Are You Established in His Righteousness?

"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." (Isaiah 54:14)

I learned about righteousness from Joyce Meyer.

The righteousness that we receive from Christ Jesus guarantees a long series of promises to us.

Meyer encouraged me to look all of them up and claim them in my life. Within a few months, my life was transformed. I was not sure how I was going to make it through that summer period.

Then I found a teaching job near me and I got the job the next day.

I found that I was receiving an incredible salary and working at a great place. God was really blessing me.

Then a sense of emptiness started to roll over me. Also, I labored in these days with a misunderstanding of Scripture.

For example, here's a wonderful promise from Isaiah:

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)

I used to interpret this verse to mean that I had to keep thinking about Him, that I had to aggressive make myself conscious of God in my life every day. If my mind or attention wavered in any way, I was going to lose God's presence in my life. 

In effect, I was aware of God taking care of me at every level and over everything. I walked around with this incredible peace. "God will take care of the 99% in my life, if I do my part, this 1%."

Yet that is not what God's New Covenant depends on.

It all falls on what Jesus has done for us as our Mediator!

"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)

Notice that God provides all His blessings to us because He has provided a full payment for our sins, and our inquities, our failures, our sins God will remember no more.

See, I knew that there were these promises, and that these promises came to us because of what Christ Jesus had done for me:

"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)

Now here was the part that I didn't understand: God has put away our sins forever. I was still operating under a mixture, much like the Galatians. I thought that I had to be obedient in some fashion, whether it was focusing on God continuously. There was still this strange, condemning inkling that I had to do "my part".

In other words ... I was not established in righteousness. I didn't realize that righteousness is a gift that I get to keep on receiving, and that even when I fail, or when other people accuse of my wrong--whether justly or unjustly--that I am still righteous!

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:17)

Thank God for Pastor Joseph Prince, who taught me that "receive" is in the present, continuous tense. Young's Literal Translation emphasizes that we keep continuously receiving this gift of righteousness!

I didn't understand that, I didn't realize that I am established in His righteousness!

This flowing of God's justification into our lives comes forth in Amos' prophecy, too:

"But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos 5:24)

That word "mighty" in the original Hebrew also means "never-ending" or "eternal". 

The righteousness we receive from Jesus because of His death and resurrection will never leave us!

But how many of us believe it? How many of us know that we have been made "the righteousness of God in Christ"?

I did not know it, and we perish because of this lack of knowledge in our lives:

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:6)

We need to understand that God's righteousness is going nowhere from us. Terror, ruin, tyranny will be far away from us nor will it every come near to us. This righteousness comes from our Daddy God (Isaiah 54:17)