Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.** Romans 8:1 (NIV)**
Does our faith sometimes feel like our house is built on “shifting sands” rather than on the Rock of Christ? Dear believer, the promise that those who believe in Jesus now belong to God, rests not on our works rather on Christ’s - who died for them and was raised again. Therefore, believers are to stand firm and fully assured. The Promise Giver is faithful. He is always faithful to His Word. We can trust Him. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) these amazing words: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Truly, amazing.
Further, Scripture tells us in Isaiah 64:6 (NIV): “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Anything done in the flesh apart from Him will never make it through the fire that will test the quality of each man’s work as they are tainted with sin, selfish ambitions, vain conceits and the like. Not one of us has lived a perfect life nor do our works warrant His love. No works of the flesh could give us this standing. Yet, when God looks down upon the life of the believer in Christ, He sees a perfect life because Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to the believer. We did not earn it - as Scripture tells us - rather, we embrace it by our belief in the Lord Jesus. It was His arm Who worked salvation for us. It is He Who is mighty to save. Our part is to accept it, believe it and as the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2:12B-13 (NIV): “ -- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” The believer is enabled through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel we proclaim – albeit not perfectly because our sinful natures still cling to us like tape on a shoe until we are at last home with the Lord. This is why Jesus tells us in all four Gospels we are to deny self – not an easy task but an amazingly worthy one.
John 3:16-18 (NIV) tells us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Our attitudes, therefore, should be filled with gratitude for what Christ has done for us as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Indeed, the new has come.
The cross epitomizes both the love of God and of His Christ. The sinless Savior took the sins of the world upon Him so that those who would believe in Him would not perish but have life eternal. And His righteousness was imputed to the sinful believer – that would be us. Paul writes in Romans 5:17-19 (NIV): For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
This gift of righteousness is obtained only through faith in Christ Jesus.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)