Thought for Today: “Our Only Righteousness”

In Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul said, “There is none righteous, no, not one … (and) “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10, 23) If I could paraphrase, “No one is righteous enough for God, because we have all sinned and fallen short of God’s holy and righteous standards for life.”

Therefore, no one can enter heaven, because they are not righteous, and only the righteous can stand before God. But we can stand before God, not based upon our own righteousness, but upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

You see, while we are not righteous because we are sinners, Jesus has never been unrighteous. And so that we might attain His righteousness, He became our sacrifice for sin. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Maybe we can look at it like this. We have never had a sinless moment, but Christ never had a moment of sin, and thus became that perfect sinless sacrifice, forgiving us of our sins and applying His righteousness to our lives.

Through His sacrifice, Jesus took away our debt of sin, and in its place gave us the riches of His righteousness.

Now, that’s a deal no one should pass up. It truly is the good news in a world filled with bad news.