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All believers in Jesus are God's righteous children.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12, KJV).
But some people did accept Him. They believed in Him. To them he gave the right to become children of God. (NCV). See AMPLIFIED
He gave the authority (in the sense of ability/ power of choice) to become the children of God.
For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26, KJV).
... you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (NCV).
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:7, KJV).
According to God's word: my faith in Jesus, His birth, life, death, and resurrection, make me a child of God. I have been adopted into God's family and have been made a son and an heir of God. I am entitled to inherit everything that Jesus inherits as God's Son; because not only is Jesus my Lord and Savior, He is also my brother.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29, KJV).
... God decided that they would be like His Son. Then Jesus would be the firstborn of many brothers. (NCV).
God is your eternal Father and you are His sons, through faith in Christ Jesus. Our sonship is conferred upon us by the Spirit.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:14-17, KJV).
One part of our inheritance in Christ is "Righteousness".
The NCV says that, "We have been made right with God by the blood of Christ's death". (Rom5:9). We have been justified ( made righteous) by faith, Rom.5:1, and justified by His blood, Rom.5:9; so it is in my faith in the work of Christ that I receive righteousness.
But righteousness is just not something that you believe to receive, it is in fact of who you are in Christ. You are God's child, that is a fact, it is not something that you believe for someday, it is what is true of you right this minuet, the same is true for righteousness. Christ has made you righteous, now you must understand how this is true.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 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: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:21-24, KJV).
We have been justified (made righteous) freely (without any cost) by His grace through redemption (the work of the cross) in Christ.
It is not what you do that makes you righteous, it's what He did that makes you a Righteous Child of God. The object that follows then is, to walk out what is true of you in Christ. In Christ you are no longer a slave or a servant to sin, and we don't have to live under these taskmasters any longer.
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. (2 Corinthians 5:21, KJV).
The reason you are righteous is because Jesus took all of your unrighteousness to the cross. Jesus who did not know sin became sin when He hung on the cross, so that we would become the righteousness of God, in Christ. That is why if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation (Righteous Child); the old things have passed away.
Christ had no sin. But God made Him become sin. God did this for us so that in Christ we could become right with God. (NCV).
We become righteous (who God is) because Jesus became sin (who we were), and then died there, as us, on the cross. (Jn.12:31-33)
God sees us as we truly are, we are the ones that don't see right.
We are exactly what God declares we are. A Righteous Child in Christ.
We are a three fold being; spirit, soul, and body.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23, KJV).
Righteousness, like salvation, first comes to your spirit, it then works it's way to your soul (your mind, will, and emotions), then it is worked out in your body (actions). You will act like the person you believe yourself to be; and if you think that you are a dirty rotten sinner, saved by grace, you will act like a sinner that is just saved. The fact is, though, that you used to be a sinner before Christ, but in Christ you are a Righteous Child and an heir to the throne of Christ. To reign and rule with Him throughout eternity.
You are a: RIGHTEOUS CHILD.
RHM 1997
