 21

When I was a young boy I used to collect stickers of football players with the aim of filling up and completing my album.

It got harder near the end and I remember swapping and exchanging stickers with my friends at school, trying to get rid of my doubles and find the ones I’d not got.

This was great fun, and this swapping took a great deal of time and effort!

I was strangely reminded about that this evening as I was reading my ‘all time’ favourite verse, 2 Corinthians 5 v 21.

This verse shows us the most important swap that has every taker place, a swap that occurred as a gift of grace through faith.

This swap took no effort on our behalf, as it simply required faith.

At the cross Jesus took all our sin on His body, and at our salvation we receive His righteousness.

Now that may not sound like a fair swap to you, Jesus suffering for our benefit.

But that was what the finished work of Jesus was all about!

He came to bring us life in abundance, He came so that we could live in health and prosperity, and He came so that we could be made righteous.

This was the plan!

And Jesus carried out the plan to perfection.

He went to the cross once and dealt with all sin for all men for all time (Hebrews 10 v 12).

And because of that we could be made righteous as a gift of grace through faith; what an amazing swap!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I am righteous, made righteous as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and His finished work”.

2 Corinthians 5 v 21…..For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

DIG for Wednesday the 10th of May…..and whose righteousness do we get…..2 Corinthians 5 v 21

There is another amazing truth that we can read in 2 Corinthians 5 v 21

When we are made righteous it is nothing to do with what we do or have done.

Our righteousness has nothing to do with our performance, so in a real sense it is not our righteousness.

When we are made righteous this is done as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus.

And we are not made of any old righteousness.

When our spirit is created new (2 Corinthians 5 v 17) it is created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4 v 24).

And the righteousness that we have is the righteousness of God.

Yes, when we are made righteous we are made as righteous as God.

No Vic you may be thinking, you’ve gone a bit far this time!

No I have not; this is the Biblical truth if you read this passage.

Jesus takes our sin so that we can have God’s righteousness.

That is exactly what 2 Corinthians 5 v 21 is saying.

Through Jesus we are made the righteousness of God; and that is a direct quote from the Bible.

Please read this passage if you do not believe me.

If you are born again, right now in your born again spirit you are as righteous as God.

Now that’s the good news!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I have been the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”.

2 Corinthians 5 v 21…..For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

DIG for Tuesday the 9th of May…..what an amazing exchange…..2 Corinthians 5 v 21

We have now reached the verse, in this mini DIG series, that changed my life.

We know that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, and sometimes this transformation is slow and steady, sometimes it is in large steps.

My transformation took a large step once I realised that I had been made righteous.

In this verse we see how a believer is made righteous and also what type of righteousness we now have.

The first important point is how a believer becomes righteous.

It is not through works or religious performance; a believer is made righteous.

You cannot be in the process of moving to righteousness and we do not have different levels of righteousness.

You are either righteous or you are not!

2 Corinthians 5 v 21 tells us that we can be made righteous through the finished work of Jesus Christ.

We can be made righteous as He was made sin, even though He knew no sin.

He made this great exchange possible through the cross; He took our sin so that (as a gift of grace through faith) we could be made righteousness.

This is an amazing fundamental truth of the Christian faith and it will change your life if you truly understand and believe this.

I can testify that it did in my life.

I have never been the same since I understood and believed that I had been made righteous.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I have been made righteous as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus”.

2 Corinthians 5 v 21…..For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

DIG for Friday the 14th of October…..salvation and righteousness, one and the same…..Romans 10 v 10

The end of Romans 9 and start of Romans 10 is a wonderful description of righteousness by faith.

We see quite clearly (in fact very clearly) that the way to righteousness is through faith in Christ and Christ alone.

No works or deeds of the law are required for a man to become righteous, in other words to have complete and unconditional acceptance and approval from God (Romans 3 v 28)

Faith in Christ ends any requirements for works or deeds of the law to be right with God (Romans 10 v 4).

Further on in Romans 10 the emphasis seems to change and Paul tells us how a person comes to salvation (Romans 10 v 9 and 10).

But this is not a change; it is a continuation of his discussion about righteousness.

You see a man is made righteous the instant he is saved!

Being made righteous is not a process.

