In this 12-week series, “IN CHRIST V1,” Michelle teaches how to operate and live from our position IN CHRIST! When a person is saved, God does more than remodel that person! We are born again with God’s life and nature!
Follow along to the “Jesus, Our Justifier” audio or video with these study notes. Then, utilize the questions to help you internalize the truth you have learned.
Right standing with God is a gift provided in salvation. It is not something we have to earn. We are made righteous by Jesus having been made sin for us.
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.
We Must Submit Ourselves to God’s Righteousness
Romans 10:3
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Submit means “to yield to the authority or power of something.” When we submit to right standing with God through the finished work of Christ, our minds, wills, and emotions are dominated by who we are in Him. As we submit, we develop a fearlessness in the presence of the Father and in the presence of Satan. We will not have a sense of inferiority in the presence of disease, in the storm, or the face of death.
We Can Be Established in Righteousness Established in righteousness is the standard for us to attain.
Isaiah 54:14
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
We will be far from oppression! Terror cannot come near because our heritage and righteousness are of God.
Isaiah 54:17
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
Righteousness Works Something and Produces an Effect.
Isaiah 32:17
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
The word peace means more than an absence of chaos or a quiet calmness. A great way to explain peace is “nothing missing and nothing broken. It is a peace that comes from being made whole. As we walk in right standing with God, we will see this restoration at work in our lives.
There Is No Comparison Between Our Natural, Human Righteousness and the Righteousness of God Provided in Jesus Christ.
Michelle Steele
Romans 10:3-4
3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Justified means “to show to be right, to declare or pronounce righteous.” Justification is “the legal and formal acquittal from guilt by God as Judge.”
Philippians 3:8-9
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
In Christ Jesus, God Made a Way for Us to Be Justified
Romans 3:20-26
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Notice from verses 20-22 that we are not justified or made in right standing by the law…but by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse 23 is not meant to stand alone. It qualifies the phrase “unto all and upon all that believe.” Verses 25 and 26 indicate that our right standing in Christ is declared.
Jesus Carried Sin Away
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.
He Was Raised From the Dead for Our Right Standing.
Romans 4:22-25
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Imputed means “estimated to have a certain cash value although no money was received.” Jesus’ resurrection is connected to our justification.
1 Corinthians 15:17
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
In Christ, We Are Justified
Ephesians 5:25-27
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
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Colossians 1:21-22
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
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Ephesians 4:23-24
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Study Questions
1. In your own words, describe what it means to “submit to God’s righteousness.”
2. List some of the benefits of being established in righteousness.
3. What benefits have you experienced by being established in right standing with God?
4. Since these are not words we generally use outside of studying the Bible, review the definition of the words justified and justification. Search for other verses in the Bible that reveal what is yours as a result of being justified in Christ.
5. Study Romans 3:20-26. Have you ever heard verse 23 taught in a way to emphasize how unrighteous we are? Do you see it from a different perspective when it is in context with the other verses? Explain.
6. Define imputed and explain how our faith makes a spiritual transaction.
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