2Corinthians 5:17-18 (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. Behold, the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ has reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
Hebrews 9:3-4 (Amplified) says, "For if (the mere) sprinkling of unholy things and defiled persons with blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a burnt heifer is sufficient for the purification of the body How much more surely shall the Blood of Christ, Who by virtue of (His) eternal Spirit (His Own preexistent Divine personality) has offered Himself as an unblemished Sacrifice to God, purify our consciences from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the (Ever) Living God?"
1Corinthians 15:34 (Amplified) says, "AWAKE (from your drunken stupor and return) to sober sense and your right minds; and sin no more. For some of you have not the knowledge of God (you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, lacking the sense of God's Presence and all true knowledge of Him) I say this to your shame." The King James Version says, "Awake unto righteousness and sin no more."
Ephesians 5:14 (Amplified) says, "Therefore He says, Awake O sleeper, and arise from the dead, And Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light." This scripture originates from Isaiah 60:1 (Amplified) which says, "Arise (from the depression and prostitution in which circumstances have kept you-rise to a new life) for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you."
Isaiah was prophesying about the time we're now living in and about the Redeemed of the Lord and the new creation people (us). Isaiah foretold the time when God made a new covenant (with Himself and Jesus), that cannot be broken. Under this new covenant, we're no longer rely on temporal sacrifices of bulls and goats to establish our right standing with God. By faith, we receive our right standing (or righteousness) by faith in Jesus' Sacrifice.
The people in the old covenant were "not righteous," because of the weakness of the flesh. Romans 3:9-10 (Amplified) says, "Well then, are we (Jews) superior and better off than they? No, not at all. We have already charge that all men, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) are under sin (held down by and subject to its power and control). As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, No, not one."
Under the Law, the covering that the blood of bulls and goats provided, was not able to remove the sin or the remembrance of it, in the minds of the people. The yearly pilgrimage to bring offerings and sacrifices, kept the minds of the people focused on their inability to walk in righteousness before God.
Many believe that Paul was telling the people, "Try not to sin," when he wrote "Awake unto righteousness and sin not," in 1Corinthians 15:3-4 (Amplified). Some believe God's grace gives a license to sin, but we are not to sin. Paul was calling them to "Awake to the righteousness that Christ Jesus provided for you and stop trying to obtain right standing by the old ways of sacrifice and rituals."
We find throughout the Word, how God gives us the Truth Righteousness, by faith in Jesus, our Sacrifice Lamb. When we continue to see ourselves in the same unrighteousness we were in before being born-again, it's seen as sin in God's eyes. Romans 3:22-24 (Amplified) says, "Namely, the Righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ (the Messiah) (And it is meant) for all who believe; For there is no distinction. Since all have sinned and are fallen short of the Honor and Glory which God bestows and receives." Verse 24 goes on, "All are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His Grace (His unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is (provided) in Christ Jesus."
When we fail to understand what the Holy Spirit says in the above scripture, we continue thinking we gain righteousness by doing good deeds and through our own merits. Paul said, "Awake unto righteousness." He meant that we've been asleep in our spiritual relationship with God and that we're unaware that we've been already made righteous, in Jesus. This is the key to entering into the depth of who we (the new creation) people are and what we've been created to be.
Righteousness isn't a moral or physical state of being (even though it will produce this), but a place of unity with our Father, where we can hear and obey His Voice. Hebrews 12:1,2 (Amplified) has been a source of controversy for many. Thus, it says, "Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (who have born testimony to the Truth) let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race is set before us." Paul goes on in Verse 2, "Looking unto Jesus (from all that will distract)."
I'm convinced in my spirit, that the sin that so easily besets us is the sin conscience or the act of the senses that keeps the faith of His Truth from our new creation man's spirit. When our senses repeatedly say, "You're still sinners," then it's difficult to act in faith, before a Righteous God. This might be the hardest act of faith we try overcoming, after receiving Jesus as our Lord. The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write in Hebrews 3:19 (Amplified), "So we see that they were not able to enter (into His rest) because of their unwillingness to adhere to and trust in and rely on God (unbelief had shut them out)."
When we don't trust in what God's Word says about our own right standing with Him, does our "unbelief shut us out?" How can we believe we're righteous or in right standing before God, unless we believe (or put faith in) our own spirit was created new in Him? Your flesh and the devil will never cease reminding you of who you were before being born-again. Only your spirit can accept and receive this Truth, about your new creation man. This sin of seeing ourselves as who we used to be, is probably the most prominent sin, in all of Christianity.
We could never have been born-again, without receiving the Gift of Righteousness from Jesus. God couldn't raise an unrighteous man up, to become His temple and then make this unrighteous "house" His abode. This is why the Holy Spirit speaks about the day in which we live, in Isaiah 54:14 (Amplified), saying, "You shall establish yourself in righteousness (rightness in conformity with God's will and order." He continues, "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 new you."
Most of the depression and oppression we have, derives from the fear of not being in right standing with the Father. We're always conscience of our own weakness, but trusting in His Righteousness must be a greater part of our walk with God instead. We must learn to walk in the Spirit and let Him teach us that we're more than "just forgiven sinners." We must put faith in the Truth of His Word. We must remember that, it's not our own righteousness, but the Righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus
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