(An Excerpt from Redeemed and Righteous by Nature)
Jesus became sin for us so that we could become righteous through Him. He became sin, but He never sinned. We became righteous by faith in what He did for us without doing anything to earn it. It was the great exchange.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21
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.
It is as though Jesus said, “God’s righteousness is white as snow, and your sins are red as scarlet. Let’s exchange. I will take your sin, and you will have God’s righteousness through Me.”
That is exactly what happened. He took upon Himself our sins and gave us God’s very own righteousness. We can now live in that righteousness and confidently approach God in that righteousness.
We do not have a generic righteousness. We do not have a lower-grade, diluted, or watered-down version of righteousness. We have that name-brand righteousness of God. I do not operate in my own righteousness because my righteousness was like filthy rags. On the contrary, I now operate in the right standing that I obtained through Jesus Christ.
Let’s now take a closer look at the exchange that Jesus made with us.
Jesus was made a curse for us.
GALATIANS 3:13
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.
Why was He made a curse for us? He became a curse for us so that we could be blessed with the Blessing of Abraham (Gal. 3:14).
1 PETER 2:24
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Jesus bore our sins by being made sin for us so that we could live unto righteousness.
ISAIAH 53:4 YLT
4 Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains — he hath carried them, And we — we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
In the original Hebrew language, the word griefs refers to “sicknesses.” Jesus has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.
ISAIAH 53:10 YLT
10 And Jehovah hath delighted to bruise him, He hath made him sick, If his soul doth make an offering for guilt, He seeth seed — he prolongeth days, And the pleasure of Jehovah in his hand doth prosper.
God inflicted Jesus with our sicknesses so we could be healed with His healing. When the Father sees the price that Jesus paid in this exchange, He is pleased. The pleasure of the Lord refers to the will of God to heal us. It prospers in Jesus being made sick with our sicknesses.
Jesus became poor so that we could be rich.
2 CORINTHIANS 8:9
9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
These Scriptures are all connected. This is redemption. He traded His pure righteousness for our scarlet sins. He took our sins and made us the righteousness of God. He took the curse and connected us to the Blessing of Abraham. He took our sicknesses and gave us healing. He took our poverty and handed us riches.
They are all connected. They are all aspects of our redemption, which includes our right standing. God went to great lengths to make us righteous so that we could approach Him without any sense of fear or inferiority.
However, that doesn’t mean we do not honor or revere God. We respect Him and demonstrate great honor by our fellowship with Him. As His children, the Father wants our presence, our conversation, and our consistent interaction.
We do not have to approach God cowering, sniveling, or with trepidation. Imagine a child going to her father to ask for a simple necessity with such a sense of inferiority that she couldn’t even look him in the eyes. That would not be pleasing to her father.
ROMANS 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Those who have been made righteous are justified by God, and the just now live by faith. The righteousness of God in us is revealed from one degree of faith to another.
Our right standing is revealed as our faith grows through the Gospel. The Gospel of Christ reveals this right standing to us. We live by the revelation of the legal side of right standing, which is revealed as our faith develops.
We cannot increase the righteousness that we are because Jesus has made us the full measure of the righteousness of God. We don’t have some righteousness; we are the complete righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
We can, however, expand our operation in this righteousness. We could walk in right standing at a greater level. As the righteousness of God is revealed in us, we can walk in that revelation of who we are as justified, new creatures in Christ.
God wants us to come boldly and confidently to His throne. He wants us to be so aware of how the Blood of Jesus has cleansed and changed us that we can say, “I am completely clean before God. I can come boldly because the Blood of Jesus has opened up a new and living way. He is the forerunner behind the veil. I can come boldly into the presence of God, in the name of Jesus, to receive of God’s favor.”
Order Redeemed and Righteous by Nature today!
