Righteousness Restores Mankind’s Relationship With God
Righteousness comes to us through believing in Jesus as the Son of God, and receiving Him as Saviour. This is called being “born again.” It is a spiritual rebirth, and we become a “new creation” made by God. God becomes our Heavenly Father. This new birth by receiving Jesus’ gift of payment for our sins, gives us right standing before God. He takes away the old sin-consciousness that crippled us. The Bible says that the blood of Jesus Christ pays for all of our sins, and God does not remember our sins anymore.
Righteousness through our faith in Jesus and His payment for our sins, restores our fellowship with God. We can now learn how God wants us to live as new creations, His children. We renew our minds from the world’s evil way of thinking, through reading and obeying God’s Word, the Bible. The Bible informs us what a relationship with God looked like in Jesus’ life, as an example of how we can live in relationship with God. Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, and as believers in Jesus, God has promised us the same Holy Spirit to fill us, guide us and help us walk in fellowship with Him.
Jesus had no sense of lack.
When Jesus needed money while on earth, to pay tax to Caesar, Jesus told Peter to go and catch a fish, and he would find a coin in that fish’s mouth. That coin would be enough needed to pay the taxes for Jesus and for Peter. Jesus proved He had no sense of lack when He blessed a boy’s lunch of five small loaves of bread and two small fish. Jesus multiplied this small lunch and had his disciples share it to feed five thousand men (besides women and children). The lunch of a boy was made enough for a large multitude that could fill a hockey arena.
Righteousness in God’s sight restores to man his lost faith.
Jesus believed in His Father, in His mission and in Himself. When we do not have right standing with the Father, we lose faith in God, our sense of purpose on the earth and faith in others around us. We constantly require sensory proof of God’s presence, before we will begin to accept Him working in our daily lives. Thomas was a disciple who would not take the word of his fellow disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead. Thomas said, ““I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” John 20:25 (NLT)
When we receive righteousness through Jesus, our peace can be restored.
Receiving Jesus restores peace with God. Our wicked world who do not believe and receive Jesus are restless, without peace or quietness.
God says, “But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still, but always churns up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for them!” Isaiah 57:20-21 (TLB).
The sense of lack, the sense of guilt, the consiousness of our failures, heavy burdens, even upaid bills, can fill our hearts with anxiety and restlessness. Righteousness restores quietness and rest to our spirit. We are no longer afraid of bills, no longer afraid of circumstances. Faith in God helping us, as our Father, rises uncosciously and we can face the most adverse conditions with His help.
Righteousness before God, restores peace, and also gives man freedom from sin consciousness.
It is freedom in Christ, freedom from the fear of Satan, freedom from the fear of man, because we trust in God with all our hearts. We don’t lean on our own understanding. We are not harassed and depressed by the circumstances and events our five senses push on us. We stand in the belief that God, our Father is greater than this world and the circumstances in our life.
“My little children, you belong to God. You have won against those people with a false message. You have been able to do that because God’s Holy Spirit is in you. He is more powerful than the spirit that belongs to this world.” (1 John 4:4)
Righteousness, thanks to Jesus, gives us the privilege and consciousness of becoming sons and daughters of God.
God is our Father. We are His children. We are in His family, thanks to Jesus. We know our Father loves us and we love Him. Righteousness restores to us the joy, the inner joy, that supercedes life’s circumstances as we experience close relationship with God. We are no longer sinners. We are sons and daughters, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
To be continued…
Your friend,
Harold