You cannot move toward righteousness or become more or less righteous.

Becoming righteousness is an event.

You are either righteous or you are not and it all depends upon whether you are saved or lost.

Being saved is the same as being righteous as you are made righteous when you are in Christ or come to salvation (2 Corinthians 5 v 17 and 21).

What an awesome truth, and what a simple truth!

Speak this out today….”Thank you Lord that I am saved and thank you that I have been made righteous”.

Romans 10 v 10…..For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation

DIG for Thursday the 13th of October…..I love when a revelation gets deeper…..2 Corinthians 5 v 21

As you should all know by know my favourite verse in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 5 v 21.

It always excites me when someone talks about it or preaches from it, even though I think I have a ‘good handle’ on this verse.

At the Bible study last night a dear sister spoke about this verse saying that when Jesus was on the cross His total identity was sin.

He was made to be sin for us is what the verse says; at that point He was sin and Father God had to turn away from Him.

We know that He was made sin so that we could be made righteous; this was one of the great exchanges that took place on the cross.

Jesus took our sin so that we could take His righteousness, so that we could be made righteous.

When we are born again we become a new creature in our born again spirit (2 Corinthians 5 v 17).

We are created at that point in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4 v 24).

At that point, and from then onwards, our total identity was wrapped up in righteousness.

Just as the identity of Jesus was totally sin at that point on the cross now our total identity is righteousness.

In our born again spirit (the part God looks at and relates with) we are totally righteous, 100% righteous, completely righteous.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that right now I AM RIGHTEOUS”.

2 Corinthians 5 v 21…..For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him

DIG for Tuesday the 4th of October…..the law does not work…..1 Corinthians 15 v 34

Telling a person that they are a sinner and a bad person will not stop them from sinning.

Telling a person to stop this and stop that does not work.

Trying to get a person to stop sinning through his or her own efforts is known as law and does not work; that is what the Word of God says.

There is a better way that we can help people live a life free from sin; we can tell them about Jesus and tell them that if born again they are righteous.

If believers understand that they are righteous, or awaken to this fact, they will sin less (1 Corinthians 15 v 34).

If believers understand the truth about Jesus and His finished work they will live a more holy life (Titus 2 v 11 and 12).

Telling believes about Jesus and righteousness is grace.

Telling believers to stop this and stop that is law.

We now live under grace and not under law and law was never meant to be used with us (Romans 6 v 14).

Preaching law at people actually has the opposite effect, in that is the strength of sin driving people to do what they do not want to do (1 Corinthians 15 v 56).

Grace is what we need to preach and hear, not law.

Speak this out today….”Thank you Lord that we live under grace and not under law”.

1 Corinthians 15 v 34…..Awake to righteousness and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame

DIG for Saturday the 3rd of September…..as righteous as God, are you sure…..2 Corinthians 5 v 21

I wrote yesterday that there are things that I say time and time again, there are also verses that I write about over and over again, and 2 Corinthians 5 v 21 is one such verse.

This is the verse that really changed my life; I changed after the realisation that I was indeed righteous.

Paul wrote to Titus (a pastor) telling him to ’affirm constantly’ the truths about righteousness and justification, and that is one thing I aim to do as a pastor.

I will constantly affirm the truth about righteousness.

I will tell anyone who will listen about righteousness; in fact I will tell those who are not listening about righteousness, hoping that one day the truth will get through!

The Word is very clear about this; we are made righteous and this is only achieved as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus.

We cannot do anything in our own strength to be right with God and be accepted by God (that is my definition of righteousness by the way).

Man can only be righteous, and be made righteous, through faith in Jesus.

We are made righteous at the same time as we are saved, also only available as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and His finished work.

This is a fundamental and foundational truth of the Christian faith, righteousness (acceptance from God) and salvation only come through faith.

We cannot work our way into salvation, so in the same way we cannot work our way into righteousness or more righteousness.

At our salvation we were made as righteous as God; yes, you did read that correctly, go and read 2 Corinthians 5 v 21 again and see that this is the truth!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that right now I am righteous, I am accepted and right in your eyes, and thank you that this was achieved as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus”.

2 Corinthians 5 v 21…..For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him