2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come.
It might be that, because we don't understand this new creation, we have faltered in our new relationship with the Father. Since it is God Who ordained the new creation, it is He Who determines what and who we are. We've set our own goals and standards in Christianity, according to what we've been taught and heard throughout the years. Very few have questioned or studied, to see if this is really what the Lord has said about us.
We've viewed righteousness as a Bible kind of word that means we are to act and be right in the things we do. Since most of us still miss the mark from time to time, we see our failures as meaning we are not yet righteous. Although we are to walk upright and not live in sin, this isn't what the Father had in mind concerning righteousness.
We have failed to understand man's needs for righteousness and God's need for man to be righteous. Because of Adam's transgression, man was lost unto God. The crowning glory of God's creation was no longer able to come before Him, like God intended from the beginning. Righteousness was and is not an act of doing right, but was the right of God's family to come into His Presence. As God's children, we were to have the right or righteousness or right standing with the Father to come into His Presence and He into our presence without barriers.
Man's need for righteousness was something that must be accomplished in Jesus (no other Man could do it). Since it was a man who forfeited righteousness in the Garden, it had to be a Man Who returned it on a legal ground. We seem to forget that our God is also the Judge of all creation and as Judge, He must be right and unbiased in His judgment. God cannot simply dismiss the case a throw it out because He is God, but He must try the case in His courtroom of justice. He must prove it unlawful on legal grounds in that courtroom.
Righteousness is simply the right to stand in God's Presence or having right standing with God again. In order to return righteousness to His family, God must know what needed to be done legally and bring it to pass in justice. God couldn't just declare us to be righteous, but He had to pay the penalty for our transgressions, that kept us separated from Him in the beginning.
We just spoke about the spiritual laws that must be upheld in God's court of Justice. One of the most terrible laws of the Spirit was the Law of sin and death. This law existed from the beginning and is still working today. Through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul spoke about this Law in Romans 8:1-2 (Amplified) saying, "The power of this law and the verdict of this law in God's court."
Even though the Law of sin and death is still in effect, through Jesus, the penalty of this Law was satisfied and fulfilled. Now, through Jesus, we have been set free from this law, by the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus. Since Jesus paid for , by fulfilling the consequence and penalty for this Law, all who are in Christ Jesus have become new creations. The ones who were "dead in trespass and sin" have been born from death unto life and are "a new creature altogether."
We have thought that righteousness depended on our conduct and no mortal man could accomplish this on his own. You are right! This is why God had to judge this Law of sin and death and meet all of its requirements, in order to judge us by this new Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. God said in Isaiah 54:14 (Amplified), "You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness in conformity with God's will and order) You shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near you." Remember, this is "God's will and order." This is not what we may think about it, but it is "His will and order that has established it." God goes on to say in, Isaiah 54:17 (Amplified) saying, "But no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall show to be wrong. This (peace, righteousness, security triumph over opposition) is the heritage of the servants of the Lord (those in whom the ideal servant of the Lord is reproduced) This is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me (this is that which I impart to them as their justification) says the Lord."
God must be righteous in His dealings with man. Man's transgressions cannot be overlooked and the penalty for them must be paid. God must also act toward satan on grounds of justice. God ust redeem man from satan's authority and He must do it on legal grounds. God, Who is Just, must be just in His actions to man and to satan. God cannot simply overthrown His Own integrity and act "out of character," because He is a Just and Righteous God. His actions must be in accordance with His Own Righteousness. There must be legal grounds on which God can justly judge mankind and see that they must still pay the penalty of sin, if they refuse God's Own Sin Offering and Substitute, Jesus.
Righteousness is the very foundation of the Justice Seat of God. He can't simply do as He pleases and ignore His Own Words and Law of the Kingdom. God must adhere to His Own laws and Words, or His entire creation would cease to exist, because it is built on the foundation of His Word. We have misunderstood the means by which God bound Himself with His Own righteousness and how He cannot break His Word.
We haven't studied or learned the effects of Spiritual Laws that govern, and we don't truly understand our redemption or the reason Jesus had to come. It seems foreign to us, that God even had to show just towards satan. Adam's sin gave satan a legal right to rule creation and brought man under subjection to his enslavement. Even though God is stronger than satan, God must still strip him of his authority in a just manner, so there could be no question about the legality of what grounds He had now made mankind righteous again.
We haven't looked upon the spirit realm on the grounds of being legal or illegal, lawful or unlawful, but as just simply being there. God created everything by and in an order. He ordained order in the Heavens and in the earth. This isn't a random things of happen chance. All was ordained and is still held in place by the laws that govern all of creation. When we begin to understand and operate lawfully and legally by these laws that govern through Jesus, we will see great changes in our prayer life and personal lives.
Jesus operated in the form and likeness of a man, stripped of His Heavenly place. As He "grew in wisdom and in favor with God" as a Man, He understood the principles and law that were available to and for Him. These same spiritual laws that Jesus walked in, are still available to us as citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom today and His Kingdom rules over all by His justice and in His righteousness. A righteous Judge can't overlook an obvious crime, but must deal with that crime on a legal ground, both justly and righteously. Our court system today, might have forgotten these principles, but the Just and Righteous Judge of all has not. This is why you are righteous. It's not because you say so, but because He has made you righteous on legal grounds.
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